Friday, April 30, 2021

Meron - Where a Lifestyle Demands Risk Taking - and When Soul-Searching is not an Option

 

Just as the oblivious are oblivious to being oblivious, fanatics are oblivious to their fanaticism. People who live within subcultures where extreme zeal is the norm view mainstream society as abnormal. Excessive and unreasonable religiosity appears ordinary if you swim in a subculture unmoored from enlightenment and reason.  

Where is the boundary between the religious pilgrim and religious fanatic?  Between the religiously observant (which I consider myself) and the fanatic? 

Some Hindus voluntarily let themselves be trampled by specially decorated cows as a sign of piety. Most Hindus don't.  Muslim pilgrims have been stampeded on the haj in Mecca. Hundreds of Buddhists have also been killed on pilgrimages.

All opiates the masses turn to have some inherent danger. Sports fanatics have also been stampeded to death. So have disco, rock concert, and nightclub revelers.

These thoughts race through my mind as  I try to process the events overnight (Thursday-Friday, April 30) at Mt. Meron, where at least 44 believers were crushed to death and dozens more hospitalized as they pushed their way toward a shrine.

Traditionally – or superstitiously – take your pick, many of the ultra-faithful spend the Lag B’Omer festival at the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, a Mishnaic sage for his hillula (yahrzeit).

Rebbe’s and clerics with clout control who lights the massive bonfires, who gets close.

It all has something to do with the mystical Book of Zohar, a devastating ancient plague that ended on Lab B’Omer, and the conclusion of the counting of days between the Passover and Shavuot festivals.

Yet, the reasons for the mega-pilgrimage need not detain us since embellishments and evolving legends are organic to things religious as sects and seers infuse further meaning into an existing ritual.

Besides anthropologists, who goes to the Meron pilgrimage?  

Individuals on the ultra-religious and politically fanatic spectrum. Not just the nutters of (militantly anti-Zionist) Toldot Aharon and their ilk, and not just  (Hardal) MK Itamar Ben-Gvir and his ilk, but also your garden variety adolescent boys and young men (and women) channeling passion via religious zeal. Seekers. Believers. Chabad messianics. Ex-cons. Good people, most. The lost and the bored. People suffering ennui looking to be part of something significant and meaningful.

If this had been a tragedy that befell non-Haredim their clerics would be implying that the loss of life was avoidable if only – and this is a partial list in progress – the dead had not had sex with their menstruating wives, the boys had not masturbated, the females had dressed modestly, everyone had checked their mezuzahs, and scrupulously observed the sabbath in an ultra-Orthodox manner… for as we know such flaws led to the Holocaust and IDF helicopter accidents. 

In the instance of Meron, we can rule out Reform Judaism as a reason (which some rabbis say led to the Shoah).

Why would people want to crowd together at a time when the COVID epidemic is still a real threat? Why would they shlep their young children to such a place? Especially since getting back in time for Shabbat would be a problem. 

For the same reason, they continually behaved immaturely during the height of the COVID-19 plague: because the survival of their subculture demands risk-taking. Insularity from the mainstream necessitates the ongoing, daily, collective life of the sect. 

Collateral deaths are the price to pay for the lifestyle they have chosen.

In the days ahead, the long beards and their apologists will blame the police (whose instructions the fanatics routinely disregard and cops they effortlessly slur as Nazis). They will blame the government (though Prime Minister Netanyahu is deep in their pocket). Or the Egged bus service. 

However, very few will do any meaningful soul-searching. Few will question their lifestyle. 

It never ends. On May 9-10, a different subdivision of Jewish zealots will seek to clash with Muslim religious fanatics on the Temple Mount. Fanaticism fuels itself.

What makes last night's calamity so painfully throbbing is that it encapsulates so much of what is broken in the State of Israel in 2021 – disregard of law and order, indifference toward Derech Eretz, selfishness, religious smugness, political drift, and a spiritual vacuum at the national level.

בָּרוּךְ דַּיַּן הָאֱמֶת

 

 

 

Sunday, April 25, 2021

Why now? Why are Arabs rioting in Jerusalem? Ten Points to Ponder

There are at least 10 reasons that I can think of (in random order) to explain what's happening in Jerusalem,

1.   As one Arab community organizer explained on Reshet Bet Sunday, Arab youths are bored. They have few facilities for sports or supervised recreation.

2. Social media lionizes terrible behavior.  Part of what set off the latest rioting was that Arab youths have been exploiting TikTok. They’ve filmed each other slapping or roughing up ultra-Orthodox Jewish passerby on the light rail or near Jerusalem’s Old City walls and posted the outrageous images.

The ultra-Orthodox and Arabs share the “seam” area that, until 1967, divided the city. Jordan had occupied eastern  Jerusalem and the West Bank. The TikTok attacks were unprovoked and (so far as I can gather) have drawn no condemnation from the Palestinian political or clerical echelon.

3.    In March, during Purim, drunk and disorderly anti-Zionist Haredim attacked an Arab van driver who got stuck in the neighborhood while the ultra-Orthodox demonstrating against the Israeli government. Fearing for his life, the driver accelerated and accidentally ran over and killed a Jewish bystander.

