Opuscula Kosher McDonald’s Open on Shabat At Israeli airport

ARLENE J. MATHES-SCHARF, FOOD SCIENTIST - KOSHER FOOD SPECIALIST and the person behind Kashrut.com, possibly the best kosher information on the web, shared an article about McDonald’s opening a kosher store in Lod’s Terminal 3.

 

Image of kosher McDonald’s at airport

 

THE BLURB WAS a PR puff piece that McDonald’s franchise owners sent out, probably in cooperation with the Zomet Institute.

Zomet Institute is a highly regarded organization that tries to find ways to make Shabat and haggim more easily observed within the confines of established halacha. It recently established its own kashrut supervision operation that upset the chief rabbinate that, until Zomet, had a monopoly on the money-making field.

THE QUESTIONS

ONE: How will a traveler buy a kosher anything at McDonald’s if the customer and the McDonald’s clerk are shomer Shabat?

The answer may lie in the way hotels and some restaurants feed their guests on Shabat. The guest pre-pays for the meal(s).

If the lodging is small, such as The Farbreng Inn near Richmond VA, management knows who are the Shabat guests.

If the lodging is larger, such as the Hotel Dan in Tel Aviv, guests’ meals are included in the rates — pre-paid or at least pre-arranged.

TWO: Why would an observant Jew be traveling though an Israeli airport on Shabat or haggim.

Airplanes sometimes fail to depart and arrive as scheduled.

KLM, a really good airline, was supposed to get me to Israel from Amsterdam in plenty of time to get to my apartment and prepare for Shabat. Being a “really good airline,” it delayed the departure from Amsterdam until a plane from JFK carrying passengers bound for Israel arrived and the JFK passengers were boarded.

Bottom line: The flight arrived about an hour before Shabat.

Fortunately, my apartment was in Holon and I made it in time. I had yogurt for my Shabat meals that Shabat, but Shabat was saved.

Let’s consider a person leaving Lod for Barcelona.

Lod-to-Barcelona is about five hours. If the flight leaves Israel at, say, noon, there should be plenty of time to reach Barcelona before kabalat Shabat.

If, however, the flight is delayed, the traveler must decide: take a chance that the flight will arrive before Shabat or reschedule the flight.

If the traveler has checked out of his or her hotel, or lives far away from the airport, especially if the traveler has to depend on public transportation, the traveler may not make it home before kabalat Shabat.

THE ANSWERS

The “bottom line” is that it is very possible a traveler could be stuck in the airport for the duration of Shabat.

It would be “nice,” but hardly likely, that the airline would tell the McDonald’s to give the travelers whatever they want simply by having the passenger show a ticket (for departing flights) or boarding pass (for arriving flights).

Since that is just “wishful thinking,” the observant traveler must be able to somehow pre-pay for Shabat meals.

Using a credit card is a possibility, but there are travelers who are loathe to surrender a credit card for carte blanc charges. This is not to suggest that anyone would abuse the privilege, but it happens.

McDonald’s could sell chits in various denominations or for specific menu items. Chits for menu items seems better since the amount/item is fixed.

British Airways issued chits at Heathrow for grounded passengers when employees of its catering company struck and then the baggage handlers joined the strike. The food kiosks quickly ran out of food.

While it seems “strange”, an “open-on-Shabat” kosher restaurant in an airport has its place. It is possible, albeit not likely, that an observant traveler could be “stuck” at the airport for the duration.

How much could a kosher hamburger joint make on a Shabat?

How much could I make if it had a regular kosher restaurant as competition for an observant traveler’s shekels?

It’s interesting what questions a puff piece generates. Old newspaper editors apparently are not supposed to read handouts.

Since both Globes and Yeshiva World had nearly identical copy, its obvious that the editors could not be bothered to put a new “top” (lead paragraph) on the PR release. Lazy. Sloppy. As Robert Allen Zimmerman wrote, The Times They Are A’Changin, but, alas, not for the better for “journalism.”

