Day 762
- In a cabinet discussion regarding the 200 Hamas terrorists trapped in the tunnel in Rafah, PM Netanyahu agreed to consider a proposal from the defense minister to exile the 200 Hamas terrorists trapped in the yellow zone. The IDF chief of staff responded, "I do not agree with the defense minister's position, death or surrender. Surrender means lying face down with hands tied in underwear and being arrested and interrogated."
- Amit Segal: If Israel enters a direct war with Hezbollah now, its objective would shift dramatically unlike the previous Lebanon war, which aimed to weaken Hezbollah and restore security for northern residents, the new goal would be to destroy Hezbollah entirely, marking a far more ambitious and far-reaching military campaign.
- US CENTCOM Commander Admiral Brad Cooper will speak tomorrow at the funeral of IDF Captain Omer Neutra, according to an American source. Cooper is the highest-ranking American official to speak so far at the funeral of an Israeli hostage killed by Hamas.
- President Trump has invited all 20 hostages recently released from Hamas captivity for a visit to the White House. The visit is expected to take place in two weeks
- The IDF has begun a wave of strikes against military targets of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in southern Lebanon
- The US is interested in an American military presence at an airbase in Damascus to monitor the emerging security agreement between Israel and Syria.
- The body that was returned to Israel last night was of Joshua Louito Mollel, a foreign worker from Tanzania who was kidnapped on 10/7
- Anti-Israel activists stormed a meeting between students and Israeli soldiers near Toronto Metropolitan University, injuring several Israeli soldiers.
- Defense Minister Israel Katz said Thursday he was “declaring war” on weapon smuggling via drones over the Egyptian border, instructing the military to declare a closed military zone in the area and the Shin Bet to define such attempts as terrorism.
החרדים והארץ by Refael Rafaelov.
ReplyDeleteThe main points he makes are as follows:
1. The “Old Yishuv” was proactively involved in attempting to found new agricultural settlements decades before the “First Aliyah”. The reasons those attempts failed until the 1870’s were due to factors outside of their control, which began to change in the last third of the 19th century. This fact was formally acknowledged in writing by no less than David BG himself…
2. The history of the Chovevei Zion movement, and the central role of Chareidim in its founding, is discussed and documented. How the Maskilim and later the Zionists hijacked the movement for their purposes is also discussed.
3. The settlements of Petach Tikvah, Rosh Pina, and Mikveh Yisrael were founded by Chareidim from the “Old Yishuv”, in the decade and a half before the “First Aliyah”. They became secular later on. How and why that happened is discussed at length. (See item nine.)
4. Six out of seven of the first settlements built by the “First Aliyah” were at first religious (except for “Gedera”).
5. The official Israeli version of history makes a big deal about the secular socialist ביל״ו movement, and how they supposedly led the “first Aliyah” despite the fact that only 20 of their people ever actually made it to the Land, and the only Yishuv they founded by themselves was the aforementioned “Gedera”.
6. That is directly due to the Mapai – Labor dictatorship (who controlled Israel as a de facto one party state for the first 30 years) rewriting history in their own image.
7. The “Second Aliyah” brought the first major influx of virulently secularist settlers, but most of the physical labor (the much vaunted “Avodah Ivrit”) was done by religious Sephardi and Yemenite immigrants who also began arriving in the Land at the same time (for very different reasons…) The Maskilim preferred writing poetry about drying the swamps to actually doing it themselves…
8. The secular settlements were dependent on financial support from Jews abroad, no less than the “Old Yishuv” was. (The Kibbutz Movement was never a financial success story, even after the State, but the post-48 era is not the subject of the book.)
9. Enormous efforts were made by the secular Zionists of the Second Aliyah to lead the children of the earlier religious settlers away from Yiddishkeit, mainly by infiltrating existing settlements and taking over the educational system. These efforts were unfortunately “successful”.
10. The battle for and against Shmittah observance is discussed, as well as the relationship of the Baron Edmund Rothschild to Yiddishkeit and his distaste for the nihilistic/bohemian ideology and practices of the Socialists.
All of these things shaped the relationship between the Chareidim and the secular State down to today, although that is not the primary focus of the book. The main subject and focus is the Chareidi contribution to the early stages of building the Land, and the secular Zionists rewriting of history to minimize that contribution. The overwhelming majority of the sources quoted are from people who were/are far from being Chareidim themselves, including contemporary journalists of the era being discussed as well as secular or RZ academics. This is NOT a hagiography either in style or sourcing of content. (Agav, some of his points contradict hagiographic misconceptions of the Old Yishuv from within the Chareidi world…) Check it out yourselves.
Well done. Still begs the old question:How is it that so many religious/charedim in so many lands were so poor in passing their yahadus/inner values over to their children & grandchildren? How sure are we that we since have improved?
Delete@Y Cohen, who ever said we improved? The rate of OTD kids is enough to tell us that we have not improved. At least back then, people went off the derech to other ideologies. Now there isn't much thinking involved in the decisions, nebach.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I don't know what chareidim going off the derech has to do with the 10:29 post.