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 | 9,219 Comments »

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50 Comments / 9219 Comments

  1. @Reader No, everything you just said is completely cock-eyed. I don’t even know where to start to correct your tangled-up wrong-headed assumptions. Sometimes you are rational and sometimes not. This is clearly one of the latter times. This discussion is over. Signing out.

  2. @Sebastien Zorn

    No, you weren’t “obviously referring to Aharon Barak’s 1992 Judicial coup d’etat.”

    You were defending politicians’ right and duty to act like mafia dons and “take revenge” on their rivals and to promote their criminal allies instead of acting like people representatives that they were elected to be and making laws that benefit the country and the people rather than only themselves and their “sectors”.

    While Israel’s judicial system may need reform, there are other aspects of its governance that need reform as much or maybe more than the judiciary.

    The only reason they are going crazy with the judiciary reform is to protect the two criminals, one of whom is clearly delusional (recall the idea of the tunnels, as one example), and not to “restore democracy”.

  4. @Sebastien Zorn

    I don’t think that whatever any American president is or was doing is similar to what this Israeli government is trying to accomplish, moreover, I don’t think (at least I don’t recall) that any American government has yet been capable of destroying its judicial system to keep one of its presidents out of jail and to give several extremely important government positions to a convicted criminal who perjured himself in the court of law by making false statements about his future participation in politics just because he happens to be this president’s important ally.

  5. @Reader

    “In the US, every subsequent administration does not seek to undo everything the previous administration did “to get revenge”

    You mean like Biden did and is doing?

  6. @Sebastien Zorn

    In the US, the system is stable, and the US pretty much rules the world at this point, unlike Israel which is a tiny country under siege.

    In the US, every subsequent administration does not seek to undo everything the previous administration did “to get revenge”, and, likely, there are laws to deal with a kind of government which is in place in Israel now if something like this occurred in the US.

    Actually, both parties used to work together much more closely and work out compromises for the good of the country, so what is going on now is a negative development.

    The current coalition (the former opposition) headed by Netanyahu doesn’t seem to understand that the country is not their personal property to do with as they wish.

    They were elected to do the things the population wants, not to follow their own wishes and desires and to force them on everyone else.

    It seems that Israel is getting Arabized and Americanized all at the same time and in the worst way.

  7. @Reader But Progressives do that anyway. Without tit for tat, there is no incentive to make them stop and some of their reforms remain. That doesn’t ruin the country. It saves it. In the US, shouldn’t McCarthy have removed the Squad from all committees as the Dems did with Marjorie Taylor Greene and opened investigations against them in order to impeach and prosecute them? In Israel, shouldn’t Likud replace the AG and judges with their own people and do the same witchhunt in reverse?

  8. @Sebastien Zorn

    When the shoe is on the other foot, make sweeping reforms fast and take revenge.

    AND?

    Every time a new coalition comes to power should it take revenge on the previous coalition by changing all the laws to the ones the new coalition finds preferable, regardless of the nature, impact, or quality of the laws the new coalition wants to get rid of to “take revenge”?

    I can’t think of a faster and better way to ruin the country!

  9. @Ted Belman

    MK Hanoch Milwidsky of the Likud submitted a bill that would allow Diaspora Jews to study at Israeli universities for the same tuition fees as Israeli citizens.

    WHY?

    So they can get cheap(er) education in Israel and then use it to make money, live in the Diaspora, and serve the populations there with their skills?

  10. I don’t understand why Netanyahu or Smotrich would compromise with or make concessions to people who would destroy them personally and enable the enemy no matter what. Doesn’t even affect the Abraham Accords actually. Everybody wants Israel’s help. I will never undersand why conservatives believe in being bi-partisan. When the shoe is on the other foot, make sweeping reforms fast and take revenge. Revenge is justice as well as pre-emption.

