All the news sites have been making a big deal about how the Haredi papers have not included pictures of Ayelet Shaked , Miri Regev and Gila Gamliel (and Tzippi Hotoveli when relevant) in its review of the new government, either as individual pictures, or in the group picture with their faces fuzzed out.

I am impressed that they are all surprised by this. It is nothing new (at least in the perspective of recent history). Erasing women from pictures or blurring their faces is done on a daily basis. The most famous was probably removing Hillary Clinton from a picture of Barak Obama and his staff monitoring the rain on Osama bin Laden's compound. Angela Merkel was also wiped out.

It happens every day.

Yet every time it happens, everyone acts all shocked and surprised, as if they expected the Haredi newspapers to print the pictures this time.

These stories are boring already. Find something else to write about. If the paper thought it had the ability to influence change on the matter, that would be one thing. But they don't. They just keep writing about the same shocking story over and over again. It seems boring news is ok as long as it is against the Haredi community.

Details of budgets are not interesting to me, along with often not being understood by me, and therefore not all that newsworthy or comment-worthy.

When I first saw a news item about the passing of the budget for 2015 of Iryat Bet Shemesh yesterday, I was not all that interested, and I was not going to even comment on it.

I just saw another article, on a different news media, about the same city council meeting passing the budget and now I have found something newsworthy about it.

The truth is that my comment is not about the budgetary items or any other details about it. My comment is about the reporting of it.

Here goes:

The first report I saw was from local Bet Shemesh news media Shopping Mekomi.

The main thrust of the article on Shopping Mekomi was regarding the debate over the budget. in 2013 there was a budget shortfall of 15.5million NIS. in the first three-quarters of 2014 the shortfall was 40million nis. blah blah blah.

Along comes the national Haredi news and also reports on the same City Council meeting.

Kikar gives largely the same report of what the mayor said, how they need to increase revenue, less government money so only what he gets will he spend, blah blah blah.

The one thing there is no mention of in the Kikar article is any of the increasing budget shortfalls of the last two years.

Once reporting on what must have been the most boring (by the very nature of it being about budgets) City Council meeting in the country, why not report the numbers? or just don't report anything at all.

I guess Bet Shemesh is just like any other city. We have our share of both heroes and crooks..

in Bet Shemesh news today, we have a hero featured and a crook.

The hero is a soldier in the IDF from Bet Shemesh. Rotem Shabbat was on duty at a checkpoint in Jerusalem near Shuafat. While checking the Arabs passing through the checkpoint, one seemed suspicious to her and she took him aside for further examination. It turned out that this Arab fellow was the suspect of a manhunt as info pointed to the fact that he was planning an attack.

When the border police searched him, by Rotem's orders, they found a large knife and learned that he was planning to commit a stabbing attack in Jerusalem.

Rotem Shabbat, from Bet Shemesh, has now averted two terror attacks during her service at the Shuafat checkpoint.
source: Shemeshnet

and we don't just have heroes here in Bet Shemesh, but we also have our share of crooks...

Some guy from Bet Shemesh with a metal detector went and raided an archaeological site. After initially denying involvement in the theft, police discovered over 800 ancient coins in his house, along with other bronze materials such as jewelry, stamps and other items, the fellow admitted to his guilt. The loot was from the end of the Persian rule, and into the Hellenist, Roman and Byzantine eras up until the Ottoman era.
source: NRG

As noticed before, Bet Shemesh seems to produce some of the strangest news stories... somehow too many of the crazies seem to find their way to somehow be connected to Bet Shemesh...

The latest is someone recently sent a letter to the "Ask the Rabbi" forum of the Kipa website. The question he asked was it will be allowed to shoot the Women of the Wall who will come to the Kotel wearing tallit and dressed immodestly.

What happened, happened, and upon further investigation the police arrested a young man, 17.5 years old from "Judea and Samaria", for the provocative and incitement-laced question.

