Rosenblum's Smoke-Screen

Jonathan Rosenblum’s latest article about Tiger Wood’s indiscretions is a clever analysis of how heroes can tragically fall.

However, Rosenblum waffles his way into the trap of finishing his piece by disingenuously bringing the orthodox Jews into the picture, as a ‘neat’ contrast, wrapping up his article:

I wish I could say that self-destructive behavior, like that of Tiger Woods, is unknown among Orthodox Jews, or at least among Orthodox rabbis. But I have no particular desire to make a fool of myself.

Rosenblum would have wished to say that orthodox Jews don’t succumb to weaknesses of the flesh – in contrast to Tiger Woods. But, in view of this week’s scandal of Rabbi Tropper – such a claim would indeed “make a fool” of Rosenblum.

So he goes for next best:

I am not aware, however, of any figure revered by a large cross-section of Torah Jewry whose private behavior ever stood revealed to be wildly dissonant from his public image.

Rosenblum’s argument is that some orthodox leaders (those “revered by a large cross section of Torah Jewry” – that’s quite a limitation in our factious world) have not been exposed/revealed to have behaved as badly as Tiger Woods.

From a man who eloquently espouses (on any and every occasion he puts pen to paper) that Hareidim are demonstrably better people than all other types of Jews, Rosenblum’s half-hearted claim that the world’s greatest Hareidi rabbonim are better moral examples than a golfer is rather sad.

Yes, it has been a bad few weeks for the Agudah and for their trusty-lackey spokesman Jonathan Rosenblum.

Things seemed to get to a good start, with the much heralded speech by Agudah head Rabbi David Zwiebel, who boldly mentioned at the Agudah convention in October that the “Internet addiction… Substance abuse. Alcoholism. Tobacco addiction. Gambling” exist.

“We are not immune,” he continued. “These things are happening, in our world! We’re losing too many of our young ones… Can we not face these problems? Can we not recognize them?”

And then Rabbi Zwiebel explicitly mentioned child molestation and domestic violence.

“There are problems, and they are niglos [out in the open—ed.]!” concluded Zwiebel. “We can’t pretend. We must talk and we must do something!” (www.vosizneias.com)

After dozens of years (generations?) of NOT recognizing these human problems also exist in Hareidi communities, and therefore a disastrous history of their rabbonim repeatedly resorting to Denial/Distract, Blame the Victim/Messenger and Circle-the-Wagons knee-jerk responses - whenever these crimes and social diseases were (inevitably) revealed – this seemed to some like a long overdue breakthrough.

Finally, a willingness to admit, openly discuss and work on solutions to these problems.

But, in December the rabbonim of the Agudah surprisingly banned all Hareidi internet sites, blogs and forum  – the only place where exactly these covered-up issues Rabbi Zweibel referred to have been “niglos” and openly discussed – was a step back to the old discredited Agudah methods.

It then became clear that this banning (glaringly out-of-step with the fresh new honesty policy) was immediately needed as an emergency pragmatic tactic by Agudah - in order to shut-up the snowballing revelations on these Hareidi blogs, of the nefarious indiscretions of Rabbi Tropper.

This revelation (nigloh) has been followed by an awkward silence by all the Agudah “gedolim” and the pathetic response of their spokesman Rosenblum.

Rosenblum prefers to direct our attentions to Tiger Woods' indiscretions, rather than those rather closer to home, of Rosenblum’s colleague Tropper.

Rosenblum has missed an opportunity to take Rabbi Zwiebel’s call for honesty and action seriously. It’s all very well preaching this from a convention podium – but quite another to throw out the old Agudah habits when a new scandal hits the fan.

Deny/Distract (Rosenblum smoke-screens about Tiger Woods);

Blame the Victim (rabbonim issuing insinuations about the abused woman)

Blame the Messenger (ban the Hareidi blogs);

Circle the Wagons (no Agudah statements, no recognition of a problem)

....business as usual for the Agudah.

Who Needs A Bigger Coalition?

Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu has this week offered Tzippi Livni’s Kadima Party a share in his coalition government.

Many Israeli Governments over the history of the State have fallen due to coalition parties breaking ranks and undermining the ruling majority. Therefore, every Prime Minister works to keep his parliamentary majority as large and stable as he can.

However, with Netanyahu's healthy majority in his coalition, being 78 of the 120 MK’s, it’s hard to see the urgency.

