Opinion
Haredim have been stealing for years
Arik Henig
Published: 24.04.13, 11:04
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1. Power games
zznhl   (04.24.13)
I hope the haredim realize that the sudden release of antagonism and distaste directed at them now that they have less of a bargaining point is a direct result of their greed and thirst for control through the last several hung parliaments. They would do well to pay attention - They seem to be the modern equivalent of the corrupt Pharisee and Sadducee priests of the Holy Temple just before its destruction.
2. What took you so long! Never, in King David's time were such
Moshe ,   Usa   (04.24.13)
economic preferential treatment given to any class of Jews. All Jews were treated equally under the law. To have allowed Hareidi preferentialism to have been instituted & maintained is a disgrace to all Jews in Israel & all Jews everywhere in the world. You must make Hareidi have the exact same treatment as other Jewish Israeli citizens, and that includes military participation & taxation. NOW !
3. CHAPEAU LAPID*****Minister
Turgay Deniz ,   Karkur, Israel   (04.24.13)
Yair, you are a relief for the majority of the Israeli citizens! Be certain of young and old s backing in Israel. i sincerely hope that you w ont break and wish you all the strength, courage and clever prudence your mission needs...
4. Shabbat. There is:
(04.24.13)
The holy shabbat to the Lord, a shabbat to the Lord the shabbat the shabbat of rest the shabbat of rest to the Lord the shabbat day a shabbat of rest unto you your shabbat holy shabbat every shabbat a shabbat for the Lord Who says shabbat has to be the same day for everyone?Shabbat is recognized and due considerations are given. A forty hour week has been determined in a locale usually consisting of at least a day off, generally two to allow time for family and living. To get the family and living right, it's coming back to you. Requirements for military
5. hatred
sammy ,   bet shemesh   (04.24.13)
the non religous world is jelous of the charedim. if they have a problem hey should sit and learn in collel to. no one is stopping you frdom doing it.the torah was given at har sina for all jews religous and non. god did not discriminate who he why is the world so against gods children are they better than god ?gave the torah to all jews are one
6. Lapid for PM - No to religious coercion
Haim ,   TA   (04.24.13)
Time for the belivers in the imaginary friend in the sky to pay for their own life style and stop sponging off the Israeli tax payers.Keep out of our lives and we will keep out of yours.
7. What other choice do we have?
Ariel ben Yochanan ,   Kfar Tapuah, Efraim   (04.24.13)
B"H - We have free choice. We either live here, on G-d's Holy Land, as goyim, non Jews who reject Him, or we can live like we should be living, like Jews and enjoy all the promised benefits, like peace and prosperity. It is the lapids that bring disaster on the nation.
8. You just changed my mind the other way..
JM ,   Bet Shemesh   (04.24.13)
While I surely see the need for cuts to funding that i find unair to the haredi world at our expense, when you start name calling and accusing them of being thieves simply because Haredi MKs do a far better job representing their voters than anyone else, you make me want to run to support them as your words make it clear you see them as our enemy - you don;t want to to work with them and make a better country, you want to spite them. Disgusting headline.
9. Haredim
Yitz Heching ,   jerusalem Israel   (04.24.13)
So we are all parasites- or a group of extra-terrestials who have come to rob poor Israelis. The haredim I know - including myself - are law abiding many professionals tax payers- whose biggest crime may be not listening to the hate and slander of a largely biased secular media. What does the term a jewish homeland mean - a place for secular jews only or those with small inocuous kippot- BBQ on yom ha'atzmaut & TV which is vacuous and offensive?
10. Charadim have been stealing for years
Renee Ackerman ,   Johannesburg South A   (04.24.13)
We cannot tar all religious people with the same brush, Torah study is very important if it werent for Torah there would be no Israel as it is in the Torah that Israel is mentioned I think Israel should come to some kind of compromise as far as the Yshivahs are concerned. As far as not operating buses in Shabbos is concerned I think that is the way it should be cause if we dont obey Hashems laws in Israel then we are in trouble
11. 100% agree
Mira ,   Vienna   (04.24.13)
This guy brings a completely fresh and purifying wind into politics and he is not afraid at all of telling the truth and certainly the majority of all Israelis are backing him. To have a religion is certainly ok, but to ahve the religious draw the strings is not! If one looks around in history (passed and recent) you can see everywhere what disaster it causes. We in Europe watch that developement in Israel with great joy!