What's the connection to Bet Shemesh?

they caught up with this fellow while he was on a class tiyul in Bet Shemesh, and that is where they arrested him. (source: Bechadrei)

He does not even live here, but found a way to connect Bet Shemesh to this crazy story...

                                   

I don't know what it is, but the strangest news in Israel seems to usually come from Bet Shemesh....

the latest is a story with very murky details.. a family of 8, 2 parents with 6 kids, "wandered" across the border into Jordan. It seems there is a restraining order on the father for being part of the Lev Tahor cult, and not being able to leave via the airports, he was trying to sneak out via Jordan and then to make his way with his family to Jordan. This family is from Bet Shemesh.

The Jordanians took the family into custody and has returned them to Israel.

The details of what and why are still murky, but what a strange story!

There was not much news today, besides for the weather and the flooding.

The quote Danny Hershtal, "My blessing to Israel: May you now and forever have weather as the leading news story"..

Amen!

Supposedly the CNN office in Israel has been forced to downsize. As a result, they have trimmed their local staff in half, from 8 to a crew of 4.

The only thing is that the 4 let go were all the Jewish staff, while the remaining four are Arabs. (source: Before Its news)

While until now CNN always sent both a Jewish and Arab reporter out to any incident, so as to get both points of view and some attempt of objectivity, now they will only be sending out Arab reporters and will still be claiming objectivity...

Why did the citizens of the Muslim countries suddenly start rioting and revolting against their governments? What can we learn from it?

Ynet reports from the WAP site "Haredim" (late addition: I have also seen this now reported in the edition of Mishpacha newspaper that I got delivered today) that a number of rabbonim have discussed these issues.

Supposedly, Rav Ahron Shteinman, Rav Chaim Kanievsky, and Rav Michel Yehudah Lefkowitz have all recently commented on these issues.

Rav Shteinman: Rav Shteinman suspects the lack of stability in the region is because of the attempts to shock and disturb the "olam haTorah" by harassing the kollels and avreichim - when people try to disturb the torah world, Hashem disturbs the whole world.
Another thing Rav Shteinman suggested is that strange and major events have been happening around the world in order to distract them, so they will not pay attention any more to the "torah world". If they don't learn their lessons, the events will continue getting closer and closer to us.

Rav Chaim Kanievsky: We see many things are happening in unnatural ways. We dont understand them. People come and say that these events are Gog and Magog - we are nto able to know if that is so or not, but definitely Hashem is showing us that Mashiach is getting closer, and we must do what we can to strengthen ourselves and prepare for that day. Whoever ignores these signs is a fool/

Rav Lefkowitz: Hashem shakes up the world to put people back in their places. Hashem is knocking down the "Kochi V'Otzem Yadi" that exists. First there was a small fire here, and the country that thought it is so great and strong, suddenly it has to go requesting assistance from countries around the whole world - not even for a war, not for anything special, just a small fire.
Then, they still think they are great, and Hashem goes and messes up the countries, and suddenly everyone is scared because they were not able to predict these monumental events would happen, and they dont know what to do about them. Hashem is laughing at them, watching to see when they will figure it out that He controls the world, not them.
Through everything that happens in the world, one can see and sense the faith. You can see how there is a leader, and it is His wish to confuse the nations and do what He wants. Those who close their eyes and ignore it - he is not evil, rather he is a fool.

----
This reminds me of a story I read about Rav Mendel Kaplan zt"l who used to read the daily newspapers to his students in yeshiva. He would say that it is important to learn how to read the news from a torah perspective, to find the messages from Hashem.

1. I find it interesting that a result of the ongoing war Shas and Rav Ovadia are waging against Rav Haim Amsalem is the support Rav Amsalem is seeing form the general public. I don't mean it is interesting they they are supporting Rav Amsalem over Rav Ovadia. I mean, suddenly everybody in the country (well, probably not everybody) is talking about which rabbi is right, and saying how this rabbi  needs to be more prominent, everybody is becoming an expert in the RAMBAM that is being quoted regularly regarding working and learning, and the like.
People who would normally just say - eh, a bunch of rabbis, go get a room and argue it out there and leave us alone - it has nothing to do with us. This time, all these people are writing articles, taking sides, showing support for one rabbinic position or the other.
I find that interesting.

