The myth of disproportionate Israeli response

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/306133

 Unfortunately, the term “disproportionate response” has been intentionally used to negate Israel’s right to defend itself. Suddenly, Israel’s right of self-defense becomes contingent upon a low number of civilian casualties. If those casualties seem too high, Israel is called upon to show restraint and to cease eliminating the threat. Furthermore, the term also seems to ignore any Hamas responsibility for those civilian casualties.

But it is not axiomatic that a high civilian casualty rate points to a disproportionate use of force. It might or it might not. It is necessary to examine the facts.

And what are the facts?

Let’s Talk About the Israel-Palestine Conflict | The Daily Show - Hamas is winning PR war

Biden calls Netanyahu, says Israel ‘has right to defend itself’ against Hamas rockets

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-calls-netanyahu-says-israel-has-right-to-defend-itself-against-hamas-rockets

 President Biden on Wednesday spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reaffirm U.S. support for Israel after a night of bloodshed with civilians in Tel Aviv sheltering from Hamas rockets.

"I had a conversation with Bibi Netanyahu not so long ago. I’ll be putting out a statement very shortly on that," Biden told reporters at the White House.

"My expectation and hope is that this will be closing down sooner than later. But Israel has a right to defend itself against thousands of rockets flying into your territory."

McCarthy: No One ‘Questioning The Legitimacy’ Of 2020 Election

Cuomo: Lindsey Graham is telling the truth about Trump

McConnell Denounces Trump

Posting newspaper articles on Internet

Update from today 

 To Whom It May Concern,

We are writing to follow up on our emailed letter dated 5/4 regarding posts on your website. Said letter is attached hereto for your convenience. Please review and respond as soon as possible. Thank you

 

 I just received this lawyer letter requesting that I remove a posting of a newspaper article from 2014

Monsey mother loses custody battle after leaving Hasidic community which was published in the Rockland County Times. 

I have no problem deleting a post with false information but this is expressed as

Our client simply wishes to put this incident behind them and move on with their lives. While it is important that information be archived, surely one must not be punished in perpetuity? It is no secret that the Internet and technology have made it increasingly difficult for anyone to put even the smallest of mistakes firmly behind them and move on. Therefore, we would like to request that the article in question be removed from your website. Altematively, we are open to compromise aחangement such as de-indexing the article or, perhaps, removing our client's name from the article.

I would like to hear my reader's comment as to what is the best way to respond to this.

Liz Cheney ousted from GOP leadership role over Trump criticism

 https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/liz-cheney-gop-vote-05-11-21/index.htmlHouse Republicans have voted to remove Rep. Liz Cheney as GOP conference chair over her opposition to former President 

Trump.Cheney voted to impeach Trump and has repeatedly rebutted his baseless claims of election fraud. 

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he supports replacing Cheney with New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who has a more moderate voting record but is a staunch Trump supporter.

Dual Loyalty and the Israel Lobby

 https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/dual-loyalty-and-the-israel-lobby/

 In all these cases particular groups of Americans sustained and supported a country with which they had hereditary ties of some sort. But they did so in terms of standards that had universal currency among all their fellow citizens–the spread of democracy through the world, the self-determination of nations, international action for peace, the desirability of aiding small peoples against great oppressors. One did not have to be a Jew or an Irishman or an Italian to find justice in these arguments.

dual loyalty

 https://www.ajc.org/translatehate/dual-loyalty

 Dual loyalty is a bigoted trope used to cast Jews as the “other.” For example, it becomes antisemitic when an American Jew’s connection to Israel is scrutinized to the point of questioning his or her trustworthiness or loyalty to the United States. Dual loyalty accusations also occur on U.S. college campuses when Jewish students are asked to denounce the actions of the Israeli government in order to participate in progressive activities.

