KFC chicken smuggled through Gaza tunnels

  -- Jpost

thoughts:
1. better KFC chicken than rockets
2. the Colonel would be proud of this military mission
3. KFC chicken is worth the risk of a tunnel being blown up
4. those tunnels are good for something!
5. Now we need tunnels from Gaza to Israel to get some of that KFC here!
 

When MK Mickey Levy (Yesh Atid) recently called, from the Knesset podium, Haredim 'parasites', there was an uproar, in the press, but especially in the haredi press and in the haredi communities. Rightfully so. there is no room for such talk and for such vitriol to be spewed, in addition to the possibility of it leading to violence - dehumanizing groups by calling them such names is the beginning of the path to violence.

Yet, when some haredi groups attack other haredi groups with similar names, such as the current ongoing campaign by some in the more extreme end of the haredi camp, calling people vermin (chardak), nobody seems to say a word. I have yet to see a movement in the haredi camp to put an end to these attacks. They are just as vile, and the fact that they are not made from the Knesset podium makes them no less vile. They are in the walls and the floors of haredi neighborhoods, and the askanim should be putting an end to it. It seems they only care about such vitriol from the outside, but not from within. Yet, the vitriol from within has already led to violence.

According to news reports, the phenomenon of haredim physically attacking haredi soldiers is increasing. the army is trying to fight the phenomenon by involving the rabbonim and trying to get them to denounce it. As well, a volunteer haredi policeman from Bnei Braq has also publicized the increased attacks against him, largely by kids, and against other haredi policemen.

While perhaps initially the thought might have been to ignore it, as it looked like a stupid campaign that would eventually go away, those behind it have persisted. They keep printing and distributing more and more of these, and the name is becoming commonly used and well-known. And violence is increasing because of it.

This campaign is vile and it should be stopped immediately. The silence about it from the haredi politicians, press and askanim is disappointing.

The Eida Chareidis is organizing a major protest tonight in Jerusalem against the possibility of changing the yeshiva learning status and drafting more haredim.

What is interesting is that the pashkevil they have pasted around town is printed in red instead of in the traditional black and white! The Eida is going modern and using color!

I am even a bit worried about what this modernity might lead to....

The issue of Bar Kol expansion has moved on to the next stage. Protests have been filed by the residents, and now a hearing is scheduled to be heard. Below is the information I received. If you have the ability to be there, it is important to make the effort...

In the recent election campaign we heard a lot of "Where is the money?". I want to know about this plan and its approval - where is the money? Who was paid off how much to approve this plan?

this is pretty funny, and pretty sad.. a street survey checking how much, or little, people know about Shavuot.

ad 120!

I am not a student of Rav Lichtenstein's but I found this presentation, made in honor of his 80th birthday, very interesting and inspiring..

49 is:

• the total days of Omer
• the day you really don't want to miss
• the end of these posts
• tonight's Omer

 #CountOmer: today is 49 days being 7 weeks to the Omer

Skittles recently became kosher in Israel. This has been to everyone's delight, especially considering growing up in the USA Skittles were never kosher.

the Skittles sold in Israel are under the hechsher of the KF of London, headed by Rav Yisroel Yaakov Lichtenstein. Look for the hechsher on the packaging. the kosher Skittles are imported by Wrigley Israel Ltd. and are produced by Wrigley in the Czech Republic.

I was just told of a rumor that the hechsher on the Skittles is forged. Being that the hechsher is printed on the actual packaging, rather than an importers label, I did not believe the rumor, but I felt obligated to do at least the minimum to check. I was immediately reminded of my "investigation" into the cans of Dr. Pepper sold in Israel about 15 months ago that bore the logo of the KLBD on the importers label. When I contacted them they told me their logo was not authorized for use and they do not certify that batch of Dr. Pepper. The Rabbanut subsequently said they would make sure to remove these cans from the shelves.

I found the website of the KF london and their contact information. I emailed them and asked if they really give the hechsher on these Skittles. I sent them an image of the package and of their hechsher printed upon it.

