A light unto the nations, indeed.

In that grandest of New York traditions, some Hasidim in Boro Park got outraged about something, and so the logical response, of course, was to go godamn apeshit.

A routine traffic stop of a 75-year-old Hasidic driver in Brooklyn escalated into a protest last night by hundreds of Orthodox Jews, who surrounded a police station house, chanted "No justice no peace," lighted bonfires and set a police car afire. The driver and two other men were arrested, but no serious injuries were reported.

The Hasidim claim the old man is hard of hearing and that the police were being unecessarily rough.

Witnesses said the police were unnecessarily rough with an elderly man. "Arthur had stepped out of his car, and was pushed by police officers against the car and put in a hand-lock behind his back," said Sariel Widawsky, 49, a co-owner of Schick's bakery, formerly owned by Mr. Schick's family, who said he saw the arrest. "People saw what the police were doing to a 70-to-80-year-old man and starting screaming at police to leave him alone."

"They literally threw him down into the van," Mr. Widawsky said. "He fell on the first step. They picked him up and manhandled him into the van."

"Another witness said the police had overreacted. "For nothing — he didn't do anything — they cuffed him and took him like an animal," said Jacob Jacobvitz, 21.

Ok, they might have a legitimate grievance there. So what's the correct response? IMO, it's to intervene, gather a large crowd, confront the police, take pictures, raise a general stink, etc. It is NOT to jump on one of the officers' backs and then incite people to riot.

As rumors spread through the crowd that Schick had been beaten, tensions escalated and hundreds of people in traditional black garb poured onto 16th Ave. from 46th to 50th Sts. They set fire to old magazines, fruit boxes and other trash up and down the avenue.

Firefighters raced to put out at least seven blazes and water down the streets.

Demonstrators smashed the windows of one police cruiser and torched another by throwing a gasoline-soaked rag into its backseat. A helicopter searchlight swept the street, and riot police formed lines along 16th Ave., hollering, "Back on the sidewalk!"

But protesters didn't heed the warnings and ran through the streets, some yelling, "Nazi Germany!" at the officers.

Charming. I guess they don't learn about Godwin (or historical perspective) in kollel.

Oh, and incidentally, according to another eyewitness:

Witness Haskel Rosenfeld, 29, said he didn't see any mishandling of Schick.

"Four police put him in handcuffs, walked him down the block and put him in a car," Rosenfeld said. "The police had left, and during that time, people lit fires."

See, that's the problem here- not the least willingness to consider that you might be wrong, that someone in your community might have overreacted, etc. No, it's "treated him like an animal", "not our fault", and then, of course, the ubiquitous and infuriating "Nazi" cat-calls. It's arrogance, it's entitlement, and it's an embarassment.

In doing research for a historical novel about a year ago, I read several accounts of pogroms in the early 1900s. The general similarities here are pretty disturbing- (altercation between Jew and non-Jew; non-Jews start spreading rumors that "the Jews beat/killed a Christian"; Christians riot; Jews bleed.) This is actually kind of creepy, and I think it's related to a similar phenomenon we're seeing among the settlers in Israel- everyone thinks brutality and violence is fine as long as they aren't happening to them, and similarly, they think it's OK to use violence against others to make their point. No. WRONG. You don't get to play Lag B'Omer in April just because there are rumors that an elderly Jew may have been mistreated. You have a problem with the police? Protest. March. Boycott. Whatever. Don't act like pogromchiks, and don't you dare call anyone a Nazi over this ridiculous ass-pimple of an incident.

Gargh. So infuriating.

(And no, this is in no way saying all haredim in Brooklyn, or Boro Park, are street punks. But the people involved, and the people who are and will condone this, need to take a long hard look in the mirror, and think about exactly what kind of values they're teaching their young bochrim.)

Spodik-tip: DovBear. Video and pictures here.

Edit: Schick has been interviewed by the media and confirms that "this is not the way the community should be acting". Good for him. If there's something to the police brutality issue, pursue it via legal means- court, peaceful protests, etc. But not this madness.

I think this anonymous guy got it right:

Borough Park Resident: "Everybody was at fault, 100 percent, everybody was at fault."

Maybe. If the cops were in fact too rough, then sure. But at this point, I think the Boro Pogromchiks have kind of hurt their credibility just a tad.

Oh, and incidentally, Dov "hooray for racial profiling" Hikind- shut the hell up.

Doug Hikind, State Assemblyman: "There's no excuse for what that took place in terms of the police department...where people were clubbed....young people were maced."

Amona syndrome, anyone?

More on Metzger

The Jerusalem Post's Anshel Pfeffer muses on why Metzger-gate just might save the dying fish that is the Chief Rabbinate:

The religious parties held out for years against demands to cancel the ridiculously outdated duality of Ashkenazi and Sephardi chief rabbis. Now by default, Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar remains the sole chief, and it's hard to imagine anyone rushing to appoint Metzger's replacement.

Soft-spoken Amar can suddenly come out of media-loving Metzger's shadow and assert himself as the sensible and independent-minded rabbi that few today know he is.

Best part- what are Amar's qualifications for being head honcho, you ask?

If anyone can reconnect the rabbinate to Israeli society, it's the rabbi of humble origins who managed to weather the terrific scandal when his wayward son kidnapped the unsuitable suitor his sister met on the Internet. Like most Israelis, he had to overcome a dysfunctional family and his children know how to use a computer much better than he does.

I say, Anshel Pfeffer for Chief Rabbi. I've already got a slogan: "Why the Hell not?"

Best-laid plans

Peretz's ego trip falls apart.

The Shas committee of Torah sages led by the party’s spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef on Monday ruled that the religious faction will recommend Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for the premiership.

It seems the other parties are following suit:

Earlier Monday, both the Pensioners Party and Meretz recommended Olmert for the post of prime minister.

Sorry, Amir. But maybe there's a lesson here somewhere: the voters don't like assholes. (C.f. Metzger.)

Last Thursday, Shas leader Eli Yishai met with Labor leader Amir Peretz to discuss the possibility of forming a "social front."

But Labor decided to pursue the possibility of an alternative governing coalition with right-wing parties, in a bid to circumvent Kadima and see Peretz appointed as prime minister.

However, [this] failed and the plan has been abandoned. Shas apparently understood this and decided to recommend Olmert.

Why Amir, you sneaky little fuck. You're just lucky that mustache works for you, or I'd be rather teed off right now. You get one free hit, goober. No more funny stuff.
Oh, and this was cute:

Likud representatives are expected to tell the president they view Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu as the best candidate to form a government, but in light of the political reality that has been created they will not be recommending anyone.

