YNET and the Female Reporter on Bus

YNET doesn't allow facts to get in the way of a good story especially when it comes to their favourite sport, that is Chareidi bashing!

This morning there was an article in YNET entitled:

"I won’t sit at the back of the bus

Ynet special: Tanya Rosenblit recounts clash of civilizations she experienced on Israeli bus; ‘until yesterday, I was sure that I live in a free country,’ she says "

Clash of civilisations? The writer without subtlety uses the same language that we would associate with Islamists who commit mass murder and force their women to cover their bodies in black tents. From the off, you know where this is going.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4163399,00.html

YNET descibes Tanya Rosenblit "as a student" who innocently happened to board an Egged bus that runs through a Chareidi neighbourhood and sat behind the bus driver in order to ask directions. She was sitting there, quietly minding her own business, when a spontaneous crowd of men speaking in Yiddish formed around the bus…

“…I was a little scared at that point. Nobody bothered to turn to me and ask me to do what seemed so logical to them – for me to move to the back. They made do with pointing at me, calling me names, and expressing outrage over Egged’s failure to safeguard their rights. I must admit I still don’t understand what these rights are.”

In her article, Tanya asks why these men don’t obey the Talmudic statement of “Derech Eretz Kadma LaTorah (proper behavior comes before the Torah.)”?

The bus driver asked her to move to the rear. She refused. The situation became so tense that the driver called the police. The policeman asked her to move to the back. When she repeatedly refused, the policeman instructed the driver to go, leaving her where she was sitting. Those who wanted to board the bus could, those that didn’t could wait for the next bus.

She finishes her article with:

“We must not allow one pressure group or another to overrun the unique voice of any one of us. Freedom is not a curse word; everyone aspires for it in every society and in any situation. If we give up the stigmas and approach the person who hides behind the words “haredim” or “seculars” we can produce genuine dialogue and possibly minimize the gap between us.”

Any normal person reading this account would feel genuine sympathy for her or even admiration. Some have even called her a “hero”.

I am personally against Egged sex segregated buses

Let me state from the outset that I am personally against Egged, Israel’s public bus company, agreeing to sex segregated buses. If the Chareidi community wish to organise private coaches and arrange with consent of both the men and women to segregated seating then gezinterhait, fine! However the public bus system should not agree to impose such restrictions. If I were traveling on an intercity Egged bus with my wife or daughter then I'd certainly like to sit next to them. There is, as far as I understand, no halachic precedent for such a chumra (stringency).

It could be the case that Egged bus passengers on buses that run through Chareidi neighbourhoods will, on their own volition, organise themselves so that women sit at the back but it should be made clear that, being that this is a public and not a chartered coach, if a female passenger gets on and for whatever reason, wishes to sit at the front of the bus then no one has the right to complain. I would consider it appropriate for someone, who would have to be a woman, to politely and with respect explain what the practice (by common agreement) on these buses is but if the female passenger nevertheless refuses to comply with the request, they should be left alone and not harassed.

While traveling on Egged buses I have experienced a few related but not exact same cases as this one.

The Couple on the Bus

One such incident took place some 15 years ago whilst I was traveling on the bus to the Kosel (The Western Wall plaza) where the vast majority of passengers were religious.

Egged Bus to the Kosel

There was a young American couple, either in their late teens or early twenties on the bus, sitting together and showing open affection to the point where it would have been considered embarrassing to other passengers, even on the top deck of a Double Decker in London.

He was wearing a kippah but both were very scantily dressed in frayed denim shorts and torn t-shirts (which was at that time the current fashion statement).

Upper Deck on a London Bus

I would imagine that had this incident happened on a London bus then passengers would have stared disapprovingly whilst the couple were not looking, quickly turning away when they thought that they were, and giving others knowing looks but would almost certainly have kept quiet. However this is Israel! Within a few minutes some four or five men and women started shouting at them and pointing at them in an aggressive manner, from what I could understand, they were demanding that the couple get off the bus.

