Israel Matzav

When the 'peace process' and a 'Palestinian state' are your religion

Greetings once again from Boston, where the local time is 5:09 pm as I start this post.

I learned in a yeshiva that shall remain nameless in 1979-80 (okay, some of my readers know which one it was, but please don't mention it in comments or I'll delete them). The yeshiva was unusually open in terms of the viewpoints that were tolerated by the Roshei Yeshiva (heads of the yeshiva). An apocryphal store from the year before I arrived would perhaps be the best illustration.

The year before I arrived, one of the Roshei Yeshiva stood up and spoke out in favor of the then pending Camp David accords with Egypt, pursuant to which Israel was going to return every last inch of Sinai to the Egyptian aggressors from which it had captured Sinai 11-12 years earlier. There was an argument about what the Rosh Yeshiva was saying, and one of the other rabbis stood up and started screaming at him in the Beit Midrash (study hall). That Rosh Yeshiva passed away a bit more than a year ago. His eldest son is today one of the Roshei Yeshiva. The rabbi who stood up and screamed at him is also one of the Roshei Yeshiva today.

Perhaps that will explain to some of you how it could be that Rabbi Donniel Hartman (then known as Danny) and I both studied in the same yeshiva at the same time. I did not know him well, but even then I had heard of the Sholom Hartman Institute founded by his father. I wonder which of us got the yeshiva's openness correctly. This statement seems like an overstep to the yeshiva's philosophy in my book, for reasons I will explain below.

Donniel Hartman, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and an Orthodox rabbi, focused his part on the Israeli side of the conflict.

Hartman said he dreams of a time where he can live side-by-side with the Palestinian state in peace and security.

Change must be made, he said, as fear of the unknown can begin to define and warp an individual’s existence.

“We also have to unequivocally stop acting in such a way that undermines each other’s hopes,” he said. “If the deepest hopes of the Palestinians and my hope for them is to be a free people living as sovereign in sovereign state, side-by-side with Israel, any action which undermines the fulfillment or the completion of that dream has to cease to be.

“It is not simply enough for me to declare my commitment to a Palestinian state, anything I do that undermines that possibility has to become forbidden either as a political position, let alone as a political platform or political action.”

The emphasis is mine.

Really? If defending Jews anywhere means no 'Palestinian state,' that means no defending Jews anywhere? Not in my Talmud and not in my Rambam (for starters).

While the yeshiva in which we studied was quite open, it was still well within Torah boundaries. I find it hard to believe that the Roshei Yeshiva - today or in my times - would have placed the value of a 'Palestinian state' on a pedestal above the Torah. In fact, I'm sure they would not. 

Labels: Israeli Left, Leftist Jews, Palestinian state, Torah

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:23 AM 2 comments

'Palestinians' to sue God over covenant with Abraham

Last week, I reported on the 'Palestinian Authority's plans to sue the United Kingdom for issuing the Balfour Declaration in 1917.

And as many of you know, the Bible says that God promised the land of Israel to the Jewish people.

So what's a 'Palestinian' to do? It's easy. They're going to sue God over His Making that covenant with Abraham.

“The God of Abraham had no right to promise this land to the Jews. Being all-knowing, He had to have foreseen that some 4,000 years later, we would suddenly decide that we have a national identity tied to this land”,  said a spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority.  The Palestinians claim that God should have known that they would seek to retroactively deny the rich and well-documented history of Jews in the land of Israel and therefore should not have promised it to Abraham and his descendants.  “Although we were living in Arabia for thousands of years after the covenant, God really should have taken us into consideration when making such promises” said the P.A. spokesperson.  We reached out to God for comment via a note in the Wailing Wall.  The Almighty issued a statement through his spokesperson, the angel Gabriel,  “Are you serious with this sh*t??? I have much more important things to worry about. There’s a war in Syria killing hundreds of thousands of people in my name, the ice caps are melting, and I’m trying to figure out how to stop the bees from dying off so you guys don’t starve to death.  I don’t have time for this nonsense.”

The Palestinians assert that time is a construct invented by God, and he is simply avoiding having to address the issue.  An archangel, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that God is indeed worried about the lawsuit since there are no good lawyers in heaven.  “All of the most cutthroat and lawyers are either in the U.S. Government or in Hell, so God is really at a loss here.  He won’t say it publicly, but he’s scared.”

Heh.

Labels: Abu Mazen, Balfour Declaration, God, humor, Palestinian people, Torah

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:20 PM 1 comments

Should God be in the IDF?

I've been sitting on an email Mrs. Carl sent to Israel Radio on Wednesday morning, waiting to see if someone would be able to download the broadcast she heard so I could post the email with the broadcast. There's now an article in Haaretz that expresses similar sentiments to those expressed on Israel Radio (what a surprise), so I'm going to post that article, and then I will post Mrs. Carl's comment to Israel Radio. After that, I will forward all emails that urge her to write this blog in my place, or at least to co-author with me :-)

There's been a controversy in the IDF - at least since Operation Cast Lead - over God's role in the army. I should preface this by saying that I firmly believe - as do many Israelis - that without God's help, the IDF would be defeated regardless of how good our technology is and how strong and clever our soldier's are. I believe that it is God who Wins the wars for us, and everyone else is just an actor carrying out God's wishes.

The opposite conception is known as כחי ועוצם ידי - my power and the strength of my hand wins. There are even people who have gone so far as to say that had we not gotten caught in the latter conception after the Six Day War, the Messiah would have come (just heard that again this week). I don't purport to be God's accountant, and I have no idea how He would have reacted had we attributed His victory in 1967 to him, but the possibility must at least be acknowledged.