In the current case, if Kadima, who have 28 members of Kenesset,  were to agree to join the Netanyahu Government, the prime minister would head a coalition of 102 MKs out of 120 MK’s in the Kenesset. This would leave a jumble of small parties in opposition, being Hadash, Ichud HaLeumi (National Union), Ra’am Tal, Meretz and National Democratic Assembly – just 18 MKs.  Probably the smallest opposition in the history of the State.

So stability would be ensured, as much as anything can be considered ‘certain’ in the fickle world of Israeli politics.

Even if Livni does not accept Netanyahu’s offers to join the Government, which seems likely, then Netanyahu has offered seven individual Kadima MK’s feather-bed landings into his Government, to encourage them to break their party ranks and join him anyway.

Given that Netanyahu anyway has a comfortable majority, why the sudden move to strengthen his coalition – leaving the country effectively no opposition, and does this matter?

I bring into the picture Ehud Barak’s recent confronation against the Har Bracha Heseder (Army) Yeshiva; Barak has chosen to pick a very public fight with Rabbi Eliezer Malamed, Rosh HaYeshiva of Har Bracha, due to Barak’s claims that Rav Melamed encourages dissent in the ranks of the soldiers. For the first time in 50 years of Hesder, a Yeshiva has been dismissed from the arrangement with the Army.

Perhaps the two moves are linked; Netanyahu’s bid to broaden an already wide coalition, and Barak’s fight with dissonant voices in the army.

There are two major Israeli security operations which one could foresee during 2010.

A long awaited strike on Iran.

And a major withdrawal from Jewish villages and towns in Judea & Samaria (West Bank) or from the Golan.

Israeli Governments have traditionally put aside their daily squabbles in time of War or major defense operations – to present the outside world with a wall of national unity and consensus. Therefore, if Israel strikes Iran, Kadima would in any case close ranks with the Government. There would be no purpose served by bringing Kadima into the Government coalition now.

This leaves a major planned withdrawal from Israeli “occupied” territory.

Netanyahu would face considerable challenges in delivering such a withdrawal with his current coalition – Avigdor Leiberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Homeland), through HaBayit Hayhudi (Jewish Home – the old Maphdal), to some of Netanyahu’s own colleagues in Likud, would all oppose such a withdrawal. With only Labour (Barak) as a staunch supporter of an Israeli withdrawal or anti-settlement campaign, Netanyahu would probably not carry the day in the Keneset with his current coalition.

Back in the Army, for Barak to be assured of the military ability to deliver a major withdrawal program – he needs to know there will not be widespread insubordination amongst the troops. Specifically from amongst the highly motivated and nationalistic Hesder and other National Religious soldiers, who now constitute 25% of the Army’s combat forces.

Netanyahu has already announced at Bar Ilan University during the summer, that he is now in favour of a “two State solution”. And Ehud Barak has always said this is his vision. The Americans under Obama are avidly seeking the "Two State Solution".

So the way I read it is that Netanyahu and Barak, in conjunction with Obama, have plans to withdraw troops, demolish Jewish homes, either unilaterally or as part of a “Peace” agreement, during 2010 – and both Netanyahu and Barak are therefore preparing their forces.

Netanyahu is working on broadening his coalition, and Barak is working on stamping out dissent in the Army.

Neither of these steps would be required for any planned military campaign against our external enemies.

Both will be required to carry through a major anti-settlement withdrawal program during 2010 – a la Gush Katif, or even much larger.

Tropper-Gate and Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Blog?

A group of leading Chareidi Rabbonim have recently specifically banned Chareidi blogs and forums. (see above notice). It seemed odd when this poster went up around town, because these rabbonim had already banned the use of the internet itself. So what's this with the chareidi blogs?

Sure enough, under pressure from this latest sub-ban, several erstwhile chareidi internet sites have apparently now closed down. Although the majority have simply ignored it.

For those who like to link the dots (such as Frum Follies), in order to see a more complete picture, you can note that the Rabbi Leib Tropper conversion-for-sex scandal was breaking simultaneously to the issuing of this rabbinical decree against chareidi internet sites.

The Rabbi Tropper tapes of sexually intimate discussions were initially sent, presumably by Shannon Orand, the blonde in-process-convert, to these self-same chareidi blogs, for onward distribution.

