Bennett Puts the Leftists in Their Place

Finally with English subtitles! Naftali Bennett's monumental address at the Ha'aretz's "Israel Conference for Peace"! Watch how Bennett puts the Israeli Left in their place:

Naftali Bennett's Amazing Speech at Ha'aretz's "Peace Conference"

Talk about walking into the lion's den! This is a truly amazing presentation, historic in my opinion. The leftists in the crowd that tried to shout him down shot themselves in the foot by showing their anti-democratic nature. Enjoy.

Autz 7 reports the following in regard to the aftermath of the speech:

At the end of the speech, as Bennett got down off the stage, a group of roughly 20 to 30 youths tried to physically attack him. One of them succeeded in reaching him and punching him in the back.

Ari Shavit Exposed

There was a lot of noise when Ari Shavit's book, My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel, came out. It spent a total of six weeks on the New York Times' non-fiction bestseller list.

Is the book really "non-fiction"? To receive an answer, you must read Martin Kramer's article, What Happened at Lydda.

To make a long story short, it looks like Shavit was quick on the trigger to accuse Israel of a massacre that in all likelihood did not occur. Read the article!

It is hard not to see the similarities between Shavit's academic sloppiness/negligence/ineptitude and that of Teddy Katz. Katz claimed that a massacre occured in Tantura, and was sued for libel by the veterans of that battle. Katz lost the case. Unfortunately, the veteran's of the Lydda battle, heroes who fought so bravely for Israel's independence, are probably no longer living or just too old and fragile to sue Shavit. Too bad.

BTW, did I mention that Shavit is a Ha’aretz columnist and member of its editorial-board? Are you surprised?

For extra credit, read what Caroline Glick has to say about this.

It seems that I've written about Ari Shavit in the past. See Do Murderers Sit Shiva? Almost eight years have passed since I published that post and it is interesting to see it in a historical perspective.

Where's the Coverage?

Yesterday I posted the amazing story of Yael Matzpun, the Israeli mother from Sde Avraham who bravely thwarted a terrorist attack. I mentioned that the story has been completely ignored, as far as I can tell, by foreign media outlets.

Here in Israel, the story was given wide coverage. English reports were available at Arutz 7, Ynetnews and Israel Hayom. Ha'aretz also reported the attack, whitewashing it in their English version.

I am still wondering why this story did not receive more coverage. My theory is that the mainstream media (MSM) is intentionally covering up the story for the following reasons.

1) It shows an Arab violations of the ceasefire, something that Clinton and Obama would like to sweep under the rug. The MSM is only too willing to cooperate.

2) It justifies the IDF's previous policy of preventing Arabs from Gaza from approaching the border fence.

3) It portrays the Arabs as ruthless savages and not as innocent victims, something that totally goes against the agenda of most major news outlets.

What do you think?

Who Will Ascend God's Mountain?

Ha'aretz has an interesting article about those who ascend the Temple Mount. It does contains a few libelous slurs against politicians from the Israeli Right("members who are extreme in their xenophobia, such as MK Michael Ben Ari") ,as well as a little bit of pseudo-intellectual humbug, which, unfortunately, is to be expected from that media outlet. Excluding that, the author Shani Littman did a really good job.

Personally, I do not ascend the Temple Mount, since I was instructed not to by the late Rabbi Avaraham Shapira zt"l. However, I support the right of those who follow other rabbis and take the proper halachic measures to do so.

To give you a taste of the article, here is a question that the author asked Arnon Segal and his answer:

What is the Temple meant to do?

“It is the heart of Judaism. Numerically, one-third of the 613 commandments are not fulfilled today because of the absence of a Temple. The Temple is the Jewish public sphere that we lost. I want a transnational Judaism, which will encompass all the commandments. The rabbis will not confine themselves solely to the synagogue. A Sanhedrin is needed. That is an inspirational institution. People would come there and be impressed by the light that exists in Judaism. The Jews are one religion, not a collection of sects. A temple is something that is built together.”

Read the rest.

More Shoddy Journalism at "Ha'aretz"

I have blogged several times about translations from Hebrew to English that were not exactly perfect. The mistranslations that I blog about are usually unintentional. To err is human, and sometimes these errors are humorous. There is another type of translation that is more sinister: these are deliberate mistranslations, apparently done for political and/or economic reasons. A news organization that engages in such deliberate mistranslations is quite unprofessional, and that is an understatement. "Camera" is doing a fantastic job finding such translations at "Ha'aretz". Check out their latest post, Ha'aretz Lost in Translation, IX.