As you might recall, as the troops were going into Gaza for Operation Cast Lead in December 2008, then-IDF chief rabbi Avichai Ronsky handed them brochures which summarized what the Torah has to say about going to war with non-Jews.

"[There is] a biblical ban on surrendering a single millimeter of it [the Land of Israel] to gentiles, though all sorts of impure distortions and foolishness of autonomy, enclaves and other national weaknesses. We will not abandon it to the hands of another nation, not a finger, not a nail of it." This is an excerpt from a publication entitled "Daily Torah studies for the soldier and the commander in Operation Cast Lead," issued by the IDF rabbinate. The text is from "Books of Rabbi Shlomo Aviner," who heads the Ateret Cohanim yeshiva in the Muslim quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem. [Deuteronomy 7:2 and the Rabbis' gloss on it says "you shall not give them a place in the land. CiJ]

The following questions are posed in one publication: "Is it possible to compare today's Palestinians to the Philistines of the past? And if so, is it possible to apply lessons today from the military tactics of Samson and David?" Rabbi Aviner is again quoted as saying: "A comparison is possible because the Philistines of the past were not natives and had invaded from a foreign land ... They invaded the Land of Israel, a land that did not belong to them and claimed political ownership over our country ... Today the problem is the same. The Palestinians claim they deserve a state here, when in reality there was never a Palestinian or Arab state within the borders of our country. Moreover, most of them are new and came here close to the time of the War of Independence." [That's a statement of historical fact. CiJ]

The IDF rabbinate, also quoting Rabbi Aviner, describes the appropriate code of conduct in the field: "When you show mercy to a cruel enemy, you are being cruel to pure and honest soldiers. This is terribly immoral. These are not games at the amusement park where sportsmanship teaches one to make concessions. This is a war on murderers. 'A la guerre comme a la guerre.'" [Deuteronomy 20:13. CiJ]

When Rabbi Ronsky's appointment came up for renewal later that year, then-Defense Minister Ehud 'secular revolution' Barak declined to renew it. 

While the current chief rabbi of the IDF is far less likely to be as politically incorrect as Rabbi Ronsky was, there are other people in the IDF who still believe that God Runs the show. Here's what Mrs. Carl described hearing on Israel Radio on her way to work Wednesday morning (when she couldn't just pop in a music CD because it was before Noon on the day after Tisha b'Av).

I listened to the program this morning on my drive to work. (I usually listen if I can – the discussions are usually interesting and thoughtful.)

I heard the topic about unauthorized speakers coming to Army bases to speak to soldiers about spiritual topics. I heard one recording of someone offering Tzitzit, and another of someone speaking.

She didn't remember the names of the people involved, but one of the people she heard about might have been Colonel Ofer Winter, the commander of the Givati Brigade. This is from Haaretz, which is not only generally anti-Israel, but generally anti-Judaism as well:

Col. Ofer Winter, the commander of the Givati Brigade, is a thorough officer. Before going into Gaza he asked Kabbalists and yeshiva heads to pray for the operation’s success. “They promised to do it and asked me to take something upon myself – more mitzvoth, more enhancement of the mitzvoth,” the commander told military correspondents of the ultra-Orthodox newspaper Bamishpacha. [For those of you overseas, BaMishpacha is the Hebrew language Israeli version of Mishpacha. CiJ]

And so it was. “I decided to take it upon myself to pray the morning prayer with great purpose,” Winter added. “We’re in a combat situation, of nights without sleep, so sometimes the morning prayer comes after a sleepless night. It’s very hard, but I know it’s for the soldiers and I try to keep it up, lengthen my prayer and pray more intently.”

“At this time of war of all times, when the desire to join the troops is strong, we must reiterate that what the Jewish people needs most is for the Torah students to sit and study Torah more strongly,” Winter explained. “The study of Torah protects the Jewish people more than anything. Those who can sit and study – that is their obligation.”

Winter added that before going into combat he reads his soldiers the words “Hear, O Israel, ye draw nigh this day unto battle,” from Deuteronomy 20:3. According to the colonel, “When a person’s life is in danger, he gets connected to his deepest inner truth, and when that happens, even the greatest unbeliever meets God.”

Columnist Uri Misgav wasn't happy with Winter.

This needs to be discussed as part of the investigation into the war. There are concerns that the army of the people, in a process amazingly similar to the one in civilian society, is breaking up into tribes — almost militias — whose character derives from the values of the commanders and their initiatives.

...

Is this a new policy for the Israel Defense Forces?

...

That is missionary terminology of Gog and Magog heralding the end of days. The written message Winter sent his soldiers — he declared a religious war on the Gaza enemy who blasphemes against the Lord of Hosts — was just for starters. Remember his calls to the government; for example, “Just have them release the handbrakes for us.” According to his troops, at the end of the clash in which five Hamas fighters were killed, their brigade commander raised his hands to the heavens and said "thank you God.”

This ultra-Orthodox-Zionist ethic was fully expressed in the interview in Bamishpacha. Winter apparently felt at home. “A miracle like at the Battle of Khuza'a I’ve never seen in all my military career, “ he said, referring to a village east of Khan Yunis.

“We decided to attack the place before dawn so no one would notice us. But for some reason the soldiers were late. We didn’t know what to do; dawn was breaking …. Then suddenly clouds protected us, ananai kavod,” he said, using a rabbinic phrase combining the word for cloud with the word for divine presence.

“It suddenly covered us, all the soldiers, a heavy fog that accompanied us throughout the assault. No one saw us. Only when the houses were blown up that were to be blown up and there was no danger to our lives did the fog suddenly lift. Really, ‘for the Lord your God is He that goeth ... to save you,’” Winter said, borrowing from Deuteronomy 20:4. Has Givati turned into the Jewish Jihad Brigade?