Why ‘Dual Loyalty’ Comments Are Anti-Semitic

 https://www.jewishexponent.com/2019/08/28/why-dual-loyalty-is-anti-semitic/

“Where has the Democratic Party gone? Where have they gone when they are defending those two people over the state of Israel?” Trump asked. He continued: “I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”

 

Liz Cheney's Speech On House Floor

Why McConnell-Fox Attacks On 'Puppet' Biden Are Failing | MSNBC

Professor Brendan Nyhan Looks At The Age Of Misinformation And How To Fix It | Morning Joe | MSNBC

Republicans Called Out For Staying Quiet About The Insurrection

Don't Call It Trump's "Big Lie." It's An Attack On America | MSNBC

35 Palestinian and 5 Israeli civilians killed by airstrikes and rocket attacks | DW News

Yang reaps liberal backlash, conservative support from Israel tweet

 https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2021/05/11/yang-reaps-liberal-backlash-conservative-support-from-israel-tweet-1381442

“I'm standing with the people of Israel who are coming under bombardment attacks, and condemn the Hamas terrorists,” Yang tweeted on Monday night. “The people of NYC will always stand with our brothers and sisters in Israel who face down terrorism and persevere.”

 

Pelosi condemns Hamas terrorism, calls for end to violence

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/sullivan-ben-shabbat-discuss-rocket-attacks-667897

 Also on Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned the "escalating and indiscriminate rocket attacks by Hamas against Israel" who "has the right to defend herself against this assault, which is designed to sow terror and undermine prospects for peace."

 

Ignore Jonathan Pollard’s terrible advice

 https://www.jns.org/opinion/ignore-jonathan-pollards-terrible-advice/

 The Pollards are convinced that his spying saved Israeli lives, and it’s possible he did. He’s also innocent of the charge that he indirectly betrayed U.S. agents in the Soviet Union. But the notion that he did no damage to the United States is simply untrue. His theft of the U.S. Radio and Signal Intelligence Manual cost American taxpayers billions of dollars. The sheer magnitude of the volume of material he stole gives the lie to his claims of merely helping Israel without hurting the country to which he had sworn loyalty. Also dubious is the notion, repeated more than once, that Israel would have known nothing about Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons without Pollard since it’s highly likely that the Mossad knew more about what was going on in Iraq than the CIA.

 Omitted from the account is the fact that the life sentence imposed on Pollard by an unsympathetic judge—egged on by a U.S. security establishment ought for revenge—was largely his own doing. His jailhouse interview with Wolf Blitzer, then a correspondent for The Jerusalem Post, in which he justified his crime, allowed the prosecution to claim that he had violated the plea bargain that would have netted him a much lighter sentence.

 Pollard clearly has an axe to grind against the organized American Jewish world, which was slow to embrace his cause. He depicts himself as a hero not only for helping Israel but by refusing to help anti-Semitic investigators pin crimes on other Jews. And yet, American Jewry had good reason for not embracing someone who was doing so much harm to the alliance they had nurtured. Nevertheless, American Jews and their organizations did take up Pollard’s cause once his disproportionate sentence (he received more severe punishment than anyone who had ever spied for a friendly nation), rather than his crime, became the issue. The idea that “no one in the Jewish community had an issue with the life sentence” is simply false.

 The idea that Pollard would, as he told his interviewer, tell a young Jew working in U.S. intelligence to do as he did is astounding. He not only seems unaware of how his crime cast a pall over every loyal American Jew working to defend the world’s greatest democracy, but seems to think it doesn’t really matter.

Ambassador Erdan accuses Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of stoking Jerusalem tensions

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/305917

 Israeli Ambassador to the US Gilad Erdan slammed US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib over her claims Israel was "attacking" the Al Aqsa Mosque during Muslim riots in Jerusalem Monday.

"Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, maybe you should open your eyes to the whole picture? Islam’s 3rd holiest site is being used to stockpile Molotov cocktails and rocks that are being lobbed at the police and at Jewish worshippers praying at the Western Wall, below the Temple Mount," Erdan wrote on Twitter.

"Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have prayed freely at their holy sites, including in Jerusalem, over the month of Ramadan because Israel believes in freedom of religion and Israeli security forces work hard to enable all groups to pray in peace.

