The Obstinate Jew: The Ugly

24 Tishrei 5777
Aharei heHagim...after the holidays...back to the routine

Introduction | The Good | The Bad | The Ugly | The Best

***UPDATES BELOW***

Is there a devil and is it us? - thank you, Yaakov Kirschen, for your forthright reply!

This whole series — in case I have not made this clear from the beginning — is about misdirected stubbornness on the part of the Jewish people, in one way or another — but not in and of itself. My humble observation: The ugly part of this meandering is what happens to us as a result of our inappropriate obstinacy towards haShem Yithbarakh (our Blessed G-d). I am sure there is a lot more to say, but for whatever reason, I am not the one to say it. Also, before the holidays ended was not the time to post it, so I have been delayed until now. A word to the wise is sufficient, as the proverb goes.

It is bad enough when we speak poorly about, and think badly of, ourselves, each other and our Land that is haShem's gift to us. It is worse when the other nations listen in and take advantage of our disunity. Even something seemingly innocent as being for the "Two-State Solution" (or not calling it out as a toxic term) means we have allowed someone with ulterior motives to put words in our collective mouth, leading to consent to our own destruction — which even one of the latest most pro-Israel sites does not recognize, let alone mention. After all, it entails giving up half of the land we have for the other state, even as our population burgeons; and the state keeps lots of empty land empty (particularly obvious along Highway 1 between Tel Aviv and Yerushalayim, note pics), letting the Jewish population suffer for lack of housing. Since the British already took 78% of the land that was given us and handed it to Jordan, how many more salami slices, G-d forbid, will we endure before we're all but finished? How did we get to the place where a term like Two State Solution became acceptable to Jews? Do we so desire to play to the sympathies of the gentile world that we intransigently program ourselves not to think about the phrases we use and what they mean? Do we really want to participate in our own destruction, personally and nationally? I hope not, against all odds.

Maybe the question is, "do those who govern us wish to rid themselves of the albatross of the State of Israel around their neck?" If that's the case, better to get rid of the system before it gets rid of us. Ugly? You bet. More below.

Perhaps we should stop referring to ourselves and one another by galuth-originated labels and epithets and quit agreeing when we are named and shamed; it would be a great beginning. The question is, when will we ever feel ourselves able to fight back effectively against all these assaults...the latest being the attempted erasure of our entire history and basis for being on the part of the United Nations' UNESCO branch? I wrote this sentence several hours before the vote took place, US Eastern time.

The "we" I am referring to is our government, comprising those who officially speak for us. Never mind that most of the time, most of the people disagree with it. Where does our voice even come into it, when voting is done by party and not by district, and where elections corruption as small as misprinted slips can completely invalidate an entire group of innocent voters' choice and even lead to the erasing of its history? The 2014 version of Yachad the Israeli Political Party no longer exists on the Internet due to what happened to them in the last election. You can read about it here; it mentions nothing about the corrupted ballot tickets that caused the failure to reach the Knesset. The Canadian Institute for Jewish Research (CIJR) discusses the overall corruption and even the US V-15 campaign, but the only mention of Yachad is the British version, having nothing to do with the Israeli party that was robbed of its votes. Even the Israel Democracy Institute's president, Yohanan Plesner, while lauding the increasing stability of democracy in our fair land, ignores one of the issues that made this stability possible, as though the end justifies the means, however evil (not to mention illegal) they may be.


I hope it was just thoughtlessness that made all these people report it that way. Or is it their stiff-necked, dogged determination to keep the Kingdom of Israel from rising up?

I am one of thousands of primary sources on the snuffing out of Yachad, the political party, because it happened to me as well! I will not shut up and forget about it just because it isn't on the Internet (the subtext being, if it isn't on the Internet, it doesn't exist, and didn't happen)!

I do wonder whether any ability to vote for a decent party in Israel was stripped from us in the 2015 election (thanks, but no thanks, in large part to Barack Obama and the PeaceWorks Network). Moshe Feiglin and Zehut, take heed. (And make your site easier to load, while you're at it.)

Our government's insistence on keeping the self-destructive status quo may be why there is still a controversy in the trial of the soldier Elor Azaria, who killed a terrorist who had already stabbed a fellow soldier (which some news sources don't mention...), why patriotic youth (called "nationalistic" here, as if there's something wrong with that...) are singled out for administrative detention and harsh treatment even while there is doubt they committed the crime ascribed to them, and why rabbis like Eliezer Berland are in jail for trumped-up reasons (Charges have not been brought and trial has not occurred in this case. Speak up for R' Berland, shlit"a, here!).

Even more to the point is our refusal to act like we are the primary people in the Land of Israel unless outside pressure is put on us, like the current threat to take all credibility away from us as a nation, starting with the Temple Mount. There is no reason whatsoever to act as though Jews, particularly the religious, are the outsiders here, but nevertheless we have (or our government has: Here's one Jewish reporter's experience.) until very recently.

But...there was a record number of Jews going up in holiness this holiday season, according to R' Chaim Richman. More on this and other great parts about our kishui oref, obstinacy, next.

 Let us proclaim the mighty holiness of this day (Yom haKippurim)...unethaneh toqef (search; this video is also an update.)

More reading:

Why do US Jews Make Judaism Hard? | Nationalistic Prisoners Banned from Eating in the Sukkah - "A security risk" | Imagine Taking the Statue of Liberty Away | Israeli Arabs More Bullish on Israel than Israeli Jews (not a typo!) | Hamas, des démocrates? (français) Hamas the Democrats? (English) | UNESCO Does it Again...Should We Be Surprised? | Professor Wants Safe Space to Bash Israel | Not Everyone is Included in the Four Species |