Shutting up the blogs may have been a ruse to shut up the Tropper scandal.

The rabbis who signed the sub-ban on chareidi blogs include no less than ten of the same rabbis who signed up on the haskama for Rabbi Tropper’s Eternal Jewish Family conversion agency. (see http://www.eternaljewishfamily.org/images/uploads/proc.pdf )

Even if you’re not the conspiracy sort, the Agudas Yisrael organization itself was clearly behind both the anti-blog cherem and EJF.

If these two simultaneous events - the exposure of Rabbi Tropper and the call to shut down the blogs - were indeed intentionally linked, then, rather like the original –Gate scandal, an attempted cynical cover-up by the Agudah of Rabbi Tropper’s indiscretions (an affair which is becoming known as Tropper-Gate on the blogs they tried to shut down), may become an even bigger scandal than the scandal itself.

P.S. For those with longer memories, the same team who brought us the Blog Ban and the Eternal Jewish Family, also brought us the cherem on Rabbi Natan Slifkin's scholarly books about science and Judaism. That cherem was initiated by none other than Rabbi Tropper himself, and backed by the 'usual signatories'.

More about that angle on Rabbi Slifkin's blog . Perhaps Rabbi Tropper's own blog (what?!) had Rabbi Troppers response to R.Slifkin's article.

It's hard to tell, as Rabbi Tropper's blog seems to have been removed.

So I suppose the Blog Cherem was at least partially effective.

Rav Melamed vs. Ehud Barak: Conscientious Objection or Insubordination?

In the current dispute between Ehud Barak, Minister of Defence, and Rav Eliezer Melamed the Head of Har Bracha Hesder Yeshiva, it is very unclear in the press reports what either Ehud Barak or Rav Melamed’s objectives are.

It does seem that Ehud Barak’s insistence that there be "no insubordination" in the Israeli army is eminently reasonable. No other army in the world permits insubordination – the refusal to obey a lawful order from a superior.

Nor can Rav Melamed reasonably expect a Minister of Defence to permit insubordination, which could undermine the effectiveness of the IDF in implementing its critical missions. An army doesn’t work by asking the regular soldier which combat missions he will or will not choose to carry out.

On the other hand,. Ehus Barak surely recognizes and appreciates the important, indeed critical, role of National Religious soldiers in the armed forces (some 25% of Israel’s crack combat troops) – and of the highly motivated Hesder Yeshivot in particular.

Both Ehud Barak and Rav Melamed passionately support the need for Israel’s army to effectively protect and promote Israel’s national defence – and neither of these men wish to compromise that in any way manner or form.

Israel does, however, recognize the concept of Conscientious Objection. Conscientious objection is the legal right of a civilian to object to serving in a combat force. In Germany today, for example, some 50% of conscripts refuse to participate in the army, and are therefore required to perform civilian community service instead. In Israel, the Israeli Arabs (with the exceptions of Druse and Bedouin) and the Chareidim are effectively considered Conscientious Objectors and are thus exempted (or deferred) by law from serving in the Army.

Now whereas most Western Countries have a tradition of accepting genuine conscientious objection to joining the armed forces as legitimate, this is always prior to joining up. Once the soldier is in uniform, he loses his right to conscientiously object to obeying specific lawful orders.

Of course, it was set down in the Nurenburg trials that “I was just obeying orders” does not take away a soldiers requirement to refuse to obey unlawful or unjust orders, such as deliberately massacring civilians.

Another related concept to Conscientious Objection is Civil Disobedience. Civil Disobedience or Non-Cooperation was popularized by Mahatma Gandhi in the successful Indian struggle against the British regime. Gandhi famously made salt from sea water and burned his ID card, both of which were illegal acts under British colonial law.

Gandhi did not claim these acts were legal. He was a lawyer, and knew full well they were not. And indeed, he was willing to pay the price called for in the law – and was imprisoned by the British regime on several occasions.

Civil Disobedience involves breaking the law, because the person wishes to expose a legal system or a regime, or even a specific law, as being corrupt and unjust. The law is recognized as being the law – but it is not recognized as legitimate.

Here in Israel, civil disobedience was used during the Gush Katif demonstrations. I myself broke the law against a public gathering in Netivot – and I was willing in principle (though not enthusiastic) to be arrested for that. My objection was not with the ‘regime’ itself – it was with the legitimacy of the Evacuation Orders (Disengagement) policy of the Government. My breaking the law (along with some 50,000 fellow demonstrators who ended up surrounded in a siege by the army at Kfar Maimon) was part of that political struggle.

