Chit Chat

By Peloni

From now on comments on every post must relate to the content of the post.

Comments that don’t relate to the post must go here.

Any person who contravenes this demand will be put on moderation. Also their offending comment will be trashed.

The reason for this demand is so that people who want to read comments which pertain to the post, don’t have to wade through the chatter.

Everyone will be happier.

April 16, 2020 | 9,226 Comments »

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50 Comments / 9226 Comments

  1. @Sebastien

    ”Something’s rotten in the state of Denmark.”

    Do recall that the first political action he took after leaving the military was to support the Obama’s JPOA against Bibi, and the Dems found the statements of the recently former Chief of Staff very helpful in ignoring Bibi.

    Additional questions remain about the smell of rot surrounding the motives of Bennett and Saar.

    Motivation aside, though, the Arabs are winning again, and the Israeli govt is aiding them in ways that are quite beyond reason.

    1

  2. Gantz: We can leverage the Abraham Accords to strengthen the Palestinian Authority
    Defense minister says he backs ‘2-entity solution,’ refraining from using the term ‘state’; says Israel has participated in 10 multinational military exercises since 2020 deals

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/gantz-we-can-leverage-the-abraham-accords-to-strengthen-the-palestinian-authority/

    Does he want to downgrade Israel to an entity? I’m stunned this virtue-signaling fool made it to general and then publlc office. _”Something’s rotten in the state of Denmark.”

  4. @SEBASTIEN-

    And others. Have yon ever read anything by M.M Mangasarian. One of my favourite reads from time to time. A once minister, later a strong rationalist. He delves into sore religious spots and exposes them, without controversy

  5. Democrats welcome sale of Spanish-speaking radio stations, say it will counter ‘disinformation’
    __
    If you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em.
    After watching Hispanic voters embrace Republicans, liberal activists are cheering a new George Soros-backed effort to buy Spanish-language radio stations, saying it should help counter “disinformation” they blame for swaying a once reliable Democratic voting bloc.

    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jul/24/democrats-look-buy-back-latino-voters-love/a

  7. @SEBASTIEN-

    Yes; we are not communicating. For instance, I already suggested TWICE that we drop it, in other words. So who is “communicating” and who is not…? I think perhaps “receiving” would be better.

    No need to answer. It was fun whilst it lasted, You’ve “sampled” several beliefs in a sort of peregrination, so you may have a different outlook on religions. I never have, being satisfied with what I was born into, 100%.

    {For instance, when I boxed, in a crudely ignorant Anti-Semitic country, I ALWAYS wore a Magen David on my shorts. It raised “boohs” and jeers, but is didn’t prevent me from showing the “superiority” of Yidden over Goyim.}

    Frazer, whom I mentioned earlier, theorised that ALL religions began with “magic” and developed in stages around a sun god, which is born , lives
    and dies, then resurrects, and so on. likely for many thousands of years before progressing to a religion, and, in more modern days to science.. Later writers disagreed with him, but I saw no satisfactory reasons, and his postulations still today, have many supporters amongst the anthropological and comparative religion experts..

    We’re still O.K.

  12. @SEB.

    I got the idea from your enthusiastic pushing of a tiresome list of similarities, YOU certainly sounded as if you were following the mythical Gospels in positive credulity.

    I see that now the “point” is “the Sociological origin of Christianity”…Well you certainly fooled me. All the time here I was, thinking that the “point” was to show that the (mythical) Jesus was hidden away in some Lamasery, absorbing all their lore, and to show which, you obligingly listed the unending similarities in the Buddhist and Christian beliefs.

    You can only associate Buddhism with the origins o Christianity if you BELIEVE the mythical Gospels. You did not see MY point.

    (as culled from the mythical Gospels accounts_ (Sorry…!!)

    I suspect that the Tree, which even MAY be 27-800 years old bears a strong resemblance to “George Washington’s original axe, with which he cut down the cherry tree”…

    I understand there are several of these holy trees in different countries.