עינים להם ולא יראו * אזנים להם ולא יאזנו

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

Comment on Shabat kosher

Opuscula More thoughts On Trump plan For new state

ASIDE FROM THE FACT THAT Abu Mazen & Friends won’t let it (two-state deal) happen, it’s interesting to speculate on what might have been.

Some things that need close examination.

The Tunnel

A tunnel from PLO-occupied land to Gaza might be OK if

*    It has only two terminals, one at each end

*    It is carries only an electrified train for fewer emissions; think of the San Francisco Bay area’s BART; no cars, no trucks, no buses

*    It is deep underground

*    It is constructed of earthquake (and bombs-from-inside) material such as heavily reinforced concrete

Both passenger trains and freight trains could use the same rails; all it takes is scheduling. Since the U.S. probably will have to pay for it anyway, perhaps the tunnel should be wide enough to accommodate a double set of rails.

In order to keep Israel happy and its citizens safe, an intermediate opening may be needed so trains can be stopped and inspected while under Israel. If Israel controls the electricity to drive the train, halting a train should be no problem.

High Tech & Ag/Housing Areas

The Trump plan calls for a new road along Egypt’s border.

Did anyone ask what the Egyptians think about this?

Down this road he proposes to build a “high tech” center and, a little farther down the road, an agricultural and residential area.

Why?

The web site uniRank (https://www.4icu.org/ps/gaza-strip/) shows that Gaza has 10 institutions of higher education, including:

*    The Islamic University of Gaza (Gaza City)

*    Al Azhar University-Gaza (Gaza City)

*    Al-Aqsa University (Gaza City)

*    University College of Applied Sciences (Gaza City)

*    University of Palestine (Al Zahra City)

*    Palestine Technical College (Deir El-Balah)

*    University College of Science and Technology (Khan Yunis)

*    Gaza University (Gaza City)

*    Arab College of Applied Sciences (Rafah)

*    Palestine College of Nursing (Khan Yunis)

Map showing locations of higher education institutions in Gaza

Gaza seems to have sufficient land FOR many more residential properties. Perhaps Mr. Trump is expecting a mass of immigrants to suddenly move to the Strip. Since Gazans seem to be emigrating to other places, an influx oF immigrants seems less than likely.

Gaza DOES have farmland. It’s farmers export products to other Muslim areas and, in fact, to Israel. (Gaza also imports Israeli products, but no one is supposed to know that.)

So why, Mr. Trump, expand Gaza beyond its present borders?

Why bring a road so close to Eilat and the new international airport?

And, once again, did anyone ask the Egyptians? Egypt has cleared a wide swath of land in an effort to keep Gaza’s terrorists in Gaza.

Arafat airport

If Mr. Trump wants to help the Gazans — and if America’s “progressives” want to endanger Israel, the U.S. could repair (parts of) Yassir Arafat International airport, making it suitable for small (30 passenger) planes.

That might not be wise until those controlling the new state prove to be good neighbors. Given the rhetoric coming out of Gaza, Ramallah, and Tehran, the prospects of this happening under the current regimes is someone’s pipe dream.

On the other hand, if those controlling the new state would allow Israeli observers… Another pipe dream.

No Peace in Our Time

Given that the children of the PLO and Hamas have hate and fear of Israel inculcated in every aspect of their lives — tv shows with pseudo-Mickey Mouse characters, text books from K through 12 (with matriculation exams to assure the student knows the “politically correct” answers), with celebrations when they join their elders at the border fence, and when they celebrate the martyrdom (suicide) of a shahid, there absolutely is zero chance that there will be “peace in our time.”

Which is both interesting and sad.

Israeli Muslims, while complaining they don’t get all they deserve, peacefully live, work, enjoy their families just like non-Muslims. They sit on the highest court; they are in the Knesset, some in “Jewish” parties, some in Arab parties. They serve in the government and may serve in the military.

Meanwhile, a Jew’s life is at risk if he or she wonders into some Muslim villages, and most assuredly is in danger if the Jew enters a PLO or Hamas controlled area.

עינים להם ולא יראו * אזנים להם ולא יאזנו

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Trump’s plan, revisited

Opuscula Facts? Who needs’em? Blame the settlers For Arab boy’s death

THE HEADLINE READS: Palestinian boy's death ignites blood libel firestorm on Twitter.

