Before I start, let me get a couple of things out of the way. First, I did not vote for Mr. Trump. Second, I am not in favor of a “Wall”, either actual or metaphoric, for a variety of reasons. Third, I do not fit comfortably in either the “Conservative” or Liberal” political camp in America. Okay, here we go…
Over the weekend a video has been flying about on social media. The original poster says he was in the community room / common area of his apartment or condo complex and it shows two others, a man and a woman berating him continuously for over ten minutes over his “wall” shirt, and ultimately everything about him.
He keeps his cool. He does a poor job (about what most of us would actually do, given the inevitable stifled emotions) verbally defending himself. He repeatedly asks the female to stop touching him, and asks them both repeatedly to leave him alone. To no avail.
If this had happened to me, I might have kept my composure through the first two or three minutes. Ten minutes of this? No way. Sadly, no way. I’m not proud of this, but, ten minutes of this crap?
I also would have gone silent after less than a minute. I would like to think that I’d have the presence of mind to simply call the landlord’s security team and ask for assistance. If that did not scatter them, I probably would have quietly closed up my computer, packed my stuff, and then drug those two people out of the building, saying simply, “Learn when to shut your mouth”.
Lots of discussion has centered on this episode (typically labeled as Liberals accosting a Conservative in California) with the usual “us vs. them” elements, and most notably, the anticipated “An armed society is a polite society”, assertion.
One discussion I was in on addressed the “Armed society” aspect, albeit poorly. It is this idea which I’d like to comment on.
It has been my experience that parts of the country one might describe as “Western” are often as not in the West, geographically. Yet, one aspect common to these areas, and the people who inhabit them, is a far more refined sense of the line between being neighborly, and butting into someone else’s business.
Like it or not, humans both want to live in social settings, and yet have a large degree of autonomy. When that balance is struck, we do well together. When not, excuses for creating or strengthening institutions like the State, start to gain credibility. To everyone’s detriment.
The episode in the video above comes about when there is an imbalance between the freedom to act and having to experience the consequences of that act. If those two expressed their displeasure at the shirt (even vigorously) and then went on with their lives, it would amount to nothing.
The problem is that they felt free to harangue him without limit. And they were correct in that risk analysis. The risk of experiencing harsh consequences for their verbal assault, then and there, were nill. The law, if present, would quite possibly go after him. At least they would draw moral equivalence between the bullies and their target.
The presence of guns is not the cause of a “polite society”. It is an emblem of one. It says, especially if carried openly, “I am ready and willing to live as a free man or woman, accept the consequences, and refuse to shunt off my responsibilities on others.”
Personally, and socially, the further we stray away from that, the more likely it is that the scales will be balanced with, often over-reaching, violence.
Recently there was a stabbing attack at the Ohio State University.
One RFV (I’m not giving his name, it should rot in hell with him) and his family presumably fled the violence of Somalia to Pakistan, or as barry says it Pah kee stohn in 2007. From Pakistan, the family came to America in 2014 where they were granted permanent legal status. Since then RFV has attended Columbus State and until a couple days ago, Ohio State University. I just find that interesting. I don’t think college tuition is cheap.
The refugee from violence (RFV) was so upset when he first arrived at OSU because he was a member of the religion of pieces and said there was no place for him to pray. Well, actually, there were three prayer rooms for people of the religion of pieces to pray, but hey he was new. I haven’t found mention in any of the reports how many rooms were set aside for Jewish and Christian students to go pray.
One of the statements he made was he felt uncertain how he would be received as a muslim and felt unsafe.
This is my first day. This place is huge, and I don’t even know where to pray. I wanted to pray in the open, but I was kind of scared with everything going on in the media. I’m a Muslim, it’s not what the media portrays me to be.
