Tznius Vaad in Beit Shemesh going Crazy... won't allow newspapers to write the word "military" or use "women's first names"

The Tznius "Parasites" of Beit Shemesh have taken their sick campaign to a whole new level. 
These are the same  guys who beat up Chareidie Soldiers, and organize protests to stop traffic, so that the people who work, cannot drive.
It's time to start an organization that would put these animals out of business. 
Here read the terror tactics that they use to frighten their victims that are similar to the mafia!

Immodest or banned words and terms, including 'great' and 'awesome

The ultra-Orthodox media is famous for censoring women's pictures and practicing extra caution on modesty-related issues, but the spiritual supervision usually ends there.

A Radical Charedi group in Beit Shemesh is now attempting to take the censorship one step further, demanding that editors of local newspapers and advertising pamphlets follow a particularly strict set of rules, which bans ads for women's driving courses, ads mentioning shopping malls, restaurants and even men's perfume.

The Committee for the Purity of the Camp issued a document titled "Specific instructions for advertisers," which seeks to impose strict restrictions on Beit Shemesh's haredi newspapers and states that the editors' discretion must be subject to the decisions of an "inspector" on behalf of the "chastity squad."

The document clarifies that all ads must be submitted to the inspector and must not be published without his specific approval.

The city's moderate Charedi population says it is being terrorized by these zealots through the media. "Clear threats are made against newspaper owners. They say that whoever won't obey them will be personally persecuted, and so will his business," one of the residents says. "This is a continuation of the Iranization of Beit Shemesh, not to mention ISISiazation."

"There is a lot of money involved in this. For example, thousands of shekels which are paid by every newspaper or leaflet editor for the spiritual supervisor's work," says a well-known haredi activist. "In addition, they have insane squads which remove any ad which is not supervised by them from mailboxes.

"These are the same people who are responsible for beating up soldiers, burning 'immodest' clothing stores for women and violent protests. It's time for the Shin Bet's 'Jewish department' to take care of them."

'Leaflet must not feature a double bed'

The set of rules states that newspapers must not feature pictures or silhouettes of young girls, men demonstrating different products, women's wigs and treatment beds. Pictures of small children, makeup and cosmetics, as well as women's clothes and shoes, will only be published "in a gentle, clearly haredi manner."

In addition, a leaflet must not feature a double bed, unless it is separated in two by a piece of furniture, and "personal clothing" and cosmetics must not take up more than one-quarter of the page.

According to the Committee for the Purity of the Camp, Beit Shemesh's newspapers must not publish ads for martial arts courses, driving courses for women and yeshiva students, acting and singings schools, etc. Couples counseling will only be included in the leaflet "with the approval of the city's rabbis."

Sing-along events, cantillation and CHasidic singing are also off limits, especially when they include women. Singers and lecturers performing in "mixed events" and "entertainers and other non-educational things" must not be advertised at all, and that also includes performances by female singers and dancers of course. Lecturers must be approved by the city's rabbis.

'Military terms are off limits'

Additional restrictions include publishing rooms for rent (unless they are in clear haredi areas), hotels (only if they have a kashrut certificate for their "nature" and of course food), vacations for women (only on behalf of haredi organizations and with the approval of a recognized rabbi), swimming pools (only separated), beaches (approved by the Committee), stores in non-haredi areas (only those approved by the supervisor), trips and attractions (only those that "match the haredi lifestyle").

Shopping malls, restaurants which are not in a haredi area, "unruly places," "prohibited" workplaces and Shabbat-desecrating businesses are off limits.

The radical group is also seeking to dictate the terminology used by the advertisers: Instead of "guest rooms" they must write "rooms for rent," they must not use the terms "spiritual" for marketing needs, must not mention "non-haredi" games, men's perfume, banned clothing and must not use "words describing facial treatments."

Women's first names and words such as "great" and "awesome" must not be used either. Mentioning pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding requires an approval from the supervisor.