  13. @Tanna

    “I got one word to say to you: Your correct! “

    “A priest, a rabbit, and a minister were sitting at a bar. The bartender asked the rabbit what he would have. The bewildered rabbit replied, “I dunno. I’m just here because of auto-correct!”

  14. Proposed law: Diaspora Jews to study at the same price as Israelis Feb 9, 2023

    MK Hanoch Milwidsky of the Likud submitted a bill that would allow Diaspora Jews to study at Israeli universities for the same tuition fees as Israeli citizens.

    “While some members of the Knesset are busy defaming Israel, we are strengthening the connection of Diaspora Jewry to the Land and People of Israel. The bill I submitted provides a significant incentive to Jewish students from abroad to come study in Israel,” he was quoted as saying.

    I fully agree.

    1

  21. The earthquake affected a few countries other than Turkey and Syria.

    A conspiracy theory is going around already that someone might have placed a nuke somewhere deep along the fault line to show up both Turkey and Syria.

    I really hope it is not true.

  24. John Binder6 Feb 2023225
    2:14

    Migrants are reportedly fleeing daily from New York City to escape the city’s homelessness, public drug abuse, and crime-ridden streets for a “better quality of life” in Canada.

    — https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/02/06/migrants-fleeing-crime-ridden-nyc-better-quality-life-canada/

    …and horror in Turkye:

    https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/earthquake-rescues-036.jpg?quality=90&strip=all

  26. “Back in the 50s, Danny Thomas was a major TV star who had a successful comedy series on national television (CBS) called ‘Make Room for Daddy’ (Later changed to ‘The Danny Thomas Show’). The son of Maronite immigrants from Lebanon, read that a young medical student, the son of Chassidic immigrants from Ukraine, was struggling to pay his tuition, and donated the shortfall. As a result, countless lives were saved and made better by Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski, who passed away exactly one year ago.

    Rabbi Twerski described the story in an interview with the Pittsburgh Quarterly on November 19, 2007:

    “By that time, I had several children, so my dad and some members of the congregation helped me to pay for school. I applied for a scholarship through a foundation, but it didn’t come through, so in my third year, I fell two trimesters behind on tuition.

    One day, I called my wife at lunch as always, and she asked, “What would you do if you had $4,000?” I said, “I’m too busy to talk about fantasies.” She said, “But you really do have $4,000!” I said, “From where?” She said, “From Danny Thomas.” “Who’s Danny Thomas?” She said, “The TV star.”

    Then she read me an article from The Chicago Sun. Local officials had told Mr. Thomas about a young rabbi who was struggling to get through medical school. Thomas asked, “How much does your rabbi need?” They said, “Four thousand dollars.” He said, “Tell your rabbi he’s got it.”

    Rabbi Twerski was a scholar with feet planted firmly in two worlds — the rabbinic world of Torah and Talmud study, and a medical doctor and licensed psychiatrist. It was a rare pairing that earned him respect in both the insular ultra-Orthodox Jewish world and wider American society. He was an expert on addiction and scion of a long line of prominent rabbis descended from the 18th-century founder of Hassidic Judaism, the Baal Shem Tov.

    Rabbi Twerski was a prolific writer. He authored dozens of books on a wide array of subjects: from addiction and mental health to religious law for medical professionals and commentaries on Jewish texts. Twerski also collaborated with late “Peanuts” comic strip creator Charles Schulz on a series of popular self-help books featuring Charlie Brown and Snoopy.

    May his memory be for a blessing.

    Naveed Anjum”

    on Facebook

    1

  27. Follow Naveed Anjum on Facebook. He is a Muslim Zionist. This just popped up on my news feed from him.

    “SELLING LAND TO JEWS; A CAPITAL CRIME IN THE P.A AREAS

    There are multiple laws under which the PA currently prosecutes citizens who sell land to Israelis, with courts having cited numerous statutes and ordinances in their verdicts. In fact, Palestinians are governed by a somewhat incoherent mix of regulations introduced when Jordan ruled the West Bank from 1948-1967 and, subsequently, through PA decrees.