Putzes.

Edit:

A7 has some very interesting pseudo-commentary from yesterday on the "possible realignment" a Labor-rightwing coalition would do to Israeli politics:

Labor’s preference for reaching a negotiated settlement with the Palestinian Authority, rather than making unilateral withdrawals from territory, may provide the raison d’etere for the nationalist right’s rapprochement with Labor.

With the Hamas in power in the Palestinian Authority and the chances for a negotiated settlement based on territorial compromise looking more and more remote, many right wing leaders reason they have nothing to lose by hooking up with Labor. Labor’s platform, moreover, calls for implementing the U.S. backed road map plan, which was accepted in principle by the nationalist right.

Up until the mid-1970’s, Labor’s calling card was providing infrastructure for settlement throughout the country, including Judea, Samaria, and Gaza (Yesha). The founders of Gush Emumim, the movement that spawned most of the settlements in Yesha, originally looked for backing among leaders of the Labor party.

Such support was not in short supply. Veteran party leaders, including Shimon Peres (now in Kadima), spent millions setting up numerous communities in Yesha, such as Kfar Darom and Netzarim in Gaza, and Kiryat Arba, Ma’ale Adumim, Gush Etzion, Ofra, in Judea and Samaria, as well as a half dozen agricultural communities in the Jordan Valley.

Unlike the Likud, which destroyed Jewish communities in Sinai following the peace treaty with Egypt, and last summer in Gaza and northern Samaria, Labor has never taken down a single Jewish community in the land of Israel.

Wow, these guys MUST be getting desperate. At the same time, though, Peretz's behavior does highlight a tendency of Labor MKs (like most politicans, sadly) to basically do whatever they have to if it means staying in power. Let's hope Peretz is more like Mitzna than "hey, portfolios!" Peres.

Interesting twist

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz announced today that he was closing the fraud investigation against Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger.

However, Mazuz then said:

we found that in view of the significant flaws in Metzger's behavior and his way of conducting himself, it would be appropriate in these circumstances were he to assume personal responsibility and decide himself to resign from his job as a judge of the Supreme Rabbinical Court and as chief rabbi. He should do so out of recognition of the importance of the dignity and status of the institution of the Chief Rabbinate and the system of rabbinical courts. I hope he will do so.

Boo-ya! Metzger's people are furious, of course, and are accusing Meni of trying to try the Rabbi in the court of public opinion. But what's interesting is that people from the left AND right are finally standing up, taking notice, and telling Metzger- "screw you."

Quotes galore:

"I'm calling on Rabbi Metzger to resign his post in order to safeguard the honor of the Chief Rabbinate," Knesset Member Yitzhak Levy (National Union-NRP) said. "The Rabbinate needs to symbolize the Jewish values of morality and public decency, and must not be tainted by suspicions of corruption."

Meanwhile, leftist Knesset Member Avshalom (Abu) Vilan from Meretz said: "I'm calling on Metzger to heed the attorney general's recommendation and resign at once."

Labor Knesset Member Ophir Pines said that "in light of the serious affair, there's no possibility for Rabbi Metzger to remain in his post."

Some thoughts: on the one hand, Mazuz's going to the press instead of merely doing his job is a little disturbing and unprofessional.

At the same time, I'm rather impressed at his willingness to say, "Yes, you were too smart for me, but we've also caught you being an asshole red-handed", and to leave it to the people to decide if they care enough to fight about it. While populism can definitely be a two-handed sword, if it results in getting a corrupt and bumbling figurehead out of the Chief Rabbi's post, I'm for it. And it's nice to see a Meretz and NRP MK agreeing on something once and a while.

Could this be the sign of a new, no lower-BS policy in Israel? Let's wait and see how things progress.

What'd I tell you?

In your face, Jerusalem Post analysts!

Ha'aretz:

Ehud Olmert favors Yisrael Beiteinu over Shas in coalition

Olmert said Thursay in conversation behind closed doors that despite Lieberman's opposition to withdraw from the territories, he seems to be a convenient partner, reliable and easier than Eli Yishai and Shas.

Boo-frickin-ya, suckas.

Also, Peretz is taking the opportunity to be a bit of an opportunistic moron.

Meanwhile, Labor is working to convince factions to support Peretz for prime minister to raise the stakes in the negotiations. "Anyone who recommends Peretz will not be in the coalition," Kadima said.

...Sources in Labor said Peretz had begun talks with a number of factions to recommend him to the president to form the cabinet and thus to the post of prime minister. Yishai said in response that he did not discount the possibility that Shas would recommend Peretz to the president: "Shas has no preferred candidate; as long as [the movement's spiritual mentor] Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has not stated his preference we will not discuss it."

It is believed in Kadima that in the end Shas will be part of the coalition, after Yishai signs the coalition platform, since Yosef does not want the party to remain in opposition for another term.

Yes, Amir, we're all impressed with the fun displays of your notorious "tough negotiator" tactics. But let's get real here and start cutting the crap. Anyone with a mustache like yours should know that playfulness has a limit.

More:

Meretz decided at a meeting Thursday to recommend to the president that Peretz form the coalition said Ran Cohen, appointed chairman of the party's negotiating team. Cohen said Meretz's condition was that Peretz would not enter a coalition with the Likud, the National Union or Yisrael Beiteinu.

Cohen called Kadima's threat that a party that recommends Peretz to the president would not enter the coalition "irrelevant."

Sigh. And so it goes.

P.S.

Congratulations to MK Rabbi his semi-holiness Eli Yishai for displaying this week's Independent Thought Award, sponsored by our free-thinking friends over at Fox News. Kudos, Eli. Keep on representing the best of the Jewish intellectual tradition.

Edit: Settlers are mad about the Kadima win? No way! Tomorrow's USA Today Headline: "New study finds Asians enjoy rice; noodles. Scientists stunned."

