PA patients head for Israel

Israelis pay for enemies' care

A report published by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Unit (COGAT) shows a 10 percent increase in the number of Palestinian Authority Arabs who received treatment in Israeli hospitals in 2012.

The total number of 219,464 patients, 21,270 of them children, includes the companions accompanying the patients in Israel.

The numbers represent a dramatic increase in the number of PA Arabs who receive treatment by Israelis medical professionals, compared with 197,713 patients in Israeli hospitals in 2011 and only 144,838 in 2008.

In addition to the PA residents treated in Israel, in 2012, the Civil Administration paid $560,000 to send PA Arab doctors, nurses, and paramedics for training in Israel. The report failed to state how much Israelis were taxed to fund a budget to finance critical medical procedures for patients who are not covered by Palestinian or UNRWA health insurance and are not able to pay privately.

The report apparently covers only Yesha; it excludes Aza from which come additional patients.

QUESTION

Why aren't patients from Aza sent to Egypt for medical treatment?

Why aren't patients from Yesha sent to Jordon or Syria or Lebanon for medical treatment?

To be humane, let emergencies be accepted at Israeli hospitals, stabilized, and transferred - in a PA ambulance - to an Arab hospital. That's pretty much standard procedure in the U.S.; a critically ill person is brought to a nearby hospital for emergency care and when stabilized, the patient is moved to a specialized hospital, to a recovery center, or sent home.

There are patients in Israeli hospitals who for whatever reason lack coverage from the PA governments in Aza and Ramallah.

With the Israeli government cutting services and subsidies to the lowest economic sectors in Israel, WHY must the government set aside Israeli taxpayer money for people who vow to make "Palestine" - from the sea to the Jordan border - free of Jews; to wipe Israel off the map?

It does not compute.

It might be less expensive for Israel to build a heliport in Ramallah than to accept more than true emergencies from the PA. (Aza has a jet-capable airport.) It is 112 air miles between Ramallah and Amman; it is only 78 air miles from Gaza to Amman. From Ramallah to Cairo is 266 air miles; from Aza, the distance is 215 miles.

I wonder how many miles it is from Mea Shirim to Amman.

Arabs know it but EU Hides its head in the sand

6 Arab states blacklist
All of Hezbollah

According to an article in the Times of Israel ( http://www.timesofisrael.com/one-upping-eu-gulf-states-blacklist-all-of-hezbollah/ ) headlined One-upping EU, Gulf states blacklist all of Hezbollah, “The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a political and economic umbrella organization encompassing Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait, has begun implementing a decision adopted by its foreign ministers on June 2 to place financial and security restrictions on Hezbollah, “making no distinction whatsoever between its military and political arms,” the Saudi daily Al-Watan reported on Sunday.”

Thumbing his nose at the EU, the Times of Israel reports that Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah ridiculed the European distinction between his party’s armed and political wings.

“This invention of a military wing, a political wing; this is a British act. They usually try to find such ways out,” Nasrallah said at dinner marking the end of a Ramadan fast day on July 24.

“Despite my disagreement with this division and distinction, I propose that our ministers in the next Lebanese government come from Hezbollah’s military wing,” Nasrallah joked.

“The Arab League, based in Cairo, on June 5 strongly condemned Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria, but fell short of dubbing it a “terror organization.”, the Times of Israel reported.

Hezbollah, in the Iranian ayatollahs’ pockets, is aligned with Bashar Assad, Syria’s despotic “president” and this alignment with Iran worries the GCC member states.

The Arabs get it.

The EU doesn’t, and the EU states are as vulnerable – if not more so – to an Islamist takeover as are the GCC states.

While the U.S. recognizes Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, it does very little to stop Hezbollah infiltration into the U.S.

Hamas, in Aza, is no better, but because it is a smaller organization and does not threaten the Gulf states as Hezbollah does, only Egypt and Israel are concerned.

Recent events in Egypt unmasked both the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafist intents. Fortunately the army, as also happened in Algeria, reclaimed power. While not “democratic,” there was, and there is now more freedom in Egypt than during the year the Muslim Brotherhood was in political control.

Europe is an 80-year-old prostitute, syphilitic, sagging, and staggering in her years, yet trying to convince the world that she’s still as spry and desirable as she was at 20. The world has passed her by, yet she still makes noises of no consequence so people will notice her. They do notice her, but either laugh at her delusions or pity her for her memories of former glory days when she was, at least in her own mind, a queen crowned with imperial adornment.

Refusing to call Hezbollah in toto a terrorist organization proves Europe’s inability to come to terms with reality. It, like the U.S. – and unlike the GCC – is more concerned with political correctness that the reality in its face.

The Arabs finally “got” it.

Too late to save Lebanon, but the GCC is using the only muscle it has to thwart Hezbollah’s intentions; that muscle is financial power. For military power the GCC will have to beg troops from the West – the U.S. and the weak sister Europeans. The GCC would be better served by making peace agreements with Israel.

Europe continues to totter in its delusions of the glory days of long ago while it welcomes its new masters with open arms and raised skirts.

And America watches and does nothing to defend its increasingly besmirched honor.

I give you political correctness on a field of fatal foolishness.

Is Obama blind?

Are Kerry, Netanyahu just stupid?

Obungler and his puppet Kerry are insisting that Israel make peace with the so-called Palestinians. (Israel already has a peace deal with the true Palestinian state: Jordan.)

Netanyahu apparently is safely tucked in Kerry’s pocket; another Obungler “yes man.”

Meanwhile, the people who are supposed to sit across from the Israelis at the peace table are publically praising the people who slaughtered innocent Israeli civilians. ( http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=9425)

Can’t Obungler and Company see that?

Is Netanyahu so intent on being the U.S.’ lackey that he is willing to do exactly what he said he would NOT do.

There was a song popular in the 1960s, “Where have all the flowers gone?” ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=GCPAhR09wCA) - parts actually date back to 1955 ((http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Have_All_the_Flowers_Gone%3F). *

The main thought was “When will they ever learn?”

Over and over and over yet again the modern day “Palestinians” have proven they don’t come to the table ready to make peace with Israel under any terms other than Israel’s destruction as a Jewish state. (Never mind that Arabs live in Israel and have as many – in some case, it seems, more – rights than Jews and that, on the flip side, Abu Mazzen & friends brag that they intend to build a Jew free country.)

Stop construction. Construction was stopped.

Free the murderers. The murderers were freed. (Lest we forget, that demand applies only to prisoners in Israeli jails; not to prisoners held by the enemy and not even to Jonathon Pollard held by Obungler and Company in the U.S.)

But Abu Mazzen won’t come to the table. More demands.

Give up Jerusalem. OK, give them Mea Sherim and let THOSE extremists deal with Mazzen.

Go back to 1948 lines. True, Israel once defended itself from those lines; defended itself from aggressors from all sides. But the toll was more than anyone wants to consider again.

Will Obungler put American soldiers’ lives on the line for Israel? I pray he won’t. To be fair, I think the last U.S. president to “have Israel’s back” was Harry Truman. The U.S. State Department ALWAYS has been pro-Arab; even after 9-11-2001 nothing has changed.

