Al Dura is a Palestinian Hoax: Israeli government concludes al Dura was alive after gun battle

YNET   The committee, formed in 2012, was first headed by now Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, and concluded its inquiry recently under the chairmanship of Yuval Steinitz. The report itself focuses on the controversial September 2000 France 2 broadcast – in which the boy is seen hiding behind his father while the two were under IDF gunfire – and conclude that al-Dura was still alive at the end of the video.[...]

According to the Steinitz-Ya'alon committee findings, in contrary to what had been published before, there was no evidence that the boy or his father were even injured at the time the video was shot.

In addition, the committee noted there was reasonable doubt whether the IDF was responsible for the bullet holes seen in the wall behind the two.

Furthermore, the Israeli report points a blaming finger at the France 2 news report. [...]

NY Times    The new findings published on Sunday were the work of an Israeli government review committee, which said its task was to re-examine the event “in light of the continued damage it has caused to Israel.” They come after years of debate over the veracity of the France 2 report, which was filmed by a Gaza correspondent, Talal Abu Rahma, and narrated by the station’s Jerusalem bureau chief, Charles Enderlin, who was not at the present at the scene. 

The Israeli government review suggested, as other critics have, that the France 2 footage might have been staged. It noted anomalies like the apparent lack of blood in appropriate places at the scene, and said that raw footage from the seconds after the boy’s apparent death seem to show him raising his arm. 

“Contrary to the report’s claim that the boy is killed, the committee’s review of the raw footage showed that in the final scenes, which were not broadcast by France 2, the boy is seen to be alive,” the review said. “Based on the available evidence, it appears significantly more likely that Palestinian gunmen were the source of the shots which appear to have impacted in the vicinity” of the boy and his father.

Israeli economy doomed without Chareidim & Arab workforce participation

Haaretz    The Israeli economy cannot thrive without ultra-Orthodox Jews and Israel's Arabs being more fully integrated into the workforce, the National Economic Council warned the cabinet at a meeting last week.[...]

The most serious problem here, however, is related to working-age populations that are not employed - meaning, the low workforce-participation rate of the country's Arabs and the ultra-Orthodox population. The problem is the product of a lack of desire to be employed, when it comes to the Haredim, as well as low skill levels. (A large proportion of Haredi men choose to engage in Torah study full-time rather than work. )

The council presented the cabinet with a slide, showing that between 1997 and 2012, the poverty rate of the non-Haredi, non-Arab population remained unchanged at 12%, while the rate among Arabs and Haredim skyrocketed from 38% to 58%. As a result, Israel's population consists of three separate countries: Arab Israelis, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and everyone else. And that last segment is actually contracting while the two weaker segments are growing.

In 2009, 71% of those aged 25 to 29 entering the labor force belonged to the third, more highly skilled, group (i.e., the non-Haredi and non-Arab sector ). The council said, though, that this group will decline to just 59% of the newly employed by 2019, and 53% by 2029. Israel is, therefore, moving in the direction whereby if things are not changed, the non-Arab, non-Haredi working population with relatively high productivity will become just over half of the new members of the workforce - a situation that is not sustainable. [...]

The council says that as a result of the situation, as early as next year the country will have a 3% structural deficit - an excess of government expenditures, including items such as social welfare payments to the poor - over government income from taxes and economic growth.

The structural deficit is a reference to a situation in which the government spends more than it is taking in, not as a result of transient factors but rather the entrenched structural characteristics of the economy. Even more alarming, the council says, is the fact that the structural deficit will be 10.5% by 2050, if the current situation is not addressed.

Israel needs to decide, the council says: It can continue down its current path of greater government outlays for the poor at the expense of increased taxes, and reduced government spending in other areas. This will perpetuate poverty among Haredim and Arabs and impose an impossible burden on the remaining working population.

Alternatively, Israel can better integrate the Arabs and ultra-Orthodox into the general workforce, increasing their participation and substantially enhancing their skill levels through education.

The council's assessment is that if the three population groups are indeed integrated into one productive workforce, by 2030 Israel will once more be competitive in the world economy.