A short time later I received a response from the KF ensuring me that the Skittles are truly under their full certification and that any rumors about a forgery are false and should be rejected.

Eat them or not - that's your personal choice. Do not spread unfounded rumors.

1. how the world loves to mock orthodox jews

2. Lapid's un-innovative budget

(interspersed advertising: coming to Israel? Check out Nes Mobile for your cellular phone and mobile internet needs)

3. will recognizing yeshiva studies as college degrees solve problems in Israel? - the author does not have all the facts right, and that affects the discussion. Degrees do affect salary in Israel - in the public sector. that is even if the degree is irrelevant to the specific job. So, someone with a degree in Talmudic Studies (for example), would earn a higher salary as a clerk in City Hall or working in the Bituach Leumi offices, or any public sector job.

Another point, is that he is conflating the way college works in the US and the way it works in Israel. University in Israel generally works with the student choosing a major and studying the topics relevant to it. Not the well-rounded education of the US student of the undergrad degree as described by the author.

4. hassidic rebels

5. Dear Matzav, please remove my fathers divrei torah from your piece of filth

6. bring your kids to hear asseret hadibrot

7. what's wrong with the Triangle-K?

8. the newspaper wars

9. breakthrough on Temple Mount

10. Temperance - on the issue of the responses to MK Rav Dov Lipman and the lack of attempt to find solutions.

11. the ban on secular study in jerusalem

12. wailing about the wall and its women

13. top 5 segulos

14. on Jews, Jerusalem, women and Walls

15. doing the right thing for the wrong reason

16. in sincere praise of Rav Aharon Feldman

17. tikkun leil shavuot, American style - looks like an amazing menu. If i was there, I'd definitely choose this shul (unless a different shul came up with a better menu). And I too dont know what many of the menu items are. I dont think the issue is such a big one - they know what draws people in.

18. on women as rabbis

19. Nachlaot pedophile sentenced to 20 years

20. Rosh Chodesh at the Wall

21. Building a nationwide dental aid program

You will make this country completely secular with a knitted kippa. Why do you not write an equivalent law for the committee to appoint judges? In your way, you won't be here in another generation, only we will remain here. You want to destroy the religion... The intent in the proposal is to uproot the system. You are starting the downfall of the State as a Jewish State.

  -- MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ), in the meeting of the Knesset Committee for Legislation, as it passed the initial reading of the law to appoint 4 women to the panel for the selection of dayanim. MK Shuli Moalem (Habayit Hayehudi) was the proponent of the law. Rav Shlomo Dichovsky, director of the rabbinical courts, did not oppose the proposal.

While I understand opposition to things like allowing egalitarian minyanim at the Kotel, even if I think the opposition is wrong, I am not sure why having women on the committee to appoint dayanim is anti-religion.

The Knesset Committee of Work, Welfare and Health (not sure why all those get bundled into one committee together) approved a new enactment declared by the Health Ministry by which doctors, clinical criminologists and communicational clinicians who wish to convert their foreign license to work in those fields, will only be allowed to do so if they can show a basic command of the Hebrew language.

According to MK Chaim Katz (Likud), the chairman of this committee, "Aliyah to Israel is to be blessed, and I am aware of the difficulties of the language, but the good of the patient has priority".
(source: ynet)


I do not know what they consider "basic", but now such people who make aliyah might have to go to ulpan first before they jump right into work.

I hope it wont discourage aliyah, as people might see it, or be afraid that it might be, as an impediment to finding gainful employment. I might suggest that the Jewish Agency, or maybe Nefesh bNefesh, might operate ulpans in the USA (maybe they already do?) so that people approved for aliyah can already begin getting a grasp of the language before landing here when they want to start looking for work right away...

in light of the recent news of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spending of $127,000 to add a bed to his flight to Europe recently, so that he could rest and be fresh for his events and meetings upon landing, and that became known right after it became known the lavish conditions he stayed in during his visit to China, all while budget cuts are threatening to decimate the middle class in Israel, David Rubinger released a photo from the days of Menachem Begin that shows how he rested on flights while he was Prime Minister. And this was on a flight to the US, not Europe.