    Before Israel assumed control of the West Bank during the Six Day War, Jordanian law carried a punishment of up to five years in prison for selling land to “foreigners.” Even as late as 1973, the Jordanian parliament, under the direct instructions of the late King Hussein, passed an even stricter “Law to Prevent the Sale of Land to the Enemy,” which explicitly barred any Jordanian citizens in the West Bank from selling land to Israelis.

    The 1973 law defined the transaction as a security offense punishable by death. Offenders also risked forfeiting all their property to the state. The same law also forbade land sales to “aliens,” referring to non-Jordanians or non-Arabs, without the Council of Ministers’ permission. This provision effectively banned Jordanians from selling property specifically to Jews.

    As part of the Oslo Accords with Israel, the Palestine Liberation Organization agreed that all existing laws inconsistent with the peace agreement would be null and void. As many have pointed out, the Jordanian law violates at least two provisions of the pact. Nevertheless, shortly after its establishment, the Palestinian Authority indicated that it would still enforce the 1973 Jordanian law in areas under its administrative control.

    “Our law is a Jordanian law that we inherited… and sets the death penalty for those who sell land to Israelis,” Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth quoted Yasser Arafat as saying in 1997. That same year, the PA’s first justice minister, Freih Abu Medein, asserted that, “for us [the Palestinian leadership], whoever sells land to Jews and settlers is more dangerous than collaborators. Therefore,” he continued, “they must be put on trial and sentenced to death… they are traitors.”

    Since the Palestinians were granted limited self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, an unknown number have been convicted of selling land to their Jewish neighbors. Although official figures are lacking, sporadic reports from the Palestinian territories paint a bleak picture. In June 1997, a month after Abu Medein announced the policy, Israeli intelligence indicated that at least 16 land dealers received a death sentence.”

    Source: Honest Reporting

    Naveed Anjum

  32. Thanks for the condolences, Edgar.

    Of course, death and misfortune strike us all. They certainly disrupt our schedules. My oldest brother-in-law (bother of my sister who just passed on) died in 2019, just a couple of months after his surviving brother suddenly died. A couple of months after his funeral, we held a family reunion at his house. While there, we visited old friends in the area, including one who had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer (He passed away a couple of months later). While there, the husband of my brother-in-law’s deceased sister died and was buried. Then we retuned home to the West Coast, and soon afterwards my sister’s oldest son died suddenly. A month later, one of her grandchildren died. I could go on and on, but there’s no point in it. During the past four years, the whole world’s been turned upside-down — even Canada, a place which most people knew only for hockey teams. Things change, and we adapt. Life goes on. Thank Hashem for life!

  33. TED-

    I just today came across an essay by H.G. Wells, which must have been written just before WW2. It was Headed “The future of the Jews.”

    It s a mixture of ignorance, anti-Zionism, pro Arab, and the same genteel anti-Semitism that has always pervaded Englsnd.
    It was quite long, but mentioned Germany and “Nazis” one time only.

    Generally very critical of the Jews, harping on “The Chosen Race”, that Jews felt they were better than anyone else. and brought their troubles on themselves by deliberate exclusivity. That the Arabs were far more Semitic than the Jews….and MORE.

    Disgusting for such a faresighted man.

    Reminded me in an obscure way of the Israeli Supreme Court and the Legal fraternity.

  34. MICHAEL-

    I am so sorry to hear of the passing of your loved and close family. I can understand to a certain extent about your sister, but a nephew, must have been young..In these days of medical miracles…??? Nothing worse than parents having to bury their children, nothing worse, I KNOW.

    My beloved parents buried my talented eldest brother age 16 1/2 , suddenly ill one day, gone the very next. Cerebral meningitis they called it, a cure became available 16 months later.. Then my baby brother 2 months later -age 6 months.
    Nothing worse, believe me. My sister told me they were walking around like zombies for 2 whole years, she even left school for those 2 years; then aged just 15 and in Secondary school.. How my wonderful parents managed I just don’t know. Because I had 2 other brothers and a sister. We all survived, but it was hard.

