Everybody has their preferences for the type of community they want to live in. Some people want a more diverse community, some want a more tolerant community, some want a more religious community, some a less religious community, some a Haredi community, some a Dati Leumi community, some a secular community, some want more yeshivas, some want more parks, come want more community centers and basketball courts or soccer pitches, some want more shuls and schools, some want more Hassidic, some want mroe Litvishe, some more Sefardic, some more Ashkenazic, some want a more "anglo" community, some a less anglo and more Israeli community, etc. 

Minister of Transportation Merav Michaeli caused quite a stir today with what was a very personal announcement last night.

My friend, as someone for whom the good of the State of Israel is at the forefront of his concerns - join us in establishing a national government without the Left and without representatives of the Islamic Movement - and thereby save the citizens of Israel from these evil government.

The Menendez bothers murdered their parents (in 1989) and then begged for the mercy of the court on account of them being orphans.

This expression is almost the definition of chutzpah and dates much farther back than the Menendez brothers. Abraham Lincoln is credited with using this as the definition of "hypocrite". Lincoln said a hypocrite is the man who murdered his parents, and then pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan.

My mind went to the Menendez brothers when I read about the court decision in the case of Yishai Shlissel, the man who murdered Shira Blanki in the Gay Pride Parade recently, and tried to stab others. Actually it was not the court decision that made me think of the Menendez brothers, but something Shlissel himself said during the court proceedings.

Shlissel said that to commemorate the memory of Shira, the Pride Parade should be stopped and no longer held in the future. If we want her ultimate good, we must stop the blasphemy against God. Future parades will bring harsh decrees against the Jewish people.
source: Kooker

I think Shlissel's statement qualifies for the title of "chutzpah, and for Lincoln's definition of hypocrite. He might not be as bad as the Menendez brothers, as he was not asking the court for mercy, but he isn't that far off. 

Arutz 7 picked up on, and posted on the Arutz 7 Facebook page, a fascinating example of hypocrisy and self-contradiction...

side by side they posted two posts from Meretz, posts that happened 3 months apart, one by its leader Zahava Galon, and the other by a Meretz city branch.

In the words of Arutz 7:

מקרה 1: דתיים לא יכולים להשתתף במירוץ עירוני כי הוא מתקיים ביום שמקודש להם.
עמדת מרצ: לעזאזל הדתיים, יחי החופש!!

מקרה 2: דתיים לא יכולים להשתתף במירוץ עירוני כי הוא מתקיים ביום שמקודש להם.
עמדת מרצ: ביזיון!!!! הדרה!!!!


Case 1: religious people are unable to participate in a city race because it is taking place on their holy day.
Meretz's position: the religious should go to hell, freedom is more important!!

Case 2: religious people are unable to participate in a city race because it is taking place on their holy day.
Meretz's position: Shame! Exclusion!!

Guess which religion each case is referring to..

The two cases refer to the following posts..

Meretz Kfar Saba posted on March 14 about the Kfar Saba race taking place on Shabbos. They described it as protection of the freedom in the city, as Meretz standing as a wall for the freedom of the city residents and protecting their lifestyle.

It seems the religious people wanted Kfar Saba to move the race to another day,. so they could participate, and Meretz fought against the change and was proud to announce that the freedom of others to race on Shabbos was more important than the sensitivity to and participation of the religious elements in the city.

Zahava Galon, head of Meretz, posted on June 11, in praise of an alternative race arranged by an organization in protest of the Jerusalem Municipality shamefully deciding to hold its annual night race on a night that falls out on the first night of Ramadan. Doing so ensures that Muslims will not be able to participate in the race.

The organization, Ratzim llo Gvulot, is one that is a mixed running group - mixed with Muslims and Jews - and Zahava Galon encourages people to register for their alternative race in order to promote equal rights and coexistence..

So, as Arutz 7 pointed out, freedom is more important when it is religious Jews who want to participate, and they must be stopped in their attempt to curtail freedom, while coexistence is more important when it is religious Muslims who want to participate.

It is almost always the season for hotel advertising in the frum newspapers, and though these advertisements seem to bother some people they do not bother me. I recognize it as something people want to do so the newspapers accept ads for such trips. I don't believe it is the newspapers job to decide what is allowed and acceptable for society and what is not, though things that are clearly prohibited or immoral should be taboo. I would not expect pornographic material in Hamodia or Yated, nor would I want them advertising gambling or ponzi schemes. Vacations don't seem to me to be so bad, even if they are vacations I would not go on or cannot afford, even if they are not necessarily in the spirit of ruach yisrael saba.

Now, with Pesach approaching, it is always humorous to see the vacations advertised in the frum newspapers, offering people to leave Israel and go to exotic places like Greece, Switzerland, Italy or many other places (I even saw an ironic ad one year for a Pesach vacation in a hotel in Cairo!). Despite that I prefer to stay in Israel for Pesach, I do not begrudge anyone their vacation and recognize the ads are targeting people who want to go on them.