Revised Knesset elections count

All the votes are in and some seats have been shuffled around. The new tally, apparently, is as follows:

Kadima- 29
Labor- 20
Shas- 12
Likud- 12
Yisrael Beiteinu- 11
NU/NRP- 9
Gil- 7
Meretz- 5
UTJ- 6
Balad- 3
Hadash 3-
Ra'am Ta'al- 3

For those of you who (like me) flunked Math, that means that between Kadima, Labor, Meretz and Gil, there's already a slim majority (61). Obviously Olmert will want to shore that up with Beiteinu or the haredi parties, but at the very least, it does indicate the bottom-line foundational support he will have in the upcoming Knesset, particularly if he can pay off the haredim to keep them on board (add to this that Shas is already desperate to be in govt., and that if Olmert can convince Rav Yosef that he "really, really tried" to talk to the Palestinians, he'll probably give his blessing for unilateral withrdalws), and placate the Israeli Arabs to support a vote. With the beginning 61, plus the Arab parties, plus Shas & UTJ, Olmert's got 88 seats- comfortably within the 2/3rds majority of the Knesset that became such an issue with the last withdrawl, and that's assuming there are no defectors on the right (such as Lieberman, or individual opportunistic/realistic/pragmatic MKs in Likud or the NRP).

All in all, a rather promising start. Let's see what Olmert does with it.

P.S. In the interests of bashing both sides with at least a semblance of equity, here is an example of left-leaning Israeli stupidity. The author seems to indicate a microscopic level of political accuity, joined with healthy doses of myopia and undeserved self-congratulation. When I have time, I might rip it to pieces in the oh-so-satisfying manner of bygone WorldNetDaily or Arutz Sheva editorials. I'm going to be fairly occupied this weekend, but we'll see.

Roundup

Ariga has some interesting analysis of potential Olmert coalitions, and also reminds us of exactly who Rafi Eitan is:

longstanding friendship between Olmert and Pensioner Party leader Rafi Eitan, the Palmahnik turned spy who captured Adolf Eichmann and ran Jonathan Pollard, spending the last 20 years making millions as an 'international businessman,' with close ties to the Cuban government.

Oh yeah... that should be interesting, particularly the next time a U.S. envoy meets with the government. Both Ariga and the Jerusalem Post, incidentally, favor the likelihood of a Shas and UTJ coalition with Kadima, not Beteinu. This sounds contradictory given Shas' rhetoric until you look at its track record, which is basically dictated by getting money for its programs. Observe:

Last week, Yosef said this:

"whoever votes Kadima [forward in English] goes backwards to hell"

Yesterday, he said this:

"I won't let our representatives enter the government if the child allowances aren't returned."

Consistency does not seem to be the Rav's strong suit.

In other Shas news, their token Ethiopian is going to the Knesset. Who'd have thunk? Probably not Shas, for one. Oh, and Shlomo Benizri (and his rabbi patron) was indicted for fraud and bribes. But never mind that; let's all celebrate Shas' love for black folks! (As long as they're Jewish.) Rabbi Bayana will be the second Ethiopian MK in Israel's history (the last one, Avraham Neguise, elected with Peretz's Am Echad party, only served one term).

And, in an interesting twist, though there were six other Ethiopian Jews running for Knesset, only Bayana made it in.

Speaking of Beta Israel- things still aren't going too well with them, either outside or inside Israel. Not only aren't they being integrated; they're actually becoming a sore spot with the "veteran" Ethiopians!

Israel's veteran community of Ethiopian Jews, the bulk of whom came to Israel in the airlifts of 1984-85 and 1991, are still struggling to find their way in Israeli society. Battling poverty, crime among the younger generation and unemployment, some are wary of scarce resources going to the Falash Mura community instead of their own continuing absorption. Others welcome the Falash Mura as extended members of their own families and see political and social strength in the growing numbers of Ethiopians in Israel.

Currently some 100,000 Ethiopians live in Israel. The government's plan is to expedite the immigration of 13,000 to 20,000 Falash Mura over the next two years. Some of the leaders of the veteran community had been outspoken against bringing additional Falash Mura to Israel but once the plan was approved by the government, the criticism on a public level has been largely muted.

...stark divisions between the communities when it came to religious practice. The veterans, for example, prefer to pray in the traditional Ethiopian language of prayer called Ge'ez while the Falash Mura pray in Hebrew. The Falash Mura will also often only eat food deemed kosher by the Chief Rabbinate while the veteran Ethiopians follow kashrut standards set by their elders.

The two communities, Hadane said, live fairly separate lives in Israel.

...Adding to the sense of alienation are rumors circulating in the veteran Ethiopian community that some Falash Mura return to Christianity once they are in Israel, even attending church services. Suspicions have been heightened by rumors that Christian missionaries who falsely converted to Judaism are among those immigrating.

..."We don�t feel like we are part of this society," he said. "If the first and second immigration waves did not work, why should the third and fourth ones work?"

I wonder how the people who think all Jews should move to Israel are ever given pause by stories like this which clearly expose Israel's failure to live up to the pie-in-the-sky dreams its emissaries in the Foreign Ministry sell to any poor Jews who will listen. Someone needs to stop and carefully consider exactly what the point of bringing more people to Israel IS. If it's just to have more Jews crammed in, fine. If it's to actually create a minimally just, cohesive and functioning society, they need to start working on that, and BEFORE the next batch o' settlement fodder arrives.

Lastly, there's this story from the Post on the ongoing Wall construction, and various settler reactions to it (they aren't all what you'd think).

Israeli elections breakdown.

First, the results:

Kadima-28
Labor-20
Shas-13
Yisrael Beiteinu-12
Likud-11
Arab Parties-10
NU/NRP-9
Gil (Pensioners)-7
UTJ-6
Meretz-4

Now for some ground-breaking analysis.

Who are the losers here?

Well, the Israelis, first of all. This was the lowest turn-out in the nation's history, and it's not exactly like there weren't some important issues involved. Theories abound, but a good bet is simple disgust with "politics as usual" in Israel, as Ynet editor Andrew Freidman wrote yesterday. This applies to both left and right, as well as the "new center", and is rather troubling, to say the least.

Next: Likud. It went from its biggest election win to its second-worst showing ever (Herut got 10 seats in the 1951 elections for the 2nd Knesset). The fact that even after the Kadima split, Likud couldn't even keep half of its remaining 27 seats speaks volumes as to how disenchanted the public was with it (both from the left and right). Bibi described the result as a "body blow" to the party, and he's right. Gideon Sa'ar was quoted this afternoon saying something like, "It's really painful to find out we are in the minority opinion in this country." The truth hurts, don't it? With the Likud the 5th largest party now, it is possible that we have just witnessed the final steps of the "reshuffling" move Sharon started- with Kadima ascendant (sort of- see below) and Labor doing well enough, Yisrael Beteinu seems to have effectively positioned itself to become the new dominant right-wing party. All that spells disaster for the Likud. If its peak was in 1977, we may have seen its death-knell today.