Will the UN put blue bonnets’ lives on the line for Israel? We know it won’t – and indeed should not. For the most part, when an Arab says “Boo!” the blue bonnets disappear.

Despite a history of deception and lies by Abu Mazzen and friends, the U.S. and, following along like a puppy on a leash most EU countries, continue to act like the three blind mice.

When will they ever learn?

 

* There even is a Hebrew version of the song (איפה הפרחים כולם ) by the Gesher HaYarkon Trio (שלישיית גשר הירקון ).

Wait and see

The ballots are counted and two chief rabbis are elected.

It seems to have been a race on both sides, but like Dallas, dynasties rule.

Unfortunately, unlike strictly political elections, Jews are “stuck” with David Lau, the son of former Ashkenazi chief rabbi Israel Meir Lau, and Yitzak Yosef, a son of former Mizrachi chief rabbi Ovadia Yosef, for 10 years – unless, of course, scandal drives them out of office, as it did the departing Yona Metzger.

R. Israel Meir Lau was known for being open-minded regarding customs of Jews of all traditions. His son claims he is, and will continue to be, a rabbi for all people. “Young” Yosef – he’s 61 now – is said to be more “moderate’ than his father.

The Yosefs had to pull strings In order to get Yitzak elected to serve as Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel and Rishon Lezion on July 24 of this year. Candidates for chief rabbi must be municipal rabbis.

In 1980, Yitzak Yosef was ordained as a rabbi and judge by the chief rabbis of Israel (his father being one) and by chief rabbi of Jerusalem Shalom Messas. With the beginning of the second class, he was appointed head of the school.

Older brother Avraham Yosef , chief rabbi of Holon, had been expected to be endorsed by his father, but a police investigation into accusations of breach of trust and conflict of interest which has been re-opened against him in recent days seemingly ended his candidacy

In 1980, Yitzak Yosef was ordained as a rabbi and judge by the chief rabbis of Israel (his father being one) and by chief rabbi of Jerusalem, Moroccan-born Shalom Messas. With the beginning of the second class, he was appointed head of the school.

Will anything change following the election of the few?

Will the helonim accept either chief rabbi’s authority?

Will the extreme haredi accept either chief rabbi’s authority.

Ovadia Yosef is the dominant Mizrachi rabbi; unlike the Ashkenazim, Mizrachi haredim generally are not fragmented. North Africans are less likely to follow Yosef until he proves himself.

Perhaps a greater question will be: Will Lau and Yosef be able to work together?

Yosef, like his father, has been known to rail against Mizrachim and Sefardim giving up their own traditions, often under duress, to conform to Ashkenazi customs. (At the same time. Yosef and other Shas rabbis dress in the Ashkenazi mode. As one rabbi put it, it is the expected uniform for a rabbi today.) http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3506765,00.html

It will be interesting to watch as the two new chief rabbis start to influence their constituents. It also will be interesting to see any changes when Ovadia Yosef no longer casts a shadow over his son.

Black racism

Racism is not a “white only” mental disease.

On July 17th, George Zimmerman, of Trayvon Martin fame, helped pull some folks from an overturned Ford Explorer near Sanford FL. ( http://tinyurl.com/lrbrup3)

Today, 23 July, the tv is showing me pictures of blacks saying that this cannot be true. If Zimmerman did anything, it was a set-up.

I think I’ll have to disagree with the folks who can’t believe Zimmerman could, would do anything to help his fellow.

Even Hitler, may his name be blotted out, did some good things for Germany. Castro did some good things for Cuba. Even Saddam Hussein did some good for Iraq – he keep the various Muslim groups from attacking each other.

Zimmerman was found innocent of murder and manslaughter by a jury of 6 women, most mothers. Granted, none were black, but I would think motherhood would trump race.

Martin’s family and friends, and professional rabble rousers such as the Baptist preacher the Reverend Al Sharpton and his ilk refuse to accept the verdict. They are agitating for a federal investigation, knowing there is a very good likelihood some civil rights charge will be brought.

The reason I think this is black racism is because I never hear similar gnashing of the teeth when a black murders a non-black, nor do I hear it when a black murders another black.

Where is the outrage?

At the same time, these same folks also are banging on the Florida governor’s door to force a repeal of the state’s Stand Your Ground law.

I find that strange since if anyone could have benefited by that law it would have been Martin; there is no question that Zimmerman confronted Martin even after being told by local police to stay in his vehicle and not to confront the 17 year old. I cannot understand why the prosecution failed to offer the jury more options: aggravated assault as a minimum. Zimmerman, in my opinion, ought to be doing time. But then again, if he was in jail, he could not have helped the people in the overturned Explorer. G-d seems to work in strange ways.

Stand Your Ground is an extension of the Castle Law.

Stand Your Ground basically states that if a person is confronted and threatened by another (Zimmerman accosting Martin would fit the law) the person being threatened can “stand his ground” and defend himself with all appropriate force.

The Castle Law, at least in Florida and according to my cop son, means if a person enters a home, the people in that home can defend their lives even to taking the intruder’s life.

In both cases, if the person making the threat backs off – leaves the premises or walks/runs away – the law no longer applies; the intended victim, i.e., the home owner, cannot give chase outside the house.

The folks who refuse to consider Zimmerman anymore than a rabid animal who never would voluntarily stop to help anyone and certainly not a black anyone, in addition to seeking a civil rights action against Zimmerman, they also want the Stand Your Ground law ruled invalid at the federal level.

States have no rights to make any laws anymore.

Everything is, or is made, a federal issue.

There was a move for a strong central government prior to the Constitution being cobbled together. The supporters of a limited federal power won the day, but their off-spring have been fighting a losing battle ever since

Racism, sexism, and discrimination in general is not limited to any race, sex, belief, or any other “attribute.” The only difference that I see between white racism and black racism is that people can, and do, talk about white racists but never about black racists.

3 Thoughts

Prisoners

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his ally, Abu Mazen demand, and Netanyahu concedes, that Palestinian murderers be released from Israeli prisons so they can participate in new attacks on Israelis, infants to ancients.

Netanyahu and his staff, like his predecessors, request the release of spy Jonathon Pollard. The U.S. once again denies this request.

Pollard was convicted of spying for Israel, an ally.

Spies for enemy states such as Russia (today) and the former Soviet Union, are released after comparatively brief incarcerations. Even Al-Quida militants are allowed to return home (to plan future attacks on the U.S.).

Moslem terrorists give a new emphasis to the word “recidivism” and the U.S. political machine, more than the EU’s left, encourages this by its actions.

 

Religious extremists

I didn’t read or hear it first hand, but according to Yair Lapid – by the way, “Lapid” means “torch, flame” according to my Megiddo – I have a Webster’s Unabridged for English) as reported by Israel HaYom "Your [haredi] media compares all secular women to prostitutes and all secular youths to drug addicts and hedonists. And that's before we discuss the recent editorial in [the ultra-Orthodox paper] Yated Ne'eman that compared me to Hitler." ( http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=10891)

The haredi “leadership,” if Lapid is correct and its recent invective and actions seems to support the politician, is about equal to the imams and their calls to punish anyone who dares think in a non-imam-approved manner.