The young couple became noticeably distressed at the attention they were receiving and were completely clueless as to what had caused it, not understanding any Hebrew at all. I pushed my way through the crowded bus to their seat and stood over them and proceeded to explain to them what was happening. They actually seemed embarrassed if not a little scared and confused. The girl took a shawl from her bag and wrapped it around herself. I then turned to the crowd and said to them in a firm but friendly voice to “Leave them alone, they are tourists, Jews estranged from Judaism and in any case, they don’t understand what you are saying to them”. To my amazement, the crowd calmed down and many looked away. I had half expected them to start screaming at me but Baruch Hashem, this did not happen.

I got talking to the couple who said that they were on an Israel trip organised by their Reform Temple. I said to them that when they got to the Western Wall, to look out for Outreach guys in the men’s section and women doing the same thing in the women’s section, who could find them, if they wanted,  places for Shabbat so that they could experience a real Jewish old City Shabbat. “Free?” they asked me. I assured them that yes, it was free and added that they should use the opportunity to ask as many questions as they wanted about Judaism and assured them that they’d have a great time.

I don’t know if they found a kiruv worker but I’d like to believe that they did and today are living blissfully in the Rova (the Jewish quarter of the Old city) with 8 kids. Who knows?

Getting back to the YNET article, it is a personal account of events by this woman. However I found another, very different account of the same incident in the Chareidi Internet site bhol.co.il.

http://www.bhol.co.il/article.aspx?id=35652&cat=1&scat=1

Tanya Rosenblit it appears is a freelance reporter, apparently on special assignment for YNET. She boarded a special “LeMahedrin” bus traveling from Ashdod to Yerushalayim, where the arrangement is, by agreement of the overwhelming majority of passengers on those lines, for segregation of the sexes. Men at the front, women at the back. This directly contradicts Tanya’s account in YNET where she writes that it was an ordinary regular Egged bus and she just happened to find herself there.

She entered the bus and sat on the outside of a two passenger seat next to the driver and waited to see what would happen. When passengers passed her by without incident she decided to use some provocation tactics and began to sing in a loud voice and (intentionally leaning out of her seat) nudge male passengers with her elbow as they got on the bus.

Eye witnesses state that both men and women attempted to persuade her gently, in a friendly manner to stop the provocation and move to the rear of the bus with the other women. They said that they attempted to talk to her “Jew to Jew” but to no avail. The woman reporter screamed that if she wasn’t allowed to sit at the front then she’d undress on the bus and then proceeded to play with the buttons of her blouse.

At this, many passengers got off the bus and formed a crowd around it. The bus driver quite rightly called the police who, according to the Chareidi report acted in a polite and fair manner eventually deciding that despite the reporter’s obvious provocation, she had a right to sit where she wanted. Those who wanted to get on the bus did and those who didn’t had to wait for the next bus.

In my opinion, the policeman was the hero in this story who proved that the conclusion reached in the Israeli press is wrong. We are not living in a repressive society here in Israel because the outcome of the story was that the Policeman, despite being told by numerous witnesses of her provocation, did not throw her off the bus but upheld her legal and civil rights. I would say that it proves exactly the opposite of what the Israeli media claims.

If even half the account as related in bhol.co.il is true then it seems that Tanya cynically provoked and exploited this confrontation to create something news worthy and her request for dialog and understanding at the end of her article is purely fallacious by design.

Her article was written intentionally to provoke exactly the opposite reaction from her readers in YNET. Not dialog but hatred. Anyone reading her article will conclude that the Chareidim are primitive, sheep like, evil and stupid at the same time and pose the greatest danger to the State of Israel.

She will go far in her career at YNET.

YNET and Maariv newspapers give honour to the memory of Der Stürmer

I’ve written in the past on my blog about how the secular press in Israel never let a week go by without printing articles full of hatred towards religious Jews, which had they been printed in any gentile paper would be considered anti-Semitic.

