Religious studies are not an excuse for committing crimes

Rabbi Pini Dunner wrote about why Haredis cannot use their alleged interest in religious studies as excuses for committing offenses:

This week, thousands of Israelis found themselves trapped in traffic as Haredi demonstrations brought major highways and railway lines to a standstill. Routes 1, 4 and 6 were blocked.

Traffic on the Ayalon Highway ground to a halt. Trains were stopped, passengers forced to get off, and people attempting to reach Ben-Gurion Airport were stranded. Inevitably, there were clashes with police and confrontations with frustrated motorists.

In one particularly tasteless display, protesters wore yellow stars modelled on those imposed on Jews by the Nazis, except that the word “Jew" had been replaced with “deserter."

On which note, I'd forgotten to mention it before, but those who vandalized the house of a deputy justice in Alon Shvut also brought Israeli flag pages with a swastika in place of a Star of David. That was one of the most antisemitic acts so-called Judaists could possibly commit, and makes clear self-haters aren't limited to the secular leftists. More on that news in the next article highlighted.

The demonstrations were organized by the extremist Haredi group known as the Peleg Yerushalmi, Jerusalem Faction, in response to the arrest of Haredi draft evaders and those who surrounded the private home of the Deputy Chief Justice last week.

To be clear, the protesters did not represent every Haredi Jew, or even every Haredi opponent of military enlistment. But the position they espouse is not confined to this small vocal group. Haredi politicians and rabbinic authorities repeatedly assert that military service threatens the spiritual identity of Haredi young men and must be avoided at all costs.

The army, they say, is not merely physically dangerous; it is religiously dangerous. A young man immersed in Torah study would enter the IDF spiritually refined and emerge diminished. His standards will decline, his outlook will change, and his commitment to Torah will weaken.

Considering it's all written about when it comes to Moses, who asked if certain figures would just sit it out while their brothers went to war, that's why what the Haredi opposition did is just trash talk. They should be utterly ashamed of themselves, and it's decidedly time they left the country. Why, as some could validly argue, those who committed the offenses are unsuited for the army and also unemployable. Perhaps a country like Afghanistan would be a better residential area for them, and they definitely are doing exactly what the Islamofascists would want.

Now since we're on the issue, 4 Haredis from Bet Shemesh, no less, have been indicted for the horror story they caused in Alon Shvut, against a supreme court deputy who happens to be a religious man himself:

Prosecutors on Sunday indicted four men from Beit Shemesh for rioting at the home of Deputy Supreme Court President Noam Sohlberg in the West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut on June 3.

Sohlberg’s home was attacked in the protest, with windows smashed and the entrance vandalized, and some of the protesters reportedly planned to physically harm the justice.

The four are the first to be indicted over the destructive demonstration against the judge, who enraged Haredi leaders with a November ruling that called for criminal sanctions on draft-evading yeshiva students. Police have nabbed dozens of suspected participants in the violent demonstration.

The defendants were identified as Nachman Platnik, 20; Abraham Fried, 20; Gershon Hanoun, 21; and Shimon Atep, 41. All have been in custody since the day of the attack, according to the indictment, and prosecutors informed the court they would seek prison sentences. The defendants will remain in custody until the court says otherwise.

All four defendants were charged with rioting, and Platnik and Fried were also charged with trespassing in order to commit a crime.

Posters announcing the planned riot were plastered on roads and synagogues in the Haredi city of Bnei Brak on the day of the incident, said the indictment, which was filed in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court.

What's stunning is that the police surely were aware of this, yet did not act to prevent them from reaching the area. The defendants should not be released, and should receive psychological counseling in prison if they're ever to be part of regular society again.

“Many dozens” of rioters blocked Sohlberg’s street, yelled derogatory chants including “Nazi” and brought small Israeli flags with a swastika instead of a Star of David, according to the indictment.

They also stoned the judge’s home, and smashed windows, potted plants in the entrance and the windshield of the judge’s car, prosecutors said.

Some of Sohlberg’s neighbors mistook the violent protest for a terror attack and entered safe rooms, the indictment said. It added that some neighbors also tried to confront the rioters, and one neighbor was attacked by rioters and had his kippah snatched.

That too was an antisemitic act. Seriously, it's doubtful these particular Haredis actually respect their own faith as opposed to their "interpretation" of it.