    My “holy” tree it the one which still exists in Gan Aden, the famous “fruit tree”. Jewish tradition can’t even make up it’s mind as to what kind of fruit it held… Some traditions even say “wheat” incongruous as it is.
    Interesting how often a “Tree” of some sort comes into origins of religions.

    {And…this brings to mind Frazer’s “Golden Bough” . If you haven’t read it, please do, you’ll be glad you did. Trees were VERY prominent in dim
    very distant times, possibly even before “religions”}.

    My strong belief is that apart from the original handful of Ebionim, the vast majority of Christians were the G-D lovers who crowded into synagogues in large numbers, and followed the Noachian precepts, were long debated on by the Sages, In those days Jewish Missionaries were very active.

    Many were also ripe for glib frantic assertions, that would instantly make them into the “new Jews”…..
    .
    Anyway, no matter. It was a time of chaos, ignorance, the shattering of an ancient nation, and much more. The last genuine reference to the early Christians was around 134-35 when a shard written by Bar Cocheba was found, referring to a group who will not fight for the freedom of Israel should be “bound in chains”., confidently assumed to have been “the Ebionim”.

    Until that time, according to Christian records (believable or not) all of their leaders (or “popes”) were Jews. and their names are given .(although likely faked).

    Again, we can amically agree to differ.

  14. @Edgar Where you got the idea that any of these superstitions are any more believable to me than the ones about Moses or anybody else talking to God, I don’t know.

    The point is the sociological origins of Christianiry. You can be so opinionated and dense sometimes!

    Though there is no reason why she might not have had a dream, whether it’s true or not. There is nothing fantastical in that story.

    The tree is there. It’s a tourist site.

  16. @SEBASTIEN_

    No not part of a myth, just part of a legend, or a bad dream. A 6 tusked elephant must have hurt a fraction. Like the horned Beasts of the apocalypse I may have that wrong. Am no expert on Christian peyote products.

    Appolonius of Tyana is supposed to have been the result of the impregnation of his mother by a shower of gold. Alexander’s mother by a lightning flash, from Zeus..All very believable of course. but Par for the periods.

    What I just don’t understand is why it all seems so real and believable to you, whom I’ve always regarded as a rock of common sense and perceptiveness..

    I MUST try to sleep. It’s about 4 a.m. here, long past my bed time

  18. @SEBASTIEN_

    I respond to your comment because it contains an excerpt from the article which gives me an indication as to what it contains..

    IYou mention MY “non-sequitors”, when your whole excerpt from top to bottom is nothing but. Please point them out. I wrote only what I’ve read from authoritative works and which I feel are likely to be factual.

    I feel that having read your excerpts, which to me are all fantastic nonsense, I’d be insulting my intelligence (for which I have a great respect) by reading the article…unless it’s great improvement on the excerpt..

    Sebastien, we most often agree almost spontaneously, but on this occasion, everything you’re posting is completely foreign and not worthy of your exceptional intelligence, and whom I understand is a committed Jew. You speak with such conviction, that it amazes me. If you posed it merely as a subject for discussion, this would ne a talking point, but you are so ‘gung-ho” on it, that .it’s almost like the cathartic utterances forth of our favourite Christian friend.

    Although I MUST say he has made some excellent posts for quite a wile now. He’s good guy, and I actually like him, feel he’s a friend, and certainly a friend to Israel..

    I like to read meticulously tracked down and laid out hypotheses that are realistic and logical, that make reasonable cases for possibility or even probability. NOT anything which contains a long string of “mirror-image” impossibilities. You are comparing two entities, one completely mythical, and the other reputedly factual but about whom miracles and myths have accrued. Please remember the times and primitive peoples and surrounding of those times. We just Can NOT look at then with rose coloured glasses but in the clear daylight of modern thought.

    I am no trying to ve even remotely offensive and if you feel I am, I most sincerely regret it and apologise, but not for my remarks.

