New NY Times Jerusalem bureau chief's first column portrays Israel as repressive
For those of you who thought Jodi Rudoren was difficult, you may yet find yourself pining for her return. Meet Peter Baker, the New York Times' new Jerusalem bureau chief, whose first column is, to put it mildly, troubling.
Baker's first story went all over the map, mixing religion, politics and freedom of expression in a dishonest effort to portray Israel as a repressive society, and Culture Minister Miri Regev (who, as far as I know, is secular) as a religious fascist.
This is from the first link.
More substantively problematic was the incomplete and deceptive
framing of Minister Regev’s efforts related to taxpayer funding of
cultural events. Readers might assume her actions as characterized by
Baker compel Orwellian public expressions of fealty to the state.
But the "Loyalty in Culture" legislation seeks to remove public
funding for extreme anti-Israel projects. It permits a retroactive
reduction in the budget for "actions against the principles of the
state." Among these are cultural events that entail: "Denying the
existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state;
incitement to racism, violence, and terror; support for an armed
struggle or terror act by a hostile country or terror organization
against the State of Israel; marking Independence Day as a day of
mourning; an act of vandalism or physical degradation that dishonors the
country’s flag or state emblem."
The Minister is calling for what she terms "freedom in funding" along
with freedom of expression. She and those who support passage of the
law believe Israel is free not to fund cultural events that promote
terror, incite racism, denigrate Independence Day and so on.
That makes perfect sense to this Republican. Let the Arabs mourn their 'naqba' all they want, but why does the State of Israel have to pay for it? The answer is, we shouldn't. And it's not like the Times doesn't know it.
In a related story from January 2016, another Times piece
cited criticism of Regev’s initiatives but, importantly, also provided a
balancing counter-voice. Reporter Steve Erlanger wrote:
"... Mr. Leibler, The Jerusalem Post columnist, defended Ms.
Regev and Mr. Bennett as trying to ‘restore a climate that nurtures love
of Israel and promotes pride in Jewish heritage’ after years when
‘far-leftists, postmodernists and even post-Zionists took over the
Education Ministry.’"
That’s a piece of information that readers deserve to have. Readers
must hope that going forward they will get some sense of the full
context – even if the reporter’s default viewpoint is to fault Israel.
If this is the foot on which Baker has chosen to get off, one has to wonder how much objectivity we can expect from him going forward.
That's not because I had anything against him. It's because over the years I listen to less and less secular music, and because I've never really been into Israeli secular culture. (Most of the secular music I post here is in English and it's stuff I remember from 40 years ago).
Some of you may have heard that Einstein passed away last night at the age of 74, which is considered quite young today. Two things about the aftermath of his death caught my eye.
One was one of my Israel Haredi Facebook friends (yes, there are some) who has friends across the spectrum, who posted that many Haredim were following what was happening with Einstein with baited breath. She wrote (in Hebrew) that she didn't understand why, until Uri Zohar (a popular entertainer who became religious many years ago) eulogized Einstein today as "a mentch."
The other is the photo above. It's a quote of Einstein's on Prime Minister Netanyahu, and I will translate it for you.
I didn't vote for Netanyahu. My views are far from his, and he made mistakes, but with that, I believe that they are acting unjustly toward him. They are attacking him, and I am disgusted by the intensity of the scorn and hatred that they are displaying toward him. How much can they squeeze his blood with armed slander and with such an appetite. It's disgusting!
The Prime Minister was one of those who paid his respects to Einstein as the latter's body lay in state in Tel Aviv this afternoon.
And so, I should post at least one Einstein song. Let's go to the videotape.
Double protests outside Dome over Israeli dance performance
A large group of pro-israel supporters gatecrashed a planned protest
outside the Brighton Dome last night. Pro-Palestinian campaigners had
arranged to picket the performance of controversial dance group the
Batsheva ensemble. But unknown to them, their opposite numbers had
arranged a counter-demo, outnumbering the original protest. Ann Hallam
from the Brighton Palestine Solidarity group said "We are boycotting the
group's performance because they are part of Brand Israel.