Hamodia ran the following ads for Pesach vacations in hotels and resorts. The ads themselves are not what I am pointing out, but the disclaimer they ran. Hamodia seems to feel guilty taking money for advertisements that officially go against their morals or preferences. They justify the advertisements, as you can see in the disclaimer, by saying there are people who justifiably must go away for Pesach. The examples they give are elderly people who are unable to make Pesach in their own homes or people with health problems. They also state in their disclaimer that they are not stating, via the ad, an opinion on the halachic issues of leaving Israel nor do they take responsibility for kashrus or tzniyus issues.

Of course, if this really bothered them, they could only take advertisements for simpler vacation packages, perhaps only for hotel packages in Israel. After all, just because someone has a health issue or is elderly and therefore cannot make Pesach in his or her own home does not mean they must travel to St. Moritz, France, Italy or anywhere else. Yet somehow, all these elderly people and people with health issues must travel abroad to deluxe resorts. Again, I don't mind that they do, but Hamodia's disclaimer is a joke. They know perfectly well that the issues they raise are not the subjects of the ad - if it really bothered them, they should not give ridiculous justifications.

And one more thing - I want to know if these elderly and sick people who cannot make Pesach in their own homes are the ones who are going to be going skiing in the Alps and using those ski-lifts, or if they will be going "snow tubing" or ice skating as the ads below promote....




The Hamodia disclaimer is a joke. They should have just run the ads, or not, and not added commentary that just reeks of hypocrisy.

When activism comes from the "people" it is far more interesting than when it comes from the politicians and activists who are mostly looking to promote themselves.

Ruth Kulian is a young married woman with a couple kids. She is haredi and she is sephardi. Kulian is an activist, and she calls herself a feminist and a social fighter.

I never heard of Ruth Kulian until she got involved in exposing the slaughterhouse offenses happening at Tnuva's Adom Adom and suing them for cruelty to animals and deceiving the public.

Kulian's latest endeavor is to expose the hypocrisy of SHAS. This is where the feminist aspect of her activism comes out. Kulian claims that SHAS takes advantage and recruits female volunteers to do the "dirty" work, while they will never promote their integration into leadership of the party. She points to the response of SHAS in the election board regarding the petition to disqualify the haredi parties for not including women in the party list. The response was that women have a different role, in haredi society. Kulian wants to show that the "different role" is what prevents women from joining party leadership, yet somehow it is put aside when it comes to doing dirty work such as campaigning for the party, knocking on doors, sticking stickers around town, hanging signs, etc.

To that effect, Kulian volunteered to work for the SHAS campaign. She used a fake name when she contacted the branch, and she was encouraged to take on a major role. She says, and she claims to have recorded all the conversations as proof, they first encouraged her to be among the volunteers who go door to door and try to get in for a talk with the homeowner, trying to convince them to support SHAS.

Kulian refused the task, and asked for a different task to take on. Kulian says that it was extremely inappropriate to offer her that job - going around door to door, sitting and talking with men in their homes, perhaps at times where they are the only ones there. So, she says, according to SHAS, a woman potentially being in the position of MK is not tzanua, but going door to door like that is an appropriate task for women?

She went ahead with her assigned task, posting signs, handed out pamphlets, sticking stickers, etc. She called Aryeh Deri to get his blessing on record. She told Deri about her activity, and he gave her a warm blessing with words of effusive praise. So, again, MK isnt appropriate, but doing all that dirty work is just fine.

Somehow Kulian has decided that instead of voting SHAS she will vote UTJ this time around. Considering her issues with SHAS, I do not know why she chose UTJ - they hold positions identical to those of SHAS on these issues. It is not like UTJ is a trailblazer in promoting the haredi woman's rights and equality. I am not sure what she is looking for, but it is interesting. I know some people who are associated with UTJ choose to vote SHAS because they are disenfranchised with UTJ. I know of some sephardim who vote UTJ because they receive a lot of benefit from UTJ - learning in Ashkenazi yeshivot, kids in UTJ affiliated schools, etc. I never heard of people naturally associated with SHAS, voting for UTJ out of frustration with SHAS. She says she knows UTJ is not better in regards to the position of women, but it is the lesser of the two evils, because UTJ would never have made a video like the SHAS conversion video.
(source: Ynet)

Activists who fight the system instead of promoting it are generally blacklisted, denigrated and intimidated. I wish Kulian best of luck in her work to change the system. These parties could do a lot of good work if they weren't overly tied up in the personal interests of their leaders. It can take an outsider, like Kulian, to effect the changes needed.

This whole situation with Shalom Eisner, the IDF officer who was caught on camera smashing a Danish pro-Palestinian activist in the face with his rifle, has been confounding.

I don't know how anyone, no matter what else one might know about him and no matter how well one understands the high pressured situation he was in and is even willing to give him some leeway because of it, could come out in support of him. On the other hand, Eisner is also not deserving of being a scapegoat, considering the situation he was in and the violence of the activists prior to that altercation. The IDF also must bear some brunt of the blame, considering they sent a team of soldiers not trained in riot control to control a riot that should have been dealt with by the border police (Maga"v).

That being said, there is a lot of hypocrisy going around. This article in Makor Rishon, about something said by Eisner in shul, proves it.