At one time the Catholic church behaved similarly. The results:

1. The Reformation

2. Those who remain with Rome largely ignore its dictates and lists of things banned

Judaism already is fragmented, but then it always has been a divided house. Internecine warfare is nothing new to us, although until recently it was low-key verbal.

Unfortunately, the rhetoric has become heated and has encouraged physical attacks, not only on non-haredim but against haredim who dare to be different (i.e., join IDF, get a job).

The imams and the haredi rabbis are interchangeable. The religion may be different, but the attitudes are the same.

Judaism already has had its reformations, but the rabbis’ invectives against anyone not like them, anyone who fails to completely agree with them, will only drive the Jewish “man or woman in the street” farther from the religion.

 

Finally

The question of the hour: Will the newest heir to England’s throne be circumcised and, if so, will tradition hold and will the Royal Mohel – a skilled specialist – be brought in – assuming there still IS a Royal Mohel.”?

Let’s face it; if you need heart surgery, you go to a heart surgeon. If you need brain surgery you go to a brain surgeon. If you need open AAA repair, you go to an old vascular surgeon who mentors a younger one (to pass along the technique). A brit melah is surgery. While it may seem minor to those gathered to celebrate the event, it is major to the infant and to the surgeon and deserves the attention of the best qualified, most skilled practitioner. Who better qualified than a professional mohel? For the English royals, it is not a question of religion; it is a matter of expertise.

I suppose a second question, one that relates to the rabbis above, is: “Will the mohel insist on metzitzah b'peh or will he use an intervening device to draw blood from the wound.

From Time magazine’s online Health & Family presence, ”The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Thursday that 11 baby boys in New York City were infected with herpes between Nov. 2000 and Dec. 2011 following an ultra-Orthodox Jewish circumcision ritual called metzitzah b’peh — or oral suction — in which the mohel puts his mouth directly on the newborn’s circumcised penis and sucks away the blood”
http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/07/how-11-new-york-city-babies-contracted-herpes-through-circumcision/#ixzz2Zs74ONSs

Feathers in the wind

I do not apologize for failing to accord titles to some of the people mentioned below. They simply are, IMO, undeserving of their titles.

On מוצי שבת Dvarim/Hazon, Shalom Cohen of Shas’ Council of Sages, called all who wear a knitted kippa (כפה סגורה) “Amalek.” while his Iraqi controller sat – or perhaps slept – in a chair next to Cohen. (To be fair, Yosef is old and he has been, perhaps still is, ill.)

Photo courtesy of Kikar HaShabat

The silence of the rabbis was deafening.

I have yet to see any so-called “orthodox” rabbi chastise Cohen publically.

There have been a few objections to the way haredi soldiers are treated in haredi neighborhoods, but NOTHING from any well respected rabbis in Israel or elsewhere – read the U.S. ABOUT Cohen’s remarks. Nothing.

R. Marc Angel, in a personal note, wrote “The words of Rabbi Cohen are despicable.” He also said that Rabbi Daniel Bouskila wrote a sharp critique on behalf of the Sephardic Educational Center (SEC) but where is the critique? The SEC Web site ( http://www.secjerusalem.org/ ) is “coming soon.” Perhaps the “sharp critique” is on Facebook. I don’t “do” Facebook or Twitter.

Both Cohen and Yosef have tried to back-peddle, claiming that what Cohen meant to say was that only the leaders of the political parties that refuse to cave to Shas are “Amalekim.”

I’m put in mind of the gossiper who finally realized the harm he caused.

He went to his rabbi and asked how he could make amends.

The rabbi told him to go home, take a feather pillow, cut it open, and scatter the feathers to the four winds.

The gossiper did as he was told.

Feeling no better, he returned to the rabbi and reported that he still felt bad. Was there more to the punishment?

Yes, said the rabbi, now go out and gather up all the feathers and make a pillow.

But, the gossiper replied, that’s impossible; the winds scattered them too far.

THAT, said the rabbi, is what happens when you utter untruths. Like the feathers, they cannot be retrieved, cancelled.

Cohen, in his self-centeredness – "If you are not like me, you’re not Jewish" – didn’t gossip but he most certainly caused a חלול השם. He disgraced himself. He disgraced his master. He disgraced Shas. He proved that the Council of Sages is misnamed, for a true “sage” never would utter the words he uttered.

We are told that the Temple was destroyed and most of us exiled because of baseless hatred – political and physical internecine warfare; Jews against Jews.

There is an abomination sitting where the Temple stood. I can write without concern of contradiction that the third Temple will not rise in my lifetime; if it did, it would be doomed as were the first two and we – Israelis – will be banished from the land (if not slaughtered by our enemies).

Why?

BECAUSE WE HAVE NOT LEARNED FROM THE PAST.

Simple.

We are proving we are not one people concerned for one another. We are opposing groups of people who refuse to compromise, to coexist with people of differing outlooks.

Cohen’s words have been scattered to the four winds, carried on the silence of the “gadolim” – the “name” rabbis.

Perhaps some rabbis have spoken out in the confines of their own synagogues – mine have not – but whispering that Cohen’s words are “despicable” isn’t enough; the rabbis have to cast off their fear of the rabbinical mafia in Israel; American rabbis have allowed themselves to be cowed too long by the Israeli rabbinute, an organization more political and profit-focused than concerned with the religious welfare of the average Jew.

Cohen & Company – Mizrahi and Ashkenazi haredim – are far out of line calling other Jews “Amalekim” simply because these Jews disagree with them. Whether they are referring only to the likes of Bennet and Lapid or to everyone who owns neither a black hat or black suit, the stupidity of Cohen’s remark is inexcusable. Yosef’s remarks are too little, too late (by a week).

As for the gadolim – they may remain “gadol” in their own eyes and the eyes of their followers, but from my perspective, their silence reduces them to “katanim.”

If my knit kippot make me less a Jew than Yosef, Cohen, and the misnamed Council of "Sages," that's fine with me. I don't WANT to be associated with such people.

On the other hand, I never will tell ANY Jew he, or she, is not a Jew because we have different perspectives.

I accept the North African (Sefardi) approach: I'm a Jew. You are (1) observant like me, (2) less observant than me, or (3) more observant than me.

But we're all Jews.

Even Yosef, Cohen, and the Council of Sages (from Chelm).

Look back, look ahead Where Europeans went War was sure to follow

   I’m reading an interesting article, The Map that Ruined the Middle East by Gabriel Scheinmann, a Ph.D. candidate in international relations at Georgetown University in the U.S. The article is on the WWW at http://www.thetower.org/article/the-map-that-ruined-the-middle-east/.

   Scheinmann contends, and I am in full agreement, that “The infamous 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement, the secret Franco-British-Russian pact that allocated regional zones of control, became the blueprint for today’s map, but Europeans had little interest in understanding the maze of Middle Eastern identities.”

