Search Results for: ABUSE

The Ongoing Persecution of State-Kidnapee Amiram Ben Uliel

Ben Uliel still held under severe conditions

Thursday, March 31, 2022, 9:18 Amiram Ben Uliel filed an appeal with the Supreme Court on his conviction, and they are expected to hand down a decision soon. Currently, Ben Uliel is the most heavily guarded prisoner in the Prison Service. He is in an isolated cell, in a high security wing, and allowed to leave his cell for only two hours a day, and even then he is not allowed contact with other prisoners. He is forbidden to phone either his family or his attorney. He is allowed to receive a 45-minute closed visit, behind a partition, once every two weeks. The visits are limited to first-degree family members, among them his wife, Orian, and his daughter, Malchut. No physical contact is permitted with his visitors. He cannot hug his daughter or play with her. Requests from his family for open visits have been rejected time after time.

Recently, the Prison Service tightened the restrictions of the limited number of books Ben Uliel is allowed to keep in his cell, and he is not allowed to visit the prison library or other facilities in the prison. He is prevented from praying in a minyan, and allowed to hear a Torah-reading only once a year, on the Shabbat before Purim, Shabbat Zachor, due to the Torah-obligation of hearing parshat zachor read.

His wife said that on Purim he received a Megillat Esther, but he was not allowed a reading with a minyan, and he could not fulfill any of the other commandments of the day. She also said that recently, the Prison Service has allowed him to meet with another prisoner once a week to learn for one hour. This privilege was granted after Ben Uliel and his family turned to the court, who ordered the Prison Service to allow the meeting.

Orian Ben Uliel described the great difficulty of the isolation: “He has been alone for years, separated from the other prisoners, without phone calls – completely cut off. I hope that Amiram will return home and that this string of abuses will be over.”

Honenu is assisting Amiram Ben Uliel with receiving his rights from the Prison Service and stated that, “Amiram Ben Uliel was brutally tortured by the General Security Service. Unfortunately, the torture continues today, with extremely severe prison conditions that can be called the most severe in Israel. Unfortunately, the Prison Service has chosen to violate the rights of Amiram to the greatest extent possible by violating the most basic prisoners’ rights and discriminating against him more than against any other prisoner in the Prison Service. Heads of crime families, arch-terrorists, and the most dangerous prisoners – all of them receive better and more lenient conditions than Amiram. This situation harms not only Amiram, but also Orian, his wife, and his little daughter, Malchut. It appears that someone decided to harass Ben Uliel in the most unusual way. We will do everything we can to put an end to this disproportionate violation of his rights.”

On March 7, a hearing was held at the Supreme Court on an appeal to release Amiram Ben Uliel. At the hearing, Attorney Avigdor Feldman and Attorney Yehoshua Reznik, Ben Uliel’s attorneys, claimed that his confessions were extracted under torture, illegally, and therefore they are inadmissible in court.

As he left the hearing, Attorney Feldman said, “The General Security Service chose to apply severe physical means on the appellant, following which he supposedly made a confession. … The Supreme Court will have to ask itself whether we are about to be counted among the states that allow torture of interrogatees, or if we are a civilized country, and we understand that obtaining a confession is not the be-all and end-all.”

Since the July 2015 arson attack on the Dawabshe family’s house in Kfar Duma, Honenu has assisted many Jews accused of involvement with the crime. For a selection of posts describing Honenu Attorneys’ representation of defendants and GSS interrogees, see here. To familiarize our readers with the case, Honenu has gathered – see here – various articles and short videos on the subject.

From Honenu, here.

Abolish Teenagerhood Now!

Trashing Teens

Psychologist Robert Epstein argues in a provocative book, “The Case Against Adolescence,” that teens are far more competent than we assume, and most of their problems stem from restrictions placed on them.

By Hara Estroff Marano published March 1, 2007 – last reviewed on June 9, 2016

Psychologist Robert Epstein spoke to Psychology Today’s Hara Estroff Marano about the legal and emotional constraints on American youth.

HEM: Why do you believe that adolescence is an artificial extension of childhood?

RE: In every mammalian species, immediately upon reaching puberty, animals function as adults, often having offspring. We call our offspring “children” well past puberty. The trend started a hundred years ago and now extends childhood well into the 20s. The age at which Americans reach adulthood is increasing—30 is the new 20—and most Americans now believe a person isn’t an adult until age 26.