Kadima is also a loser here. While 28 seats is more than decent, the significant loss from its polls less than a week ago (what happened to mid-30s?) speaks volumes about how the party is essentially perceived as ideology-less. Olmert should feel accomplishment at having kept the party's momentum up and won the elections, but he also needs to be extremely attentive to this wake-up call. He needs to prove himself, and fast.

Some winners:

Yisrael Beteinu, first of all. Liberman has quite successfully managed to navigate his small immigrant party through the ranks and towards electoral gains. Leiberman is also very politically astute, and seems to be, above all, a pragmatist. He's got his eyes on future campaigns where his party becomes more dominant, so you can be sure that he'll be using this term to try to work on his image. If it's to his advantage to oppose Olmert and supplant the Likud as the major right-wing opposition, he will. At the same time, if Olmert plays his cards right, it shouldn't be too hard to snap Liberman up into a coalition, firmly cementing his parliamentary majority.

Labor. While they didn't dramatically increase their seats, the ability to hold onto them (unlike Likud) after having lost people to Kadima is notable. It's also a lot better to be the second-largest party by only seven seats as opposed to twenty-one. Labor has all but ensured a place in the government, and should be able to play a prominent role in the arenas of both economic and diplomatic policy.

Shas. Sorry to say it, but as the 3rd largest party and a strong mandate from Ovadia Yosef, is seems likely that our favorite black-hatters are going to be making their presence felt again.

Gil. The new Shinui, this one-issue party led by, as Doron Rosenblum put it, a guy who "who until yesterday was basically someone whose name sounds like the late general Rafael 'Raful' Eitan" has managed to claw its way into the Knesset thanks to Kadima apathy, dedicated seniors, guilty middle-agers, and, possibly... trendy teenagers? Whatever the reason for their success, these guys are also going to be throwing their weight around, and the present wisdom suggests they'll probably go left on issues relating to the Palestinians.

Predictions:

At this stage, a lot of people seem to be confident that Olmert is going to swing left and go with a Labor coalition. This may also include Shas, Yisrael Beteinu, Gil, and/or Meretz. Unfortunately, any coalition is going to need the inclusion of either Shas or Yisrael Beteinu, and that's where things might get tricky, particularly when Olmert tries to start implementing "Convergence", or Disengagement, pt. 2, where keeping his majority will be crucial in order to avoid a repeat of Barak's post-Camp David II collapse. It seems likely, however, that Labor, Gil and Meretz will have no problem backing Olmert, which will only require him to woo Y.B. or Shas (UTJ would also probably go along with it, for the right price). Push comes to shove, I'd be willing to bet that Liberman would be willing to follow Olmert if he thought it would benefit him. That would leave the haredi parties and the various right-wing parties screaming bloody-murder, but basically unable to do a damn thing about it. I also suspect that after the Disengagement fiasco, Olmert might be more willing to go with a secular "sometimes"-rightwing Zionist than someone like Shas, who have very clear lines they won't cross, and who demonstrated this before.

Bottom line: a decent victory for Olmert, and notable for Peretz, who nobody thought could accomplish anything. Both of them have the opportunity to raise their parties up now, and prove themselves. And if they want to know what the consequences will be if they disappoint... well, they can just look at Bibi.

==

Misc. Links:

A7 points out some interesting analysis reg. Kadima's seat gains (and right-wing in-fighting).

Meanwhile, the Labor Party is celebrating the modest performance of Kadima – which basically inherited the Shinui Party’s mandates (15) and retained those Knesset seats its members held up until Tuesday (14).

MK Danny Yatom (Labor) said that the results are a "great blow to Kadima, and bring great joy to Labor."

Both Ha'aretz and the Jerusalem Post have some thought-provoking pieces on the results. And A7 also gives some interesting info reg. UTJ's base (which doesn't seem to have been reflected in the elecitons) and more IDF-Mafal crises.

Oh, and Yediot has this cute/mean piece (see title) on the smaller parties hoping & waiting for better news. Apparently Marzel was convinced he was going to get in. That's cute. Not as cute as the Gil-niks, though. What nice punims!

Got that, Baruch? The potheads got more votes than you. Go home. (I bet Boaz Wachtel has something that will ease the pain, if you ask nicely.)

Israeli Election coverage

With the amusing exception of a couple of fistfights, this election looks like it will be most noteworthy for being a dud.

By 2 P.M., voter turnout in Tuesday's election for the 17th Knesset was the lowest in Israeli history.

At 2 P.M., only 30.9 percent of voters had turned out compared to 35.3 percent in 2003... The total expected voter turnout is some 66 percent - around two percent lower than the rate in the 2003 elections, the lowest turnout in Israeli election history. The prevailing assessment is that low turnout will work to the detriment of Kadima and Labor.

Andrew Friedman from Ynet offers an explanation, one I think is quite convincing.

...Whatever the description, a large part of the settlement community feels not only that it has been abandoned, but also that Israeli democracy is little more than a club with which to beat political opponents over the head.

True, the Gaza move was technically "legal", but even supporters of the Gaza disengagement now admit that the process of approving the move was something significantly less than Jeffersonian democracy. To paraphrase another not-quite-kosher move in the annals of history, the whole thing stank.

...It is not only the settler community that seems to be opting out of the election process. The current election is the country's sixth in 14 years – an average of one election campaign every 2.3 years. The same candidates that have failed to take responsibility for their failures and have failed to serve the country's needs again and again and again, have the audacity to spout the same election jargon as they did 10 years ago –without the slightest hint of shame.

With several notable exceptions, our elected representatives are not in the game to serve the public. They are in the game to serve themselves. More than that, the parties have made their disdain for the public clear by assuming people will vote for them simply because the country has called elections. Party chairmen have been scant in the news, and potential foreign, defense and justice ministers have remained entirely absent from this campaign.

Nor is it merely the large parties that take the public for just so many morons. The Meretz Party calls for "dialogue" with the Palestinian Authority, offering neither apology nor explanation for the fact that such talks produced the bloodiest terror offensive Israel has ever known.

And right-wing leaders spout on about "saving" Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria without acknowledging that their anti-Oslo/anti-disengagement campaign of the last 13 years has yielded exactly nothing, and without bothering to tell the public what their plans are to solve the demographic threat that many demographers say is less than a generation away.

The notion that our politicians simply have no shame, that they view the electorate as little more than a bunch of morons, defines every single political party in the country.

Sad, but all true. In light of Friedman's explanation, the turnout results really don't seem terribly surprising (and also seem to jive with the "election day surprise" the pollsters were warning about).

Borrowing a page from Lazer's book.