A sad event made worse by inciters and people not even on the same continent!

Let the death be investigated by both Israeli and PLO authorities and then everyone will know how the child died.

ACCORDING TO ISRAEL HAYOM (https://tinyurl.com/qsbqx9a), The body of 8-year-old Qais Abu-Ramila was found in a flooded reservoir on Saturday.

Read that sentence carefully.

     “was found in a flooded reservoir.”

Tragic.

"We demand the police check security footage [from street cameras]. If it turns out he was kidnapped by settlers it would set the entire neighborhood on fire,"  Ma’ariv quoted a member of the boy's family as saying after it was thought that there was footage of the boy entering a car and possibly being kidnaped, the media reported.

I can understand why grieving relatives would “demand” something.

Moreover, the demand to check security footage [from street cameras] is reasonable, and one hopes this already has been accomplished.

Meanwhile, Hanan Ashara of the PLO Executive Committee, jumps on the the Jews did it soap box only later admitting in a follow-up tweet that My apologies for retweeting something that’s not fully verified. It seems that the news of his being kidnapped is not certain.(https://tinyurl.com/sthmand)

No one, so far, ever said the child was kidnapped. It was suggested this might be the case and the family demanded that cameras be checked.

Meanwhile, one of America’s most prominent congressional Jew haters and Israel bashers, Rashida Tlaib, re-tweeted Ashrawi's post, only to also delete it when it was apparent that the child was not kidnapped. No apology or back-tracking by this bigot, unlike Ashara of the PLO Executive Committee.

Israel HaYom reports that Former British Labour MP George Galloway, though, has yet to delete or apologize for his tweet asserting that the young boy was killed.

In a tweet now pinned to the top of his Twitter page, Galloway wrote, "This child, aged 7, has just been fished out of a well dead in Jerusalem Murdered by illegal Israeli settlers. Will anyone in power cry with his mother and father today? Will anyone check this evil rampage against the people of Palestine? Anyone?"

When did Tlaib or Galloway — continents away from Israel — investigate the death?

Galloway, instigating hate, tweeted that the child has just been fished out of a well dead in Jerusalem Murdered by illegal Israeli settlers.

Well?

I thought the child died in a flooded reservoir on Saturday.

Obviously Galloway never lets facts interfere with his bigotry.

TO THIS SCRIVENER’S mind, the incident should be investigated, by BOTH Israeli and PLO officials working together. Cooperation is possible; it happens frequently and, as long as bigots — on all sides — are kept at bay, cooperation seems to get things done to everyone’s satisfaction.

Certainly, check cameras.

Go house to house looking for witnesses.

Find the boy’s playmates and ask them if he, or they, were planning on going to the reservoir.

A handful of youngsters die every year around the world by swimming where they ought not to swim. All the children are not Arabs, nor are they Jews, nor Orientals, nor WASPS, nor blacks — they just are children who surrender to the temptation of a pond, a lake, a river, or a reservoir.

Perhaps the child WAS kidnapped, and if he was, why not by an Arab? Why automatically blame a Jew? Knee-jerk — and the emphasis is on “jerk” — reaction.

I learned many years ago to reserve judgment until all the facts are available; I sat in too many felony trials where the prosecutor convinced juriors, and me, too, that the defendant was guilty, guilty, guilty.

But when the defense presented its case, the jurors and I often had a change of opinion.

Perhaps the boy was kidnapped — albeit there seems no eviudence of that so far — or perhaps the temptation of a swim in the reservoir was too much for the boy and it cost him his life.

Will Israel HaYom follow up with the results of an investigation?

Probably not, but it should, if only to help put out the flames of incitement.

עינים להם ולא יראו * אזנים להם ולא יאזנו

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on No facts needed

Opuscula One thing At a time

THERE IS SO MUCH GOING ON TODAY, 23 January 2020/25 Tevet 5780 that it is hard to know on what to focus.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN is to host the anti-Jew, anti-Israel “2020 Youth for Palestine Conference,” on Jan. 25-26 on the campus in Ann Arbor. It is being hosted by Midwest Students for Justice in Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement, and Students Allied for Freedom and Equality.