The committee also bans the use of "men's names in women's products (such as "Reuven Cohen Wigs") and "military, police and academic terms."

Attorney Rabbi Uri Regev, CEO of the Hiddush - Freedom of Religion for Israel association, said in response: "It's no surprise that the violence and tyranny of the haredi modesty hooligans, which was directed in the past at secular and religious Jews, has reached the haredim themselves.
"It should be clear to the city's residents that if they don't rebel against the modesty supervisor and his partners, this crazy set of rules will only be the introduction," he stated.

"It takes a distorted mind to come up with all these restrictions," he added. "This raises the question whether these are real righteous people, who think about modesty day and night, or whether it's time to refer them to mental care."

Moshe Cohen, who founded Economy Candy on the Lower East Side, has died

Moshele Cohen 

Economy Candy is a Lower East Side institution. It was created by Morris Cohen 90 years ago.

Economy Candy started out as a shoe store.

Morris Cohen was born in 1917 in New York. His family once lived on top of the store he would later create.

The Rivington Street confectionary empire started as a shoe store with candy hawked from a pushcart outside. Shoe sales plummeted during the Depression, so candy became the Cohen family moneymaker.

Today, the store lives on with thousands of old-school treats like candy cigarettes and Mallo cups alongside newer novelties like sugar-free candy and "Frozen"-branded bites.

OBAMA Calls Murdered Jews Just a Random “BUNCH OF FOLKS” Shot “IN A DELI”

Why are there still Jews backing this fool?

Barack Obama told VOX News today that “zealots” randomly shot “a bunch of folks in a Paris deli.”
Via Twitchy:

Yated does Bio on Rav Teichtal z"l but omits R' Teicthal's pro State of Israel stance!

Rav Teichtal z"l author of "Eim Habanim Semeicha"

This past 10th of Shevat, was the 70th Yahrzeit of the great Rabbi Yissochor Shlomo Teichtal z"l,the  author of Mishneh Sochir a Halachic work on all parts of the Shulcha Aruch. Rav Teichtal z"l was  murdered in 1945, just days from being liberated while trying to protect a Jew that was being brutally beaten by a Ukrainian  for seizing a singly dry piece of bread.

But if you read the Four Page bio in the Yated, you would never  know the reason Rav Teichtal wrote the sefer Eim Habanim Semeichah, and what was in it. 

The article goes into depth explaining his other seforim, but couldn't find space to mention  his most important work. 
The Yated is afraid of the fanatical Israel haters, and would not  
G-D forbid write what Rav Teichtal really wanted publicized. 

Eim Habonim Semeicha was written  while hiding from the Nazis. And in this sefer he castigates the Gedoilim for opposing the rebuilding of Eretz Yisroel!

He writes:(The Rav wrote the sefer in Loshon Hakoidesh, this is an English Translation by R' Moshe Lichtman)

"Had the Orthodox Jews joined those who were engaged in this sacred endeavor sixty, fifty, or forty years ago, and had they inspired all of Israel to do the same, we would have found abundant relief in the Land. Thousands upon thousands would have settled there and would have been rescued from death. The Orthodox would have, thus, fulfilled the verse in Mishlei 24:11"To rescue those being taken out to be put to death."

He continues:
"However, they opposed this undertaking. 
Not only did they oppose it, but they caused the simple, Orthodox Jews to despise the rebuilding of the Land so much that if one of them begins to speak or get enthused about it, they consider him repulsive and abominable. They all rebuke him, saying, "You are a Zionist, an abhorrence, and an abomination." Thus, they have truly caused the desirable Land to be despised and detested. 
The simple man who does not know enough Torah to decide whether this is true or not, chastises those who desire to rebuild the Land. 
He says, "You are a sinner and a Zionist," for he wants to be considered devout and pious. In this way, he defames both himself and our Holy Land. In reality, though, he is just a simpleton, someone who does not know how to ask. He cannot distinguish between his right and left. "

He Continues:
"Out Master, Maharam Chagiz, discusses the great punishment that awaits those who slander the inhabitants of Eretz Yisrael"

Hashem decreed that just as all the men who have seen My glory (Bamidbar 14:22) meaning, the generations of the spies.... willl not see the Land, the same is true of future generations. 