Gideon Levy's Intermarried Messiah Lets Him Down

Gideon Levy is such a crybaby! It looks like he had high hopes for Einat Wilf, the MK who is married to a gentile:

The moaning and groaning about Israeli politicians is always accompanied by a yearning for "young and talented" people who will go into politics. Give us scientists, businessmen, graduates of prestigious universities and high-tech whizzes, and watch how everything will change. Enough of the party hacks, bring on the success stories.

This week one of their prominent representatives participated in the press conference where a fresh ideological movement was announced, and proved that redemption will certainly not come from those quarters. The titles, proven successes and impressive resume won't help. There's no such thing as a successful politician without a clear-cut worldview, honesty and courage.

Einat let poor Gideon down. She did not do the bidding of his employers at Haaretz, that is to say, topple Netanyahu. Waaa!:

MK Dr. Einat Wilf turned out to be nothing more than an ordinary hack. If we once had an MK-electrician from Ashkelon who sold his soul for a Mitsubishi, this time it was the MK and Ph.D. holder, graduate of the Insead business school, who sold her soul to head a minor committee in the Knesset. Between Wilf and Alex Goldfarb there is only one line, the line of opportunism.

You hear that? Gideon Levy accusing somebody of selling his soul! LOL!

Torat HaMelech - Part 2

In order to understand the book Torat HaMelech, one must understand that the Torah requires different things from Jews and the rest of mankind.

Mankind is required to keep the 7 Noahide Laws. These laws include:

1) Do not murder.
2) Do not steal.
3) Do not worship false gods.
4) Do not be sexually immoral.
5) Do not eat a limb removed from a live animal.
6) Do not curse God.
7) Set up courts and bring offenders to justice.

These are all capital offenses!

Jews are required to keep 613 commandments (I'm not going to list them here). The ten commandments are included in the 613.

One must understand that we have two different sets of laws for two different groups: If a Jews eats pork chops, the penalty is 39 lashes. A gentile is allowed to eat pork chops, and lots of other things that are forbidden to Jews. A Jew that lights a fire on the Sabbath has committed a capital offense. There is no such prohibition for gentiles.

So if the authors of Torat HaMelech write that "Thou shalt not murder" does not apply to non-Jews, they are correct. Indeed from an objective reading of Exodus chapters 19 and 20 it is clear that the ten commandments were given to the Jewish People.

Does this mean that the Torah permits Jews to murder gentiles? The authors of Torat Melech make it clear, over and over again, that the Torah forbids murdering gentiles. This is learned from the rule that "There is nothing that is forbidden for gentiles that is permitted for Jews"(Sanhedrin 59A).

However, when a war is being waged the rules are different. FDR, Harry Truman, and LBJ would all clearly understand this.

Of course, all this does not prevent the distorters from distorting.

I can only endorse what Rabbi Yoel Schwartz and Rabbi Yeshayahu haCohen Hollander said regarding them:

If not for the newspaper Haaretz, which published a story on the book, the religious community probably would not have heard of it. The newspaper published its contents in a partial and perverted manner, as part of its tendency of the newspaper and its owners and members of its system to slander the rabbis of the settlements, residents of the settlements, all of mitzvah observant Judaism, and all the principles of Judaism. They are prepared, as part of their war on the religion of Israel, to slander, by means of partial quotes, their Jewish brethren, in spite of them knowing, as journalists, that they were quoted amidst further falsification, and in a manner which causes anti-Semitism, and hatred of Israel, and even though they are endangering the peace of all the Jews in the Diaspora.

Jpost Lies

See how the jpost editorial lies:

Radical settler Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, of the Har Bracha hesder yeshiva pre-army academy, instructed national-religious recruits to disobey orders that run contrary to the Land of Israel ethos. Though his institution is funded by the Defense Ministry (and Diaspora donors), Melamed let it be known that government officials would have to come to his mountain if they wanted to parlay; he would not come down to them.

Of course anyone familiar with Rabbi Melamed knows that he instructs his students to disobey any order that is contrary to Jewish law. The Rabbi has explained many times that the Torah has commanded us to settle the land of Israel. What's more, destroying Jewish towns in the land of Israel is a very serious sin. The silly editors of jpost are simply not telling the truth. The issue at hand is not "Land of Israel ethos". Shame on them for lying! Shame on them for making fools out of themselves!

Even Ha'aretz had to integrity to report that we are dealing with Jewish law and not "Land of Israel ethos":

Melamed has repeatedly urged troops to refuse to obey orders during the evacuation of settlements, and he reiterated this in his book.