Misgav goes on to call for Winter - a decorated officer - to be relieved of his command, lest he turn all his soldiers into 'religious fanatics.'

Enter Mrs. Carl and her email to Israel Radio. On the whole, Israel Radio is as Leftist and anti-religious as Haaretz:

My feeling is:

1. Yes, I agree, it should have always been made much clearer that this was an optional motivational speaker, and attendance was NOT required or even necessary if the soldier was not interested.

2. In all armies, no matter what the religious position, encouragement, including spiritual words of “chizuk” or strengthening before battle, are accepted practice and seen as something good before going in to face the terrible challenges of battle. This was not something unreasonable. Yes, Christian, Druze, even Muslim speakers should also be provided, depending on the soldiers’ preferences, but I would assume the assumption here was that the majority of listeners were Jewish, and there presumably weren’t any requests for other types of speakers.

3. What I heard in the second clip was someone encouraging the soldiers to keep up and maintain the feelings of unity and solidarity and love and “achdut” that have been seen so clearly in the past 6 weeks. To take these feelings back with you when you go home, and try to keep up the feeling of unity and solidarity. This seems a Universally Wonderful message – especially in our argumentative, divisive society. (After all – look at how you are trying to create a controversy and argument over calls for unity!!)

4. I believe the speaker was trying to speak poetically when he spoke of writing a new “perek” in “Tanach” – this is the Hebrew literary equivalent of “writing a new chapter in our nation’s history” – a common phrase in English. In fact, it could NOT have been a “religious” harangue because in the orthodox/religious world it is forbidden to add anything to the Tanach. So it must have been a poetic device.

Putting this topic as the LEAD HEADLINE in the 10:00 news clip seems a little bit of an over-reaction to natural attempts to give encouragement to our soldiers. I see this as equivalent to the outpouring of supplies - dry goods and food – that were flowing down to the military camps. Yes, I agree, it should have been more controlled, it should have all been organized through the official military and affiliated soldier-support organizations, yes it was too much – but the source of it was deep love and a need to help our soldiers – our brothers and sons (and sisters and daughters) – in blood and in spirit.

Are you going to criticize the nation for expressing too much love and solidarity and unity? Does the media have an agenda to increase the divisiveness in our nation, when we are so desperate for unity? And do you see how ridiculous (I hope) that last question was – how ridiculous it is to take a natural thought, question, or action, and start to wrap it in layers of agenda and evil intent?

Again – I agree – the optional nature of these things must be made absolutely, unequivocally clear to every single soldier. And it has to be made available to everyone, of every religion, if requested. (Did you know that President Lincoln added Jewish chaplains to the US army only after it was requested by Jewish soldiers during the Civil War?)

But would you deny a little bit of encouragement to a soldier about to go into battle and feeling sick and maybe he would be strengthened by a feeling that he is loved and shielded by the prayers of his fellow Jews? Even if he is not officially “religious”?

This reminds me of 21 years ago when the Left tried to throw Chabad (Lubavitch) out of the army and the airport because they opposed Oslo. Freedom of speech in this country isn't always all it should be. And there is a lot more secular coercion than there is religious coercion - all protestations to the contrary notwithstanding. 

Labels: Gaza, Givati Brigade, God, Haaretz, IDF, Judaism, Operation Protective Edge, secular revolution, Torah

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:29 AM 2 comments

Zany Zehava calls for investigating Rabbi Lior for stating Jewish law in time of war

Zany Zehava Gal-On of the Meretz Sheretz party has called on the Attorney General to 'investigate' Rabbi Dov Lior for 'incitement' for stating that Jewish law permits punishing and crushing the enemy, including the civilians among whom Hamas embeds itself.

Lior said that he had received questions about whether it is permitted according to Jewish law to harm a civilian population not directly involved with the combatants. 

“At a time of war it is permitted for the people who are attacked to punish the enemy population with measures such as blocking supplies or electricity and to shell the entire area according to the considerations of the minister of the army and not to needlessly endanger soldiers but rather to take crushing warning steps to exterminate the enemy,” Lior wrote.

Addressing the current hostilities with Hamas, the rabbi continued “In the case of Gaza, it would be permitted for the Minister of Defense to even order the destruction of all of Gaza so that the south will no longer suffer  and to prevent injury to our people who have been suffering for so long from the enemies surrounding us.”

Lior added that “talk of humanism and consideration are as nothing when weighed against saving our brothers in the south and across the country and the restoration of quiet to our land.”

You might recall that the IDF's previous chief rabbi, Avichai Ronsky, was forced out for a similar 'offense' to Lior's.

And perhaps this is the place to include a video that many people have sent me over the past week, and which I was holding because I thought it included music and we don't listen to music now - the three week mourning period over the destruction of the Temples. But this isn't music - it's only singing.

Moments before these Israeli soldiers enter Gaza and place their lives at risk for the sake of the Land of Israel, they prepare themselves by singing and dancing songs of faith in the G-d of Israel. They are singing: 1) "The whole world is a narrow bridge and the main thing is not to be afraid" - a famous rabbinical phrase 2) Serve G-d with joy and come before Him with song 3) "We Have No one Rely Upon Except Our Father In Heaven"

Let's go to the videotape.



I'm sure that the soldiers' reliance on God rubs Zany Zehava the wrong way.....