   The Europeans carved up the former Ottoman empire on lines convenient for them, irrespective of tribal affiliations.

   They did the same thing in Africa.

   They did the same thing in the Far East.

   Almost everywhere the Europeans went, they left the ingredients for intertribal war.

   Even Ireland, where England imported Protestants into the north.

   About the only place the European presence has not had a wholly negative influence is North America where the U.S. and Canada manage to coexist. Interestingly, both countries are populated by immigrants from the four corners of the world. (True, there are exceptions, Quebec being a notable abscess on an otherwise agreeable land mass.)

   The Brits divided the Indian sub-continent into Pakistan and India not along tribal or religious lines but on a border convenient to England.

   Scheinmann writes that in the Middle East, “the borders of the new states were determined neither by topography nor demography. The infamous 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement, the secret Franco-British-Russian pact that allocated regional zones of control, became the blueprint for today’s map, but Europeans had little interest in understanding the maze of Middle Eastern identities. A large Kurdish population—today numbering perhaps 25 million—was divided between four states: Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Shiite Arabs were split between Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the eastern provinces of Saudi Arabia. The Alawites, a heterodox Shiite Arab sect, reside today along the northern Lebanese, Syrian, and southwestern Turkish coasts. The Druze were distributed between today’s Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. Lebanon, supposedly a Christian redoubt, included large Sunni and Shiite populations, as well as Alawites and Druze. Sunni Arabs, who formed the dominant population of the Middle East, were divided into numerous states. Pockets of Turkomen, Circassians, Assyrians, Yazidis, and Chaldeans were isolated throughout. At the dawn of the 21st century, minority ethnic groups ruled Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Bahrain, often repressively.

   “Arab attempts to undo the partition of the region culminated in the merger of several states, such as Syria with Egypt and Iraq with Jordan, which itself annexed those parts of mandatory Palestine that were not ruled by Israel. The effort was short-lived. Arab leaders ultimately proved more interested in maintaining the fiefdoms they inherited from the Europeans than abdicating their cathedra for the greater Arab cause.”

   What we see today – “Arab Spring,” ethnic “cleansing” in Africa, and the on-going saber rattling between India and Pakistan has nothing to do with Israel. It has very little to do with the so-called “Palestinians”- they are involved because for the most part they cannot or will not leave the camps and integrate into neighboring Arab states, unlike the Jews who were mostly banished from the Arab states to immigrate to, and integrate into Israel.

   To be fair, there are Jews still in Arab states. Some refuse to leave because they are too old to start over, others have businesses they feel they cannot abandon, and a few who simply don’t want the Western lifestyle of Israel or the U.S.

   Scheinmann’s article reminds us that the Europeans created, over the centuries, borders that generally adhered to ethic groupings. Some countries, originally forced into existence by war, have managed to fragment into like groupings to establish new nations. As examples, Scheinmann cites “Prior to World War I, the Russian Empire controlled eight modern European states. Norway achieved independence from Denmark and then Sweden only in 1905. Austria-Hungary was a conglomeration of various national groups and has given way to six independent nation-states. Nearly a century after its creation, the dissolution of Yugoslavia has resulted in seven Balkan nations.

   “With few exceptions, each European state now consists of a single people with a shared ethnicity, language, and religion. The French speak French in France; Germans speak German in Germany.”

   I don’t think there is anything particularly novel about Scheinmann’s effort, but it is a worthwhile read, both in regard to what was and what he predicts will be.

   I am left with the thought that, looking at today’s maps, this, too, will change. Hopefully, unless destroyed by internecine war, Israel will survive.

Send ill, bills to Israel

 

From the Palestinian news agency, Ma’an on Published Monday 15/07/2013 (updated) 17/07/2013

Private hospitals stop treating Palestinian military personnel

Published Monday 15/07/2013 (updated) 17/07/2013 13:54

>

  NABLUS - Monday 15/07/2013 (updated) 17/07/2013- (Ma'an) -- Palestinian private hospitals on Monday stopped admitting Palestinian Authority military personnel because of the government's outstanding bills. ( http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=614104&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter )

  The federation of private hospitals decided to start refusing treatment to patients referred by the PA's military medical services because their debt to hospitals reached 30 million shekels ($8.34 million), federation chief Dr Nitham Nijab said.

  Several hospitals announced that they could no longer afford to amass more debt, Najib told Ma'an, adding that some hospitals had not paid their employees for several months.

  Other hospitals have had to borrow from banks to meet their basic expenses, and suppliers have threatened to stop providing medicine and equipment, Nijab added.

  The PA's military medical services promised to transfer 10 million shekels ($2.87 million) and 150,000 Jordanian dinars ($212,000) to the federation of private hospitals several months ago but the money was not delivered, Nijab said.

  On Tuesday, a network of fuel distributors announced that gas stations would stop letting the PA security forces fill up for free after the PA's finance ministry failed to pay their bills for five months.

Which means that the EU and UN will shortly blame Israel for withholding

• Funds
• Gasoline
• Medical supplies

and demand that Israeli hospitals treat (more) PA-resident patients at the already hard-pressed Israeli taxpayers’ expense.

Part of the PA’s financial woes can be laid directly at the doors of its Arab League financiers who promise millions but barely deliver thousands.

Additional PA financial hardship will burden PA residents when the EU labels, and boycotts, goods made in Shimron by Israeli companies that employ PA residents. If the companies cannot sell their wares, they will lay off workers and then close their doors.

Maybe the reason the PA’s terrorist leader, Abu Mazen, won’t talk with Israeli leaders is he can’t afford the gas to drive from Ramallah to Jerusalem! Since he wants the PA to be Jew-free, Israeli leaders should stay out of his assigned territory.

Hopefully, the day will come when the PA’s U.S. equipped “police” will be unable to buy bullets and bombs to use against Israelis.

If the PA goes into bankruptcy, will Jordan absorb it? Jordan was, and remains, THE true Palestinian state. Will it take Aza, too. (Please.)

Rabbinical Silence

 

What does your rabbi say?

According to a member of Shas’ Council of Torah Sages and the head of the influential Porat Yosef Yeshiva, Shalom Cohen, a Jew who wears a knitted kippa - - is NOT a Jew (see http://yohanon.blogspot.com/2013/07/youre-not-jew.html).

I rail against Muslims who remain silent following an Islamist attack on innocents. If they are so committed to their adopted countries, why don’t they speak out against the Islamists’ atrocities?

Cohen gave his speech Saturday night.

Naftali Bennet of the (Israeli) Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) party took issue with Cohen’s remarks. Bennet’s remarks, along with a video of Cohen’s talk – in Hebrew to a receptive audience – is covered on the haredi web site, Kikar HaShabat (see http://tinyurl.com/q4nbc9r). The Times of Israel carried an article based on the Kikar HaShabat posting on Sunday at http://tinyurl.com/q9p5k2p.

It's now Monday.

Arutz 7 ( http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/169910 ) carried an article claiming that Cohen " did not mean to disparage all religious Zionists, but only the leadership of the Bayit Yehudi party" according to unidentified "sources."