Anyone who spreads an evil report about the Land will be stricken and will receive the punishment of the spies. This is the meaning of the next pasuk "And all who provoke Me shall not see it."

The divine Kabbalist R' Avraham Azulai (the grandfather of our master, the Chida) writes in his Holy work, Chesed L'Avraham 
(Maayan 3, Nahar 12):
Anyone who lives in Eretz Yisrael is considered a tzaddik even though it does not seem that way, and even though he is presumed to be wicked."

He later writes:
"I must confess the truth and declare my sin, I, too, despised the rebuilding of the Land, because I heard unqualified statements made by many Orthodox Jews , which became firmly implanted in my heart. I did not concern myself with this matter at all, because I was preoccupied with learning, teaching, and writing volumes on the Talmud and its commentaries, as well as responses to questions regarding the word of Hashem. I only delved into this halacha after we suffered afflictions in this bitter exile. Hashem enlightened me, and I saw that I and all this who opposed this movement were mistaken. I admit and say, "That which I previously told you was mistaken." just like Rava and other Talmudic Sages did. When Rabbis admit their mistakes, they are praiseworthy." 
"Thank G-D, I have no qualms about publicly expressing the truth that is in my heart. I am not afraid of any man, for I studied under great and righteous Gedoilim and was raised among the genuinely holy wise men of the generation. ...." 

DIN:
I will write excerpts from his sefer in coming posts

"Global warming" is the biggest science scandal ever

New data shows that the “vanishing” of polar ice is not the result of runaway global warming

Official records systematically 'adjusted' to show heating...

Meteorologist: 'In the business world, people go to jail for such manipulations of data'...

By Christopher Booker

The Scam

When future generations look back on the global-warming scare of the past 30 years, nothing will shock them more than the extent to which the official temperature records – on which the entire panic ultimately rested – were systematically “adjusted” to show the Earth as having warmed much more than the actual data justified.

Two weeks ago, under the headline 

“How we are being tricked by flawed data on global warming”,

 I wrote about Paul Homewood, who, on his Notalotofpeopleknothat blog, had checked the published temperature graphs for three weather stations in Paraguay against the temperatures that had originally been recorded. In each instance, the actual trend of 60 years of data had been dramatically reversed, so that a cooling trend was changed to one that showed a marked warming.

This was only the latest of many examples of a practice long recognised by expert observers around the world – one that raises an ever larger question mark over the entire official surface-temperature record.

Following my last article, Homewood checked a swathe of other South American weather stations around the original three. In each case he found the same suspicious one-way “adjustments”. 

First these were made by the US government’s Global Historical Climate Network (GHCN). They were then amplified by two of the main official surface records, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (Giss) and the National Climate Data Center (NCDC), which use the warming trends to estimate temperatures across the vast regions of the Earth where no measurements are taken. Yet these are the very records on which scientists and politicians rely for their belief in “global warming”.

Homewood has now turned his attention to the weather stations across much of the Arctic, between Canada (51 degrees W) and the heart of Siberia (87 degrees E). Again, in nearly every case, the same one-way adjustments have been made, to show warming up to 1 degree C or more higher than was indicated by the data that was actually recorded. This has surprised no one more than Traust Jonsson, who was long in charge of climate research for the Iceland met office (and with whom Homewood has been in touch). Jonsson was amazed to see how the new version completely “disappears” Iceland’s “sea ice years” around 1970, when a period of extreme cooling almost devastated his country’s economy.

