It's been a couple of days. Having trouble writing anything....
Yesterday, a mother of six children was murdered in her own home by a 'Palestinian' terrorist. Yes, the picture on the right is her kitchen floor and that's not paint....
The woman has since been identified as 39-year-old Dafna Meir, a
mother to six children, two of them foster children. She waas
initially critically wounded in the attack and succumbed to her wounds
shortly after.
The Arab terrorist who carried out the attack succeeded in breaking
into the town, entering the woman's home and murdering her
before fleeing the scene.
The woman, who works as a nurse, fought with the terrorist at the
entrance to her home as her children were nearby, according to
testimony. The children did not see the attack but heard her shouts and
came running, and then called up security forces to hunt the murderer.
Security forces are currently pursuing the terrorist, aided by a
helicopter, and residents of the town were asked to stay in their homes
during the manhunt. The IDF has clarified that the terrorist is no
longer in the town.
Witnesses of the attack have said the terrorist worked in the town and
used his familiarity with the community to carry out the attack.
Some people have made the connection between Israel's Left and the encouragement of 'Palestinian' terrorism.
Former Interior Minister Eli Yishai, chair of the Yachad party which
narrowly failed to enter the Knesset, responded to the murder by blaming
the radical leftist groups B'Tselem and Breaking the Silence.
"I am shocked by the murderous attack in Otniel. The cruelty of the
murderers knows no bounds," said Yishai. "Again we come across the face
of uninhibited evil. An awful murder of a Jewish woman hy''d in her
private home, with her only 'sin' being that she was an Israeli Jew."
"The struggle against incitement needs to be escalated. The
Palestinian incitement at the side of the Israeli (incitement) managed
by leftist organizations B'Tselem and Breaking the Silence is
responsible for another despicable murder. God will avenge her blood."
For the Hebrew proficient, here's an Israel Radio interview interview with one of Daphna Meir's nursing colleagues (she was a neurosurgical nurse who also gave pre-nuptial classes to women after being in a boarding school herself by 5th grade) who traveled with her often from Otniel to Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva.
Sunday's murder came moments after another terrorist was stopped at the gates of Kiryat Arba.
And today, a pregnant woman, the daughter-in-law of prominent coexistence advocate Rabbi Menachem Froman z"l, and an activist in the Leftist political party Yesh Atid (led by Yair Lapid), was stabbed by a 'Palestinian' terrorist.
In December 2009 Therumpus.net published an interview with Michal
Zak, “a forty-nine year old Jewish resident of Neve Shalom, a village
with a population mandated at exactly 50% Palestinian Arab/Israeli Jew.”
A facilitator at the “school for peace,” she was asked by Jesse Nathan
whether “Palestinian resistance” also includes suicide bombers. Zak
responded that they are “in a category of violence against civilians -
as opposed to violence against soldiers which is the most legitimate,
and violence against settlers, which is second on my list.” Zak claimed
that bombing civilians “just makes me see how desperate they are.”
The interview is emblematic of what "coexistence" often really means in the Israeli-Palestinian context:
the “Israeli” side adopts the Palestinian narrative and supports,
almost wholeheartedly, Palestinians. The Palestinian side embraces the
“Israeli” view - insofar as the Israeli view is the Palestinian view in
this coexistence situation. They "coexist" as Pro-Palestinian
Palestinians and Pro-Palestinian Israelis. Palestinians who are killed
in “martyrdom operations” are martyrs, Israeli soldiers are killers,
Palestinians always have a “right to resist,” while Israeli rights to do
much of anything are diminished. Palestinian nationalism is good
nationalism, Israeli nationalism is chauvinist and fascistic and
unacceptable.
...
For coexistence to ever be meaningful, it would have to build several
real bridges. First, it would have to not only be a case of Israelis
supporting Palestinian nationalism and Palestinians supporting
Palestinian nationalism. It would have to really challenge Palestinians
and hold them to the same accountability as Israeli society in terms of
encouraging progressive and liberal values – to say nothing of
recognizing the legitimacy of Jewish nationalism in the Land of Israel,
not just "sorrow for the Holocaust". Second, it would have to appeal to
not only secular Jews on the left and Palestinians who are
nationalists. Third, it would need to have indigenous Palestinian
support and funding from Palestinian backers and Palestinians playing an
integral part in running the organizations.