    Not my taste.

    Just my opinion.

    1

  19. @Edgar Also the bit about the Buddha’s mother having a virgin birth is not part of the myth.

    ‘Legend has it that, on the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side,[123][124] and ten months later[125] Siddhartha was born. As was the Shakya tradition, when his mother Queen Maya became pregnant, she left Kapilavastu for her father’s kingdom to give birth.”
    sHowever, her son is said to have been born on the way, at Lumbini, in a garden beneath a sal tree.”:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha

  21. @Edgar Common myths, ok? Why are you missing the obvious and why are you responding to my comment instead of the article? You are takng absolutely everything out of context and stringing together non-sequiturs because you are wasting more time doing this than if you would just read the article. I expect that sort of intellectual laziness from certain others, not you.

  22. @SEBASTIEN-

    I think you’ve “fallen off the beam”, more than a little, Seb. I just read from you, that Buddha was the result of a virgin birth. Do you realise how crackpot that is.??. . I know little about Buddha, but it seems you are an expert, so I’ll say no more about him except that my vague recollection is that his mother’s name was Maya , or Maiah. In other works no such thing as a “virgin birth”. I recall reading an essay which tried to equate “Maya” with “Mary”. Enthusiastic ignorant followers add all kinds of nonsense..
    Look at Kabballah, for instance, such a load of crap, undiluted.

    You damned well know that the reputed virgin birth, is, fraudulent and the result of a mistranslation of the Hebrew…which the goyim took form the Septuagint and NOT the Torah. (I always though that “Yeshua” was Aramaic -and interchangeable)_.

    The TORAH says “Ha ALMAH’ Not HaBetulah”. So Yechezkiyahu says (of a particular woman nearby) “That young woman HAS CONCIEVED and will shortly bear a son”. The Torah says that shortly after, Hezekiah’s wife had a child, so the fairly sure assumption is that it was the Queen Isaiah referred to.

    To show how ridiculous prophesies are, the son was Menassah, a destructive king.

    The Septuagint is merely a Greek Translation made for the benefit of the Huge Jewish Community in Alexandria who spoke mainly Greek. (They Egyptian Dynasty, you may recall was Greek).

    Anyway, the way you speak it’s as if you are convinced that such a person as Jesus the Saviour really existed. There is NO evidence that such a being ever existed other than the spurious versions of the Gospel, translated, mistranslated, added to, subtracted from, and much else countless times during its early existence.

    And when you speak of “The Bible” to what are you referring. ??

    Vast portions of the New Testament are KNOWN to be spurious. And a scant basic search can make that clear. The so called “Testimonium Flavianum” is KNOWN to have been a forgery by Eusebius, the famous Church Historian. It’s not called a “forgery” but, euphemistically, an “Interpolation” (which means a pious fraud) .

    There are several well known Church historians preceding Eusebius ,none of whom mentioned the Flavian passage, including Origen, who detailed everything else. And Josephus was an avowed Jew who would never make such a remark. The whole spurious passage is about 9 or10 lines. Out of a massive book which details the most ordinary as well as the most important happenings.

    And very many sayings and axioms of all religions are similar. A well known fact. nothing extraordinary about that.

    I’m tired …..,time for sleep.

  23. @Edgar I,myself, see a couple of etymological mistakes at the end of this excerpt. Jesus’s Hebrew name was Yeshua, the Hebrew of Messiah is Messiach and it’s older than that and didn’t have a divine connotation, Rahula, which means fetter. was the historical Buddha’s son. Mahayana Buddhists, who came later, around the same time as Jesus distinguished between the historical Buddha abd Buddha as a man who became a mon-creator God but the earlier Buddhism, Hinayana, today’s Therevada only had the trappings of religion but just saw him as a teacher.

    But most of this excerpt is accurate. Too close to be coincidence. If most of what the bible says about Jesus’s views is a myth, then who are we talking about?