To return to the current dispute, I believe Ehud Barak’s objective is to use the army to implement evacuations of Jewish homes, villages and towns in Yehuda, Shomron and the Golan – such as may be called for in a “Peace” Agreement with the Palestinians or Syrians.

Whereas Rav Melamed’s actual objective is to prevent Jewish settlements being destroyed by this or future Israeli Governments.

A tactic in achieving this objective, is to make the Israeli army incapable of implementing such a policy. A tool in this, is for enough soldiers to refuse orders to implement evacuation laws, so as to make the evacuation unachievable.

This was attempted also in the anti-Gush Katif struggle, in a campaign called “Siruv Pekuda” – refusal to obey orders. Much hyped, this campaign was ultimately unsuccessful, as almost all soldiers turned up for their duties, and obeyed the disengagement expulsion orders at Gush Katif.

Rather than try this again through attempts to indoctrinate soldiers to disobey their commanders orders (insubordination), as Rav Melamed seems to be working on, I propose an alternative would be to change the law itself.

A law which permitted soldiers to refuse commands to (specifically) evacuate Jewish civilian population, would render the act of disobeying those orders legal, and therefore not insubordination.

A sort of right to Conscientious Objection, but granted to loyal serving members of the forces, in a specific defined circumstance.

If enough soldiers would conscientiously object in this legally permitted manner, then a Minister of Defence could face the possibility of not being able to implement another Gush Katif, or worse.

Once so defined by the law, there is no reasonable fear by the army itself of the same (or other) soldiers disobeying orders in their regular combat duties or training, such as when fighting against a regular enemy. That insubordination would rightly remain an illegal and punishable act, an act of desertion or treason.

Neither the Ministry of Defence, nor the study halls of the hesder yeshivot, are the appropriate battleground over a Jewish soldier’s legitimate right to object to their being cynically employed to destroy Jewish homes, villages and towns.

This is an immediate matter for the Knesset legislators.

Barak vs R.Melamed

Does the Army Need the Dati Leumi – or the Dati Leumi Need the Army?

Over 25% of combat troops in the Israel Defence Forces are now National Religious (Dati Leumi).

Many of these participate in the Hesder Yeshiva program, which was established in 1953 by the Keren BeYavne Yeshiva. The Hesder program typically last five years, of which some 16 months is army training and active service, while the remainder is spent in religious studies in over 40 yeshivot around the country.

On the one hand, this program is the flag-ship of the National Religious camp – combining torah studies with fulfilling the practical mitzva of defending the Jewish people and the Jewish State – paid for by the Ministry of Defence.

On the other hand, many of the Army's finest and most motivated troops are from the Dati Leumi camp in general, and from the Hesder Yeshivot in particular. Israel's military cemeteries attest to the awesome heroism of so many of of these young men in the battlefield. And the most astounding kidush Hashem.

It is a proven win-win project both for the Israeli Army, and for the National Religious movement..

However, the recent head-line-grabbing clash between Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, Rosh Yeshiva of the Har Bracha Hesder Yeshiva, pits the doctrine of military discipline against the authority of the Torah and Rabbonim. The dispute seems to be about whether soldiers can protest evacuating some small outposts which have been deemed as illegal by the Israeli Government.

This issue of 'refusal' was much debated prior to and following the Gush Katif evacuation. The Dati Leumi almost unanimously held that the destruction & evacuation of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and retreat of the IDF to be forbidden by halacha and (in addition) politically and strategically against the interests of the State of Israel. The question then was therefore "Should Soldiers Refuse Orders to Evacuate Gush Katif?".

The bottom line was that, regardless of the stated opinions of some rabbonim calling for troops to refuse orders, almost no soldiers actually refused to implement the evacuation orders at Gush Katif. Even the religious soldiers turned out for duty, and even dragged their own families and friends from the homes and synagogues.

Most Israelis agree that the rabbis' grim assessment of the Gush Katif evacuation proved accurate - even an understatement of the disasterous results of the Gush Katif evacuation. With 9000 residents still (four and a half years later) without replacement homes, a social welfare disaster, the Coup D'Etat which brought Hamas to power in Gaza, and the subsequent raining of missiles into Israeli cities - there is little doubt that Gush Katif was a gastly strategic mistake.