The monsters in black hats and suits haven't stopped at the deputy justice's doorstep either. They've practically gone after the chief justice of the supreme court as well:

Dozens of extremist ultra-Orthodox demonstrators rallied on Sunday outside the home of Supreme Court President Isaac Amit in Mevasseret Zion to protest the arrest of a Haredi military draft dodger.

Police dispersed the demonstration after a short while, according to Hebrew media reports.

It was the latest demonstration by Haredim to target a court official. Earlier this month, ultra-Orthodox rioters attacked the home of Deputy Supreme Court President Noam Sohlberg, smashing windows and causing property damage, while trying to break into the residence in the West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut.

The above may have been dealt with in short order, but it was surely possible to have prevented the rioters from reaching the area to start with. This is utterly atrocious and the ringleaders must be exposed, arrested and imprisoned. They're as bad as some far-left activists too, and it's to be hoped serious prison sentences will be given to the monsters who're desecrating the Torah. It's also chilling to think of what if these ultra-Orthodox would even go so far as to commit arson against a synagogue and Torah scrolls. If nothing proper is done, those could be the next targets of those some may least expect as being capable of committing such a heinous act.

Update: unshockingly, now the Haredi parties like UTJ are planning a mass protest traveling to military prisons to protest the jailings. More information here. If the authorities don't take any proper action, that's wrong, and only perpetuates a sorry situation all the more.

Will alleged deal with Iran include surrender of nuclear materials?

Now, president Donald Trump says a deal with Iran will be signed on Sunday, ahead of a G7 conference he's attending:

President Donald Trump announced Saturday that a deal with Iran will be signed on Sunday, ahead of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) at the White House and his departure for the G7 in Evian-les-Bains, France.

A short time after Pakistani Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar told Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan that the deal will be signed electronically, Trump took to Truth Social to confirm the deal will be formalized.

[...] The president said the deal does not include cash exchanges and the nature of his administration’s relationship with Iran is substantially different than that of his predecessors.

“Our relationship with Iran is a much different and better one than previous Administrations have had. Unlike Obama’s Hundreds of Billions of Dollars in payments to them, including 1.7 Billion Dollars in green, cold cash, no money will exchange hands,” he wrote.

Trump added that, at some point, the United States will retrieve the “Nuclear Dust” — enriched uranium that was buried by B-2 Bomber strikes at Natanz, Fordow, and Esfahan in Operation Midnight Hammer a year ago. Iran allowing the United States to retrieve and destroy this material had been a key redline of the president’s throughout negotiations.

Now here's one serious problem: Iran's reportedly trying to seal openings to the underground storages where they've kept the uranium with mines in order to make it difficult for the USA military to reach those areas, if at all. If such reports are factual, that's not shocking Iran's tyrants would do that, but it certainly won't make things any easier.

And of course, the Iranian dictatorship, as it stands now, cannot be allowed to continue running the country in any way. They've threatened to attack Israel again because of the IDF's continued work in Lebanon to defeat the Hezbollah, and if they do, that'll only confirm the regime has no intention of cooperating with even Trump. So it still remains to be seen what'll be the outcome.

Riots break out in Belfast, Ireland after Sudanese Muslim tried to behead local

Once again, infiltration of the Religion of Peace into once safe countries has resulted in violence against innocents, to which the local public has responded with outrage:

Bedlam broke out in Belfast on Tuesday evening as protests turned violent and rioters set fires to vehicles and homes in the wake of an apparent beheading attempt allegedly at the hands of a Sudanese migrant.

Horrific footage of the stabbing attack on Monday evening, in which a man was seen repeatedly stabbing another man’s neck, inflamed tensions in Northern Ireland, which had previously been the site of anti-mass migration.

On Tuesday morning, police announced that they had arrested a man in his 30s from Sudan who had been granted leave to remain status by the UK Home Office after being granted in 2023, after having travelled through Paris and Dublin, ultimately entering the UK territory through the soft open border with the Irish Republic.

According to the Belfast Telegraph, protests over the alleged attempted murder were held across the city, some of which descended into scenes of chaos and violence. Multiple vehicles, including a city bus and a police car, were set on fire by rioters.