"In contrast, some so-called Muslim ‘worshipers’ are curtailing freedom of worship for thousands of Jews who want to celebrate Jerusalem Day, one of the most important days on our calendar marking the reunification of our sacred and holy city.

"Congresswoman, instead of calling for peace and calm, your tweets are the stoking tensions. Maybe you don't realize that your words encourage terror groups such as Hamas to fire rockets into civilian populations and carry out attacks against Jews," Erdan warned.

Ambassador Erdan was responding to a tweet in which Congresswoman Tlaib wrote: "Al-Aqsa is the 3rd holiest site in Islam, & people praying during the holiest days of the holy month of Ramadan have been beaten, gassed, shot, & killed by Israeli forces. They are denied medics & forced to use prayer mats as stretchers."

Why Confederate Lies Live On

 https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/06/confederate-lost-cause-myth/618711/

 It was then, in the late 1800s, that the myth of the Lost Cause began to take hold. The myth was an attempt to recast the Confederacy as something predicated on family and heritage rather than what it was: a traitorous effort to extend the bondage of millions of Black people. The myth asserts that the Civil War was fought by honorable men protecting their communities, and not about slavery at all.

Alabama, Mississippi mark Confederate Memorial Day

 https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/alabama-mississippi-mark-confederate-memorial-day-77318578

 Confederate Memorial Day was made a state holiday in Alabama in 1901, the same year the state's Constitution, which was intended to guarantee white supremacy, was approved.

Confederate Memorial Day: South Carolina closes government offices in observance

 https://www.foxnews.com/us/confederate-memorial-day-south-carolina-closes-government-offices-in-observance

 South Carolina chose May 10 because it is the day when Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson died in 1863 after he was wounded by his own troops and the day Union soldiers captured fleeing Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Georgia in 1865.

Inside Arizona’s election audit, GOP fraud fantasies live on

 https://apnews.com/article/arizona-election-recount-b38a9205c306796f914d62bbad601587

 Despite their obvious partisan biases, the auditors insist they can be trusted because they’re running an independent and transparent operation. Yet they’re recruiting from right-wing groups. They tried to block media access. They fought in court to not disclose written procedures they’re using to count votes and keep ballots secure. They lost.

Controversial Arizona Recounters Won’t Pound On Voters’ Doors After DOJ Complaint

 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/arizona-recount-knocking-on-voters-doors_n_609720fbe4b0b37f8949efd0

 The recount of 2.1 million votes of Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, involves Cyber Ninjas, a company that has no experience with elections or ballots that was hired by the state’s Republican-held Senate. Company owner Doug Logan, a conspiracy theorist and disciple of the “Stop the Steal” lie that the presidential election was rigged, retweeted messages months ago that any vote audit in Arizona would inevitably unearth hundreds of thousands of extra votes for Donald Trump.

 Trump has asked about the Arizona recount “multiple times a day,” The Washington Post has reported. He hinted to guests at Mar-A-Lago that votes that suddenly appear for him in the state could be his road back to the White House.

Pollard: ‘Jew hatred’ a foundational belief of ‘Amalek’ Biden administration

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/pollard-jew-hatred-a-foundational-belief-of-amalek-biden-administration/

 Pollard, who moved to Israel after his parole ended last December, was honored at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva’s annual Jerusalem Day gala, where the capital’s mayor, Moshe Lion, presented him with a certificate of appreciation for his efforts on behalf of the Jewish people. 

“What we’re talking about is Amalek, pure and simple,” he said, equating the Biden administration and the Palestinian leadership with the biblical archenemy of the Israelites.

“Whether you murder a Jew directly… or whether you pin his arms behind his back like the identity Democrats of the same Biden administration — the death of the Jew is the same,” he continued, apparently accusing the American leadership of killing Jews.

Pollard claimed that not all of Israel’s enemies “wear a keffiyeh and carry a Kalashnikov… some of them wear very nice suits… and they hate us with a passion that you can’t even imagine.”

Rep. Ilhan Omar accuses Israel of 'terrorism' amid clash with Hamas

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ilhan-omar-israel-terrorism-hamas

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., accused Israel of "terrorism" following deadly air strikes in the Gaza Strip after Hamas reportedly launched seven rockets at Jerusalem.