It’s been a interesting week for me on Twitter. Someone sent me a homemade video of a young boy, probably late teens holding a Bic pen. One of the ballpoint ones that you take the cap off. And he holds it in various positions, wearing different clothing, standing different places all the while saying “This is a knife”. He goes below camera angle so you only see his arm holding the pen and says “This is a knife”. He give statistics on how low terrorist attacks were in the US. Sadly he gave statistics ending around 2007. I inquired if he had any more recent statistics, say, oh from 2008-present. I have not yet heard back. But he ends his video with saying we see him as a threat because the media has portrayed him I such. I have yet to see any of the terrorists victims attacked with a Bic pen. But I didn’t say that, I thought obama’s term isn’t over, and that might be tempting fate. I would maintain that the media does everything it can to cover for the religion of pieces, including a cnn propaganda news reader suggesting women wear headscarves in solidarity with muslims a few hours before RFV commenced his non violent political protest by mowing down his fellow students with a borrowed car.
That raises a whole set of questions for me. Did the person that loaned the car do a background check on the RFV? Wasn’t there some kind of cooling off period before the RFV could borrow the potential weapon of mass murder? Will the person who loaned the car face criminal charges? Will the manufacture of the potential weapon of mass murder? I haven’t heard the answer to these troubling questions.
So the 18, 19 or 20 year old student, depending on which site you’re reading wounded 11 people, one of them critically as they evacuated one of the buildings in response to the fire alarm going off.
The same night I learned on twitter that the reason people are fearful of seeing muslims with Bic ballpoints is that we are fearful of being stabbed, I also learned I am an anti-Semite. I am an anti-Semite because I am a pro-Israel Zionist. I also learned that the Jews in Israel have nothing to do with the ancient Hebrews that lived there centuries ago. I gotta tell you, I have some friends that are going to be down right shocked to hear this. I am an anti-Semite? I think I just stepped into an alternative universe. Sort of like Orwell’s 1984. The reason the muslims are attacking U.S. is because
We’re now bombing seven Arab counties for the Greater Israel project. It hasn’t made them more America friendly though.
“Greater Israel”, hmmm, does that, like = evil Zionist?
I said sorry, I was busy grieving for the victims of the attack at OSU. He informed me no one died. Huh? 11 people rammed with a car then attacked with a butcher knife, but HEY, no one died. Well, guess it’s all okay then. But one is in critical condition, so is THAT maybe close enough to mattering?
So I have learned Jews in Israel aren’t related to Hebrews. I already knew I was a Zionist. Damn skippy. Oh, and I learned gab.ai is where white supremacists and evil Zionists go. Huh, who knew? All that came about because one of my favorite people Shim was suspended at twitter. Shim has always just rebutted crap with humor and facts. Shlomi was suspended because he said something about the children being brainwashed to kill and that apparently violated Twitter’s delicate community standards sensibilities. Canary Mission was suspended. Milo was suspended. I asked Aussie Dave about Canary Mission’s suspension, I guess some liberal didn’t like having what he/she said repeated and quoted in a public forum. Liberals, hating facts since they were first used.
There is just something so familiar about this. It’s like I’ve seen this movie before. I just can’t seem to put my finger on what’s familiar about it.
Ram with a car, chop with a cleaver or a knife. Apparently this is the isis playbook. Which should give one a good clue who’s behind the pieceful Falestinian attacks.
But there is a big difference in the second one. It was stopped very quickly. An armed citizen intervened. The one on campus was stopped very quickly as well, but only because the hero police officer was in the area due to a reported gas leak. My view is G-d was merciful. In the gun-free zone, GFZ, called OSU one of the few people allowed with a gun, a police officer, happened to be near-by that day. Had there not been a gas leak, I’m not sure what the response time would have been for the students being butchered alive.
The call was reported as a “shooting” and a “shooter” initially. So students did as they’ve been trained to do, run, hide and if all options are gone, fight. Not sure with what, maybe their Bic ballpoint. So students hid in bathrooms and wherever, thinking it was a shooting going on. I wonder, what would have happened had their been a second assailant with a knife roaming the halls. Would students have felt it was safe to be out in the halls since they heard no gun shots?
Predictably, the anti-self-defense crowd came swarming out from under their rocks calling for more gun control.
Former VP candidate Sen. Tim Kaine tweeted his angst (dodged a bullet on that one, having Kaine as a VP)
Demoncratic VP candidate Kaine
As did shannonrtwatts.