One of the first examples of these “adjustments” was exposed in 2007 by the statistician Steve McIntyre, when he discovered a paper published in 1987 by James Hansen, the scientist (later turned fanatical climate activist) who for many years ran Giss. Hansen’s original graph showed temperatures in the Arctic as having been much higher around 1940 than at any time since. But as Homewood reveals in his blog post, “Temperature adjustments transform Arctic history”, Giss has turned this upside down. Arctic temperatures from that time have been lowered so much that that they are now dwarfed by those of the past 20 years.

Homewood’s interest in the Arctic is partly because the “vanishing” of its polar ice (and the polar bears) has become such a poster-child for those trying to persuade us that we are threatened by runaway warming. But he chose that particular stretch of the Arctic because it is where ice is affected by warmer water brought in by cyclical shifts in a major Atlantic current – this last peaked at just the time 75 years ago when Arctic ice retreated even further than it has done recently. The ice-melt is not caused by rising global temperatures at all.

Of much more serious significance, however, is the way this wholesale manipulation of the official temperature record – for reasons GHCN and Giss have never plausibly explained – has become the real elephant in the room of the greatest and most costly scare the world has known. This really does begin to look like one of the greatest scientific scandals of all time.

More Americans support than oppose Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before a joint session of Congress a new poll by Rasmussen Reports revealed.

More Americans support than oppose Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s March 3 speech before a joint session of Congress on the Iranian nuclear threat and radical Islam, a new poll released by Rasmussen Reports revealed.

Forty-two percent of respondents agreed that Netanyahu “should accept Republican congressional leaders’ invitation to address Congress about Iran even if President Obama does not want him to come,” while 35 percent disagreed and 23 percent remained undecided.

“I can assure you that millions of Americans will be paying close attention to the prime minister’s words,” U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told Israel Hayom.

Netanyahu said Thursday that it is his obligation to speak before Congress, despite protests from the White House and congressional Democrats, due to the threat posed to Israel by the potential for a bad nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 powers.

“Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the nuclear talks with the world powers are progressing in the path Iran has planned,” Netanyahu said. “That path leads Iran to becoming a nuclear threshold state with international approval, and all the economic relief. This means Iran will be relieved from all pressure and will be able to arm itself with nuclear bombs. This is very dangerous for Israel, for the region, for peace and for the entire world, and it is my duty as prime minister of Israel to warn of this danger and do everything I can to prevent it from happening.”

Wondering what your "Yeshiva Bucher" is doing in Israel?

Don't worry! There is plenty to do in Israel! He'll do a great shidduch... don't worry! He won't ever have to work...
Notice, that those who work for a living, wern't there... I wonder why????

On Israel, NY Times is an ‘Addict’ in Need of ‘Intervention’ Says Media Watchdog,

A leading US media watchdog has compared the New York Times‘ constant publication of misleading and even false reports about Israel to the behavior of an “addict” in need of an “intervention.”

Gilead Ini, a Senior Analyst with CAMERA, which monitors media coverage of Israeli and Middle Eastern issues for balance and fairness, was commenting on how the Times was compelled to run a story-changing correction to a January 30 report which claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not informed the White House before accepting House Speaker John Boehner’s invitation to address Congress on Iran – a major violation of protocol which flowed from the fact that “Netanyahu…and many pro-Israel lawmakers in Congress have urged a hard line.”

Later that same day, editors ran the following correction to the story by reporters Carl Hulse and Jeremy W. Peters: “An earlier version of this article misstated when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel accepted Speaker John A. Boehner’s invitation to address Congress. He accepted after the administration had been informed of the invitation, not before.”

“The Times‘ misreporting on Israel is looking more and more like an addiction,” Ini told The Algemeiner.

 “An addiction to anti-Israel advocacy that has been preventing professional news journalism — and if there is anyone in the building that cares about the newspaper’s reputation for fairness, it is time for an intervention.”

In a commentary for Tablet magazine on the latest Times scandal involving Israel, Liel Leibovitz argued that the White House was also culpable for an outcome in which Israel’s Prime Minister was again portrayed as power-hungry and hubristic.