If Palestinians aren’t stepping forward to start “Dabka for Peace” or
“embroidery for peace,” the situation isn’t going to improve.
Coexistence work should not be a cover for radical anti-Israel views,
such as one “coexistence” activist who compared the hardship of waiting
at a checkpoint in a Palestinian bus to the mass murder of Israeli
civilians on a bus, in an essay now removed from online called “a tale
of two buses.” Blowing people up, shooting them, sniper fire,
“resistance” and tunnels; none of that has anything to do with
coexistence.
In the long run, as many of the Palestinians who said they don’t go
to coexistence groups precisely because they enjoy the authentic
friendships they have with Jews “as people first, not ethnicities,” the
real coexistence comes when these kinds of artificial frameworks
disappear. “I can coexist at a bar over some drinks,” one woman told
me. Indeed.
This has been precisely the problem with the 'peace process' from Day One. In the aftermath of Oslo, Israeli kids were given an 'education for peace,' which meant learning to see the narrative from the viewpoint of the 'other.' The 'Palestinians' were only taught the 'Palestinian' narrative. Israel has for 30 years or more had groups like 'Peace Now' and 'Tush Shalom.' No such group has ever existed among the 'Palestinians' (and the 'Palestinian Authority' or Hamas would likely kill - literally - any such group if it ever came into existence).
What's worse is that seeing a narrative from the viewpoint of the 'other' weakens one's belief in one's own narrative. There's a huge difference between seeing one's own narrative as the only legitimate one, and between seeing two conflicting yet somehow equally valid narratives. Israelis have been taught to critically question the narrative they have been taught while 'Palestinians' have had their own narrative more and more deeply ensconced in their minds.The result is that Israelis' belief in their own narrative - particularly among the young - has been weakened (although there has been some walking back of that weakening since the second intifadeh) - while 'Palestinians' belief in their narrative has been strengthened.
Any argument between the United States and Canada is an argument between two civilized friends.
The conflict between Israel and the 'Palestinians' (and the Arab Islamic world in general) is an ethnic existential conflict, where one side is Islamic savages who live in the 8th century, and the other side is mostly westernized Jews.
Obama is a moron if he really doesn't see the difference.
Jewish and Arab children together with their teachers and parents have been participating in Jerusalem’s Bible Lands Museum project called “The Image of Abraham”. The program seeks to bridge cultural gaps and overcome negative stereotypes. The seminar is based on understanding our common heritage through the project’s themes which are inspired by Abraham/Ibrahim Patriarch to Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Let's go to the videotape.
Forgive my cynicism, but where does this lead? How many of these Arab kids will we see throwing stones (or worse) at Jews six or seven years from now? Apparently, they have been running this program for several years (one woman said she has three children who have participated). Where are those children today? What difference has that made?
I have a child that age (son number 4, child number 7) and I would not want him to participate in something like this, particularly if it involved traveling to Arab neighborhoods on the east side of the city.
Good Neighborliness: Jabari and Mesika Present an Alternative
This is translated from Makor Rishon, a newspaper that is distributed in print and as a pdf, but does not have a website. I am going to reproduce the whole thing, because otherwise none of you will have a way of getting it (Hat Tip: David H).
A tour of the Samarian mountains led to an unusual conference at the European Parliament in Brussels. Sheikh Jabari of Hebron spoke of trust between himself and the Hebron settlers, and the Vice-Chair of the (European) Union related his positive impressions of coexistence in Barkan and at Ariel University. Not a word about occupation or apartheid.
by Asaf Gabor, Brussels (Makor Rishon, "Yoman", p. 20) -------
The Bibi-Mofaz trick that produced a unity government instead of elections, again brought to the fore the issue of contacts with the Palestinians. PA head Abu Mazen sought to return to dialog, but conditioned it on stopping construction in the settlements, agreement to form a Palestinian state within the '67 borders and release of prisoners. Attorney Yitzchak Molco, the Prime Minister's emissary, sent a letter to the Palestinians making Netanyahu's position clear, that he is willing to return to negotiations without preconditions. In the end, the usual political ping-pong ended with a promise to hand over 100 terrorist corpses to the Palestinian Authority as an Israeli gesture.
As if divorced from the political reality on the ground and from the cycle of negotiations sunk deep in the mire, the European Union this week decided to ratify Barack Obama's two-state solution.