"The words that were spoken last night in a lesson at the study hall of Maran [Rabbi Ovadia Yosef] were spoken in great pain and were only intended toward the leaders of the Bayit Yehudi and their supporters, who have declared war upon the world of Torah and yeshivot”

According to Arutz 7, Cohen has refused to take back his cruel invective against the religious Zionists. When contacted by Arutz Sheva after the initial publication of the sermon, he simply said, “leave me alone and don't bother me.”

I have yet to see any rabbis of note - or any rabbis at all - speak out about Cohen's remarks - pro or con, for or against, or even aghast.

Perhaps they are not aware of their fellow rabbi's remarks. The only places I saw the comment were on the Times of Israel, Arutz Sheva, and Kikar HaShabat. I don't frequent Kikar HaShabat, but maybe the rabbis do. (The advertisements on Arutz 7 often are not appropriate for rabbinical eyes.)

Cohen's remarks are hardly as news worthy as 9-11-2001, but still, within Jewish circles, the remarks should get some attention.

Are our rabbis to be like the Muslims' imams and remain silent? Are Jews of all types to likewise remain silent in face of this person's comments? Apparently Ovadia Yosef will remain silent.

This is NOT a "tempest in a teapot." It is an affront to all Jews whose approach to Judaism is different that Cohen's and Shas'.

I would not have the chutzpah to tell Shas to get a new spiritual leader; keeping the Yosef clan in power is a choice only Shas should make. By the same token, I will not suggest that Shas clean up its political house of ill repute.

But I can, and I will, look elsewhere for both religious and religio-political leadership

After all, according to Cohen and Shas, I am not a Jew; I wear a knitted kippa - proudly. On Shabat, I have the chutzpah to not only wear a knitted kippa but a colorful knitted kippa! (My knitted kippa has nothing to do with either a political or religious perspective; I simply think it allows my hair to "breathe" and might help forestall a bald spot; so far, so good.)

I was "Jew enough" for the old Mifdal (National Religious Party) and I am "Jew enough" for Bayit Yehudi. But I guess I am not "Jew enough" for Shas.

If it's all the same to Cohen & Company, I'll keep my knitted kippot, my weekday black ones, my Shabat red one, and the others I wear on haggim. Since my choice of kippot makes me "not Jewish" I'll stay clear of Shas congregations - in Israel, there always is another congregation down the street where I AM a Jew.

 

If the TinyURL for Kikar haShabat fails, the full URL is:

http://www.kikarhashabat.co.il/%D7%91%D7%A0%D7%98-%D7%A2%D7%9C-%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%91-%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%9D-%D7%9B%D7%94%D7%9F-%D7%AA%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%99%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%95-%D7%9C%D7%9B.html

If the Tiny URL for the Times of Israel fails, the full URL is:

http://www.timesofisrael.com/shas-leader-says-modern-orthodox-not-jewish/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=27675e3a5e-2013_07_14&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-27675e3a5e-54477781>http://www.timesofisrael.com/shas-leader-says-modern-orthodox-not-jewish/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=27675e3a5e-2013_07_14&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-27675e3a5e-54477781

?כפה סרוגה You’re not a Jew!

Shas leader: National religious Jews ‘aren’t Jewish’

 

The following is excerpted from a Times of Israel at http://tinyurl.com/q9p5k2p

By Haviv Rettig Gur

Economy Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday morning railed against what he called “incitement” by one of the most senior religious figures of Shas. In a video (http://tinyurl.com/q4nbc9r) posted Sunday morning on the haredi website Kikar HaShabbat, Rabbi Shalom Cohen, a member of Shas’s Council of Torah Sages and the head of the influential Porat Yosef Yeshiva, is seen calling national religious Israelis “Amalek” and suggesting that they aren’t Jews.

Referring to the national religious Israelis by the colloquial Hebrew term - "כפה סרוגה" “knit kipa” - the preferred headgear for such Jews — R. Cohen declared in a sermon delivered Saturday night that “as long as there are knit kippot, the [divine] throne is not whole. That’s Amalek. When will the throne be whole? When there is no knit kipa.”

Bennet replied “For those who don’t know, Amalek is an expression referring to someone who must be wiped off the face of the earth. No less. At this very moment, thousands of knit-kipa wearers are standing guard from the Syrian border to the Egyptian, from brigade commanders down to the lowliest soldiers, and are spitting blood to defend even the honorable rabbi.”

Bennett added: “In these very days, memorial services are being held for my comrades-in-arms who sacrificed their lives in the [2006] Second Lebanon War, some of them secular and others wearers of knit kippot. Some of them fell in ways that earned them medals for valor. The rabbi is calling them ‘Amalek’.”

Bennett bemoaned the fact that R. Cohen’s words were delivered as he stood next to a seated Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Shas’s spiritual leader, who is viewed by many Sephardi Israelis as the most influential living rabbi.

NOW you know why we still must suffer Tisha b’Ab.

This divisiveness gives me reason to believe we will once again be expelled from Israel; Jew hating Jew.

It is ABSOLUTE HUTZPAH to denigrate fellow Jews the way the misnamed R. “Shalom” Cohen – “Shalom”?? – does; the unmitigated gall of R. Ovadia Yosef to allow this person to utter such stupid statements without objecting.

I would never say that the haredim deserve all the disrespect they get from the heloni and the "כפה סרוגה" - the latter group in which I include myself, but as long as haredi “leadership” insists on making such non-Jewish statements, the haredi leadership and those who follow them blindly, will suffer the disrespect of others.

We – Jews – cannot afford, cannot allow, this divisiveness. It cost us our nation twice already. G-d forbid it should cost us modern Israel as well.

 

Yohanon dot Glenn at gmail dot com

Cowards, stay home

Lapid is WRONG!

 

Let the haredim stay in their yeshivot and quivering behind their wives and children.

ויספו השפטרים לדבר אל-העם ואמרו מי-האיש הירא ורך הלבב ילך וישב לביתו ולא ימס את-לבב אחיו כלבבו
דברים כ ח

And the officers shall speak to the people and say “What man is fearful and faint hearted, let him go to his home and not melt his brother’s heart.” Deuteronomy 20, 8

The Torah ( דברים כ א-ח - Deuteronomy 20, 1-8) lists several reason why a person must be exempt from going out to make war (vs. a defensive war in which all men are obligated).

1.   דברים כ ה Deuteronomy 20, 5: New house not yet dedicated

2.   דברים כ ו Deuteronomy 20, 6: New vineyard from which the potential soldier has yet to enjoy its fruits

3.   דברים כ ז Deuteronomy 20, 7: An engaged but not yet married man

4.   דברים כ ח Deuteronomy 20, 8: ibid.

The first three are included because there was a chance the conscript would have his mind on the new house/fruit/wife-to-be.

The fourth is abundantly clear: cowardice can be contagious.

We know there are many haredim who simply are cowards.

They form groups to assault little children.

The train their children to assault soldiers, haredi soldiers.

There ARE haredim who are brave.

There ARE haredim who serve in the army or do national service. Ride a bus in Israel and you’ll quickly see this is true.