“If Bibi had followed standard protocol, and given the White House the diplomatically-appropriate heads-up, as the Times‘ correction clearly and unequivocally stated, that meant that the Times‘ White House sources had been woefully and entirely misinformed about a key matter of protocol—or, more likely, had invented the tale of Bibi’s outrageous behavior out of whole cloth in order to blunt his unwelcome criticisms of the Administration’s Iran policy,” Leibovitz wrote.

EU Prohibits JEWS from building in Maalei Adumim but builds 550 illegal Houses for Arabs !

Despite the 2012 Levy Report proving the legality of Israel's presence in Judea and Samaria under international law, the European Union (EU) has bitterly opposed that presence and even threatened sanctions - however, a new report reveals that it is in fact the EU that is guilty of "illegal settlement" in the region.

EU bastards in Judea and Samaria

Judea and Samaria was divided into Areas A, B and C in the 1993 Oslo Accords which created the Palestinian Authority (PA), and under the agreements Area C is under complete Israeli administrative and security control.

However, the new report by Regavim, an NGO watchdog group for Jewish national property rights, reveals the extent of the EU's illegal actions aiding in PA land grabs in Area C.

In doing so, the EU is creating illegal facts on the ground to pave the way for a de facto Palestinian state in the Biblical heartland of Israel.

According to the report - which was first published several months ago on Arutz Sheva but has since made waves for the first time in the European press, featuring in the UK's Daily Mail - since 2009 European support has shifted from being passive diplomatic and financial aide to the PA, to becoming fully active cooperation in the PA's unilateral illegal construction.

One of the major goals in these EU efforts is to advance illegal Arab building precisely in Area C which is under full Israeli control, and therefore to slowly cede the areas and create a continuity between Arab-held land between Har Hevron in southern Judea, through Yericho (Jericho) and up into Samaria.

A continuity of this sort would critically harm the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria, as well as endanger Israeli security and Israel's ability to guard itself along defensible borders. A full 550 illegal Arab buildings were put up in Area C in 2014 alone.

The report features a detailed mapping of hundreds of illegal Arab structures built by the EU in the corridor from Jerusalem out past Ma'ale Adumim to its east. It also expounds on the changing EU management as seen in official documents, and dissects the impact of the illegal building.

"European hypocristy"

"Between the lines rises in full force the European hypocrisy, which accuses Israel of taking unilateral steps, even as it is sunk up to its neck in illegal and unilateral activities for the benefit of the Palestinian Authority," Regavim stated.

The organization emphasizes that the construction it documented breaches international law which requires obedience to the sovereign power ruling a given area. It is also in complete contradiction of the Oslo Accords which the EU signed off on as a witness, and which establishes Israel as the authority for security and civilian matters in Area C.

In concluding the report, Regavim summed up that the EU's activities "are not legitimate. There is no avoiding a drastic change in terms of the Israeli government's treatment of the issue."

That change would come "firstly, by understanding and internalizing thatthe European Union is a problematic player that causes great damage to Israeli interests in Judea and Samaria," Regavim said. "Secondly, the supervision and checks on the Union's activities and organizations funded by it must be tightened."

The group also recommended that Israel "take a series of steps - political, legal and publicity based."

"The Israeli actions must be comprised of a combination of political actions through the accepted diplomatic channels, legal actions, intensive enforcement, and widening the publicity to create international legitimacy to end the delegitimate actions by the European Union," concluded Regavim.

Letter to Yated Editor says that Rav Yaakov Ruderman's pro-Israel views are now irrelevant

When a guy writes that what a Godol who passed away said years ago, is now irrelevant because if he were alive today he would have changed his mind, then how do we now know if anything any Godol says now, is relevant?

 How do I now know that what any Rishon or Achron said is true? 
Maybe it was true only when he was alive?
More of my thoughts after the letter:

Dear Editor,
In the last edition of the Yated, there was an interesting interview with the previous chief rabbi of Israel, Rav Yisrael Meir Lau.

One of the points in the interview was, in my opinion, mis-leading.

