Showing posts with label Yair Lapid. Show all posts

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Like It or Not, Paris and Jerusalem are Connected | Tsvi Sadan ISRAEL TODAY

Like It or Not, Paris and Jerusalem are Connected

Wednesday, November 18, 2015 | Tsvi Sadan ISRAEL TODAY

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In the wake of the ISIS attack on Paris, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that "militant Islamic terrorism attacks our societies because it wants to destroy our civilization," which is why "all terrorism must be condemned and fought equally with unwavering determination."

Netanyahu is among those who find no excuse for Islamic terror. Some European leaders, on the other hand, are doing what they have done all along - blaming Israel and the West for Islamic violence.

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom was rebuffed by some Israeli officials, like Yair Lapid, who misunderstood her as justifying Palestinian terror while condemning ISIS terror. While that is not necessarily the case, what Wallstrom did was just as bad: She justified both types of terrorism.

"To counteract the radicalization we must go back to the situation such as the one in the Middle East of which not the least the Palestinians see that there is no future: we must either accept a desperate situation or resort to violence," she said. According to Sweden at least, the Paris attack is the outworking of Muslim desperation that the West is responsible for.

Wallstorm wasn't the only one to draw Israel into the fray in trying to understand and explain the Paris attacks. Chairman of the Dutch Socialist Party, Jan Marijnissen, was more specific in making this connection between the supposed Palestinian despair and the Muslims who killed 132 people in Paris.

This type of behavior, explained Marijnissen, "is connected also to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict" because those who carried out the attacks are probably coming "from a group of outraged people from the French suburbs.”

Such views, which can also be heard from Israelis who blame "occupation" for Palestinian terrorism, are condescending and patronizing in that they fail to engage the reasons given by those who have taken full responsibility for the attacks.

The ISIS communique that followed the Paris attacks explained very clearly that not desperation, but hope is what motivates Muslims to wage war against the Crusaders (Europeans) and Jews. This hope, they say, comes from victory after victory their god gives them in the Middle East and now in Europe.

"In a blessed attack which Allah facilitated the causes," says ISIS, "a group of believers from the soldiers of the Caliphate … targeted the capital of abomination and perversion." This is similar to the way the Palestinian Authority has framed the conflict with Israel in Islamic terms, claiming the Land of Israel as "Ribat" – holy Islamic land.

This means that the "Wallstorms" and the "Marijnissens" and their Israeli counterparts are in fact contributing to the alleviation of Muslim desperation by giving them the hope that their holy war is justifiable and winnable.

PHOTO: Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat in front of the wall of the Old City, which was lit up with the colors of the French flag in a show of solidarity with Paris.

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Friday, October 23, 2015

Israel Will Respond Strongly to Palestinian Terror - CHARISMA NEWS

Terrorism continues in Jerusalem, a great deal of it stemming from the conflict over the Temple Mount. (Reuters file photo )

Israel Will Respond Strongly to Palestinian Terror

While Israel is under constant attack, with four attacks in one day alone this week, the nation is united in vowing to eradicate Palestinian terrorism.

Yair Lapid a leader of the opposition noted: "If someone attacks with a butcher knife and storms at an Israeli citizen, I am not willing to have a discussion about his motives. If someone comes out with an ax and attacks a woman at the bus stop, I am not ready to have a debate on the most polite way to neutralize him.

If Abu Mazen (PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas) is selling lies to his people even though he knows it encourages violence and bloodshed, I will not be among those who ignore it. The silence of the left against Abbas is a new level of complete disillusionment with their philosophy. What lies in front of it is a simple and absolute truth: Jewish blood is not cheap."

While the media wrongly portrays Israel's response to terror as equal to Palestinian terrorism, Israel's viewpoint can be summarized by the ideological leader of the Likud, Netanyahu's political party.

As Ze'ev Jabotinsky said in 1938, "Human society is based on reciprocity. If you remove reciprocity, justice becomes a lie. A person walking somewhere on a street has the right to live only because and only to the extent that he acknowledges my right to live.

But, if he wishes to kill me, to my mind he forfeits his right to exist—and this also applies to nations. Otherwise, the world would become a racing area for vicious predators, where not only the weakest would be devoured, but the best."

Expect a strong price to be paid by those who murder in Israel. This terrorist jihad must end.

Ronn Torossian is author of best-selling PR book "For Immediate Release: Shape Minds, Build Brands, and Deliver Results with Game-Changing Public Relations."

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Sunday, February 9, 2014

Money and Faith: Can the Two Walk Together? - ISRAEL TODAY

Money and Faith: Can the Two Walk Together?

Sunday, February 09, 2014 | Tsvi Sadan ISRAEL TODAY

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Bible

In the wake of celebrity Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto’s supposed attempt to bribe a senior police officer, Finance Minister Yair Lapid stated, “Three tycoons were known to counsel rabbis - Moti Ziser, Ilan Ben Dov and Nochi Dankner – all of whom saw their [financial] empires crumble. Maybe they should have consulted economists rather than rabbis.”

In the increasingly tense debate between religious and secular views in Israel, Lapid seized the opportunity provided by Rabbi Pinto to widen the divide between the spiritual and the material. Money and faith, so Lapid and many Israelis believe, are two unrelated and even opposing spheres.

