Q:
What do politicians and toddlers have in common?
A:
Both occasionally achieve a good result by pure accident.
Both pretend this result was intentional.
And both accept the applause and rewards they receive for their own, prior actions.
The Men in Blue intend to block Jews from the Temple Mount on Rosh Hashana eve. Of course, they are too sneaky to come right out and say so in writing – so the courts won’t be roped in. Clever.
See the details here (Hebrew).
The farcical fawning flowery flattery for the late-to-be-late Shimon Peres reminds me of George Orwell’s example of language in service of obfuscation (Politics and the English Language):
Consider for instance some comfortable English professor defending Russian totalitarianism. He cannot say outright, ‘I believe in killing off your opponents when you can get good results by doing so’. Probably, therefore, he will say something like this:
‘While freely conceding that the Soviet regime exhibits certain features which the humanitarian may be inclined to deplore, we must, I think, agree that a certain curtailment of the right to political opposition is an unavoidable concomitant of transitional periods, and that the rigors which the Russian people have been called upon to undergo have been amply justified in the sphere of concrete achievement.’
I must reread that essay.
גליון שאלות הלכתיות המתחדשות מדי שבוע בבדיקת העירובים השכונתיים
Reprinted with permission.