The whole culture collaborates in artificially extending childhood, primarily through the school system and restrictions on labor. The two systems evolved together in the late 19th-century; the advocates of compulsory-education laws also pushed for child-labor laws, restricting the ways young people could work, in part to protect them from the abuses of the new factories. The juvenile justice system came into being at the same time. All of these systems isolate teens from adults, often in problematic ways.

Our current education system was created in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and was modeled after the new factories of the industrial revolution. Public schools, set up to supply the factories with a skilled labor force, crammed education into a relatively small number of years. We have tried to pack more and more in while extending schooling up to age 24 or 25, for some segments of the population. In general, such an approach still reflects factory thinking—get your education now and get it efficiently, in classrooms in lockstep fashion. Unfortunately, most people learn in those classrooms to hate education for the rest of their lives.

The factory system doesn’t work in the modern world, because two years after graduation, whatever you learned is out of date. We need education spread over a lifetime, not jammed into the early years—except for such basics as reading, writing, and perhaps citizenship. Past puberty, education needs to be combined in interesting and creative ways with work. The factory school system no longer makes sense.

What are some likely consequences of extending one’s childhood?

Imagine what it would feel like—or think back to what it felt like—when your body and mind are telling you you’re an adult while the adults around you keep insisting you’re a child. This infantilization makes many young people angry or depressed, with their distress carrying over into their families and contributing to our high divorce rate. It’s hard to keep a marriage together when there is constant conflict with teens.

We have completely isolated young people from adults and created a peer culture. We stick them in school and keep them from working in any meaningful way, and if they do something wrong we put them in a pen with other “children.” In most nonindustrialized societies, young people are integrated into adult society as soon as they are capable, and there is no sign of teen turmoil. Many cultures do not even have a term for adolescence. But we not only created this stage of life: We declared it inevitable. In 1904, American psychologist G. Stanley Hall said it was programmed by evolution. He was wrong.

How is adolescent behavior shaped by societal strictures?

One effect is the creation of a new segment of society just waiting to consume, especially if given money to spend. There are now massive industries—music, clothing, makeup—that revolve around this artificial segment of society and keep it going, with teens spending upward of $200 billion a year almost entirely on trivia.

Ironically, because minors have only limited property rights, they don’t have complete control over what they have bought. Think how bizarre that is. If you, as an adult, spend money and bring home a toy, it’s your toy and no one can take it away from you. But with a 14-year-old, it’s not really his or her toy. Young people can’t own things, can’t sign contracts, and they can’t do anything meaningful without parental permission—permission that can be withdrawn at any time. They can’t marry, can’t have sex, can’t legally drink. The list goes on. They are restricted and infantilized to an extraordinary extent.

In recent surveys I’ve found that American teens are subjected to more than 10 times as many restrictions as mainstream adults, twice as many restrictions as active-duty U.S. Marines, and even twice as many as incarcerated felons. Psychologist Diane Dumas and I also found a correlation between infantilization and psychological dysfunction. The more young people are infantilized, the more psychopathology they show.

What’s more, since 1960, restrictions on teens have been accelerating. Young people are restricted in ways no adult would be—for example, in some states they are prohibited from entering tanning salons or getting tattoos.

You believe in the inherent competence of teens. What’s your evidence?

Dumas and I worked out what makes an adult an adult. We came up with 14 areas of competency—such as interpersonal skills, handling responsibility, leadership—and administered tests to adults and teens in several cities around the country. We found that teens were as competent or nearly as competent as adults in all 14 areas. But when adults estimate how teens will score, their estimates are dramatically below what the teens actually score.

Other long-standing data show that teens are at least as competent as adults. IQ is a quotient that indicates where you stand relative to other people your age; that stays stable. But raw scores of intelligence peak around age 14-15 and shrink thereafter. Scores on virtually all tests of memory peak between ages 13 and 15. Perceptual abilities all peak at that age. Brain size peaks at 14. Incidental memory—what you remember by accident, and not due to mnemonics—is remarkably good in early to mid teens and practically nonexistent by the ’50s and ’60s.

If teens are so competent, why do they not show it?