  24. @Edgar and most of Jesus’s life is unaccounted for. He’s introduced at his bar mitzvah and then disappears until he’s around thirty.

    “…The accounts commonly known about both Jesus and Buddha are numerous, as indicated below.

    * Born as an incarnate god.
    * Born from a virgin mother.
    * Birth claimed as a divine event and prophesied as the same.
    * Birth attended by singing angels.
    * Birth attended by wise men bearing gifts.
    * Prodigious childhood.
    * As a child astounded teachers with knowledge.
    * Fasted in the wilderness for forty days.
    * Tempted while alone by the devil.
    * Resisted the devil successfully.
    * After the devil left, supernatural events occurred.
    * Were vegetarians (fish excepted).
    * Began ministry at thirty years of age.
    * Attract large following mostly from lower classes.
    * Attracted disciples who traveled with him.
    * Attracted one disciple who was treacherous.
    * Changed disciples’ names.
    * Encouraged celibacy for their disciples.
    * Consecrated in a holy river.
    * Itinerant ministry instead of at a fixed place.
    * Performed miracles such as curing blindness.
    * Renounced worldly riches and required the same of their disciples.
    * Ministered to outcasts.
    * Advocated universal love and peace.
    * Taught mostly through use of parables.
    * Triumphal entries (in Jerusalem and Rajagripa).
    * Gave major sermon from a mound.
    * Disregarded by the dominant religious elite (Pharisees and Brahmans).
    * Just before death dispatched disciples to preach in other areas.
    * Death accompanied by supernatural event.

    Both Jesus and Buddha issued moral commandments that prohibited killing, stealing, adultery, false witness, and coveting. Both emphasized the same moral themes: advocate peace, not war; avoid the corruption of wealth; help the poor; abolish slavery and caste systems; abandon self and selfishness; and love your neighbor, even your enemy. Many statements by Jesus resembled those by Buddha, as presented below.

    JESUS: “A foolish man, which built his house on sand.”
    BUDDHA: “Perishable is a city built on sand.” (30)
    JESUS: “Therefore confess your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed.”
    BUDDHA: “Confess before the world the sins you have committed.” (31)
    JESUS: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the foregiveness of sins.”
    BUDDHA: “Let all sins that were committed in this world fall on me, that the world may be delivered.” (32)
    JESUS: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
    BUDDHA: “Consider others as yourself.” (33)
    JESUS: “If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also.”
    BUDDHA: “If anyone should give you a blow with his hand, with a stick, or with a knife, you should abandon all desires and utter no evil words.” (34)
    JESUS: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”
    BUDDHA: “Hatreds do not cease in this world by hating, but by love: this is an eternal truth. Overcome anger by love, overcome evil by good.” (35)
    JESUS: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
    BUDDHA: “Let your thoughts of boundless love pervade the whole world.” (36)
    JESUS: “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to cast a stone at her.”
    BUDDHA: “Do not look at the faults of others or what others have done or not done; observe what you yourself have done and have not done.” (37)
    JESUS: “You father in heaven makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.”
    BUDDHA: “The light of the sun and the moon illuminates the whole world, both him who does well and him who does ill, both him who stands high and him who stands low.” (38)
    JESUS: “If you wish to be perfect, go sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.”
    BUDDHA: “The avaricious do not go to heaven, the foolish do not extol charity. The wise one, however, rejoicing in charity, becomes thereby happy in the beyond.” (39)

    The Hebrew prophecy of the Messiah reflects ancient Indian legends. Jesus’ second coming to abolish evil corresponds with the legend of Krishna, who will return and save the world from evil and the destructive acts of Shiva. According to Serrano, “Three hundred years before the birth of Christ the story of Krishna had already been compiled in India, and had begun to influence the Essenes in the Middle East.” (40) He outlines the parallel Krishna/Messiah legends: “Christ may have evolved from Krishna, the Hindu God-Avatar of Vishnu. Like Krishna, Christ was born of a virgin, and the idea of Mary’s virginity may have been adopted from the Oriental legend. Both Krishna and Christ were born under the tyrants Herod and Kansa who ordered the killing of all the children. Other similarities include each being born at midnight and common character traits. And when they died the heavens were full of signs of their passing.” (41)