Connected to the above, some Haredim (and Lehava-affiliated Hardelnikim) see themselves as biologically and spiritually superior to everyone not like them.

 4.     During the month of Ramadan – which began Monday, 12 April and ends on the evening of Wednesday, May 12 – people fast all daylight while working as usual.  The faithful don’t get much sleep because they’re eating, celebrating, watching TV, and praying while it is still dark. So, when daylight comes again, nerves are frayed. In many places around the world, Ramadan is marked by intramural violence or violence against non-Muslims.

5.     Testosterone – Arab youths (and their Hardel + ultra-Orthodox counterparts) have no sanctioned outlet for sexual energy.

 6.     Damascus Gate Steps - Rather than create an inviting Ramadan outdoor festival space on the promenade outside the Old City’s Damascus Gate (the one Muslims tend to use to reach the Al Aksa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock esplanade), the police forcibly forbade people from congregating.

One reason given is COVID restrictions, yet obviously, no distancing is or can be enforced on the Temple Mount. So, the Arabs understandably see the Damascus Gate step policy as humiliating. It is undoubtedly inconsistent. Some years hanging out on the steps is allowed, and some not.

7.     Palestinian Elections set for May 22  – various factions from Fatah to Hamas are keen to exploit any possibility of anti-Israelism to assert their bona fides.

The PLO demands that Arabs in metropolitan Jerusalem (including those who have Israeli blue ID cards) be allowed to vote in the Palestinian elections. 

My view is that Arabs who live in former Jordanian-occupied Jerusalem should be allowed to vote in Palestinian Authority elections just as they did in the 2005 PA presidential and 2006 Palestinian Authority legislative elections.

With an eye on the Smotrich-Ben Givir party, he needs to form a government, Netanyahu has let PA president and octogenarian-in-chief Mahmoud Abbas twist in the wind. He is not saying anything publicly about whether Israel will allow Jerusalem Arabs to vote. 

Abbas hints that if they can’t vote, he will put off the election. Rather convenient for him. It is an election his side is likely to lose to Hamas.

Hamas threatens that if the election is put off it will blame Israel (and maybe Abbas too) and launch more rockets from Gaza. For now, it says the rockets it is launching are in solidarity with Jerusalem Arabs.

8.     Netanyahu needs a crisis.

The PM’s usual modus operandi is to let a crisis fester before saying or doing anything.  He and his minion-ministers let days go by and said nothing about revolting anti-Arab violence. Obliquely, only on Saturday night did Bibi call on all sides to stand down.

Iran-Syria - His people leaked details about recent IDF attacks against Iran. The gloating may have led the mullahs to press Hamas to heat things up.

Dissing Jordan - Jordan does not influence the Jerusalem Arab street. Still, it does have some sway with the clerics who run the mosques on the Temple Mount.  On March 10/11 Netanyahu forced Jordan’s Prince Hussein bin Abdullah to cancel a scheduled visit to the Temple Mount. Supposedly the kerfuffle was over a disagreement over how many armed guards the prince could take up with him. Bibi also made Jordan beg for desperately needed water (which we are, I am pretty sure, obliged to provide under the peace treaty).

9.     Things really really got out of hand Thursday night when the police allowed hundreds of Lehava alt-right Jewish louts (and anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox hangers-on) to march provocatively into the Arab neighborhoods.

Some of these Jewish hoodlums also attacked Arab cleaners and restaurant workers in western Jerusalem. Jerusalem’s mayor had asked the police to ban the Jewish thugs from marching. However, he was told that legally the rally could not be preempted. Trust me. Had Bibi messaged the police to find a way to block the Lehava provocateurs, cops would have. But the mayhem fed the crisis. 

An aside: The anti-Zionist Edah HaChareidis rabbis have now instructed their randy youths not to participate in any further demonstrations or anti-Arab violence.

10.   100 Years of Conflict - The events over the past days, even if God forbid they cascade into a Third Intifada must be seen as another episode in a conflict that has spanned 100 year-plus. 

 It all started when we hit them back.

 

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Israel at 73 numbers

 

73 years of Independence (Third Commonwealth)

23,928 fallen fighters

9,140,500 total population (end 2020)

21.0% Arab (within Green Line)

73.9% of Israel’s population on both sides of Green Lin is Jewish (***)

27.9% of the total budget expenditure (how much spent on social welfare)

NIS 21,063 (average monthly income before taxes)

NIS 8,115 (Households of one person average gross monthly money income)

NIS 10,782 (Average Monthly Wages per Employee Job Israeli workers)

355 killed (Casualties in road accidents)

6,312 dead from COVID-10

89% of self-defined Haredim say religion should take precedence over democratic values (*)

65% of self-defined Orthodox say religion should take precedence over democratic values (*)

62% of all Israelis say democratic values should trump religious halacha (*)

37.9% believe religious and democratic values are equally important in the state’s ethos (**)

34.5% say Jewish law should take precedence

26.6 percent say democratic values should take precedence (**)

83.6 percent of those on the Orthodox spectrum say religious law should take precedence over democratic values (**)

18% of Israelis self-define as being on the Orthodox spectrum

23% of Israelis self-define as traditional in their religious practice

34% of Israelis say that what binds them to the country is thousands of years of Jewish history (**)

76.7 percent of those on Orthodox spectrum say what binds them is the Bible

65.9 percent of self-defined right-wing Israelis say the country should spend to encourage diaspora to emigrate

64.8 percent of self-defined left-wingers say Israel should invest in bolstering Jewish identity in the diaspora

66.1% of all Israelis feel the Palestinian Arabs have a lesser claim to the land than the Jews

-- 82.5 percent of right-wingers believe this in contrast to 40.3 percent of lent wingers

22.8 percent believe the claims of both sides have equal validity (including 10.7 % of right-wingers)

4,410,052 votes were cast in the March 2021 parliamentary elections (****)

1.6 million went to parties on the Orthodox spectrum

1 million went to Likud (+ 209,000 to Likud breakaway Tikvah)

900,000 votes went to centrist parties

 

There are 6,772,000 Israeli Jews between the Mediterranean and the River Jordan.

There are 1,916,000 Palestinian-Israeli Arabs;

There are 2,949,246 (July 2021 est.) West Bank Arabs, and 1,957,062 (July 2021 est.) Gaza Arabs.

In other words, about 6.7 million Arabs and 6.7 million Jew sharing the same territory.

 

 

 

 

References

(*) Pew 2014 survey

https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2016/03/israel_survey_overview.hebrew_final.pdf

(**) Makor Rishon Yoman supplement in Hebrew April 14, 2021 survey

(***) https://israeli-ipc.org.il/en/main-3/

See, too, https://www.cbs.gov.il/en/mediarelease/Pages/2019/Population-of-Israel-on-the-Eve-of-2020.aspx

(****)  https://votes24.bechirot.gov.il/

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Election Results Memo - March 24 Israel - Knesset

 

So, here's my quick take on yesterday's Elections for the 120-seat Knesset.

The unvarnished truth is that Israeli voters' solid plurality stands for Bibi-ism, Kahane-ism, and Haredism.

Why do I say this? With nearly 90 per cent of the vote in (meaning small changes will still have a big impact), the Bibi-ist Likud got 30 seats. 

The Netanyahu camp also includes: (Haredi Sephardic) Shas 9; (Knitted yarmulke) Yamina 7; (Haredi Ashkkanazim) UTJ 7; and (Hardel-ni-kim) Ben Gvir / Smotchrich 6 = 59

I can't see how anyone with a liberal bone in their body (and I use the word liberal in the original sense) could swallow this with equanimity.

The Hardel Party of Ben Gvir / Smotchrich is the most illiberal of the Jewish parties. It combines religious, social and political fanaticism garbed in an oversized kipa shruga (knitted skull cap). The party is an amalgamation of various radical factions that Netanyahu soldered into one to ensure his broad camp lost no votes.

His camp being non-Zionist Haredim + Hardel-nikim (of Ben Gvir / Smotchrich) + Likud (long shorn of Jabotinsky values)

All held together by Netanyahu's cult of personality, self-interest and anticipated patronage.

It comes down to Bennett (small knitted kipa) and how low he will go to become defense minister, and to get the Justice Ministry. In the hands of his number two, Ayelet Shaked, Justice would play to the mob telling them that Israel's Supreme Court should follow the dictates of popular opinion (which like in most polities is intolerant). 

And suppose by some miracle Bennett – a political Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – does the right thing and refuses Bibi. In that case, it is on to another cycle of elections. Unless he does the really right thing and hooks up with Lapid & Saar & Ganz (below).

Even with Bennett, Bibi would anyway require defectors from among his opponents' camp or one of the Arab parties' backing – Ra'am being a possibility.

Pundits say Bibi's partners would not cooperate with the Arabs even to form a government. We shall see. 

Bottom line: it is disheartening that so large a plurality of Israelis favor parties of intolerance.

What of the center? Lapid (who I voted for) and Ganz (who I voted for several times in the past), and Saar together garnered 31 seats.  I put Saar in the center to stack the deck. He is more right-wing than Lapid or Ganz but he retains some old-school Jabotinsky values.

The left parties of Labor and Meretz pulled 12. Both slates contain anti-Zionists. Labor was invigorated by a new woke leader. Meretz got a decisive piety vote from farbrente leftists. I am glad because it means Yair Golan will be in the next Knesset.

In his own category is Lieberman with 7 seats. His Yisrael Beiteinu Party represents the know-nothing older Russian-speaking street. Reactionary. Nationalist. Secular. His number two is an anti-Vaxer. Lieberman, like Bennett and Saar, is a former Netanyahu staffer who broke with the Master years ago and now works to bring him down.

The (more than you can imagine) fragmented Arabs got 11 seats divided between Ra'am and the Joint List. Like Bennett, they can play a pivotal role in creating or blocking a new government's formation.

Bottom line: It will take many, many, many, weeks for things to shake out. The prospect of another round in the Fall is not out of the question.

 

 

 

Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Join me in voting for Yesh Atid on Israel Election Day Tuesday, 23 March