On Tuesday, a day after the Union's decision, a historic visit by a remarkable delegation took place at the home base of the Union in Brussels. No, not another delegation of human rights or Israeli leftist organizations, together with members of the PLO Executive Committee or senior officials of the Palestinian Authority. This time, it was a unique group of people who daily live with the problems and challenges in the area.
The chairman of the Samaria Regional Council, Gershon Mesika, was an unusual character on the European Parliament scene, being the first settler to speak from the conference stage. Another figure attracting the eye of the Europeans was Sheikh Farid al-Jabari,"leader of the Palestinians in Hebron", according to the description of him in the program. The conference, titled "Peace in the Middle East", for the moment abandoned the terms "occupation", "territories", "illegal construction" and the rest of the terminology routinely bandied about in the European dialog on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, and turned over the stage to the parties who live side-by-side.
The special get-together was directed by the Vice-Chair of the Foreign Affairs Ministry of the European Union, Fiorello Provera. He opened the conference with a purview of the chaos in Arab states after the revolutions, and the threat of extremist Islam prevailing in those countries - as well as in ever-expanding areas in European countries. "We see ourselves as fighters for human rights and democracy, and at the same time we in Europe are being threatened by extremist Islam", said Franz Obermayr, a member of the European Parliament, before the conference. "Israel is in a reality of perpetual threat from the terror organizations, and this reality needs to be solved, but the solution of two states for two peoples is making headway everywhere, so we must try to find alternative ways."
Small Steps on the Ground
At the dinner preceding the alternative summit conference, one could have the personality of Provera dominate, as an Italian from the province of Portalina. It was evident that he believes in people. His warm Italian temperament blended in with the Middle Eastern temperament, the Arabic on one hand and the Israeli on the other.
Later on, wearing a necktie, Provera explained on the speaker's platform how he sees the conflict: "Contrary to the popular opinion that we hear all the time, the suffering of the Israelis and the Palestinians is not caused by arguments over land. The fact is that the steps Israel has taken, such as the Israeli withdrawals from Lebanon in 2000 and from the Gaza Strip in 2005, have not brought it any closer to peace or improved the lot of the Palestinians. The reality in the Middle East will not necessarily change with the help of territorial compromise, but with confidence building steps taken by people."
Provera, who four months ago toured Samaria, underwent an "awareness revolution", according to the definition by the Strategy Unit of the Samarian Regional Council. The Unit deals with public relations, spokesmanship, visits and tours in Samaria, and in the words of Unit head Yossi Dagan, "everything that is out of the box". The Liaison Office, which operates under the auspices of the Strategy Unit, has maintained contacts for a year and a half with tens of European Unity Parliament members. Thirty of them, belonging to the conservative stream, came for a condensed visit. Twenty more, among them Provera, came for a private visit. "He's a very busy man. In the original plan, he agreed to dedicate half an hour to a tour, no more", says Dagan. "We decided to take him straight from the airport on a 20-minute trip to the observation point in the town of Tzofim in Samaria. From there, he could see the lights of the Samarian settlements on one side, and on the other side the lights of Tel Aviv and Ben-Gurion Airport. He was astounded, and he immediately called to cancel the meetings he had planned during the next two days. We took him on the routes that we take for senior media officials, leading opinion makers and foreign leaders. The reaction was the same. At first, people's eyes are opened to a reality that they were not familiar with. Afterwards, their minds open up to different ideas, which become clear to them once they feel the reality on the ground."
The visit to the European Parliament is in fact a reciprocal visit by the Samarians. That visit certainly left its mark, according to Provera's words. The senior European parliamentarian went on with his speech, relating his experiences in Israel: "During my latest trip to Israel I visited extensive areas of Judea and Samaria, and also Ariel University, where I saw scenes that many of those who speak of a two-state solution don't see. Jewish and Arab students studying side by side there, working on joint academic projects which in the end will improve their economic situation. At the Barkan Industrial Park I saw enterprises where Palestinians and settlers worked together in one factory. As opposed to that splendid reality, the head of the Palestinian Authority Abu Mazen is working with all of his might to prevent joing projects between settlers and their Arab neighbors. Ever since Sala'am Fayad's call to boycott goods produced in the territories, many Palestinians who used to work in such places, have joined the ranks of the unemployed and sit at home doing nothing. In my opinion, small steps towards partnership such as these, lead to far more significant progress than speeches about far-reaching agreements."
"The Oslo Agreements have failed"
Sheikh Farid al-Jabari, a man of action, not words, attacked the Oslo Agreements that in his view have failed the test of reality, taking their toll in blood from both sides and leading to a worse-than-ever state of affairs for the Palestinians. "To our dismay, for the last 20 years we have not succeeded in making peace, and the two peoples have paid a heavy price in blood and loss of life. The Oslo agreements have proven themselves to be agreements leading only to conflict. The fact is that every five years there has been either a war or an intifada. For 64 years we have tried all different ways to defeat each other in war, conflicts that led to loss of life and in failed talks, too. War will not lead to a solution, and neither will terror. We want peace with dignity", said the Sheikh.
A few days before the Brussels summit, Jabari invited me to his tent in the Ziv desert and let me in on his preparations for the meeting. "The reality is that we live without basic medical services, money to feed our children, and most importantly - without dignity. The corrupt Palestinian Authority plays a significant part in this. The money sent by the European Union to the PA does not get to us. The only hospital in the Hebron area has no basic equipment, such as ultra-sound."
A few days later on the Brussels stage, the Sheikh announced unequivocally: "I deny the view that land justifies killing innocent people. We cannot negotiate about this land, because it does not belong to Arafat, to Abu Mazen or to me. This land is holy according to religious faith. Islam teaches us that you cannot cancel me out and I cannot cancel out your reality. If this is the reality imposed on us, then let's learn how to live in real peace, not with the illusions that people coming from outside try to sell us, in the wake of the Oslo Agreements.
"Education of our children needs to be changed on both sides. We must build trust, not slogans. When you guard the honor of the other person, you are preserving your own honor. The Jews living in Hebron have been labeled with the stigma that they are the most extreme Jews in the State of Israel. In spite of that, we have proven that we can come to a mutual understanding, and today they say that if the Sheikh says something, we stand behind him. I respect their leadership's word, too. When people want to live together, it's possible to help one another. Problems can't be solved by filling pockets with money and hoping the reality will change and that the "other" will just disappear from the scene. We are here together, let's learn to get along together in one state."
The words of the Sheikh and of Fiorello Provera stirred up the Parliament members. The conference, which at first went smoothly, took on an interesting and exciting nature, and the extraordinary words spoken caused those present to sit up straight in their cushy seats.
"Turn off the faucet"
Gershon Mesika opened by making it clear that just like the speakers from the Palestinian side, the settlers are also working against the security fence, which is hurting the settlement movement and is forcefully attempting to change the reality on the ground. He clarified before the attendees the strategic importance of Samaria from an Israeli viewpoint. "This is the cradle of the Jewish people's homeland, a place of strategic importance to the State's existence. Israel's width from the sea to the river is only 70 kilometers. Of this, Samaria takes up 55 kilometers. Whoever visits Samaria - and some of the distinguished MKs were with us on tours of the area and can confirm my words - sees with his own eyes Samaria's importance as the safety belt of the State of Israel. Those in Europe who are pushing the idea of forming a Palestinian state, are in fact sticking a knife in Israel's heart and putting Israel in real existential danger. Just like what happened with the expulsion from Gush Katif, when we settlers leave, terror comes in to replace us.
"Israel is the only democratic country in the region, and it is essentially the dam that blocks the Islamic flood threatening Europe, too. Without settlement in Judea and Samaria, the existence of the State of Israel is not feasible."
Mesika also asked the representatives of the European Union to turn off the faucet to the extreme Leftist organizations working against the settlement enterprise. "These are extremist organizations that have a minimal influence on the public, trying with all their might to incite the world against the State of Israel by means of false accusations against it. The funds that the European Union sends them for purposes of peace, in fact are used by them as weapons against the State of Israel. I don't see the logic, in a difficult economic reality where some European countries are on the brink of collapse and their stronger cohorts are forced to part with considerable funds to rescue them, that specific bodies in Europe consider it right to spend billions of Euros on the activities of these organizations", said Mesika.
The children of our father Abraham
During the coffee break, people walked all around us - the strange ones with kippas on their heads, people thirsty for information. The size of the population in Samaria, the height of the mountains, water problems in the Hebron area and the cooperation between the settlers and Sheikh Jabari - all of these topics replaced the usual dialog on the '67 borders, apartheid and occupation.
"The reality you are experiencing today in your home country, already exists in specific areas by us, too", says Carla, an intern in one of the European lobbies. "The policy of two states for two peoples is still the leading policy of the Union, but the internal Islamic problem is starting to cause young people to speak and to see the problem in a different way."
Right before MK Nissim Ze'ev (Shas), who was also present at the event, raised the painful issue of the Jewish refugees who escaped from Arab countries and left behind all their possessions, Gershon Mesika related in his speech the story of his two older brothers who perished in the Holocaust in Libya: "I, Gershon the son of Yosef and Gita Mesika, whose two older brothers Amos and Ya'akov were murdered by the cursed Nazis in the Jado concentration camp in Libya, stand before you and declare to the whole world that the Jewish People have a state of their own, and not only are we not selling it out, but we are buying it again and again with our blood and are paying for the right of our state to exist, to protect it and to settle it."
Ze'ev spoke about the Arab Spring and the chaos prevailing in the Middle East, in the context of the Union's position on the Israeli-Arab conflict. "The European Union needs to take their blindfolds off and look at the realities before them", he told the MKs. "There is still education towards violence and terror. The leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniya, announced that his organization has no intention of honoring any agreements signed with Abu Mazen. Therefore, the European Union should understand the complicated situation and not make the general-regional solution dependent on the solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
Ze'ev emphasized that the Arabs in Israel today enjoy security and possibilities for development that don't exist for them in other places, and certainly nowhere else in the Middle East. "We can't ignore the fact that in Arab countries there is poverty, corruption and violence by the authorities. This is the main obstacle to the peace process, not the building of a balcony in Ramat Shlomo. The European Union must recognize the rights of the Jews to the Land of Israel as the children of father Avraham who was in Israel long before Islam.
"Just as it cannot be that an outside country decides that a specific region in Europe does not belong to Europe, it also cannot be that outside countries will decide that Judea and Samaria and parts of Jerusalem are outside the homeland of the Jews. They must encourage the Jews and the Palestinians to come to an agreement that will satisfy all the children who live in the region. Two million Arabs live safely within Israel. There is no reason that Jews cannot live on their land, in the cities mentioned in the Torah - Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Hebron."
Sheikh A'ataf Krinoway of Rahat, spoke of the ability of the Beduins to serve as a bridge between Israel, Egypt and Jordan. "Peace is made with people, not with politicians. We ourselves need to work for the sake of peace", said Krinway.
It's a shame that most of the Europeans will never see this article, and that those who do will likely ignore it. The same goes for the US State Department. But those who advocate for a 'Palestinian' state are consistently more interested in destroying the Jewish state.
LATMA's tribal update featuring Dorit Beinish in retirement and MK Aziz Abdul Messit in co-existence
Here's LATMA's tribal update featuring former Supreme Court Chief Justice Dorit Beinish in retirement and MK Aziz Abdul Messit (Messit means incites) in co-existence.
Video: How Israel supports US security (from the US Embassy in Tel Aviv)
Kibbutz Sasa saves the lives of countless American troops with its advanced armor technologies. Ambassador Shapiro saw this first hand on January 30 when he visited the Plasan factory in northern Galilee. The Ambassador saw the full range of products, from reactive armor, to purpose built vehicles, to body armor. Plasan has delivered more than 8,000 armor kits to U.S units on active duty.
Israel is a world leader in armor technology and the Ambassador expressed his gratitude for the dedication to quality expressed at Plasan.
Nestled in the forested hills of northern Israel, Kibbutz Sasa does more than just forge armor, they also forge connections. Their unique theater program called Bereshit l'Shalom brings young people together from all sectors of Israeli society. Jews, Arabs, Druze, or Circassian, all use the art of theater and dance to express the importance of working across society's boundaries to interact with others based on similarities, not differences. This successful program has performed throughout Israel and Europe.
Rav Elyashiv speaks out against all 'Haredi frameworks' in the army and academia
I have a childhood friend who was one of the founders of the original Nachal Charedi - the first Charedi (ultra-Orthodox) only unit in the IDF. My friend once told me that when they started the unit, they spent a long time seeking the consents of prominent rabbis, and finally reached the conclusion that while the rabbis would not openly consent, they would not openly oppose the unit either, and therefore they decided to go ahead with it.