"Israeli air strikes killing civilians in Gaza is an act of terrorism. Palestinians deserve protection. Unlike Israel, missile defense programs, such as Iron Dome, don’t exist to protect Palestinian civilians. It’s unconscionable to not condemn these attacks on the week of Eid," Omar wrote on Twitter on Monday.

Blinken says rocket attacks on Israel must stop 'immediately'

 https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/white-house-condemns-rocket-attacks-launched-from-gaza-towards-israel-667782

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday said the rocket attacks from Gaza against Israel should stop "immediately," and he urged all sides to take steps to reduce tensions.

 "We're very focused on the situation in Israel, West Bank, Gaza, very deeply concerned about the rocket attacks that we're seeing now, that they need to stop, they need to stop immediately," Blinken said ahead of meeting with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.

Terrorists fire 200 rockets at Israel in 24 hours; IDF responds with 130 strikes

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/6-israelis-wounded-as-hamas-launches-massive-rocket-barrage-on-ashkelon/

Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip fired a massive barrage of rockets at the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon at dawn on Tuesday, wounding six people and threatening to turn the city “into hell.”

The assault came after a night of almost constant rocket fire on Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip and as the Israel Defense Forces conducted strikes on some 130 targets in the coastal enclave, as part of what it has called “Operation Guardian of the Walls,” the military said. It followed a day that saw a major outbreak of violence from Gaza, including rare rocket fire on Jerusalem.

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman retires, cites 'bullying' by Trump after impeachment testimony

 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/08/01/lt-col-alex-vindman-retires-cites-bullying-over-trump-impeachment/5549219002/

In a statement July 8, Vindman cited "bullying, intimidation and retaliation" from the White House for his decision to retire, according to a statement from his lawyer David Pressman. 

Because he did not receive an assignment as a colonel, he will retire at the lower rank of lieutenant colonel, according to the Army.

An Iraq war veteran and Purple Heart recipient, Vindman had seen his promotion to colonel delayed this summer, a hold-up that some viewed as retaliation for his impeachment testimony.

 

McCarthy sets Wednesday vote on Liz Cheney leadership ouster

 https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-liz-cheney-house-elections-government-and-politics-f04138dae4059b8441bc251dd7093ae5

 “Unlike the left, we embrace free thought and debate,” McCarthy said as he made the case for her ouster. He said lawmakers must represent their constituents “as they see fit, but our leadership team cannot afford to be distracted” from the party’s goals. 

 “Cancel culture is cancel culture, no matter how you look at it,” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, told reporters Monday. “And unfortunately I think there are those that are trying to silence others in the party.”

Trump decries 'cancel culture,' but does he participate in it? He's called for boycotts and punishment for critics

 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/09/03/trump-decries-cancel-culture-but-he-has-participated/3451223001/

 The exact definition of "cancel culture" is amorphous, and there is debate over whether it actually exists or is just the act of holding someone accountable for their actions.

Those who call for a boycott of a certain product or service because of beliefs or actions are sometimes accused of "cancelling." In other instances, public criticism against a person by someone with a large social media platform is considered cancelling.

 

Why Attacking ‘Cancel Culture’ And ‘Woke’ People Is Becoming The GOP’s New Political Strategy

 https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-attacking-cancel-culture-and-woke-people-is-becoming-the-gops-new-political-strategy/

 But there is no agreed-upon definition of “woke” or a formal political organization or movement associated with it. Nor is there an exact definition of what constitutes being “canceled” or a victim of “cancel culture.” However, despite their vagueness, you now see conservative activists and Republican politicians constantly using these terms. That’s because that vagueness is a feature, not a bug. Casting a really wide range of ideas and policies as too woke and anyone who is critical of them as being canceled by out-of-control liberals is becoming an important strategy and tool on the right — in fact, this cancel culture/woke discourse could become the organizing idea of the post-Trump-presidency Republican Party.