Interview with the Brisker Rav: Rav Yisroel Salanter tried being a chassid

This was published by Rabbi Leo Jung in Men of the Spirit page 210-211

*This interview, [by Pinehas Biberfeld] published first in Ha-Neeman, the organ of Israeli Ye­shivah circles, is based on the present writer's recording, from memory, his conversations with Reb Velvele. The answers, deeply engraved upon his heart, are offered here.

[only the last questions are published here]

QUESTION: I know that the Master considers it more important to conduct a Talmud Torah for boys than to issue the "Hanee­man."

The rabbi, as was his wont, ran to the book-case, fetched a copy of the Rambam, where at the end of the Laws about Leprosy the following passage occurs: "But the conversation of the proper Israelite deals only with wisdom and Torah, therefore the Lord helps them and grants them both, as it is said:  "Then they that feared the Lord spoke one with another and the Lord hearkened."

QUESTION: But the Rambam mentions Torah and wisdom, thus obviously there is room for both?

ANSWER: He remained silent.

QUESTION: R. Israel Salanter, too, issued a monthly called Tevunah (Comprehension)?

ANSWER: This is an argument against your point. He stopped the publication very soon. His stopping it indicates that this was not, eventually, his way. He tried many things, among them also the way of Hassidism.

update: There is a much more detailed discussion of Rav Yisroel Salanter's relationship to Chassidus in Rav Avraham Eliyahu Kaplan's sefer בעקבות היראה

Rate of global warming slows significantly

Scientific American  Extreme global warming is less likely in coming decades after a slowdown in the pace of temperature rises so far this century, an international team of scientists said on Sunday.

Warming is still on track, however, to breach a goal set by governments around the world of limiting the increase in temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, unless tough action is taken to limit rising greenhouse gas emissions.

"The most extreme rates of warming simulated by the current generation of climate models over 50- to 100-year timescales are looking less likely," the University of Oxford wrote about the findings in the journal Nature Geoscience.

The rate of global warming has slowed after strong rises in the 1980s and 1990s, even though all the 10 warmest years since reliable records began in the 1850s have been since 1998. [...[]

Kolko case: Learning to believe the unbelievable

When we read about a horrible crime, we look for a rational explanation by seeking out the words regarding the accused, "he was a loner", "he was strange". We typically do find this to be true for those who fire automatic weapons in school massacres or cases such as the kidnapping, abuse and murder of women and children. However in the case of sexual abuse by pedophiles - we are stuck with the fact that often the perpetrator is amongst the most beloved of the community. Typically the pedophile picks a lonely child and grooms him for abuse by being his "special friend".  Consequently many can't believe that this distinguished family man, this charismatic teacher, this deeply spiritual clergyman would do such a thing. Many can't accept that the pervasive belief  that a man who abuses and rapes children is  mentally ill, a loner, a stranger - is typically wrong.

Because of the deeply seated belief as to the inherent evilness of pedophiles, we have a hard time accepting that the beloved uncle or neighbor is a child rapist. Consequently even when a pedophile confesses - it is often not accepted as being true. And surely when the accused is convicted despite his protests of innocence. The belief that nice people don't do horrible things conflicts with the fact that this person was convicted or confessed. 

This is the problem of cognitive dissonance - resolving strongly conflicting facts. However this dissonance is difficult to live with and thus we have a need to resolve it. One resolution is that we decide he wasn't so nice after all. That his good deeds were fake and that we really didn't know him. While in fact his accomplishments are often genuine - but viewing him as a phony allows us to accept his guilt.  

The other way of resolving the dissonance is to say that the conviction or even confession is not true. How does one ignore the fact of confession by the accused. One rationalization is that he was being railroaded by lying, vindictive kids who were trying to cover up their own misdeeds. Furthermore the accused could not handle the expenses of years of legal help. Therefore when faced with the likelihood of a life sentence or a plea bargain of 5 to 10 years - the plea bargain is the rational option. Because this does happen - it is possible for a rational human being to discount clear evidence of guilt. However the fact that it is unlikely - should cause the true and faithful believers in innocence to at least have doubts.