Labels: Anachnu Ma'mainim Bnei Ma'aminim, God, IDF, Ivdu et Hashem b'Simcha, Kol HaOlam Kulo, Rabbi Dov Lior, Torah, Zehava Gal-On

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:25 PM 1 comments

Register an IDF soldier to have prayers recited and Torah studied on his behalf

For many years, Mrs. Carl has had an idea to have yeshiva boys study Torah and pray for the success of IDF soldiers. The idea is that the yeshiva boys will feel more of a connection and more responsibility if they are praying and studying for a specific named soldier.

Now, the online group Dossim is making it happen. To register the names of IDF soldiers for whom yeshiva boys should study Torah and pray, go here (link in Hebrew).

Labels: IDF, Operation Protective Edge, prayers, Torah

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:45 PM 3 comments

No kidding: Intermarriage means less support for Israel

In what can only be described as unsurprising, a new Pew survey in the United States reports that intermarriage is eroding support for Israel among young American Jews.

They are in their 20s, were raised in families with only one Jewish parent, do not associate themselves with any Jewish denomination and are likely to hold liberal political views.

This is the profile of one in five young American Jews and, according to a new analysis of data collected by the Pew Research Center in its 2013 survey of American Jews, they feel deeply alienated from Israel.

...

Cohen, a leading sociologist who researches the American Jewish community, has defined in his analysis a new category that combines detachment from Israel and opposition to the country’s policies. “When it reaches 20% of Jews under the age of 30, this is huge,” he said. “There is a real leap in various forms of alienation from Israel.”

The category of “Israel-alienated” includes members of the Jewish community who both indicate having low attachment to Israel and think the United States is too supportive of it. Combining these two aspects, Cohen explained, provides a look at those in the community who are not only critical of Israel, as are many Jews who do not agree with the positions of the government in Jerusalem, but also reached this position without having any attachment to the Jewish state.

The analysis found that a fifth of non-Orthodox young Jews could be categorized as “Israel-alienated.” In general, younger Jews tend to be less attached to Israel and less supportive of Israel in the context of its conflict with the Palestinians.

The portrait of Israel-alienated American Jews that emerges from the data analysis includes several main characteristics: They are young (18.8% of Jews between the ages of 18 and 29 feel alienated from Israel) and they are more likely to be unaffiliated with any denomination within Judaism (14.9%), liberal in their politics (21.6% describe themselves as very liberal) and have grown up with only one Jewish parent. Of those raised in interfaith families, 19.4% have low attachment to Israel and think America is too supportive of it. Only 4.4% of American Jews raised with two Jewish parents share these sentiments.

...

Similar views on Israel among young American Jews have been detected in polls for almost three decades, but the recent analysis pinpoints the reasons for detachment and alienation, and points to interfaith marriage as a key indicator of resentment toward Israel. “The rate of alienated remained the same, but there is a change in their characteristics,” Sasson said. “A couple of decades ago they came from homes with two Jewish parents, and now they are coming from intermarried families.”

Children of interfaith families, experts explain, show less engagement in all aspects of Jewish life, including attachment to Israel. But while there was a relatively small decline among children of interfaith parents in participation in certain religious ceremonies (Passover Seders, for example), their feelings toward Israel demonstrated a greater drop.

“The non-Jewish parents have an understanding of Judaism that comports with Christianity, and that’s why going to synagogue makes sense to them” Cohen said. On the other hand, he added, “there is no counterpart in Christianity to the idea of an ethnic state.”

The Jewish community’s evolving attitude toward intermarriage could, however, hold promise for forging a better connection between these younger Jews and Israel.

...

According to the recent analysis, alienation toward Israel among those who never visited Israel hovers around the 20% marker. This figure drops only slightly among young American Jews who have visited once. A real decline in alienation is seen only after a second trip to Israel, or after living there for a while.

Also, while researchers agree that intermarriage is the leading indicator for alienation from Israel, political views still play a role. The data analysis shows a steady increase in negative feelings toward Israel that correlates with the spectrum of conservative to liberal views. The alienation rate among the self-described “very conservative” is less than 1%, while among the “very liberal” it reaches 21.6%.

None of this should come as a surprise to anyone.  And given an intermarriage rate of 71% among the non-Orthodox, it's a trend that, unfortunately, is likely to continue.

Labels: American Jewish support for Israel, American Jews, intermarriage, Jewish, Torah

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:55 PM 2 comments

Vishnitzer Rebbe instructs followers not to report for draft

Until now, all Haredim have been reporting for the initial screening at the IDF draft headquarters with the exception of followers of Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach. And it has been the followers of Rabbi Auerbach who have been arrested. If all the Haredim en masse were to refuse to even show up for the draft - a tactic that was discussed and deferred shortly after the 'equalization of the burden' law was passed - the government would be left in the untenable position of mass disobedience of the law, and not enough jail cells to hold those who refuse to register.

Now, it seems that at least one large group will stop appearing for draft registration. The Vishnitzer Rebbe has told his Hasidim not to show up for the initial registration and screening.

"People are walking around in a state of embarrassment and confusion, there are harsh and terrible decrees here in Israel on military affairs," the rabbi wrote.

"They send letters to come and report to the recruitment bureau, and if one fails to report – they threaten to jail him,” he added. "People receive letters – the first summons, the second summons, the third summons – and it says that their child must report, and they do not know what will happen, and start to think – 'here come the police to take our son into custody.'"

"So the first thing is not to panic, and to trust the Creator... do not pay any attention to all the letters that arrive from them," he counseled. "Parents should treat the order as if it is just some kind of note, and ignore all letters from the army. Of course, as I have said, you must increase Torah study, and thus the decrees will be cancelled."

