The people in SHAS are upset about a satirical piece that was in the weekend edition of Haaretz. I did not see it, nor could I find it on the Haaretz website when I looked, but it seems to have been scoffing at the Prime Ministers consultation last week with Rav Ovadia Yosef regarding a possible Iran strike.
When it happened it was big news. Everybody was upset that it seemed as if Rav Ovadia is really the person deciding and signing off on such a crucial decision affecting the fate and future of Israel. Personally I just figured it was politics as usual. Netanyahu needs, or at least wants, support from SHAS, and the door to SHAS support swings through Rav Ovadia. That's just the way it is, and this was nothing new.
Anyways, so it seems that Haaretz scoffed at the consultation and specifically at Rav Ovadia. It seems that the scoffing by Haaretz must have been harsher than the scoffing in the general press and public, as it really got Shas's goat and knocked them off kilter a bit. SHAS people have been speaking out against Haaretz because of it.
I am not going to defend Haaretz, as while I read Haaretz fairly regularly I usually dont like their opinion. I am more in tune with the SHAS criticism in this instance than I am with Haaretz.
However, after Rav Ovadia last week called about 80% of the country wicked and evil, when he said that anyone who sends their children to the public schools rather than to Talmud Torahs is evil, along with the teachers who teach there, along with the students eventually becoming that as well, I am not sure why they think they can talk nasty about most of the country but nobody can talk nasty about them.
As we used to say when we were kids, don't dish it out if you can't take it...
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Even if ROY hadn't said a word, az mah? we like to think of ourselves as a democratic country, which features a free press. ROY is not only a rabbi, he is also the head of a political party. As such it is perfectly legit to attack his positions and even to mock him, just like any politician can be subject to satire.
ReplyDeleteWould this be OK in a halachic state? Probably not; but we aren't living in one and it is a bit naive of Shasniks (or maybe not naive but part of a game) to be yelling "OMG how can they talk about ROY that way"?
that is true. People can always say whatever they want. however, in anothe risnatnce I might understand SHAS more when complaining that their respectable leader is being unfairly scoffed at. This time, just a few days after he himself called most of the country resha'im, SHAS gets less of my sympathy...
ReplyDelete"I am not sure why they think they can talk nasty about most of the country but nobody can talk nasty about them."
ReplyDeleteTouche', Rafi.