 Rav Lau mentions that when he met with Rav Yaakov Yitzchok Ruderman zt"l, the rosh yeshivah was talking to someone about whether it was permissible to have a Magen Dovid in a shul (as there was a machlokas whether a particular shul should allow this). 

Rav Ruderman said in Kovna, this was a common practice and therefore it was not a problem. When one of the people in the room argued that this was before the founding of the State of Israel, the rosh yeshiva said, "What's bad about the state? It saved many Jews from  death. It saved many Jews from death. It opened the gates of Aliyah to people with nowhere to go. Please leave the paroches as it is. The Magen Dovid is not  treif. The man is correct. There is nothing wrong with it, and you can tell that to the people in the shul in my name."

It would appear that even if the rosh yeshiva had this opinion at that point in history, we can't say with certainty that he would utter such a statement after the current terrible matzav in Eretz Yisroel, with a government under Yair Lapid that has caused such terrible damage to Torah in so many ways. To publicize something that the rosh yeshiva said so many years ago, when the matzav is so different now, could lead to a lack of clarity to our olam and/or a lack of respect for the gadlus of the rosh yeshiva.
An Alumnus of Yeshivas Ner Yisroel

DIN: 
What a chutzpah from a conceited smarkatch! ... 

Rav Ruderman clearly said :

"What's bad about the state? It saved many Jews from  death. It saved many Jews from death. It opened the gates of Aliyah to people with nowhere to go. Please leave the paroches as it is. The Magen Dovid is not  treif. The man is correct. There is nothing wrong with it, and you can tell that to the people in the shul in my name."

What changed about that statement?

He writes: 
"Yair Lapid that has caused such terrible damage to Torah in so many ways."

First of all: Yair Lapid is no longer in the government....

Second of all: What did he do that's knegged Ha'Toirah?

He wants Yesivah boys to go to the army? 
Didn't Rav Shach and Rav Ovadia Yosef say many times, that any boy whose "Torah isn't Umnusoih" should not a get a Petur from the army?
see the attached letter from Rav Shach

He cut money from Yeshivos and Kollolim?

I never ever saw so much as a "thank you" to the State of Israel that wrote checks for over 60 years to the Yeshivos and kollilim...
I would think that if they had shown a bit of appreciation, things would have turned out differently!

About the Magen Dovid...
The Satmar Shul in Satmar where Reb Yoel davened had a Magen Dovid...
see the photo from DER YID!

Notice the Magen David above the Aron Kodesh

Ezriel Tauber the Fanatical Anti-Zionist "lady" Speaker will be boycotted in England

"rabbi" Ezriel Tauber, who is an alleged molester of women, decided like a fox guarding the chicken coup, to speak to "Ex Sem Girls" in London. 

Ezriel is also a rabid hater of the State of Israel and can't stop spewing his fanatical hate against the country that hosts millions of Jews, at his seminars. 

He is also the author of many books, written allegedly to broaden his Shalheves ("Keep the Flame Burning") Organization and  trap innocent women in his snare of molestation and to brainwash them to hate their fellow brothers and sisters in Israel.

This poster touts a "unique experience" at this seminar. 
My advice to the "Ex Sem Girls" get your "unique experience" somewhere else.

Lady "speaker" Tauber

Satmar buys property on William St near New Square, defying New Square's requested "1 Mile Ban"

The Bais Din Zedek D'Shikun Square, previously requested Jews to "not purchase any lots within a mile of New Square" to keep the community isolated so that the community stays "completely impervious to outside influences."

Map if New Square got its way

Well, Satmar saw things differently and bought property on William Street, in order to build a new Bais Medrish and to basically start a new community adjacent to New Square.
 The problem is that William Street is about 1/4 of a mile south of New Square, within the 1 mile radius! 

New Square re-published it's request in this week's Community Connections, again requesting Jews not to buy houses within 1 mile of New Square, writing that they are posting it again "for the community's benefit"?