Well, we can see now where Europe is sadly headed in the near future. More on the subject here. It's very sad as it's also horrifying what's occurred, yet local politicians vehemently refuse to convincingly address the issue and perform the mass deportations needed to curb such horrors.

Churches in France continue to be desecrated by Muslims

Anti-Christian persecution in France is also as common as anti-Semitism, and here's an example of a church that was vandalized (via Jihad Watch):

Vandals desecrated the Notre-Dame du Faron shrine in Toulon, France, damaging a statue of the Virgin Mary at one of the region’s most visited Marian pilgrimage sites.

On June 9, the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon reported the desecration of the Notre-Dame du Faron shrine, a prominent Marian pilgrimage site overlooking the harbor of Toulon in southern France. Church authorities announced that a statue of the Virgin Mary was damaged in an act of vandalism discovered in recent days by the priest of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul parish, which is responsible for the shrine. The diocese has filed a formal complaint with the authorities.

According to a report released by Tribune Chrétienne, the damage was identified after the parish priest inspected the site at the summit of Mount Faron. The pedestal supporting the statue, known as Notre-Dame du Mont Faron, had been knocked over and broken. The wooden statue itself also suffered damage. Church officials reported a crack in one of the feet and additional deterioration to the head that will require restoration work. The statue has since been removed and secured pending repairs.

At this stage, the diocese indicated, no information has been made public regarding those responsible for the desecration or the reasons behind it.

In all cases, the perpetrators arrested have turned out to be Muslims, and if they're allowed to continue growing in numbers in Europe, this will tragically continue apace.

Of course it's not solely antisemitic to criticize Haredis when they commit offensive crimes

So here's a writer who wants to make a point that there are legitimate ways to criticize Haredis when they do some repulsive like vandalize the house of a supreme court justice or worse, all because they don't want to serve in the army:

It is undeniable that political depictions of the haredim (ultra-Orthodox) occasionally dip into the bucket of antisemitic tropes. Haaretz contributors have referred to specific sects as “parasites,” and TV personality Galit Gutman notoriously labeled them “bloodsuckers” on live TV.

As the most visibly Jewish community in Israel, haredim face a reality mirrored on the streets of Brooklyn and London: those who look the “most Jewish” are often the most targeted. Haredim have even been victims of hate crimes. In one infamous case last year, a haredi couple near an anti-government demonstration in Tel Aviv were physically assaulted due to their appearance.

The defense that Israel is a Jewish state provides no immunity. There is a plethora of historical evidence to testify that Jews have never been immune from jew-hatred by dint of heritage.

Yet, despite these flashes of bigotry, anti-haredi rhetoric is fundamentally distinct from antisemitism, and treating it as such concedes haredim much more than a narrative of victimhood.

[...] Therefore, the question must be asked: What is it, inherently, about haredi Jewishness that so infuriates their critics?

Take what is perhaps the most cited statistic in Israeli public discourse: the 15,000-shekel gap between the average haredi and non-haredi family’s contribution to the state. Or consider the widespread fury over the refusal to serve in the IDF. Notice what is absent from both of these grievances? Any inherently Jewish element.

Another problem that's angered the public is their denigrating view of women, to the point where they demand dressing modestly and sit at the back of the bus, that women not be singing and dancing, and even want censorship of women in advertising, for example. Those are serious and valid issues to take with the Haredis, and strange the writer didn't seem to bring that up.

To test this, let’s substitute the haredim with an entirely different demographic group. Suppose secular Ashkenazi Jews occupied this exact socio-economic position, maintaining this same rejection of civic duty as a conscious, collective lifestyle choice.

What would society call them? I imagine “parasites” would be one of the milder labels used, their devout commitment to secularism and heritage notwithstanding. While there may very well be some anti-religious sentiment mixed into the public outrage, that does not equate to antisemitism. The hostility has nothing to do with the particularities of Jewish practice itself; it is a reaction to a civic imbalance. The ultimate proof? Neither this intensity of opposition, nor these supposedly antisemitic tropes, are ever weaponized against Religious Zionists.

Ultimately, labeling mainstream Israeli criticism as “antisemitism” betrays a much deeper ideological pathology within the haredi worldview.

First, it assumes their specific lifestyle is completely synonymous with Judaism itself, granting them an absolute monopoly on authentic Jewish expression. This monopoly warps their understanding of the draft and of Israeli society.