    As Muller pointed out, the Hebrew name of “Messiah” appears to be etymologically derived from the Sanskrit word of “Maitreya,” in having similar sounds and the same meaning of an anointed figure that is prophesied to appear on earth to save his people. (42) Just as Jews recognized the coming of a Messiah in Old Testament writings, Buddhists read the reappearance of Buddha as the Maitreya in many Sanskrit texts, often referred to him as the prophesied Bagwa Maitreva (white traveler). Both recognized Jesus to be the fulfillment of the Messiah/Maitreya prophecy. There is also the likely derivation of the Old Testament Hebrew name for Jesus as “Ruhullah” from the Buddhist name of “Rhaula” for a disciple of Buddha. (43) In addition, Ahmad notes that Jesus and Buddha were known through virtually identical titles:
    …”
    http://www.thezensite.com/non_Zen/Was_Jesus_Buddhist.html

  25. @Edgar The point is there is no way Jesus would not have been exposed to these ideas. Buddhism was 500 years old when he came along. Emperor Ashoka had sent out armies of Buddhist missionaries hundreds of years before. India and Judea had close trade and travel links, for one thing, even if he didn’t go there as has been alleged and disputed, he goes into that.

    And many of the sayings, practices, and myths are identical. Uniquely so.

  26. @Edgar You really have to read the article for yourself. Your comments don’t apply. For one thing, Alexander as a person is irrelevant. It’s about Judeas as a hub of international trade and ideas, people from India and Persia. The Essenes were undoubtedly influenced. It’s an in-depth study that considers evidence and different points of view. Also ancient extant texts and alleged witnessses and accounts from Kashmir and Tibet. Even the Muslim accounts. I can’t do it justice. You like to read. Read it.

  27. @SEBASTIEN-

    I didn’t think the reference in the single Gospel to the 3 “gifts” left by “the wise men from the east” were indications of the spread of Zoroastrianism all throughout the region. I really don’t.

    I also don’t think the reference in a Gospel had anything to do with Alexander. The writers of it likely never heard of him.

    Alexander conquered Persia, but there is no evidence that he was affected by Zoroaster. Xenophon had been there 100 years before him, but also brought back no Zoroastrian customs.. Alexander more or less convinced himself that HE was a god. He encountered Buddhism in India in wars against Chandragupta the Mauryan Emperor, but no evidence that he or his troops were affected by it. It was an enemy faith after all.

    They were pagans believing in a multitude of gods, whereas my understanding of Zoroastrianism is that it believed in a single universal god, (as typified by the sun.) I think most religions of antiquity except Judaism had a sun god tucked away somewhere in their pantheons.

    And where is there any indication of influence in Israel, (being part of the area you refer to) If any HAD crept in, say brought back by returning exiles etc, the middle prophets would have stamped it out.

    And there was NO trade route from where the speculative books place Jesus as a Tibetan Buddhist .

    There was a TEA route from Tibet ,but not then. The first tea came to Europe, France and Britain only about in the 1600s.

    There was a Silk Road since antiquity, Also other luxury Roads, but again, NOT close to Tibet. We know that ancient Traders roved all over, but again, not to Tibet.

    Yes lights were a part of Temple ritual, like the perpetual Menorah. but this was not specifically taken from any other religion. It was almost universal that light (maybe a reference to the sun) was a part of many or most religious practices everywhere.

    We can agree to differ, No harm.

  28. @SEBASTIEN-

    I didn’t think the reference in the single Gospel to the 3 “gifts” left by “the wise men from the east” were indications of the spread of Zoroastrianism all throughout the region.