The Seridei  Aish notes that for a person to be a believer, the fact must move from being an outside assertion - to being accepted internally. This is true of all beliefs. Therefore there are those who keep externally the facts of confession or conviction. They acknowledge that a conviction or confession has occurred - but it is not internalized. The question then becomes, "What helps us internalize these unpleasant facts?"

The most helpful aid to accepting unpleasant facts is education. As we become more educated about the niceness of pedophiles, the dissonance becomes reduced.  As we learn that genuinely loving and spiritual people can do these horrible crimes - the more readily we will deal realistically with these crimes - both in terms of prevention and conviction. As the dissonance is reduced, the easier is it to accept reality.  It is time to accept reality.

Enlightenment & the Jews: What part should G-d play in secular culture?

This is the first of a series of posts on the relationship of Judaism to secular society and secular knowledge. I had previously mentioned the Seridei Aish's view that the Mussar Movement was a frum enlightenment which I understood literally. Dr. Marc Shapiro corrected me and said that I can not take this literally. Apparently the Seridei Aish simply meant it was enlightenment - but only in the spiritual sense and was never meant to include the issue of secular knowledge or tikun olam. However no one else seems to have characterized the Mussar Movement as frum haskala.  Dr. Shapiro said he would send me a letter from the Seridei Aish that discusses the issue more fully.

However once on the topic - since it is the issue today with Rabbi Lipman and his attempt to bring the chareidi society into the modern secular world with compulsory secular studies in high school, compulsory draft and in general a compulsory interaction with the secular world - I thought it would be of value to explore the historic lessons of the traditional Orthodox world dealing with the secular world. The issues facing Israeli Chareidim now were faced by the Jewish community beginning with the end of the 17th century when the secular enlightenment occurred together with emancipation from the ghetto - and continued to the present day.

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Paul Johnson (A History of the Jews page 298-299): Although the haskalah was a specific episode in Jewish history, and the maskil or enlightened Jew is a special type peculiar to Judaism, the Jewish enlightenment is nevertheless part of the general European enlightenment. But it is, more particularly, linked to the enlightenment in Germany, and this for a very good reason. The movement in both France and Germany was concerned to examine and readjust man's attitude to God. But whereas in France its tendency was to repudiate or downgrade God, and tame religion, in Germany it sought genuinely to reach a new understanding of and accommodation with the religious spirit in man. The French enlightenment was brilliant but fundamentally frivolous; the German was serious, sincere and creative. Hence it was to the German version that enlightened Jews felt attracted, which influenced them most, and to which they in turn made a substantial contribution. For perhaps the first time Jews in Germany began to feel a distinct affinity with German culture, and thus sowed in their hearts the seeds of a monstrous delusion.

To intellectuals in Christian society, the question posed by the enlightenment was really: how large a part, if any, should God play in an increasingly secular culture? To Jews, the question was rather what part, if any, should secular knowledge play in the culture of God. They were still enfolded in the medieval vision of a total religious society. It is true that Maimonides had argued strongly in favour of admitting secular science and had demonstrated how completely it could be reconciled to the Torah. But his argument had failed to convince most Jews. Even a relatively moderate man like the Maharal of Prague had attacked Rossi precisely for bringing secular criteria to bear on religious matters. A few Jews, for instance attended medical school in Padua. But they turned their back on the world outside the Torah the moment they re-entered the ghetto in the evening, as indeed did Jewish men of business. Of course many went out into the world never to return; but that had always happened. What the awesome example of Spinoza had shown, to the satisfaction of most Jews, was that a man could not drink at the well of gentile knowledge without deadly risk of poisoning his Judaic life. The ghetto remained not merely a social but an intellectual universe on its own. By the mid-eighteenth century the results were pitifully apparent to all. As long ago as the Tortosa dispute, early in the fifteenth century the Jewish intelligentsia had been made to seem backward and obscurantist. Now, more than 300 years later, the Jews appeared to educated Christians - or even uneducated ones - figures of contempt and derision dressed in funny clothes, imprisoned in ludicrous superstition, as remote and isolated from modern society as one of their lost tribes. The gentiles knew nothing, and cared less about Jewish scholarship. Like the ancient Greeks before them, they were not even aware it existed. For Christian Europe there had always been a 'Jewish problem'. In the Middle Ages it had been: how to prevent this subversive minority from contaminating religious truth, and social order? No fear of that now. For gentile intellectuals, at least the problem was now rather: how, in common humanity, to rescue this pathetic people from their ignorance and darkness