The United With Israel (WIN) web site, https://tinyurl.com/vp2g7m7, is asking its followers to “Demand University of Michigan Cancel the Event!” and provides the names of the university’s president and of its chief flack.

UM is notorious for support of BDS and generally anything against Jews or Israel.

Interestingly, BDS does more damage to residents of PLO-controlled Israel and to Israelis. Where BDS has success, Israeli firms that hired residents from PLO and Hamas territories lose jobs when the Israeli firms fold or relocate.

The pro-PLO groups are following the nazis whom many supported during WW2.

Goebbels’ “Big Lie”

Joseph Goebbels told his fellow nazis and their friends, including Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” (https://tinyurl.com/yy9scb8x)

Substitute "PLO" for "state."

Anyone who has lived for more than a few weeks in Israel KNOWS that what the propagandists of the PLO, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad are claiming is, in blunt terms, bovine excrement. Muslims from the PLO-controlled areas come — in some case, “came” — into Israel to work for better wages than they could get where they live — IF there were available jobs. “Came” into Israeli to work for Israeli-owned operations until BDSers forced the businesses to relocate or fold. Soda Stream is a prime, but not the only, example of BDS’ impact on the residents of the PLO-controlled areas.

If life in Israel is so bad, why do so many Muslims continue to live in Israel. They can sell and move to any of 50 Muslim-dominated countries in the world. (https://tinyurl.com/wb9e2aw)

FOR ALL THAT this scrivener is against WIN’s appeal.

The FIRST Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states clearly: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Let the ignorant bigots speak, and assure that those protesting the conference do not interfere with the event.

At the same time, assure that Jewish groups can hold their own “conference” a day later, with the same guarantees that the idiot bigots who came for the pro-PLO event are kept at bay so the Jews’ conference can proceed sans violent interference.

That should satisfy the bigots and the Jews and the U.S. Constitution.

French church is extra-territorial?

According to the left-wing Israeli publication HaAretz (https://tinyurl.com/wc95un), the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, confronted Israeli security in the Old City of Jerusalem Wednesday, yelling at them not to enter the Church of St. Anne, which is considered to be French territory.

Does any other country allow such “extra-territorial” churches?

According to numerous web sources, the church is considered French property. It is not an embassy or consulate, but apparently Israel allows the French to claim it.

I wonder what the French thought when “during the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem, Saladin converted the church into an institution of Muslim theological study” (https://tinyurl.com/rqv7fv5)

In any event, after paying his obsequious visit to the terrorist Abu Mazen, a/k/a Mahmoud Abbas (whose 4-year term staring in 2005 now is in its 14th year), Macron visited the Catholic church where he allegedly told Israeli security forces that "Everybody knows the rules ... Outside, please," he can be heard screaming at Israeli security forces.

Were it not for the national embarrassment of having a visiting “dignitary” (Macon) insulted, injured, or murdered by one of his many enemies on Israeli soil, Israel would not need to follow him around.

France is one of the nations where Jews live in safety — written in sarcasm. French Jews are some of the most threatened peoples in Europe today.

This scrivener can understand a consulate or embassy being “extra-territorial,” but a CHURCH?

A cursory search of the Internet failed to find any “extra-territorial” churches in the U.S. outside of a consulate of embassy.

Perhaps someone claims the Catholic church in Bet Lehem (Bethleham) also is “extra-territorial.” Apparently such claims mean nothing to the Muslim terrorists who took over the facility. Where was the French, or Italian, or even Vatican outrage at the affrontery of the Muslims.

France, as anyone who has studied French-Israeli relations knows, is politically two-faced; selling arms to Israel and then, abandoning Israel and selling arms to its ememies.

Given that France caved to the nazis without a great deal of fuss, it’s no wonder than its president du jour tries to restore respect to the country by behaving foolishly in Israel.

He should be glad Israeli security follows him wherever he goes.