What teens do is a small fraction of what they are capable of doing. If you mistreat or restrict them, performance suffers and is extremely misleading. The teens put before us as examples by, say, the music industry tend to be highly incompetent. Teens encourage each other to perform incompetently. One of the anthems of modern pop, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana, is all about how we need to behave like we’re stupid.

Teens in America are in touch with their peers on average 65 hours a week, compared to about four hours a week in preindustrial cultures. In this country, teens learn virtually everything they know from other teens, who are in turn highly influenced by certain aggressive industries. This makes no sense. Teens should be learning from the people they are about to become. When young people exit the education system and are dumped into the real world, which is not the world of Britney Spears, they have no idea what’s going on and have to spend considerable time figuring it out.

There are at least 20 million young people between 13 and 17, and if they are as competent as I think they are, we are just throwing them away.

Do you believe that young people are capable of maintaining long-term relationships and capable of moral reasoning?

Everyone who has looked at the issue has found that teens can experience the love that adults experience. The only difference is that they change partners more, because they are warehoused together, told it’s puppy love and not real, and are unable to marry without permission. The assumption is they are not capable. But many distinguished couples today—Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, George and Barbara Bush—married young and have very successful long-term relationships.

According to census data, the divorce rate of males marrying in their teens is lower than that of males marrying in their 20s. Overall the divorce rate of people marrying in their teens is a little higher. Does that mean we should prohibit them from marrying? That’s absurd. We should aim to reverse that, telling young people the truth: that they are capable of creating long-term stable relationships. They might fail—but adults do every day, too.

The “friends with benefits” phenomenon is a by-product of isolating adolescents, warehousing them together, and delivering messages that they are incapable of long-term relationships. Obviously they have strong sexual urges and act on them in ways that are irresponsible. We can change that by letting them know they are capable of having more than a hookup.

Studies show that we reach the highest levels of moral reasoning while we’re still in our teens. Those capabilities parallel higher-order cognitive reasoning abilities, which peak fairly early. Across the board, teens are far more capable than we think they are.

What’s the worst part of the current way we treat teens?

The adversarial relationship between parents and offspring is terrible; it hurts both parents and young people. It tears some people to shreds; they don’t understand why it is happening and can’t get out of it. They don’t realize they are caught in a machine that’s driving them apart from their offspring—and it’s unnecessary.

What can be done?

I believe that young people should have more options—the option to work, marry, own property, sign contracts, start businesses, make decisions about health care and abortions, live on their own—every right, privilege, or responsibility an adult has. I advocate a competency-based system that focuses on the abilities of the individual. For some it will mean more time in school combined with work, for others it will mean that at age 13 or 15 they can set up an Internet business. Others will enter the workforce and become some sort of apprentice. The exploitative factories are long gone; competent young people deserve the chance to compete where it counts, and many will surprise us.

It’s a simple matter to develop competency tests to determine what rights a young person should be given, just as we now have competency tests for driving. When you offer significant rights for passing such a test, it’s highly motivating; people who can’t pass a high-school history test will never give up trying to pass the written test at the DMV, and they’ll virtually always succeed. We need to offer a variety of tests, including a comprehensive test to allow someone to become emancipated without the need for court action. When we dangle significant rewards in front of our young people—including the right to be treated like an adult—many will set aside the trivia of teen culture and work hard to join the adult world.

Are you saying that teens should have more freedom?

No, they already have too much freedom—they are free to spend, to be disrespectful, to stay out all night, to have sex and take drugs. But they’re not free to join the adult world, and that’s what needs to change.

Unfortunately, the current systems are so entrenched that parents can do little to counter infantilization. No one parent can confer property rights, even though they would be highly motivating. Too often, giving children more responsibility translates into giving them household chores, which just causes more tension and conflict. We have to think beyond chores to meaningful responsibility—responsibility tied to significant rights.

With a competency-based system in place, our focus will start to change. We’ll become more conscious of the remarkable things teens can do rather than on culture-driven misbehavior. With luck, we might even be able to abolish adolescence.

The Adolescent Squeeze

Before 1850, laws restricting the behavior of teens were few and far between. Compulsory education laws evolved in tandem with laws restricting labor by young people. Beginning in 1960, the number of laws infantilizing adolescents accelerated dramatically. You may have had a paper route when you were 12, but your children can’t.