The reason they don't want Jews (goyim are ok) to live nearby , is because as the New Square Bais Din put it , they want  Jews to uphold the "holy tzaddik's (previous Skverer Rebbe) desire for his kehilla to retain its unique identity in complete isolation." 

 If the surrounding Jewish communities were to spread even further towards New Square , to the point of reaching the parameters of New Square, the "blurring of our borders would defeat the founding-purpose of the shtetl."

They are afraid that if Satmar is a neighbor, the New Square residents  might find the Satmar lifestyle more appealing and might G-D forbid leave New Square to join the more "liberal" Satmars!

What Har Sinai looked like according to New Square

So far, it looks like that Satmar will ignore the request, and as of this writing the  30 shuls that are within that 1 mile radius, are not planning to pick up and leave, and sell their shuls for churches.
Just a sampling of the shuls:
Cong Knesses Yisroel, Cong Kehilat New Hempstead, Rabbi Senter's Shul, Rabbi Teichman's Shul, Cong Ohaiv Shalom, Rabbi Spiegal's shul, Rabbi Neuberger's shul etc

We don't know whether the Satmar guys that bought the property are Aroinim or Zaloinim, my guess is that they are Zaloinim, Because Reb Aaron, the Satmar Monroe Rebbe, the leader of the Aroinim faction, is a brother-in-law to the Skverer Rebbe.

Thomas Friedman, the Jewish Anti-Semite, at it again!

The self-hating Jew Friedman with Jew Hater Stalin

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who has repeatedly claimed that Israel controls Washington, is warning that if Israel's prime minister addresses Congress next month, "anti-Semites will claim Israel controls Washington."

by Binyamin Korn

Does Friedman really believe that? Or is he cynically using Jewish fears of anti-Semitism to stir opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?

In an emotion-laden February 4 column, Friedman mustered every argument in his arsenal against the invitation to Prime Minister Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress. It would be "churlish," "reckless," and even "dangerous," Friedman thundered. He revealed that he has "polled many of [his] non-Jewish friends…and they don't really like this."

The notion that non-Jews dislike the invitation is one of the major arguments of Friedman's column. He cites it again and again, most notably when he declares that if Israel's prime minister goes ahead with the address, "anti-Semites, who claim Israel controls Washington, will have a field day."

Yet it is Friedman himself who has repeatedly given them that field.

Recall, for example, his New York Times column of February 5, 2004, in which he wrote that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has "had George Bush under house arrest in the Oval Office…surrounded by Jewish and Christian pro-Israel lobbyists, by a vice president, Dick Cheney, who's ready to do whatever Mr. Sharon dictates…"

To make sure that nobody missed the implications of a Zionist conspiracy, Friedman added that Sharon, Jewish lobbyists, Cheney, and unnamed "political handlers" were "all conspiring to make sure the president does nothing [regarding Israel].”

Friedman raised the Jews-control-Washington canard again in his December 13, 2011 column in the Times. Furious that Prime Minister Netanyahu received 29 standing ovations--from Democrats and Republicans alike--when he addressed Congress that year, Friedman wrote: "I sure hope that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, understands that the standing ovation he got in Congress this year was not for his politics. That ovation was bought and paid for by the Israel lobby."

In his November 19, 2013 column in the Times, Friedman did it again. "[N]ever have I seen more lawmakers — Democrats and Republicans — more willing to take Israel’s side against their own president’s," Friedman declared. "I’m certain this comes less from any careful consideration of the facts and more from a growing tendency by many American lawmakers to do whatever the Israel lobby asks them to do in order to garner Jewish votes and campaign donations."

So, let's see: Friedman has America's president "surrounded" by Zionist conspirators; Congress is "bought and paid for" by Jewish lobbyists; and "many" Members of Congress will "do whatever the Israel lobby asks them."

Now Friedman warns that if Prime Minister Netanyahu addresses Congress again, that will cause anti-Semites to say that Israel controls Washington!

