I have noticed that the retired writer for Bamachane, Mr Lapid, comes back to life every time the issue of the Draft law is raised. Unfortunately, that same Lapid, in full coordination with Lieberman, in the last week of the government brought down the draft law that they had supported. It was the same exact law, as it had been proposed by the Ministry of Defense. He did this only to get votes and make a living off the hatred and division he sows. It would be good for Mr Lapid to tell his voters the truth - the Draft Law does not interest him one iota, and I am not even sure he is at all familiar with it.

  -- MK Dudu Amsalem (Likud)

Recently I have really been frustrated and disappointed in the Likud, specifically the part of it that blindly follows Netanyahu, and I am even more upset that they repeatedly make me, even if just in my mind, defend Lapid.

The Likud, with the most decisive and right wing coalition probably ever, leading a stable and solid government for more than four years, which as an accomplishment on its own based on Israeli history, needed to rely on Opposition votes to pass a law that the people who most needed it and wanted it within the coalition refused to support for superficial reasons. And they then blame the Opposition for not supporting a government initiative which basically then brought down the government, precisely what the Opposition always strives to do, as if it was their responsibility to prop up the government and help it out with its own coalition problems.

blah

I can see it now - food trucks selling cholent parked on the streets near parks in Haredi neighborhoods, near business centers and outside the stadiums hosting sporting events. Maybe they'll pour the cholent into those paper cones, or maybe into tacos, or the classic paper bowl.

A car company wanted to advertise an event in the Hamodia paper. The event was going to be some sort of sale on Thursday night, and an added selling point was free cholent for attendees of the event. The ad bore the image of a car, and next to it was a pot brimming with hot steaming cholent. The image actually looks more like an ad for cholent than for cars.


I would point out, to paraphrase the words of the hadran, they run and we run - they run to nonsense and we run for Torah, by mentioning that while the secular and non-Jewish world advertise their cars for sale with images of scantily clad pretty women, we advertise our cars for sale with pots of cholent! מי כעמך ישראל!!

The Hamodia censors filtered out this ad and rejected it, explaining that the phenomenon of Thursday night cholent is too "streety" - rechovit in Hebrew.
source: Kikar

1. Mazel tov to Yuval Freilich from Neve Daniel for being the first Israeli ever to win the European championship in Fencing (TOI).

I was not even aware there was fencing in Israel.

I know nothing about Freilich, but with Neve Daniel being a religious yishuv, I think it is safe to say that Freilich is religious.

2.  Mazel tov to Mickey Chait from Bnei Braq for winning the Capoeira Championships Tournament of the Mediterranean. Chait and his students who competed captured a number of trophies in the competition, and his sister Miriam won fourth place in the women's competition.

Chait says a lot of the tournaments and events are held on Shabbos, limiting his ability to participate in only a small number of events, but in the last event they had so many shomer shabbos competitors in a variety of events that the administrators changed the schedule to hold the finals on Motzei Shabbos.

Chait is planning to compete next in the World Championships to be held in two months.
source: Behadrei

I am happy they can follow their dreams and use their talents and is able to keep Shabbos the way they want to. Participating in sports has always been particularly difficult for shomrei shabbos.

The grandson of the Tzanzer Rebbe is getting married. Mazel tov!

Dovid Halberstam got married last night to the daughter of Rav Moshe (her first name was not mentioned in the announcements I saw)  Halperin from London.

The minhag in Tzanz is that the chosson and kalla, each separately, is brought to the wedding, and escorted by the chassidim, in a horse-drawn carriage, with elders of the chassidus riding the horses.

Being form London, the kalla requested that this minhag be cancelled. She has no interest in being brought in via a horse-drawn carriage. I imagine she feels too refined for such a spectacle.

Despite it being explained to her, and explained that the carriage and horses have already been ordered and that all the Tzanz family weddings follow this minhag, she persisted in her refusal to be brought out as if she is living in the 18th century.

Her request was considered and agreed to, and the horses and carriage order were canceled. I guess it is good that amazon takes returns with so little hassle!
source: Behadrei

I have been to weddings on kibbutzim and in moshavim where at times horses or tractors are used during the wedding (I remember one where the horse was brought into the hall during the dancing, and it slipped on the slick dance floor - that was a big problem. they had a hard time getting it up and was a very difficult site to witness), and the crowd generally enjoys the spectacle.

Turning that into a holy minhag just because a hundred or two hundred or five hundred years ago there were no cars and horses and carriages was the common mode of transportation is just silly. I guess that is similar to wearing a coat under the chuppa because back in Poland or Russia it was freezing cold at outdoor weddings, or like some other customs that have developed over the years. This "minhag" has been dropped by everyone by now, including all hassidic sects, except for Tzanz, and even in Tzanz it is only limited to the family of the rebbe. Not much of a real minhag. I guess now even with the Tzanz family it will peter out after this kalla broke the tradition. I have no problem since this isnt a real minhag anyway. You want a horse at your wedding, get yourself a horse. It doesnt have to be considered an ancient holy minhag.

very sad this is how it is turning out..

it is too bad that he ran out of time and Steve Linde had to cut him off and end it.

there have been a lot of parodies of the fabulous song Shevet Achim VaAchayot, but this one is special, as it was made for the wedding this week of Ayelet Dickstein and Avigdor Gavish. Gavish and Dickstein both lost their families in [separate] terror attacks about 16 years ago. May they have a happy and peaceful life together.