However, this does not mean that there is more support today for the idea that troops should have disobeyed orders. Anyone acquainted with the Israeli Army will recognise that its strength against our enemies is dependent upon the shared commitment of its soldiers, including a commitment to carry out orders - however stupid or inappropriate the soldier may, individually, think these orders are.

With the current Israeli Government having openly called for the establishment of a Palestinian State, and now frozen all new building in the whole of Yehuda and Shomron (West Bank) except East Jerusalem for the next ten months, it should be assumed that Ehud Barak (a strong proponent of a "Peace" Agreement with a Palestinian State) is preparing for the next show-down.

Any "Peace" Agreement envisaged would require the Israeli Government to evacuate many Jewish towns and villages. Probably far more than the Gush Katif evacuation (9000 people).

Arguably around 100,000 residents of Yehuda and Shomron would need to be forcibly moved into pre-1949 Israel.  

The Army will be ordered to implement this mission.

Although apparently this dispute between Ehud Barak and Rav Eliezer Melamed is over a soldier's right to wave a protest banner against destroying small-time outposts, this is merely the pretext.

Barak is now making sure that, when (chas veshalom) the Government signs on those orders for the evacuation of Yehuda, Shomron, the Golan...who knows where else... the Army will deliver the goods, without protest, and without insubordination.

Rav Melamed is sticking to his principles, and therefore threatening the larger Mission.

The question is, if the price of this Mission would be the Hesder Yeshiva Program itself, who would be willing to pay it?

A Yorkshireman's Advice to Netanyahu

"Owt for Now't"

There is an old Yorkshire expression (where I was born)  "if ever tha does owt for now't, allus do it for thisen" – which for those with limited knowledge of the Yorkshire dialect means "if you ever do something for nothing, always do it for yourself."

Yorkshiremen are a pretty dour and ungiving lot – but many of us can associate with the feeling that giving away an asset, for nothing, and with no apparent side-benefits to us, is a bad deal.

Israel made this fundemental error in the Oslo Peace Negotiations – where Israel handed over substantive assets (land, weapons, autonomy) to the PLO, in exchange for nothing (a piece of paper with some promises which the PLO had already broken by the time the signatures were written and the peace prizes distributed) – and to no apparent benefit for Israel (over a thousand victims of terror,a shot prime minister, internal political upheaval).

The same deal was hoisted upon Israel by Ariel Sharon. Sharon gave "owt for nowt", which he called "Disengagement". Forcefully evacuating Gush Katif's 9000 residents, the destruction of  22 bustling villages and the closure of billions of dollars of thriving businesses – was not even claimed by Sharon to be in return for anything. In Yorkshire terms, he was very upfront it was for Nowt, but mumbled it was "fer thisen" – in our interests anyway. A Hamas Coup in Gaza City, and thousands of missiles on Israel's population later, it's impossible to see anything which was to our benefit in that.

Benjamin (Bibi)  Netanyahu had a consistent message, throughout the Oslo "Peace" Process, and against Ariel Sharon's "Disengagement" from Gaza, which Bibi called "Reciprocity". You deliver, we'll deliver. But no more "Owt for Nowt" with Bibi Netanyahu.

It is therefore discouraging that Netanyahu's first major policy implementation is to freeze all new Jewish building in Yehuda and Shomron.

This is not for any quid-pro-quo with the Palestinians. Nor does it seem to be to Israel's benefit in any other way. It sets a precedent that everything the 'other side' of the 1949 borders, except for Jerusalem, is on the table. No "settlement blocks" (a central pillar of all Israeli negotiations till now regarding the West Bank). No movement towards Israel's positions by the Palestinians. No apparent "rewards" from Obama's administration (who dismissed it as "too little"). Nothing. Gornisht. Nada. Nowt.

After 20 years of preaching 'reciprocity' (however we might feel about that) – what the-bloomin'-'eck has happened to Bibi Netanyahu?

  

Is Turkey Kosher?

Is Turkey Kosher?

There is well known dispute about the fact that Jews eat Turkey, although there is no “masorah” (ancient tradition) that it is a kosher bird.

I am currently in Ankara, Turkey.

As I arrived at the gates of a major manufacturer here, I was told by the security guard that I would have to remove my kippa (skull-cap) before I would be permitted to enter the premises.

