Way, way too long for email. Use your browser. Possibly my longest post ever.
Iran won. Everyone knows this. I don’t think Trump attacking Iran was a good move (although killing Khameini is awesome) but once you start you need to finish.
Iran is reportedly ending up 300 BILLION richer as a result of this deal, walks away energized - and worse, it knows its regime of terror works. Anytime it is threatened it has a playbook that works. Trump essentially surrendered.
Thanks Obama Trump.
The same thing is true for the Eitz terrorists in Israel. Like Hamas, they risk their kids lives:
They are clearly religious extremists (like Iran) who believe in rules for thee but not for me:
Worse, they are feeling empowered:
From Hefkervelt:
Hapeles newspaper editorial argues that the recent anti-draft protests demonstrated the strength of the Chareidi community's opposition to drafting yeshiva students. It calls for even broader participation from all segments of the Chareidi ציבור, claiming that a united mass movement could halt any effort to impose military service on bnei yeshiva, while criticizing reliance on political and parliamentary solutions alone.
From a secret chat from the leader of the anti-Peleg organization “הועד למען כבוד רבותינו נגד הפלג”:
In short: Peleg works, facts is facts.
He’s not the only one who believes it:
Rabbi Yosef Schwinger (who was the one officially blamed for the Meron disaster, although it is clear he was just a fall guy) in an interview on Kol Berama:
Rabbi Schwinger was asked about the growing feeling in the Haredi street that political representatives are failing time after time, and that only the activists of the “Jerusalem Faction,” who protest and block roads, are creating effective deterrence against the police and military authorities. Rabbi Schwinger surprised listeners by refusing to disavow the extreme stream and revealed a dramatic quote from a senior officer in the security establishment:
“If, at the end of the day, the military and political echelons think twice, three times, or four times before they go to forcibly draft yeshiva students who are studying Torah, it will be in large part thanks to those protesters who go out to the streets and clarify to the system that they have no business with this public. I tell you from knowledge and not from assessment: A senior police officer told me explicitly in the past: ‘If we don’t end up drafting you, it will only be because of these madmen.’ I call them ‘positive madmen.’ You cannot dismiss them with a wave of the hand. The legal and military system started this anarchy, and it is the one now learning the lesson the hard way.”
There’s no question that Peleg’s protests are effective. (As is there chinuch as seen above).
There’s a twofold danger here. First, believing the protests’ effectivity justifies the disgusting behavior displayed therein is a clear issur of כוחי ועוצם ידי. Peleg is effectively saying “we, with our protests, caused the bochrim to stop being drafted.” As we should know, cha”v, cha”v, for any Torah Jew to believe our actions have any effect (as Eytan Kobre writes in the name of the Rambam in the latest issue of Dialogue magazine.)1 I was also informed in that issue by R Ahron Feldman that one of the causes of October 7th was the widespread belief of כוחי ועוצם ידי. Thus, empowering Eitz just raises the risk of more terror attacks.
Far worse than that though is that this attitude is spreading to America and affecting our kids. R Malkiel is a known Eitznik who strongly believes that anyone going to the army is shmad. At Adirei Kesef Torah attended by hundreds of children (from all walks of Lakewood schools) he decided that the big highlight of the night should call attention to the draft law.
He also did the same by BMG’s Purim event (also attended by tons of kids).
It’s a good thing most of the new generation don’t speak yiddish or understand a word he’s saying. I don’t think Bochrim should be getting arrested, but the sole effect of such words is propaganda and extremism. R Malkiel and people in America hold zero power in Israel except in pedagogy. (Maybe its to encourage saying Tehilim, but as above Eitz doesn’t believe in Tehilim or they wouldn’t throw protests). I suspect the reason for this is virtue signaling plus the desire to cosplay as gedolim in the previous generation fighting shmad. (Fun fact: Older shmads didn’t have public protests, because they would all get killed if such a thing were attempted.)
Worse, Keren Olam Hatorah decided to bring a Rosh Yeshiva along as a major headliner whose claim to fame is comparing IDF soldiers to garbagemen (a claim he was widely denounced for)
“There’s no need to express gratitude to soldiers fighting in Gaza any more than to street cleaners.”
“The soldiers who draft are nebuchs. I don’t think anyone drafts willingly… if there was no obligatory draft, nobody would join, other than perhaps a few crazy mizrochniks…. They do it because they have to do it…. Why is there any need to have appreciation any more than with a plumber? …If a doctor heals you for free, then you should certainly thank him. But if he charges money? Then very nice, that’s his job! And if he’s forced to heal you, you don’t thank him.”
