The secular Israeli who avoids the draft should get much greater sanctions because the State invested in them much more money over th eyears. If a secular Israeli evades the draft he should pay morefor the "candies" he received his entire life. The sorry Haredi evader didn't get anything...

Minister Meir Porush has petitioned the United Nations to send humanitarian aid to the hostages being held in Gaza.

There is an issue right now with the defense systems because of the war. Schedules are messed up, they need soldiers, they need soldiers to be available, they need to rotate soldiers, they need to be prepared for possibilities in the north and maybe elsewhere. This war messed up the normal routine of the IDF, just like it did for everything else in the country, and that includes draft dates and training schedules.

The Porushes were always headstrong politicians, did what they felt was right, didn't care what anybody else thought of them, and they were all bulldozers in finding their projects and pushing them through no matter who opposed them. And that has been part of their charm and level of popularity.

Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Jewish Heritage Meir Porush has been running around form country to country preparing for ways to ease the travel issues of the pilgrims to Uman for the upcoming Rosh Hashana holiday. He has been running to all the countries bordering Ukraine via which pilgrims might travel to discuss ways to ease and lighten the possible complications along the way.

In a democratic country we cannot agree with someone saying "I will not go to the army because I do not like the way the government functions", this is crossing a red line

Whoa. The news is reporting that Minister Meir Porush just resigned from his position as minister responsible for the Meron celebration on Lag B'Omer.

Had I not alreadys elected a picture of the day, this would have gotten it..

The Reform Rabbi once again used his immunity and like the last of the criminals is trampling the regulations of the Kotel Rav, via desecration the holiness of the site and desecrating a sefer torah. Soon this will come to an end.

According to the Jerusalem Post report, Meir Porush has requested, as part of coalition negotiations, sole responsibility for Meron and the Lag B'Omer events, along with responsibility for implementing whatever necessary as per the decisions of the investigative committee into the Meron tragedy in which 45 people were killed in a stampede.

the pilgrimage to Uman this year for Rosh Hashana was supposed to be a logistical nightmare. Because of the war there are no flights in and out of Ukraine (besides for the air force jets of Russia and Ukraine). Pilgrims trying to go to Uman would have to fly in from wherever to a neighboring or nearby country, possibly take another domestic flight closer to the border with Ukraine, and then travel by land (buses, shuttles and cars) for 13+ hours to get to Uman.

I dont get it.

Deputy Minister Meir Porush just complained and warned about Meron on Lag B'Omer.

The police are now investigating a large hassidishe wedding (the granddaughter of the Seret Vishnitze Rebbe) that just took place the other day in Haifa. They organized it against the guidelines of the Ministry of Health and many were not wearing masks or keeping distance. The police had warned them in advance and insisted the wedding be canceled or the format changed, but the warnings were ignored.

There is a bit of a tizzy with UTJ and the revelation that they are not quite as right wing as they sold themselves during the recent elections.

MK Meir Porush (UTJ) has spoken up somewhat in defense of Gafni explaining that his opinions are based on the opinions of Rav Shach. He qualified it by giving some soft criticism saying nobody has the right to give up Eretz Ysisrael, he described himself as much more right wing than Gafni and other factions, and explained that UTJ is made up of a technical bloc of a few parties, so just because that is the opinion of Gafni does not make it the position held by them all (yet the coalition agreement they signed on has a clause included by Gafni - the other factions did not debate it and insist it be taken out).

Gafni shot back at Porush and blah blah blah.

That does not matter. Gafni is entitled to his opinion, and UTJ is entitled to its opinion. They have every right to take the position on annexation that it cannot be done alone, and that is fine.

The only issue is that they sold themselves as a right wing party protecting Eretz Yisrael, but very quickly changed their tune after the votes were counted. Just more lying politicians.

When Netanyahu first ran for Prime Minister, the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah decided to support him because his party is the closest to traditional Judaism. The Likud doesn't reprove anyone with a platform that is anti-religious. This is why we will support only Netanyahu

  -- Deputy Minister Meir Porush

what was was, but recently the Likud representatives have become the biggest supporters of public transportation on Shabbos. And according to a recent interview with Yaakov Litzman, there used to never be road works and rail works done on Shabbos, let alone public transportation, and all the work being done now on Shabbos is all very recent. So with the Likud leadership and government being behind the ever-increasing public chilul shabbos, you'd think UTJ would reconsider that position. In light of that, is the Likud still really the closest to tradition?  Maybe despite the chilul shabbos they still are because the others are much worse?

This hurts every Haredi Jew. When Omer Yankelovitch will run by himself in his own party - let's see if he gets in then, if he did anything

  -- Deputy Minister Meir Porush, when asked in a Kikar interview about Omer Yankelevitch running in a non-Haredi party

pretty much anybody running in his own party by himself will not get in. That is the purpose of the 3.25% minimum threshold. Porush also would not get in if he ran by himself in his own party. Neither would Gafni or Litzman or Deri or most MKs. Yankelevitch also would not get in on her own, but so what? That's why she is running as part of a larger party, just like every other hopeful MK.

The main interesting part of the quote is how Porush refers to Yankelevitch as a male. Either he just made a grammatical mistake, or he does not even know who Yankelevitch is and is assuming Yankelevitch is male. The name "Omer" is not common or gender specific, so perhaps he just does not know but was told about a Haredi person running in a non-Haredi party....

To be fair, I have to follow up on my post from the other day about the Bet Shemesh - Elad connection.

At a Degel Hatorah rally in Beitar Ilit for the upcoming elections, MK Moshe Gafni commented on the issue with Shlomei Emunim. Gafni explained, again, that the deal in Elad was 1 for 1 - 2013 Degel supports Shlomei Emunim's candidae in Elad (ie Porush) and in 2018 Shlomei Emunim would support Degel's candidate in Elad (ie Pindros).

Gafni added that there was also a deal in Bet Shemesh, but it was a separate deal and had no connection to the deal in Elad, and there was also a separate deal in Beitar. Somehow they invented some sort of connection between the deals.

So, Gafni explicitly has now denied the existence of such a connection betwene the Bet Shemesh and Elad deals, so I have to give him credit for that. And, that leaves open the question for Meir Porush why he thinks there is a connection, or why he is connecting the deals when there is no connection. Being that the written agreement has not been publicized for public scrutiny, the public has no way of knowing which side is correct and which is fudging on the details. It is basically a "he said he said" argument. So let them argue - Gafni even said, at the same rally, sometimes machlokes is good - maybe it will turn out good for them, maybe not.

As an interesting side point, Gafni said a bit more about the broken deal in Bet Shemesh. Gafni said that Degel was supposed to run a candidate for mayor in Bet Shemesh, and Rav Gershon Edelstein told them to hold a lottery/raffle between the various reps as to which would be the candidate. Then they went to Rav Chaim Kanievsky and he said not to run a candidate but to support Abutbol for mayor. "We are proud that we have always followed the instructions of the gedolim, from the founding of the party until today".

So basically Gafni admits to having broken the deal in Bet Shemesh and thinks it isnt even cosnidered having been broken because he did what the gedolim told him to do. I do wonder if when they asked Rav Kanievsky they also added the fact that there is a deal in place with Shlomei Emunim and if that would change anything.. Whether he did or did not, he explicitly admits that Degel broke the deal. The question is if that has any connection to Elad or not. But even if there is no direct connection to Elad - do you keep your side of agreements when your partner is busy pulling fast ones over you on your other partnership deals?

sources: Behadrei and Kikar