A Knesset vote to approve the 2010-2011 budget has been frozen by Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu. For once Netanyahu's freezing something was for the better. The proposed budget included a
111 million sheqel stipend for Yeshiva students (
or read more here) -- the equivalent of 11,100,000 falafels from the stand in my neighborhood. The already heavily subsidized, widely unemployed religious sector of the Israeli population will get yet another hand out. Rather than encourage married Haredi men to join the workforce and be productive members of society, a cadre of theocrats feathers its constituents' nests.
The bill received stern condemnation from Kadima and Labor MKs, but public outcry is rumbling but has not yet erupted.
This is not the Middle Ages, this government will not be the Church, and the Haredim will not be our monks and priests, living off the fat of the people. We, the citizens, shall not tolerate political trickery to pillage the public purse for the benefit of the religious.
A protest has been organized in Jerusalem for this coming Monday (November 1st) in Jerusalem at 7pm. Join the group on facebook
here. Come one come all! Stand up and make yourself heard! Let's not let schonorrers take our tax money.
Ilan,
ReplyDeleteI agree with much of what you say here except your comparison to Yeshiva students to monks and priests living off the fat of the people is an unfair comparison. I am not going to argue any of your ideological points that would be foolish. Your comparison however is nauseating and it highlights the unnatural biases you accrued while growing up in a Christian country.
David:
ReplyDeleteHow is my comparison of Yeshiva students to monks and priests unfair? Both depend on the subsidy of the populace for their welfare, both are unproductive sectors of the population, and both isolate themselves from the masses. If this nauseates you, sip some tea or pop a gravol.
As for your ignorant comment that I grew up in a Christian country, I beg to argue differently. Unlike Israel, the United States has no state religion, has no government sanctioned cults, and does not pay homage to any particular deistic belief. The United States is not a Christian country, you delusional ignoramus.
America is a country that claims to have a separation of church and state. Its was founded by, has been, is and will continue to be run by Christians. Not all Yeshiva students are unproductive, you are generalizing. And as for cults, I'm pretty certain that cultic practice is defined as idol worship, which Judaism isn't. Your next claim will probably be a new Jewish blood libel.
ReplyDeleteGo self hate elsewhere!!!
Additionally, you are an angry person and it is reflected in all of your posts. I'm sorry for you
I don't know where you come off judging me as a person as opposed to me as a writer, but such conceit can only come from one who professes to know the "true way". I don't know why you think I am self-hating because I do not share your religious beliefs or world views.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct. I may overgeneralize when it comes to Yeshiva students, but you certainly fit the stereotype of a closed-minded nitwit who casts the first stone and whose sole mental exercise is jumping to conclusions.
I am not alone in my views of the Yeshiva-bound masses, last night's protest testifies that. As for my anger, it is not misplaced.
I am glad I have your sympathy, I hope you keep reading my libelous, hate-filled, anti-religious propaganda. Maybe you'll learn a thing or two about the other side.
Thats just a hypocritical post. I know the other side very well more than half of my friends are on it and so is most of my family. I grew up in the delusional world of Liberal Elitism filled with a heavy dose of anger and sarcasm.
ReplyDeleteI don't claim to know the true path; because each person has their own truth within the greater unified objective truth of the universe.
You being with the masses doesn't make you correct (i.e. Nazi Germany). Bad example.
You saying I throw the first stone is wrong. You wrote this hate filled overgeneralized piece. Bad point.
You saying that I will learn a thing or two about the other side. I already know them.
I don't think you are self hating because you are secular. I think you are self hating because you only use hate and anger in your pieces which would indicate that hatred and anger dominate your personality.
You have projected your inadequacy on to me and it is lame. When was the last time you sat down and spoke to a settler, or a dati-leumi rabbi, or an orthodox rabbi? When was the last time you looked at the other side with frustration but love???
The point isn't to be angry and spew hate. You write as though your ideal is as follows; "maybe if I can create enough hatred and anger to completely polarize, and fracture the Jewish people more than they already are, we can find a solution (i.e. get my way).
Jews have made this same mistake throughout history and it doesn't work. Find the commonalities and the good. All you ever write about is the bad. Sometimes you throw in a positive here or there but overall you just complain and rant. The world isn't so bad, and it is much better and more humane than it was generations back.
I am quite familiar with the religious side of the equation, having come from a modern Orthodox background and studied in modern Orthodox institutions. I have conversed lately with both settlers and rabbis, despite your baseless determination that I haven't.
ReplyDeleteI think you give me too much credit: my aspirations are not nearly as lofty, anarchic, or self-destructive as you claim. Glad to see you admire my work and study the psychology of my writing in great depth. Thanks to you I am aware about my self-hating, loathing, and anger.
I am glad to see you're a student of Jewish history and recognize the fact that factional division always leads to catastrophe for the Jewish collective. Unfortunately for your thesis, this is more often than not a result of religious radicals (take the fall of the Hasmonean kingdom, Jewish factionalism during the Great Revolt, or the Bar Kochba Revolt, for example). Eerily similar symptoms are visible in today's Jewish state. If I fear-monger as you say I do, it is because to those of us, like yourself, who have studied ancient Jewish history find current developments disconcerting.
I find your hair-trigger correlation of masses to Nazi Germany mundane, tedious, and wholly predictable; anyone with a fifth grade education does the same when a more intellectually apt comparison can be made, whether about Obama, Bush, Rabin, or Saddam Hussein.
Perhaps while you develop a more cogent and compelling argument you could take an English lesson so that you can say what you mean without egregious grammatical mistakes (For instance, what do you mean to convey with: "When was the last time you looked at the other side with frustration but love???"). Maybe then I could be convinced by anything you say.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3980929,00.html
ReplyDeleteyou should probably just read this article and stop inciting hatred.
Have a great month!!!
My response to that is simple, Sterling:
ReplyDeleteNo research has been done on the subject because the funding went to an unemployed Haredi man instead. Israeli university budgets are absurdly tight, preventing much real research from getting done.
As for their argument "Haredim are people, too", if that's the case (and I can hardly deny their existence as humans) then they should join the workforce like everybody else and have the same rights and privileges as everybody else. No money to do nothing.
I was referring to the point about the huge amount of students receiving funding to study soft (another word for NOT) sciences. Most of them don't end up working in their fields and they don't actually provide much for the investment made.
ReplyDeleteA good example would be an Oleh Chadash that receives money to study Diplomacy.
Sterling:
ReplyDeleteIf only you were as infinitely wise about my life as you are tedious. Most may not go on to work in their fields (but I am sure some hard statistics would back up your unsubstantiated claim). I, however, am enlisting in the IDF officer corps and will be putting my degree to use.
Try to stick to things you know (what they are, precisely, beats me) instead of making baseless accusations about people you don't know. Try refuting actual points rather than pointless ad hominem attacks.