The ever confused Shannon
And some unknown odd person.
Some strange people chimed in.
So the only gun used was the one that stopped the car and knife attack and you want more gun control?
Perhaps like Britain, where soldier Lee Rigby was beheaded in public by the religion of pieces and they had to wait for “special” police officers who are allowed to be armed to get there. The usual officer on the street being disarmed. Unarmed police arrived 9 minutes after the call for help was placed, it was another 5 minute wait for armed police to respond.
Kind of interesting looking at the history of Columbus lately
I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, I know it’s kind of late, thanksgiving is winding down. I am very thankful for The Zelman Partisans that allow me the opportunity to write for them, and for the fantastic team I am allowed to work with. I am very grateful for the readers we have and those that have gone further and chosen to become members. I’m grateful for our readers that take the time to comment on our columns and topics making it a dialogue, sometimes a very spirited dialogue!
I’m thankful for the followers we have on Twitter and Facebook. Among our followers we have people from America, Israel, Iraq and I think a couple in Iran. TZP has appeal worldwide. I think it’s because the issues we cover apply to people all over the world. And we do cover a wide variety of topics! Some of them are state specific, pertaining to certain propose laws or situations such as the disgusting universal background checks misleadingly portrayed by Mikey (no 32 oz soda for you) Bloomberg, and Shaneen Allen who was arrested in PA and spent 40 days in jail. I’m grateful Chris Christie, Governor of N.J. isn’t our next President, or Mikey Bloomberg either for that matter. Some topics are of interests to the human soul and the human condition no matter where you live.
We cover history topics from freedom to gun control and everything in between. We cover things that the mainstream media doesn’t like to talk about, or doesn’t want you to know about. And we can do that because at this point in time, we still have a fairly free open internet.
But with the election of President elect Trump, there are those that have now had enough of that.
Some people blame social media for him being elected. So while Arab incitement to violence against Jews continues on Facebook and Twitter, some conservatives are banned. And Facebook has helpfully decided to create “filters” to block what they consider “fake news”. Not what I consider “fake news”, not what you consider “fake news”, what THEY consider “fake news”. Facebook Has Created A News Feed Censorship Tool For China While Fake News Still Runs Wild In The US Yes indeedy! Someday our internet will be open and free as China’s. Whoo hoo! Something to look forward to, no doubt.
Goodness knows Angela Merkel is hoping it will happen soon! Merkel warns against fake news driving populist gains So while many are aware of the large increase in the attacks against women especially, in Germany some are not. Today at Thanksgiving dinner I learned that Merkel is the best leader in the free world, taking in all the rapefugees (as some in Germany have taken to calling them) has been a great deal and made Germany and economic powerhouse. I also learned there have been no problems with taking in all those poor unvetted refugees. The ax and knife attack on a German train is a mere inconvenience (what with the blood and all to clean up) not a problem actually.
Until now, the freedom of speech advocated by the news organizations, Facebook, Google, Whatsapp, Microsoft and others has allowed the posting of almost any political content to social networks without censorship. Now, following Trump’s election as the 45th American president, that content faces editorial review. Its classification as true or fake news is put in the hands of faceless “censors,” who may be guided by their political, religious or personal worldview when deciding that a news story or opinion are fit for publication. Who’s to know?
Some folks are beginning to realize what some other folks have known for a long time, that most of the mainstream media has an agenda other than reporting the news. They instead prefer to shape the news.
One of the ways people can express their dissatisfaction with a product or service is a review. And that’s what happened with the fraudulent news channel known as CNN. Apparently apple and google haven’t decided to buff things up for them, yet.
Unlike Amazon, who has decided that readers obviously don’t know what they are talking about when in comes to reviewing books. Megyn Kelly recently wrote a book. People bought the book. People read the book. People took time and wrote reviews of the book on Amazon, like people write reviews of everything on Amazon, including scouring sponges from Israel. They are awesome! The never scratch my new ceramic non-stick skillet.