There are two possible explanations for this remarkable contradiction. The first is that Friedman has simply forgotten what he has written in the past on the subject. That's implausible. Which leaves only the second explanation--Friedman knows full well what he has written in the past, but he assumes most readers won't remember, so he can get away with contradicting himself.

But what is at stake is much more than the contradiction between Friedman's past columns and this one. What he is doing is consciously, and very cynically, playing the Fear of Anti-Semitism card. He assumes many American Jews are so terrified of what anti-Semites might say, that he can use that fear to intimidate them into opposing the Netanyahu invitation.

Friedman's assumption is an insult to American Jewry. Perhaps an earlier generation of immigrants or children of immigrants would have been so nervous about their status in America that they would have let such fears cloud their political judgment. But this is 2015. Today's American Jewish community consists largely of those who marched proudly for Soviet Jewry, who are not ashamed to support Israel, and who are not embarrassed by their Jewish identity. Fear of what some anti-Semite somewhere will say is not going to determine what position they take on the issues of the day.

So who is doing more to foment anti-Semitism? Prime Minister Netanyahu and House Speaker John Boehner? Or New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman?

(The authors are president and chairman, respectively, of the Religious Zionists of America, Philadelphia, and candidates on the Religious Zionist slate in the World Zionist Congress elections.)
 

Watch MSNBC'S Brian Williams tell his false ‘war story’ on ‘Letterman’

Brian Williams repeated in full detail his false tale of being shot down in a helicopter during the Iraq war on David Letterman’s show in 2013.

 During an interview with Letterman on what he said was the 10-year anniversary of the alleged attack, Williams recounted: “I am mostly New York-based, I do go cover these two wars we've been fighting, and when I do, I like to go out on patrol, I like to get out in it. 
A guy like Richard Engel [NBC’s chief foreign correspondent], the amount of fire we took that day, he calls Tuesday.” 

Describing the incident, Williams continued, “We were in some helicopters. What we didn’t know was we were north of the invasion. We were the northernmost Americans in Iraq. We were going to drop some bridge portions across the Euphrates so the 3rd Infantry could cross on them. Two of our four helicopters were hit by ground fire, including the one I was in. RPG and AK-47.” 

When Letterman asked what happened when they realized they’d been hit, “We figured out how to land safely, we landed very quickly and hard and we put down and we were stuck — four birds in the middle of the desert — and we were north out ahead of the other Americans.” 

Williams continued, “We got hit, we set down, everyone was OK, our captain took a Purple Heart injury to his ear in the cockpit, but we were alone, they started distributing weapons, we heard a noise and it was Bradley fighting vehicles and Abrams tanks coming, they happened to spot us. 

“This was the invasion, the US invasion. They [US troops] saw us, they surrounded us for three days during the sandstorm that was so big it suspended the war effort, it was called Orange Crush, and they got us out of there alive.”

 Letterman added, “I have to treat you with renewed respect, that is an incredible story … you are a true journalist and a war hero.” 

Williams starts telling his story at around 3 minutes in the video, dug up last night by Mashable’s Brian Ries. 

On Wednesday night, “NBC Nightly News” anchor Williams apologized on air for his “bungled” story about being shot down in Iraq. 

Williams told viewers, “I made a mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago … I want to apologize. I said I was traveling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in a following aircraft.” 

He was forced to own up after military members who were with him on that helicopter and in the aircraft that was actually hit called him out on Facebook and to US military news outlet Stars and Stripes after Williams repeated the story on Friday night’s “NBC Nightly News.” 

Lance Reynolds commented on the “Nightly News” Facebook page, “Sorry dude, I don’t remember you being on my aircraft. I do remember you walking up about an hour after we had landed to ask me what had happened. Then I remember you guys taking back off in a different flight of Chinooks from another unit and heading to Kuwait to report your ‘war story’ to the Nightly News. The whole time we were still stuck in Iraq trying to repair the aircraft and pulling our own Security.”