Well with this article, the Israeli mainstream press has reached a new low. It was first published in Maariv and YNET and was so good that it was picked up by the World Press as too good a story to be passed by. Of course, the world press had been given a free pass to print this hate fest against religious Jews because their source was the Israeli media and everyone knows that Israeli secular Jews cannot be anti-Semitic can they? The Israeli Press have excelled themselves this time.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4082843,00.html

Notice the sidebar link to another wonderful article entitled “Why the Rabbis Are Hated”. Don’t YNET realise that they’re reinventing the wheel? This type of incitement to hatred has already been published in the last century by the National Socialist Party in Germany as well as other Nazi Organisations around the world. I’m sure YNET can save themselves a lot of money by simply translating into Ivrit some of Der Stürmer’s most juiciest articles about big nosed evil Rabbis and Orthodox Jews.

The BBC, TIME Magazine, The Daily Telegraph amongst others all republished this story, taken from the English version of YNET.

Well it turns out that this article was not just a distortion of facts, the story was actually a pack of lies from beginning to end, a piece of fanciful invention, a secular fantasy penned by the Israeli reporter. The reporter would have made any Der Sturmer Propaganda writer proud. Kol HaKavod! You will go far in Israeli journalism.

Maariv later published an apology but of course the damage has already been done and the fire of Anti-Semitism has been fanned throughout the world by these self-hating Israelis.

There is however no sign of a correction, let alone an apology from YNET as yet.

The BBC also published a correction and The Telegraph had the decency to be shamed into removing the page from its site altogether after the whole story was found to be a lie.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8583317/Jewish-court-sentences-dog-to-death-by-stoning.html

How those kippa wearing Jews are creeping into all sectors of Israeli life

Shavuah Tov and Chodesh Tov,


Very funny episode of Latma News TV about the evil kippa wearing Jews popping up in positions where you'd least expect them...



It's a shame they didn't mention the equally deadly threat of those evil religious women with their kisui rosh (head coverings) gaining important positions in government and companies all over Israel as well.

Usually humour is about exaggerating the truth but in this case, the situation is understated. As mentioned in earlier posts, not a couple of days go by without YNET publishing some anti-religious article or opinion piece that had it been printed in any Western newspaper, would be considered anti-Semitic.

Just a quick look brings this little gem:

YNET is in ecstasy over statistics that show a drop of a massive 6.5% of registered Yeshiva students. What joy! There are less Jews in the world learning Torah! They interview a man who they title Rabbi... and tell us that he is the head of an organisation called "Hiddush" – For Religious Freedom and Equality (now doesn't that sound wonderful and cute) who tells us that:

"Increasing inspections initiated by the Treasury and Education Ministry is holy service, and we should hope that they won't be discouraged by political pressures on the part of the haredi parties. Fines are not enough. The State Prosecutor's Office must file indictments against those caught issuing false reports."

What YNET fails to tell its readers is that Rabbi ... is the head of the Reform Movement in Israel and has been waging a war against Orthodox Judaism, Hashem and Torah for decades.

I'm sure it was just an oversight.

The Left wing: Inspired by Arab Terrorism

Dr. Gabriel Avital. Victim

They are blinkered religious fanatical zealots who refuse to question what they have been taught despite overwhelming scientific evidence.

They ignore basic scientific methodologies in reaching their conclusions, blindly accepting the words of charismatic religious cult style gurus who sell them myths in the form of facts. They then impose their views on all Israeli children, punishing those who show dissent.

Anyone who questions any aspect of their beliefs will be hounded, persecuted, discredited and victimised. They will use all their power to remove those who do not agree with them from any positions of influence.

I am of course talking about the ultra liberal secular directors of Misrad HaChinuch, the Israel ministry of Education.

This morning, YNET announced that the Misrad HaChinuch has dismissed the much respected Israel Chief Scientist, Dr. Gabriel Avital, for questioning the Global Warming Theory and suggesting that Darwinism be scrutinised just like any other scientific theory and not just accepted as fact!

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3964117,00.html

The Israel ministry is following all the PC hip and cool beautiful people such as those at the BBC who also wish to present Global Warming and Darwinist theories as facts.

Melanie Phillips has been campaigning against this in Britain for years.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/6336655/hate-actually.thtml

Only yesterday Melanie highlighted a disgusting video produced by the Global Warming lobby which shows school children who question Global Warming in school being executed by their teacher who blows them up with explosives, splattering their body parts, blood and guts all over the other pupils in class as a warning against dissension. The produces of the advertising campaign call it humour.