Rockets fired at Jerusalem as Hamas ultimatum expires

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/305919

The Red Alert siren which warns of rocket attacks sounded in Jerusalem shortly after 6 PM Monday evening, right as the ultimatum issued by the Hamas terrorist organization expired.

 

If we ‘canceled’ anti-Semitism

 https://religionnews.com/2021/03/04/jews-cancel-culture-dr-suess-antisemitism/

 The right, of course, has its own version of cancel culture. On Jan. 6, had Nancy Pelosi or Michael Pence been “canceled,” it would have been a permanent, lethal cancellation. As in the gallows that the miscreants had already erected.

Cancel Culture: Is Banning the Bible Next?

 https://www.aish.com/ci/s/Cancel-Culture-Is-Banning-the-Bible-Next.html

After all, isn't there slavery in the Bible, alongside discrimination against women, the handicapped, and non-Jews? Isn't there intolerance of gender-fluid identities and racism regarding certain nations? The Bible even calls for genocide against the seven Canaanite nations, and Amalek!

So why shouldn't the small group of "intellectuals," "progressives," and radical kings-and-queens who rule today's "cancel culture" approach the Bible censoriously too? What would better amplify their (illusion of) power than twitter-shaming all Bible-believers, or even burning entire chapters of that "culturally offensive" book?

 

 

When it's ok to be part of cancel culture

 https://www.thejc.com/judaism/features/when-it-s-ok-to-be-part-of-cancel-culture-1.512155

Jews too “cancel” our nemesis, but only once a year. The Torah commands us to “wipe out the memory of Amalek” referring to the biblical tribe who launched unprovoked attacks against us, preying on the weakest Jews who were trailing at the back of the line leaving Egypt (Deuteronomy 25: 19).

Similarly, we’re told that “the memory of the wicked will rot” (Proverbs 10:7). This, we apply to Amalek’s descendant Haman , whose failed attempt at genocide against Jews is recalled on Purim. We purge ourselves of Haman’s name by drowning it out with twirling gragger-rattles, booing and banging each time it’s read from the Scroll of Esther (Esther Rabbah 9: 10).

 

Jewish Word | What Is Cancel Culture—and What Does Judaism Say About It?

 https://momentmag.com/jewish-word-what-is-cancel-culture-and-what-does-judaism-say-about-it/

The term is new, but the questions surrounding canceling are not. They have surfaced in Judaism just as they have in other religions. “The most drastic type of canceling is when we say Yemach Shemo—blot out their name,” says Brandeis University sociologist Sylvia Barack Fishman. “Jews traditionally use that phrase for the Nazis. So when something is a moral monstrosity, that’s when one cancels [it].” Even then, Jewish tradition usually stops just shy of complete cancelation, she adds. Deuteronomy commands us to “blot out the memory of Amalek,” yet the same verse instructs us to “not forget.” That’s why every Shabbat before Purim, Jewish communities read the Torah portion reminding them of Amalek’s sins against the Israelites.

The second wave of “cancel culture”

 https://www.vox.com/22384308/cancel-culture-free-speech-accountability-debate

 But over the past few years, many right-wing conservatives, as well as liberals who object to more strident progressive rhetoric, have developed the view that “cancel culture” is a form of harassment intended to silence anyone who sets a foot out of line under the nebulous tenets of “woke” politics. So the idea now represents a vast assortment of objectives and can hold wildly different connotations, depending on whom you’re talking to.

GOP cancel culture targets Georgia: Republicans want to silence critics of their war on voting

 https://www.salon.com/2021/04/05/gop-cancel-culture-targets-georgia-republicans-want-to-silence-critics-of-their-war-on-voting/

 Many a tear has been shed over wealthy actors losing plum gigs for embarrassing movie studios with their bigoted tweets, or obscure books by famous authors being delisted voluntarily by their own publishing companies, or people making fun of a paranoid right-wing couple in St. Louis who pulled guns on peaceful protesters, or the librarian whose boss prevented her from humiliating herself by doing a rap presentation to onboard college freshmen. Free speech, they argue, is dependent not just on the absence of censorship, but the absence of any consequences whatsoever, including criticism from others who are using their free speech rights. It turns out there was one caveat to this right to speech unfettered by opposition, criticism, or consequences, however: It is a "right" enjoyed only by those on the right. For those who oppose bigotry, vote for Democrats, or express discomfort at overt racism, there is no limit to what can and should be done to silence them. This was always evident — see how Trump unleashed tear gas on peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square — and is only becoming more clear in the fight over voting rights in the state of Georgia. 

