A few weeks before the elections, the situation in Israel deteriorated into verbal Jewish Wars. Every lie is kosher if it can bring a few votes. Swine are poultry; Friday equals Saturday. As soon as the Jewish Sabbath ended in the late hours of December 22, Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu was hit by a religious antimissile more advanced than anything RAFAEL may construct anytime soon.
"Netanyahu caused 'Hilul Shabat,'" read the headlines of settler Channel 7. "Hilul Shabat" translates roughly as "Killing the Sabbath," and refers to a situation in which the Jewish rules regarding the Saturday are broken. "Hilul" can also be translated as "desecrated," however, the allusion to death shows how seriously this issue is considered. The term is also used while mentioning killed soldiers; it gives a false illusion of the state's sanctity.
"What happened last Friday is unbelievable," a senior politician of what is known as "Religious Zionism" who refused to be identified by name said. He added, "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ran hurriedly and gave interviews to the three leading television channels, directly causing the workers of these channels to violate the Sabbath." Netanyahu gave the interviews before the beginning of the holy day; however, after he left the studio, the workers there had to edit the event and prepare its broadcast. By doing so, they violated the Haredi interpretation of Sabbath Laws. However, Netanyahu was responsible for their unforgivable crime. Netanyahu's spokesman dry answer to the accusation was that the interviews didn't violate the Sabbath.
"I fully support your goals, but I cn't condone your methods" | Pharaoh to Moses
The issue is deadly serious. Towards the end of 1976 Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's coalition with the religious parties faced a motion of no confidence brought by the Haredi party Agudat Israel. The reason for the motion was four F-15 jets sent by the US to the IDF during the Sabbath. Instead of facing the shame of losing the vote, Rabin dissolved his government and called for early elections in May 1977. Menachem Begin won the elections, and the Likud era began. Should Netanyahu be worried?
The Haredi position on the Sabbath is neither pure nor innocent. In God’s Clowns: On Jewish Sabbath I analyzed various tricks used by them in order to allow breaking the Sabbath. One of them is related to social visits during the Sabbath. I wrote, '“But, what can one do? One wants to visit his friends!,” said Rabbi Schmeck. Oh, yes, one wants to do that. However, that may be considered a violation of the Sabbath, since the day should be dedicated to God and not to social acquaintances. What can one do? Let’s see, is walking from the synagogue to one’s house allowed? Of course it is! Now, what is one’s house? This one is an easy trick: wherever my belongings are, that’s my house. Good! Now, let’s put a small item of ours – let’s say a Bible, for the irony – in our best friend’s house. Technically, his house is now also my house. “Mi casa, tu casa; tu casa, mi casa.” Now Rabbi Schmeck can walk from his house to his temple and back to his other house, while God is confused by all this nonsense and believes that Schmeck still fulfills the Mosaic Law.' Religious Jews manipulate religious laws for their convenience and in order to create obstacles for others. The latter may help them to obtain concessions from a Prime Minister weeks before the elections.
Netanyahu didn't even care enough to explain the incident himself; he sent into the cold a secondary spokesman to do that for him. The poster above explains the issue. It shows President Shimon Peres with a kaffiyeh, the text reads "Releaser of terrorists - Shimon Peres - President of the Arabs - Jewish National Front." In the years since Rabin's Labor lost its hegemony, religious parties in Israel have shifted to the right wing of the political spectrum. They are closely related to settler parties, as the Jewish National Front is. They are openly derogatory towards the left; anybody knowing anything about Israel knows that Shimon Peres has been the eternal "Shin Beth Candidate," the open political face of the political police. Claiming that he is the "President of the Arabs" is equal to claiming that Hitler was the "President of the French." It works well during election campaigns for as long as you want to alienate the people from a given party. HoweverYet, this time it backfired. The religious parties cannot tell Netanyahu that unless he pays for his horrendous crime they will vote Labor, even after the latter announced that it supports the settler budget. A month before the elections, Netanyahu killed the Sabbath, and there is nothing the Jews can do about it.
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On Bad Faith and Cold Hearts—I am being tortured by the Bolivian Government
I have been declared a Political Prisoner of Bolivia, a country which does not respect human life. I am held in Bolivia illegitimately, violently and against my will. I am violated daily; please make this public in any possible way.
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