If we get locusts tomorrow, I’m so blaming bus 8.
(they actually started calling it “birthrightIsrael: Jews Gone Wild”)
” Heavy snow on Mount Hermon, rains, hailstorms and an earthquake in Jerusalem measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale struck Israel SaturdayThe earthquake was felt primarily in northern Jerusalem, and no damage ‘ was reported. Mount Hermon recently opened its ski site, but skiers received too much of a good thing as the facility was shut down for a few hours because of a heavy snowstorm along with winds up to 50 miles (80 kilometers) per hour.”
And I know first hand it’s been hailing like mad in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
By my count, this is Israel’s fourth earthquake in a year.
But all this is totally normal….right?
Vanunu could not be reached for comment.
- Shabbat in the Uttermost West - 2/25/2007
- The chosen books of the chosen people - 2/18/2007
- Why Not Al? - 2/15/2007
Thank you for every other informative blog.
Michael,
It only seems that I bash Haredim much because when I bash Israeli banks, it never comes up that the majority of the people involved are secular. I’m an equal opportunity basher. Perhaps it’s just that some people are a tad more sensitive about issues that relate to haredim or to Orthodox Jews in general so it seems I give them excessive attention.
You know, if there were a source for good news, I’d post some of that as well, but news is generally news because it’s out of the ordinary and in a bad way.
you have those guys cooking up plots to run up on the Temple Mount and do a quick sacrifice or two before the police get them
Mmmm, barbecue!
I don’t know. It depends on where you draw your lines for left and right. If you say, for example, that at the furthest left you have the spittle-spewing Israel-bashing Palestinian-cuddling
John Browns“post-Zionists,” and at the opposite end you have those guys cooking up plots to run up on the Temple Mount and do a quick sacrifice or two before the police get them, I’d say T_M really is about in the middle.However, if you draw your lines where at the furthest left you have “pro-disengagement” and at the opposite end you have “anti-disengagement,” then I guess T_M is a leftie. But if the furthest left you go “pro-dissolution of the State of Israel” and the furthest right is “a total return to ’67 borders,” then T_M is kind of an ultra-rightist.
Ultimately, what I’m saying is is that when talking about the matzav, there is no objective left and right anyway. But I think, even though perhaps T_M brings up the bad about Israel a bit much, and bashes haredim an inordinate amount, he does usually espouse a middle of the road viewpoint. And hey, there’d be much less debate on Jewlicious without him.
Can I be invited to one of these parties where y’all discuss me?
From all sides, maybe even some who are actually in the middle 😛
Would those be rational and clear thinking people on the Right or the Left?
I only interact with you on this blog.
From the sum total of your work here, and I think just about any rational, clear-thinking person would agree, you are clearly, clearly not anywhere near “the middle”
That is my perspective, and likely the perspective of anyone else who reads you here. As a result of that, your nick sure seems like a costume party mask to me.
Neocon, I don’t masquerade as anything either. If you’ll notice, I post my thoughts and ideas extensively (some would say, ad nauseam – Anne, how’s the spelling on the Latin?) on this site and other sites so that anybody is welcome to scrutinize them and tell me that I’m not somewhere in the Center.
Just so you know, I think that in certain matters I am left of Center and in others I am right of Center. It also depends on the politics under discussion since the American Center is different than the Israeli Center or the Canadian Center in a number of ways. However, that word Center keeps coming up in my personal view of myself. If I had intended to say that I am exactly in the middle of all issues, I would have called myself The Perfect Middle.
Hmmmmm…. 😆
Also, Neocon, my chosen name here really pisses some people off. 😉
TM, can we see some of that pro-Israel, ultra-Zionist, anti-hippie, Leftie-attacking, pseudo-Likudnik in you here every once in a while?
T_M: The difference is, I don’t masquerade as someone in the middle.
No one is really objective. The only scary thing is someone who thinks he is.
PS: I’m the same person everywhere, this blog, other blogs, real life, internet. My positions don’t change based on the forum I’m in.
For what it’s worth, I’m left of neocon on most matters too.
No, no, Neocon, it just so happens that somehow on Jewlicious I am the hippie, Leftie, secular, anti-Netanyahu person. On other sites, I am the pro-Israel, ultra-Zionist, anti-hippie, Leftie-attacking, pseudo-Likudnik. Oh, and I have haredim in my family, which makes ck’s comments above even more…off the mark.
The Middle it is.
Besides, you’re “Neocon.” It’s not as if you’re objective. I am to the left of you, that’s fer sher.
are colored by this percieved ideological bias that you are seen to have
I believe he said “percieved” (sic)
And from where I sit, I perceive it pretty well too. Perhaps a nick change to T_L instead of T_M would be in order? 😛
I have ideological biases?
Me? The Middle?!
Gimme a break. I attack everyone with the same zeal. If you want to see some ahavat Israel flow, just bring John Brown over and have him post with us for a while…
Yes. Yes I have. Sorry, uncle Assi ….
