Ministers approve bill to shutter all shops on Saturday

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4742407,00.html

A bill to shut all business-related locations – from shopping malls to warehouses – on Saturday and holidays was unanimously approved on Sunday by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation. The Weekly Day of Rest Bill is now to go to the Knesset for a first reading within days.
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Zohar rejected the possibility that the move would be damaging to Israel's four million secular Jews and Arabs. "Everyone will be happy for the Sabbath to become a day of rest and not a day of work. After all, that's how we lived until a few years ago. The majority of people don't even go shopping on the Sabbath and there's no reason for a clothing store to be open on the Sabbath. It's over. If they want to, they can go to a movie theater or café."

Other politicians were staunchly opposed to the bill. "The bill is draconian and violates the status quo, so the ministerial committee decided to tie it to the executive committee," said MK Rachel Azaria (Kulanu). "The bill will thus fulfill the needs of the primaries that it was meant for and will not become a law."

"This is a bizarre bill that will finish, divide, and destroy Israel from within, and could lead to a civil war," said MK Yoel Razvozov (Yesh Atid)."The vast majority of Israel's Jews have fun and shop on Saturday without doing anything to hurt those who observe traditions. Israel will transform into Iran."

[oberliner]

1. Is Ted Cruz on that committee?

Good thing there is no chance this thing will actually become law.

[Israeli]

2. Israel, on the Road to a Theocracy

We are facing a major assault on Israel’s democratic-secular identity, with an unholy alliance between nationalism and religion at its core.

Uri Misgav Dec 22, 2015

A longtime friend told me this week about a call he made to the principal of his young son’s elementary school. He asked how it was possible that at an institution that defines itself as science- and technology-oriented, the boy was coming home laden with homework on Torah rather than math.

Of course, this matter can’t end with the principal or in second grade. The comprehensive Haaretz investigation on changes being made by Education Minister Naftali Bennett to the educational system and curriculum are surreptitiously passing us by. And then there’s the new coalition deal between Bennett’s party, Habayit Hayehudi, and the two ultra-Orthodox parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism.

The Education Ministry will be transferring one billion shekels (about $257 million) to ultra-Orthodox educational institutions, in return for an allocation of hundreds of millions to the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization and local authorities in West Bank settlements.

We are facing a major assault on Israel’s democratic-secular identity. The attack on secularism is by necessity an attack on democracy. The ultimate source of authority is no longer the state and its institutions. The sources of inspiration are not liberal humanism, human rights, the enlightenment movement and science. They are supplanted by a higher power, holy men, the metaphysics of an Eternal Israel, holy scriptures, rituals and prayer. As part of road safety lessons, children of Israel are learning the Traveler’s Prayer.

This assault has a clear political context, of course. At its core is an alliance between nationalism and religion. Its goal is to ensure a vision of a Greater Land of Israel and the perpetuation of ignorance – on the road to a theocracy.

Everything is connected, including the string of appointments to top positions. The sole nominee for attorney general, Avichai Mendelblit, was not initially religious but became observant. The incoming chief of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen, was a student of Rabbi Haim Druckman’s at the Or Etzion yeshiva. Yoram Cohen, the head of the Shin Bet security service, is religious and a graduate of a yeshiva educational institution. His former deputy, Roni Alsheich – the new Israel Police chief – was a student at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem.

They might all be worthy appointments, and heaven forbid that we disqualify anyone from public office due to private beliefs. But the problem in Israel is that religion is not separate from government, and over the years it has also become less and less separate from right-wing West Bank settler politics.

Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg, a settler who wears a skullcap, determined that counterterrorism laws should not apply to Jewish terrorists in the territories, since there is no need to deter that particular group. That’s no longer a legal-security concept, but rather a theory of the chosen people.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has surrounded himself with officeholders from religious Zionism, is a man who does not believe in God. Netanyahu is motivated solely by utilitarian considerations. In the assault on secularism, he is joined by innocents, those professing innocence and useful idiots. Some have cynical interests, while others have good intentions.

Beginning with Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid – who dons a prayer shawl and has his wife conduct the ritual involving setting aside a portion of the Shabbat challah – it includes an endless number of public projects and campaigns involving dialogue and returning to our sources and bringing us together. But the effort to bring us closer is only ever in one direction.

Nearly 20 years have passed since Sefi Rachlevsky revealed the concept of “the Messiah’s donkey” to the broader secular public. The subject has recently been revived in the Makor Rishon newspaper by Rabbi Moshe Ratt, from the Karnei Shomron settlement: “The role of secularism was necessary at the stage in which religious Jewry could not run the country and the army. Today, it can be said that secularism has concluded its historical role,” he wrote. It turns out that a donkey, even when it’s older, is still a donkey.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.693098

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

3. It's funny how the religious right always believe that

that they know better than everybody else.

Perhaps Israel will fail over time. America certainly has that potential.

[Israeli]

5. Religious Zionists Have Taken Over Israel

First they built the settlements, then they killed off the two-state solution, now they are free to turn to their next target.

