Reprinted with permission.
BTSALMO: Fighting State-Funded Incitement for the Murder of Jews
Elder of Ziyon’s Varda Epstein interviewed Shamai (“Shai”) Glick of Btsalmo. We have written here about Btsalmo before.
Here is an excerpt:
Varda Epstein: Haaretz accuses you of “silencing the left,” and the truth is, they make you sound a bissel meshuga, a little crazy. Is shutting down a poetry reading by Dareen Tatour, for instance, shutting down free speech? Do you regret the article? How would you respond, if you could? (Here’s your chance!)
Shai Glick: As I have already said, incitement and antisemitism are the biggest danger in the world and they hide, today, in a variety of disguises, for example, in films and programs, poems, Facebook, and on YouTube. For that reason, I fight them.
The battlefield today is not within the boundaries we have known in the past, but hidden in plain sight on YouTube and in films. The incitement we find there causes murder, and it is against that, which I fight.
I am proud to censor calls for murder that are framed within poetry, art and culture. In the end, they call for murder, period. In the past few years I have caused dozens of events to be cancelled, events that incite against Israeli soldiers and Israeli citizens. I have had festivals cancelled. I have caused the closure of a variety of venues. And I have made sure that many people will be investigated and imprisoned for incitement and I am proud of that. In my opinion, this is lifesaving. (A partial list of closures I am responsible for includes the Barbur Art Gallery, the Negev Co-Existence Forum, the Acco Festival, Al-Midan Theatre, along with many performances and terror-supporting events.)
See the rest here (I don’t agree with everything).
Naftali Bennett FINALLY Removes the ‘Rightwinger’ Disguise…
Bennett is actually fine with the Oslo Accords
Opinion: Right-wing tenets like Israel holding both sides of the River Jordan, the PA being a disaster and a complete refusal to retreat from any territory have fallen from favor with the defense minister, who seems to have adopted some of the left’s most deep-rooted beliefs about West Bank
Sany Arazi
Published: 01.25.20, 22:38
Last week, under right everybody’s noses, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett essentially told the pro-settlement, religious-Zionist Kohelet Policy Forum that large swathes of the West Bank should be under Palestinian control.
It even came as the Forum praised him for his policy turnaround regarding the West Bank.
Defense Minister Naftali Bennett speaking at a Kohelet Policy Forum conference
“Israel’s policy is that Area C belongs to us, not the United Nations,” said the newly appointed defense minister, referring to the area of the West Bank that under the Oslo Accords is completely controlled by Israel.
“A month ago, I convened everybody at the ministry and explained that the government will do everything it can to make sure that any new construction there is Israeli.”
As a man of the left, I’m very displeased with the interim defense minister in charge of overseeing our security thinking that annexing Area C is a good idea.
Former Shin Bet security service chief Yoram Cohen warned that such a move would lead to a “bloodbath.”
But I can’t refrain from reading between the lines and feeling an urge to yell: “We told you so.”
For decades, Israel’s right-wing politicians have kept telling us how everything bad that happens in this country stems from the Oslo Accords, birthed from the treacherous left.
Suddenly appears the leading political representative for the religious-Zionist right, the same one who cried and lamented that giving autonomy to the Palestinians and founding the Palestinian Authority were a disaster – and the biggest announcement to his constituency is that he accepts the Oslo division of the West Bank into Areas A, B and C.
In practice, Bennett is claiming that the idea of Palestinian autonomy and an end to the control of Palestinian cities in the West Bank is the right idea.
Unexpectedly, the old mantra of “Israel on both sides of the Jordan River” is gone, demands to not give up any land at all are gone, while the claim that the Palestinian Authority should not be given arms also evaporates.
The leader of the settlers agrees to that coordinating with the PA’s security forces is good for Israel and helps against terrorism.
Suddenly, Oslo is not a horrible disaster, but the basis of Bennett’s dreams regarding the country’s borders.
The minister also reminded us of a very important and oft-forgotten fact: each and every one of his predecessors who wanted to deepen Israel’s hold in the West Bank had to do so in complete opposition to the heads of the defense establishment.
He keeps reminding us again and again that Israel’s top-ranking defense officials have always warned against the Messianic right’s adventurous escapades.
(Thanks to Esser Agaroth for the reference.)
Even BRISKER Torah Must Fit Occam’s Razor
The Brisker Rav is famous for his lesson of parsimony from “The Rule of Three” Simanei Shoteh (Chagigah 3b-4a):
היכי דמי אי דעביד להו דרך שטות אפילו בחדא נמי אי דלא עביד להו דרך שטות אפילו כולהו נמי לא לעולם דקא עביד להו דרך שטות והלן בבית הקברות אימור כדי שתשרה עליו רוח טומאה הוא דקא עביד והיוצא יחידי בלילה אימור גנדריפס אחדיה והמקרע את כסותו אימור בעל מחשבות הוא כיון דעבדינהו לכולהו הוה להו כמי שנגח שור חמור וגמל ונעשה מועד לכל.
By the way, here is the Chazon Ish in Hilchos Tola’im (Y.D. 14:7 s.v. Veha) in a weaker case:
והא דנמצאו ג’ אסור ואחד או שנים מותר, נראה דהיינו ביש ספק אי אתו מעלמא, או נתגדלו בפירי, ובזה יש חזקה דתלתא, דאין לנו להחזיק שקרו ג’ מקרים נפרדים אלא יש לתלות שכל הג’ סיבה אחת להם, והיינו שטבע הפירי להתליע, והיינו טעמא דקטלנית כדאמר יבמות ס”ד ב’, מעין גורם מזל גורם, אבל אם אין גורם אחד לשלשתן לא שייך חזקה דג’ מקרים אינו גורם להרבות המקרים, וכן בוסת אמרינן שיש כאן טבע קימת לראות להפסקת זמן זה, או ליום זה בחדש ולכן אמרו נדה ל”ט א’ שאין אשה קובעת וסת בימי זיבתה כיון שאין כאן טבע קיימת רק מקרים, וכ”כ בפ”ת בשם מהרש”ל שאם אין מצוי בו כנימא באופן דודאי מעלמא אתו אף אם יש ג’ אין חוששין דלמא איכא אחריני, ומש”כ בפ”ת בשם אחרונים לנטות מזה אינו מובן, ומיהו נראה דאם נמצאו אחד או שנים אף בברור שלא נפלו מעלמא וכגון שהן באוכל עדיין, מ”מ הקדירה מותרת דתולין שחד פירי נלקה ואין זו ריעותא על חבריו, אבל אם נמצאו ג’ הוחזק שכל הפירות באילן זה או בערוגה זו נלקו וחשיב כרוב המצוי שהן מתולעות.
Adding at the end:
ומה שהקשה בח”י שם מג’ מתים דאמרינן דזו שכונת קברות, התם נמי קבורתן בשכונת קברות חשיב כטבע שסיבה אחת הביאתן למקום זה, שמנהגו של עולם ליחד שדה קברות, אבל אין דרך לקבור מתים בשדות בלתי מוכנות לכך.
שמא ספר ‘מעלות התורה’ לר”א אחי הגר”א מרמז נגד תנועת החסידות
(בביאור פרשת שמע “ובלכתך בדרך“:)