But back to the review of Ms. Kelly’s book. It seems some didn’t like the book. Those that didn’t like the book were therefore deemed to be Trump trolls. And many of the one star reviews were removed. Which prompted a bit of outrage from the people that took time to write a review in the first place.
Some commenters picked up on the removal of the negative reviews. “Tim from MD.,” for example, wrote a post titled “Over 120 1 star reviews have been deleted. Are we living in a free country anymore?”
“Trump is president, but she wrote the book certain Clinton would win,” Tim from MD. wrote. “Now the book and her shows advertisers are getting boycotted. So apparently her attorneys have called to get negative reviews deleted. And they succeeded. I’m shocked.”
Brianna wrote, “I have written many thoughtful reviews as to why this book is horrible! They have all been removed even though I am a reputable Amazon customer/reviewer which is why originally Megyn had the true rating of one and a half stars and now four and a half FIXED STARS!”
I would hazard a guess people usually buy a book based on what it said it was about and what other readers said about it. Then when they were disappointed in the book, they wrote why. Isn’t that how taking time to write a review is suppose to work?
So today, even though I live in a country where college students are taught to pitch a hissy fit if they don’t get what they want and some news media outlets portray rioters as peaceful protesters and law abiding armed citizens as crazed guns nuts just looking for the chance to kill someone, that there are options to new sources. That we have an internet where people can search for news sources and reports of events that may carry the unpopular conservative view. Although, that view may not be as unpopular as some of the elitists thought. There may be a lot of people out there that are interested in what we at TZP have to say. And I’m grateful we have the platform to say it.
I didn’t vote for Donald Trump. Wouldn’t have if you’d have held a gun to my head. But it doesn’t take a die-hard Trump fan to see how abominably he — and his supporters — have been treated by the media, both before and since the election.
Every Trump voter is a mysogynistic, racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, gap-toothed Billy-Bob who can barely read, let alone understand political issues. And every Trump appointee or potential appointee is a slightly more educated version of the above. To hear the MSM tell it, Trump will soon unleash millions of militant Nazis on the U.S.
Already we can see that the handful of media mea culpas apologizing for biased election coverage and promising to do better were nothing but phony virtue signaling. The post-election coverage has, if anything, been even more despicable.
One needs hip waders to get through the BS.
—–
That said, there absolutely is a foul, racist, and very definitely Jew-hating faction among the alt-right, and these people do feel invigorated and entitled following Trump’s election victory.
They consist not only of white nationalists, who’ve been around forever but have grown stronger and more angry in an era where we’ve all been told that white is a dirty word and that Caucasians should be ashamed even of existing.
But there’s also something more ominous, which for want of a better term I’d call Christian supremacists. These are people who try to pretend that so-called Western values are solely by (and ultimately for) Christians. They claim there’s absolutely no such thing as Judeo-Christian values. On the contrary, in their warped view, the very expression “Judeo-Christian values” is a conspiracy promulgated by anti-Christians. To hell with history and to hell with observable reality; in the view of these people, Christianity was born without other cultural or theological influences, and Christianity has by itself created the only worthwhile influences in Western culture.*
In particular the faux “Christian values” these supremacists tout were never influenced by, you know, those icky Jews.
Again, one needs hip waders to navigate the BS. But just as the MSM’s baloney appeals to a certain mentality, this smug, historically ignorant superiority, appeals strongly to people who’d rather spout holier-than-thou slogans than read history.
—–
I joined Gab.ai, the brand new (still in beta) social network created by Andrew Torba to be a Twitter killer. The left has typically sneered at Gab, dismissing it as “Twitter for racists.” Torba and his family have been living under death threats.
Gab is actually exactly what Torba says it is: a platform for true, uncensored free speech for all points of view (very much unlike Twitter, which has recently purged hundreds, perhaps thousands, of accounts merely because their owners held right-wing opinions). The only “censorship” at Gab is done by individual users, who have the ability to mute users or words they don’t want to see.
However, Gab’s initial membership is overwhelmingly Trumpist, so right now Gab gives a pretty good look at the range of the alt-right.