"A simple halakha [law] is that it is forbidden for any person, whether a soldier or an officer ... to participate in the strictly forbidden act of expelling Jews from their homes and handing over any portion of the Land of Israel to enemies," he wrote. "Those who violate this violate several commandments of the Torah ... Moreover, anyone who considers the situation realistically knows with certainty that any such action encourages those who hate us and endangers the lives of many in Israel."

In another part of the book, Melamed wrote in favor of serving in the IDF, "in order to carry out the extremely important commandment of defending the nation and the land. However, we must reiterate that an order that facilitates an expulsion must be refused."

In response to the question, "What if many soldiers refuse; will that not cause the army to collapse?" Melamed wrote: "If many refuse, no such order will be given. At most, senior commanders will have to resign. On the contrary, it would be good if this happened. The majority of the senior officers are contaminated by politics. They are not commanders who can lead the army to victory, as was shown in the Second Lebanon War."

Lightning Strikes Cosmic X

A funny thing happened to me, or should I say to my blog, yesterday. Yahoo News linked to this post (who knows why?) and the result was much more traffic than I usually get in one day: over 1000 page views.



There are over twenty comments there as of this time. Those leaving comments included a knuckle-dragging Nazi ("you people deserved what hitler gave you in ww2"), the typically misinformed consumer of the MSM ("decades of Palestinian suffering, malnutrition, and bullying by Israel"), the banal ("Anti-Semitic? How is supporting Palestinian people against oppressing anti-Semitic? Arab people like Jews are Semitic people"), someone who is distressed that I am not a lunatic (I find it distressing that there is an actual blog that thinks there should be no two-state solution"), a guy that creates God in his own image ("Lunacy is thinking that god promised land to JEWS.. This would make god a racist"), a thief that wants to steal the land of Israel from the Jews and give it to Arabs ("Lunacy is stealing arab land"), and some supporters as well.

I particularly liked what this guy wrote:

In keeping with "fighting on the 'net is akin to Special Olympics - even if you win you are still "challenged"...

Here also wrote:

Solution? I don't have one. Neither does O'Bama. But blaming the Jews, who have suffered enough for 2000 years, ain't going nowhere except for the folks on her who spell phonetically.

Thanks to everybody that left a comment, including the knuckle-dragging Nazi. It's important that the world see your true colors.

Quiet has returned to this corner of the blogosphere since the link disappeared from Yahoo News. I wonder: can lightning strike twice in the same place?

Ha'aretz Reaches a New Low

Just when you thought that they couldn't sink any lower. Check out http://brit.haaretz.com/:



They even have a "pledge" which is total lunacy:

Dear President Obama,

Please know that I share your sense of urgency to bring peace to the Middle East.

Therefore, I pledge:

* to back your committed and persistent leadership in support of a negotiated two-state solution

* to work within my communities to build the political will that will enable you to take decisive and bold steps -- and to urge Congress to support you in this endeavor

* to make it known that an American President who dedicates himself to establishing a durable Israeli-Palestinian peace acts in the best interests of Israelis, Palestinians, the United States and our allies

* to support you in staying the course through difficult times and to celebrate your successes

In Hebrew, the words for wind and for spirit are one and the same -- ruach. As you work for peace, I promise that the ruach of the American Jewish people and our friends in the pro-Israel community will be at your back.

It's a shame to see that these people are supporting someone who openly speaks falsehood and has adopted the Arab narrative with regards to the Middle East. It's funny to see how agenda driven Ha'aretz has become.

Today's Israeli MSM Lesson

For all of you who still gobble up everything that you read at Ha'aretz, please read this post at My Right Word: Haaretz and It Semantic Subversion

Swallowing the Bait: The Gullible Ortho-jblogger

Ocasionally I read posts on Ortho-jblogs from outside of Israel, particularly from the U.S.A., that cause me to shake my head with disbelief and ask myself: How can seemingly intelligent people be so gullible?

Now you, dear reader, are probably scratching your head and wondering what in the world is Cosmic X talking about. I'll describe a typical scenario:

Ortho-jblogger is a God fearing Jew that is interested in Israeli current events. Where does he get his news? He reads Ynetnews, Haaretz or Jpost. He comes across an item where religious Jews are described as doing or saying something outrageous. Ortho-jblogger immediately gets into a tizzy. How could religious Jews do such a thing? He starts blogging about the latest scandal. Sparks fly from his keyboard as he eloquently expresses his indignation. He is incensed at the desecration of the Divine Name! He is shocked by the insanity that has taken hold of his coreligionists! How could Rabbi Ploni do/say this or that? He publishes his post, feeling that he has done his duty in defending the honor of Torah and Judaism as he understands it. However, Ortho-jblogger does not realize that he has been had. He has swallowed the bait: hook, line and sinker.

