Don't challenge Bibi to a game of chess

I think that the whole country woke up this morning to the surprising news that after 70 days in the coalition, Mofaz has had enough.

When Mofaz joined the coalition I though that it was a great life saver for him; the only thing that could stop Mofaz was if he was unable to implement a new draft law.

I though that passing a draft law would have been the easiest undertaking of any politician ever, given the support of the three biggest parties, the supreme court, and a large percentage of the population.

To make it even easier, the irrational opposition from the Chredi leadership (e.g., claims that it was based on antisemitism, or that there was an unprecedented attempt to eradicate Torah from Israel) meant that their objections had lost all creibility.
 But always able to grab defeat from the hands of victory, Mofaz decided to go for an "all or nothing" approach to the negotiations (negotiations with supports of universal draft, not with opponents), and as most negotiators know, if you adopt an "all or nothing" approach, you probably won't get "all".

Now the ball is in Bibi's court, if he was really smart, he should sit down quietly with Liberman and over the next 2 days hammer out the details of a draft law. Think where that would leave him:

• Mofaz and Kadima would be history - 70 days of negotiations and committees and headlines to create a universal draft bill couldn't achieve as much as 2 days of quiet backroom talks.
• Bibi would get the support of the majority of Israelis who favour a universal draft.
• The Charedi politicians would reluctantly accept the new law, which at least saved them from  Plassner, which would have been worse
• Yair Lapid would have the wind taken out of his sails as he was a one-issue party and the one issue would have been taken off the national agenda
• There would be opposition to Bibi's new law from both Charedi and anti-Charedi politicians (no matter what the details of the law), which would prove that Bibi hadn't given in to extremist demands on either side. 
• While the headlines are dominated by the new Bibi-Liberman bill, and the whole country is distracted (especially if there are colourful demonstrations in Kikar Shabbat and Kikar Rabin),  Bibi could quietly implement whatever economic and security measures he thinks necessary, and no one would even notice.

Bibi - the ball is in your court.

The Amazing Meeting - where?

I was just reading about "The Amaz!ng Meeting (TAM)", a "celebration of science, skepticism and critical thinking" that just took place in Las Vegas (Apparently even atheists have a problem with Hadarat Nashim).
Anyway, I found it very confusing - I thought that everyone knows that this type of conference isn't suitable for Vegas, isn't the Atheist Conventionin LA?


PS - sorry that this blog has been so quiet lately, I recently started a new job and have had less free time :)

Cause and Effect

2 weeks ago I was in Paris. A beautiful city, but one of the things that I noticed was that the only visible security I saw was around national monuments (such as the Eiffel tower or museums) and Jewish Institutions (Shuls and the Jewish Museum).

Looks like anti-Semitism is still very much alive and well in the host to Europe’s largest Jewish community.

Of course, this was further proven by the horrific events in Toulouse this week – but what may have motivated the gunman (other than raw anti-Semitism?)

 

Last week UN employee Khulood Badawi tweeted a picture of a school girl, covered in blood who died in a schoolyard accident in 2006 with the caption “Palestine is bleeding. Another child killed by Israel … Another father carrying his child to the grave”

This week a gunman in France murdered 4 people in a schoolyard including 3 children at close range, and today French police described his motive as "He wanted revenge for the Palestinian children and he also wanted to take revenge on the French army because of its foreign interventions."

Anyone out there think Ms Badawi of the UN is at least partially responsible for inciting murder?

 

Meanwhile, The European Union’s Foreign Policy Chief, Catherine Ashton, was quoted in Maariv as responding to the shooting by comparing children gunned down in cold blood with “what’s happening” to the children in Gaza:

“When we think about what happened today in Toulouse, we also remember what happened in Norway last year, and what is happening now in Syria and Gaza, and other areas of the world,”

I’m not sure what in particular Ms Ashton is referring to in Gaza, did she also take Ms Badawi’s false tweet at face value, or does she really believe that that there are Israeli actions equivalent to walking into a schoolyard, pointing a gun at a small child, and firing at short range?

It seems like there are employees of International agencies who have no problem encouraging and inciting anti-Semitism.

Rainbow in the Night

If you haven’t yet seen it, you should watch the following short film / music video

From the producer:

Rainbow in the Night, a short YouTube clip, is a brief but exceptionally powerful video created specifically for today's fast paced generation. Using stunning cinematography, a haunting score, hard hitting lyrics and vocals that will touch the deepest recesses of the soul, this historical work offers a glimpse into World War II Krakow as seen through the eyes of a survivor. Beginning with footage of a 1939 original oil painting of a synagogue being ravaged by the Nazis, shown at a private event in the survivor's home, Rainbow in the Night is an exquisitely emotional journey, as the survivor recalls first the warmth of his childhood home, then the shock and disbelief as people are forced to leave their homes for the Krakow ghetto, taken to an extermination camp and after enduring unspeakable cruelty, finally liberated. Set against a backdrop of utter despair and hopelessness, the survivor relives the inexplicable power that enabled him to persevere, the rainbow in the figurative night that promised better days to come. Culminating triumphantly with our hope for the future, the faces of hundreds of modern day Jewish children, Rainbow in the Night is both a euphoric tribute to the indomitable human spirit that enabled the Jewish people to survive against all odds and also a call to arms, to rekindle the spark of Jewish pride and unity among Jews worldwide, as we continue to rebuild the generations that were destroyed by the Nazis.

http://www.rainbowitn.com/

Follow up on Netvision Fiasco

I said that if I would post any follow up from Netvision.
This morning I got a call from Tami at Netvision who had read my last post and was keen to try to make amends.
She again repeated that I must have agreed to the Internet plan when they called, she said that they would not have given me an Internet account unless they provided me with a user name and password.
I repeated that I definitely did not agree to open an Internet account and I am certain that I never received a user name or password. Again I asked for a copy of the original conversation, and again she said that they could not provide it without a court order.
She did however agree to a full refund and she said that she would personally review the original call to verify what happened.
She said that the refund will take up to 30 days – Bli neder I’ll leave a comment to this post if/when it arrives.
So it seems that the only way to get any service from Netvision is to write about it on the Internet. With that in mind, if anyone else has a story that they would like posted on this blog, please leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.

