For decades, many Israelis have been waiting for the secular uprising. The moment when the majority of Israelis who are not ultra-Orthodox, who serve and send their children to serve in the army, and who are opposed to the state funding Torah students who neither serve nor work, rise up. That moment is now here – though no one is calling it that.
Sunday, March 12, 2023
Netanyahu: Opposition is interested in anarchy not democracy
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-734070
“There is no conditional Zionism."
In a democracy, the elected government is responsible for the army, the policy and the security agencies, Netanyahu explained.
This principle is not just “anchored in law, it is anchored in common sense,’ he added. No one else should “determine who will command these bodies, who will lead them, and how they will be led,” Netanyahu said.
“This is the basis of every democracy and every reformed society, and if you undermine it, you undermine the very existence of democracy,” Netanyahu added.
Blessings of tzadikkim
Ruth Rabbah (06:02) One should never keep back from going to an elder to be blessed. Boaz was eighty years of age, and had not been vouchsafed children. But when that righteous woman prayed for him, he was immediately vouchsafed, as it is said, And Naomi said unto her daughter-in-law: Blessed be he of the Lord . Resh Lakish said: Ruth was forty years of age and had not yet been vouchsafed children as long as she was married to Mahlon. But as soon as that righteous man prayed for her, she was vouchsafed, as it is said, BLESSED BE THOU OF THE LORD, MY DAUGHTER. The Rabbis, however, say: Both of them were vouchsafed children only as a result of the blessings of righteous people
Rupert Murdoch appears to confirm that Kimberly Guilfoyle left Fox News due to 'inappropriate' behavior,
https://news.yahoo.com/rupert-murdoch-appears-confirm-kimberly-150728881.html
In 2020, both Huffpost and The New Yorker reported that Guilfoyle, who worked for Fox from 2006 to 2018, was forced out after she faced a sexual harassment accusation from a female assistant
'History will hold Donald Trump accountable' for Jan. 6, Pence says
https://news.yahoo.com/history-hold-donald-trump-accountable-032802018.html
"What happened that day was a disgrace," he said. "And it mocks decency to portray it any other way. For as long as I live, I will never, ever diminish the injuries sustained, the lives lost, or the heroism of law enforcement on that tragic day."
Florida Surgeon General Joe Ladapo investigated for allegedly falsifying Covid report
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/22/florida-joe-ladapo-investigated-covid-report-00084075
The Florida Department of Health’s inspector general last fall investigated Joseph Ladapo, the state’s surgeon general, after the agency received an anonymous complaint alleging he falsified a report focusing on the safety of Covid-19 vaccines for young men.
Among other things, the complainant alleged Ladapo committed “scientific fraud” and “manipulated data” in a report that Ladapo later used to claim that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines could increase the risk of cardiac death among young men, according to the complaint. Both brands use mRNA technology, which Ladapo contends was rushed to the market by the urgency of the pandemic without the proper testing.
Probe into Conservative Jewish youth group finds ‘hypersexualized culture’
An investigation commissioned by an umbrella group for Conservative Judaism to investigate the handling of alleged mistreatment of minors by the movement’s flagship youth organization in the US found it harbored an “overly sexualized culture,” after collecting dozens of accounts of abuse, misconduct, or boundary crossing behaviors.
However, the inquiry into the United Synagogue Youth (USY) movement also concluded that there was no systemic wrongdoing and that just a handful of people were responsible for almost all cases of misconduc
Think your breakup was bad? Check out the Museum of Broken Relationships
https://expmag.com/2023/02/think-your-breakup-was-bad-check-out-the-museum-of-broken-relationships/
People often long for closure at the termination of a relationship. Some psychologists say that’s because the brain needs a narrative to make sense of what happened and prevent us from repeating the same faulty relationship patterns in the future. Therein lies the premise of the museum: In addition to curating romantic pasts, it also wants to help us reckon with them emotionally.
Nikki Haley just handed Joe Biden a major gift
As Republicans continue to wade into this issue, they are poised to hand Biden and the Democrats a big win. Biden understands this, as he demonstrated during his State of the Union address, when he backed Republicans into a corner on Social Security and Medicare. It is for this reason that he is forcing Republicans to have a conversation, with specifics, about what they mean when they attack the government and federal spending.
For it is one thing to tell Americans that Washington is broken and another to say they will slash the federal benefits upon which so many of them have come to depend on.
Inside the Horrific (Contested) Abuse Story That Ignited the Satanic Panic
Beyond the immediate ramifications of the satanic panic, which sent dozens to prison on later debunked accusations, Satan Wants You explores the parallels between that conspiracy theory and more modern bouts of paranoia, like QAnon and Pizzagate. Many of the parallels, laid out in multiple pieces in the past few years, are somewhat obvious: both involve a moral panic centered around the supposed corruption of American youth by a cabal of secretive, terribly powerful cultists, and both proliferated thanks to a dearth of official information debunking their foundational claims.
Saturday, March 11, 2023
TIME FOR DIALOGUE
https://mishpacha.com/time-for-dialogue/
It’s no secret that the State of Israel is in crisis.
Israel is on the verge of a societal breakdown, and we should all be losing sleep over the possibility of bloodshed — especially as there is no small number of people thirsting for violence, going so far as to write or speak publicly along those lines.
The demonstrators in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem may shout “democracy,” but the true cry emerging from their throats is actually “demography.” They are watching the demographic trends in the State of Israel with fear. They see the chareidi sector growing steadily, and the “chardali” (chareidi dati-leumi) gaining numbers and strength as well. In 1980, chareidim were just four percent of the population in Israel; today that number is more than 13 percent, and it continues to rise.
Yellen’s Global Minimum Tax Is a Boon for Beijing
Friday, March 10, 2023
I Was a Jan. 6 Committee Aide. Here’s Why Tucker Carlson Failed.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/03/10/jan-6-committee-aid-tucker-carlson-00086354
Tucker Carlson tried to rewrite the history of Jan. 6, 2021, and utterly failed.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave the Fox News host and his producers exclusive media access to more than 40,000 hours of security footage recorded by the U.S. Capitol Police. Carlson promised viewers that his reveal of this massive tranche of video would dramatically alter our collective understanding of the events. It did not.
Santos accused of orchestrating credit card skimming operation
Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) has been accused of orchestrating a credit card skimming operation in which he schemed to steal information from ATM and credit cards, according to a sworn statement from a former roommate of his obtained by Politico.