The BBC quotes a spokes person for the organisation:

Lizze Gillett, Global Campaign Director for 10:10, told the BBC: "As you can see from various comments and social media sites some people thought it was funny and a good tool to get people talking about climate change but others strongly disliked the mini-movie. We decided to take it off our website to avoid upsetting people. "

In the official campaign statement, the group said: "At 10:10 we're all about trying new and creative ways of getting people to take action on climate change. Unfortunately in this instance we missed the mark. Oh well, we live and learn."

Any Israelis watching this video will not fail to associate it with near identical scenes taken from the aftermath of terrorist suicide bombs in Israeli cafes and on buses. It looks very much as if the producers got their inspiration from such scenes of carnage here in Israel.

Here is the complete video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhLw6py869c

In order to avoid watching the whole thing I have taken the liberty of making snapshots of the main parts to show you the storyline.

The Teacher talks about Global Warming

She asks for a show of hands, all those pupils who are willing to reduce their "carbon footprint"

One boy is sceptical 

A girl in class is unconvinced

The teacher deals with the problem... 

...by murdering both children. 

A subtle warning to the other pupils?

This is considered humour by the Global Warming Lobby.

What this horrendous video shows is that, in their heart of hearts, the ultra "Liberal" wants to exterminate all those who are against them or even question their beliefs. They have obviously been inspired by Arab terrorism.

Anyone, who did not fathom the close empathy and support of the Left wing for Fatach, Chamas and Chizbollah will I hope now comprehend the common ground which they share.

YNET, quite simply anti-Semitic

YNET's English online news site has an appalling level of English. There is no shortage of native English speaking journalists in this country so it is truly baffling why YNET uses Hebrew speakers to translate and write many of their articles. The pigeon English, literal translations that make no sense and basic grammatical errors are always a source of great amusement.

One article I did not find amusing however was this:

"YNET presents unofficial guide to typical haredi wedding, from engagement to Seven Blessings"

OK, so the headline was funny. YNET want learn more English me say!

However, reading the article takes the smile off your face. YNET never fails to publish an anti-religious article each and every week. Some weeks more. This piece though reaches new depths of hatred. It is quite simply anti-Semitic.

It seems the readers think so as well. Out of 21 talkbacks published on the page so far, all 21 criticise the article, (I use the word very loosely).

A sample:

Nasty Nasty
From Israeli, Israel

Hatred never helped anyone. Shame on you Ynet for increasing the hatred of your fellow Jews.


I got one thing to say….
From Talula, Israel

I was at a Haredi wedding in an ultra religious neighbourhood (oh yes I was!) and I have to say, I do admire them for their spirit - there was not one drop of alcohol anywhere - but everyone was in such high spirits and danced like they were drunk from happiness - I thought it was wonderful.


Simply anti-semitic
From Shlomo Silverstein, MA, Israel

Thank you Talula for your honest comment. This article on the other hand is full of disgusting lies and hatred for Jews. I've printed this piece of filth out to show to the next person who tells me that they don't believe that Jews can write anti-Semitic articles.


Pure hate
From Jonathan, Israel

quite sickening - you call this journalism?


Haredi Wedding
From Voice of Reason, Here & Now,

Slow day at YNET. Only 3 children murdered by their Dad. Only 1 Jewish home destroyed by Government. What to do? Who can YNET attack? Hey have we done a Haredi wedding planner yet? Wow what a great idea. What a low class rag YNET really is.


What a stupid article…
From Wise Saba

suggest you attend some haredi weddings & report what really happens. This article spews pure hatred for our fellow Jewish brothers & sisters. Shame on Y Net for publishing this garbage. BTW now publish an article bashing chiloni weddings & all the sexual relations before the wedding.


I am a Charedi wedding photographer
From Daniel, Jerusalem

I have been photographing Charedi weddings for over 15 years. This article is pure filth! It looks like it was written by an ignorant child. Have you no respect ynet to publish filth like this. If you want a real article about the purity and holiness of a Charedi wedding, I would be happy to write one. This article has nothing to do do with the truth and you should be ashamed for publishing it.