2. I saw a news item in the newspaper that the government passed the new law of funding for avreichim that will allow the current funding to continue but in a different format, with slight alterations. Along side the article discussing the law that was passed was an item that the government will now begin funding all Torah study equally.
The government will provide the same funding for a number of "secular yeshivas" that have sprouted up in the past few years, in which Torah is studied, but without the religious or orthodox influence - all from a secular standpoint.
This had been discussed once before as a possibility, and the haredi MKs opposed it at the time saying Torah study can only be done properly based on rabbinic teachings and through the traditions of Judaism, and a secular yeshiva would not be studying Torah properly, but would be bastardizing the interpretations.

It seems that despite the haredi objections, a number of such institutions have been established - the paper said there are 22 such batei medrash under the auspices of I think 4 different organizations. And now, the government will be providing them with some funding.

Interestingly, the statement made from a government official was that the State regards Torah study in all its forms by all the people as being of the greatest importance, and will therefore provide funding for these institutions as well.

I did not see any response from the religious or haredi MKs or spokespeople.

1. The committee of ministers dealing with preparing new laws has passed an initial reading of a proposed new law. The law would require all Israeli flags to be made in Israel, and importing Israeli flags made in other countries would be illegal.
2. The committee of ministers dealing with preparing new laws has passed an initial reading of a proposed new law. This proposed law targets the exemption religious girls receive from army service - any religious girl who does not want to serve in the army currently has the ability to declare that she is religious and can't serve in the army for religious reasons and she gets her exemption automatically. The proposed law would require any such young woman seeking the exemption to bring a letter of "proof" that she actually studies in a religious school. The religious and haredi MKs are against the proposed law as it would make it more difficult to get the exemption, and it is a breach in the status quo. They are also concerned that young women who went to non-religious schools but have become more religious would have a very difficult time getting the exemption, under the new law.
3. MK Yaakov "Ketzaleh" Katz has finally submitted the proposal for the amendment to the terror organization law he has been talking about ever since he was attacked when he went to a shul in Mea Shearim. Katz has proposed to declare the "sikrikim" as an official terror organization.
4. The papers are not yet releasing a name, but a "to'ein rabbani" in the rabbinical courts has been arrested for sexually molesting his female clients. According to what I have been told, when he had clients who could not pay his fees, he worked out alternate payment plans, if you know what I mean..3 women have stepped forward so far with complaints, but they expect many more women were molested by him. He has admitted to the accusations.

Did Palestinian PM Fayyad Attend The Ceremony in East Jerusalem Or Not?

To answer that question, you probably had to be there yourself, because if all you are doing is reading the newspaper reports, you would have no idea. Nor would you know what he said (and whether he said it from the ceremony or from elsewhere)..

Looking at the two main English news sites of Israeli news, you would get conflicting reports. Here are screen shots from both Haaretz and Jerusalem Posts front page headlines.

Haaretz reports Fayyad skipped the event and said that Jerusalem suburbs will one day be part of the PA:

Yet the Jerusalem Post reported that Fayyad did participate in the ceremony and he said that the suburbs of East Jerusalem are part of the Palestinian capital:

Which is it? One of these "respectable" newspapers is clearly running the wrong headline..