BBC does it — again

Honest Reporting shares
At the end of an otherwise nice profile of Holocaust survivor Rena Quint, reporter Orla Guerin goes on to editorialize about Israel’s “occupation” of the Palestinians. (https://tinyurl.com/wtrwyj2)

It has nothing to do with the story at hand, except in the minds of Guerin and her BBC editors. (Watch https://vimeo.com/386664438. Guerin’s key quote is at 4:12.)

”The state of Israel is now a regional power. For decades, it has occupied Palestinian territories. But some here will always see their nation through the prism of persecution and survival.” Orla Guerin, BBC News, Yad Vashem.

I don’t know if the BBC mimics the New York Times or if the Times mimics the BBC. When it comes to “reporting” (read “editorializing”) about Israel, both leave something to be desired, i.e., truth and fairness.

Perhaps Ms. Guerin failed Middle East History 101.

In 1947/48, Israel agreed to occupy only a sliver of land originally allotted to it by the political power of the time; the same powers that created, in 1921, both the modern Kingdom of Jordan and appointed a foreign ruler — that is, from another Middle East “state” — to rule over the few indigious inhabitants of the interior (what now defines the Hasemite kingdom of Jordan.)

When Israel declared its independence in 1948, it was attacked from three sides by its neighbors who swore to drive the Jews into the sea.

Toward that end, many Muslims fled towns in Israel’s sliver of land and many more followed the mufti’s word to get out of the way of the glorious Arab armies coming to liberate all of Palestine and free it of Jews.

The attacks failed, and failed again in June, 1967, and again in October 1973. In each case, the attackers lost land as the price of attacking Israel. With the peace agreement between Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin, Egypt regained the Sinai (but refused to take back the Gaza Strip).

The so-called “Palestinian territories” Ms. Guerin claims Israel is occupying include Jerusalem, Israel’s capital since King David. It also “occupies” other land the invaders lost to modern Israel. It excludes PLO-controlled land.

Arabs in Israeli “occupied” land are better off financially that their brothers in PLO-occupied lands. They have better medical care, better educational opportunities, better job prospects than those Arabs in PLO-controlled lands.

Unlike their brothers, they are free to travel on Israeli passports to any country that accepts those passports. Meanwhile, Arabs in PLO and Hamas-controlled areas must travel to Europe or other Arab nations. The Muslim-dominated nations typically allow “Palestinians” in to work as temporary residents and the “Palestinians” often complain of discrimination among their fellow Muslims.

As an after thought, it is the “Palestinians” who will always see their nation "through the prism of persecution and survival.” Until such time as Abu Mazen and his kind are willing to come to the table and seriously negotiate sans pre-conditions, the Muslims of the PLO-controlled territories and Gaza have no hope of statehood.

Too many times when they condescended to show up, they refused all Israeli concessions and, in return, increased attacks on Israeli citizens.

עינים להם ולא יראו * אזנים להם ולא יאזנו

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on One thing at a time

Opuscula Book worth reading

I JUST FINISHED a book, Conversations for Autumn 2019/5779-80 by R. Marc D. Angel (right). It is issue number 34 in the on-going series.

The book is a potpourri of sundry topics penned by R. Angel, most of which I enjoyed reading.

R. Angel — one of the book’s topics is Minhagim: Divinity and Diversity in which he discusses “Jewish” names, including his surname — considers how American Sefardim (and Mizrahim) interact with the Israeli chief rabbinate and how American orthodox are being forced (my word) into haridism — extremism.

Because R. Angel and this scrivener often are of the same opinion, I find a lot to appreciate in his works.

The rabbi founded the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals¹ in 2007 and has been its director since. Before the institute he was, from 1969 to 2007, rabbi at the Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue in New York City². He now is “Rabbi Emeritus”; R. Meir Y. Soloveichik³ is the congregations current rabbi.

R. Angel is more “modern orthodox” than Sephardi/Mizrachi, although the influences from his Turkish and Rhodes forebears play a major role in his books and talks. (Likewise, the Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue is more “modern orthodox” than either Spanish or Portuguese.)