 Fox News host Laura Ingraham — who shamelessly switches back and forth between telling progressive athletes to "shut up and dribble" and whining about how liberal criticism "cancels" conservatives — made a robust pro-cancellation argument Thursday night. "We're going to punish you," she threatened, raging against anti-racist statements from corporations, and arguing, "these corporations are going to face the wrath of GOP officials as well as the tens of millions of American consumers." Rachel Campos-Duffy of Fox News didn't even bother to pretend there was no contradiction here, suggesting on Friday that it's time for "American conservatives to cancel sports" in order to force them to "respect" conservatives, i.e. by being silent in the face of racist voter suppression.

The Great Hypocrisy of Right-Wingers Claiming ‘Cancel Culture’

 https://www.thenation.com/article/society/republicans-cancel-culture-kaepernick/

 Greene and the entire right wing are currently using “cancel culture” in the same way Rudy Giuliani used to deploy “a noun, verb and 9/11”—as a handy-dandy phrase to inoculate themselves from wholly valid criticism. (Rhetorically, “political correctness” is its more direct predecessor, but then Black Twitter invented the term “cancel” and white conservatives decided that, like everything else, they just had to have it.) The current ubiquity of the phrase belies its central thesis, since all the airtime and column space conservatives are given to talk about cancellation proves they were never cancelled in the first place.

My Solution To The Get Crisis (V20)

From Christian Missionary to Observant Jew

https://www.aish.com/sp/so/From-Christian-Missionary-to-Observant-Jew.html?s=mpbot 

 The recent story of Michael Elkcohen, the undercover Christian missionary who masqueraded as an Orthodox Jew and infiltrated an Orthodox community in Jerusalem, sent shockwaves around the world. The father admitted his missionary intentions in 2014 but managed to avoid further scrutiny by relocating to the Anglo community of French Hill. A year ago, a journalist familiar with his confession notified Shannon Nuszen, the director of Beyneynu, a new watchdog organization that exposes missionary activity in Israel, about the couple. They had been spotted using two separate Facebook profiles – one with Jewish identities and one with Christian identities.

'A fairy tale gone wrong': Acosta on right's railing against 'cancel culture'

Members of Congress condemn evictions of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah

 https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/members-of-congress-condemn-evictions-of-palestinians-in-sheikh-jarrah-667727

 “The forced removal of long-time Palestinian residents in Sheikh Jarrah is abhorrent and unacceptable. The Administration should make clear to the Israeli government that these evictions are illegal and must stop immediately,” Elizabeth Warren, senator from Massachusetts, said in a tweet Saturday.

The property under dispute was owned by a Jewish organization before 1948 until it was captured by Jordan in Israel’s War of Independence. The land was taken back by Israel during the 1967 war, and a law was passed in 1970 allowing Israeli Jews to reclaim property in East Jerusalem that was held before the 1948 war. The property has been the subject of a legal battle ever since.

Israel’s Supreme Court is set to meet Monday to review the Palestinian residents’ appeal of a court-ordered eviction.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the representative from New York, also weighed in. “We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem. Israeli forces are forcing families from their homes during Ramadan and inflicting violence. It is inhumane and the US must show leadership in safeguarding the human rights of Palestinians,” she said in a tweet Saturday.

Israel's critics are right: ‘Sheikh Jarrah’ exemplifies the Arab-Israeli conflict

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/305845

 These four houses, subject to the pending eviction notice, have already been the subject of extensive litigation in Israel, with appeals going all the way up to Israel’s very liberal Supreme Court and with all parties receiving representation and due process. The court determined last week that these homes must be returned to their legal owners and that another four homes shall be returned to their legal owners by the end of the summer. The court further determined that the people currently living in these homes had been illegally squatting in these homes for decades without paying rent or holding proof of ownership.

