"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Thursday, December 16, 2010

PETER SCHWEIZER GETS MISLEADING INFO ON RABBINICAL OPPOSITION TO SELLING LAND TO ARABS

One of the contributors to the Breitbart network, Peter Schweizer, has voiced his disagreement to the news of a number of rabbis who signed a declaration that Jews shouldn't sell property to Arabs in Israel. Here's the problem: the two articles he got about this, are from YnetNews, which so happens to be a left-wing source. And it's really no surprise that they might take this all out of context.

As it so happens, the actual problem here is selling property to Arabs. Renting is another matter. And as told in this INN article (via Cosmic X):
The Rabbis’ Letter forbidding Jews from selling homes in Israel to Arabs has become the latest controversy in Israel. It was placed on hold for a few days while the Carmel fire raged wildly around it, but is now comfortably back on the media’s “hot seat” – and the rabbis are indeed feeling the heat.

Some 300 rabbis have expressed support for the ruling, while several mainstream rabbis have come out prominently against it. What is a bystander to think?

Here’s one opinion: The question is not so much one of technical Jewish Law, but rather this: May Jews help Israel remain Jewish, or not?

It appears that the rabbis who signed on the ruling take very seriously accusations leveled at them in the past of “standing idly by,” “not being proactive,” and “ignoring dangers.” In fulfillment of the Mishnaic teaching, “Where there is no man, try to be a man,” they took bold and seemingly unpopular action to try to stem a tide that threatens to engulf all of us – reporters, modern rabbis, Jews in the Diaspora, and certainly the Jews of Tzfat, Lod, Ramle, the Galilee, Haifa, Arad, Tel Aviv, and all of Israel.

In a word, Israel faces a gerrymandering demographic threat, if you will. Instead of the slowly growing Arab minority to which we have essentially grown accustomed and which basically remains within specific areas, Arabs have now begun moving into specific Jewish areas, rendering many of the areas no longer Jewish.
I suppose there is one flaw in all this issue as to how the rabbis went about this: although the concern about selling to Arabs is fairly legit, maybe the mistake they made was not arguing against selling to Muslims? That's right, are they sure they can't raise an argument like that?

In any case, I'm afraid Schweizer has been misled, and I'd appreciate it if he could kindly correct the info and look for a better news source than Ynet on this issue. I'm not saying INN is any better - indeed, sometimes they're not - but he could do a lot of good by maintaining an awareness that even Israeli media can be ultra-leftist and propagandistic.

No comments: