American ladies rock
Below is a notice I just received from the US Embassy in Tel Aviv about three concerts by a women's group called Antigone Rising. The concerts will be held in Jerusalem, Zoran (in the Jerusalem - Tel Aviv corridor) and Tel Aviv.
Antigone RisingI'd be more impressed if there were concerts in Judea and Samaria, but these ladies are being brought here to
promote an agenda.
But as long as no one is forced to attend, I doubt you'll see any protests outside, and the embassy may have to scramble for publicity.
Labels: Hillary Clinton, Israeli democracy, US embassy in Tel Aviv, women and song
Why the IDF and the political echelon want women to sing
Ohad Shaked (pronounced Sha-keid) is spot-on about
what's really behind the women singing in the army.
For years we’ve seen incitement against the haredim for not bearing the burden, not joining the army and not working. They were said to offer no contribution and harm society, by “only sucking the blood of the secular.” Such arguments usually do not offer facts. There is no mention, for example, that some 61% of haredim work, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.
Yet if a religious student at a Kolel is considered a student who does not work, why is a university researcher considered a worker?
In the mid-1990s, and mostly after the year 2000, the army started to take in haredim, yet encountered a serious problem – they are different than the rest of society. Leading rabbis and top military officials looked into the required needs and established the “Nahal Haredi” platoon, on the basis of the haredi distinction.
The haredim, as opposed to other soldiers, do not wish to interact with female soldiers, so there are no females. The food served in the platoon is strictly kosher (mehadrin,) and soldiers are given time for prayer and Torah studies. The platoon achieved stunning success, and within a year became a regiment. Meanwhile, we saw the launch of the Shahar project to integrate haredim into the Air Force. These soldiers were to face no women, receive kosher food, and have time dedicated for religion.
...
However, the army, just like society as a whole, does not really wish to integrate the haredim. The military wishes to create a melting pot, thereby making the haredim like them. In other words, this is about secularization. This is what the secular and Zionist society did to Sephardic Jews (“the Mizrahi Shoah in Israel”), and this is what it’s now trying to do to us, the haredim. But not only to us.
The army was pained to see that 70% of cadets in the last officers’ course are national religious soldiers and settlers. Suddenly, the army realized that the military’s leadership is shifting into the hands of the religious, God forbid. The result was that our political and military leadership started to discuss the army’s radicalization in an orchestrated manner.
Suddenly they discovered that some cadets in officers’ course do not wish to hear female singling in official ceremonies because they are banned from doing so by Jewish Law. This is where it starts and ends. However, army officials immediately said this was about “exclusion of women” and “radicalization.”
It’s obvious that with more religious soldiers in officers’ course, more cadets seek to strictly adhere to Jewish law, and this has nothing to do with radicalization. In the past, they simply didn’t make it to officers’ course.
Read the whole thing.
If any of you is new on this blog and thinks that this post is an exaggeration, please allow me to send you to two important posts on this same topic in the past:
Here and
here.
Labels: Haredim, IDF, women and song
Wine, women and song, Saudi style
With just 0.4% of the documents disclosed (about 1,000 out of 250,000), the revelations from Wikileaks just keep on coming. In one document released on Wednesday, it was disclosed that when it comes to wine, women and song, the Saudi Royal Family's attitude is that it's
for me and not for thee.
According to the leaked dispatches, officials from the Jeddah consulate detailed an underground Halloween party in which alcohol and prostitutes were readily available. The party, attended by over 150 Saudi men and women mostly in their twenties and thirties, was organized by a member of the Saudi royalty, a wealthy prince from the Al Thunayan family.
The party was held in a heavily secured villa and some of the funding was contributed by a US energy drink. The diplomat recommended the prince's identity remain secret.
The dispatch was signed off by Martin Quinn, the consul in Jeddah.
"Alcohol, though strictly prohibited by Saudi law and custom, was plentiful at the party's well-stocked bar," explained the cable. "The hired Filipino bartenders served a cocktail punch using sadiqi, a locally-made "moonshine". It was also learned through word-of-mouth that a number of the guests were in fact 'working girls', not uncommon for such parties."
American party attendees added that, "Though not witnessed directly at this event, cocaine and hashish use is common in these social circles."
Secret, underground parties protected by Saudi royalty and accessible only to the wealthy, were described as "thriving and throbbing" in the dispatch.
"The scene resembled a nightclub anywhere outside the Kingdom: plentiful alcohol, young couples dancing, a DJ at the turntables, and everyone in costume," the dispatch continued.
"Over the past few years, the increased conservatism of Saudi Arabia’s external society has pushed the nightlife and party scene in Jeddah even further underground," a prominent Saudi was quoted in the dispatch as saying.
Heh.
The cartoon at the top is a Saudi cartoon about the Wikileaks document dump.
Labels: for me and not for thee, Saudi Royal Family, Wikileaks, wine, women and song