Pinto set a bad example, so be sure, but to conclude from his scandal that rabbis should not be consulted on financial matters is like concluding from one rotten apple that all apples should be avoided.

Moreover, in light of the presumably sound economic theories and policies that led the Western world into financial crisis, relying on economists for good counsel is apparently as risky as consulting a rabbi.

People’s ill judgment in the financial sphere, as well as just about every other sphere of human life, is ultimately a testimony of human frailty, not a rebuttal of spirituality. If anything, that the ultra-rich, who presumably don’t need any help on financial matters, would seek spiritual guidance should have been cause for concern that they are unable to find the good counsel they need from secular economists.

There are those who will insist that the rich, just as the poor, are simply superstitious. Be that as it may, I believe more credit should be given to one who seeks the company of a rabbi, or the spirituality that he represents.

A case in point was the 2008 gathering of 500 of Israel’s upper echelon in honor of Rabbi Haim Kovalski, who had earned great respect among many Israelis due to his Project Meorot Hadaf Hayomi that aimed to help every Jew study the Talmud on a daily basis.

Asked by a reporter what a respected lawyer was doing at such an event, Gideon Fischer replied: “…people are looking for a wise man. A rabbi has no radio and he doesn’t read secular newspapers. He knows all that is needed to be known, and avoids everything one need not know and need not read or see. All of his time is devoted to studying and casuistry. He has hundreds of thousands of studying hours, and we, how much time are we wasting on television, nonsense and vain things? We want to sit around a refined person.”

True religious people, and by religious I mean anyone who puts his or her faith to practice, knows that the division Lapid suggests between the spiritual and the material is false at best. The Bible has much to say about debt, usury, alms giving and a host of other purely economic issues that if given their proper weight can bring much relief to individuals and society.

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Thursday, January 30, 2014

Israeli Court Recognizes Messianic Jewish Congregation - ISRAEL TODAY

Israeli Court Recognizes

Messianic Jewish Congregation

Thursday, January 30, 2014 | David Lazarus, ISRAEL TODAY

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Messianic Jews

Messianic Jews have won another battle for recognition in Israel. This time Israel's Supreme Court has determined that a Messianic congregation in Jerusalem should receive the same full tax exemption as a synagogue.

The battle began back in 2010, when ultra-Orthodox Members of Knesset Moshe Gafni of United Torah Judaism and Nisim Zeev of the Shas party passed a law providing Jewish synagogues relief from all municipal taxes. Lawyers from the Jerusalem Institute of Justice (JIJ) then petitioned the court to also provide a Messianic fellowship in the capital with the same status. And they won.

The ruling is significant in that it allows for full tax relief for all space used by the Messianic congregation, including the meeting hall, a drug rehabilitation center, children and youth activity rooms, pastors' offices, and space for secondhand clothing distribution.

According to JIJ, since the case began in 2010, congregations applying now for the discount will be paid back retroactively for all municipal taxes incurred over the last three years. The Jerusalem Institute for Justice is encouraging all Messianic Congregations paying municipal taxes on their facilities to apply for the tax break. The new ruling promises a major windfall of tens of thousands of shekels each year now available for Messianic congregations in Israel.

As with any new law its implementation needs to be worked out on the ground, and already there is opposition.

Secular Israelis fed up with corruption and scandals involving rabbis and religious organizations over the past years are not happy that synagogues don't need to pay their share of municipal taxes. Many feel that religious Jews are already an unnecessary burden on Israel's struggling welfare system.

The popular new secular government party "Yesh Atid" (There is a Future), lead by Finance Minister and former television personality Yair Lapid, has put a proposal on the floor of the Knesset to cancel the tax break for synagogues.

Lapid had garnered support from many Messianics in Israel's last election, particularly amongst the younger Israeli believers who were attracted to his fresh ideas on economic equality.

Now the Messianics find themselves, perhaps for the first time in their short and turbulent history, partnered together with the Orthodox Jewish parties enjoying the new tax break. As one of the lawyers from JIJ said, "Finally, the Messianics have a common interest with the Orthodox political parties."

According to the JIJ lawyer, it is very unlikely that anti-Missionary groups will try to overrule the new law in order to prevent court recognition of Messianic congregations, as they themselves enjoy the same tax benefits.

When authorities visited the Messianic congregation in question, they took notice of "drums and a sound system in the hall." Did such equipment belong in a non-profit religious organization?

In his testimony before the court, the spiritual leader of the congregation was able to explain: "The gatherings in our meeting hall are for the purpose of prayer and Torah study. We use musical instruments and a sound system for praise. We believe that according to the Book of Psalms we are to worship God with all kinds of musical instruments, including drums and cymbals."

In its decision to grant the Messianics full tax relief retroactively for the past three years, the Supreme Court's Appeals Committee referred to the congregation specifically as "a non-profit Messianic Jewish organization that provides a sanctuary for prayer for all of her members." The Messianic congregation was clearly not considered a church by the court, nor, for that matter, would they call it a synagogue.

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Thursday, November 19, 2015