Lazer Brody had a lot of success with his "Lazy Interactive Parable" about a month ago, so I decided I'd try it, too.

So... what the hell is Yossi Sarid talking about?

On Tuesday, G-d willing, the Friar will publish the best (or only) responses and analyze/puzzle over this bizarre article.

Or make fun of the Israeli elections. Whichever.

More on Eliyahu Avinu

It has been pointed out to me that Rav Eliyahu's ruling is actually an attempt to address two prohibitions:

1- No other Gods.
2- No Graven Images.

I would add a third (had Eliyahu actually thought about this, which he probably didn't,) which is No covetting, ironically, probably the one issue with the materialization of American and Israeli societies that I agree is something of a problem.

So, let's examine each of these.

Number 1- There has been no evidence offered that people are worshipping, or in any way treating, these toys/art as Gods. There is also, as we said previously, no real argument that defacing or otherwise damaging these objects would lessen their veneration, even if they were being worshipped in the first place. (This applies equally to number 3.)

Number 2 actually deals with a physical question. Irregardless of what people are doing with their stuff (i.e., idolatry), graven images are not allowed.

Fine. One problem, though- who has engraved toys anymore? No one, as far as I can tell. Most dolls are stuffed, and most plastic toys are injected into molds. I guess things that are carved out of wood or metal could count, but that's about it, and I really don't think they're all that popular with the kiddies. (Hey! Does this mean that everyone has to start mutilating their gingerbread men?)

The one thing that IS a graven image is some kinds of sculpture (asuming it's been carved and not merely poured into a plaster-mold, like the toys), and I'd be curious if there's actually so much anthropomorphic sculpture in frum households that Eliyahu thinks it poses a danger to their frumkeit.

The proper way to deal with questions of idolatry, as I see it, is not to damage the physical object, but to address the roots of idolatry- the PEOPLE. If your kid is overmaterialistic, taking away his toy and giving him a rock is not going to fix anything. I had a rock collection, and would regularly subsitute school supplies for toys in the classroom (I had four highlighters who I pretended were King Arthur's Knights... anyway...). Like I said before, this is an easy target, and an even easier fix. The logic holes are gaping, not unlike Eliyahu's other semi-recent pronouncements.

Rabbi Eliyahu smashes idols (or does he?)

Former Chief Rabbi and often-Kahanist supporter Mordechai Eliyahu has decided to become the new Abraham, sort of.

Israeli rabbi orders maiming of dolls

Jerusalem - In a tough break for the children of Orthodox Jewish families, a former grand rabbi of Israel has urged parents to amputate their dolls to avoid the perils of idolatry.

Basing the move on a Biblical ban on the possession of idols, Mordechai Eliyahu, a Sephardic rabbi, broadcast his edict on a religious radio station calling for an arm or a leg to be dismembered.

In the case of a teddy bear or other stuffed animals, the children will see their beloved toys lose an ear or an eye instead.

...Shmuel [Eliyahu] revealed that his father had forced one of his followers to snap off the ear of a replica of a statue of Moses by Michelangelo that he had bought at an exorbitant price.

As a friend of mine pointed out, you'd think the horns would have been the real deal-breaker. No?

Now, some of the folks I've talked to have criticized people for poking fun at this. "Who are you," they say, "to question the great Harav? The Rishon Letzion? The Sultan of Sages, the Great Rav-bino!"

Who am I? Nobody. I don't know the tradition of dealing with graven images. However, I would be very curious to learn how frum Jews have traditionally gotten around this problem. Why is the old approach (whatever it was) no longer acceptable? Or is Eliyahu's latest pronouncement in response to people "losing their way"? What were people doing with dolls and art last week? Have we seen a backsliding?

Now, why do I think is this problematic and/or stupid? Among other things, saying that dolls are being treated as idols seems more than a little ridiculous. Are haredi children really setting up shrines to their teddy bears? (Insert Rebbe King Moschiach joke here.)

There are a couple of defenses of Eliyahu's logic that I've heard. One explanation is that the real problem is the over-humanization of the dolls or art in question. To which the obvious question seems to be, why not just buy your kids stuff that bears less resemblance to humans? Like this, or this, or this?

The alternative issue raised is that this is really a strike at materialism, at the urge to hold something up beyond its value. That's a nice gloss, but there's a very obvious problem with this, and which also applies to the first apologia. Namely, that slightly mutilating something does not necessarily change it. Is your GI Joe less "humanized" because he's missing a limb? There are people walking around without arms and legs. Moshe Dayan was missing an eye. Does that mean a doll of him is idolatry-safe? Will this lead to an increased popularity of pirate dolls among Haredim? The argument that a toy or object being covetted is so dangerous they must be defaced has a serious flaw, which is that something with that much potential for corruption is not likely to be changed simply because you've dinged it up a little. Does the Orthodox Jew in the article value his statue less because it's missing an ear? For that matter, isn't there a major logic hole in presuming that nobody could possibly "worship" (in whatever form you pick) a broken idol?

Am I glad Haredi kids can have toys and their parents can enjoy art? Sure. But the fact that this is deemed a logical solution just underlines how absurd a world these people are living in. I'm very curious how many people are actually going to follow this ruling.

Failed Messiah says, "Better the children should deface their gedolim cards." This raises an important point- aren't the demarcation points being established here for "idolatry" rather arbitrary? No one can worship a photograph? Why not cross out the ears on pictures of rabbis? How would Eliyahu deal with something like this? Or this? And doesn't this ignore the fact that frum Jews, like everyone else, struggle with materialism in many other areas, too? Why is having a thousand-dollar streimel or spodik ok, but not a Judah Maccabee doll? Why can the Belz Synagogue have 100 Torah scrolls, but little Rivka has to content herself with a disabled kitty?

Isn't this, to a certain extent, an easy target, and a rather ridiculous solution? Has Rabbi Eliyahu not lifted himself and his righteous crusade against (wait, what is he fighting against, again?) above and beyond its value?

Who's really the idol here? And who's worshipping him?

Well that's just great

Two teams of US investigators managed to sneak dirty bomb supplies into the U.S. Now we can all look forward to more FOX-style idiocy of "Dirty Bomb watch" and the like. I was intruiged that both the nortern and southern borders were tested. It'll be interesting to see how the "death to Mexicans illegal aliens" crowd square that with their "the only reason I'm pissed about the Mexico border is because of Natl. Security" B.S.

Death to Canada!