Over the last several years, the unit has expanded into two new units. There have also been several frameworks opened in which Charedim could study trades and professions. These were opened because of the realization that this was the best way - from the general society's standpoint - to encourage Charedim to become economically self-sufficient.
The events of the last couple of months have taken their toll, and three weeks ago, Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv issued a letter in which he came out against (but did not outright ban) all 'Charedi only' frameworks in the army and outside of the yeshivot. I was not aware of the letter, which was reported on in some of the secular media (see the link above from which I will quote momentarily) and which appeared only in Yated Neeman, a Charedi newspaper. Here's some of what Rav Elyashiv said.
In a letter to haredi newspaper Yated Ne’eman, Elyashiv said that “the secret and foundation of the Torah world and the community of those who fear God and live a life of Torah and holy purity is through complete isolation from all aspects of the secular world, and from those who have thrown off the yoke of Torah.
“We know how much the [spiritual] leaders of Israel struggled against this phenomenon,” he continued.
“They warned that the purpose of these programs is to change the spirit and essence of the haredi world and to subvert it with all different types of other influences, nationalist and enlightenment ones, which are not the values of our fathers.”
He called on the haredi community to follow only in the footsteps of ancient tradition and not be enticed by the blandishments of the secular world.
“Haredi educational institutions must be under the control of the rabbis, must be directed by them and must exclude all paths that lead to national service, secular studies or the army, even if they have a special programs for haredim. Such a programs put haredim under the control and culture of secular Jews.”
Last week, perhaps in response to Rav Elyashiv's letter, the IDF backtracked on women singing. But on Monday, in my neighborhood, the letter is posted on wall posters (known as pashkevilim) in the streets. Since most Charedim do not read newspapers (except for some who might read the Tuesday Yated which is handed out free to try to induce people to subscribe), the pashkevilim are likely to have a far greater circulation within the community than any newspaper. The fact that the letter has been plastered through the streets now shows that the issue is not dying. I cannot tell you with certainty that the order to post it in the streets came from Rav Elyashiv himself (frequently, these letters get hung by zealous followers), but I cannot tell you that it did not.
There are some commenters whose response will be "the Charedim have to change." They won't. If a rabbi of Rav Elyashiv's stature tells them to go to jail rather than serve in the army, there won't be enough jail cells to hold them all. And without any kind of vocational training (much of which, by the way, comes from the army) it will be nearly impossible for those who leave the yeshivot to find any kind of legal (and by that I mean above-the-board, tax paying) work. We're edging toward that abyss. Will we step back?
If you rub it in their face, they just won't enlist
The rabbi who heads up a highly successful program for recruiting Haredim into the IDF has announced that he is resigning a day after the IDF Chief of Staff said that male soldiers could not be excused on religious grounds from listening to female soldiers sing.
In a letter he sent to IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and to the soldiers in the program, Rabbi Ravad said the reason for his decision to leave the project is the integration of women in it.
Soldiers who received the letter said that Rabbi Ravad made a series of arguments against those who are trying to achieve the cancellation of the Shachar program by integrating women instructors into it despite it being supposed to be an all-male project.
“When the Shachar project was established I was a full partner in writing its operating rules,” Rabbi Ravad wrote in the letter. “What guided me in doing so was to allow hareidim who came into the army to continue to maintain their hareidi-religious lifestyle. In recent months it was decided to open the rules for review and reconsideration. I was a part of these discussions and insisted that what had been agreed on should be kept. In the latest draft of the new rules, however, I saw that clauses that were designed to preserve the piety of the soldiers had been omitted, and saw that a section that permits activity that might harm piety was added.”
He added, “True, these things are not yet finalized and I was assured they would be discussed again, but under the current situation I do not see myself as part of the program as a rabbi and consultant.”
“I hope that those responsible will make decisions that will shape the program so that it allows a hareidi person to join Shachar,” concluded Rabbi Ravad.
The Shachar program is a joint initiative of the IDF and JDC-Israel. It offers technological training and service in the Air Force and Technology Branch.
The program saw a sharp rise in popularity in the three years since it began: from 40 hareidi conscripts in 2007, to 200 the next year, to 400 in 2009.
If in fact there are going to be women in the program, you can bet that there will be 0 Haredi conscripts in 2012.
