Can you imagine that? Somehow Bet Shemesh was important enough that it became a factor in national government building, in coalition negotiations. Bet Shemesh was the only city whose future was a factor in coalition negotiations.
Here is the signed commitment:
At the end of the day, such neighborhood's will be populated by whomever buys there. If the non-haredi communities cannot convince their friends and relatives to move to Bet Shemesh, or their kids to stay in Bet Shemesh, whether it is due to financial reasons, employment reasons, or social and cultural reasons, no agreement will make a difference. At the end of the day kablanim will sell to whomever is willing to buy. So, as important as this agreement may be, the non-haredi elements in the city still have a lot of work to do..
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The haredi leadership can just keep non-haredim out of Beit Shemesh by letting their radical 'buddies' go out and spit on 8-year old girls, or attack teenagers walking on the way to bnei akiva, or non-Orthodox women hanging signs. Once this gets publicized, non-haredim will not want to live here (who wants to live with such nut-jobs???) and the haredim can say the 'free market' favored haredim coming. THEY WORK TOGETHER (i.e. the haredi leadership and the kitzonim) which is why the not ONE haredi rabbi (Dov Lipman, excuse me, is not haredi) and NOT our mayor walked the 8-year old girls to school in 2011.
ReplyDeleteCould you imagine people spitting on 8-year old Jewish girls in the USA (on their way to school !!) where the Italian or Irish or African-American mayor can't be BOTHERED to personally walk the girls to school ???!!? Abutbul might not have agreed with the tactics (wink wink !!) but there is no arguing with the ACHIEVEMENTS of keeping non-haredim away. They can now enjoy a Beit Shemesh that is not 'too modern.'
Haredi leadership condemnation of the radicals is lip-service/crocodile tears/ half-hearted -- look at their rallies against the draft and the cuts in their budgets -- when they REALLY want to come out against something, they know how.
You seem to imply that the Charedei leadership somehow orchestrated the spitting attack, etc. That is a lie.
DeleteYou blame the publicizing of these attacks for keeping non Chareidim away. It was one non Charedei individual who brought the world's attention to these sad episodes. If he hadn't brought the New York Times in and if others hadn't followed his example and sought publicity, the whole incident would have been dealt with professionally and quietly by the police, and the troublemakers would have gained nothing. Any thanks for actively discouraging non-Charedim to feel uncomfortable here goes to those gave the event too much attention.
You didn't answer my question -- WHERE was the MAYOR when girls were getting spit on? And where were the 'rabbonim' ??? NOWHERE to be found. Not ONE Haredi rav could be bothered to walk the girls to school.
DeleteAs far as the troublemakers gaining nothing, our mayor applied GREAT pressure on the school (parents, leadership) to give up the building -- having the 'troublemakers gain nothing' (as you write) was NOT at ALL on the Mayor's agenda.
I never said the charedi leadership asked the radicals to go out and spit on girls (and harass the girls - i.e. calling them whores day after day for weeks) -- I said the REFUSAL of the haredi leadership to lift a finger for these girls, combined with their OPEN agenda of turning Beit Shemesh haredi, speaks for itself. Every time there is another incident (e.g. attacking teenage girls, attacking women, etc) it advances this agenda.
"At the end of the day kablanim will sell to whomever is willing to buy."
ReplyDeleteAnd the kablanim are not stupid. They sell a goodly percentage of each building "on paper" so they KNOW exactly what the majority demographic will be before they even begin building. And if the majority demographic is charedi, they can be sure to add the few things that charedim want in their apartments (a sukkah porch, smaller/more bedrooms, nearby shuls/mikvaot, etc).