Also, enjoy this great quote from one of the staffers on the Senate Subcommitee:

"It's just an indictment of the system that it's easier to get radiological material than it is to get cold medicine."

Correct.

Know your MK candidates

Today's focus: United Torah Judaism, the Ashkenazi haredi party in Israel. Cute pics of all the hot studs can be found on their boy-band-sounding website, www.gimel2006.com.

A quick run-down of the candidates:

1- Yaakov "Bushy-tailed rabbit" Litzman. Ger Hasid, major political player in Ger for the past decade-plus. Along with Ravitz, is the primary mover and shaker among the Haredim, and basically serves as the Ger Rebbe's right-hand man (i.e., gets money for yeshivas, permits for new Bnei Braks, and spends his spare time fighting with non-Orthodox Jews). Before and after? I guess time moves a little differently when you think the world is precisely 5,766 years old and wear your alter-zayde's underwear. Litzman has managed to become Chairman of the Finance Ministry in the last two Knessets. His qualifications for controlling Israel’s economy? He went to yeshiva in high school. Got a problem with that, you dirty anti-semite?

2- Avraham "Grumpy" Ravitz. Degel HaTorah, MK since 1988. Served in Lehi and the IDF. Wow, a model for all Haredim. Ravitz has actually been quoted making some sense, something few of his counterparts can boast.

The Zionists were wrong, the deputy minister says. There is no need to foster love of the Land of Israel through political and military rule in the entire land. One can love Hebron even from Tel Aviv. By the same token, there is no need to link the attachment to Hebron by means of Israeli rule there; the city can be loved even if it is under Palestinian rule. The State of Israel is not a value... "Only matters of spirituality belong to the family of `values.'"

Well done, Rabbi. You should be careful, though; you go around saying stuff like that and Rabbi Eliashiv might put you in cherem.

3- Meir "My friends call me Simba" Porush. Represents the smaller, primarily Hungarian, Hasidic sects. Served in the IDF, former Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem. Thinks, like Bill O'Reilly, that judges should be elected, thereby eliminating an even semi-independent judiciary. Supposedly started a short-lived hunger strike in 2003 to protest budget cuts from the Finance Ministry. Says secular Jews don't know how good they have it. "...without the political lobbying of Haredi MKs, the Haredi education system might collapse." Poor, poor Meir. Heaven forbid that the Haredim raise some money and finance their own damn schools. I mean, particularly since they give so much back to the IDF by studying gemara. I don't know how to feel about Meir. I mean, I'm happy he served in the IDF and was educated at a Talmudic college (hey, at least it has "college" in the name). At the same time, Meir's descended from a bunch of Lithuanian Misnagdim; his ancestor was Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Porush, the namesake of Meir's illustrious cousin, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, one of Jerusalem's bigwig Misnagdic rabbis. So what's he doing over at Agudah? How can I trust a man who turns his back on his own family's traditions? Sorry, Meir. No dice.

Meir, incidentally, replaced his father, Menachem, "I enjoy spitting on Reform prayerbooks and getting kicked out of Knesset meetings" Porush in 1996, after the former started running out of spit and left politics in order to devote more time to his hobbies, embezzling money from Bikur Holim hospital, and accusing the Israeli Supreme Court of antisemitism by making token gestures of semi-acceptance to non-Orthodox movements in Israel. Some might also remember Menachem's public synagogue beating from a group of Ger Hasidim in the 1980s after he told Simcha Bunim Alter, the rebbe at the time, to shove it when he instructed him to step down from the Knesset.

4- Moshe "I only have 3 kids? What kind of haredi am I?" Gafni. MK since 1988. Moshe does a lot of the general behind-the-scenes back-and-forth negotiations on behalf of Degel now that Ravitz is getting increasingly older and coming to resemble Jabba the Hut. He was the primary force behind getting UTJ back together for their new tour, the “Let’s screw these silly Zionists some more so our kids can pretend to sit and learn in kollel” tour. Better watch out, Black Sabbath, the UTJ Experience is gaining steam!

5- Shmuel Halpert. Vishnitz Hasid. MK since 1981. Grandson of the Nadvorner rebbe. (Know what this means? Shmuel and the Clevelander Rebbe are cousins! Well, he's got my vote.) Speaking three languages in addition to Hebrew, Shmuel is tied with fellow sometimes-MK Israel Eichler as the most multilingual of the UTJ list. Unfortunately, Shmuel's languages (Yiddish, German, and Rumanian) don't seem like they'd be all that useful in Israel.

6- Yaakov Cohen. Looks like he's totally stealing Shmuel's look. Hands of, Yaakov! Go practice your Vulcan salute. (Yaakov is going to be replaced by Israel Eichler mid-term because, as we all know, Belz has to have its chance to stick its fingers in the pot, too. BTW, Belz is apparently rather pissed about all this. Could there be a potential rebbe-fight in the future? Will we get to watch the caftans and gartles fly? The Friar will keep you posted.)

7- Uri "My hat weighs more than me" Maklev- Degel HaTorah. Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem. In 2000, Maklev, along with Porush, accused the Masorti movement of torching one of their own synagogues to "provoke" and incite against Haredim. When Meretz MK Naomi Chazan confronted the two, Ravitz called her an "antisemite and a liar". Classy.

8- Who am I kidding? We all know these guys aren't getting more than seven seats.

Israeli elections are tomorrow- time to sit back and watch the stupidity happen.

When I have more time, I’ll probably flesh out the UTJ experience some more- this could be the greatest hair band since Poison. (“On keytar: Meir the Beard Porush!”)

Muslims can be assholes, too.

Release Abdul Rahman. No, like, right now.

Rahman is being prosecuted under Afghanistan's Islamic laws for converting 16 years ago while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

The case has put Karzai in an awkward position.

While the United States, Britain and other countries that prop up his government have demanded Rahman's release, the president would be reluctant to offend Islamic sensibilities at home or alienate religious conservatives who wield considerable power.

...The trial highlights a conflict of values between Afghanistan and its Western backers -- notably American Christians who cheered the administration of President George W. Bush when it toppled the oppressive Taliban regime in late 2001.

Bush expressed alarm about the case this week, but Christian lobby groups have urged him to do more.

...Afghanistan's constitution is based on sharia law, which states that any Muslim who rejects Islam should be sentenced to death, according to Ahmad Fahim Hakim, deputy chairman of the state-sponsored Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

But the constitution adds that "the state shall abide by the ... Universal Declaration of Human Rights." Article 18 of the declaration guarantees the freedom to worship and to "change" religion or belief.