And alas, my mute list consists largely of people who spout anti-Jewish rhetoric. I support their right to free speech; I just don’t want the stinky breath of their rantings washing over me.
While they’re a minority, they’re definitely part of the pro-Trump mix.
—–
For what it’s worth I don’t foresee that either the white nationalists or their cousins the Christian supremacists are likely to turn into marching Nazi hordes. Already (following a creepy report in The Atlantic), Trump himself has slammed the alt-right hard. Other prominent people on the right have spoken out against them. Here’s Paul Joseph Watson, a star in the pro-Trump universe:
While I think he’s optimistic to say that the creeps had nothing to do with electing Trump, it’s great that people in the movement are recognizing these bigots for what they are and disassociating themselves from the worst.
Watson is definitely correct that the “new right” consists of every color and kind of person. (Another of the stars of the movement is Milo Yiannopoulis, a gay Jew banned from Twitter but welcomed elsewhere as a hero-provocateur. Yet another is a black sheriff.) Quite a few “gabs” recently posted have reminded Trump supporters that they have a responsibility to disclaim the views and deeds of the bigoted cretins among them.
—–
The Jew-haters and racial dividers among the alt-right (and for that matter, among the left, which did so much to create the current climate) are always dangerous because, as a spokesperson for the U.S. Holocaust Museum points out, the Nazis’ Holocaust didn’t begin with killings, but with words.
And of course, with laws. Not likely that Trump, with his Jewish son-in-law, Jewish-convert daughter Ivanka, Jewish grandchildren, and his very non-bigoted views, is likely to implement or even tolerate the most poisonous alt-right creepitude.
Still, we owe it to ourselves, our friends, and our freedom, to make sure that the rising bigots are pushed back — with derision, with strong argument, with cultural marginalization. Even with arms, should it come to that unthinkable pass. If the bigots raise an army, or even a few isolated, terrorizing gangs, we should absolutely be prepared to exercise self- and community-defense against them. But we should never try to “disappear” them by censoring them; we should never sacrifice the First Amendment in their dubious honor.
Do those people have the potential to be dangerous to Jews and others? Hell, yes! But I don’t think we live in a country or a culture that’s going to allow scum like that to rise to the top.
—–
We should also, while seeing their stories of grave alarm, never let the media turn our eyes away from a much more clear-and-present danger: Jews who want to impose big government, globalism, and disarment on their fellow religionists — and on us all. Those who don’t think that Jews — or anybody else — should be able to take up arms against tyranny or oppression.
Whatever else you can say about Donald Trump’s most unsavory supporters, you won’t find many of them wanting to disarm anybody.
—–
*I think at this point I’m obligated to note that Christian supremacists don’t in any way represent the mainstream of Christianity or speak for Christians in general. But I’m putting that disclaimer in this footnote because I’m pretty sure that decent Christians, particularly decent Christians who’ve read both the bible and history, already know the creeps I’m talking about don’t stand for them.
In the months leading up to the U.S. Presidential election, Jewish “Leaders” were issuing very grave warnings in the face of the increasing popularity of Donald Trump.
This was especially true in Europe. Recently installed Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom; Ephraim Mirvis, even condemned him as a “racist”.
After the election, piling onto his condemnation of the Brexit vote, and horrified at the election results, the President of the Conference of European Rabbis, intoned that this would embolden the “Extreme Right-Wing” in Europe.
In a revealing statement, Rabbi Goldschmidt claims that the U.S. Elections were “good” for the State of Israel but “bad” for the Jews.
Well… “bad” for the Jews remaining in Europe, under the superb protection of their respective Governments, and dutiful and dependent men like Rabbis Mirvis and Goldschmidt.
Interestingly, Rabbi Goldschmidt admitted as much, as he elaborated that if the Trump administration were to have a reduced role in European affairs, this would leave his Jews to the (ineffectual?) protection of their respective governments.
But, I thought… Huh. Keeping his thumbs so firmly in his eyes must really hurt.
Stark divisions were also revealed within American Jewry in this past election: 70%, overall, went for Clinton, but the majority of the rapidly growing Orthodox went for Trump. Even in New York City.