013 Netvision – Customer Service at its worst

If any readers are considering 013 Netvision as an Internet Service Provider or long distance phone carrier – don’t.
If you already have an account with 013 Netvision, you should carefully check your monthly statements to make sure that there are no additional charges for services that you did not agree to.
If you want details of what really bad customer service looks like, take a look at the following (sorry that this is such a long post). If anyone else has had an interesting customer service experience with 013 Netvision, whether good or bad, please leave a comment.
For the past several years, we have used 013 Netvision for long distance phone calls. About 3 months ago, a representative of 013 Netvision called to offer us their Internet service. She offered a similar service to what I’m getting for a better price and the first moth free.
Because I never agree to any deals over the phone without first seeing the details in writing, I asked her to email me further information, including specific technical details that she was unable to provide me on the phone. They never sent a follow-up email, and because I am very happy with my current ISP and had no interest in changing, I never followed up with them.
To my surprise, when I opened my 013 bill last month, I was astonished to see that they were charging me for the Internet Service, in spite of the fact that I never agreed to it and never used it – nor did I ever get the technical details how to connect to them, so I could not have used it even if I had wanted to.
Assuming that this was a simple misunderstanding, I called their client services number to explain what had happened and to get a refund.
After more than half an hour on hold, the agent I spoke to transferred my to Omaima, a manager in the Client Services department. She pulled up my information, and said that according to their records I agreed to the deal. She then had the Chutzpah to try to sell me the deal instead of cancelling it. I explained several times that I was not interest in their Internet Service, I just wanted my money back and for them to cancel the account.
After a long conversation, Omaima agreed to get someone to review a recording of the original sales call, and if I had not agreed to the deal, she would refund the money and cancel the service. She said that she would call me back later that day or the next business day to confirm that the issue had been resolved.
When she didn’t get back to me the following business day, I again called, was put on hold for almost an hour and left a message with Bracha who said that someone would get back to me (which they didn’t).
The following day, after almost an hour on hold, I spoke to Rinat who said that the case was being reviewed and someone would get back to me later that day or the following day (which they didn’t)
2 days later again I spent an hour on hold. This time I spoke to Irene (who was the only representative I spoke to who even sounded sympathetic), who said that she would investigate the case and get back to me later in the same day (which she didn’t).
Irene did transfer me to a senior representative, Yasmin, who said the same thing – that the case was being reviewed and she would get back to me the same day (which she didn’t).
This morning, I spent almost 2 hours on the phone with them. I spoke to a manger called Adi who outright lied to me claiming that I must have given a credit card number to the sales representative, which I am 100% certain did not happen. When I asked for a recording or transcript of the verbal contract she said that there was no way for them to send me a copy without a court order.
She also had the chutzpah to again try to sell me their Internet plan service based on their terrific client services (I kid you not!).
She said that there was no way for them to refund the money, I asked if they could compensate me in a different way, for example credit in long distance phone calls. She said that she would get someone from the phone service department to call us back, which (surprise surprise) they did – to offer us almost the same phone deal that is advertised on the radio (great compensation).
So bottom line, we are looking for a new long-distance provider.
I have sent a copy of this post to 013 Netvision’s Customer Service department. If I get a response, I will post it as a follow-up message.
If anyone else has any 013 Customer Services experiences, please leave a comment.

The Dateline and Halacha

One of the most famous Halachic questions to come out of New Zealand (and Japan) is the question of where the Halachic dateline is.

Briefly the question is where the dateline should be. The International Dateline marked on maps is loosely based on 180 degrees from Greenwich. Given that Halacha doesn’t (necessarily) recognize Greenwich as the center of the Earth, there doesn’t seem to be reason for Halacha to accept the arbitrary dateline in common usage today.

There are various Halachic opinions as to where the halachic dateline should be, most famously the Chazon Ish who moves the dateline West of its current location, making Shabbat on Sunday in New Zealand and Japan. Rav Tucazinsky moves the dateline East, which would make Shabbat on a Friday in Hawaii. (For further background to the issue, see this article by the Star K.)

A lot of people have trouble understanding the question, because they think of the dateline as something that is fixed and universally accepted. How can there be a question whether a day is Friday or Saturday. To put the question in perspective, you should realize that historically there have been many changes to the dateline, and in fact there will be another adjustment this week.

The South Pacific Islands of Samoa and Tokelau have decided that they should be on the Western Side of the Dateline to make their time zone more similar to their closest neighbours and major trading partners, New Zealand and Australia.

This means that on these Islands, Thursday December 29 was followed by Saturday December 31.

As far as I am aware, there are no Jewish Communities on these Islands, but the Jewish Virtual Library estimates 100 Jews in Oceania outside New Zealand and Australia. If any of these Jews are in Samoa or Tokelau, they would be faced with an enormous Halachic issue.

Assuming that until now any Jews in Samoa followed the opinion of the Tucazinsky, and kept Shabbat on Saturday, seven days after last Shabbat will be Sunday January 1st, which according to Tucazinsky should be Shabbat.

It would be difficult to justify keeping Shabbat on Saturday one week, and then keeping the following Saturday which is only six days later, based on an arbitrary decision of the government to modify their time zone.

If anyone has a Halachic solution for the Jews of Samoa and Tokelau, feel free to leave a comment.