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Slander- False Derogatory Statements. Motzei Shem Ra on Meir Ettinger and on the Hilltop Youth
This article is a good example of how Lashon Hara and Motzei Shem Ra on Meir Ettinger and the Hilltop Youth spreads.
Link: Hard-core Ideologists or Fringe Youth gone bad. The Dark Side of Ideology How widespread is the Terrorist Fringe Among Religious Jewish Youth by Andrew Friedman
My comments:
I have yet to find one convicted Jewish Hilltop Settler where the evidence against them is of substance and not self incriminatory.
Does the Jerusalem Post author provide first hand eye witnesses to the alleged Jewish Terror attacks, with pictures and/or videos to back it up like we have seen with practically every Arab Terror attack against Jews?
This whole front page story on the Jerusalem Report/Jerusalem Post article is based on the "hilltop phenomenon" hearsay. Probably all those who talk about these extreme, fanatic, terrorist hilltop youth get their source from the ISA, Shabak.
ISA is not a credible source. They have a political agenda and they seem to fabricate the evidence and find some convenient targets to frame, torture into making forced false confessions. .
Perhaps, perhaps my accusations against Shabak is also hearsay against the ISA (even though Caroline Glick seems to agree that they have an agenda).
I am basing these accusations on some very credible witnesses, from first hand reports, from family members, friends and lawyers who have heard consistent stories from the detainees after finally being allowed to speak to them.
However, in pursuit of fairness and justice, , let us then have an open and fair trial of all those under Administrative Detention and see who indeed has been lawless. Who has tortured innocent kids into forced confessions of crimes that they did not commit? OR is there real evidence of Amiram ben Uliel torching the Duma home and writing graffiti. I would bet on the hilltop youth and not on ISA who has even admitted that they don't have any evidence acceptable in a respectable court of law on these kids.
Yet the Jerusalem Report goes ahead with this slanderous article and totally disregards actual facts on the ground and instead relies on hearsay. This is how they present their case:
Given: Meir Ettinger and some Hilltop Youth are guilty (all they need is just one or a few guilty hilltop youth, that's enough to start and spread the slander)
In an attempt to appear "balanced" this article accepts as a given that some of the hilltop youth are Terrorists and are considered "Martyrs" by their comrades. By saying that these kids do not necessarily represent the majority of those living in Judea and Samaria they are being balanced.
The only problem is that this given is a false given. Usually martyrs and their families are proud of their actions. I don't hear any of these youths bragging or glorifying acts of terror against the Arabs. I hear that they are denying that they did it. A Martyr from my understanding is like a Jihadist. A Martyr is someone who is willing to sacrifice their lives with a religious act of self righteous terror against the enemy. Yet there is no evidence of a culture of Martyrdom nor of any such proven terror here by Jews, so how can their friends believe that they are Martyrs unless these friends are agents of Shabak or unless the author wants you to believe that they are Martyrs. If you fabricate they they committed a terror attack, then you can fabricate that they were Jihadists, martyrs, as well, to explain and justify their fabricated, alleged terror attacks.
Appear to look Balanced
This article attempts to show 'balance" in presenting two possibilities
- there are just a few such Jewish Terrorists, "errant weeds" as they were referred to or
- it exists "more widespread among the religious community" ?
They are very balanced in presenting both options, both of which have no substance. When told that these kids had nothing to do with the Arab attacks, they dismissed it as simply being a programmed response by their community supporters for journalists.
The underlying given of this article is to believe that the allegations against the Jewish Hilltop youth are true that they are guilty of murder/arson and acts of violence and terror against this innocent Arab family with a young baby. In other words, the Jerusalem Report basically accepts the blood libel on these youth that they indeed perpetrated all the allegations be it the Duma arson and murder or the June arson at the historic Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes.
Is this Jerusalem Report author and by extension the editors of the Jerusalem Report a judge and a jury to convict these kids of the alleged crimes? Wouldn't they agree that these kids deserve a fair and open trial and not merely hearsay or a closed Kangaroo Court which has an agenda?