Despite the recent changes in legislation regarding hareidi military service, the three councils of hareidi Torah sages have not changed their longstanding decisions regarding service. This means that the haredi public has continued to report to the first summons, except for a faction of the followers of Rabbi Auerbach who ignore the summons.

The real question is how many more will follow. The more Haredi leaders who tell their followers not to report, the greater the chance for a mass insurrection. One can only look on with amazement at the fact that the Knesset did not anticipate this. 

Labels: draft, God, Haredim, IDF, Torah

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:28 PM 2 comments

'Miracle' saves Haredi soldier and two rabbis

A Haredi soldier and two rabbis who were traveling with him were saved Friday morning when a 'Palestinian' terrorist's gun jammed at the Adam junction in Samaria just north of Jerusalem. .

The terrorist tried to shoot at the three, but somehow his weapon jammed; after realizing he was powerless to harm the soldier and rabbis, the Arab terrorist turned tail and fled the scene.
At the time of the attempted attack, the rabbis were on their way to Jerusalem from the Peles Nahal Base in the Jordan Valley, a training base for the Hareidi Brigade (Nahal Hareidi). The hareidi soldier had joined them leaving the base.

At Adam Junction when they slowed down, a young Arab terrorist jumped into the junction with a pistol in his hand, and charged at their car.

"We let another car that arrived from our left go first," said one of the rabbis. "Suddenly I see a young Arab in his 20s jump from the side of the road with something black in his hand. It took me a second to realize that it was a pistol."

"The youth ran towards the back seat and tried to shoot at us, but the pistol didn't fire," added the rabbi.

The rabbi notes that "after a few seconds that seemed like eternity, when I was shaking and hunched over to take cover, I turned to see where he (the terrorist) was and why there was no sound of gunfire. I realized he was trying to shoot at one of the rabbis who sat next to the driver, and there too the pistol didn't work. At that point I shouted at the driver to get us out of there."

...

Immediately after the attack, the rabbis and soldier continued to the nearby Hizma checkpoint, where they notified security forces who began searching for the terrorist immediately, arresting several suspects.

After several hours of investigation, the rabbis and soldier were sent home by security forces.

"It was simply a miracle. We were at the junction and therefore were driving very slowly. If his weapon had worked, it could have ended terribly," noted one of the rabbis. "We were returning from cultural and Torah-based activities that we have done for years with the hareidi soldiers, and there's no doubt that stood to our credit in Heaven to be saved from the shooting."

Indeed. 

Labels: God, Haredim, IDF, Palestinian terrorism, Torah

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:01 PM 1 comments

Haredi national service enlistment hits lowest point since December 2008

Only 29 Haredim enlisted in national service during the month of March according to this report on YNet (which has been printed out and hung up as a giant poster in some Haredi neighborhoods). That's the lowest monthly enlistment number since December 2008 (link in Hebrew).

According to the article, 108 Haredim enlisted for national service in February (which was already a decline), which means that the month-to-month decline from February to March was 73%.

The article goes on to report on the trend of Haredi leaders subscribing to 'extremism' in which all Haredi boys will be told not to report at all to IDF recruitment centers. If that were to happen and the boys were to listen (which they likely would), the IDF and the police would be faced with a Hobson's choice of arresting thousands of AWOL draft-age boys, or admitting that they cannot enforce the law.

According to the article, the 'extremists' are seeking another joint meeting of the three branches of the Haredi leadership (Lithuanian, Sephardi and Hassidic), with a view toward calling for all Haredi boys not to appear at the recruitment centers, while the 'moderate' camp (or so YNet claims) is trying to defer such a meeting.

Last week, a Haredi boy who had been arrested for not appearing at a recruitment center was released, causing a mass nighttime celebration in the center of the city.

There are wall posters in all of the Haredi neighborhoods in Jerusalem, which call on the boys to go to jail rather than the army. At the demonstration, there were signs that said "come and get me at 3:00 am also" - a reference to the military police method of operation of searching 'missing' boys' family homes at 3:00 am in order to harass the family. To date, the police have yet to appear at any yeshiva, and since the Tal law was canceled, the boys are no longer obligated to notify the IDF once every six months where they are studying.

Labels: draft, God, Haredim, IDF, Torah

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:33 AM 0 comments

Israeli company receives US patent for potential ALS cure

An Israeli company has received a US patent for a potential cure for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), which is commonly referred to in the US as Lou Gehrig's disease after the Yankee Hall-of-Famer who died from it. This is from the first link (Hat Tip: Soccer Dad).

The patent covers BrainStorm's stem cells induced to secrete elevated levels of neurotrophic factors for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

Pending approval from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, the company is preparing for its upcoming mid-stage Phase II trial in the United States with its NurOwn adult stem cell therapy.

BrainStorm is developing NurOwn for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

Separately, the company said it has signed a definitive agreement with Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston to conduct a Phase II clinical trial of NurOwn in ALS, pending FDA approval. The other two clinical sites slated for the trial are the University of Massachusetts Memorial Hospital and Mayo Clinic.

"The recent bill introduced to the U.S. Senate to support regenerative medicine research is yet another indication of the increasing recognition that stem cells hold the promise for curing life-threatening and debilitating conditions like ALS," said Chaim Lebovits, BrainStorm's president.

"We are very encouraged by the bill's proposal to appoint a council that would develop and maintain a national strategy for the promotion of regenerative medicine research and development."

What follows is a clip from Israel's Channel 2 television. The patient is a well-known Rosh Yeshiva in the Haredi community.

Let's go to the videotape.



הפוך בה והפוך בה דכולה בה.

