Avigdor and the Avoda Zara

Authored by: העורך Editor

There was a recent ‘incident’ between the representatives of two regimes; Avigdor Lieberman and Kim Jong-un.

Here are the highlights from Haaretz:

North Korea lashed out at Israel on Saturday after Israel’s defense minister called the hermit kingdom’s regime a “crazy and radical group,” blamed it of being an ally of Syria’s Assad and the Lebanese group Hezbollah and said growing tensions between the U.S. and Pyongyang have “direct implications” for Israel.

A statement released by the North Korean Foreign Ministry called Avigdor Lieberman’s statement “reckless” and a form of “sordid and wicked behavior” that posed a “grave challenge to the DPRK.”

In response, the North Koreans threatened, “it is the steadfast will and spirit of the service personnel and people of the DPRK to give merciless, thousand-fold punishment to whoever dares hurt the dignity of its supreme leadership.”

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According to foreign reports, North Korea was also involved in helping Syria build a nuclear reactor, which was destroyed in an attack attributed to Israel in 2007.

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Needless to say, Lieberman was attacked by his political opponents:

“Mr. Defense Minister, we have enough enemies in the region let’s focus on them,” Labor lawmaker Shelly Yachimovich tweeted.

Lieberman’s predecessor, Moshe Ya’alon, accused the defense minister of “prattling irresponsibly about North Korea.” Referring to past hawkish remarks made by Lieberman, Ya’alon tweeted: “After bombing the Aswan Dam, ousting Hamas, and taking out Ismail Haniyeh within 48 hours, the minister of talk is prattling irresponsibly about North Korea.”

“And there’s no prime minister to call his prattling and belligerent ministers to order!” he added.

Now, diplomacy is better than warmongering, pols have no right to free speech, and Lieberman was “moving his lips” aplenty, of course. However, it’s important to remember that the dishonorable Kim Jong-un is one of North Korea’s false deities (like the biblical Pharaoh). As such, he must be ridiculed if possible (same as the Unholy Poop, by the way), see Megillas Esther.

Ba’al Hatanya: Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson Is Not Mashiach

Authored by: העורך Editor

A Quote from Mr. Litvak:

The Alter Rebbe of the Lubavitch, R. Shneur Zalman of Liadi, is reported to have said, surprisingly, that Moshiach will be a Misnaged (not a Chassid), giving the following explanation.

If Moshiach will be a Chassid, the Litvaks (Misnagdim) won’t accept him. But if he will be a Misnaged, the Chassidim will accept him anyway, since Chassidim are (allegedly) ‘kabbolas ol’niks’ (בני קבלת עול).

See the rest (Hyehudi has dealt with this in the past, e.g., here).

Don’t Tip the State!

The “Taxation Is Theft” Meme Has Officially Gone Mainstream

APRIL 30, 2017

Op-Ed by Alice Salles

The month of April is a nightmare for anyone with a conscience, as we only have until “tax day” — which usually falls on April 15 — to give the taxman what he says he deserves. So if you pay taxes to Uncle Sam and you’re also aware you’re paying for mass murder in the Middle East and in U.S. streets due to the drug war, you should also feel sick to your stomach as you write that check.

To a restaurant customer, this may have served as enough incentive to remind his server that taxation is always immoral — but he didn’t stop there.

Last week, a customer at a Missouri restaurant gave the waitress a “personal gift” instead of a tip, writing the now popular line “Taxation is theft” in the tip section of the receipt.

In a second note, the fiscally conscious customer added:

This is not a tip. This is a personal gift and not subject to federal or state income taxes.

With major progressive news outlets like ATTN: reporting on this story, left-leaning reporters started to debate wages in the food and service industries, discussing the fact that tips end up being factored as wages, meaning they are always taxable.

But as that discussion developed, reporters were quick to realize that when personal gifts are in the mix, the taxman can’t take part of those earnings away. After all, a gift would have to exceed $13,000 to be subject to taxation, meaning that even if the customer had spent hundreds, the “personal gift” would not amount to anything close to the requirements stipulated by the IRS.

Continue reading…

From Activist Post, here.

True or False?

Authored by: העורך Editor

Kibbutzniks comprised a full quarter of the casualties during the Six-Day War, in spite of being only 4% of the soldiers.

UPDATE – Claude claims:

I retrieved the actual IDF historical research document on Six-Day War casualties. It breaks down the 781 fallen soldiers by front, brigade, date, rank, age, marital status, and type of service. Crucially, it does break down casualties by place of residence — city, development town, and “התיישבות העובדת” (the labour settlements, i.e., kibbutzim and moshavim).

The document notes that over 25% of fallen soldiers came from the התיישבות העובדת. But — and this is important — that category includes both kibbutzim and moshavim, not kibbutzim alone. And the document also explicitly cautions that many soldiers from kibbutzim (as well as moshavim, presumably) registered city addresses (military or family), so the figure likely understates their representation.

So the 25% figure appears to have a real basis in IDF data for the Six-Day War specifically — but it refers to the broader labour settlement sector, not kibbutzim alone, and the document itself flags the methodological caveat.

It’s also worth noting that kibbutzniks were historically overrepresented in combat roles and officer ranks, which would naturally affect casualty rates; IDF’s culture was the famous “אחרי” (“follow me”) doctrine, where officers led from the front.

Nothing specific to kibbutz casualty percentages in 1948.