The cowardly haredim of Jerusalem, Bene Brak, Bet Shemesh, et al, are not, unlike American cowards, able to escape across a friendly border (into Canada). Even the anti-Israel haredim cannot – or at least won’t – “escape” to Jordan or the PA-controlled areas of Israel.

For the record, I enlisted in (volunteered for) the US military in 1960 and was prepared for induction into the IDF in 1978. By Israeli army standards at the time, I was too old, too blind, and too new a father to wear an IDF uniform.

Lapid – the “Flame” – is wrong in trying to draft every yeshiva “boy.”

To my mind they should be inducted into national service and made to serve as the army’s reservists serve. At least a month-a-year. If they are qualified, let them

Work in schools; not qualified to teach? Grab a bucket and mop.

Work in hospitals; there are lots of jobs for unskilled labor.

Work in nursing homes; if nothing else, there is bekur holim.

Work in private homes if only visiting the elderly for a few hours a day. My Mother-In-Law would LOVE company; bring the kollel to her since she no longer can go to the kollel. ‘Course being Moroccan and living in Bet Shean where it is hot in the summer and cold in the winter, it’s not likely any of the yeshiva “boys” would volunteer to visit חמותי.

Let them work on army bases as civilians. My sister-in-law can find plenty of work for them, but again, it’s Bet Shean – Sefardim and less-than-comfortable weather.

Let them visit kibbutzim and moshavim to teach Torah. I remember Chabad sending a boy to my ulpan in Beer Yakov to try and broaden our Jewish knowledge.

All the suggestions above are מצות מעשה - “action” mitzvoth that require the person to DO something. Learning also is a mitzvah, but many of the luminaries of the talmuds would insist that learning sans doing something with what was learned is not a mitzvah; it might even be considered by some as חילול השם.

Actually, since the yeshiva “boys” claim their studies “protect” Israel, perhaps the yeshivot should do two things:

1.  Open yeshivot in Sdrot and Ashkelon, in Nahariya and Kfar Giladi, and other places Israel’s neighbors target. This assuredly will prove that the yeshivot are “magan Israel.” What missile could fall where the “boys” were studying in the bet midash.

2.  Send “caravans” (towable trailers) with the army so the “boys” will have a portable, mobile bet midrash. Surely if the yeshiva “boys” are studying in the caravans nothing can touch the soldiers surrounding the beti midrash. Having yeshiva ‘boys” with the troops would increase the level of kashrut to satisfy even the most extreme rabbi (but would it be Ashkenazi kosher or Bet Yosef (halak) kosher?)

Lapid, for all his ideas to bring pseudo-equality to Israel’s citizens, got it wrong this time. Don’t draft the haredim into the army, but find other work for them or send them to the target areas.

The Jewish politicians need to find a way to convince the roshi yeshivot that it is a bigger mitzvah to put the learning to use than to learn and do nothing with what was learned.

Ayatollahs in Jerusalem

 

Who has the power in Iran?

Who is the Supreme Leader?

Who is the Grand Ayatollah?

The answer to all three questions is: Grand Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei.

The haredim in Israel would like Israel to become a theocracy like Iran, with their preferred rabbi as the equivalent of the Grand Ayatollah.

Who would it be?

Rabbi Yisroel Hager, a/k/a the Vizhnitzer Rebbe,

Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman, the (interim) leader of the Lithuanians following the death of R. Yosef Shalom Elyashiv.

Iraqi Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, head of Shas, a “Sefardi” religious party.

R. (choose one) Teitelbaum, assuming he would relocate to Jerusalem.

Grand Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter, the Gur admore.

Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach, the leader of the Belz sect.

If any of these men were given the Grand Ayatollah’s power, can anyone imagine the state of Judaism in Israel – and around the world?

It is enough that the rabbinute is politicized; elections for multiple “chief” rabbis selected – as are presidential candidates in Iran – by only a handful of “approved” people.

Is Israel ready for a pope who, in today’s era, seems more reasonable - or at least less warlike – than his Muslim counterpart in Iran.

What happens if, for example, Shas’ Yosef is named Grand Rabbi and the others are told to sit at his side as advisors. Will any Ashkenazi follow a Mizrachi? On the other hand, will Yosef follow the rulings of the Gur’s Alter?

Still, travel today to some parts of Bnei Brak, Jerusalem, or Bet Shemesh and prepare to be abused.

A HAREDI soldier in the Israeli army home on leave: expect to be insulted by children responding to their parents’ encouragement.

An “Orthodox” girl, modestly dressed, walking with her mother to school accosted by a haredi for not passing his modesty muster.

A bearded Chabadnik taking modestly dressed American children on a school tour on Mea Sharim attacked by a haredi as being “not Jewish enough.”

Many of the haredim don’t acknowledge Israel’s existence and a few reject any contact with the state. I have no problem with that; in fact, let the PA have Mea Sharim as its “capital in Jerusalem.” Let like-minded folk from Beni Brak and Bet Shemesh move into any hovels vacated by haredim who want to live in Israel and who are willing to accept – if not respect – other Jews’ approaches to Judaism. Let them assume a Sefardi perspective: We all are Jews; some are more observant than me, some are less observant than me, and some are as observant as me, but we all are Jews.

I understand some haredim have reason to dislike helonim because if the way some helonim disrespect them, but has anyone heard of a haredi being attacked by helonim? Cursed, probably. Shunned, most assuredly. But hit; spit on? Told to ride a separate bus and told to stay out of sections of town? I have yet to hear of any heloni treating a haredi as the helonim are treated by some of the haredim.

If the haredim worked harder at being Jews – and encouraging people to become more observant rather than attacking anyone not like them; if the haredim hiding out in the many yeshivot would show their faces and offer to take part – even if only a few hours-a-day – in the life of Israel, maybe the heloni non-violent attacks might cease.

Haredim outside of Israel seem to manage to juggle study and participation in the world while, I suggest, gaining a new appreciation for the talmuds and commentaries to which they devote much of their time.

Come out of the cloistered yeshivas, see how the rest of us live, how we struggle to make time for study, work, and family. See how the Torah applies to Jews in 2013.

הריני מקבל עלי מצוה עשה של ואהבת לרעך כמוך, והריני אוהב כל אחד מבני ישראל כנפשי ומאודי

Dare to be different

 

By Rabbi Marc D. Angel
Used with permission

Religious Authenticity and our "Tribes": Thoughts for Parashat Devarim

A while ago, a member of our Institute sent me an email. Here are his comments, although I've deleted the name of the rabbi to whom he referred.

"Does it bother anyone else that Sephardim have begun wearing the funeral dress of Ashkenazim- the black hats, suits, and other "garb" of Eastern European Jews ? Even Rabbi X, a well-respected Sephardi Hakham, has succumbed to this. I fear for the future of Sephardi customs and traditions !!"

This phenomenon has been bothering me for quite a few years. It isn't a new reality, but has been going on for a long time. When I was President of the Rabbinical Council of America (1990-1992), I met with the then Rishon leZion, Rabbi Mordecai Eliyahu, and asked that he encourage Sephardic rabbis not to dress like counterfeit Ashkenazim.