Not to mention secular, Sephardic elements involved in shenanigans such as, oh, the Israeli mafia (which I believe you yourself have talked about).
Of course it was funny TM. Funny thing is in a conversation Ariela had with some Yeshivah boys, they told her “we are all drug dealers. You want some drugs? I’ll get you some right now.” Yes it’s intersting and insiteful. But sometimes you’re harsher than you need to be I think. Use of terms like buffoon and larceny are reflective more of certain biases you have than of the reality of the situation you are describing. Shady haredi subcultures are not the only ones that exist in Israel – there are plenty of secular, ashkenazic white collar elements involved in shenanigans that make the haredi activity pale in comparison. I just wish TM, you didn’t leave me and others with the impression that you have a particular ideological axe to grind.
I mean you know I’m traditional, and I don’t shy away from stuff like the druggy yeshivah boys or the misguided Gush Katif settlers. What sucks is that your well intentioned and right on the money posts, like the one critical of banks for instance, are colored by this percieved ideological bias that you are seen to have.
I know you don’t mean it that way. I know your heart overflows (literally) with ahavat yisrael. I know this despite our differences because I have had the benefit and the privilege to be witness to more or less the full corpus of your work. Please extend that benefit to everyone here.
Finally, this is all meant to be fun. Please don’t get upset by my criticism, just as I don’t get (too) upset (sniff, sniff) when you and grandmuffti pick on me.
😉
ck, if you want to give a “full and nuanced” picture beyond having Orthodox people discussing and debating here among us and with us daily, feel free to do so.
Link us to chabad’s good works, for example. Let us see what Aish is doing lately. Talk up Rav Yonah’s good work in LA. Who is stopping you?
If a couple of American yeshiva students are caught selling drugs and I learn that a small but vibrant subculture exists of yeshiva boys doing drugs, isn’t that of some interest? If some yeshiva student – not a boy, a man – spits on an important priest and other priest state that this is an ongoing problem, should we talk about it? In fact, three or four weeks after I reported on the previous guy whose father apologized, another yeshiva student spit on yet another priest.
What are we doing here exactly? I thought we were reporting on the Jewish world in general. I thought we were reporting the good, the bad, the interesting, the personally relevant, thoughts that might matter, funny things that relate to the Jewish world, sad things that relate to the Jewish world, etc.
There’s good and bad. This business with the banks is especially bad. The yeshiva boys with the drugs could be bad – one of them died from a heroin overdose recently. You mentioned the students’ surfing porn, which I thought was funny, and I brought up that one of them might be willing to sell you some weed, which I thought was also funny. I guess it wasn’t… 😉
And just like the news, when we accuse it of bias, you focus on the sensational and do not give a full and nuanced picture. For instance, the kid that spit on the priest was brought in by his Dad to face the music. This did not happen in vacuo. Rabbis were consulted and a decision was made. The haredi community does not of the actions of the rock throwers and spitters in its midst. In fact, today’s news in spitting is that there have been no reported spitting incidents since at least my arrival last week. But that’s not news. Neither is it news that fully %99.999 of haredim do not spit on people. But whatever.
ck, tell them my wife is doing well and in Israel young people are given reponsibilities involving life and death. Perhaps instead of avoiding service, they would find the maturity lacking in their 20s if they were to serve in the army. In any case, my “fetish” is not of my doing – I just happen to read the news…and there they are. I report the facts.
TM: no drugs but they did ask how your wife was doing and they wanted to apologize for the whole spitting thing. They said they were young and foolish. Now can we get over this haredi fetish of yours?
Rabbi: Where you lead, I will follow.
Gut Voch, Ya’al.
Dear CK, how about 4/8-10th for our shindig out here?
Ask them if they have any drugs to sell you.
First day glow? Ya’ani as if I’ve never been here before. I’m not exactly some little bo peep first timer marvelling at the wonder of it all, mamish gevalt! What can I say, it’s just nice to be here. As soon as I get through all the posts and comments I’m sure I’ll be able to post something deep and meaningful. About Israel and stuff. So far a big chunk of my Israel experience has involved sitting at a seedy Internet cafe while yeshivah boys next to me surf for porn. Oy.
We just got about 15 inches of snow. So quit yur bellyachin’!
And you’re in Yerushalayim.
I have this picture, I’m sure you’ve seen it. Taken, I believe, from the Aish HaTorah building. The Wall covered in snow. Beautiful.
If any water starts splitting, I’m making aliyah. Keep me informed.
oh, ck, your in that first day glow. Yes, its amazing to be here no matter what, but it wouldn’t hurt if it warmed up a little. Not that I’m complaining. I have heat in my house this year.
leboff: who cares! heh.
israel in 9 days…
hope the weather gets better!
i am in jerusalem. inclement weather or no inclement weather, my neshama is verrily singing! heh.
dude, people may not know where ‘here’ is, you could be happy to be in montreal still.
Still. No place I’d rather be than right here, right now.