A true Sephardi will recognize the rabbi’s trials and tribulations growing up among Ashkenazi Jews who cannot comprehend any minhag except their own. Tzit-tzit in or out? Standing or sitting for the “Big 10”? (The answer is “When in Rome . . .” )

This scrivener is a member of a Sefardi-dominated mixed minyan where most of the Ashkenazi members follow the Sefardi practice. I’m certain they follow Ashkenazi practices when in Ashkenazi congregations, as they should.

One of R. Angel’s oft-quoted sources is former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel R. Benzion Uziel. He notes differences between both R. Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, and the late R. Ovadia Yosef, the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1973 to 1983.

Rabbi Uziel, left; R. Kook, right (https://tinyurl.com/tc6vcxk)

R. Uziel, according to R. Angel, always tried to find ways to include all Israelis in the building of the state. Where R. Kook was stringent, R. Uziel tried to find a way to accommodate everyone. R. Yusef Messas was another Sephardi (Moroccan) rabbi that earned R. Angel’s respect sufficient to mention by name in Conversations.

The book includes a fairly lengthy chapter on gerut — conversions.

R. Angle looks at conversions throughout history and concludes that the harideem in Israel have high jacked the process not only in Israel but in the galut as well.

A chapter is dedicated to another of the rabbi’s favorites, R. Jos. B. Soloveichik, referred to simply as “the Rav.”

Still another chapter is set aside to discuss modesty, “tseniut.” (Spelling is from the book.) The Babylonian amora, Rav Sheshet,⁴ is noted for suggesting that any man who gazes at a woman’s little finger it was though he was gazing at her private parts. Sheshet, known to be irascible, also said a woman’s hair is ervah (immodest). All of Sheshet’s comments might be taken with the proverbial “grain of salt”; Sheshet was blind and could see neither a woman’s little finger nor her hair.

The Institute’s web site is one I bookmarked for frequent visits.

Sources

1. Institute: https://www.jewishideas.org/

2. Spanish & Portuguese congregation: https://tinyurl.com/vk2venl

3. R. Soloveichik: https://tinyurl.com/rnea52t

4. R. Sheshet: https://tinyurl.com/szab452

עינים להם ולא יראו * אזנים להם ולא יאזנו

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Conversations

Opuscula Sloppy editing or Eyes that can’t see

SINCE I RETIRED I HAVE TIME to read the many news sites that clutter my emails. I admit I asked for the sites; they are not spam or (usually) unwanted.

However, as a former print reporter and editor I often am aghast at the sloppiness of the on-line publications.

Printed caption: A soldier prepares to fire a Spike SR missile | Photo: Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.

I AM NOT a weapons expert, but even my tired eyes can see that the caption Israel HaYom editors allowed is in error.

Perhaps a PR flack for Rafael, the company that makes the tank killer missile, sent the caption with the photo. Flacks are known for “taking liberties.” (I once flacked for Tel Aviv University; I know about “taking liberties.”)

It started with “cold type”

When the U.S. Air Force and I parted company in Orlando FL I found a job as a “bank boy” at the Orlando Sentinel-Star, then owned lock, stock, and ink barrel by one Martin Andersen. The paper now belongs to The Tribune Company and the Star is history.

Woe to the reporter, the editor, the proofreader, and the page makeup person if Andersen’s name was incorrectly spelled.

Andersen was a “real” newspaperman who loved his newspapers. He was capable of reading type even when “seven sheets to the wind,” but he also had confidence in his employees, even a young printer’s devil as I was then.

This was back in the day of hot type.

And it was “hot.” Literally.

Type was set on lead “slugs” the length of a column’s width. The slugs were made from lead heated to about 450^oF, the melting point.

People served apprenticeships and “graduated” to more responsible jobs. Bank boy was at the bottom of the composing room totem pole.

I finished my apprenticeship at Gannett’s first Today newspaper in Cocoa FL and helped to put out its first edition. A major event in any newspaper person’s life.

And then came cold type

Cold type, as the name implies, is “cold.” It is typeset on special paper that is pasted down on a form.

No special skills are needed by the paste-up person. Newspapers saved lots of money by eliminating skilled personnel on hot type typesetting machines and by getting rid of skilled jobs in general.

The trouble was, and is, a really sloppy product.