1600s

  • 1641 Massachusetts law prohibits people under 16 from “smiting” their parents

1800s

  • 1836 Massachusetts passes first law requiring minimal schooling for people under 15 working in factories
  • 1848 Pennsylvania sets 12 as minimum work age for some jobs
  • 1852 Massachusetts passes first universal compulsory education law in U.S., requires three months of schooling for all young people ages 8-14
  • 1880s Some states pass laws restricting various behaviors by young people: smoking, singing on the streets, prostitution, “incorrigible” behavior
  • 1881 American Federation of Labor calls on states to ban people under 14 from working
  • 1898 World’s first juvenile court established in Illinois—constitutional rights of minors effectively taken away

1900s

  • 1903 Illinois requires school attendance and restricts youth labor
  • 1918 All states have compulsory education laws in place
  • 1933 First federal law restricting drinking by young people
  • 1936 & 1938 First successful federal laws restricting labor by young people, establishing 16 and 18 as minimum ages for work; still in effect
  • 1940 Most states have laws in place restricting driving by people under 16
  • 1968 Supreme Court upholds states’ right to prohibit sale of obscene materials to minors
  • 1968 Movie rating system established to restrict young people from certain films
  • 1970s Supreme Court upholds laws restricting young women’s right to abortion
  • 1970s Dramatic increase in involuntary electroshock therapy (ECT) of teens
  • 1980s Many cities and states pass laws restricting teens’ access to arcades and other places of amusement; Supreme Court upholds such laws in 1989
  • 1980s Courts uphold states’ right to prohibit sale of lottery tickets to minors
  • 1980 to 1998 Rate of involuntary commitment of minors to mental institutions increases 300-400 percent
  • 1984 First national law effectively raising drinking age to 21
  • 1988 Supreme Court denies freedom of press to school newspapers
  • 1989 Missouri court upholds schools’ right to prohibit dancing
  • 1989 Court rules school in Florida can ban salacious works by Chaucer and Aristophanes
  • 1990s Curfew laws for young people sweep cities and states
  • 1990s Dramatic increase in use of security systems in schools
  • 1992 Federal law prohibits sale of tobacco products to minors
  • 1997 New federal law makes easier involuntary commitment of teens

2000s

  • 2000+ New laws restricting minors’ rights to get tattoos, piercings, and to enter tanning salons spread through U.S.
  • 2000+ Tougher driving laws sweeping through states: full driving rights obtained gradually over a period of years
  • 2000+ Dramatic increase in zero-tolerance laws in schools, resulting in suspensions or dismissals for throwing spitballs, making gun gestures with hand, etc.
  • 2000+ New procedures and laws making it easier to prosecute minors as adults

Currently spreading nationwide:

  • New rules prohibiting cell phones in schools or use of cell phones by minors while driving
  • Libraries and schools block access to Internet material by minors
  • New dress code rules in schools
  • New rules restricting wearing of potentially offensive clothing or accessories in schools
  • New laws prohibiting teens from attending parties where alcohol is served (even if they’re not drinking)
  • New laws restricting teens’ access to shopping malls
  • Tracking devices routinely installed in cell phones and cars of teens
  • New availability of home drug tests for teens
  • New laws prohibiting minors from driving with any alcohol in bloodstream (zero-tolerance)
  • Proposals for longer school days, longer school year, and addition of grades 13 and 14 to school curriculum under discussion

From Psychology Today, here.

‘Divide et Impera’: Charedi and Dati

Relating to Israel Under the Erev Rav

We need to be here — and in the game.

Rabbi Chananya Weissman

Within the world of Torah-observant Jews there are two primary schools of thought when it comes to the modern state of Israel – a creation that is decidedly not Torah-observant. These two positions could hardly be more divergent from one another. This has resulted in yet another tragic rift within the Orthodox world, which we know is the greatest cause of our suffering from ancient times to the present day.

With God’s help we will solve that problem now.

One school of thought is held by those who refer to themselves as “Dati Leumi”, or National Religious (I say “refer to themselves” because I have long opposed the use of labels such as these to divide society, poorly categorize people, and encourage herd mentality). This camp views the secular state of Israel as the “first flowering of the redemption”, and supports the state with a religious fervor. State institutions and ceremonies are sacrosanct, with the IDF being the holy of holies.

