I had thought about heading this post, From the Desk of Murray L. Freeman, but after a moment of thought, decided that it's far too pompous. Suitable fine for Donald J. Trump but not for me.
It’s no secret that I rejoice in the fact that I don’t live in the UK. Having seen two recent headlines from the UK Daily Mail, I wonder if wokism is not in danger of engulfing the whole country.
“The Good Life is given a viewer warning for offensive racial imagery after an episode featured the Golly badge for Robertson's jam”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-9555879/The-Good-Life-given-viewer-warning-offensive-racial-imagery.html
The classic BBC comedy, The Good Life, is now deemed offensive due to the inclusion of a Golly badge. How snowflake do you have to be to find this offensive?
Like many of my generation, I grew up on Robertson's jam, The Black and White Minstrel Show, Al Jolson (who was Jewish). How can suddenly all these and more become persona non grata in this snowflake-driven, woke world?
Or what about this story:
“Fee-paying boarding school reports its chaplain to anti-terror unit Prevent for telling pupils in a sermon that they're allowed to disagree with LGBT teaching”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9557845/School-reports-chaplain-telling-pupils-theyre-allowed-disagree-LGBT-teaching.html
I don’t give a fly fig about the religious aspect of this story, but reporting someone to the anti-terror unit for voicing an opinion? Call out the thought police! This is Orwellian.
In woke Britain, as elsewhere, even your thoughts must now be monitored. How dare I or anyone else have a negative or reactionary thought.
Yes, British history is strewn with callous, barbaric acts which enslaved, degraded, and belittled nations, people, tribes, many, if not most with far deeper rooted traditions and culture. But wokism is not the answer. The response lies with free-flowing in-depth discussions and education. Not the harsh disregard for the country’s history.
I read that many Muslims in the UK are up in arms about cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad which they take exception to. The way to deal with this matter is two-fold, first thru education – not demonstration, threats – and secondly to accept and embrace the culture of the country you line in.
As Katie Hopkins has pointed out time and again if things are so bad in the UK, why are so many immigrants, the majority I believe Muslim, beating a path to its shores?
As far as I am aware, we don’t yet have thought-policing in Israel, although I am sure many would welcome the notion. Thought-policing crossed my mind having read Yaron London’s recent interview regarding Meron.
“Veteran journalist Yaron London's response to Meron disaster: 'I told you so!'”
"To me, they're like victims of a tsunami in Java, because haredim are not members of the same people."
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/305682
Now, perhaps his words were insensitive, could have been more carefully chosen, and yet to many Yaron London expressed an opinion that many in Israel feel. Yes, the loss of life is a tragedy, and should never have happened, and hopefully the guilty will be brought to book, and lessons learned for the future.
My observations are based solely on the English review of his comments. Consider the three following paragraphs lifted from his remarks, and then judge for yourself.
“He added that, “When you watch the documentation and zoom in closer to the screen to see a woman crying, it touches you, but you simply don’t identify with the haredim in general, because they’re not part of your people. To me, they’re like victims of a tsunami in Java. I feel a certain sense of pain at their distress as, after all, they are human beings, but I don’t feel any sense of collective identification with them.”
“London was then asked if he despises haredim, which he denied. “I don’t despise them at all. It’s just that my feelings regarding them are the same as those I’d feel toward tsunami victims in Asia. It’s like the way Europeans view the Chinese. This is a group that shuns individualism, and there is something nice about that. But when you look at the haredim, they just aren’t part of the same people. For me, this is like a tragedy that happened in China.”
“And London added that, “You have to be very courageous to make such a statement out loud.”
So, is Yaron London courageous in stating his opinion? Is he simply rebel-rousing? Maybe he is just an old man who passed his sell-by-date and still thinks he can make a splash, make derisory comments that inflame.
