https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanie_Phillips
Phillips's criticisms of liberal Jews who disagree with her positions on Israel have been mocked or condemned by writers such as Alan Dershowitz,[27] Rabbi David Goldberg,[28] and Jonathan Freedland, who criticised Phillips's labelling of Independent Jewish Voices, a group of liberal Jews, as "Jews For Genocide". Freedland wrote in The Jewish Chronicle: "Now, as it happens, I have multiple criticisms of IJV ... but even their most trenchant opponents must surely blanch at the notion that these critics of Israel and of Anglo-Jewish officialdom are somehow in favour of genocide—literally, eager to see the murder and eradication of the Jewish people ... it is an absurdity, one that drains the word 'genocide' of any meaning".[29]
MMR vaccine
Compare that with the rabid conspiracy theories that greeted Obama from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, who devoted show after show to wide-eyed attacks on the former president. Even mainstream Republican figures, like Kevin Hassett, now chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, wrote in a 2009 column that Obama was a “Manchurian candidate” giving the United States a “war on business” that could destroy the economy. Norman Podhoretz wrote in the Wall Street Journal that “[a]s a left-wing radical, Mr.
Obama believed that the United States had almost always been a retrograde and destructive force in world affairs.” There’s also Dinesh D’Souza, recently pardoned by President Trump, who pegged Obama as an “anticolonialist” raging against “Western dominance,” and who sought to undermine the United States from within. Newt Gingrich endorsed this theory; as did David Koch, the conservative billionaire.
Even before Helsinki, there was Trump’s clear effort to dismantle the Atlantic alliance, his vocal contempt for America’s traditional allies, his solicitousness and praise for dictators and authoritarians, from North Korea to the Philippines, and his undermining of American cybersecurity and indifference to hostile state actions like those from Russia. But for all the investigations into Obama’s supposed scandals, Trump has endured little questioning from much of the Republican Party. Even critics like Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska and retiring Sens. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Bob Corker of Tennessee have chosen not to punish or reprimand the president for his breaches and transgressions. Flake issued a strong statement against Trump’s performance in Helsinki, and it will remain just that, a statement.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/323026
Chinuch (Comments of author): There is no doubt that the greater number of ancestors who testify about something which they directed experienced that it is more convincing to their children. Therefore, when G d wanted to give the Torah to His people, He gave it in the presence of 600,000 adult males - besides the many women and children. This was in order that they could all be faithful witnesses concerning the matter. Furthermore, in order to make the testimony even stronger - they all reached the level of prophecy. This is because there is never any doubt concerning that which is known by prophecy…. In fact, if they hadn’t reached the level of prophecy then they might have argued that the wonders that Moshe did before Pharaoh were merely magic tricks… However, after they achieved the level of prophecy, they knew everything that happened was from G d - without the slightest doubt. These people who witnessed the events of Sinai with their own eyes and their knowledge resulting from prophecy was the highest possible type available to man - testified to their children who were born later that the entire Torah that they had received from Moshe was absolutely true without the slightest doubt. These children then testified to that effect to their children and these children testified to their children throughout the ages…
Chasam Sofer[i](Derashos - BeShalach): G‑d took the Jews out of Egypt which was the lowest type of society that did all types of disgusting abominations which G‑d hated. The Jews at that point were a despised lowly people - not even a distinct nation. In Egypt, they were primitive slaves working with bricks and mortar and were without doubt devoid of even minimal knowledge of culture or science. They even lacked elementary knowledge of civilized conduct. Our sages (Yoma 75b) say that the Jews in Egypt were comparable to chickens pecking in a garbage dump until Moshe came and taught them the concept of meal times - breakfast and dinner. [Seforno[ii] - they were like animals]. We see that they were totally primitive like the slaves of the barbarians. So how could this debased people be immediately brought to Sinai where they were shown the most profound secrets of the universe and became prophets with unbounded understanding of spiritual issues? This question is reinforced by the fact that they remained primitive and uncultured people as we can see from their lowly behavior and outrageous complaints during this time? Wouldn’t it have been better to gradually educate them in civilized conduct to the level of the best of the nations of the world. They should have at least been raised to the level where they could be considered a nation. Once they were civilized, they should then have been refined level by level until they were prepared for receiving the Torah at Sinai? In truth, it is impossible to keep the Jews as a distinctive people unless they are completely separated from the other nations. That is accomplished by not learning knowledge which is common to other nations even Bible on the level of translation. The natural tendency to assimilation can only be prevented by going to the opposite extreme. If G‑d had first educated the Jews in worldly knowledge, they would never have acquired the truth of the Torah and faith. Before they would have reached, this final goal they would have already rejected them because these studies would have given them the universal identity common amongst all the nations. Moreover, even if the Jews had understood that the gods of the nations were worthless illusions and reject them, nevertheless they would also have completely rejected G‑d also.