Of course, the fact that this adoring relationship with the secular state is one-sided poses great difficulties for the Dati Leumi. The Erev Rav ruling class has long demonized Jewish pioneers (“settlers”) as religious extremists, terrorists, war-mongers, and a danger to the rest of society (almost as bad as people who didn’t take the poison shots). The Zionist flowers of redemption have demolished their homes, destroyed their communities, and turned the full force of the state against those who stood in their way. The holy IDF played an indispensable role in these operations, destroying more Jewish communities than all the Arab armies in all the wars since 1948 combined.

In spite of this, the proudest moment in the life of a Dati Leumi is when their son or daughter joins the same IDF. Nothing is more sacred than offering the ultimate “sacrifice” to the state of Israel. If the child was traumatized by having his home demolished (sometimes multiple times), all the better; the sacrifice is compounded.

The Dati Leumi are further vexed by Israel’s refusal to allow them to pray at Judaism’s holiest site, Har Habayis (the Temple Mount). Israel only permits Jews to ascend Har Habayis in extremely limited numbers at extremely limited hours on extremely limited days. Even then, they are permitted to go up only in small guided groups, which are surrounded by police and Arab Waqf interlopers, who tightly monitor the Jews for any sign of “provocative” behavior. This includes carrying religious articles such as a prayer book, praying out loud, or quietly bowing to God where heaven meets earth.

Any of these activities can be used as a pretext by Arabs to riot and the world to howl, so the appropriate response of the so-called Jewish state is obviously to keep the Jews in their place. Jews who dare act like Jews – or even like normal human beings in a place of worship – are immediately arrested and face the wrath of the state. Teenage girls who wish to pray for sick people had best memorize the names; reading off a paper can be dangerous to their health.

In recent years there has been some improvement. Jewish visitors used to not be allowed to move their lips, lest a prayer escape. Now whispering is allowed, and on a good day you can sneak in a few second-class-citizen prayers in an undertone while the guards look the other way. Like a Marrano or a Refusenik, but in a “Jewish state”.

Despite all the above and so much more, the Dati Leumi remain the most ardent supporters of the state and its institutions. After all, they have consecrated this as a religious duty, and religious duties don’t have to make sense.

This is why the Dati Leumi observed the covid rules like no other segment of society. They masked themselves and their children as if oxygen were pork, they quarantined again and again, they shut down their synagogues and schools – prayer and Torah study can’t hold a candle to serving the state – and they enforced the tyrannical “green passport” with the viciousness of kapos. If the Israeli government declares that touching a Torah can spread disease, then you sooner bury the Torah than touch it, period. And bury the Torah they did.

No matter how much the Dati Leumi are abused and persecuted, they will always continue to serve the state, for that has become their true religion when push comes to shove. What began as noble love for Israel and a desire to be part of the redemption process has morphed into an illogical, self-immolating complex. They complain about their unfair treatment, but continue to support those who mistreat them, for that is their duty.

The Dati Leumi suffer from Stockholm Syndrome. They are unable to recalibrate their understanding of the return to Israel, nor decouple their love of Israel from sheepishly supporting their enemies from within. They look the other way when Israel runs gay parades and promotes perversity, and feel pride when an Israeli wins an Olympic medal, or Eurovision, or a beauty contest, as if this is why God brought us back to the land. Ultimately the Dati Leumi cannot take Israel to the next level; they are just happy to be here.

This is why the Dati Leumi have always been second-class citizens, their rabbis second-rate, and they are scorned by both secular Jews and Charedim. (A secular person who is seeking spirituality or greater Torah observance will not go to a Dati Leumi rabbi.) This is why their children abandon an observant lifestyle in large numbers.

The Dati Leumi camp has run out of steam and has little left to offer.

*

The so-called “Charedi” camp has a polar opposite view of the secular state of Israel, which dates back to the very beginning of the Zionist movement. They understood that the Zionist leaders were hostile to Torah-observant Jews and intended to created a state that was antithetical to the Torah. Many of the great rabbis of the time opposed cooperating with the Zionists, despite the deteriorating situation in Europe.