But anyone could be a cold type “printer.”

Reporters keyed their stories directly to a computer where an editor might catch a faux pas. Spell check: Yes. Fact check: No. Stupidity check: No.

And then came the internet

The Internet allowed anyone almost anywhere to be a “journalist.” After all, what is a “journalist” but someone who keeps a journal.

There must be a distinction between “journalist” in its common sense and “blogger,” which is what I am as this is keyed. I don’t keep a journal and I no longer really “report” the news as I once did.

Anyway, with the arrival of the Internet for the masses, everyone could be a blogger or journalist or PR flack.

Sadly, in the news business, the level of professionalism sank to a new low.

When a caption writer either believes unquestionably a flack’s copy, as someone apparently did with the Rafael piece (ibid.) or simply doesn’t do his, or her, homework — looking at the accompanying PR video — and can’t tell a rifle from a missile, something is amiss.

In truth, the rifle does fire a missile — the bullet at the end of the cartridge — but the caption stated that the soldier was firing a Spike SR missile.

Admittedly, even back in the days of hot type mistakes were made, and the person who made the mistake paid a price for it.

Bloggers can, and do, make statements that have zero truth; statements that were heard second, third, or forth hand. Attribution — identifying sources — is unnecessary for bloggers. A good editor challenged reporters to attribute everything, otherwise what the reporter wrote was an editorial, and THAT was far out of the reporter’s area of responsibility.

Bloggers generally lack editors.

On-line publications have editors, but it is questionable if the editors actually edit.

Fortunately, with the popularity of computers, most people use spell check by default. (Grammar checkers are another matter.)

Still,

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

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Opuscula Chinese may cost Israel its best ally

AS THE CHINESE FLAG begins to replace the Blue and White, Israel may find itself losing its one military and financially strong ally, the United States.

THE CHINESE, who already hold enough U.S. debt to bankrupt the country, now are buying up Israel.

Tnuva now is Chinese.

Haifa Port is Chinese.

Ashdod soon will be Chinese.

What next?

What is known is that the Chinese buy or steal when they can from any source. Israel’s intelligence community must be a prime target.

What is known is that China is in bed with Iran, the enemy of both the U.S. and Israel.

Apparently Israel’s ”king for life” cannot see the reality in front of him.

If China buys more control of Israeli industry and services, the U.S. will be more and more reluctant to share anything with Israel, and Israel may be less inclined, or able, to share with the U.S.

Will Chinese flag replace Mogan David?

China not only BUYS Israeli industry and services, it also could SELL to Israel military hardware — aircraft, surface and submersible ships, missiles — all of which is said to be “world class.” A lot of the stuff IS “copy cat,” e.g. a Chinese version of the Russian AK-47, but they may have, as the Japanese have done since WW 2, improved on the original product (transistors, being a case in point).

What would be the U.S. reaction to Israel suddenly buying Chinese military gear in lieu of U.S. goods. (Would China “give” Israel military aid on the condition that it use the yens to buy Chinese products, the same “string” the U.S. uses to bolster its own “military-industrial complex?”)

Consider: Since China and Iran are in bed together, and since Iran has its forces in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Gaza, what can Israel expect?

Israel should expect Chinese intelligence, a/k/a spies, to provide Iran and its proxies on Israeli defense plans, including available and “in-the-works” weapons, weapons and troop placement, and possibly plans to counter an almost certain attack from Iran and its proxies.

Buying Tnuva is one (unfortunate) thing; taking control of Haifa and Ashdod ports is another, and far more serious.

As long as China is doing business with Israel’s enemies, it should NOT be doing business in Israel.

עינים להם ולא יראו * אזנים להם ולא יאזנו

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

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Opuscula Euro-Jews depend On Angels to defend Them in New York

Uodated 1/2/2020/

RED BERETS AND RED JACKETS WITH “Guardian Angels” stenciled on them once again patrol neighborhoods where hasidic Jews reside.

According to the arch Angel, Curtis Sliwa, the Guardian Angels were invited into the several hasidic communities by the community leaders.¹

The question is WHY?