Ortho-jblogger doesn't understand is that the sources that he gets his news from are not always accurate, and that's an understatement. Often the writers or the editors are promoting an anti-Torah agenda. They intentionally distort events and/or quote things out of context. Frequently their ignorance of Torah causes them to err. Sometimes a faulty translation of an article from Hebrew to English is at fault. In any case Ortho-jblogger is lacking the facts, an his rant is for naught. Not only that, but he will often disparage other Jews and even Torah scholars based on the erroneous information that he has received.

If Ortho-jblogger took his blogging more seriously, indeed, if he took his Judaism more seriously, he wouldn't hit the publish button so fast. He would consider the reliability of his news source. Do they have a particular agenda that may cause them to skew their reporting? Are they more interested in selling newspapers than in telling the truth? How would he rate their knowledge of Torah and Judaism on a scale from one to ten?

Ortho-jblogger would check out other news sources, such as Israel National News. True, INN has a right-wing religious agenda, and this influences their reporting. However, my experience is that they are for more accurate than any other source of news from Israel. Moreover, they are learned, God fearing Jews. When a rabbi says something or makes a halachic ruling they understand the issue. When INN errs they are not afraid to publish a correction.

Ortho-jblogger might also want to consult with the Ortho-jbloggers that live in Israel before he flies off the handle. There are quite a few of us. He will be better informed. His blog will become a source of information instead of a disseminator of disinformation. In this way he could save himself and the rest of us a lot of grief.

Haaretz Editor Asked US Secretary of State to "Rape" Israel

Did you see this one?:

Haaretz’s Chief Editor asked US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to “rape” Israel, using other unsavory terminology as well in his request for American pressure.

The comments were made during a confidential briefing by Rice on September 10, during one of many visits to the Jewish state. The meeting was attended by about 20 heads of the most senior Israeli think tanks and media leaders, including Landau, at the residence of US Ambassador Richard Jones.

Following the briefing, those present at the dinner offered their views and comments on the state of affairs in the Middle East.

Landau, who was seated next to Rice, referred to Israel as a “failed state” politically, and said that a US-imposed settlement is the only thing that can save it. He asked Rice to intervene, going so far as to say that the Israeli government wanted “to be raped” and that it would bring him much satisfaction to see this happen.

These are your journalists, O Israel!

Motorcycle Accident Revisited

Last week I blogged about the MVA near Tel Aviv where moped driving instructor Moshe Hai Yisraeli lost his life. I complained about the ridiculous treatment the accident was receiving in the MSM, who were claiming that drivers bypassed 'the "obstacle," the dying man on the road, rather than stopping to offer assistance.'

Today I saw an article on ynetnews by B. Michael that dealt with the accident and the way it was treated in the press. You should know that B. Michael is a writer rooted firmly in the extreme Israeli left, and as such is someone that I rarely agree with. However, this time we are in full agreement. Here is a little of what B. Michael had to say:

Perhaps there's no need to recount what this story is all about, but nonetheless following are the details: A terrible road accident occurred at the Azur intersection in Holon south of Tel Aviv this week. For some unknown reason Moshe Hai Yisrael (may he rest in peace), who was riding a moped, was hurled under the wheels of a cement mixer. He was squashed to death and remained lying on the road alongside his mangled moped.

A security camera positioned on a nearby roof by Channel 10 News aired the footage which shows the 10 seconds where traffic continued to flow normally without a single car stopping and without a single person coming to the casualty's assistance.

And indeed, immediately after the footage was aired the festivities began. Everyone was quick to accuse one another, to cry over the demise of Israeli society, to wail, to be shocked, to wring their hands in obvious desperation and to impressively sound voices of calamity and lamentation that looked and sounded good.

In short, it was a festivity crammed with satisfaction.

However there is only one problem with this festivity: It's synthetic, it is false. It is artificial and affected, but mostly it is dangerous in its ability to teach drivers to act like a herd of curious idiots, instead of as responsible citizens.

Firstly, a few facts should be noted, perhaps not concealed intentionally but not highlighted either:

* The driver of the cement mixing vehicle stopped on the spot, got out of the vehicle, directed traffic and apparently called the police or the Magen David ambulance service, just as he should have. (I personally passed the scene of the accident about an hour after the accident and the cement mixer had indeed stopped near the site. - CX)

* According to reports, at least 20 of the drivers passing by called the emergency services, just as they should have.