“London added that, “I expressed a measure of distress out of politeness – I basically felt the same way as I did when 2,411 people were crushed to death while on their pilgrimage to Mecca, in September ’15. I tried to internalize the distress, to breathe it in, to make it personal and authentic, but it just didn’t happen. Meanwhile, when I think about the tragedy and the victims, I feel much the same as I would about victims of a tsunami in Indonesia – that is to say, virtually nothing.”
Let’s look at the three responses reported in the article:
“In response to London’s words, MK Moshe Gafni, head of the haredi UTJ party, said: “[The Torah teaches us] that Jews are ‘merciful, humble, and open-hearted.’ Since he does not appear to have any of these attributes, it might be a good idea to check up if London really is Jewish.”
It’s interesting to note Gafni’s Torah quote. Does he show these traits to his fellow Jews that embrace other streams of Jewish belief? Does he extend his hand to Reform Jews, Women of the Wall, to the Gay Community, to secular Jews? I think we know the answer to that question. Maybe it’s Gafni who is not really Jewish?
“And MK Yaakov Asher (UTJ) noted that, “At a time when the entire country is uniting in mourning the victims of this disaster, religious and secular alike, non-Jews as well as Jews, a veteran journalist is trying to garner attention with disgusting statements such as these. Yaron, maybe you should be in London, and not in the Land of Israel.”
Yaakov Asher’s comments are par for the course. He, like so many of his ilk, are blinked and blind to what is going on around them. Rather than get a proper job, he is happy to take the easy road and sponge off the state. Maybe he should move to London or New York where Haredim hold-down proper jobs. Either that or be prepared to take a good hard look around and understand the depths of contempt certain elements of the Haredi community are held due to their unwillingness to see the other side.
“Transportation Minister Miri Regev (Likud) added that, “Yaron London has proven yet again that there are those Jews who refuse to accept the existence of different cultures and traditions within the Jewish People. Such words seek to divide us, but he will not succeed.”
Miri Regev’s statement had me in stiches. It is just so funny. Look and think about her words. Instead of addressing them to the Haredi community, she throws them at Yaron London and the wider secular Jewish community. As I wrote above, does the Haredi community embrace different cultures and traditions within the Jewish People? Hell No.
But then again what do you expect from Miri Regev who, by all accounts, is an arse kisser par excellence.
“Netanyahus sue ex-PM Olmert for calling them mentally ill”
“Defamation suit seeks NIS 837,000 in damages; former premier shrugs it off as ‘amusing’”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahus-sue-ex-pm-olmert-for-calling-them-mentally-ill/
There is of course no love lost between Olmert and Netanyahu, and while Olmert is certainly entitled to his opinion, an opinion that many in Israel may well share, it could have been leveled more delicately.
Netanyahu will, I am sure, not lose any sleep of the outburst, not so I suspect her indoors and the young pretender.
Olmert’s comments do, to some degree gel with Ayelet Shaked’s description of Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, as “dictators” and “tyrants” with a “lust for power,”.
“In bombshell recordings, Shaked calls Netanyahus ‘tyrants’ with ‘lust for power” “BRANDS PM 'A PARANOID MAN' WHO 'ONLY CARES ABOUT HIS TRIAL'” “PM ‘must go,’ Yamina’s ex-justice minister says, but a compromise in which he’d serve 2nd in a rotation deal with Bennett is preferable to a ‘ridiculous coalition’ with the left” https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-bombshell-recordings-shaked-calls-netanyahus-tyrants-with-lust-for-power/
Would not a strong, secular, democratic Israel be a far better place, for all its citizens, if the rabbis would confine themselves to religion only and disengage themselves from politics?
I for one do not want to live in Iran MKII.
“Rabbi Druckman: Gov't should be based on Jews, not others, no Ra'am” “The decision comes following public backing by ultra-conservative religious-Zionist Rabbi Tzvi Tau supporting minority govt backed externally by Raam Islamist party” https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/hard-right-rabbi-tau-backs-coalition-supported-by-raam-667039