I have noticed, and been part of, something that I now realize to be very troubling. We are sometimes afflicted by having pictures in the media of fellow Jews standing up for what they call to be in the name of the Jewish people to defend the rights of other people, specifically Arabs, generally the Palestinians. When these people are part of the group of Neturei Karta, we speak up and reject them and complain how they can make such a chillul hashem and revile them, etc. Basically we talk for days about how their actions are so heinous in befriending murderers and we pass emails around with the pictures to show how bad they are and how low they have sunk.
However, there are other times that we read a similar story in the press and see similar pictures, but, while we might not agree with them, we generally ignore the story, turn to the comics in the newspaper and move on. No email protest. The message boards on the forums around the internet are quiet on the story. Nobody seems to care. In fact some, while still not neessarily agreeing with them, might actually find it honorable that these people are standing up for an opressed people.
What am I talking about? YNET, Ha'Aretz and Jport all carried the story of a "mass" (between 500 to 2000 people showed up depending which reports you read) protest by ultra-left wing protest groups in Tel Aviv calling for Israel to return lands stolen from Arabs and calling for rights for the Palestinians and that Israel should talk to Hamas, etc..
Why do we reject completely with absolute disgust the Neturei Karta but not the ultra-left wing, who are acting in a similar fashion? Is it just because the Neturei Karta wear the garb of religious Jews and therefore it touches closer to home? They profess to speak in the name of Torah Judaism, so we religious Jews are made to feel uncomfortable and therefore must vociferously reject them? When the protesters are not religious it is easier to ignore because they do not look like us and we can disassociate from them with a clear conscience?
The actions are the same, the hillul Hashem is the same, the disgust should be the same and we should reject both equally.
Hmmmm...very good point. You're right, both groups are preaching basically the same disgusting message- never thought about it that way before.
ReplyDeleteI have thought about it some more - there are some slight differences. NK calls for the State fo Israel to stop existing, as we have no right to be here. The ultra-leftists call for us to give almost all our land to the Palestinians, though I do not think they are calling for the demise of the State..yet
ReplyDeleterafi,
ReplyDeletethis blog is silly.
the entire tanach is about going to israel, living in israel, being expelled, moving back, being expelled again, and hopefully moving back again.
its appaling when the NK do it because they should know better. also, they get press coverage which makes the rest of us look bad. like when they start throwing stones at the israeli day parade.
they are few but the press loves 'em.
when the irreligious do it, we don't care because they aren't religious. they don't represent judaism. they represent an opinion. an idea. they don't represent GOD, or holiness, or righteousness.
the NK do.
I disagree. The NK do not represent all that. They claim to though, and that is the problem.. (also I think they make us u=ncomfortable because they dress similar to us.. they look religious and claim to speak for all religious Jews)
ReplyDeleteit's because the left wing acts with educated compassion for a genuine human rights issue, granted- they are swayed way too far to the left and have abandoned consideration of the Jewish case for Israel and the necessity of military action. Whereas, NK and Satmar act out of ignorant disdain of secularism. Their religious argument is pretextual- their sect is a little bit of a sham, like all chasidus, it is a construct which is not all that traditional is Judaism. There is no reason to have any respect for NK- it's members hate Jews that don't conform to their invented form of orthodoxy. When the right wing didn't get it's way at the Zionist congress in Europe, they wrote the whole thing off. History has less respect for views that are reactionary. The left wing is also reactionary, but to a lesser extent and with a more reasonable message. Especially after the killing of innocents on a beach today, even the more zionist among us must say Israle has made many missteps, and so the left wing has reasonable grounds on which to ground its views. They're both wrong!
ReplyDeleteanon - I understand your point. maybe..
ReplyDelete