The Jewish people need various models of proper rabbis, and the rabbinate should not be squeezed into one particular mold. While Sephardic rabbis don't need to don turbans and kaftans, they could dress as good "Modern Orthodox" and "Religious Zionist" rabbis--in a variety of garbs. The more diversity, the better our ability to attract a wider segment of the population to religious life.

Rabbi Eliyahu responded: the Ashkenazic garb has become the "standard" garb for Talmidei Hakhamim. Sephardic rabbis won't be taken seriously enough if they don't dress according to this fashion. When I said that the situation might be turned around if he and other Sephardic leaders made an issue of it, he said it wasn't worth it and it wouldn't succeed.

I've spoken to many Sephardic rabbis who come to New York to raise funds for their institutions. I've asked them why they dress like Hareidi/Lithuanian rabbis? Invariably, they answer: this is how rabbis are expected to dress.

In the United States, it has become fashionable--even in so-called Modern Orthodox circles--to show one's piety by donning a black hat, black suit, white shirt--and wearing tsitsith hanging outside. This has crept into the Sephardic community, especially when students have studied in Ashkenazic yeshivot. Even Sephardic rabbis have adopted the "black hat" look, as a way of conforming to and identifying with a more extreme version of Orthodoxy.

This is a distressing tendency, because ultimately it fosters unhealthy values: a) it promotes conformity to external standards; b) it undermines Sephardic, Yemenite and other cultural/religious identity and tradition; c) it negates the rich diversity which is a vital source of strength to Judaism and the Jewish people; d) it sends the message that to be a good religious man, you must dress in a particular fashion, otherwise your religiosity is suspect.

It would be a very positive development if Sephardic rabbis did not take on the look of Ashkenazic/hareidi rabbis. It would be a positive development if Sephardic congregations asked their rabbis not to put themselves into the "black hat" mold. It would be excellent if Sephardim who send their children to study in Ashkenazic yeshivot and seminaries would give their children the confidence to avoid the pitfalls of conformity.

Is it realistic to expect these things to happen? Rabbi Mordecai Eliyahu thought the battle wasn't worth fighting--or that it was already lost. I have respectfully disagreed with his analysis. The only problem is that reality seems to bear out the truth of Rabbi Eliyahu's position, and the futility of mine!

In this week’s Torah portion, we read the admonitions that Moses gave to the Israelites, in anticipation of his nearing death. As in other parashiyot, the people of Israel are referred to as “shevatim,” tribes. The twelve tribes of Israel represented the foundational structure of Israelite society, with each tribe having its own land and its own leaders.

A Kabbalistic teaching informs us that each of the tribes had its own distinctive character, its own unique pathway to God. Although all the Israelites formed one people, yet each tribe maintained its own special insights and traditions. The glory of Israel was that each tribe had its own distinctive contribution to make to the spiritual life of Israel. Instead of a homogenized religious life, the ancient Israelites fostered diversity and individuality.

Each “tribe” of the Jewish people today also has its own distinctive features, its own particular way of relating to God and fellow human beings. We not only have Sephardim and Ashkenazim, but so many subdivisions within these groupings, and so many other Jewish civilizations that constitute the glory of Israel e.g. Babylonian,Yemenite, Persian, Italian, Romaniot etc. Each of these groups has its distinctive traditions and insights, and each plays a role in the overall vitality of Jewish life. However, when there are pressures to homogenize the groups into one conforming pattern, then the entire Jewish people lose out. Paths to the Almighty are forced shut, and we are constricted to narrower and narrower confines.

Each “tribe” of the Jewish people has a sacred task of maintaining and vitalizing its unique pathway to the Almighty. This is important not from a feeling of “ethnic pride,” so much as from a feeling of responsibility for the overall vitality and spiritual dynamism of the Jewish people as a whole. Religiosity shows itself in many valid and beautiful ways; we need not abandon our distinctive traditions in order to conform to this group or that group.

To abandon one’s distinctive traditions is to become inauthentic. It doesn’t bring us closer to God. To allow valid religious pathways to fade away is to betray the history and traditions of our “tribe” and the history and traditions of all Israel.
It is to betray one’s own authenticity.

And that is a terrible thing.

 

It’s nice to know I am not alone in encouraging Sefardim and Mizrahim to forego the Ashkenazi black hat fashion. Hakham Mordecai Eliyahu probably was right, but it need not always be that way. All the tribes had their own traditions and all the tribes had their own gate into Jerusalem. If we can put on tefillin according to our traditions, why can’t the leadership follow its traditions of dressing like our neighbors. In Morocco, that might mean a galabia; in the U.S. a suit-of-(almost)-any-color (in most places). My Shabat hat is white and straw to protect my cancer-prone skin from Florida’s sun. (Other days it’s a red, white, OR blue baseball cap.)

Egypt is NOT America

Egypt is not the first Muslim country to try democracy.

Algeria had its own free elections a number of years ago and the Islamists won, as they did in Egypt.

As happened in Egypt, the army overturned the election and kept power.

Algeria remained in the so-called West’s camp.

I don’t recall anyone in America complaining about the Algerian army takeover at the time (although I am certain, in hindsight, there were those on the left who gnashed their teeth over this).

There is a thin line between “democracy” and “mobocracy,” a/k/a anarchy.

The U.S. has had its problems with democracy. It still has problems with democracy. Not everyone views it the same way.

Unlike Egypt, democracy in the U.S. is nothing new. We have ways – “democratic” ways – to resolve most of our differences. Granted, we have had our share of anarchists and other crazies, but in the grand scheme of things, their presence is minute, miniscule.

Then again, we’ve had more than 200 years of practice.

Algeria and Egypt lack that experience.

America had what seemed in the early years unlimited resources. This is not true of Algeria and Egypt. Neither country has a bright future for its young people. Where the young lack hope, anarchy rears its ugly head. Here, the KKK, the Nation of Islam, and the Black Panthers come to mind. (When seniors have no hope, the Gray Panthers find support.)

Anyone who thinks Egypt will, overnight, become a U.S.-style democracy is dreaming.

It won’t even become a pseudo English-style democracy such as it sees in its neighbor.

As in Russia, democracy doesn’t come easily. Unlike Russia, the Muslims don’t have to migrate from a socialist state to a capitalist nation, but they do need to learn to think and they need to be able to express what they think – peacefully, logically, and with the realization that not everyone will agree.

There is no democracy in the army. Armies don’t, can’t, work that way. None-the-less, armies can guarantee that democracies can develop in cultures that want democracy.

Cuba, a small island south of Florida, is a place where democracy has been forced down the locals throats on more than one occasion. On each occasion, Cubans have reverted to dictatorships. Cubans in Cuba – versus Cubans in Florida – don’t want democracy. It’s a mentality issue.

Egypt’s military has long ruled the country. Since Anwar Sadat, the army’s rule has been beneficial to Israel and, generally, for the West. Having rule by the military is the “norm” in Egypt and Algeria; it is part and parcel of the populace’s mentality.