1. DM Ehud Barak said in a conference yesterday "We are a Jewish and Democratic state, and the US recognizes us as such. The request for recognition [by the PA] is important, but we should not allow it to be the cause of the failure of the things that are really important." - Is Barak setting himself up for a confrontation with Netanyahu who is insisting on such recognition by the PA.
2. The one and only Haredi military prep school, mechina kdam tzva'i, is under threat of shutting its doors after less than one year of operation. The reason is, as it almost always is, due to financing problems. They don't yet get government financing because of requirements that such institutions operate for 2 years with external financing prior to getting government funding. In the words of the head of the mechina, Rav Moshe Ben-Or, these are kids that without the mechina would not be in any yeshiva but would be wandering the streets of Mea Shearim and burning garbage cans.
3. The government is trying to pass a law that would allow them to collect the TV tax even from people who do not have television sets. Their logic in promoting this amendment to the law is that nowadays people don't need televisions and can watch all the same shows on the internet on their computers. The law, as explained, is to give the Broadcasting Authority, new sources of funding to continue to survive and to allow it to actualize its objectives.  In my opinion, this is a ridiculous claim. If they cannot survive, and if people are no longer watching their programming, they should shut down the station. Why should they be able to charge for their product from people who do not use that product?
4. The Minister of Transportation, Yisrael Katz (Likud), has changed his tune regarding the continuance of the mehadrin bus lines. Until now Katz has said a number of times that he can support the continuance of the mehadrin lines. Now he is saying that it has to stop, and the whole thing can only operate as a completely voluntary situation (i.e. people sit where they want, and if women choose to sit in the back of the bus, that is their choice). The lawyer leading the case against the mehadrin bus lines has said in response that after this arrangement has already been forced, you cannot expect that it will suddenly become voluntary. In the Haredi community, where women listen to what the rabbonim tell them to do - as soon as they find out they dont have a choice (ie their rabbi tells them they should sit in the back), that will not become voluntary in one day. The new arrangement, if accepted, would allow anyone to get on or off the bus through whichever door the person prefers, and no information about any rules of seating or dress will be allowed to be publicized.  The response of the haredi reps is that it is really just a matter of convenience and is not an issue of discrimination - women, they say, are more comfortable among other women, especially on long journeys where men tend to fall asleep - it is not pleasant to sit next to a man.

1. MK Ilan Gilon (Meretz) has declared that people should break the law and hide foreign workers who are meant to be deported. Specifically he said MKs should be hiding foreign workers because they have immunity and their houses cannot be checked. Would such a statement have been acceptable if a Haredi politician has suggested people break the law? If a right wing MK had said something about supporting breaking a law?
2. The Vaad for Shabbos Observance has distributed a letter calling on people to not go to the shuk Mahane Yehuda too close to Shabbos, but to make their purchases earlier. They say that people coming late to take advantage of cheaper prices cause the merchants to be mechalel shabbos. The merchants are upset because they deny there is any chilul shabbos. They say almost all of the merchants are traditional and keep shabbos, and an hour before shabbos already 95% of the merchants are no longer there. Such a statement, they say, is insulting and harmful to their business.
3. Dr. Mordechai Kedar has said that Ahmadinejad's visit to the Israel-Lebanon border is basically a dare to Israel to show that Israel doesn't have the guts to shoot him. Last night somebody pointed out to me that Ahmadinejad is threatening us with nuclear weapons and our response is sending up 2000 balloons to show him we have returned home. That is how ridiculous we are.
4. Kadima tried to create a sticky situation for Netanyahu, by passing a law that the Declaration of Independence should be considered a set of Basic Laws. This would put the Haredi MKs in a sticky situation as they would not be able to vote for it, and would throw the coalition into uncertainty. The maneuver fell through, as someone pointed out at the last minute that the Declaration of Independence accepts the borders of 1947 as the borders of the State of Israel. if this were to be passed as a Basic Law, it would be disastrous for the country. Another great idea by Tzippi Livni. 

Today's news that I didn't write about:

• A light plane crashed just off the highway outside of Bet Shemesh. The highway was closed down for a bit...
• More haredim arrested for smuggling drugs. This time, into Israel..
• 25 rabbis signed that people should not lease apartments to illegal immigrants in Tel Aviv. That will likely turn people in favor of the illegal immigrants now..
  

In this weeks edition of the Yated Ne'eman "chinamon" there was an unusual letter on the public wall page.