Kikar is reporting that the Ministry of Communications has announced that it is planning to shut down all the "news lines". These are phone lines that people can call to and hear all the latest news, breaking news, updates and whatnot. These are very popular in the Haredi community among people who do not have internet access and don't listen much, if at all, to the radio. You call a number and then hear the news items read out over the phone. There are many different news lines.

According to the Ministry of Communications, these lines are taken advantage of and people stay on the lines for a long time and the phone companies have complained about losing a lot of money because of them.

On the other hand, for many people this is the one way, or the easiest way and most kosher way, for them to get the news. Cutting them off means they won't be updated. Community leaders are worried that cutting off such a service will force a lot of people to get access to the Internet in order to stay informed, and this is something they really don't want to do, but might be "forced" into it.

While I personally think people need to get with the times and not complain that an offered service is anti-haredi (or anti-whatever) just because it is offered only using the latest technologies and not compatible with non-kosher phones or lifestyles that choose to not make it available, in this case I see no reason for these news lines to be canceled. If the phone companies are really complaining about losing money on these lines, they should charge more. Why shut them down? Just like I pay for Internet access, if someone else wants to get his news read to him over the phone let him pay for that whatever the cost is. The phone company does not need to lose money to provide the service, but I think it is reasonable to charge a fair price for such a service.

I also think that the community leaders who run these lines are thinking very poorly of their community. If someone is ideologically opposed to Internet use, will he really start using it just because these phone lines shut down? I think it is far more likely that some alternate service will be created in some way, but it seems pretty weak to me to assume everyone will suddenly cave and get Internet just because the news line is shut down.

‘Hundreds of Jews want to make aliyah and live in Trump Heights’

  -- Israel Hayom

funny. just because of the name, without knowing anything else about it and how remotely far way it is fro everything else in the country? I am sure it can become a wonderful place to live, like many other places, including other towns in the Golan Heights, but just because of the name??? best of luck to them!

Mayor of Tiberias Ron Kubi announcing that he is founding a new party and running for Knesset fascinates me.

Kubi has not been successful getting together a coalition in Tiberias and has not been able to pass the budget there. He is under threat from the Ministry of Interior for removal from office. He has name recognition, but no real accomplishments other than angering the Haredi politicians. It does seem though that when running for office name recognition is the most important factor, so at least he has that.

When the idea was first publicized a few days ago, the Haredi press celebrated saying this is directly against Lieberman and will take away votes from him. That made me wonder how they forgot that he has fought them and attacked them far worse than Lieberman ever did and if he makes it into the Knesset, which won't necessarily happen, he is sure to continue along that line. They dont have much about this to be happy about.

Others thought it is just to help Netanyahu. They seem to be friends, and in the past Kubi has spoken out in support of Netanyahu. And Netanyahu wants to hurt Lieberman's chances of getting in. So maybe. But still, even if it all pans out with Kubi hurting Lieberman and getting into the Knesset, Netanyahu's other coalition partners won't be happy about it.

Then yesterday Kubi himself attacked the Haredi politicians when explaining why he is running. He also said he will demand the Ministry of Interior and take it away from Deri. Again,  another reason this does not make sense and why the Haredi parties being happy about this does not make sense. In Tiberias the Haredi parties have refused to cooperate with anything Kubi has tried to do - in the Knesset they will play nicer together?

He might just be running as the next natural step after some municipal success (in winning the elections with some added fame). He might be running to save himself from the problems of Tiberias and the risk of getting removed from office. He might be running to help Bibi, to hurt Lieberman and/or to fight the Haredi parties, or any combination of reasons, these or others. He definitely makes the upcoming elections more interesting.

I am not sure it is accurate to call Avigdor Lieberman anti-haredi, as he has been called recently. He has worked very well in the past with the Haredi parties and has never really pushed any anti-haredi agenda. The closest he got is this last government when he insisted on the draft law being passed as it had been formulated by the Defense Ministry without changes. Does that one item make him anti-haredi? He never insisted on forcing secular studies in Haredi schools, never called for lowering budgets to yeshivas or cutting child allowances or anything like that. But, since he is being called anti-haredi, between Lieberman, Lapid and Kubi, assuming they and their parties all get into the Knesset, the Haredi parties will have their most challenging, and probably difficult, Knesset ever. I wonder if they will have ever had more [perceived] enemies in the Knesset than in this coming one.

Personally I think Lieberman and Kubi will both hurt the Likud more than anything will hurt Yisrael Beyteynu in these elections, but that remains to be seen. The best scenario, for Netanyahu, I think, is Kubi hurting Lieberman and taking away enough votes that Lieberman does not get in, but also Kubi himself not passing the minimum threshold. Then Netanyahu has knocked out Lieberman and owes nothing to another potential coalition partner who would have friction with the others.

interesting layout of the issues involved..