[i] חתם סופר (דרוש לפ' בשלח משנת
תקע"א בעת שהתחיל המינות להתנוצץ בקהלתו עמוד קיב:) ואמנם
כולם יש להם ממי ללמוד מנותן התורה ית"ש. הנה אל הוציאים ממצרים ערות הארץ
עושי כל תועבות ה' אשר שנא והוא עם בזוי עם לא היה כידוע מדרכי המצרים, וישראל היו
ביניהם עבדים נבאשים עושין בחומר ובלבנים ובלי ספק שלא היו יודעים עשות נכוחה, ולא
שום חכמה ומדע גם לא טכסיס אומה ולשון ולא שום דרך ארץ - וביומא (עה:) אמר ר' אחי
בר"י בתחילה הוי ישראל דומין כתרנגולין שמנקרין באשפה עד שבא משה וקבע להם
זמן סעודה, הרי שאפילו זמן הסעודה לא היה להם כדרך עבדי הברביראי' הללו ואיך
א"כ קרבם מיד לפני הר סיני במעמד הנבחר והראה להם מה למעלה ומה למטה וכלם זכו
לנבואה ונפתח לבם כפתחו של אולם ועדיין נשאר להם רוע סידרן כמובן מכל מנהגם
ותלונותם במדבר, והלא טוב היה לנהלם לאט לאט ללמדם דרך ארץ כמתוקנים שבאומות שיהיו
ראוי' לחושבם עם עכ"פ ולהעלותם אח"כ ממדרגה למדרגה עד שיבואו לקבלת
התורה על הר סיני? אבל האמת יורה דרכו כי גלוי לפניו ית"ש כי אי אפשר להבדיל
עם בני ישראל מיתר העמים כי אם בהפרידם מהם ומדרכם לגמרי ולא ללמוד חכמתם במה שהם
משתוים עמנו ואפי' לא המקרא ע"ד הפשוט כי בזה הם שוים עמנו כי איש קל מהרה
יהפך לב האדם לשוב להמונם אם לא ירחוק בתכלית הריחוק, ואילו הנהיג הקב"ה עם
ישראל במנהג דרך ארץ תחלה לא היו זוכים לעולם להגיע לאמיתת התורה והאמונה כי טרם
הגיעו לקצה האחרון כבר היו נזורים אחור כי כל הלמודים האלו וסדר הלימוד הנ"ל
הוא עודנו קרוב לדעת הגוים ההמה. ואם אולי יבינו ישראל כי אלהי העמים הבל המה מעשי
תעתועים ולא יאמינו כמוהם מ"מ יפרקו עול לגמרי ולא יאמינו לא זה ולא זה. ...
[ii] ספורנו (שמות טז:ו)
ערב וידעתם. יהי רצון שמה שאמר לי שיתן לכם מזון יהיה באופן זה שיתן לכם
בערב צרכי הערב, בענין שתדעו שהאל יתברך הוציא אתכם לגמרי מארץ מצרים, כי
יוציאכם גם ממנהגיה, שהייתם יושבים שם על סיר הבשר, בלתי זמן סעודה קבועה כבהמות,
כאמרם ז"ל בתחילה היו ישראל כתרנגולים המנקרים באשפה, עד שבא משה רבינו וקבע
להם זמן סעודה.