Gideon Levy Dec 24, 2015

We can already announce the winner. Religious ultranationalism, which hides behind the worn-out name “religious Zionism,” has won, big time. With the appointment of the new police commissioner, head of the Mossad and the expected appointment of the attorney general, each belonging to their camp, they have captured additional outposts of decisive power. Now the entire top leadership of the legal system (the state prosecutor and Tel Aviv district prosecutor are theirs too) and part of the defense establishment is in their hands.

The inroads into the media have already been made. A religious IDF chief of staff, president of the Supreme Court and prime minister are only a matter of time. Everything seems coincidental, as the pieces of the puzzle are being filled in. It is packed with yeshiva graduates, wearing a kippa or not, and with a deep, resilient common denominator, despite their differences.

With victory comes the taste for more: Arrogance and the intoxication of power grow stronger. Yoaz Hendel, one of theirs, even without a kippa, laid out the new boundaries of this sector: “The secular Tel Avivian has become irrelevant,” he said, as reported in Yedioth Ahronoth on Friday. “The entire struggle between liberals and conservatives in Israeli society is being conducted today within religious Zionism. This is the new elite, and it is no longer interested in compromises.” Hendel is right. His shocking, outrageous words are rooted in the ground of reality. We must recognize it.

The right’s takeover of the debate began a long time ago. It may be that the seemingly minor program on Army Radio Hamila Ha’ahrona (The Last Word) gave the first word of this: Since its inception it has hosted an internal discussion of the right (except for the short-lived participation of Yossi Sarid). This week those debating on the show included Roni Bar-On, Menachem Horowitz and Irit Linur, three shades of right. On “London and Kirschenbaum” this week, a weird and possibly even more relevant debate was broadcast: A “moderate” settler from Bat Ayin vs. an “extreme” settler from Yitzhar on the considered question of whether the messianic redemption should be brought forth slowly or ASAP. The “moderate,” Motti Karpel, refused to do reserve army duty in the past, and is one of the founders of the Hai Vekayam movement with the convicted terrorist Yehuda Etzion, and of “Manhigut Yehudit” (Jewish Leadership) with Moshe Feiglin.

The conversation was conducted in seriousness. It was completely clear that the question of the pace of the bringing of redemption is the central question facing society, and that the participants represent the mainstream. All other opinions are marginal and no longer relevant.
With negligible contributions to society, the economy, culture, science, literature and art; with a common denominator based mostly on messianic, religious, racist beliefs and a hatred of the other, especially the Arab; with a fictitious love of the land, isolation from the world and a folkloric religion, all wrapped in gooey kitsch; without practical vision; with a hollow spiritual leadership that bases its power on incitement to hatred and approval of bloodshed; at the focal points of violence and breeding grounds of corruption, and with insufferable arrogance this movement has exploited the vacuum, the horrible apathy that has spread in secular society, and climbed its way up to the high reaches of power.

They were the only ones willing to fight for a collective goal. They did not rule out any means. They extorted and exploited the weaknesses of government, the guilt feelings and confusion of the secular camp, and they won. They did so systematically and smartly: First they established the foundation of their existence, the settlement enterprise. After they achieved their goal – the killing off of any diplomatic agreement and destruction of the two-state solution – they were free to turn to their next target: taking control of the public debate in Israel on the road to changing its power structure, character and substance.

Now they are starting to pick the fruits of their victory, which are sweeter than honey and intoxicating. There is no longer anyone who can stop them. Those who went into hibernation will soon wake up to a new country. They can search for the guilty parties only among themselves.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.693496

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

8. TY for the article. America has its own crazies

They used to be confined to the fringes at election time, but unfortunately they are now running for president.

I would say that America's and Israel's crazies are entwined in a death spiral. Nothing good ever comes from extremists. They just keep on outdoing themselves until they run out of victims...or when they are finally put down.

Peace.

[King_David]

4. They want to be as extreme right wing as their Palestinian neighbors

Or way extreme right wing theocratic as Gaza?

[Israeli]

6. Bill Aims to Ban Ministers' Use of Government Cars on Shabbat

The attempt is a backlash against the prohibition of public transportation in most of Israel on the Sabbath.

Jonathan Lis Dec 24, 2015

A bill sponsored by MK Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) aims to ban ministers from using their government cars on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays if public transportation is not available to all Israelis on those days.

The bill will come up for a vote Sunday in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, where the ministers will decide whether to give the legislation government backing.

The bill stems partly from a clash on Facebook between the supporters of public transportation on Shabbat and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who opposes a change in the status quo on religious issues.

In the existing reality today, when most places in Israel have no public transportation from Friday evening through Saturday night and on holidays, the residents of Israel who do not own their own cars are discriminated against unfairly,” the bill’s introduction states.
“Their right to freedom of movement is nullified for 24 hours every week without any reasonable explanation.”

According to the bill, cabinet members should set an example by not using their government cars on the Sabbath and holidays, a move that would reduce inequality.

The bill would expire once public transportation operated on Shabbat and holidays.

Source : http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.693520

[oberliner]

7. Well done, Meretz

Very clever!