12. Living only in the physical world...
aharon ,   Jerusalem, Israel   (04.24.13)
..is pure folly. What part of JEWISH state is so difficult to understand. Israel exists only at the behest of Hashem and he has given us 613 deed restrictions to live by to keep it. For the most part, only the Orthodox follow them. They keep Israel Jewish. Torah tells us that without keeping these laws that the Jewish people will be cast out from Israel as they have and so many others have before. This is proven by history and the famous historian, George Santayan reminds us that "Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it." Support those whose prayers and study allow us to keep this land. Do not punish them.
13. The truth is the Jews dont really like themselves..
Al   (04.24.13)
I am sorry for stating the obvious. As for the orthoquack, they take the cake. I grew up with them and today I view them with great distaste and scorn. The secular and traditional are quite simply fed up with them as the orthoquack get fat lazy and stupid while not even wanting to defend themselves against the enemy. You cant re-invent stupid, only the orthoquack are trying. No wonder they are pathetically fatalistic in their myopic view of life. I cant think of anything more non Jewish than not wanting to defend oneself and ones family, especially after the holocaust, where most of the murdered were very frum Jews. Its too bad..Israel will be lost because these supposed learned Jews refuse to help defend the country. Should Israel be lost, rest assured these mindless zombies will always state.....It was God's will. The orthoquack are lost zombies. There is nothing to be learned from them.. simply nothing. They do more to discourage people from our religion, than one can imagine.
14. It is never good for the Jewish people when we fight and
allan ,   canada   (04.24.13)
blame each other for our problems. Divisiveness is destructive. Work together .
15. Excuse You. Is you and people like Lapid
Yosef ,   Boca Raton   (04.24.13)
self hating Jews who keep stealing. Stealing the Kedusha of Eretz Ha Kodesh. Its Lapid who has among other politicians leach the blood of the Israeli people by seating in the Knesset and bring all this none sense.
16. Haredim are leaches...godless heathens!!!
Taz Man ,   USA   (04.24.13)
They use their distorted form of religion to justify their own corruption! These clowns' are no nearer to God than the Muslims are! God wants a circumcised heart toward His Word and its truth!
17. "Shackled"
Yehudit Hannah Cohn ,   Jerusalem, Israel   (04.24.13)
Harassed, perhaps, and unfairly, certainly, but not shackled. I believe that Minister Lapid is confusing "Western" with "do what you want". The fact that we are democratic (while not legally a democracy) does not change the other fact that we deliberately created a country based in a religious context. And, just to be exact, the United States is famous for calling itself a "Christian nation" based on "Christian values". History shows us that that kind of country has never really been good for us.
18. Besides
Ariel ben Yochanan ,   Kfar Tapuah, Efraim   (04.24.13)
B"H - Besides, calling the participation in the democratic process and in the allocation of budgets "stealing" seems to be a rather extremist proposition: If allocating funds within the legal framework to pet projects are considered "stealing", and this term is brushed right up to the headlines, than we might want to call the subsidized kibbutz movement or the various Arab affirmative action programs names? They cost hundreds of time more to the taxpayer and as they are dear to the Left, they are called interventions of “Social Justice“. Well, observant Jews deserve “Social Justice” too, in a so called Jewish State! No?
19. Public transport on shabbat
Eli ,   Raanana   (04.24.13)
As a religious person, I'd like the public transport network work on shabbat, just to be able to demonstrate that I am not using it.
20. About time this was brought out!
Dee Bee ,   Israel   (04.24.13)
We should also look at those in various coalition governments, left, right and center who allowed this to happen! At last the policy of buying the Haredim to ensure the survival of a government or to keep a prime minister in office is OVER! The People of Israel said so in the last election! The Haredim have rights. They have the same rights as the rest of the citizens of Israel. They do not have the right to extort o r tell others how to live their lives! They do not have the right to demand that the country pays for them to sit in the Yeshiva and pray! Actually, the Torah commands that "Six days you shall work"! Praying is for Shabbat!