In their worldview, the state isn’t demanding they serve out of a basic need for civic equality. Rather, as Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch of the hardline Badatz (Eda Haredit Rabbinical Court) recently claimed, secular Israelis see the haredi brand of authentic Judaism and are “fiercely jealous of us.”

Second, and more profoundly, weaponizing the charge of antisemitism fundamentally denies the nature of the Jewish state. By branding their tax-paying, military-serving Jewish neighbors as antisemites, haredi leadership rhetorically excommunicates the rest of the country.

It signals a refusal to accept the reality of a sovereign Jewish society, choosing instead to operate as if they are living in an alien, hostile diaspora where the “outside world” and “antisemitic persecutor” are one and the same.

Another problem is how they all but segregate themselves and do something similar to what some non-Jewish societies do: predetermine their viewpoint and refuse to take a deeper look with a magnifying glass. Nor do they make any distinctions between what's in good or bad taste. They even reject the idea of reading literature that doesn't meet their worldview, if at all. That does not bode well, and requires a serious fix that'll take ages to repair, if at all.

Interestingly enough, there was a rabbi who spoke out against the "protests":

At the same time, Rabbi Salim firmly condemned the street demonstrations and called on yeshiva students to stay away from them.

"The demonstrations do not help - they cause harm, take people away from learning, and accustom them to violence," he said. "Efforts must be made through quiet channels - visits, phone calls - and one must remain aligned with the instructions of the rabbis."

Yet at the same time, these "rabbis" are still a bad influence in how they teach to literally follow a flesh-and-blood human instead of God's positions, and/or think for themselves. That's another very troubling issue.

Since we're on the subject, here's another writer who believes Haredis could make good employees in weapons factories:

Think about it. The Israel Defense Forces isn’t only suffering from a shortage of front-line troops. It also faces a grave shortage of munitions: guns, bullets, mortars, drones, artillery shells, missiles, interceptors and the like.

Israel must massively expand its domestic weapons industry, but it needs more workers to do so. At the same time, the governing coalition has collapsed under the weight of the Haredi military exemption.

Here’s a solution for both problems: Let Haredi men work in Israeli arms factories without being drafted, and count hours worked toward mandatory national service. This enables them to meet one of Israel’s vital defense needs without submitting to the control of a military establishment they don’t trust.

That could be a solution, with the remaining query being whether they'd accept, and whether they know better than to "turn traitor" and use said weapons for bad purposes, especially if they're members of a clan like Neturei Karta. If all concerns can be overcome, then who knows? Maybe something positive can come from that suggestion.

Iran fired missiles anew at Israel after strike in Lebanon

What's happened now is something Iran's dictators threatened at least a week before, in what proves they still won't surrender:

After threats made about a week ago that an Israeli strike in Beirut would lead to Iranian intervention, Tehran has fired missiles at northern Israel.

As a reminder, about a week ago, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview with the Lebanese channel Al Mayadeen that Iran had informed the US that "if Beirut is attacked, we will not accept this under any circumstances."

He added, "From our perspective, such an action means that the ceasefire has been completely violated, and our armed forces will respond." In another post on X, Araghchi stressed that the ceasefire applied "to all fronts, including Lebanon," and that "a violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts, with the US and Israel responsible for the consequences."

In other words, they're siding with a jihadist organization, one they also fund. This is abominable. The IAF wisely took action, striking some more sites in Iran where weaponry was being built.

Now, amazingly enough, things are returning to normal, with Iran stopping their new launches, and it would appear that Donald Trump saw to that, for which credit can be given. But it has been made clear that, should Iran resume, they will face action, and action must definitely be taken if it happens.

How conservatives woke up and realized their support for homosexual marriage "rights" was harming children

In past decades, many conservatives/Republicans regrettably supported LGBT ideology, until they finally realized that, worse than validating perverse practices, mainly by men, it was seriously hurting children in the process:

Conservatives are jumping the gay marriage ship. According to a new Gallup poll, Republican support for same-sex marriage has plummeted from 55 percent in 2021 and 2022 to just 37 percent today.

The reason is simple: Republicans were told that supporting same-sex marriage meant supporting their gay brother, daughter, coworker, or friend. They were told that opposing it meant they hated gay people, and many bought it. If supporting same-sex marriage was simply the price of treating loved ones with dignity and respect, they were willing to pay it.