    I also don’t think the reference in a Gospel had anything to do with Alexander. The writers of it likely never heard of him.

    Alexander conquered Persia, but there is no evidence that he was affected by Zoroaster. Xenophon had been there 100 years before him, but also brought back no Zoroastrian customs.. Alexander more or less convinced himself that HE was a god. He encountered Buddhism in India in wars against Chandragupta the Mauryan Emperor, but no evidence that he or his troops were affected by it. It was an enemy faith after all.

    They were pagans believing in a multitude of gods, whereas my understanding of Zoroastrianism is that it believed in a single universal god, (as typified by the sun.) I think most religions of antiquity except Judaism had a sun god tucked away somewhere in their pantheons.

    And where is there any indication of influence in Israel, (being part of the area you refer to) If any HAD crept in, say brought back by returning exiles etc, the middle prophets would have stamped it out.

    And there was NO trade route from where the speculative books place Jesus as a Tibetan Buddhist .

    There was a TEA route from Tibet ,but not then. The first tea came to Europe, France and Britain only about in the 1600s.

    There was a Silk Road since antiquity, Also other luxury Roads, but again, NOT close to Tibet. We know that ancient Traders roved all over, but again, not to Tibet.

    Yes lights were a part of Temple ritual, like the perpetual Menorah. but this was not specifically taken from any other religion. It was almost universal that light (maybe a reference to the sun) was a part of many or most religious practices everywhere.

    We can agree to differ, No harm.

  29. @Edgar The point is that the reference to magi is evidence of the Zoroastrian presence throughout the region as a esult of it geint a major trafe and miltary hub thanks yo Alexander.

  31. @Ted Yes. You wrote a terrific article and I’ve shared it many times. It makes sense but so does this. Don’t know how to resolve or reconcile it. Did you read it?

  32. My recollection is that “3 wise men from the east’ appears mysteriously only in ONE gospel, which I have read in more than one gospel investigation, is a much later addition to Matthew, one of the Synoptic Gospels….and that the actual number of “3”, was assumed because there were three gifts. (there could have been 23-33 or 1)
    The way it was described in Matthew struck me as pure inventive nonsense to add to the “importance” of the occasion. The “star”, and all that…!!

    I think the Jesus Seminar discussed this also. Also several crackpot writers.
    I’ve read serious discussions on the path they would travel, since at that period there was no known viable road to “the east”; presumed to have been Tibet, one of the the most isolated countries in the world.

    S.G.F. Brandon (and a few others) also issued a small essay on the possibility and regarded it as a later accretion added by an unknown mystic.

    {I’ve always had a considerable respect for Brandon, a most “down to earth” kind of theologian, yet a deep researcher and excellent writer.}

    BUT…… I prefer “Curley Larry and Moe”.

  36. @Honeybee
    Thank you very much for sharing this. How distorted is it that a candidate running for re-election is prohibited from pursuing fraud in her re-election campaign, due to her facing prior charges which, in turn, prohibit her from contacting the govt agency which is responsible for protecting her rights as a candidate. It becomes even more ridiculous when it is revealed that the prior charges resulted from she, herself, exposing a similar fraud while leading the agency that she is now prohibited from contacting.

    In fact, the sinister calculation that was involved in staging this ruse of a contempt of court ruling does provide all the facts necessary to hold the court, itself, in a state of contempt of reason and legitimacy, just for tolerating and supporting these fallacies of justice.

    More State Show Trial Tactics.

  41. @Sebastian Zorn

    The US makes it easier to be an observant Jew than Israel does and this discourages aliya.

    Have you ever tried being an observant Jew in the US?

    Give it a try, see what happens when you have to find (or keep) regular employment.

    In the US, they will simply come up with a good excuse which has nothing to do with religion and go prove it.