I had also been told to remove my kippa when I visited the Mausoleum of Ataturk in Ankara.

There has been a recent spate of extremely anti-Israeli, and even anti-Semitic rhetoric by Turkey’s Islamist Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which included the public verbal abuse of Israel’s President Shimon Peres at the Davos World Economic Summit, and by Turkish TV, which screened a series about Israel/Palestine, which included gross scenes of Israeli soldiers murdering cute children in cold blood. Meanwhile, the Turkish Government has embraced Iran, Syria, Kurds and the Armenians – while canceling a joint army exercise with NATO because it included Israel.

Stories abound of frightened Jews in Istanbul, which has suffered several devastating bombing attacks in recent years, including on two synagogues – and who are apparently now considering increased emigration from this ancient Jewish center, to Israel.

The thought crossed my mind, for just a moment, that I should protest the command to take off my kippa – as an anti-Semitic and racist directive.

However, a second perspective on the event led me to think again.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was the iconoclast founder of the Turkish Republic in the early 1900’s – a true revolutionary, who overthrew the Ottoman characteristics of Turkey, and replaced a new modern, Western, Secular republic. Out went the Sultan, off came the traditional fez, away went Arabic script, and dozens of other ages old traditions were scrapped – and generally even banned.

Today’s leader Erdogan has made some steps to bring back more Islamic behavior to this avowedly secular state. But not really got very far.

Erdogan’s AKP party tried to revoke the longstanding ban on religious girls wearing headscarves on University Campuses. They argued that by banning scarves, the effect was to forbid religious girls from obtaining a university education; a pretty compelling argument, methinks. However, this was defeated – and the ban on headscarves remains.

Both Ataturk’s mausoleum and the manufacturer I visited are bastions of Turkish secularism.

The reason I was asked to remove my kippa is because these places ban all religious head-gear. This is not aimed at the Jewish Kippa, but at the Moslem Taqiyah skullcap and the women’s hijab headscarves. It is not anti-Jewish – it is anti-Islamic.

I’m not sure that makes it any better, in the broader view of things, but I took off my kippa without further ado, while forcing a smile to the guards.

It’s easy to confuse signals – and get one’s wires twisted.

Like you thought, from the title, picure and first line, that this article was about kashrus and turkey meat.

“When we were slaves in Israel….”

Slavery is alive and flourishing right here in Israel....

You thought that slavery was abolished. Right?

US educated readers will recall that the 13th Amendment to the American Constitution reads: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

My History teacher in England told us about William Wilberforce and the Slave Act of 1807, which outlawed the slave trade in the British Empire.

In 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ensured many freedoms, and it outlaws slavery explicitly: “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms”.

Yet, today slavery is common throughout the world, and expresses itself in the human trafficking and trading of women for sex, men for manual labour and children for both.

The main categories of the estimated 30 million slaves are bonded labour/debt bondage (18.1 million), forced labour (7.6 million), and trafficked slaves (2.7 million).

According to researcher Siddharth Kara, the profits generated worldwide by all forms of slavery in 2007 was $91.2 billion. That is second only to drug trafficking in terms of global, criminal, illicit enterprises.

Israel was highlighted in the 2005 American State Report on Trafficking in Persons demoted Israel from its previous non-flattering grading (with 42 other countries) as a Tier 2 country, i.e. a country not yet meeting the minimum standards required to fight human trafficking, to the even lower grading of "Tier 2 Watch List".

This report provided the momentum in the Kenesset for the upgrading of anti-slavery legislation – and on October 9 2006 the Israeli Parliament (finally) passed a comprehensive anti-trafficking law.

According to Kav HaOved, the Workers Right NGO in Israel, foreign workers are still regularly brought to Israel by involuntary means, and they are abused on arrival by their employers (usually manpower contractors) who confiscate their passports, set “supervisors” (foreign thugs) over them to beat them, threaten recriminations upon their families “back home”, and enforce severe and violent discipline. They have very few recognizable labour rights, and have very limited means of recourse to the law, without risk of being imprisoned and expelled themselves - or simply being beaten up by their "supervisors".

In addition, there were some 3000 women operating as involuntary prostitutes in Israel; legislation passed in 2000 and some enforcement has apparently reduced these numbers – although some Women’s Rights groups have claimed that the legislation has simply driven the illegal trade further underground.