According to the article, Eisner said in shul that he does not understand why this was turned into such a big deal.. "last year there was a rally of right wing activists in the area for which I was responsible, and then too the situation turned violent between the security forces and the protesters. Then I received a commendation and full support from the army for my behavior... for the violence then nobody said anything.. they just let it pass. "


As I said last week, the right wing should not be so quick to support Eisner, just because he beat a leftist. That is stupidity. They are quickly forgetting that he has acted against them in the past. In the comments of that post people asked for sources that such a claim is true. Well, now Eisner has said it himself that he beat right wing activists in previous protests. And the quick condemnation of the IDF is also hypocrisy, if they are going to condemn for violent put-downs of leftists but commend for violent put-downs of rightists.

There is something very wrong with what happened here, from all perspectives.

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Enough of the Hypocrisy

I am not going to criticize Lieutenant General Shalom Eisner for the vicious hit on the Danish pro-Palestinian activist that was caught on film and went viral. I am not going to criticize him because the video clip is just a moment in time. Sure, it caught Eisner hitting the Danish activist, but it does not show anything else, whatever had preceded the hit.

I also am not going to defend Eisner. I don't know that what he did was justified. The hit looks vicious, and while he claims the activist had been violent before the hit, we don't see that or know that definitely.

Eisner is innocent until proven guilty, so in that regard I will let the process take its course without commenting on that.

What I will comment on is the hypocrisy of the attack on Eisner. None of these people who claim to care so much about human rights say "boo" when the police and soldiers are sent in to beat right wing activists. Take a look at this video, which expresses that sentiment, which has been created in the wake of the Eisner incident. From what I read, Eisner himself has advanced his military standing on the backs of settlers and right wing activists, beating, lying in court to keep them in detention, etc.



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Mishpacha newspaper mentioned in passing, when discussing the future construction in Bet Shemesh, that a vaadat ichlus is being established for people interested in purchasing a home in the "Goloventzitz" section.

The rejection of any "Vaadat Ichlus" is one of the conditions TOV conditioned on their vote in support of further construction in RBS. Granted, that was a vote for RBS C and not regarding the Goloventzitz section which is really privately owned, yet TOV is still, rightfully so in my opinion, against the vaadat ichlus being established.

In response to this vaadat ichlus being established, Eli Friedman, the head of TOV Bet Shemesh, has said that he will work, as a member of the construction committee, on derailing any option of any construction if the vaadat ichlus is not dismantled. (source: Kikar and independently confirmed)

Something I don't understand about establishing vaadot ichlus, especially in a place like Bet Shemesh which is a mixed city, is the hypocrisy.

A successful, so far, campaign was just waged against those who opposed building haredi neighborhoods in Bet Shemesh. The main battle was based on the fact that it is simply racist and anti-haredi to oppose it just because Haredim want to buy houses, and how can anybody discriminate just because the buyer is haredi.

The claim is correct and I agree that Haredim can and should buy houses anywhere [they can afford to] and nobody can stop them in a democratic country, just like everybody else has the same right. Like it or not.

But then for haredim to set up a vaadat ichlus, right after waging a battle against discrimination, to decide who can and who cannot buy in an area, is pure hypocrisy. It is using the legal system to fight discrimination against themselves, but then to go discriminate against others.

Askanim in the haredi community, and in other communities as well but with less influence, try to influence the way we live our lives - whether individually to a certain extent (think kosher cell phones, where you can shop, internet access, etc.) or whether on a communal level (think signs about tzniyus, trying to make stores or buses "mehadrin", community events regulated by them, etc.).

There is a famous criticism of professors in the secular world that they often do not live what they preach. I have heard, and am sure many others have as well, stories in shmuezim, about the ethics professor who does not live according to the ethical standards he teaches and admits so publicly saying what he teaches has nothing to do with how he lives.

That form of hypocricy is one I have always heard to be rejected by us. The morals and ethics we teach are morals and ethics we have to live by and we demand of oruselves and of our leaders who teach them.

Those askanim who try to direct our communities - take a look at what happened in Bnei Brak last night, as reported by Yisrael HaYom (article below). The police raided a gambling joint. In the heart of Bnei brak. Arrests were made. Nobody is named in the article, but it says they are known askanim, aides and people in the municipality of Bnei brak, and others well connected.

So we have askanim acting holier than thou telling us the need for kosher cell phones, kosher buses, kosher whatever, and then (not specifically the same people, but the same genre of people) they are caught gambling. Actually it is not so bad. The gambling joint ran in a mehadrin format - no women were allowed!

Jpost reports that the ADL has accused the large circulation Arab papers for anti-semitism. they have taken advantage of the swine flu scare to publish cartoons of the swine flu with anti-semitic themes.

The ADL website shows a number of them. the two I think are the "best" of the bunch are these:



Amazing that the Arab press would use the image of a pig to depict the Jew/Israeli, considering how a few years ago we had global riots when a cartoonist used the image of a pig to depict Mohammed. We were told then how sensitive they are and how offensive it is.
Two-faced swine is what they are.