Yeshayahu Leibowitz on the Kefar Kassem Incident

Intro from Wikipedia:

The Kafr Qasim massacre took place in the Israeli Arab village of Kafr Qasim situated on the Green Line, at that time, the de facto border between Israel and the Jordanian West Bank on October 29, 1956. It was carried out by the Israel Border Police (Magav), who killed Arab civilians returning from work during a curfew, imposed earlier in the day, on the eve of the Sinai war, of which they were unaware. In total 48 people died, of which 19 were men, 6 were women and 23 were children aged 8–17. Arab sources usually give the death toll as 49, as they include the unborn child of one of the women.

The border policemen who were involved in the shooting were brought to trial and found guilty and sentenced to prison terms, but all received pardons and were released in a year. The brigade commander was sentenced to pay the symbolic fine of 10 prutot (old Israeli cents). The Israeli court found that the command to kill civilians was “blatantly illegal”.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz wrote in Haaretz with the biting sarcasm for which he was known:

“For the sake of the justice that the State of Israel proclaims, we must organize in this country a mass petition addressed to the governments of the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union and demand a revision of the Nuremberg laws and the rehabilitation of the officers, soldiers, and officials sentenced there to death and hanged, because all of them acted in accordance with explicit orders from their legal commanders.”

Source: “The Seventh Million” by Tom Segev, p. 298 – 300

I half agree. The occupation is, indeed, ghastly, and its results immoral. But we should replace the occupation not with Meretz ideas, but with something like the Feiglin approach — and should have from the start.

Jews, I know you’re God’s chosen people and the rest of us are just ‘whatever’, but when Israel behaves like a violent, psychopathic bully and someone mentions it, that doesn’t make them anti-Semitic.

Marcus Brigstocke

For an elaboration of my socially heretical definition of Anti-Semitism, read my humbly definitive treatment here.

Plague Is Decided by Percentages, Not Absolute Numbers!

Notes from the Underground — Monday morning edition

Sunday, April 26, 2020
1) Apologies for starting off your day with an opinion note instead of Torah — skip to part 2 if you like — but I want to get this off my mind.
“We must not look for pro forma loopholes or so-called solutions which –at best– may mitigate, but certainly will not eliminate, the dangers of this disease. The Torah absolutely condemns and forbids acting in a way which – under any circumstances – may allow for the death of a Jew.”  (source for the quote, emphasis added by me)

If this is the standard our Rabbis are now adopting, then forget leaving your house ever again.   You drive a car — you may get into an accident.  You walk the streets — you may get attacked, run over, etc.  It is simply impossible to eliminate danger from life, whether it be from this disease or any other illness, threat, or source of danger.

Especially in the current situation, there is simply no way to prevent the death of a Jew “under any circumstances.”   See here — one of what I fear will be many suicides to come. See here — “Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who researches health policy at Stanford University, said…The coronavirus can kill…but a global depression will, as well.” See here — “The looming global recession… could cause hundreds of thousands of child deaths…”  I could go on and on with many similar citations and examples. This is a trolley problem — there will be deaths no matter what course of action is taken.  The ONLY strategy that makes any sense is to try to MITIGATE the worst of the consequences. By not realizing that that is the goal — not the elimination of death due to the disease — we risk wasting time, money, and resources and doing more harm than good. Again, just my opinion. With all due respect, I am really at a loss to understand the thinking here.

Yom Hazikaron: Israel’s Saddest Day

I will tell you why Yom HaZikkaron is the saddest day of the year. It is the saddest day of the year’ at least in Tel-Aviv, because many of the stores, bars, restaurants, and let us not forget the nightclubs, which are closed on Yom HaZikkaron are open on Tisha b’Av, which commemorates the destruction of both the First and Second Temples, along with many other tragedies targeting the Jewish People. And, of course, there is no need to mention that many of these establishments are open on Shabbat. And what about Yom Kippur? Do you really believe that all of these businesses are closed on Yom Kippur?
There are a few other reasons why Yom HaZikkaron is the saddest day of the year:
Israeli Defense Forces [IDF] leadership allows Christian missionary soldiers to teach lessons about their avodah zarah (foreign/forbidden worship), and soldiers who refuse to participate are punished.
The IDF cares more about the life of the terrorists than their own soldiers. The former Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Ronsky, did say that it is permissible to save the wounded terrorist in order to obtain information that can save Jewish lives. Rabbi Meir Kahane hy”d, said this before him, but we’re not allow to talk about him, are we?
North Tel Aviv residents can manipulate their way into receiving a psychiatric exemption from serving in the IDF, at the same time when Religious mamlakhti (diehard State loyalist) soldiers are proud to die for the same government that expels Jews and destroys their homes. Apparently, these poor guys have been successfully indoctrinated brainwashed.

When we remember those of our family members and neighbors who fell for the State of Israel, we must think about why they should have fallen been murdered at all.

Because the IDF does not go out of its duties and cares for the people of the State of Israel for what the thinkers think of more than the Holy One, blessed be He, thinks of us. And these people are the ones who present the orders to the IDF. (See the diagram above)

So, yeah, I guess that Yom HaZikkaron really is the saddest day of the year.

Still Not the Labor Theory of Value, But…

There’s a story (true or false, I don’t know) about the famous artist, Pablo Picasso.

It seems a woman came up to him and asked him to sketch something on a piece of paper. He sketched it, and gave it back to her saying: “That will cost you $10,000”.

She was astounded. “You took just five minutes to do the sketch,” she said. Isn’t $10,000 a lot for five minutes’ work?

“The sketch may have taken me five minutes, but the learning took me 30 years,” Picasso retorted.

From here.