(Rubinger is a famous Israeli photographer. Probably his most famous picture is that if the three paratroopers by the Kotel after recapturing the Old City of Jerusalem in the Six Day War)

All the wheeling and dealing around the selection of the final candidates for the positions of Chief Rabbis of Israel is precisely why the method of appointment needs to be changed. It needs to be removed from politics, and removed from the hands of the politicians. The politics involved, the negotiations, the smearing - none of that brings honor to the rabbis under consideration, nor to whichever rabbi will end up being chosen. At the end of the process it is the rabbis who had the "dirtiest" and more "ruthless" backers that will end up in the positions.

The negotiations and dealings and considerations for changing the law cause a situation where every day a different rabbi, generally one who is "connected" somehow, is named as the target beneficiary of the dealing, and never has it yet been discussed why this or that rabbi is more worthy than the others or more appropriate than the others for the position.

As I have said before, I believe that whichever candidate ends up getting the position will not affect most people directly in any way, except for maybe State policy regarding shmitta that is coming up soon. Just about everything else will stay the same. It is a shame to turn the selection of a rabbi, one who is supposed to represent the people and to be someone the people can proudly look up to, into a political selection totally devoid from values. Perhaps they really do deserve the lack of respect so many people have for the position.

Any chief rabbi candidate that would say he refuses to be a part of this dirty process is the one that is most deserving of the position. The rest of them, all those that are trying to benefit from the dirt being dealt, are the ones who should not be in the seat.

After all that, after the incendiary election campaign, after the invective thrown back and forth and the incessant fighting and bad blood generated in the process, the Finance Ministry is now saying they do not even have the money necessary to draft the haredim. Implementing such a process is very expensive, creating new units, incentivizing the target draftees, etc. With all the budget cuts, they just cannot come up with the money necessary for these programs.
(source: NRG)

Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon, applying his wit and cynicism to the situation, says that despite current statements, he expects the Finance Ministry will be able to find and come up with the money necessary, as they turned this into a big issue. he said that this is an attempt to force them to cut money from elsewhere so that they will be able to use available funds for the draft of haredim.

It turns out, if this is the way it is going to go down, that there was not even a need to ban the haredim from the coalition. The purpose of that was to be able to push forth the agenda of drafting the haredim, and of implementing a core curriculum in the haredi educational system, without having to deal with the opposition and haggling of haredi coalition partners. if that is not going to happen, there was no reason to ban the haredim from the coalition.

Netanyahu sure masticates a lot...

there is nothing Jewish or Israeli about this video but it is great, funny, entertaining and worth a watch..

awesomely unique wedding clip.. not new but suddenly got spread around

48 is:

• regulation NBA game
• State of Israel 
  
• Mahatma Gandhi
• one day left 
  
• ways to acquire Torah
• tonight's Omer 

#CountOmer: today is 48 days, being 6 weeks and 6 days to the Omer

Palestinian Authority deputy: If we had a nuke, we’d have bombed Israel

  -- The Washington Times

yes, they really said that..

“I swear that if we had a nuke, we’d have used it this very morning,” said Jibril Rajoub, the deputy secretary of the Fatah Central Committee and the chairman of the PA Olympic Committee, as reported by Israel National News. He made the comments during a television interview with the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen television channel, which was then posted on his personal Facebook page.
Two more leading PA officials also touted support for the killer of Evyatar Borovsky, an Israeli who was stabbed to death in Samaria while waiting at a station for his bus, Israel National News reported.
“We salute the heroic fighter, the self-sacrificing Salam Al-Zaghal,” said Abu Al-Einstein, a former minister to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, of the suspected killer, Israel National News reported.
And the other PA official, also on the suspected Palestinian killer: “Blessings to the breast that nursed Salam Al-Zaghal,” Israel National News said.

A Guest Post by Dr. Harold Goldmeier

this is pretty funny and cool