I am secular and I find this article disgusting, insulting...
From ari,

and full of vile. You are a pathetic excuse for a news agency and the author a pathetic excuse for a journalist. No wonder the Jewish nation is at the verge of collapse.


I must admit,
From Karen, Rehovot

…as an Ultra secular person, even I found this so called satirical article an insult to my Haridi sisters and brothers. ( speaking relatively of course)

Why does YNET publish things like this? Is this what passes as humour amongst the Israeli journalists or is there an actual agenda to incite hatred for religious Jews?

One last point on the last sentence of the article:

"Each wedding spawns a new Israeli family and with it a new mother-in-all, which can be the subject of several columns"

What's a "mother-in-all"? Perhaps the author's handheld translator is running low on batteries?

So what is the most Pro-Zionist newspaper in Israel?

(Apologies for not posting for a long time. I've been busy with my son's Bar Mitzvah. Only Simchas!)

So what is the most Pro-Zionist newspaper in Israel?

The World's Main Stream Media and their war against the Jews

One of the proofs that Anti-Zionism is actually Anti-Semitism in disguise is the many articles in main stream national newspapers all over Europe and America, questioning the State of Israel's right to exist.

Think of all the countries in the world throughout history that have committed the most appalling acts. Has anyone written that because of these things, any of these countries should cease to exist? The MSM wages a relentless war against Israel, printing every lunatic lie of rumoured atrocities on their front page without waiting for confirmation or any reliable sources. Yet, when the rumours are proved false, Israel receives a tiny apology hidden away somewhere on page 16 and that's if we are lucky. They continue to throw mud and some of it is sticking. The goal of this war is the destruction of the State of Israel.

If proof be needed that some of this mud is sticking, just contemplate that for the past 10 years, polls carried out in Europe have consistantly showed Israel as the No.1 greatest threat to the world, well ahead of Iran, North korea China, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela or Russia.

Israel is hated for being a parasite upon the world, Israelis as being an inferior race, actually not even a people (a common British view) – but at the same time the Jewish people are accused of dominating the world economy and taking over the world.

Israel is hated because it is claimed that they stubbornly maintain their separateness – yet banned from International organisations that would otherwise accept any tin pot state or banana republic.

Israel was established to be a safe haven for Jews who Europe had persecuted, stolen from, tortured, raped, murdered and finally tried to annihilate in The Holocaust. Yet Europe is at the forefront in the call to "peacefully" dismantle the State of Israel in a civilised manner, as opposed to the Arabs who simply wish to murder every single Israeli and throw our bodies into the sea.

The United Nations racism committee was set up as a direct result of the Holocaust against the Jews, yet today is being used as a major weapon by Anti-Semites to persecute Jews and the Jewish State. You just cannot make this stuff up! Had these facts been a plot for a fictional novel, it would have been rejected by the publishers as being beyond plausibility.

The list of contradictions towards the State of Israel goes on yet all can be explained with this simple statement.

First comes the hatred, then the justification. This is the very definition of classic anti-Semitism.

Instead of supporting Israel, Israel's MSM joins in attacking Israel and Judaism

The Israeli government is still in a state of denial. It has no resources to cope with the fact that the media war against us is in fact anti-Semitism.

Likewise the MSM in Israel bends over backwards to try and be accepted within the international community, showing its liberal, left wing credentials yet is looked upon with the distrust of De Sturmer.

Instead of defending their own country by explaining the lies of the international media against Israel, in a pathetic attempt to be accepted within world media, Israeli newspapers actually print anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic articles themselves.

Take for example this disgusting opinion piece published in Yediat Achronot last week and their Internet site – Ynet.

Is Israel a great injustice?

In a two part article no less, this major national Israeli newspaper published the anti-Semitic rantings of a sick individual called Benny Levy, claiming to be chairman of an organisation called "Shivah" or "Zionism Now". He asks if Israel is in fact not the cause of hatred of Jews around the world and tells us that we ought to be seriously thinking about dismantling our state ourselves. I've waited for a statement from YNet that their site had been hacked by ne-nazis who placed the article on their pages or that in fact the article was meant as a subtle Purim joke. However I have to tell you that no such statement has been published.