Countless Jews were discouraged from escaping to Israel when they had the chance, and their blood soaks Europe to this day. Although many “Charedi” Jews subsequently moved to Israel, their relationship with the secular state has continued to be mutually hostile, or indifferent at best. To the Zionists the Charedim are a burden and a threat should their numbers grow, and the Charedim in turn view the Zionists as Hamans with Jewish names. And yet, the promise of government money for Charedi institutions can swing elections and get laws passed.

As the Mafia would say, it’s nothing personal, just business.

Aside from this, the Charedim want as little to do with Israeli society as possible. Keeping their children out of the IDF is a life-and-death issue for them. This is largely (but not entirely) because the IDF is a cesspool of spiritual impurity, much of which is deliberately forced upon religious people with the intention of eroding their religious commitment. Even though the IDF offers some accommodations for Charedi soldiers, those who join the IDF are persona non grata in the Charedi world.

Charedim by and large (they cannot all be lumped together, after all) do not see the return of millions of Jews to Israel as a theologically significant event. To them the redemption means one thing and one thing only: Moshiach arrives, brings the rest of the Jews back to Israel, and everyone becomes Charedi.

Charedim certainly recognize the holiness of the land, but, strangely enough, many of them use this as a reason not to live in Israel. After all, they argue, the land is being defiled by all the non-Charedim, and even Charedim cannot handle the awesome responsibility of upholding the holiness of the land. Best to stay away from God’s palace, where the penalty for sinning is most severe, and wait for Moshiach to come. Until then, apparently, Israel is only for those who sin the most and those who never sin at all.

While Charedim tend to create stringencies for mitzvos – admirable in principle, but often far more than necessary or even appropriate – suddenly they cannot handle the spiritual challenge of living in Israel, and don’t even want to try. Better to remain in exile, far from Israel, in places that reek with spiritual impurity, where the challenges of remaining religious are most severe, rather than risk upsetting God by falling short of perfection in Israel. Best to be lenient on the mitzva to live in Israel and all the mitzvos that cannot be performed anywhere else. That is the position of many Charedim (or, perhaps, the excuse) who do not consider it God’s will for Jews to return home now, even before Moshiach arrives.

Needless to say, the state of Israel reviles the Charedim like no one else. The secular media dutifully blames the Charedim for every ill in society; they have too many children, they are parasites, they contribute nothing to society, they do not respect the rules, they do not care about safety, they spread disease, and on and on.

Canards such as these were historically used to incite pogroms and genocide against the Jewish people. Today in other countries they would be condemned as anti-Semitic. In Israel, however, they are acceptable in polite company, including the government, and a valid reason to persecute huge numbers of people who, for the most part, are righteous, upstanding, contribute greatly to society, and are the cause of no one’s problems, despite preferring to keep to themselves.

The Dati Leumi, for their part, side with the anti-Semites on this one. No surprise there! Charedim will sacrifice just about everything for their principles. The Dati Leumi sacrifice their principles for the Zionist state and approval from secular society.

In general Charedim would prefer to live their entire lives without encountering anyone who isn’t Charedi. They wish for their neighborhoods to be independent enclaves of “authentic Judaism”, where they can study Torah and wait for Moshiach to come.

Since the return to Israel is theologically insignificant to Charedim, the destruction of Gush Katif and other “settlements” doesn’t really bother them. They ignore the gay parades because they don’t take place in Charedi neighborhoods. They do, however, protest any perceived encroachment on their lifestyle.

The Dati Leumi protest the destruction of settlements, but look the other way at Shabbos desecration and other attacks on the Torah. The Charedim protest the latter, but ignore the former. The Dati Leumi don’t protest spiritual atrocities in the IDF, because the IDF is sacrosanct to them. The Charedim don’t protest spiritual atrocities in the IDF, because IDF soldiers are irrelevant to them.

What a crazy people we are.

*

The Erev Rav who govern Israel are absolutely thrilled with this dynamic. So long as the Dati Leumi and the Charedim loathe one another, or at least live in completely separate worlds, the Erev Rav are the biggest winners. The religious Jews can squabble among themselves and compete for a slightly larger share of the pie, while ensuring that religious Jewry as a whole never achieves actual power.