The shrinking Reform, Conservative, and secular Jews, obeying J-Street and the DNC in America, and the CER and their suicidal secular government patrons in Europe, voted for a third Obama term.
Americans residing in Israel voted overwhelmingly in favor of Mr. Trump. Except for the shrinking (dying off, really) left-wing in Israel, native Israelis, even many “secular” Israelis also strongly supported the candidacy of Mr. Trump, and seemed to discount the “boogie-man” version of Mr. Trump, as served up daily by the mainstream media.
Now, after the election, these attacks are becoming even more shrill.
How will this all play out? Is Mr. Trump “good” for the Jews? I really don’t know. He and his advisors sends so many mixed signals, it is hard to tell.
One thing is certain, however. The primary alternative offered, was bad. Very bad.
In the final analysis we all, Jew and Gentile, alike, really are best served by protecting ourselves And, not relying on earthly princes.
We’re testing the zeitgeist of these strange times. This month’s poll is about your plans and thoughts now that Donald Trump is president-elect.
You can take the poll below or at the above link.
We’d also like to hear your comments (on this post) about how you believe this election is likely to change the country or culture as a whole. Or will it change anything? What are you personally going to do? How do you believe a Trump presidency will change politics in your state, region, or locality?
In the days leading up to the recent Presidential popularity contest, I tried to make my posts nonpartisan, attempting not to single out any one party’s candidate(s). But now that Donald Trump is the President Apparent (not “Elect” just yet, despite most news services referring to him as such), his plans and policies are fair game: what he does will affect Americans.
Current reports have it that former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani is on The Donald’s short list for Secretary of State, and possibly Attorney General.
Freedom lovers in general, and RKBA supporters specifically, should be extremely concerned. As even Bloomberg’s anti-gun The Trace has it…
Rudy Giuliani Has the Kind of Gun Control Record That Gets Presidential Appointees Savaged By the NRA
Would the NRA and Senate GOP apply to Giuliani the same unrelenting pro-gun litmus test they’ve applied to President Barack Obama’s nominees for the better part of a decade? Or would they retreat from their principled, uncompromising gun-rights stance in deference to a new Republican administration’s nominee?
Giuliani also constructed NYC’s “stop & frisk” program. The one that was found to be unconstitutional. These days, “unconstitutional” is a pretty high bar, with virtually anything allowed. “Stop & frisk” was tossed not merely because it violated the highest law of the land, but because it didn’t work: the vast majority of stops resulted in no prosecution whatsoever; weapons (the main justification for the program) were found in only a tiny fraction of one percent of stops. Minorities were overwhelmingly selected for searches. “Stop & frisk” couldn’t even meet the incredibly lenient “unconstitutional but necessary for public safety” test applied by moronic courts.
President Apparent Donald Trump’s choices of high level appointees almost seem designed to validate the worst pre-election fears of those who noted the man’s past disregard for human/civil rights.
Gun control will prevail regardless of next president, says researcher
It doesn’t matter which candidate is elected the next leader of the free world next Tuesday, stricter gun control is inevitable — at least according to one onlooker.
[…]
Alpers notes that automobiles have endured decades of “evidence-based public health measures” with licensing and registration that didn’t lead to mass confiscation, an argument often presented by public health researchers. “Cars remain objects of maleness, power and freedom,” he says.
Cars = “maleness”? Tell that to my 4’11’ sister in her SUV.
Wait…
“Maleness…”
I don’t think so. -psst!- Alpers, I don’t think “autoeroticism” means what you seem to think it means. But what else should we expect from a victim disarming anti-gun “researcher” of dubious credentials.
Perhaps he’ll “man up” and come to America to personally implement that inevitable post-election gun control.
I see a lot of stories daily about how carrying a concealed weapon has saved someone’s life, or the life of someone they love. These stories usually take place in a urban setting. It might be a fairly empty parking lot at 2200 or someone’s home, but most of the stories are more urban. I suppose that makes sense, more people.
But when many people think of the rural areas, they tend to think more of the tough, self-reliant type of folks, like Roy Rogers, the Cartwrights or Little House on the Prairie.
What set me down this thought path was a story I saw the other day and it reminded me of when I first moved to my current home, many, many years ago. I considered living places and found the pet deposit for two horses, a flock of chickens, four cats and three dogs was very spendy. I also am temperamentally unsuited to living in a city, so farm it was and I moved from a smaller farm to this one. When I would go to the barn to do chores I took all the dogs with me, family outing as it were. Not long after I had lived here I was coming back to the house from the barn and a man I had never seen was standing near the stock gate. Not a dog had barked, the wind must have been blowing the other direction. Nothing happened, he had heard from someone that I might be someone to talk to about training a horse. But it made me very aware of my vulnerability. No matter what else was going on in my life, this was something I needed to address. I didn’t really know any of my neighbors yet, so most people that stopped by would have been “strangers”. It was long before concealed carry laws or castle doctrine laws were in effect. It’s not that I didn’t have tools, I did. I needed to have them where they could be used. A .357 is dandy, unless it’s in the house, so I started doing things differently. But while laws weren’t in place to protect me, I could get access to the tools that would allow me to protect myself. Some states have laws protecting you only in your home or car, some, anyplace you legally have a right to be including any place on your property, not just your home.
So how did I get to thinking back all those years ago? I saw a story about yet another Jewish farmer in Israel who might be facing charges for shooting an Arab. I will never say farmers in America have it easy. I’ve known better since I was two. But farmers in Israel have a whole different set of dangers. The arabs and bedouins there cut fence, steal livestock, kill livestock, ruin orchards, poison guard dogs, attack the farmers and their families and sometimes kill them. Sadly, sometimes the government forces that are tasked with protecting the farmers seem to favor protecting the arab farmers. Whether it is yet another example of trying not to offend the world, or the police just don’t want to bother with it, I don’t know. Some farmers have been driven off their land, some have had to give up raising livestock, but it is most certain that many farmers in Israel face challenges and dangers that we over here do not face on a daily basis. The case that had been going on was of a farmer that had three arabs show up to steal his truck. He heard a noise and went outside, there they were with a metal bar and three to one odds. He fired in the air and was unaware that he had even hit one. When security forces finally showed up they found the body in a nearby field.
“Sunday’s shooting in Beit Elazri was justified,” Naim concludes. “It was an act of self-defense, and prevented innocent people from getting hurt. Every thief must know that he might die. It must be anchored in law, just as in the cradle of democracy, the United States, where every citizen has the right to self-defense of his body and his property, including the shooting of trespassers.”
I don’t know that we shoot trespassers all that much, but his point that we should have the right to defend ourselves, and criminals know we have the right and ability to defend ourselves, and that should slow them down some. Unless you live in a state with a lot of liberals where ever criminal life is sacred, yours not so much. This is made possible by electing liberal politicians because they think rights come from them, not G-d.
Farmers have gone to jail for defending themselves against four to one odds, for example Shai Dromi. While he was acquitted on manslaughter charges he was convicted of having an illegal weapon. It was his father’s. The good thing that came of the mess was it did start to make people aware of what the farmers face on a daily basis.
Now happily the farmer accused this time, has been cleared by the police of any wrong doing, so he won’t be spending time in jail.
Another good thing that came out of this is MKs Amir Ohana and Eitan Broshi submitted a petition that called for a emergency meeting to discuss the issue of self-defense in rural areas. Hopefully more than discussion will come of it. Since MK Ohana is involved, I am kind of thinking something more will.
Another thing I found very interesting was comments by Dr. Jodi Broder, Head of the Clinical Social Law program. I’m the one that put some of this in bold, not Dr. Broder.
Dr. Broder explained why, in his view, proactive self-defense is justified: “We, as citizens, gave the State all the rights over our defense and our property, under the assumption that it would uphold those values, but what happens when the State doesn’t defend its citizens?” he asked. In such a reality, he asserts, the right of a citizen to defend himself and his property returns to him.
Broder qualifies this assertion, however, noting, “not under every circumstance, but within the parameters of self-defense. You are allowed to defend yourself when there is an immediate danger to your life or property. In such a reality, when nobody else is around to defend you and you react in a proportional manner, not in order to punish but only to defend; when the burglar is endangering me or another or our property, I am allowed to defend as long as immediate action is required and the State is not present to supply this defense.”
In response to the question of whether there is an ethical problem with the fact that the same State that does not supply defense for citizens also limits citizens’ ability to defend themselves, Broder replied, “It is impossible to live in a situation in which there are no rules and each man is his own lawmaker. A burglar also has rights which we, as a state, choose to uphold. You may defend, but not punish.
“One of the problems in the State is that the government does not supply adequate defense of property in certain communities, and people feel existential danger and danger to their property; we may see reactions that seem disproportionate at first glance, but when you consider that the Police are probably not coming, and there’s nobody who’s going to help, and it’s my property and my life, the picture changes.”
First, I don’t think we should ever give over our rights to protect ourselves, I’m not suggesting we do so. I also find it interesting that the Israelis are allowed to use force when the criminal is stealing things. In America it’s usually only to defend life. Of course what they are stealing may well affect your livelihood, but I find this variance interesting as well. Second and I think this applies to any of us, the prosecutor in their nice warm, well lit office, reading over the police report as they thoughtfully sip their fresh cup of coffee is going decide someone’s future, or lack of one. They will decide if your response was proportional or not. Consider having someone like Kathleen Kane as the prosecutor. Kane was a Bloomberg backed anti-gun candidate. YESH! But I also see how his comments could apply to gun free zones, they chose to forbid us the ability to defend ourselves, then they have chosen that responsibility. An old discussion, I know. I’m not talking burger joints, I’m thinking more like hospitals, government buildings. Places of worship are targets as well, but I think their response to how they wish to handle these things has more autonomy, but I could be wrong. But back to the prosecutor, you have a person in their nice office, possibly who has never been in a rural area deciding what is going to happen to you based on what has already happened to you, when you were all alone at 0300 in the middle of a field.
And realistically? Whether a field in the middle of the night or supermarket parking lot during the day, it doesn’t matter much. If something bad happens, and you “need” someone else to come help you there is a good chance that may not happen in time.
Just some things to think about as election day looms and you might have a chance to ask your state candidates some questions.
Another thing that popped up as I was poking around to see how this particular farmer came out was that some of the farmers in 2008 began to band together forming modern versions of HaShomer. It was founded by Yoel Zilberman when his father told him he was going bankrupt and going to have to leave the farm. HaShomer HaChadash, The New Guardians, was formed to help protect the farmers and allow them to continue farming in a financially sound manner. It is now a big active program.
Founder Yoel Zilberman, can tell you about it. It’s a very interesting story. Subtitled, luckily.
So thinking back on when I first moved here, and looking at the dangers these farmers in Israel face daily I’ve had some thoughts. Urban or rural, we all face dangers. The dangers these Israeli farmers face are more like the things someone living in the gun free zone utopia of Chicago would face, with just about as much help from the system at times. But then any raw milk or organic farmer may have faced the same dangers in America. Only instead of from Bedouins, from a alphabet soup of state and federal agencies. The big difference is, when it’s the farmer rather than the Chicago resident that faces the danger it can affect a lot of people. The farmers produce food, and when that doesn’t happen it causes problems for a lot of people. The Israeli farmers are getting help now, not from the government so much, as regular people all pitching in to help. It’s sort of like a program we had in America for a while called “Ranch Rescue”. But the foundation of all these programs was the same as the old days of the Cartwrights and Roy Rogers. It was people pitching in to help each other to over come challenges and threats. People that weren’t relying on the system, but each other. As the weather changes and we prepare for storms knowing our neighbors and having plans and ways we could help each other might be a very good idea. We’ve had hurricanes in one part of the country, we will have snow and ice coming for other parts of the country, and then we move into tornado and rain and flood season. Sometimes you know there’s bad weather headed your way, and sometimes, it’s just there.
And because I like to end with something a little nice, here’s a short little scene from Eish Kodesh. It really is beautiful isn’t it?