And therefore there is nothing to debate. This isn't a matter of religion- the UDHR is quite clear. Karzai, this is the point that you demonstrate you have balls. And Bush-lovers- this is the point at which you lean on President Monkey-Man to do something and exert pressure for an actual justified reason, for a change. Incidentally, this will also help determine whether or not Hamid "President of Kabul" actually controls anything beyond his apartment, as Bush & co. have been parroting since they installed him, or, if as anyone with eyes has been pointing out, Karzai's "control" over the country is as fictional as Bush's election victory in 2000 (or Bill O'Reilly's sense of decency, or Ovadia Yosef's tact... fill in your favorite insult here.)

Edit: an update, sort of. Apparently Rahman's going to be released while authorities "review his case". Not terribly promising-sounding, but it's a start.

Picking and choosing?

The next time someone frumer-than-thou gets in your face about driving to shul or the (non) validity of non-Orthodox rabbis, ask them if they observe mitzva number 74.

The Complete List

(Scroll down)

Found it? Good. Here's the relevant passage.

Adultery? That ain't good.

Double-points if, after they concede that they do not observe mitza 74 because it is illegal under most countries' legal system (well, not Saudi), you ask them- "If it wasn't illegal, would you observe it?"

Wow, selectivism isn't just a Reform practice. Who knew?

Edit: This article from Tikkun describes the various legal and interpretive blocks the rabbis put up to ensure it would be almost impossible for a Jewish court to carry out an execution. What say you, Right-wingers? Is this not a case of both religious and judicial activism? Is the Sanhedrin not legislating from the bench? It isn't their job to interpret the law, just enforce it, right?

Right?

Even the rabbis of the Sanhedrin and Talmud had their lines. They saw things in the Torah that went against their own values, and they used every means at their disposal to shift the interpretation of the law towards something more compatible with God's and Israel's will as they understood it.

Take note, Conservative movement. It's your Torah. YOU decide what you want Leviticus 18 and 20 to mean and how they should be interpreted. That's part of your JOB as leaders, and trying to shy away from that is downright shameful. Ordain gays, or don't. I've got news for you, though, some sort of split is going to happen either way, and this ridiculous farce of fighting over procedure rules isn't helping.

Make a decision. You owe it to yourselves and to your members. The greatest shame going on here is not the refusal to grant gays acknowledgment, but the timidity, inertia, and cowardice that is gripping your leadership. You have the right to decide this issue, you are indeed worthy. So DO IT!

The Talmud's Judaism isn't set in stone; why should yours be?

More O'Ridiculousness

O'Reilly talking to Eric Burns about how the liberal media hates Bush & sides with... well, people O'Reilly dislikes.

This was great, though.

O'Schmuckface: You can bet that back in colonial times, the media wouldn't have had these kind of issues about church and state.
Burns: Well, no, it used to be a lot different. People had a difficult attitude about church...
O'Moron: And you can bet that they wouldn't dare sympathize with child rapists!

O'Reilly seems to have conveniently forgotten a couple of things. First, while apparently the Pilgrims and Puritans didn't marry their kids off that early, the Southern colonies DID.

For ladies living in the South during this period, they could marry as young as fourteen.

As the site goes on to explain, this was at least partially because the average lifespan at the time was a fraction of what it was today. (Incidentally, the Friar's illustrious ancestry contains several incidents of early marriages, as well, including one bizarre birth record that suggests, while not stating outright, that the mother of the child in question was only NINE years older than the son. It's not just a Christian thing.)

Let's also not forget that other odious things were tolerated at the time, such as slavery, as well as the rape of slaves, children and otherwise. Jefferson, anybody? Helloooo?

BTW, as some may have guessed, O'Jackass is also drastically oversimplifying early America's relationship with organized religion. From Richard Shenkman's I Love Paul Revere, Whether He Rode or Not:

“As for the beliefs of the founding fathers, the remarkable thing is not that so many believed in Christianity, but that so many expressed doubt about it... Ben Franklin never believed in the divinity of Christ and as a young man he toyed with polytheism... as an old man John Adams became fascinated with paganism... Thomas Jefferson believed in God and considered himself a Christian, but he seemed to reject the divinity of Christ and considered Calvin's sermons blasphemous. Alexander Hamilton, both at the beginning of his life and near the end, expressed faith in Christianity, but during the revolutionary period he was utterly indifferent to it... Thomas Paine condemned the "monstrous belief" that God had ever spoken to man. George Washington, though he belonged to the Episcopal church, never mentioned Christ in any of his writings and he was a deist.

Certainly the founders weren't hostile either to religion or the clergy... but neither did they insist, one and all, that religion was a pillar of liberty. Indeed, many of the most illustrious founders plainly rejected the idea. Historian John Diggins says those involved in writing and defeding the Constitution, men like James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, "expressed profound ambivalence about religion, often seeing it as divisive rather than cohesive." And some of those who later came to believe in the necessity of religion, such as Adams, originally thought religiosity was of little matter.

... The founders have been pressed into the service of religion so long now and with such force that it is almost impossible to recover what they really thought. But we can certainly reconstruct their actions... Consider the practice of public prayers [such as] opening meetings of Congress with a prayer... we do more of it than they ever did (not because they opposed praying but because they thought politics and praying didn't mix). The Constitutional Convention opened without a single prayer and several of the first presidents, including both Jefferson and Madison, generally refused to issue prayers, despite importunings that they do so. Under pressure, Madison relented in the War of 1812, but held to his belief that chaplains shouldn't be appointed to the military or be allowed to open Congress."

Luckily, Dr. Bill doesn't let pesky things like facts get in his way. It might make it harder to say stupid things.

Israeli poll update- three days and counting.

According to the latest polls, Kadima has continued to drop slightly, following the downward trend that has been plauging it since Sharon's stroke when it peaked at 40. Still, 36 isn't anything to scoff at. Labor is up to 21, with Likud down to 14. Again, Shas & Yisrael Beteinu are tied, but this time at 11, instead of 10.

Also: NU-NRP up to 9, Arab parties 8, and Meretz up to 6. UTJ, however, is down one to 5. I guess Gafni isn't as effective a campaigner as he thought.

...sometimes a few votes is enough to lose a mandate that could have been crucial to the fate of chareidi Jewry in Israel in the coming years. In history one will be able to examine what was the turning point for the worse in 5766 and calculate how one or two mandates were lost...

Mazel Tov, Moshe. Maybe you should leave this stuff to your Hasidic counterparts, like MK Litzman, who has apparently shifted his loyalty from Ger to Ruzhin.