Labels: biotech, God, Israeli high tech, Torah

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:04 PM 0 comments

Waiting for the other shoe to drop: Haredi civilian service enlistement dropped 70% in months leading to February

In the months leading up to the passage of the 'equal burden' law, Haredi enlistment in civilian service alternatives to the army dropped 70% compared with previous levels.

Speaking to Kol Barama haredi radio station on Wednesday, director of the Civil Service Administration Sar-Shalom Gerbi said that numbers of haredi men enlisting to the program had dropped from an average of between 70 to100 a month to around 30 a month in the period leading up to February 2014.

Extremist elements in the haredi community have conducted an aggressive campaign against haredi men who perform any form of national service, military or civilian, and have labelled such people “hardakim,” meaning a weak minded haredi person.

The general haredi community has also expressed anger at the terms of the new conscription law, which has been framed as an attack on the community, and led to protestations against service by even more moderate elements who did not oppose it in the past.

“People are embarrassed to come and enlist for the Civilian Service [program] in light of friction that has been created because of the conscription law,” Gerbi said, describing the decrease in enlistment as “dramatic.”

The Civilian Service program is a key component of the new law for haredi conscription that was approved by the Knesset earlier this month.

The 'hardakim' campaign - which started as a campaign in the Haredi neighborhoods against cellular phones with internet connections and has been going on for quite a while - has clearly been appropriated as a campaign against both army and civilian service. Gerbi adds:

Gerbi said however that he believed that the numbers of conscripts would begin to rise again once the immediate tensions and discord surrounding the passage of the law dissipates.

That may be the case with respect to civilian service, but with respect to serving in the army, which requires wearing a uniform on the way to and from the base, that is far less likely to happen and will take much longer.

We have not yet been told that there's been a drastic decline in Haredi enlistment in the IDF as a result of the new law, but that is clearly the case.

Labels: draft, God, Haredim, IDF, Torah

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:38 PM 1 comments

IDF decides to forget about separate Haredi recruitment center... for now

Facing threats of mass desertion, the IDF has dropped - for now - a plan that would have separated Haredi recruits from their yeshiva mates and forced them to endure 5-6 hours of 'recruiting videos' (deemed brainwashing by the Haredi community) when they report to the IDF to seek deferments of service.

The haredi daily newspaper Yated Ne’eman published a report on Friday saying that haredi youth and yeshiva students who receive induction notices, or who go to obtain their deferrals or exemptions, would be required to attend the new haredi induction centers, where they would receive information about the IDF and the benefits of enlistment.

The haredi leadership was extremely concerned that some of the yeshiva students would be tempted to enlist after being exposed to the information provided at the new centers.

The article in Yated Ne’eman said that if yeshiva students were required to attend the induction centers the haredi rabbinic leadership would instruct students to refrain from reporting for the preliminary enlistment process, as they have done until now.

Such a step would create serious upheaval and social unrest since anyone who does not present themselves to the IDF enlistment offices when called is considered to be a deserter, and is liable to arrest by the military police.

In the year-and-a-half since the “Tal Law,” arranging haredi military service deferrals, expired in July 2012, the rabbinic leadership has instructed yeshiva students to report to the enlistment offices for preliminary processing – though none of them were drafted during this period.

Yeshiva students associated with a hardline minority haredi faction have however refused to report, some of whom have subsequently been arrested.

Were the mainstream leadership to instruct the majority of yeshiva students not to report, the army would be faced with the task of arresting several thousand haredi youths and yeshiva students.

Bayit Yehudi faction chairwoman Ayelet Shaked told haredi website B’Hadrei Haredim on Sunday morning that she had held discussions with Brig.-Gen. Gadi Agmon, of the IDF Manpower Directorate, and the senior haredi leadership, and that an agreement had been reached not to operate the haredi induction centers at this time.

She said that there would be no change in the enlistment processing procedures.

...
In February, the three rabbinical councils of the mainstream haredi political movements banned yeshiva students from enlisting and said that if legally obligatory service were mandated in the new legislation, which it was, they would reconvene shortly thereafter to consider banning yeshiva students from reporting to enlistment offices.

Because the haredi induction centers will not be operated, haredi sources told The Jerusalem Post that the councils will not convene on the issue until after Passover, when conscription orders for haredi youth under 18 years of age are scheduled to be sent out.

It is believed that the majority opinion among the senior haredi leadership is that to ban yeshiva students from reporting to the IDF enlistment offices at this stage is unnecessary, since under the terms of the new law no one will be legally obligated to enlist until 2017.

In light of this situation, much of the rabbinical and political leadership is of the opinion that it is not worthwhile taking the drastic step of banning haredi youth from reporting for preliminary processing.

From what I am hearing in the streets, sometime between now and 2017, either the law will be changed (most likely), a compromise will be reached (least likely) or there's going to be an awful lot of prison construction in this country.

Labels: draft, God, Haredim, IDF, Torah

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:20 AM 0 comments

For Lapid, it's all about Haredim and not about their army service

Some of you might recall this post, in which I reported that Finance Minister Yair Lapid wants to exempt first-time home buyers from our 18% value added tax, unless they are Haredim. Some of you actually thought this was fair - after all, why shouldn't the government give a break to those who serve in the army?

It turns out that Lapid's proposal isn't just designed to get Haredim who don't serve in the army. It's also designed to ensure that those Haredim who do serve in the army still have to pay the tax if they buy a new home. Many Haredim who serve in the army do so through the Shachar program, to which one cannot be admitted after age 22. The Shachar program only includes 16 months of active duty. Lapid's VAT concession requires 18 months of active duty (link in Hebrew).

Coincidence? I think not.