This RY is the headliner by many Keren Olam Hatorah events. I wish him a refuah sheleima bekarov. Many people are impressed how he goes out in public with no hair and many cancer patients have shared that he inspires them - that fact should be a meilitz yosher for him and he should have a full recovery.
This Rosh Yeshiva decided to share - in BMG at a asifa of the horrors chareidim are facing in Israel - this shocking story of a doctor refusing to treat him because he is Chareidi!
From JFEED:
Thousands of Torah students gathered in Lakewood, New Jersey, Saturday night for what was billed as a routine inspirational address by visiting Israeli rosh yeshiva Rabbi Bunim Schreiber. What they heard instead was a jarring account of medical discrimination that exposed a disturbing undercurrent of hatred toward the haredi community within Israel’s healthcare system.
Rabbi Schreiber, who heads a prominent yeshiva in Israel and is currently battling a serious illness requiring complex medical treatments2, shared a deeply personal incident that occurred during one of his recent hospital visits in Israel. The revelation came during a multi-city speaking tour by leading Israeli rabbis aimed at strengthening Torah communities across the United States.
According to the rosh yeshiva’s account, a physician assigned to administer treatment immediately noticed his distinctive rabbinic appearance upon entering the examination room. After being informed that the patient was a prominent haredi rabbi, the doctor offered a flimsy excuse, promised to return momentarily, and then simply sent a different medical professional to take his place.
“The message was unmistakable,” Rabbi Schreiber stated before the packed Lakewood audience. “This doctor refused to provide medical care to me solely because I am a haredi rabbi.”
The incident, which Rabbi Schreiber characterized as reminiscent of “the darkest periods in history,” drew immediate comparisons to medical discrimination practiced in Communist Russia and during the Spanish Inquisition. “It’s difficult to believe such things are happening in the State of Israel in the year 2026,” he declared.
True to his reputation, Rabbi Schreiber declined to identify either the physician or the medical facility where the incident occurred, despite the gravity of the professional misconduct. The decision left observers unable to seek official comment from hospital administrators regarding what would constitute a clear violation of medical ethics and Israeli anti-discrimination law.
The comments on Israeli (Chareidi!) news sites on this story are brutal.
One guy said (paraphrasing) “Maybe the doctor just wanted to be thanked.” Another asked if he always blames a doctor shift change on Chareidi hate. And a final one: “Could be the doctor doesn’t hate Chareidim. Just him.”
Either way, this guy was widely condemned as fringe just two years ago and is now on a major Kanye-style reputation-fixing tour collecting for Torah as a Gadol Hador. His breadth of knowledge is incredible (he has written 42 seforim) but BMG doesn’t allow Dati Leumi rabbanim who have also written 42 seforim to give shiur. Some caricatures shouldn’t be mainstreamed.
The fact is Peleg and Peleg light is becoming the norm in Chareidi communities in America. When once the sight of an IDF soldier was once viewed as someone deserving hakaras hatov he is now assumed to be a goyish sheygetz who deserves no respect.
I feel old, but when I was growing up we all knew that we didn’t believe in Zionism while also respecting soldiers who are willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice for klal yisroel. We viewed soldiers who died in the war heroes who died al kiddush Hashem while still not respecting the ideal of a secular state. Those weren’t contradictions. R Chaim Shmulevitz prayed by soldiers’ graves (probably a bigger segula than getting a bracha from an Eitz-adjacent gadol). I personally davened by Roi Klein’s (a soldier who jumped on a grenade to save his fellow soldies) grave in Israel. His religious level didn’t matter. This was all my Chareidi chinuch and one that understood that while we may not be Zionists we still respect those who fight for Yidden. (Can you imagine R Shach calling soldiers ‘garbage men’)?
Now to be clear: A lot of the renewed support for Eitz comes because Israel has arrested bochrim who dodged the draft. I personally think that is a grave mistake and probably ruined all possible progress among enlisting. I don’t think mass arrests work. I’m not a fan of having a permanent mandatory draft. I think religious reasons not to draft can be valid. (Still, one wonders why learning doesn’t protect from the draft if it protects us from attacks!)
That said, just like Israel persecuting Palestinians doesn’t justify Palestinian terrorism, Israel persecuting some bochurim doesn’t justify Eitz terrorism. Because that is what it is. Terror. It is threatening an innocent population with inconvenience and worse because you don’t have your way. You want to protest the government? Fine. You want to block traffic? Do it with coordination with the police and advance notice to the public. But what Peleg is doing is terrorism. They don’t kill people (yet, although they have come close). Terror is wrong no matter what is done to you.
