HASIDIC RADIO HOST FIRED FOR CALLING RELIGIOUS ZIONISM "CANCER"

Here's a problem that's thankfully been solved:

Haredi radio station Kol Barama has decided to fire a radio talk show host after he offended leaders of the religious Zionist movement.

In his radio show, focusing on Jewish faith and national issues," anchor Avraham Tamir said that religious Zionism is "'a cancer at the body of the Jewish faith," and that "its rabbis are criminals, trying to bring down Jewish faith."

Tamir's radio program was part of a series of conversations about the "national rift" and the issue of the universal draft. Referring to Rabbi David Stav, who called upon haredim to enlist in the IDF, Tamir said he was "either a heretic or a fool, and most likely both." And to Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, who also encouraged haredim to join the army, Tamir referred as a "brat" and a "fool."

In the days following the media frenzy surrounding Tamir's slander, Amiad Taub of The Jewish Home Party, sent a letter to Kol Barama manager Yaron Kaner. "Tamir's derogatory statements about the religious-Zionist sector go against journalistic ethics," Taub wrote, "and were ironically broadcast during the nine days preceding the Tisha B'Av fast – a day in which the people of Israel mourn the destruction of the Temple due to baseless hatred. My friends and I will not cooperate with a radio station that allows such slander against our rabbis."

Zionism is part of Judaism, and saying it's not is nothing more than contempt for what the now exiled host claims he upholds. This is just one of the leading problems the public has begun to feel the Hasidic community is suffering from, and why until recently, they weren't big on joining the army.

It's time for them to start hiring some opinion writers who can really be altruistic and dedicated to defending the country's safety, and not fools who go around saying childish things about other rabbinical figures they don't agree with.

Update: in related news to this radio station, which is affiliated with the Shas party, rabbi Ovadia Yosef's said women's voices are allowed on their channel, but the station's heads say they won't change their policy. They've still got a long way to go there too.