Labels: God, Haredim, IDF, Israeli taxes, Torah, Yair Lapid

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:10 PM 1 comments

'The worst of both worlds'

A scathing critique of the new Haredi draft law from both sides:

The result is a widespread consensus against the law, with Haredim uniting with many advocates of a Haredi draft to argue that the law effectively offers the worst of both worlds.

Haredi yeshiva students are given full exemptions from military service for several years, then in 2017 will suddenly be told that the demands of their religious studies and lifestyle are criminal offenses.

The Times of Israel tried to obtain a response from MK Ofer Shelach (Yesh Atid), the co-chair of the Shaked Committee who led the insistence on criminal sanctions, but Shelach’s staff declined repeated requests. A Yesh Atid party spokesperson also declined to comment.

“There’s no doubt this bill is ineffective in advancing equal service, which is the reason we went to the last elections,” noted Prof. Yedidia Stern, vice president of research at the Israel Democracy Institute and a former dean of Bar-Ilan University’s Law Faculty.

Stern was a key expert adviser to the Shaked Committee which drafted the new law, and was a member of the Plesner Committee, which worked on a different version of the law in the last Knesset and whose work led to the last government’s fall and new elections.

The final draft law “is ineffective because it starts operating, de facto, only in 2017. But it immediately absolves a large group of some 50,000 Haredi men of service,” since, by replacing the previous Tal Law which the High Court of Justice called unconstitutional last year, it removes the obligation to continue their religious studies or face the draft.

...

Read it all.

Labels: draft, God, Haredim, IDF, Torah

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:29 AM 1 comments

Poll: Huge majority of National Religious public supports Chetboun's vote against draft law

Take this with a grain of salt, because online polls tend to be self-selecting. A poll on the National Religious Srugim website shows that 76% of the respondents support MK Yoni Chetboun's defiance of coalition discipline to vote against the law to draft Haredim (link in Hebrew).

According to the poll, 76% believe that Chetboun acted correctly, 10% believe that he was mistaken because it was a good law, 9% believe that he was mistaken because it is forbidden to defy coalition discipline, and 5% agree with Chetboun (for a total of 81% who agree with him!) but believe it is forbidden to defy coalition discipline.

Over the weekend, newspapers contained a full-page advertisement supporting Chetboun, which was signed by Rabbis Shmuel Eliyahu, Nachum Nerya and Elyakim Levanon. According to Rabbi Eliyahu, Chetboun represents a 'huge public' which cannot be silenced.

Labels: draft, God, Haredim, IDF, Torah, Yoni Chetboun

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:17 PM 0 comments

Some comments on the 'Haredi draft' controversy

A friend in Teaneck sent me a copy of Rabbi Pruzansky's latest blog post (a blog I have linked several times before on this blog) and asked me to comment. I spent so much time responding to him that I thought I should share what I wrote with all of you.

I've written about this extensively.

Torah sustained the Jews for 2,000 years of galus (exile) - not the State of Israel, which is a recent creation.

In a perfect world, there would be a volunteer army. In a less perfect world, those who don't belong in yeshiva would go to the army in a manner that accommodates their religious needs, and those who belong in yeshiva would be able to stay there and be supported. We don't live in a perfect world. We don't even live in a near perfect world. 

The army does not need all or even most of the Haredim. But they're afraid to say it. The real goal is not to get the Haredim into the army as a fighting force - that already exists. The goal is to remove as many as possible from the yeshivos and 'endow' them with 'Israeliness.' The goal is to use the army as a melting pot. 

All the threat of this law has done is to reduce the number of Haredim enlisting in the army to virtually zero. 

As for the prayer rally, you can find many comments about it by searching "prayer rally" in my blog. 

I actually agree with him about the tefilla for the army, but it will never happen unless the Haredi Gedolim (great rabbis) come out and say it should happen, and in the current atmosphere, that's less likely than ever. 

I also agree with him about earning a living, and I suspect that more Haredim who are not top scholars would leave the yeshivos and go to work, if only they weren't legally prohibited from doing so without serving in the army. The government has to decide what's more important - raising Haredi participation in the work force or trying to make the Haredim 'Israelis.' The government made that decision this week, and it has likely made both goals unattainable. 

By the way, it's ironic that Rabbi Pruzansky (who was a college classmate of mine, and whose blog I have occasionally linked) cites Rav Dessler. It's Rav Dessler who is the basis for the current Haredi education system in Israel. The letter is in Michtav Me'Eliyahu Volume 3, Page 355. And while some have attempted to reinterpret it as being only for Rav Dessler's time, the letter itself gives no indication that was the intention. You might want to point that out to him if you have contact with him.

Freilichen (Happy) Purim!

I would suggest you follow all the links before commenting. 

Labels: draft, God, Haredim, IDF, Nachal Charedi, Torah

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:38 AM 0 comments

Religious Zionist rabbis defend Chetboun

You might recall that Jewish Home party MK Yoni Chetboun was the only coalition MK to vote against the 'equal burden' law. Chetboun was punished for his vote by his party - he was stripped of all his committee memberships and of his position as deputy speaker of the Knesset. On Thursday, Chetboun got support from three prominent religious Zionist rabbis.

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, who is chief rabbi of the city of Tzfat; Rabbi Elyakim Levanon, who is chief rabbi of Samaria (Shomron); and Rabbi Nahum Nerya, who heads the Torah B’Tzion yeshiva, all expressed support for Chetboun on Thursday.

The three signed on to an advertisement in Arutz Sheva’s weekly paper, B’Sheva, saying, “To the (reserves) Major decorated by the Chief of Staff Citation, who loves the land and the nation, the Torah and its scholars, the honest man, MK Yoni Chetboun – something real is beginning.”