Doing a Google for this organisation does not return one result of an internet site for them. However, this man and his "organisation" is being quoted by every anti-Semitic site on the WWW.

One anti-Semite, after quoting Mr Levy's article at length from Ynet concludes with the words:

"There's nothing magical about the 'success' of jews -- they're simply a highly organized and networked gang of thieves and murderers that have been perfecting their craft for over 2,000 years."

Don't think that Ynet is alone. HaAretz often publishes articles that go well beyond criticism of the government and are clearly anti-Zionist. The Jerusalem Post with its reputation for being a right wing pro-Zionist newspaper nevertheless publishes articles, in the name of free speech and broadmindedness of course, articles by leftwing Israelis that spew self hatred.

Moreover, both YNet and the Jerusalem Post publish on a regular basis the most revolting anti-religious articles that ferociously attack the Torah community in Israel with such venom, using the standard anti-Semitic myths to slander a whole population. They don't seem to realise that had these articles been published in any non-Israeli media outlet they would be condemned as outright anti-Semitism. Israeli newspaper editors justify these articles by claiming that a good juicy "Dos" bashing piece sells newspapers and generates plenty of page hits on their site, whether from anti-religious secular Israelis or from incensed and irate religious Jews.

Now let me quote from the main editorial (not an opinion piece) of an Israeli newspaper, published in Hebrew and English that is unashamedly pro Israel and pro Jewish:

The Arabs of Israel, aided by compatriots and sympathizers around the world, recently added a new tact to their agenda of discrediting the Jewish State of Israel.

They are doing everything in their ability to negate historic Jewish claims to the land and are endeavoring, wherever and whenever they can, to erase anything that proves Jewish connection to the land.

The compliant world media and Western powers enable their tale of fiction to grow and gain legitimacy, and provide a platform to promote their fictionalized, distorted, revisionist history of the Holy Land.

No longer is the Meoras Hamachpeilah referred to as the Cave of the Patriarchs. When the media writes about it, they state that “the Jews call the building the Cave of the Patriarchs and the Muslims refer to it as the Ibrahimi Mosque.”

This Arab neighborhood was built illegally on park land which Yerushalayim’s mayor wanted to tear down to restore the original beauty.

In fact, last week, on February 25, the New York Times reported in an article entitled “More Clashes Over Israeli Claim to Shrine” that, “Zahran Abu Qubeita, the mayor of Yatta, a nearby Palestinian town, came on Thursday to pray at the Ibrahimi Mosque. ‘It is an Islamic site, not a Jewish one,’ he said.”

When referring to Kever Rachel, they make sure to let you know that the Arabs refer to the burial place of Rachel as "Quibbat Raqhil", and inform you that there are multiple claims to the area.

This canard was oft repeated last week after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had the ‘audacity’ to announce that he was adding the Meoras Hamachpeilah in Chevron and Kever Rachel in Bait Lechem to the list of official sites of Jewish heritage in the Jewish land which the government spends money on renovation and preserving.

The routine government action recognizes two of the oldest and most famous Jewish religious and historical sites in the world, and whose ancient connection to the roots of the Jewish people are clearly mentioned in the Chumash.

Not only are the Arabs protesting, but so is the US government as well as other Western countries. Not to be left out, the United Nations has also lodged a protest against the Israeli government designation.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said that the Obama administration viewed the Israeli designation to be “provocative” and “unhelpful” to the goal of getting back to the negotiating table. He added that the US displeasure with the declaration had been conveyed to senior Israeli officials by American diplomats.

On Monday, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah complained about Arab “silence” in the face of Israel’s restatement of the Jewish claim to the holy sites. Nasrallah claimed that the Israeli action constituted a threat to Islamic holy sites, and that nobody was actually defending them except the Palestinians.

That same day, the Palestinian Authority held its cabinet meeting in Chevron as a form of protest against the designation.

