The violent wing of the settler movement must be stopped. There is no excuse for what they're doing, and I'm not going to offer any ifs or buts. Their behavior is a scandal, and the fact that our organs of state have allowed them to go from unacceptable to even more unacceptable is an even larger scandal. A few hundreds of them have been rampaging for months uninterrupted, and they've been on the scene for years already. We all know exactly where they are, the police must know most of them by name and if it doesn't someone high up should be fired. The events in Hebron and elsewhere in the past few days demonstrate that the longer the rabid edges of the settlers are unchecked, the worse they'll get and the greater the pain of stopping them will be. But stopped they must be.
In the long run, I insist on being optimistic on this issue. Perhaps it's just because of my sunny disposition, but I'd say it's a reading of facts. The entire settler movement long since lost the support of a solid majority of Israel's voters, but the antics of the present fanatics are merely creating revulsion. To get a feeling of that you need to read Yediot Acharonot, the largest-selling paper, which isn't in Englsih and mostly isn't on-line.
Yes, but what kind of behaviour guarantees, that jews can live in Hebron? The world didn't care, as the city was "judenfrei", and who knows nowadays how big H2 is, and why jews cannot live there w/o protection. If Hebron becames "judenfrei", neither the EU nor the UNO will ever complain.
ReplyDeleteOB, Germany
FROM CAROL HERMAN
ReplyDeleteIf you knew the Oriental Martial Arts, you'd know that you don't telegraph aggression by putting on a pair of boxing gloves.
It would be STUPID, indeed, to react violently the "yoots" that come out of the religious right, in Israel. Worse than pigs, home-grown animals.
And, believe it or not, they're looking for a fight.
Perhaps, it escapes your attention, how the Holocaust brought about a whole class of "professional beggars." Who ply "guilt strings," as they pass their hats for moo-lah.
These yoots are well versed in Torah. And, even better versed in sending out the skinny kids; and the females; screaming their heads off (as if they were at a rock concert) ... and, of course, wearing orange. And, or big fat Jewish stars on their tee-shirts.
Yupped. All drugged up on religion, they WANT the State to hurt them.
It's "ticklish." Just the way the Indian government just found itself;
Only after many years of "throwing flowers" did the Indian government, realizing what was happening was a media "event" ... decided to send in the commandos. Which captured the TV spotlight with their daring drops of "Marcos." And, also with the ability to put "out the fire" after about 3 days. All in all a very well handled response to terror.
With the settler's kids, their tactics are different. They stick pins into female soldiers. Big fat hat pins. Sometimes, more than five inches long.
They also throw turpentine into the faces of soldiers. They've blinded a few. Yet there's no gunfire, as a soldier, as young as they are, is told to "hold back their fire."
When America's Revolutionary War started, that summer day on Breed Hill (later renamed Bunker Hill), the farmers were told to let the "Red Coats" march close. And, not to shoot "until they saw the whites' of the soldiers eyes.
American won that first encounter, too.
What to do with the religious nutters? They're a much bigger threat to the government, in that they've just toppled Olmert; with Ehud Barak's help. And, Bibi's unwillingness to "play ball" with Livni.
You want to blame the police? I don't. I don't see any up-side to hurting settler's kids. Yes, they run wild. But they are still Jews.
And, these stinkers know the fire they want in response. You've got to be well-trained to hold back. And, so, you see the State expending an enormous sum, just to "clear a house" ... because the Supreme Court (who has no army of its own. Nor does it have a police department) ... decided it could override the MK's. Who were sitting on this piece of t'zuris. (And, sit they will. There are elections coming!)
If you want to end the monopoly, then you need to go a bit backwards. You need to realize how religion got stolen by the nutters. And, the best ENLIGHTENMENT the Jews enjoyed at the same time European minds also opened; has gone fallow in Israel.
Some day? You may yet see a female rabbi. While in America, they've been training women, and grateful, too, that women want to devote their lives to congregations! Since the mid 1970's.