The Erev Rav can destroy Gush Katif and other settlements, because the Charedim won’t protest, and the Dati Leumi are too weak to stop it. The Erev Rav can destroy Dati Leumi yeshivos, because the Charedim won’t consider that an assault on the Torah; Dati Leumi yeshivos aren’t real yeshivos to them. The Erev Rav can beat and arrest Jews on Har Habayis, because the Charedim have enshrined the Kotel as Judaism’s holiest site and abandoned Har Habayis to the Arabs.

At the same time, the Erev Rav can persecute the Charedim, because the Dati Leumi will whitewash it, and even justify it. The Erev Rav can murder Charedim in Meron, and the Dati Leumi will echo the narrative that the Charedim were at fault, that they are wild animals who trampled one another. The Erev Rav can beat Charedi protestors, and the Dati Leumi will not care; they only care when Dati Leumi protestors are beaten. The Erev Rav can wage war on Charedi yeshivos, and the Dati Leumi will not care; it isn’t “their” yeshivos.

What goes around comes around.

*

Both camps have an element of truth, but have become prisoners of their social identities and expectations. Give me a Dati Leumi with the Charedi’s unswerving commitment to Torah and his principles. Give me a Charedi with the Dati Leumi’s desire to be part of Israeli society today, imperfect as it is. Now we’re talking.

It is clear from the Torah that Hashem intended for the Jews to return to Israel in large numbers, and govern the land, before Moshiach comes. The prophecies about Gog Umagog are all predicated on this; they simply don’t make sense if the God-fearing Jews are living as subjects in foreign lands. I have written extensively about this, particularly in my book Go Up Like a Wall.

Those who reject the return of Israel to the Jews as theologically insignificant because the Erev Rav are in control are terribly mistaken. God wants us to be here and this is not yet the actual redemption. The Erev Rav are not the first flowering of the redemption, but the final obstacle. However, for this obstacle to be overcome, we need to be here and be in the game.

The Dati Leumi need to recognize that the secular state of Israel, which has been trampling all over them, destroying their homes, forbidding them to pray on Har Habayis, and sending their children off to be killed, while treating their enemies with kid gloves, is not worthy of their support. They can do this without sacrificing one iota of their love for the Land of Israel and the people of Israel, or any of their belief that this return to Israel is the real deal. They need to stop being useful idiots and compliant sheep.

The Charedim need to recognize that this return to Israel is the real deal, and is one of the most theologically significant events in history. They can do this without sacrificing one iota of their commitment to Torah observance or whitewashing the crimes of those who physically rebuilt the land. There are many reasons why Hashem chose them to rebuild the land. If we can accept the Holocaust as Hashem’s will, we should be able to accept the rebuilding of Israel as Hashem’s will – even if we dislike the agents He chose.

Most of all, the Dati Leumi and the Charedim need to drop the shtick, stop digging in their heels as a reaction to one another, and figure out how to get together. There are many Dati Leumi who have extremely strong commitments to Torah-observance and many Charedim who participate in society. They would be almost indistinguishable if not for artificial social barriers.

This brings us to the final point. There is no reason for there to be Dati Leumi or Charedi camps at all. Everyone who is committed to Torah-observance and loves the Land of Israel is playing for the same team. Their lifestyles and understanding of every issue do not have to be exactly the same. We need to get together on the things that matter most, stop pretending that every issue is worthy of creating a new faction, and leave the details for Moshiach to figure out.

When we do that, he surely will, and the Erev Rav won’t stand a chance.

Rabbi Chananya Weissman is the author of hundreds of articles and seven books on a wide range of subjects. He is also the director and producer of a documentary, Single Jewish Male, and a series of short films. His work can be found at chananyaweissman.com and rumble.com/c/c-782463. He can be contacted at endthemadness@gmail.com.

From FrontPageMag, here.

Saudi Arabia Is Just a More Honest Version of the United States

Biden’s Visit To Saudi Arabia Exposes The Ukraine Narrative For The Sham It Is

By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com

June 4, 2022

In a major walkback from his campaign pledge to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” for human rights abuses like the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, President Biden will reportedly visit Riyadh with the goal of persuading Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to help the US alliance win its economic war against Russia.

The Guardian tells us the trip “suggests Biden has prioritized his need to bring oil prices down and thereby punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, over his stand on human rights.”