Let’s not forget what Peleg has done:
Called arrested Yeshiva bochrim ‘hostages’ while there were still hostages in Gaza:
Refused to allow an ambulance to pass during an emergency:
Desecrated fallen soldier’s photos (more good chinuch):
Called an innocent frum woman ‘shiksa’ because she dared want to go home:
Sent children to protests that lead to their death:
Believe the state of Israel should be destroyed:
And of course, rioted outside a Supreme Court Justice’s house, where they created Israeli flags with Swastikas for a Holocaust survivor. (Some will say this was just the extremists. But the latest round of huge Peleg protests were for the freedom of these Haredi Hamasniks).
After all that, I have to include this video as comic relief.
These are not isolated incidents. This is rot that goes down to the core beliefs they have of narcissism and extremism, of thinking that they don’t have to act like human beings because they get to read a book all day.
So, again, IT DOES NOT MATTER whether their protests work. We shouldn’t be supporting these terrorists because the Torah is against Terror. The Torah wants us to be menschen. The fact that the army is ‘persecuting’ Chareidim doesn’t give us the right to act like animals in human form no matter how well that works.3 We should not be mainstreaming Peleg and Peleg-adjacent beliefs, and shame on Gedolim like R Malkiel Kotler and R Ahron Feldman for promoting such beliefs (and sometimes the people themselves). Shame on Keren Olam Hatorah for promoting Roshei Yeshiva who think IDF soldiers don’t deserve a thank you.4 It is a million times better for a Chareidi to go to the army than for a Chareidi to support Peleg terrorism.
And to the Israelis (if R Malkiel can talk to 9 year olds about the giyus I can talk to the Israeli government on my blog): You cannot give in to terrorism. But you also shouldn’t encourage behaviors that cause it. Stop arresting regular bochurim. Stop making innocent teenagers live in fear of being arrested. Figure something else out.
But make a clear rule: If you protest like Peleg you get arrested. You get shafted then you get drafted. No ifs ands or buts. No exceptions. No giving in to terrorism.
Rav Avigdor Miller zt”l was a big supporter of Police Brutality. He felt that Kent State rioters deserved to be shot and killed. I don’t have Daas Torah like he does so I won’t go that far (although I certainly understand everyday Israelis that would). But certainly send in the riot gear immediately and then severe jail sentences. Do not let anarchy rage.
And finally, if all else fails, just have the police do this 24/7 outside Peleg institutions, what a group of chilonim did to a Peleg bus:
It’s the least they deserve.
Related posts:
Yes, seriously, the Rambam. Perhaps the only rishon who is super clear he DOESN’T believe that.
I cannot figure out if this is a euphemism for cancer or whether he has something else he doesn’t want to publicly share. I suspect it is, but oddly enough not a single news site came up when I googled his name with סרטן. Odd. Maybe an Israeli can enlighten me.
Also, they don’t actually give a damn about Torah, because when Avreichim who registered by the lishka were arrested, they refused to protest to get them out because they were part of the different group.
I would tell you not to support them, but you don’t have 20 million dollars so they aren’t going to ask you anyways.
It’s the same calculation that Hamas made in the early 2000s, which is why they have so much support from the general Arab public. The PA politicians are worthless to them so they might as well kill murder rape and kidnap.
They are our version of Hamas, yelling and screaming Jewish themes while behaving like animals.
During the great revolt in 70 CE the Beis Hamikdash wasn’t destroyed because of the wealthy elite, or because of the secular leftists (Tzedukim), but rather because of the religious extremists, who allowed no dialogue but forced suicidal death on the whole population.
We’ve come full circle in 2000 years.
"The fact is Peleg and Peleg light is becoming the norm in Chareidi communities in America. When once the sight of an IDF soldier was once viewed as someone deserving hakaras hatov he is now assumed to be a goyish sheygetz who deserves no respect."
- I don't believe it's becoming the norm in America. I am worried that the young bachurim are getting brainwashed about it in yeshiva, but Americans will always be disgusted by such displays of violence, and most of us know people serving in the IDF.
My brothers cope with the contradiction by trying to convince themselves that Eitz isn't actually doing these things. And wonder of wonders, my father supports the draft. But I'm sure that's a pretty unique stance for a yeshivish kollel guy.