For Israel, it's no longer a hop, skip and jump.
Ben Gurion made decisions. Without any awareness to consequence.
And, now? You've got all the t'zuris the Europeans have, too.
Whoopie do. Parliaments. Aristocracies. And, no room for growth from "the outside."
Ya know? You don't have to do a thing, anymore. Israel shrinks. And, that will send a lot of those Boys From Brooklyn, back to America.
Where the FBI just clobbered them when they attempted to "branch out" in Kansas. That'll teach 'em. Or maybe, it won't?
Any group that tells you there's no law and order that they'll respect; won't have much of a country to respect, either.
FROM CAROL HERMAN
ReplyDeleteYou think I'm kidding.
Well, you can't isolate the problem to just one house in Hebron, that happened to attract a few hundred "unemployable" Yishivah "buchers."
Sorry. But Shas, is just one of a number of religious nutter organizations.
You can't forget to include the Haredi. And, the disgrace at the Western Wall, when Obama visited.
Why not? Same "schtich-lach." Pieces of a puzzle.
And, I'd bet today's Israelis are fully aware of how the religious took over. At birth? Today's boys are still sexually mutilated. With no discussion of circumcision. At least? Have a discussion. It's being discussed elsewhere. Outside of Israel. It's no longer "automatic pilot." Even with the threats of sexually transmitted diseases.
There's also marriages. In case you haven't noticed. But a lot of Israelis, to avoid the orthodox rabbis, travel to Cypress, to wed. Why is that? Well, very few politicians are known to have courage.
Just like evacuating the Hebron House (no "peace house") it, to be sure.
Why do Jewish yoots show up to attack their own police? (Well, wasn't it like the 1960's? In America. Where the sexual revolution brought "sing-out-loud" change? Yoots do this. It's a form of "entertainment."
But you lose something when such terrible disrespect can be shown to army personnel.
Yes, I know. In America, during the Vietnam war, our soldiers were spit on. By cowards.
Yes, I know. Nixon resigned. Olmert didn't. And, sometimes, when you go to compare things, you're stuck with apples and oranges.
What will happen in February when Israelis vote?
Shas will still work at holding up Bibi. (They may already have a deal? Given how Shas hurt Livni. And, refused to work with Kadima, when she was forming a government.)
It will still be a government of opposites, ahead.
And, the rest of the world watches, and waits.
How can the religious right not think it was more important to see that men trained for professions, than that they became breeders of families, while NOT holding down any jobs?
It's not the "yoot."
It's the dangerous belief that others will throw money at this problem, and the men won't get caught watching their families starve.
You got envy for the Palestinians?
Israel won't build jails for its "yoots" who disrespect the state.
And, when you know you have problems? You'll see the religious nutters collecting votes, the way, once, only communists voted in clusters; for Mapai. Then Labor. Till the 1973 "enlightenment" that Golda nearly lost the country, to war.
You've got to be prepared for your enemies. Your yoots? They're not enemies. They're just out-of-control kids who've never been exposed to patriotism, OR a good education.
America can match that card. Where Israel now has a lot to lose. Since there are kids, drafted to serve her country, who don't embrace Karl Marx. And, they don't embrace the extremist religious nutters, either. With such poor political choices.
You think Bibi is a good choice? He wasn't, once before.
Just as Ehud Barak once got tossed by voters; and still can't lay claim to being popular.
While the Haredi hate women so thoroughly, they put them in danger, when all a tired woman wants to do is climb on a bus for a trip home. Tired females don't deserve to be treated the way the religious nutters flex "muscle." Sad.
Not fixable.
And, nope. No jails.
Probably not too many programs, either, that will help the women, who are also beaten at home, by their husbands.
How come we can't let this stuff only exist among the arabs?
You'd have thought opportunities would abound. Where do you think you are? In America when waves of Jews came, here, and discovered that with hard work their kids could grow up and go to college?
First, you need to love your country.
I guess you'd have to be in Kansas to know what happened their recently, huh?