Edit: Actually, if even his Grand Holiness the Prophet HaRav Eliashiv super-duper shlita can't get people to vote for UTJ, they're probably up shit creek.

On the other hand...

The UTJ campaign headquarters notes that everyone can daven for the success of the list.

Great. Maybe they'll even vote, too.

Double-edit: Incidentally, note who ISN'T getting any mandates. Shocking, I can't imagine why their brilliant campaign strategy of being racist assholes isn't working.

Lastly, as always, remember: polls don't have all the answers. This explains why.

Sharon suffered a stroke on Jan. 4, and the militant Hamas group swept Palestinian parliamentary elections Jan. 25. Yet neither major event caused a ripple in the polls. Pollsters are wondering what's going on.

"All this gives me the impression of quicksand," said pollster Rafi Smith.

The main added variable is Kadima itself. It sprang from nowhere into the lead. Previous attempts to forge centrist parties in Israel have ended in flashy failures. Now the pollsters have to readjust their assumptions _ or throw them out.

With predictions of a turnout of less than 60 percent and polls showing more than 20 percent undecided, the trick is to figure out who is going to vote at all, and where the wavering voters will come to rest.

Pollsters say a key to predicting what undecided voters will do is what they did last time. Follow-up questions allow pollsters to cut the undecided number to 3 or 4 percent, Zemach said. In the end, they tend to "go home," voting the same way as before. With the emergence of Kadima, that no longer works. Likud and Labor are traditionally Israel's largest parties, but they're suddenly also-rans.

"This is the hardest assumption we have to make," said Zemach, who has been conducting pre-election polls since 1973 and is Israel's best-known pollster, adding that "we no longer have the luxury" of putting voters back in their old parties...His own polls consistently show Kadima winning about 35 seats, but his gut feeling is different. "I don't have the impression that every third person is actually going to vote for Kadima," he said, warning of election night surprises.

Very informative.

O'Strawman

Bill O'Reilly was in rare form Thursday night. First he bashed Hillary Clinton for daring to refer to Jesus in relation to a political issue. (The segment in which Bill ass-rapes Bill Frist for this little stunt is presumably only available to premium members on his website.)

Typical O'Reilly tactic: Quote someone saying something outrageous, agree repeatedly, act as if playing devil's advocate, and then back away from it.

In this case, it was some random preacher who said Clinton was "despicable" for using Jesus' name in a political context. O'Reilly parroted the statement multiple times, and then when confronted by the token liberal (an attractive blonde, incidentally), said, "hey, I don't think she's a bad person."

Yeah, right. Media Matters has more on the segment's O'inconsistencies, including when Bill suddenly gets his Divinity degree. What they don't have there is the part where O'Reilly opines on how Clinton's religiosity is "obviously" fake. Nice double-standard. Democrats invoking faith must be full of it, and Repubs are always sincere? Good to know.

But Father Bill isn't done. Next up, he has a Black woman on to talk about PETA's latest mornic stunt. Not satisfied with Holocaust on Your Plate, they've thought up a new outrageous trick to get media attention: compare chicken farms with the slave trade. Ridiculous? Of course. So what's to discuss? The strawman, of course.

O'Reilly: what do you think about this?
Woman: I'm outraged. It's horribly offensive, etc.
O'Reilly: Don't you think that this shows that various liberal groups who like to compare themselves to you are out of touch?
Woman: Yes.
O'Reilly: Like the gays, for instance. They say that denying them marriage is like denying you guys rights.
Woman: And it's absolutely ridiculous, and offensive. Don't use us as your poster boys for your struggle, we have problems of our own!
O'Reilly: Yeah, those gays, they just don't appreciate the differences... marriage is a privilege, not a right. It's not like eating at a lunch counter.

O'Reilly conveniently avoids citing any example of any gay groups comparing gay marriage to the slave trade. The only semi-comparison I can recall (and I followed some of the s-s-m controversy fairly closely) was the argument that "saying that s-s-m will destroy society is ridiculous. People said the same thing about inter-racial marriages 50 years ago." Obviously, not the same thing, O'Douchebag.

And incidentally- how is being able to eat lunch where you want substantially more of a right than being allowed to marry whom you want? Feel free to point me to the "lunch counter" ammendment, Bill.

Incidentally, Bill's also full of it when he claims that his show is "number one in cable news"- Fox's ratings, and O'Reilly's in particular, have been steadily dropping since the beginning of 2006. Is this a sign that people are becoming smarter, or more liberal? I doubt it. It probably has more to do with the fact that (if my household's viewing tendencies are at all representative) most people can only take so much of "the Factor" before they get the urge to shove a falafel through O'Reilly's nose.

More on the Conservative movement and its non-decisions.

First, a rabbi from Masorti movement in Israel accuses his colleagues, both in Israel and America, of "singling him out" as "persona non-grata". His crime? Conducting 10 same-sex weddings in the past 5 years.

Now, there's the argument that rabbis shouldn't be doing something that their own movement disallows, and I think that actually has some validity. But it's also clearly a symptom of the deep divisions, and lack of clear-cut leadership (and a process through which change can be addressed, or effected) at work in the Conservative Movement. The kind of anarchy that Lazar's activity illustrates seems to be a rather glaring example of some of the major problems Conservative Judaism is suffering from. Instead of actively grappling with the halchic (and policy) problems and issues that the existence of gay Jews creates, the C.M. instead prefers to stall, pleasing no one and perpetuating a status-quo of "see no gays, speak no gays" that has yet to appease anyone.

In a related matter, the Forward has some analysis about the latest reversal by the C.M. Law Commitee:

The motion, passed 106 to 37 with 24 abstentions, allows the Conservative movement’s top lawmaking body, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, to approve major revisions to Jewish law with the approval of 13 out of 25 voting members. It overturns the decision by the R.A.’s executive council last June to establish a 20-vote threshold for major changes.

Very interesting. The Friar will be keeping a close eye on this. Stay tuned.

Also, at the same conference, we got to hear chancellor Ismar Schorsch remind everyone how old he is.

"If the Conservative movement chooses to do something at the expense of the halachic system, then it's going to pay the price down the road," Schorsch told the Forward in a reiteration of his longstanding opposition to lifting the ban on homosexuality. "The erosion of our fidelity to Halacha is what brings us close to Reform Judaism."

Heaven forbid! It's always nice to see some bridge-building between the traditionalist C.Js and the Orthos- in this case, Reform-Bashing. Nice send-off, Chancellor. Don't let the car door hit you on your way out.