Isolate the few. Use family members and Influential Rabbi's and Leaders to isolate them as well.
The author brings much support for his conclusions, trusting that the allegations are true, on Religious Zionist Leaders who are quick to condemn these kids. These leaders, rather than checking out the facts, have probably relied on the ISA allegations.
Rabbi Ginsburgh who is a Rabbi respected by these Settler Youth apparently is Passuled (unfit, invalid) as he praised Baruch Goldstein the one who gunned down Arabs in Maarat HaMachpela. My guess is that this is a grave distortion of what Rabbi Ginsburgh actually said. I personally lived in Kiryat Arba in the 80s and knew Dr. Baruch Goldstein and his whole family. His mother was a very active Emunah member and President of the Emunah Chapter in Kiryat Arba. D. Goldstein was very respected in the community as being a caring compassionate doctor and not as a murderer of praying Arabs. What happened that Purim, G-d only knows. However, the whole truth is not out there. All I can say is this act of vigilante was out of character. My guess is that he was probably framed and attacked and responded in self defense. There really isn't a good explanation. One thing I can say is that Dr. Goldstein surely struck me as being much less violent than this author who sees no problem with character assassination.
Other Rabbis discredited in this article, respected by the Settler youth, is Rabbi Yitzchak Shapiro and Rabbi Yosef Elitzur of Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in Yitzhar authors of Torat HaMelech a book whom the author claims is renounced by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and HaRav Elyashiv ob"m. This is a scholarly book which brings down references about when one is allowed to kill a non Jew a not politically correct topic. These esteemed Rabbis HaRav Elayashihv and Rav Ovadiah Yosef ob"m were not great public advocates for settling Judea and Samaria. It is not surprising that they wouldn't want to support or publicize these references for political reasons. Their denouncement is not of major significance. The scholarship is.
Many of the names quoted in this article are actually leaders from within the religious camp who apparently have much to gain politically by bad mouthing these kids as violent, extreme on the fringe and alienated from the rest of the religious communities. They are funded by the State and they do not want to be connected as supporters of the hilltop youth since in the past this has resulted in withdrawal of funding to their institutions. However, they themselves are not eye witnesses to any act of violence perpetrated by these youths and they are being Motzei Shem Ra based on what they probably assume, or wish to assume to be accurate accusations against the hilltop youth whose source is once again Shabak.
Motzei Shem Ra Examples of False Derogatory Terms used to describe these kids
Jerusalem Report Front Cover February 22, 2016 Slander Terminology
- "The Terror Within"
- (presented as fait accompli that it has been decided with no option to change, that the hilltop youth committed terror) Was there any conviction. How come I didn't hear about it?
- "Settler extremists"
- (In the context of this article, extremist has negative association. How are they extreme? What actions specifically renders them extreme?) One can be extremely passionate and extremely loving...Is that a bad thing? Here the connotation is that they have extreme tendencies toward violence and terror related activities)
- "hard-core ideologist"
- (this is a "nicer" descriptive term they use for these kids) Hard core has the connotation of unbending, rigid ideology. This description has negative associations especially within the context of this article. Why couldn't the author present some positive and just, true, good and peaceful elements in their ideology that is based on Torah. This viewpoint is not at all presented nor suggested as being even a remote possibility in this article. Quite the opposite. The ideology of the hilltop youth that was probably fabricated by the author who based it on Shabak reports, depicted as a violent and extreme group, was condemned cross the board by Jewish Religious Leaders.
- "Fringe Youth gone bad"
- ( How have they gone bad? Who has determined that they are fringe? Just because they are not in school setting? Why is shepherding, farming, or building and construction combined with prayer, learning Torah, interspersed with private times of introspection on a hilltop so bad? I think it's a beautiful lifestyle. Uncomplicated, close to nature, close to G-d.) The lifestyle may not be for everyone but what makes the school system a so much better lifestyle? Seems like kind of condescending attitude to alternative lifestyles with false conclusion that hilltop youth have extreme violent tendencies from which one needs to alienate.