Hareidi soldiers of the Netzach Yehuda Brigade were ordered to participate in a lecture on safety precautions with IDF servicewomen, and were also ordered to clean the ladies’ room, despite regulations for strictly segregated conditions. The officer in charge responded to the complaint of the Hareidi soldiers “I will not tolerate discrimination against women.”
Within minutes we were told that the IDF would 'renew' the regulations relating to this unit.
The IDF spokesman responded to the orders given to Haredi soldiers to participate in a lecture with servicewomen and to clean the ladies’ room. “In light of the soldiers' complaint, the issue has been investigated, and the regulations vis-à-vis hareidi soldiers have been refreshed and reiterated. The mistake will not be repeated in the future.”
The army and the government have to decide which is more important to them - having Haredim serve in the army and then being able to legally work, or trying to make the Haredim who do serve be like everyone else. Until the army set up the Nachal Haredi several years ago, almost no Haredim went to the army. Since it was set up, many more Haredim went to the army than previously, because they were guaranteed service conditions that allowed them to maintain their lifestyle: Male-only units (there wasn't a woman on the IDF base when the unit first opened), more time for prayers than other Orthodox soldiers are given, and ultra-Orthodox (Mehadrin) Kashruth certification for the food (I have friends who - before there was Nachal Haredi - used to bring all their own food when they did their reserve duty). If the IDF now retracts those conditions, not only will people stop signing up, but in the event that the conditions are ever re-instituted, it will be much harder to get them to trust the IDF and sign up again.
'In-you-face' behavior usually begets more of the same.
If all the Haredim decide not to sign up for the army (and the rabbis have silently acquiesced to Nachal Haredi as described above - even though none of them will come out and say it, until now none of them has actively opposed it), there aren't enough jail cells in this country to hold all the draft dodgers.
To advocate for a 'Palestinian state' is to advocate for genocide
Daniel Greenfield comes right out and says it. And I agree with him completely. Advocating for a 'Palestinian state' is advocating for genocide. There won't be a 'two-state solution.' There will either be a Jewish state or (God forbid) the genocide of the Jewish people living in Israel. It's time we woke up to that reality and stopped tiptoeing around it (Hat Tip: Jeff Jacoby via Twitter).
Deliberately targeting children has only one tactical purpose. The extermination of an entire people. Had the Muslim world really wanted a Palestinian state, they could have created one by accepting the UN partition plan, or at any time between 1948 and 1967 when Gaza and the West Bank were in their hands. Had the Israeli Arabs who dub themselves 'Palestinians' wanted a state of their own, they could have had one between 1992 and 2011. They don't want a state. What they want is a state of war.
Genocide cannot be resolved by territorial compromise. People who approve of slitting a baby's throat and stabbing a 4 year old in the heart are not out for an extra kilometer here or there. The Nazis were not going to be appeased with the Anschluss or the Sudetenland-- and Muslims are not going to be pacified with partial control over East Jerusalem. It isn't East Jerusalem that they want. Or even all of Jerusalem. Or even all of Israel. What they really want is a reason to keep killing.
A man who murders a child might be insane, but millions of people who act and think that way are not insane. They have developed a moral code that says their victims are subhuman, while they are the 'True People'. That code allows them to act out their worst impulses in the name of an ideal. Whether that ideal is the Third Reich or the Caliphate doesn't matter at all. The ideal is there to justify the atrocity.
Men make laws to rise above the beast inside them. But sometimes it is the beast who begins making the laws. The Koran is the law of the beast. The law that says you may kill a man who is different than you and take his wife for your own. That he is less than you because he is different than you. The law of the beast does not seek the peace of equals, but the peace of predators and prey. The right of the beast to prey on you because you are not of his kind.
Liberals may plant Coexist stickers on their bumpers decorated with a string of religious symbols beginning with the Islamic star and crescent, that renders it first among equals-- but it is all in vain. On his deathbed, Mohammed proclaimed that, "two religions cannot coexist in the Arabian Peninsula". You may cry peace, peace-- but there will be no peace. For the Prophet of Islam has commanded it. There can be no peace or coexistence. Only servitude, genocide or resistance. If you refuse to serve, then you will be massacred or driven out. That sentence is all you need to know to understand the Islamic war of extermination against Israel.
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