Eli Weinstein charged again - for $6 million scam

Asbury Park Press   A Lakewood man will spend at least the next few days in jail on charges that he and two others swindled a New Zealander out of more than $6 million in a stock scam.

Eliyahu Weinstein, 37, was awaiting sentencing on wire fraud and money-laundering charges when he was arrested at his home Tuesday morning.

Also arrested Tuesday were Alex Schleider, 47, also of Lakewood and Aaron Muschel, 63, of Brooklyn. The trio are charged with swindling the unnamed victim by misrepresenting that the man’s investment would be used to buy shares in last year’s Facebook IPO and real estate.[...]

Weinstein in January plead guilty to a count of wire fraud and a count of money laundering in connection with a real estate ponzi scheme that cost investors about $200 million. He was released on bail with a number of stipulations, including not engaging in any financial transaction worth more than $1,000 without the permission of a court-appointed special counsel.But in a “blatant violation” of that stipulation, according to FBI Special Agent Karl Ubellacker, who signed the complaint, Weinstein and his two co-conspirators convinced the victim to send them nearly $7.2 million in wire transfers in February and March 2012 for a purported investment in upcoming Facebook stock.[...]

Calling another Jew a rasha (evil): Punishment and Repentance

Kiddushin (28a): It was taught: If someone called a person a slave then he is banned (nidoi). If he called him a mamzer then he is given 40 lashes. If he called the other person a rasha (wicked) the victim can damage the perpetrator’s livelihood.(יורד עמו לחייו

Rashi (Kiddushin 28a): Beis din does not get involved but the victim is allowed to hate the perpetrator and damage his livelihood and to ruin his business.

Ritva (Kiddushin 28a): This is mida keneged mida (measure for measure). Since the perpetrator caused him a loss in his well being because society does not have mercy on one called a rasha. Therefore beis din does not get involved but it is permitted for him to damage the perpetrator's livelihood and to cause him a loss in his well being.
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If someome discovers that they are wrong about another person that they have publicly condemned - what should be the response?

Berachos(31a-b): [Soncino Translation]   R. Hamnuna said: How many most important laws can be learnt from these verses relating to Hannah!33 Now Hannah, she spoke in her heart: from this we learn that one who prays must direct his heart. Only her lips moved: from this we learn that he who prays must frame the words distinctly with his lips. But her voice could not be heard: from this, it is forbidden to raise one's voice in the Tefillah. Therefore Eli thought she had been drunken: from this, that a drunken person is forbidden to say the Tefillah. And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken, etc.34 R. Eleazar said: From this we learn that one who sees in his neighbour something unseemly must reprove him. And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord. ‘Ulla, or as some say R. Jose b. Hanina, said: She said to him: Thou art no lord in this matter, nor does the holy spirit rest on thee, that thou suspectest me of this thing. Some say, She said to him: Thou art no lord, [meaning] the Shechinah and the holy spirit is not with you in that you take the harsher and not the more lenient view of my conduct. Dost thou not know that I am a woman of sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink. R. Eleazar said: From this we learn that one who is suspected wrongfully must clear himself. Count not thy handmaid for a daughter of Belial; a man who says the Tefillah when drunk is like one who serves idols. It is written here, Count not thy handmaid for a daughter of Belial, and it is written elsewhere, Certain sons of Belial have gone forth from the midst of thee. Just as there the term is used in connection with idolatry, so here. Then Eli answered and said, Go in Peace. R. Eleazar said: From this we learn that one who suspects his neighbour of a fault which he has not committed must beg his pardon;6 nay more, he must bless him, as it says, And the God of Israel grant thy petition.