The advertisement concludes, “Hazak v’ametz,” a traditional blessing for strength to continue in the same path.

The phrase “something real is beginning” is a play on the Jewish Home’s campaign slogan in the last election, “something new is beginning.”

I wonder what percentage of Jewish Home party voters agree with Chetboun, Just saying.... 

Labels: draft, God, Haredim, IDF, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Torah, Yoni Chetboun

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:18 PM 6 comments

'Remember, it's only a costume'

For the Hebrew impaired, the caption is translated in the post's title. From here.

Labels: draft, God, Haredim, IDF, Purim, Torah

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:22 PM 0 comments

Supreme Court: Haredi draft law not a sham

That didn't take long.

On Wednesday, the Knesset enacted the 'equal burden' law designed to draft Haredim into the IDF.

On Wednesday an appeal was filed saying that the law is a sham that does not go far enough.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court rejected the appeal.

The High Court appeal was lodged against the Knesset, the Government and the Defense Minister, by the Forum's Itai Ben Horin and Eitan Ginzburg, Deputy Mayor of Raanana.

The appeal claims that the law “does not improve upon the Tal Law, which was cancelled, but in fact makes inequality greater.”

The enlistment goals spelled out in the new law constitute a small proportion of the yareidi yeshiva student population, the appelants said. “For instance, the enlistment goal for 2017 will be 5,200 yeshiva students, a goal that all agree is not high – thus continuing the Tal Law arrangement that has already been found to be unconstitutional.”

In addition, the appelants noted, the enlistment goal is for eight annual enlistment cycles-- i.e., for hareidi men aged 18-26. “In other words, out of about 70,000 yeshiva students, we are talking in reality about less than 8% of the hareidim who are supposed to serve, whether it be in military service or national-civilian service. Of course, this is a far cry from the government's declarations about enlisting 70% of those eligible for service.”

"Again, we see that there is no leadership in Israel, and therefore we have no choice but to appeal again to the High Court, which is the last defender of the value of service in Israel.”

Can't wait until they get to the budget for prison construction. Or maybe they just pan to build huge outdoor pens. 

Labels: draft, God, Haredim, IDF, Supreme Court, Torah

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:35 PM 1 comments

It's official: 'Equal burden' law passes Knesset

In 2014, Israel is about to become the only country in the world where a Jew can be jailed for studying Torah. That's because on Wednesday morning, the 'equal burden' law passed the Knesset 67-1, the one being Yoni Chetboun of the Jewish Home party. The opposition, a hodgepodge of parties from the Right and the Left, boycotted the session, as they did Tuesday's session on electoral reform. The law includes criminal sanctions against boys who opt to study Torah rather than join the IDF.

This is from the first link.

"This is a historic, important bill," MK Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi), who led the Knesset committee to prepare the legislation, declared. "For 65 years there was an exemption for all yeshiva students and the change the coalition made is proportionate and gradual and correct."

Shaked added that she "believes in the haredi public and that it will reach the [enlistment] goals the government set. If there will be cooperation from haredi leadership, there will not be mandatory enlistment.

Good luck with that. 

Back to the first link again...

"I imagine this court will reach the High Court by tomorrow. I hope the judges will read the protocols of the committee meetings and see that even if the law is not equal it has a worthy goal, which is why I think it will stand the test of the High Court," she added.

Immediately after the new law passed., the Movement for Quality Government petitioned the High Court against it.

Since when does a 'worthy goal' get a law through the 'High Court'? Oh wait, I forgot, it depends who thinks the goal is 'worthy.'

Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Peri, who headed a committee on the matter of haredi enlistment, said following the passage of the bill, " For the first time, an issue at the heart of the conflict of Israeli society, will be solved. Dramatic change will come."

 Right....

Meanwhile, Likud MK Moshe Feiglin praised Jewish Home MK Yoni Chetboun for having the courage of his convictions... but Feiglin did not join him in voting against.

"Yesterday, I sent an SMS of support to MK Yoni Chetboun,” wrote Feiglin on Facebook. “Not because I agree with him – but simply because I appreciate any person who goes against the stream and is willing to pay a price for standing up for his principles. I did this with MK Adi Kol, also, after she veered a little from the sacred Coalition discipline and was tarred and feathered by her boss.

"This whole idea of Coalition discipline needs rethinking,” Feiglin added. “Is it really the only way?”

"Sometimes, I entertain 'heretical' thoughts. I would like to set up a government without Coalition discipline. Let every MK be truly responsible for the laws he passes and also for maintaining the government. Let changing wall-to-wall coalitions and oppositions form around every law. Let the Knesset cease being a 'law machine' and restore lost pride to itself and its members.”

Fat chance. Take responsibility for their actions? In what world?

Chetboun had clear vision about this bill.

“On the one hand, the members of the Jewish Home party, and chief among them MK Ayelet Shaked, really made a very significant effort so that this law, as I have said in the past, will be workable for the hareidi community,” he told Arutz Sheva Tuesday. "On the other hand, as time goes on – and particularly over the last twenty-four hours – I feel that we are creating a serious schism between us and the Torah world, and the hareidi community.”

“I see Israeli society being split apart by this law. I’m sure nobody meant for that to happen,” he continued. Talk surrounding the law “is creating a message that is against the Torah world, against the yeshivas. That disrespects them,” he lamented. “I felt deep inside that I must listen to my conscience, and that I cannot vote for this law."

By the way, Yesh Atid's Adi Kol said that she voted in favor of the law, but didn't really support it. Where would be without coalition discipline?

Labels: Ayelet Shaked, draft, God, Haredim, IDF, Moshe Feiglin, Torah, Yoni Chetboun

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:30 AM 2 comments