That was just from the front cover which also had a blackened shadowy image of a "Extreme Settler" that looked quite scary especially with the word Terror spread across it. The reader did not even have to read the article itself to already have had a slandered and false perception about the Hilltop Youth. The cover was enough.
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Article Slander....Page 19
- Title of article "The Dark Side of Ideology"
- Who are they to judge that this ideology is the Dark Side unless they know for a fact that this ideology encourages random uncalled violence, uncalled for property destruction against innocent people. As of yet there is no fair trial, only hearsay based on what the ISA and others say.
- "How Widespread is the Terrorist Fringe among Religious Youth"
- this is a loaded slanderous statement. It takes as a given that there is a Terrorist Fringe, and the only question is whether or not it is widespread. Jewish Terror coming from Religious Youth slanders the Religious community as well.
- Prominent picture of Meir Ettinger with disheveled Peyot (one side curled the other not,and seems to pictorially portray him of being a leader of this terrorist fringe group
This article is based on individuals, influential Rabbi's and community Leaders who slander these kids. Anyone in support of the kids is dismissed as either extreme or not credible.:
The author writes:
From Shilo to Har Bracha to Jerusalem to Efrat to Orthodox Communities to Negev and even abroad, leaders of the religious Zionist world say the price tag/hilltop phenomenon is a rebellion against their theology and especially against the universalist thought of former Chief Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook
- Hele Manne, mother of 2 from Aish Kodesh "Attacks are committed by no more than a few dozen young people who have nothing to do with our communities" Does Hele have evidence of Attacks? If they have nothing to do with their communities, is she sure that indeed these allegations were committed. These are still allegations. It seems that she based this statement on hearsay rather than on fact. Who are the few dozen of young people that committed these attacks other than the ones rounded up by ISA and more often than not released due to no evidence on them. She sounds like a good ISA agent
- Aaron Katsoff - community spokesman "We don't know anything about the attacks", dismissed as a "prerecorded soundbite" not to be taken seriously.
Now the author engages in one of the most dangerous and despicable kinds of slander. It uses the divide and conquer methodology attempting to pit the religious Zionist Movement against the hilltop youth. It portrays family members isolating them these "rebellious" kids and visa versa. This strategy was evident as well in the JTA article quoting Libby Kahane... JTA article http://www.jta.org/2016/02/10/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/kahanes-widow-jewish-extremists-have-nothing-to-do-with-kahanes-ideology#.VrzL2USnQQ0.email Entitled: "Jewish Extremists have nothing to do with Kahanes ideology" who did not get to review what they had written before it was published and then had to send out a disclaimer I want you to know that the interviewer distorted my words on a variety of topics.
- re: Amiram ben-Uliel tortured until he confessed while under Administrative detention with no charges nor trial: "Ben Uliel's extremism does not appear to have stemmed from his family or educational background. Acquaintances describe the family as "stable and functional"
- re: Meir Ettinger: "Security authorities believe Ettinger oversaw a Jewish terror group. His arrest was linked to the Duma Firebombing. Shin Bet officials have said Ettinger's movement was also responsible for the June arson attack at the historic Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, and seeks to bring down the government and replace it with a Jewish theocracy". As far as I know, Meir Ettinger is no longer linked to the Duma arson nor the arson attack at the Church. His grandmother Libby Kahane, says he is under incarceration because they don't like his ideas. My guess is that he is under much scrutiny because he is Meir Kahane's grandson and they don't like his ideas.
Rabbi Shlomo Kimche: Founder and Dean of Orot Yehuda Yeshiva in Efrat A Religious Zionist Rabbi who according to this article is more concerned with protecting his reputation and the reputation of the religious Zionist community than of finding out the facts.