This letter basically said that on the "Public Line" of Bezeq, a phone line on which one can call and hear a broadcast of the news, interviews and events designed specifically for the haredi public, a notice was being broadcast that had been submitted by a station called "Chabad Online Mashiach". The message is then described as meshichist propaganda.

The writer goes on to describe how the gedolim have fought against Chabad and how bad they are because of the meshichist tendencies. He is bewildered that this goes on over the line that is approved for broadcast by the vaad harabbonim. The writer also wonders why no supervision has been put in place to prevent such anti-haredi propaganda...

I don't know exactly how this news phone line works and who controls it, other than Bezeq, but it seems to me that Bezeq does not know the differences between the various Ultra-Orthodox/Haredi groups. They set up a line that would broadcast "clean" news over the phone, specifically for the religious and haredi community. That community, to any outsider, and even to many insiders, includes Chabad.

I don't know what right any specific sub-group has to take over the line and include or exclude any specific group, but the way to go here would be to come to some sort of consensus among the different groups (yeah, right) and establish some policy. Excluding meshichist messages, or anything from meshichist groups, should be easy to get consensus on. Excluding general, non-meshichist, Chabad (if you believe such a group really exists) messages will be more difficult.

But to accuse Bezeq of broadcasting anti-haredi propaganda is just as ignorant as Bezeq is ignorant of the various haredi nuances and variations.

1. An Ashkenazi Rav won the right to be the Rav of the Ethiopian community of Bat Yam.

Ethiopians are not particularly "sfardi" over "ashkenazi". So it is not that that is strange, though you would think it perhaps more normal for an Ethiopian to have won the position. This fellow is married to an Ethiopian woman and have kids together. So he is definitely as fitting and appropriate as anyone else.

What is strange about this is that Shas is upset, claiming their rep should have been given the position, specifically an Ethiopian Shasnik. Shas is basically saying they are closer to the Ethiopians than Ashkenazim are, though there is not really any basis for that unless you look at the fact that they are both dark-skinned, which in todays world should not matter. Once again, it is Shas who keeps everyone thinking in terms of race, rather than breaking down those barriers.

2. Ahmed Tibi was invited to speak in a yeshiva camp symposium. His participation was "canceled" at the last moment, he claims. Tibi says the yeshiva told him his invitation has been revoked, as supporters of the yeshiva who heard about it told the yeshiva to uninvite him.

Baruch Marzel, also a participant in the symposium, claims that he was told by the yeshiva that Tibi backed out at the last minute, on his own initiative when he found out that Marzel would also be a participant.

I'll take Marzel's word for it over Tibi's any day!

3. Salomon Dweck, a.k.a. the "Shtinker of Deal New Jersey" made an unusual round of phone calls. He called the families of all his victims, in a lightning round set of calls so nobody would be prepared and he would have the element of surprise (I am not sure what he needed that for), and asked for their forgiveness.
He could not speak to most, as the news reports they all hung up on him as soon as he identified himself, but the wife of one victim took the phone call. When he asked for forgiveness, claiming the FBI forced him to do everything he did, she told him the only time she would forgive him is when she would first see his rotting corpse cut up in pieces and distributed around the main street of Deal".

Those Syrians sure have a way with words!

I don't know if there is any significance to this (don't know why there would be), and I had not previously heard rumors that she was, but Anna Kournikova, former Russian tennis star, has stated clearly that she is not Jewish.

The Washington Times reports that a photographer said "Mazel tov" to Kournikova, after she supposedly got engaged. Kournikova responded immediately that she is not Jewish and pointed out that she is wearing a cross.

When freelance photographer Carrie Devorah congratulated Miss Kournikova with the common Hebrew/Yiddish expression "mazel tov," the Russian beauty asked what that meant. When the photog explained it means congratulations and good luck, Miss K, according to Ms. Devorah, snapped, "I am not Jewish - can't you see my cross?"

When apprised of the tennis player's retort, a worried-looking Mark Ein, owner of the Kastles, declined to comment, saying he hadn't heard the reported exchange.