Why did the Lakewood establishment and Rav Belsky get it wrong?

Now that Kolko has confessed  to being a molester, the big question  is why didn't his supporters realize this? The supporters who insisted that rabbis can properly investigated and deal with judging the guilt or innocence. The big resistance to going to the police has been the insistence that these matters should be handled within the community. There is no question that the Kolko case was not handled properly within the community. It was because of the establishment rabbis that Kolko was allowed to stay in the community and have access to others.

How is Lakewood going to justify not only facilitating a child molester to continue to go free but also persecuting his victims. How is Rabbi Belsky going to explain his "investigation" and public declaration  not only of Kolko's innocence but that it was prohibited to go to the police. If the victim had not gone to the police, there is no doubt that Kolko would have destroyed many other innocent lives from our community. In fact it was only because other victims suddenly came forward that  he confessed. How many more victims are there? Even  now in England the community is intimidating victims from testifying in the Halpern case.

Hopefully G-d will give these rabbinic leaders the understanding to make major changes in the way they deal with such cases in the future. Hopefully they will no longer try to destroy those who feel that the police and secular  justice system are the only way to properly deal with these cases.  Hopefully they will wake up before their own children and grandchildren suffer from this illness.

Perhaps they will even publicly acknowledge the serious errors that they have made in the past and promise not to do repeat them in the future.

Yosef Kolko pleads guilty to charges today after learning 2 more victims came forward

Asbury Park Press   A former Lakewood Yeshiva teacher today admitted sexually abusing a boy, after authorities said two more victims of his came forward to them as his trial was underway.Sheriff's officers placed Yosef Kolko in handcuffs and led him to the Ocean County Jail after he pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault, attempted aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and child endangerment, and state Superior Court Judge Francis R. Hodgson revoked his $125,000 bail. [...]

 Kolko’s trial on the charges involving that one boy got underway last week, but Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Laura Pierro told the judge that the defendant decided to plead guilty after learning that two more victims had come forward to authorities.

Pierro said she was contacted late Friday afternoon by a young woman who claimed she was victimized by Kolko, and the attorney for a young man who also claimed to be a victim.


Pierro said she met with the additional victims this morning and would have sought to admit their testimony, had the trial proceeded.


In exchange for Kolko’s guilty plea, the state would not proceed with additional charges related to the additional victims, but no other promises were made to him, Pierro said.

Binyamin Satz of Nahlaot sentenced to 15 years

YNET   The Jerusalem District Court sentenced Binyamin Satz, a 46-year-old resident of Jerusalem, to 15 years in prison after he was found guilty of sodomy and indecent acts against a number of haredi children, some as young as seven 

Haaretz  (January 2013) The Jerusalem District Court last week convicted the first man to be tried among several defendants accused of sexually abusing children in Jerusalem’s Nahlaot neighborhood, an affair police initially called the biggest pedophile case in the state's history.

The court convicted Binyamin Satz, who was the first of 18 men to be arrested in the case that came to light in August, 2011. Two more men are now on trial, and 15 others were released and have not yet been charged in the affair that sent shock waves through the neighborhood that is home to many ultra-Orthodox Jews.

The judges found Satz guilty, but struck down his confession, which they determined police had obtained through “unfair psychological pressure.” Satz was acquitted of one of the counts in the indictment.

From the moment the case hit the headlines, neighborhood residents and defense attorneys claimed that it was the result of a witch hunt and mass hysteria, and that few if any children had been harmed.

According to these sources, the case grew to such dimensions (at one point more than 200 youngsters were said to have been abused) because of the dynamics in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, in which stories were magnified or even invented.

Those who maintain the stories were exaggerated say false accusations were leveled at the weakest people in the neighborhood ­– men living alone, some of whom are psychologically impaired. In one case, a resident is believed to have committed suicide because of the rumors that he was involved in abusing the children. Others were forced to leave the neighborhood and even the country.