  35. Hello,
    I would like to recommend this article by Mr. Jerold Levoritz, from the American Thinker.
    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/02/iran_israel_and_the_united_states_government.html

    No one offers a reasonable explanation for Biden begging Iran to rejoin the debunked, tawdry, ineffective, and cynical agreement to keep nuclear weapons out of Iranian hands, if just for a while. Israel keeps providing updates on how close the Iranians are to completing their weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. government “cooperates” with Israel, holding joint exercises, but keeps weapons out of Israel’s hands that could bring the Iranian project to a screeching halt — namely, bunker-busters and the means to deliver them.

    Speculation is rife, and facts are hard to come by. I have a theory about what’s going on, though.

  36. Thanks, Edgar. Many deaths lately, among close family and friends. My sister died on New Years Eve, and the funeral was just over a week later. My wife and I crossed the country on the train to attend. The night before returning home, we got together with my surviving nieces, and their husbands and children. Just a day after returning home, my niece called me to say that one of those in that group, my nephew, had died suddenly.

    This sort of thing has been going on for a few years now. I made a comment a few years ago, that there seemed to be a traffic jam on Jacob’s ladder, with so many loved ones coming and going on it. I’m reminded of the prophesy on the good king Hezekiah:

    2 Kings 20 (KJV):
    [16] And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD.
    [17] Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house,and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD.
    [18] And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.
    [19] Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken. And he said, Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my days?

    I’m glad that those who have passed on, got to end their days among loved ones, in a time of peace.

    Tanna,, I’m glad the link I sent about the “civil war” in the Vatican was meaningful to you. I was surprized, at how much the Catholic Church mirrored what was going on in the world, right down to the detail of having its own “Deep State”.

  38. Michael S. Your Vatican post has truth to it. X priest told me of the sex corruption, within the last few months. the higher up you go the worse it gets. the pressure on him to engage in all the evil force him out after 20 years. If he had given in, he would have a blank check to money, women, boys, little girls and anything his heart desired.

  39. Thank you TED.

    I had not noticed them before, likely scrolled past because of the very plain format,

    An excellent idea; and the comments often add considerably to the articles themselves. Some very spirited discussions.

  41. @Edgar
    We are referring to the new feature on Israpundit which I have called “memorable”. I raised the question of whether “memorable was the right word. We were discussing other alternatives to that word.

    This new feature is to be found at the top of the middle column.

  42. PELONI-
    Thank you indeed, sincerely.
    I was not au fait with any details of your conversation. But I’m assuming the the “posts” referred to, are those of readers who sent in their comments. So please excuse my ignorance, if I’m on the wrong track.

    If that is so, then the headline already suggested by TED is most suitable.
    “Seminal”, has a distinct and also a general meaning, “Ground-breaking”, denotes a totally new and innovative potentially successful path.

    Using either of these headings, assuming again that the posts referred to are readers’ comments, it would be most explanatory to show, attached to each post the RESULT(S) which had earned such an encomium.
    If the post refer to Articles ther same thing applies, that important comments should be attacked as results of the articles. They would then include our readers who deserve it.

    From my uninformed position, they may be merely posts which impressed Ted particularly

    Just my opinion.

  46. @Ted
    Actually, I like ‘original’ too.

    I think the rotating list is great idea. You have plenty of very important articles to rotate thru and provide readers with a greater exposure of these essays.

  47. MICHAEL=

    Thank you kindly. You are of course, part of my Israpundit family and much appreciated, even for stirring up my combative spirit. We disagree only on one subject.

    I’m sorry to hear about the funerals, Inevitable, I hope friends and acquaintances rather than family members.

  50. @Ted
    I think the word ‘seminal’ would be a better terminology. These writings are indeed memorable, but I believe that the word seminal would be more appropriate. Just my own thoughts, of course.