They are a
state-funded group which is sent around the world to portray Israel as a
cultured and vibrant place while ignoring the atrocities and
persecution of the Palestinians."
And 60-70 pro-Israel supporters outshouted the 40-50 strong opposed as a line of police officers watched.
The dance group was originally set for two dates but Dome bosses
pulled the second event in order to improve security. Evan Sorokin from
the Sussex Jewish Representative Council said "whatever the rights and
wrongs, politics should not interfere with art"
Well, Israel is (usually) a cultured and vibrant place. So there.
In Thailand, Israelis save drowning Iranians who flee
I blew the picture up because I figured that a lot of you might like to see a beach at this time of year.
The picture is from Koh Samui, Thailand, where last week, 27-year old Nimrod Machani was visiting his 60-year old father Shimshon, who rents surfboats to tourists. YNet picks up the story from there.
Last week the father-son team went out on their daily rowing course. "The weather here is tropical," Shimshon explained. "Things can change in a second. And indeed, on the way back, the weather changed all at once. The winds got stronger and the waves grew tall."
Suddenly, they noticed two swimmers who were crying out for help. "Their Kayak had overturned in the storm and was swept away, they were left alone in the water," said Shimshon. "They didn't have much of a chance."
The two lifeguards rowed towards the drowning men. "When we reached them they were already at the point of exhaustion," nimrod noted. " "We loaded them on to the surf boat and kept rowing towards the shore, a kilometer away."
For 45 minutes the two battled against the winds and the waves with the swimmers on board. "When they came around and started talking among themselves I noticed they were speaking in Persian. I was born in Iran and speak the language. I told them in Persian: 'Don't be scared, you're in good hands," Shimshon recalls.
When they reached the shore the two, who introduced themselves as Mundar and Ali, hugged and kissed their rescuers and thanked them.
"When we told them we're Israelis they just got up and fled," Nimrod noted.
They'd rather have died? Maybe they just remembered what happened to this guy.
The IDF does stupid things like this and then they wonder why so many religious families in Israel are desperate to keep their sons out of the IDF.
Not too long ago I was at a national commemoration ceremony at Mount Herzl. Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar was sitting in the first row. Suddenly, without advance warning, a female in uniform walked up to the microphone and started to sing. All eyes were on the rabbi – will he be stepping out now? Yet the honorable rabbi remained seated. He looked down, and that’s it.
This was very noble of the rabbi, and he was the only person to act nobly there. Ceremony organizers behaved foolishly by failing to spare him this embarrassment. They should have decided ahead of time what to give up: The female singer or the chief rabbi’s presence.
In the abovementioned case of the cadets and the female singer, there is no question who we should give up. The IDF requires combat soldiers more than it requires female singers. In the next war, the army will be sending Golani to the front, not a military band. And Golani today comprises numerous religious soldiers.
The army and secular Israelis may not like it, but it's prohibited for religious men to hear women singing. Yes, some people are lenient if it's 'only' with a microphone and/or it's not live. But what the IDF pulled on Rabbi Amar - and what it pulled on a group of cadets who were then expelled from their unit for walking out - is absolutely prohibited under Jewish law. And the IDF knows it.
So why do they do things like this? Why do they try to rub religious soldiers' faces in religious prohibitions when - as author Haggai Segal points out - they so desperately need religious soldiers? Read here, here and here. Here too.
Then read the whole thing. The cultural war of the secular on the religious could yet bring the country down, God forbid.
I should warn you at the outset that there is a small bit of music in this video (and I said I was not going to run music videos during the three weeks), but that's not its point.
I should also apologize because it's in Hebrew and if you don't speak Hebrew and aren't at least somewhat aware of Israeli culture, you will not get this video.
But it's worth seeing. It's actually a Cellcom (cellular phone company) commercial.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