According to the Israeli Government : “ Illegal foreign workers come to Israel from Romania, Ghana, Nigeria, Colombia, the Philippines, Turkey, Ukraine Russia, and other former Soviet countries, in all from sixty-seven countries worldwide.


Problems of illegal workers are mainly related to exploitation - terms of employment; living conditions; social benefits that fall short of accepted levels; denial of workers' freedom and/or holding them as hostages; and, in extreme cases, trade in these workers, in contravention of accepted moral norms and mores.

Israel regards illegal foreign workers mainly as victims and the focus of its policy is to treat the causes of victimization, rather than the results…. In order to stem illegal immigration, and above all "white slavery"….

The good news is that The Histadrut Labor Federation executive has announced this week it will accept foreign workers into the union; the executive decided to change the organization's bylaws to allow migrant workers to join its ranks.

With the strength of the Histadrut, and the sympathetic and motivated approach of the Israeli Government, now apparently behind bringing basic rights to foreign laborers, hopefully the practice of slavery really will now finally be abolished – at least in Israel.

Meantime, next time you read about the “illegal foreign workers”, and be tempted to toast their “good riddance” – spare a thought for the thousands of enslaved laborers right under your nose, right here in Israel, probably building a house near you (and perhaps built the house you’re living in), and the involuntary/enslaved prostitutes who are discretely engaged in ‘business’ on your town’s side streets….

Israel Protects Kids Better – A Breakthrough in Haifa Court

A woman aged over thirty, recalled for the first time during therapy that she was sexually abused as a child by her father, and a Haifa court has now found the father guilty of child sex crimes, all these years later.

Expert witnesses explained to the court that ‘forgetting’ a trauma is a common self-protection response in abuse victims a condition called dissociative amnesia. This is symptomatic in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Our brains apparently have an ‘erase’ button, which can delete painful memories, as a means of preserving functionality. I suppose it’s a bit like a doctor’s decision to sever a gangrenous limb, to save a patient’s life. As a post-traumatic response, the brain shuts down some memory, and otherwise continues functioning normally.

The reason this case is an important precedent is:

1. The long time (20 years) between the abuse events and the court case;

2. The long period during which the events were forgotten by the victim;

3. The reliance on one witness’s testimony, backed by psychologists and experts.

In the USA there is a debate about the “Markey Bill”, the Child Victims Act, in the New York State Legislature (its lead sponsor is Queens Assemblywoman Marge Markey). The bill would allow victims of childhood sexual abuse recourse toward obtaining justice against their abusers by providing a one-year “window” in which to file a civil lawsuit at any age, and would extend the statute of limitations for pressing criminal charges from age 23 to 28.

Here in Israel, the Statute of Limitations did not apply to this case (except for some allegations which took place prior to 1986 – for reasons which are not clear to me).

As a result of this legal precedent, victims/survivors of child abuse can see justice done, even decades later, which is a major contributor to their eventual healing; and pedophiles can be taken off the streets, even decades after their crimes.

There’s now no get-out-clause for abusing kids.

Israel’s kids are safer for this precedent-setting court ruling.

Jewish Dog Story

[This is lifted from UOJ comments section, by Dr Bungalow Hundt; I have a Jewish dog called Sheleg].

Morty visits Dr. Saul, the veterinarian, and says, "My dog has a problem."


Dr. Saul says, "So, tell me about the dog and the problem."

"It's a Jewish dog. His name is Irving and he can talk" says Morty.

"He can talk?" the doubting doctor asks.

"Watch this! Morty points to the dog and commands: " Irving, Fetch!"

Irving , the dog, begins to walk toward the door, then turns around and says: "So why are you talking to me like that? You always order me around like I'm nothing. And you only call me when you want something. And then you make me sleep on the floor, with my arthritis. You give me this fahkahkta food with all the salt and fat, and you tell me it's a special diet. It tastes like dreck! YOU should eat it yourself! And do you ever take me for a decent walk? NO, it's out of the house, a short pish, and right back home. Maybe, if I could stretch out a little, the sciatica wouldn't kill me so much! I should roll over and play dead for real for all you care!"

Dr. Saul is amazed, "This is remarkable! So, what's the problem?" Morty says, "He has a hearing problem! I said 'Fetch,' not 'Kvetch'.