Curtis Sliwa talking to reporters about the Guardian Angels return to protect hasidim. (Screen capture: https://youtu.be/e2VPi93zJxw)

THE OBVIOUS ANSWER is because hasidic Jews are easy targets. Unlike “modern Orthodox” and non-observant Jews who either hide their peyot and tzit-tzit or have abandoned them altogether, the hasidim are easy to identify as Jews.

One less obvious answer is that attacks on hasidic Jews cause the politicians to get on their soap boxes to offer quotable words for the NY Times and local tv.

But the REAL reason the Guardian Angels were invited back is a reason the hasidic Jews should be embarrassed to admit:

They refuse to defend themselves

"And we must be wary of those who say that guns are the answer. From the time that haredi children are very small, we learn to despise weapons. The words of my teacher ring in my ears: “Our strength is only with our mouth (praying to the Almighty).” When we learned the Talmud tractate of Shabbat, the teacher pointed out that the sages say (63a) that a person is not allowed to go around with a weapon on the Sabbath because their purpose is “shameful,” they are a disgusting item. We always heard from our religious leaders that the weapon of a Jew is the voice of Jacob (Genesis 27:22)."

Shimon Rolnitzky, JTA opinion page, https://tinyurl.com/vsag7oq

Jews used to defend themselves.

We just finished recalling the feats of the Maccabees. The hanukiot are barely put away.

The Jews of the Warsaw ghetto defended themselves and embarrassed the nazis before the world (that still ignored the Jews’ plight).

The Jews — EURO-JEWS — that followed Jabotinsky, the ones who populated LIHI and defended themselves.

Jews served in the militaries of the U.S. and its allies during World War 2.

This scrivener personally knows an Ashkenazi Orthodox rabbi who served in Viet Nam with the 101^st Airborne Screaming Eagles.

The IDF, a mixed bag to Ashkenazi, Sefardi, and Mizrachi Jews repeatedly defended not only themselves but all of Israel from invading Arab armies.

Jewish self-defense is nothing new.

Granted, we did not win EVERY battle, but we DID defend ourselves.

One of the best known unarmed fighting techniques, one that is taught in police academies throughout the Western world, is an Israeli “invention”: Krav Maga.

Israel also produces a variety of weapons, mostly for the military, but some that can be used by civilians when local governments allow non-criminals to have weapons.

But the hasidic Jews of New York, despite being politically conservative, won’t defend themselves.

Basic, anyone can do it, measures such as walking in groups, the larger the better.

Carrying bats or boards; surely these hasidic neighborhoods have an eruv.

Their young hasids don’t take Krav Maga classes.

Their women know little about self-protection.

Let the police or Guardian Angels protect us.

The police are too few and too far between to patrol every street of every hasidic neighborhood. Even in “less dangerous” neighborhoods; that is, non-hasidic neighborhoods, expecting instant police presence is foolish.

MEANWHILE, there are those that claim Sliwa is as bad as the people who attack Jews. The Yeshiva World web site includes an op-ed audio of what it considers Sliwa attacks on the hasidic community.

Interestingly, most of the comments favor Sliwa and take Yeshiva World’s op-ed writer to task.²

The stupidity of failing to learn self-defense measures is not limited to hasidim.

Leftist Jews also are happy to let someone else defend them.

It seems the only Jews who are prepared to defend themselves are Israeli ex-pats, and even some of them are unprepared.

Fortunately, not all communities have strict gun controls — read "where only criminals have guns." We DO need strict gun laws, starting with background checks, a requirement to practice with the weapon, and education to know when, and when not, to shoot.

Those people who attack Jews are bullies. The only way to deal with a bully is to meet the bully on his (or her) terms. It may not be politically correct, but force may be the only thing the bully understands. Once we have the bully’s attention, THEN the psycho-babble people can try to re-educate the bully.

When I was growing up in Miami, I quickly learned that if someone pushed me, I needed to push back — harder. That usually ended the confrontation.

Sources

1. https://youtu.be/e2VPi93zJxw

2. Yeshiva World: https://tinyurl.com/va2jqca

עינים להם ולא יראו * אזנים להם ולא יאזנו

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

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