Meiri (Mishlei 30:6): One’s faith should be established entirely on the basis of the tradition received from the prophets. Only after it is firmly established should one work to comprehend the details through intellectual study. However, intellectual study should never be the determiner of the validity of one’s faith. This caution has been mentioned more than once because there are some of our people who feel that they have to justify and rationalize every aspect of the Torah. It is well known, however, that there are many aspects of the Torah that are simply not amenable to philosophical proofs. Those that insist on philosophical proof have their faith progressively weakened as the result of the inevitable repeated failure to find them. That is why I have repeatedly emphasized the fact that rational proof simply doesn’t exist for many things. In fact, the Torah requires that we start with faith - rather make its acceptance dependent upon some artificial criterion of philosophical justification. Furthermore, even those aspects of Torah which are convincingly provable - not everyone is capable of understanding these proofs. Therefore, those who are not competent in these areas should not get involved in these types of proofs - lest he be thoroughly messed up by the endeavor… In sum, in these deep matters there are very few who can meaningfully and successfully deal with faith on a purely philosophical basis. Therefore, it is appropriate for everyone to rely on the words of the Torah and the prophetic tradition - because that is the proven solid foundation and the length of our days.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/322995
The Knesset's Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday approved a bill to amend the law regarding rabbinical courts' enforcement of divorce rulings.
The bill was brought forward by Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana (Yamina), who intends to bring it for its first reading in the Knesset plenum on March 16.
The new sanctions against divorce refusers would expand preventing including preventing them from using business and bank services, preventing them from using credit cards and other forms of payment, an option to issue a direct fine (not through a complex court process), the option to enforce isolation in unusual cases and immediately (without a waiting period of 30 days), the option to require "payment for forcing obedience" from the refuser for the benefit of the refused partner, and an option to create a "divorce refusers registry" which will be open to the general public.
William Barr is urging Republicans to put former President Donald Trump in the rearview mirror in 2024 in favor of the political party’s younger leaders, the former attorney general writes in a new book.
In his upcoming 600-page book, “One Damn Thing After Another,” Barr says he thinks Trump could’ve beaten Joe Biden in 2020 if he had “just exercised a modicum of self-restraint, moderating even a little of his pettiness,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
The conservative lawyer encouraged members of his party to consider “an impressive array of younger candidates” that he did not identify by name — who he believes shares Trump’s agenda but not his “erratic personal behavior,” the book says.
The former attorney general, who served from February 2019 to December 2020, wrote that the former president has “shown he has neither the temperament nor persuasive powers to provide the kind of positive leadership that is needed.”
https://www.jpost.com/international/article-698802
But if Russia is portrayed as somehow positive because it is nationalist and cares for traditional values, why is Ukraine portrayed as bad. Ukraine is also nationalist and ostensibly also cares for traditional values. The problem is that in the West people must choose sides, so Ukraine is bad because it is backed by the “left” in the West and thus the far-right must dislike it. An added aspect in US domestic politics is the sense that former US President Donald Trump was impeached for his involvement in Ukraine and he was also accused of being pro-Putin. Therefore the far-right who are sympathetic to Trump tend to like Putin and also think Ukraine is some kind of center of corruption, used by “globalists” like “George Soros” to push some kind of “European” agenda. In this narrative Ukraine is not really a cause for freedom fighters because it isn’t really a good democracy, and it is “flawed” and has “oligarchs.” What about Russia’s oligarchs and lack of democracy? That doesn’t matter in this telling, because the assertion is that defending Ukraine “isn’t in our interests” and we are being lied to about it being a democracy.
https://www.thetorah.com/article/modern-faith-in-sinai
With our account of the nature of faith, the Kuzari principle doesn’t have to be strong enough to provide evidence sufficient for belief, but can still play a role in making your faith reasonable. The more pressing question is less to do with evidence, and more to do with values. Is it desirable that there should have been such a revelation, and that God should have chosen a certain people, and communicated that which He was said to have communicated to them? That seems to depend a great deal upon how you view the notion of the Jewish election (was it exclusive, and what end did it serve), and what you take the content of the revelation to be – how do you interpret the laws and their ethical significance?
https://www.dovidgottlieb.com/comments/Kuzari_Principle_Intro.htm
One of the foundations of Judaism is the revelation at Sinai. In this chapter we will see that belief in Sinai is reasonable. There is enough evidence in favor of the revelation to make it reasonable to accept. The evidence is of a very special sort, and that requires a long introduction