There is no religious extremism in the religious Zionist Community....However, we certainly do have a phenomenon in our community of young people who have lost their way.... but the violence we have seen that has been attributed to the kids on the hilltops is not an expression of anything those young people have learned in our communities and Yeshivas. Very much to the contrary - the whole phenomenon is a part of a sharp rebellion against everything that religious Zionism stands for and represents. Don't make the mistake the Medina loves to make - you are talking about a few dozen kids who have become estranged from their parents. Their schools, their communities.It is outrageous and insulting to use violence of a few kids who have lost their way to smear an entire community". To support his point Kimche stressed that "virtually all segments of the religious Zionist world have strongly and consistently denounced price tag attacks including last summer's attacks in Duma and against the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes at Tabgha". he adds "Vigilante violence ostensibly committed in the name of Judaism is a religious perversion and compares the phenomenon to other forms of teenage rebellion in the Orthodox community, particularly substance abuse and especially a decision to leave Orthodoxy."
It seems form what is written here, that Rabbi Kimche obviously believes that these boys are guilty of the Duma arson and the Church arson
Rabbi Chaim Druckman: the head of the Religious Zionist Bnei Akiva constellation of Yeshiva's
"has called price tag attacks 'horrible, shocking, anti-Semitic and anti-morality'
It is also inferred from what is written here, that Rabbi Druckman obviously believes that these boys are guilty.
Rabbi Eliezer Melamed
The Rabbi of Har Bracha, considered one of the most extreme settlement in Judea and Samaria has denounced price tag activists as "Israel haters who 'appear to love Israel but in practice hate the Jews'"
He too obviously believes that they are guilty.
Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger
There is a dark side of this ideology (Jerusalem Report/Jerusalem Post bothered this phrase for their Subtitle to describe the hilltop youth like Meir Ettinger)
On the other side: The Critics of the Religious Zionist community:
Carmim Gillon:"Former Head of the ISA who founded the Intelligence Body's Jewish Division to deal with threat posed by the Jewish Underground, a group of religious Zionist Israeli who planned to blow up the Dome of the Rock"
Not just a Youth at Risk Phenomenan - they work of a few dozen disturbed anarchists but rather a breeding ground for extremism" since he started monitoring the community since 1984 - He claims the moderate voice is irrlevant in religious Zionism (in other words he faults the entire community of radical extremism)
Yuval Diskin Another ex-Shin Bet head between 2005-2011
There are many hundreds of youths supporting Messianic and/or anarchistic anti -State ideologies [including dozens who daily adopt different levels of vioence or terrorism against Palestinian lives and property"
The article concludes with how Rabbi Kimchi tells his students to address the reality of Arab Terror. They should channel these negative emotions until the proper time. When is the proper time?
When they are on patrol in the middle of the night without a shower for 3 days, that is when they funnel their feelings in an appropriate healthier and legal ways"
I beg to differ with Rabbi Kimchi. This is what I would have suggested that the most appropriate time is when they are confronting a terrorist in the act of committing terror they should act to neutralize him. IMHO neutralizing a terrorist before they have the opportunity to commit an act of terror is the proper time to funnel their negative emotions.
Perhaps that situation is not even suggested by Rabbi Kimchi because one might accuse Rabbi Kimche of being one of those "violent" Settlers.
If I was a family member of Meir Ettinger I would sue the Jerusalem Post for slander and libel and defamation of character.
Our Friend David Kerner sent us this audio he recently found that he had recorded in 2008, two years into Gilad Shalit's imprisonment. He slapped it into a youtube. While who can not be glad for Gilad for his newly found freedom, we are dismayed that Meir Ettinger is in a Jewish jail, in isolation, surrounded by terrorists, sitting there for 6 months with no charges and no trial held on "Nationalist" crimes whatever that means. There is much reason for concern as he had gone on a hunger strike endangering his life, and we have heard testimony that those under administrative detention have been tortured mentally and physically, have tried to commit suicide, and that it is legal for Shabak to do so.
Just replace the name Gilad Shalit with Meir Ettinger.
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Sincerely,
Robin Ticker
Activist emails sent to my list are L'Ilui Nishmat Yisrael ben David Aryeh ob"m (Izzy - Kaplan) and Howard Chaim Grief great activists and lovers of Eretz Yisroel, Am Yisroel and the Torah. Yehi Zichronum Baruch. May their memories serve as a blessing.