* According to eye witnesses, the injuries inflicted on the moped rider were so severe that there was not the slightest doubt that Moshe Hai-Yisraeli had died instantly. (Someone where I work told me that his brains were outside of his skull, which isn't surprising since he was crushed by a cement mixer - CX)

Read the rest.

While B. Michael got it right, it seems that Israel's Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter got it wrong:

In the middle of the day, in the heart of the country, Moshe Hai Yisraeli was hit by a passing truck and critically injured as he was hurled onto the road. For a minute and a half, which seemed like eternity, he bled on the road of a busy junction and no one stopped to offer assistance. Moshe bled to death in front of passing drivers who saw what was happening and drove on.

Dichter goes on to malign the nation by accusing us of being indifferent:

Something has happened in Israel. My soul can find no comfort and my stomach has been turning since watching the inconceivable footage. My heart keeps asking what have we come to? Where will the indifference and apathy take us? What is this screen that has plastered our eyes shut so that we do not see or hear the groans of death?

Unfortunately, I saw that certain elements in the Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jewish press also swallowed the MSM bait, hook, line and sinker. Anyone who learns Gemara should have known better!

In any case all of the people that used this incident to preach morals to the nation from their pedestal of ignorance owe the nation an apology.

Update: Just saw this from Ha'aretz:

Several passersby who saw Hai-Yisraeli after the crash later told police that they kept away because of the gruesome appearance of Yisraeli's body after the truck crushed his head. "It was obvious the man was dead anyway, so there was no point in attending to him," they said.

There it is black on white: Moshe Hai Yisraeli's head was crushed. He was dead and there was nothing that any of the drivers could have done to help him. Avi Dichter proved that he is unworthy to serve in any position of authority memah nafshach: If he knew the facts about the accident and lied about them in order to gain political mileage he is beyond contempt. If he did not know the facts about the accident and started blabbing away in ignorance he is simply irresposible.

There is a lot of mussar that we all can learn from this incident. We have to be careful in passing judgment. How misleading is the film of the accident! We don't see what happened just beyond the scope of the camera. The condition of the moped rider after the accident cannot be discerned from the distant camera shot. Wise men, be careful with your words!

Definitely Not Glatt Kosher

Who remembers Liora Glatt-Berkowitz(LGB for short)? I blogged about her a long time ago. She was attorney from the Israeli Prosecutors Office that leaked details on the Cyril Kern investigation to the Haaretz newspaper. This was in violation of the laws of the State of Israel whose judicial system she worked for. She was convicted of this crime in a plea bargain where other more serious charges were dropped.

Well Ms. LGB is back in the news:

Attorney Liora Glatt-Berkovich, who while serving as a Tel Aviv district prosecutor leaked the judicial inquiry into the Cyril Kern affair, filed a lawsuit in Tel Aviv District Court yesterday against former Haaretz court reporter Baruch Kra and former Haaretz news editor Shmuel Rosner.

Glatt-Berkovich, who is suing for NIS 2.5 million, claims Kra broke a number of promises he made to her, including not to publish documents she gave him and to call her from secure lines only, in order to protect her identity as the source.

You can read about in Ha'aretz or at jpost.com . It is interesting to note that both articles neglect to note that LGB committed a crime and was convicted. But then again, why pay attention to such small details?

I'm simply shocked at the chutzpah of the lady. She committed a crime, and she is upset that Ha'aretz was not careful enough in covering up her tracks. Jpost:

Glatt-Berkowitz wrote that she told Kra not to display the Justice Ministry's letter to the South African government and not to mention the letter she had written to the state attorney, since only she and the state attorney knew about it. She also told him not to call her on a phone that could be traced. He allegedly promised to abide by all of those conditions in return for the scoop.

But Kra broke all of the promises, Glatt-Berkowitz said, and called her several times from his cellphone. Police later ordered a printout of his phone calls and found the calls to her.

Haaretz:

The lawsuit alleges that Glatt-Berkovich and Kra agreed that the two documents she gave him - a draft request for a judicial inquiry and a letter to the state prosecution - would be destroyed or kept in Amos Schocken's safe at Haaretz and would not be given to anyone, unless the newspaper needed to defend itself in the event of a slander suit.

Glatt-Berkovich says her identity was revealed by comparing the staple marks on the judicial inquiry request, which was given to police by Channel 2 reporter Moshe Nussbaum, "or someone on his behalf."

Glatt-Berkovich maintains that while being investigated for leaking information, she was presented with evidence and segments of Kra's cellphone conversation along with the police forensic opinion that the staple marks on the copy handed over by Nussbaum and the copy she gave investigators were identical.

Does this sound like an attorney or a mobster?