What they were not told was that same-sex marriage would victimize kids. No sooner had gay marriage been achieved on the grounds that marriage had nothing to do with children than activists, judges, and lawmakers turned around and demanded parenthood too.

Republicans have no interest in persecuting their gay friends and family members. What they reject is the claim that adult equality requires making children lose their mother or father. And after a decade of watching the consequences unfold, it has become obvious that “equal marriage” was never just about adult “rights.” It was about parenthood and children.

Some could say it was about cutting the mother out of the child's life, and in hindsight, I think ultra-Orthodox clans like the Satmar have some blame to shoulder for putting the keys in the ignition with their ideological approach. Even Islam's doubtless had some responsibility, based on its horrific suppression of women. One could wonder if LGBT activists paid attention to the MO of certain religious movements and adapted some of it for their own MO as well. The irony some aren't willing to consider is that religion may have played a much larger role than we think in leading to homosexuality and transsexuality by extension. Also in discussion in this article is how the efforts to remove gendered words from legal statues are still prevalent, in New York, if anywhere:

Parenthood statutes are being stripped of sexed terms. Mothers and fathers are now interchangeable “parents.” Infertility is being reclassified so same-sex couples can deliberately produce motherless or fatherless children with the help of insurance subsidies. Birth certificates have been altered to legally exclude a child’s biological parent. New parentage pathways bypass both biological and adoptive safeguards. It is the legal obliteration of the nuclear family. When familial distinctions are erased, children become items to be awarded by state-enforced contract.

The madness has not stopped. Even now, New York Democrats are advancing legislation that continues to scrub sex-specific parentage language from state law. New York legalized commercial surrogacy through its version of the UPA, the ironically named Child-Parent Security Act. Now lawmakers are cleansing the remaining statutory code so the language matches the new reality they created, replacing longstanding mother-and-father terminology with sex-neutral parentage concepts.

That’s because if you can’t name it, you can’t legally defend it. And gay activists regard even the mention of mothers and fathers as an attack on their “rights.”

And this is another reason why I'd rather not visit NY ever again. Who would've thought it be one of the worst places you could live in the USA? And only Muslims will be allowed to retain the dignity of father-mother descriptions, no doubt. NY is really going down the drain of all this shoddy propaganda.

Pasadena college is just as awful as some major universities

Rabbi Michael Barclay warns that the Pasadena City College has as much antisemitism going around as major insitutions do:

It is clear to many of us that environments on college campuses have transformed from institutions of academic learning into hotbeds of far-left activism, including and especially cultural Marxist and pro-Islamic activities. These colleges no longer serve as safe places to learn and explore; instead, they make conditions unsafe for far too many students, especially those who are Jewish and Christian and who are committed to Israel. The Department of Justice has started taking action against many of these schools such as UCLA, led by Leo Terrell, but attacks on Jewish students continue in a multiplicity of ways at smaller community colleges, such as Pasadena City College (PCC) here in Los Angeles.

This behavior is happening at high schools and junior colleges throughout the country, and I am only using PCC as the latest example because I have been called in and have personal experience with their institutionalized anti-Semitism. Most colleges around the country have Hillel programs: Jewish clubs with faculty advisors that provide support for Jewish students, are Jewish clubs working in conjunction with university administration, and create interfaith dialogue events so that Jewish and non-Jewish students learn more about each other and develop lasting relationships.

PCC is one of the few schools in the Los Angeles area that has no Hillel program. They do not even have a Jewish club of any sort, nor any faculty advisor who is there to help combat anti-Semitism. Conversely, they have a thriving Students for Justice in Palestine group: a national group devoted to furthering the Islamic goals of a worldwide Caliphate; a quasi-terrorist group that works in conjunction with Hamas, supports the Iranian regime, and is the responsible organization for the many violent riots that took place two years ago on college campuses around the country. While there is no Hillel program at Pasadena City College, the college officially supports SJP, despite, or possibly because of, its anti-American, anti-Semitic agenda. SJP has an official home at this community college in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, where it meets weekly under the auspices of PCC.

Well in that case, even a smaller college shouldn't get any public/federal funding if this is the kind of creeps they're going to allow on their campus. For now, the worst part is that California under Gavin Newsom's government is undoubtably enabling this too.