Peoples who allow dictators and armies to rule them have a “Let George do it” mentality; socialist or near socialist. The way the Muslim Brotherhood managed to gain popular support was by providing more and better social services than the army.

From this scrivener’s perspective, the Egyptian army’s resumption of control is a good thing. The army is the only force large enough and disciplined enough to maintain a semblance of order in the country.

As for Israel and the U.S.: Stay out of Egyptian politics.

Israel might work with Egypt’s army to clear the Sinai of terrorists, but other than that it is well advised to deal with its own domestic problems – there are many.

Military control is not necessarily a bad thing. In Egypt and in Algeria, it may be the only thing if any measure of domestic tranquility is to be achieved and sustained.

Two thoughts Egypt and Chief rabbis

 

Egypt – and remember Russia

Egypt has an interim president replacing deposed Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s first “democratically elected” president.

The people who deposed his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, toppled Morsi after only a year in office.

The Egyptian army is back in control and the politicians are puppets, at least for now.

Was Morsi any good?

Was his sponsor, the Muslim Brotherhood up to the job?

Will American-style democracy even work in Egypt?

We’ll never know the answer to the first two questions; I doubt we’ll learn the answer to the third in our lifetime.

Egypt’s “democracy revolution” and the Russian’s “capitalist revolution” are very similar.

In both places, transition was difficult for the people. Their immediate expectations and gratifications failed to materialize.

In both places, the army was the power behind the throne.

In Russia, the former Communist leaders knew how to use the army to put down dissent; it did, often ruthlessly.

In Egypt, the army decided to align itself with the average person rather than the theo-political (and therefore dangerous to the army) Muslim Brotherhood. Rather than go against the masses, it elected to remove the object of the masses anger.

Russia still is “transitioning” into a capitalist society. It’s painful, especially for the average Russian, but “progress” is being made.

In Egypt, the people must start over. Hopefully this time “democracy” will be given a chance. Sacrifices will be required, and the leadership must lead by example.

The Muslim Brotherhood won its political power by filling a gap in Egypt’s social services area. As long as it continues this role, it will maintain a base with the Egyptian poor. The army – the true “power behind the throne” – must replace the Brotherhood and provide the services if it hopes to wean the poor from the Brotherhood.

As far as “American-style democracy” coming to Egypt – or Russia – the question is “Why should it?” Let Egypt, and Russia, develop their own, unique types of democracy. “Democracy” in the UK is different than in the US; ditto in Israel and France and – you name any “democratic” country. Bottom line: The US should never try to force American-style democracy on anyone. Encourage, maybe. Insist, never.

 

Chief rabbi

The politics of the chief rabbi – Ashkenazi and “Sefardi” (Mizrachi) – in Israel are a disgrace. To Judaism. To Israel. To the rabbinute, both political and rank-n-file.

It appears that none of the candidates is above reproach or their decisions “questionable” in light of the times.

R. Ovadia Yosef, long-time kingmaker of the “Sefardi” chief rabbi, the Reshion l’Tzion, wants his fourth son, Holon’s chief rabbi, Avraham Yosef, to be the next Hakham Bashi, a position his father held from 1973-1983. He prefers Avraham over another son, Yitzak Yosef.

Avraham Yosef opines, following in his father’s lead, that (civil court) judges “cannot be allowed to have a presence and they cannot be included [in a minyan] or speak in a synagogue. They have to be ignored, as if they were nothing but air. Even if he [the judge] knows how to pray well, once he has agreed to be named a judge he has disqualified himself from participating in a minyan."

Rabbi Avraham Yosef's main rival is Rabbi Tzion Boaron, endorsed by outgoing Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Zefat Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, endorsed by the national religious party, Habayit Hayehudi.

The remarks that got R. Eliyahu into hot water with Hatnuah Justice Minister Tzipi Livni include:

“A Jew should not flee from Arabs. A Jew should make the Arabs flee. There is a silent war going on here for land”; “most of the violence in Israeli society stems from the Arabs”; and “the Arabs have a different code, and violent norms that have become an ideology” — these were among the statements Eliyahu made in a 2010 interview with the Maariv daily.

He also generated controversy over the past few years for a variety of statements and rulings, including one ruling that forbade the rental or sale of Jewish-owned property in the city to Arabs. (Never mind that in PA-controlled Israel selling land to a Jew is a capital offense.

Eliyahu is the son of former Hakham Baski Mordechai Eliyahu who served from 1983 to1993.

Both current chief rabbis – Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger – have an undistinguished history with the civil authorities.

The rabbinute wars on the Ashkenazi side are no better.

IMO, the last time the chief rabbinute had men of quality was the 1993-2003 period when R. Yisrael Meir Lau and R. Eliyahu Kakshi-Doron held the positions. I also have a great respect for R. Mordechai Eliyahu (1983–1993).

The “bottom line” for Israel and the chief rabbinute can be summed up in two words: “Who cares?”

The hard-line haredim follow their own rabbis to the exclusion of all others.

The heloni Israeli follows no rabbi.

The observant Israeli Jew, if he aligns with any specific rabbi at all, probably takes his questions and concerns to his local (city) rabbi.

Perhaps the real question ought to be: Do Jews even need “chief rabbis?”

Follow Muslims’ lead

The “world,” particularly the left-wing, liberal “world” is in love with Islam.

Never mind that Islamists are cutting off heads of British soldiers IN LONDON!

Never mind that Islamists are implementing Shiria (law) in so-called “Christian” countries.

Never mind that the Palestinian Administration promises to make its areas “Jew free.”

Never mind that a non-Muslim cannot enter Mecca or Medina or other Islamic holy places.

Never mind that civil rights the lefties take for granted in the EU are unknown in most Muslim countries.

The left, liberal world loves Islamists.

That’s fairly obvious since I, for one, never hear anyone criticize Saudia for its treatment of women. I don’t hear any voices calling for Arab troops to step in and stop the murder in Syria. I don’t hear any one calling for the Arab League to protect the Muslims – never mind the Christians – in Lebanon from the Syrian spill-over.

I hear no condemnation of Hamas or Hezbollah for attacks on fellow Muslims.

Where are the cries of horror when Sunnis and Shiites slaughter each other?

Since the left gives tacit approval of all of the above, Israel should take note and do likewise.

All non-Jews are eligible for immediate deportation. Muslims who claim to be “Palestinian” will be deported to Jordan, provided there are no criminal charges against them. If there are, the criminals will be punished according to Shiria law; after all, that’s the law the Islamists want to implement wherever they gain control.

Only Jews will be allowed in Jerusalem, just as only Muslims are allowed into Mecca and Medina.

Christian and Muslim holy books will be confiscated and, after a certain date in the near future, anyone caught with such writings will be jailed and then expelled. When the rules change in Saudia, the rules can change back in Jerusalem.

The bleeding heart liberals can’t complain about how Israel treats non-citizens (for only Jews can be citizens of Israel) since they don’t complain about non-citizen treatment in Muslim-dominated areas.

Let Israel behave as its neighbors and dare the liberals to complain.

After all, fair is fair.

Right?

If you are a liberal, Israel basher, perhaps not.