 need to dismantle the secular state, get rid of the Arabs and set up what they describe as a Torah state. These fanatics are harbingers of great peril to Israeli society unless they are now ruthlessly targeted and delegitimized.
The abomination began initially with the so called “price-tag” desecrations of mosques, cemeteries and Arab property. Many of us warned that these despicable acts should be considered within the rubric of terrorism rather than criminal acts. We warned that they would ultimately lead to violence and possibly killings and unfortunately that is precisely what happened.
There are too many who, while disgusted with the murders, tend to understate the damage that these fanatical thugs — often understated as misdirected youngsters — can inflict on our society. And in some cases, the parents who failed to prevent their children from engaging in purportedly nonviolent price-tag operations must also bear responsibility. This applies especially now, during this period of suicidal Muslim terrorism as anger and fear pervades civilians throughout the country, making them less tolerant toward Arabs.
What makes these fanatics even more dangerous is that most of them consider that they are carrying out God’s will. They could easily morph into equivalents of the jihadis.
It would seem that one of their main sources of inspiration emanates from a handful of charismatic extremist rabbis who turn a blind eye or even encourage their followers to engage in acts of violence.
The state and successive governments until now have tolerated such deviants. It is disgraceful that in our dysfunctional political system, a religious fanatic like Kiryat Arba’s Chief Rabbi, Dov Lior, retains a state-funded rabbinical role when he publicly and unapologetically refers to the mass murderer Baruch Goldstein as being “holier than all the martyrs of the Holocaust” and has instructed the synagogue under his authority to exclude the prayer for the government. It should hardly be surprising that if the state continues to fund even a small number of rabbis with such views, that some of our hilltop youngsters fall under their spell and decide to expand their war against the Arabs.
This situation is currently limited to fringe splinter groups of primarily young religious deviants. The government should be applauded for using an iron fist in its determination to indict and neutralize these miscreants. But the few radical rabbis who stand aside or implicitly endorse these actions must be dismissed forthwith and investigated for possible incitement.
Naftali Bennett, as education minister, should issue appropriate directives to ensure that the curriculum, especially that of the national religious stream, imparts the necessary message to children in relation to this issue. All rabbis should speak out and condemn any colleague who remains silent or ambivalent.
In addition, the settlement movement must move beyond mere condemnation of these deviants. The extremists should be made aware that aside from facing indictments from law enforcement officials, their own communities will excommunicate and report them to the authorities.
At the same time, outraged as we are by such abominations, we must not become masochists or accept the distortions about us being promoted in the global media. Yes, we have a tiny fringe element of fanatical Jewish extremists who can be deemed terrorists. But that does not warrant equating us with our neighbors. The definition of a healthy society is not determined by acts of terror but by how the society responds.
 Every murder is sanctified and glorified at the national level from PA head Mahmoud Abbas and extended by the mullahs in the mosques, through to the schools and the media. Every murder results in joyful street celebrations with scenes of the proud parents of the “martyrs.” Soon thereafter, streets, city squares and even football clubs will be named after the murderers.
Compare that with Israel, where the entire nation, including every party in the Knesset, is horrified and shocked that even isolated barbaric behavior of this nature could occur in this country and where draconian steps are taken to identify and indict the Jewish terrorists.
We should give full backing to the government to act with uncompromising discipline and eradicate these home-grown aberrations who reject the sanctity of human life as well as investigating the behavior of a handful of fringe extremist rabbis.
These are early days and the situation can be rectified but there must be a recognition that, like cancer in a body, these elements must be completely cauterized or they could revive and cause us immeasurable damage, shaking the very moral foundations of the nation.
Jews and the global tilt towards conservativism...
The Democratic Party’s Facebook Police is at it once again. A Republican legislator has shared a post and the whole sky is falling. This time it involves State Representative John Picchiotti, who shared a post that had some anti-Islamic elements to it.
First, let me state I am firmly opposed the bigotry and have been a vocal critic of Islamophobia. As a libertarian, I believe individuals should be judged on their own individual merits and not based on that of any affiliation. For example, because some bad Muslims exist in the world, this does not mean by any stretch that all Muslims are to be judged by this clear minority within the religion.
But the problem here though is not whether Representative Picchiotti is a racist or not, but rather that he is a Republican. Democrats, once again, see a political opportunity in this.
The Democratic Party is deeply disingenuous and honestly are likely more concerned about scoring political points against the Republican Party than any group being offended. This is about politics.
After all, not many Democrats are outraged as the Lewiston Mayoral race is literally being bought by the political director of an organization that once criticized a wheelchair-bound State Legislator for having “no spine”and not standing up. In fact, not many Democrats were overly concerned about the Maine People’s Alliance’s awful mailer, either.
In fact, not only did the Maine People’s Alliance slam Representative Crafts for being spineless and not standing up, they stated in the mailers that the people of Maine agreed.
Does the Democratic Party agree with the Maine People’s Alliance’s attack? Do they agree with the vitrolic organization’s assessment of Mainers?
Maybe the Maine Democratic Party just has a low opinion of Maine voters and simply doesn’t care about paraplegics.
Representative Dale Crafts, the mailer target, and being the good man he is, took the high road. He didn’t capitalize on an opportunity to score political points. He accepted the apology, then kept his focus on his day-to-day life and maintained focus on the constituents who elected him.
But why would the Democratic Party care about Chin, who is clearly more focused on buying Lewiston, and his obvious connection to this offensive organization? It was in the past, right?
The problem is something being in the past didn’t stop the Democratic Party from calling for Representative Lawrence Lockman’s resignation for comments he made decades ago.
While these past comments by Representative Lockman were inexcusably awful, why does he get attacked for it decades later and Ben Chin gets a free pass just a couple years later?
Representative Picchioti’s only mistake was in not being a Democrat or attempting to buy a Mayoral seat. If the Democratic Party would like to do a little soul-searching and find the intersection between “principles” and “consistency”, they would call for Ben Chin to resign from the Lewiston race because of the horrible attacks on Representative Crafts.
But let’s not hold our breath. They’re only feigning outrage for the political points.The renovation of the Atlas building of Eindhoven University of Technology was completed in November 2018. Cursor, the university magazine of the TU/e, was invited for a sneak peek and made a video.
Now the TU/e can start with the relocation of the faculties Industrial Design and Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences and the various services that will be part of the building. The Atlas building will be in use from 7 January 2019. The official and festive opening of the Atlas building is planned for 21 March.It was a down year for Jews in the NFL as most of the stalwarts from recent years past could not find a team to play for this year. The season began without David Binn, Sage Rosenfels, Kyle Kosier, Adam Goldberg, Igor Olshanksy, or Greg Camarillo on NFL rosters. Camarillo did eventually find his way onto a team, signing with the New Orleans Saints during the season. But he finished with just 4 catches on the season for 44 yards. In terms of highlights, the top play of the year for Jewish NFLers belongs to punter and kick holder Adam Podlesh‘s 2-point conversion. As for the rest, most of the great Jewish NFLers are Offensive Linemen; we’re not complaining, but they don’t have too many highlights.
Gabe Carimi was one of the bigger stories of the Jewish sports year, but unfortunately for being benched. The Bears O-Line struggled and Carimi was a part of that. The Great Rabbino is still a big fan, and hopefully with a healthy off-season he can come back better than ever.
Mitchell Schwartz, a top draft pick for the Cleveland Browns in 2012, started as well on the Browns’ O-Line. Looks like he and Trent Richardson were good finds for a struggling team.
Fullback Erik Lorig scored his first NFL touchdown. He started 7 games for the Bucs and had 12 receptions for 83 yards.
Julian Edelman (who we