On modern Orthodoxy

 https://www.jpost.com/judaism/on-modern-orthodoxy-631076

 AFTER MORE than 15 years of teaching in the Modern Orthodox yeshivot and seminaries in Israel, I have found that the students themselves are confused about Modern Orthodoxy and perceive it as some sort of “diet orthodoxy,” same great beliefs, but fewer observances. To quote Kaplan yet again, who is in turn citing Heilman, the Modern Orthodox Jew sees himself as a criminal. He is “in theory committed to meeting the demands of both modernity and Orthodoxy; however, insofar as he perceives these demands as being inherently contradictory, his commitment to the demands of modernity results in his selectively violating or, at the very least, not wholly living up to the full range of the demands that Orthodoxy makes upon him. To be involved in the modern world, ipso facto means to live a life that involves the constant compromising of the rigorous norms of Orthodoxy, norms whose legitimacy the Modern Orthodox Jew fully recognizes; in a word, it means to live a criminal existence.” Often my students will report having spent Shabbat with their “really religious cousins.” When I ask them what they mean by that, they usually explain that they are haredi (ultra-Orthodox). As if there is this understanding that haredi Jews are the ones who are “really religious” while what we do as Modern Orthodox Jews falls short of the real thing.

Compartmentalization and Synthesis in Modern Orthodox Jewish Education

 https://www.thelehrhaus.com/commentary/compartmentalization-and-synthesis-in-modern-orthodox-jewish-education/

 As early as 1986, Jack Bieler argued that “The modern Orthodox school itself is undermining rather than supporting the religious outlook that it should be encouraging within its student body.”^[11] Samuel Heilman, in his landmark 2006 study of the American Jewish Orthodox community, describes several factors that have contributed to this reality.^[12] First, he notes that with increasing professional specialization and training in fields of medicine, law, and business, Modern Orthodox parents find themselves without the religious training or free time to be actively engaged in the education of their children. As Heilman puts it, “The school had hoped not to replace the family and community, but in practice in the modern world it did.”^[13] This growing divide between the roles of parents and teachers – indeed, between school and home – means that students’ lived communal and familial experiences develop separately from their educational encounters; they often learn one thing at school and then see something very different at home. To make matters worse, the very teachers that students engage with at school are often at odds with the core values that Modern Orthodoxy espouses. This reality creates significant additional barriers to communicating a Modern Orthodox worldview within our schools, as Heilman further notes that

the teachers in their schools and many rabbis did not share their values and remained unprepared to endorse the modern orthodox life trajectory even tacitly… the teachers often did not share the same neighborhoods and certainly not the same community as the families of the students they taught.^[14]

Indeed, identifying, recruiting, and hiring Modern Orthodox faculty role models (especially for limmudei kodesh classes) is a such a daunting task that Heilman estimates that by 2003 up to two-thirds of Judaic studies teachers in schools were Haredi.

 

Jared and Ivanka do their own thing as observant Jews. And that’s normal.

 https://www.jta.org/2017/06/15/politics/jared-and-ivanka-do-their-own-thing-as-observant-jews-and-thats-normal

 Unsurprisingly, haredi Orthodox Jews — the fervent “black hats” who populate enclaves like Monsey, New York, and Lakewood, New Jersey — abide by halachah. Indeed, a whole subculture has grown around adopting “chumrahs,” or more stringent ways to observe Jewish law.

But among self-identified modern Orthodox Jews, the picture is more diverse, says Pew. Nearly a quarter say religion isn’t “very important” in their lives, more than a fifth aren’t certain of their belief in God and 18 percent hardly attend services.

When it comes to Judaism’s legal particulars, nearly a quarter of modern Orthodox Jews don’t light candles on Friday night, 17 percent don’t keep kosher in the home and about a fifth handle money on Shabbat. Alas, the survey did not ask about golfing.