So in order to punish Vladimir Putin for his war crimes and his assault on freedom and democracy, Biden will be courting a tyrannical war criminal whose country has no freedom or democracy.

Washington will be ending its brief diplomatic dry spell with a government that has been waging a horrific war against Yemen while suppressing any semblance of human rights at home in order to more effectively punish Putin for waging a horrific war against Ukraine which we’re told threatens freedom and democracy throughout the western world.

I am not the first to note the risible irony of this development.

 

“The Biden Administration is openly planning to pay homage to one [of] its closest allies — one of the most despotic and murderous tyrants on the planet, the Saudi Crown Prince — at the same time it convinces Americans its motive for fighting wars is to defend freedom and democracy,” tweeted Glenn Greenwald.

“The EU literally just banned oil from Russia (mimicking the United States’ actions) because they don’t want to give money to a ‘dictator’. So Biden is travelling soon to Saudi Arabia to try and bring energy prices down– which is a vibrant democracy, as you all know,” tweeted Richard Medhurst.

“As part of mobilizing support for the great war for ‘freedom’ in Ukraine, Biden will be visiting the great beacon of ‘democracy,’ Saudi Arabia this month. What’s a little murder and dismemberment between friends?” tweeted Joseph Kishore.

Indeed, one wonders if perhaps Putin could settle this whole conflict by staging a few mass beheadings and dismembering a Washington Post reporter with a bone saw to get on America’s good side.

A lot of people talk about the “hypocrisy” of the US empire, as though being hypocritical is the issue. But the complete lack of moral consistency in US imperial behavior is noteworthy not merely because of hypocrisy: it’s noteworthy because it shows the US empire has no morality.

Despite the astonishing deluge of propaganda and brazen government disinformation we’re being blasted in the face with painting the war in Ukraine as a fight between good versus evil, freedom versus tyranny, democracy versus autocracy, the truth is much less flattering to the imperial ego. In reality, the US is waging a proxy war in Ukraine for the exact same reason it remains close with Saudi Arabia: because it advances its own interests to do so.

That’s it. That’s the whole entire story. The US doesn’t care about Ukrainian freedom or Ukrainian lives, it cares about strengthening its Eurasian geostrategic hegemony, and it would cheerfully incinerate every Ukrainian alive in order to accomplish that goal.

 

A lot of commentators like to say the US government’s intimacy with Saudi Arabia undermines American values, but that’s not true at all. The US isn’t undermining its values by cozying up with Saudi Arabia, it is perfectly honoring and representing its values.

One only believes the US is undermining its values by partnering with Saudi Arabia if one assumes that US values include freedom, democracy, justice and peace. This is not an acceptable thing for a grown adult to believe in 2022. US values in the real world are domination and global power. That’s it.

Really if you think about it Saudi Arabia is just a more honest version of the United States. Its tyranny is right out in the open instead of being sneakily disguised under inverted totalitarianism. Its oligarchs and its official government are all the same people. It never tries to pretend its wars are “humanitarian” in nature. And when it wants to murder an inconvenient journalist it simply does so instead of dishonestly framing it as an espionage case.

In truth, when you look at its overall behavior on the world stage, the US is far more murderous and tyrannical than either Russia or Saudi Arabia . Pretending that Biden is lowering the United States beneath its values by visiting Saudi Arabia is highly flattering to the US. If anything, it’s the other way around.

From LRC, here.

Quasi-Libertarian – Priceless on Paraconsistent Logic

From Scott Alexander:

My love-hate relationship with libertarianism. Also about the rehabs. They’re minimally regulated. There’s no credentialing process or anything. There are many different kinds, each privately led, and low entry costs to creating a new one. They can be very profitable – pretty much any rehab will cost thousands of dollars, and the big-name ones cost much more. This should be a perfect setup for a hundred different models blooming, experimenting, and then selecting for excellence as consumers drift towards the most effective centers. Instead, we get rampant abuse, charlatanry, and uselessness.

On the other hand, when the government rode in on a white horse to try to fix things, all they did was take the one effective treatment, regulate it practically out of existence, then ride right back out again. So I would be ashamed to be taking either the market’s or the state’s side here. At this point I think our best option is to ask the paraconsistent logic people to figure out something that’s neither government nor not-government, then put that in charge of everything.

See the rest here…