    Israel discourages aliyah from the US by demanding a “proof of Judaism”, namely, a letter from an Orthodox rabbi who is not on the Chief Rabbinate secret black list that he knows that both you and your mother are Jewish (both attending his shul?) which discourages 90% of the American Jews but the people who CAN produce this “proof” do not wish to make aliyah to the “non-kosher” state.

  42. Hilarious:

    Segal also asked Shapiro whether he has ever wanted to run for politics and be a candidate for President or Vice President, to which Shapiro replied, “That sounds like hell.”

    “Running for office is a garbage business. You have to ask a bunch of people who you don’t care very much about for large sums of money, in order to run a campaign in which you have to fib about your core positions, and then if you win, you have to hang out in Washington, DC, with politicians. All of this sounds horrifying,” he added, noting he gets to say what he wants for a living and gets paid richly for doing so.

    “I’m 38 right now. I’ll stick with that at least until I’m of the average age of our presidents, so that gives me like seven or eight decades,” quipped Shapiro.

    https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356868

  43. I misread that it referred to cab drivers but this is true across the board. Non-Shabbat observers can work those shifts and take off time during the week. They just need to ensure there is a balance when hiring. The first part of this post is in moderation so this addendum won’t make sense without it.

  44. @Reader The US makes it easier to be an observant Jew than Israel does and this discourages aliya. Here’s a glaring example:

    “Smotrich noted that the Airports Authority has launched an extensive campaign to immediately recruit employees in various positions to alleviate congestion and improve service. However, he added, “My office has recently received inquiries from traditional Jews whose applications were rejected due to their faith. The authority’s response explicitly states that as part of the work, the employee is required to work shifts on Shabbat and Jewish holidays.”’

    https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/religious-secular-in-israel-israel/smotrich-to-transport-minister-relieve-airport-crowding-stop-hiring-ban-on-shabbat-observers/2022/07/19/

    By contrast:

    “an employee needs accommodation of a religious belief that working on his Sabbath is prohibited.
    US Employment Equal Opportunity Commission

    https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/what-you-should-know-workplace-religious-accommodation

    This policy

    1) Undermines the Jewish character of the state by reducing the potential observant population and ensuring that visitors traveling to from the airport and elsewhere will never see observant Jews in the driver seat of cabs. Drivers are also the face of the Jewish state.

    2) Violates the civil and religious rights of Jews.

    3) Exacerbates the labor shortage while creating fewer opportunities for new olim as driving a cab is a common entry level job for new immigrants. In New York City, they are mostly new immigrants.

    4) Makes it necessary to import foreign guest workers by discouraging the growth of the Jewish working class!

    5) exacerbates Jewish poverty.

  45. @Reader The US makes it easier to be an observant Jew than Israel does and this discourages aliya. Here’s a glaring example:

    “Smotrich noted that the Airports Authority has launched an extensive campaign to immediately recruit employees in various positions to alleviate congestion and improve service. However, he added, “My office has recently received inquiries from traditional Jews whose applications were rejected due to their faith. The authority’s response explicitly states that as part of the work, the employee is required to work shifts on Shabbat and Jewish holidays.”’

    https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/religious-secular-in-israel-israel/smotrich-to-transport-minister-relieve-airport-crowding-stop-hiring-ban-on-shabbat-observers/2022/07/19/

    By contrast:

    “an employee needs accommodation of a religious belief that working on his Sabbath is prohibited.

    US Employment Equal Opportunity Commission

    https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/what-you-should-know-workplace-religious-accommodation

  48. Press secretary reveals Biden’s favorite ice cream flavor
    Psaki, who worked in the Obama administration, could not confirm the existence of a freezer full of ice cream in the White House.

    Jan. 2021

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/press-secretary-reveals-bidens-favorite-ice-cream-flavor

    “Uproar Over Netanyahu’s Ice Cream Is Welcome in One Parlor”

    Feb. 2013

    “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands accused of dipping into state coffers for an ice cream budget of $2,700 a year.”

    I guess it depends on which side ylur chocoate is huttered