I guess her name has to be removed from the shidduch lists... (both because she is now engaged and because she is not Jewish).

The story of the lady in Israel who wanted to surprise her mother with a nice gift but ended up causing a disaster has been picked up by news media all around the world, even CNN.

She bought her mother a new mattress and threw out the old one, hoping to surprise her mother. When dear mother came home and saw the new mattress, she freaked out, as she had been socking away her life's savings in her mattress - to the tune of $1,000,000!

Needless to say, the mattress by then was gone and they could not find it.

The story stopped there, with a nice quote from the daughter about how one must accept the good and the bad.

The story, however, does not really end there. The papers and radio discussed the situation with her. She has not given up and accepted the bad. She is looking for the mattress and money.

She has gone down to the dumping ground for the area, where the municipalities dump all the trash, and she has been searching for it. Knowing people would come looking for it, the administrator placed security guards there to keep them out. Unable to find it, but still looking, the woman said dejectedly that she probably will never find it - a security guard told her that had he found it he would just have pocketed it, walked away and not said a word to anybody, and she realizes that that is probably what happened.



There are two questions this raises in my mind:

1. If I was the security guard (or even if not - if I found the money), would I do the same? Would I just take the money and disappear, or would I return it? $1,000,000 is a lot of money, but it is also a lot of guilt to live with...
2. I wonder halachically if the person who finds it would be allowed to keep it. Clearly there is a siman - it is in a mattress stored in a certain way, which we know is a good siman even for money which usually has no siman. Also, she is looking for it, so there is no yi'ush. But on the other hand, despite the fact that she is looking for it, she has expressed yi'ush saying that she will probably never find it.

I actually wonder about the first question more than the second. I think I would like to believe that if I found it I would return it. But $1,000,000 is a pretty big test....

1. Minister Gilad Erdan: Lieberman statements reflect positions of Likud, gov`t

2. Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman has already made changes in his new office- he started a new minyan for mincha after work hours followed by a shiur. Hopefully it is the start of making the Justice Ministry and all of the government with more of a Jewish flavor... (source: NRG)

3. The Hermon site will be open to the public for free during pesach. They want the public to be able to enjoy the late winter - Spring Snow. Of course, using the equipment - skis and snowboards and all that stuff will cost money, but at least you can enter for free and just enjoy the snow if you so wish. (source: Ynet)

4. The Rabbanut will be putting special barcode readers in supermarkets. These barcode scanners will block chametz products from being sold inadvertently. Often stores just block off a section of chametz shelves. Somebody might still take, whether by accident or on purpose, a chametz product to purchase. the cashier might not notice and ring it up. This will not allow the product to be scanned and sold. of course this is only good for stores that will only sell by scanning the product. Go to a smaller store where they are not so careful and this will not help. (source: Jpost)

of course, we might be completely better off if we cancel the chametz laws, as Moshe Feiglin wants to do. Doing so would lower the antagonism towards it...

1. The new government has not even yet been sworn in, and already a coalition partner is making trouble and threatening to bolt.
Lieberman, the new Foreign Minister, is concerned over rumors that should he be forced to resign due to the never-ending investigation against him the post would be transferred to the Likud (and maybe offered to Silvan Shalom). To counter the rumors, Lieberman issued the threat of pulling YB out of the coalition.
(source: Ynet)

2. Kadima is already feeling the depression of leaving high and important positions to the political desert of the Opposition. They are afraid of being forgotten and have therefore requested to delay the swearing in ceremony of the new government.
Basis: they say that there is already a tacit agreement for UTJ to join the coalition, and the signing of the agreement is being delayed simply so as not to cause a delay in the swearing-in ceremony.
(source: Ynet)

3. According to the calculations made by NRG, Netanyahu's new bloated government of way too many ministers and deputy ministers is going to cost 770 million NIS if it survives the full 4.5 year term.
Clearly this is a sign that a Chabadnik should be on staff to put tefillin on the ministers daily.. (volunteer of course, so as not to throw off the number..)
(source: NRG)