In Chevron, there has long been a de facto agreement between the Muslims and the Jews on sharing access to Meoras Hamachpelah, which the Muslims have traditionally revered as the burial place of Avraham Avinu, and treated as a mosque. However, until just 25 years ago, Muslims had shown little if any special regard for Kever Rachel, other than its Jewish origins, which are recognized in the Koran. In fact, an Ottoman decree gave Jews living in Israel the right of access to Kever Rachel at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

However, now that it is under Jewish control, Arabs have begun claiming that it is a mosque. They have named it after an Ethiopian slave woman who served in the household of the founder of their religion.

RECOGNIZING THE JEWISH HERITAGE

At the cabinet meeting at which the designation was announced, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu explained the rationale. “Our existence here in our country depends not only on the strength of the Israeli army and our economic and technological might. It is anchored, first and foremost, in our national and emotional legacy, which we instill in our youth and in the coming generations. It depends on cultural heroes and national symbols. It depends on our ability to recognize and explain the justice of our cause, and to underscore our links to the land, first and foremost, to ourselves as well as to others,” Netanyahu added.

Both Netanyahu and Israeli president, Shimon Peres, have described the Arab protests as an artificial attempt to stir up trouble.

A State Department spokesman said that the United States had “asked both parties to refrain from provocative and unilateral actions” that might further hamper US efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

PA AND ISRAELI LEFTISTS STILL SEE EYE TO EYE

Hamdan Taha, director of the PA Tourism Minister’s antiquity department called the Israel designation, “an act of aggression against the cultural and religious rights of the Palestinian people. Instead of making use of heritage to promote peace, it is being used as a means to promote war,” Taha said. He insisted that designating them as Jewish heritage sites “reflects an artificial history that solely serves Israel’s settlement policy.”

Chaim Oron the chairman of the left-wing Israeli Meretz party also criticized the designation. “This is another attempt to blur the borders between Israel and the occupied territories. All it needs is a bit of pressure from the right, and Netanyahu falls into line. This decision puts Netanyahu’s Bar-Ilan declaration of two states for two peoples in an absurd light,” Oron told a reporter for Yediot Achronot.

This unashamedly and blatantly pro-Israel editorial was published in last week's Yated Neeman. Yes that's right. A so called anti-Zionist Chareidi black newspaper. (See Wikipedia article which clearly states that Yated Neeman is Anti-Zionist).

Yated Neeman article

You cannot even claim that the article is only pro settlement of Eretz Yisrael. The editorial clearly states at the very beginning :

"their agenda of discrediting the Jewish State of Israel".

Please don't think that this article is an apparition. There are articles like these published in Yated on a regular basis.

Are they Anti-Zionist?

It is true that if you ask most Chareidim if they are Zionists, the answer will probably be No! However, ask the same people if they support the State of Israel and Jewish control of land of Israel and they will answer Yes!

This apparent contradiction occurs because secular Jews define Zionism as support for Israel whereas Chareidim are using the original classical definition of the term. Zionism was in its origin, an anti Torah secular movement that grew up along side Communism, Socialism, Bundism, Fascism and many other "ism"s whose objective was to tear down the established society and build a new secular world based on humanistic values. Zionism was indeed a direct threat to Torah. The Zionist movement's goal was to seek out Jewish youth and persuade them to reject G-d and His Torah and turn them into good secular farmers, all be it in Eretz Yisrael.

At the founding of the state, the early Zionist leadership took in Jewish immigrants from all over the world and put them in absorption camps. Their goal was to "civilise" the "backward" Jewish youth and strip them of their Jewishness. I remember some 30 years ago publically crying in a Chareidi home in Yerushalayim after I proudly proclaimed that I was  Zionist. One guest there. an elderly softly spoken man, described how a madrich had burnt his tephilin in front of his younger brother's and his eyes upon entering the absorption camp. Despite this, both his brother and himself came out believing Jews. They were the exception though.

So, no the Chareidim are not Zionists yet they recognise that the State of Israel is an open miracle by Hashem. After 2,000 years we are back in the land of Israel as rulers. There are more Jews sitting and learning Torah today in Eretz Yisrael then there have been at any time in the past 2,000 years in Galus. The centre of Torah decisions come from Israel and the Jews look to Eretz Yisrael as their spiritual and perhaps physical home.

Here's to the most Zionist (whoops ! Pro-State of Israel) Newspaper in the country. "Yated Neeman".