21. stealing? come on now!
Larry ,   Los Angeles   (04.24.13)
Arik Henig seems to want to perpetuate the new antisemitism that is so chick in the Leftist corner. The fact that charadim took advantage of the law does not mean they stole; what was done was legal. That you, Arik Henig, do not like charadim or what they do, does not constitute theft! Keep your hate agenda to yourself and just present the facts. The legal government legally gave them the monies. If you think they stole something, there are legal methods for complaining. Take them instead of inciting hate.
22. Shoddy journalism
Tilec   (04.24.13)
These figures are meaningless without telling us how much (more) the seculars recieve, this is just rabble rousing, anti semitic hyperbole.
23. Take the shackles from my feet...
Ama ,   London,UK   (04.24.13)
and let women wear trousers to work and not easy dress for men egos. Mr charming!
24. For years they have stolen
Sagi   (04.24.13)
from the state coffers, demanding money at gunpoint, holding the state to ransom, give or else. They should be forced to return that which was taken unjustly. I have witnessed legless and armless beggars in the streets and have always thought at that moment of the haredim who were receiving handouts for their Torah students, young able men doing nothing other than having their nose stuck in a book all day long. Just like many other things in Israel, no proportion.
25. One billion shekels to kollels
BR ,   Jerusalem   (04.24.13)
What a budget buster! One billion shekels out of a state budget of almost 300 billion shekels. That's 3/10ths of 1%. Not much more than Bank Leumi was willing to forgive from Nochi Dankner, who at last sighting, is nowhere near haredi.
26. what is far worse than this
ky   (04.24.13)
is that they have stolen the just cause of Israel and turned it into a victim state. The just cause was fought for in 1948 by secular Jews who lost their lives in the thousands. The victim state is the one that is slowly being isolated by the world (with the exception of born again Christians ) Religion which has gradually crept to the forefront of Israeli political life in relation to the growth o the Haredi population, who never fought for anything, have introduced irrational and irreconcilable features into Israeli political life which will lead to the weakening and eventual destruction of the state. Nation states must at all costs try to keep religion and politics separate.
27. #9
aaron ,   toronto,canada   (04.24.13)
YES,that is part of it.Don't force things on people that they don't want.You will now be able to see beautiful things that can be accomplished by the majority of jews that mabey you will benefit from them also.
28. I shall not attach epithets to them
Sagi   (04.24.13)
and I shall be as pleasant as I can. The entire paradigm in which they exist is a paragon of immorality fuelled by a mind which has been incensed with values non compatible to an extrovert attitude to society and anchored in egoism.
29. # 9 Yitz Heching
A Jerusalemite ,   Jerusalem, Israel   (04.24.13)
You said: "What does the term a jewish homeland mean - a place for secular jews only or those with small inocuous kippot- BBQ on yom ha'atzmaut & TV which is vacuous and offensive? " In my interpretation a Jewish Homeland means a homeland for ALL Jews, both those that want to spend their lives praying and those that celebrate Yom Haatzmaut in their own way. Just so long as you and your ilk continue to pressure and coerce the rest of us to live by your standards, that is how long the secular community will hate you and fight you. Live and let live my friend if you want to be accepted by the rest of us.
30. # 18 - What is welfare?
Anna ,   Montreal, Canada   (04.24.13)
Welfare is a way of helping those who can't feed themselves due to the physical or mental, or age related form of disability. In Israel welfare supports to keep observant Jews observant. It rather creates disability then helps to improve the condition. If you call it "Social Justice" the taxpayers call it "Parasitism". I am sure there are many observant Jews in Israel who work and pay taxes. But there is enough of those who don't accept Israel as a Jewish State but at the same time use its welfare . The "so called" Jewish State is a state for every Jew regardless of his believes and form of observance. Why is it so those who don't contribute to the building of a Jewish democratic state dictate others what mitzvot to observe? What do those who don't accept Israel of today personally observe? What is a Jew and who is a Jew for you it's another question. Religious Jews became very sectarian. And this contradicts Torah. The Jewish soul doesn't sit in a matzo meal Kosher for Passover box.
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