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Sunday Feb 24, 2008
We have some relief from the Iranian president calling us a filthy germ that must be destroyed, the continued fall of rockets on Sderot, residents' demonstrations in behalf of greater protection, and mounting pressure for an operation in Gaza.
A member of Knesset turned our attention to earthquakes. Recent quakes have been minor. But we are on the edge of the Syrian-African rift, and there is a history of major quakes.
Shlomo Benizri's explanation of earthquakes is homosexuality. He urged the Knesset to debate how to end sexual relations between men, and thereby prevent earthquakes.
Benizri has been minister of health and minister of labor and welfare, and is prominent among the 12 member delegation in the Knesset of the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party SHAS.
This is not his first time in the religious spotlight. While attending an international meeting of health ministers, he avoided meetings devoted to public health and medicine until he was convinced that the hotel would be serving him kosher food.
The parliamentary head of the SHAS delegation attacked a recent decision by the attorney general to allow adoptions by homosexual and lesbian couples. According to this Knesset member, the attorney general's decision will lead to the corruption and destruction described for Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18, 19).
Yet another SHAS MK compared single sex relationships to bird flu.
The organizations of homosexuals and lesbians are protesting. Media commentators plus some secular politicians are sharpening their ridicule. Politicians who need SHAS votes now, or are likely to need them in the future, are quieter and hoping this will pass.
Religious activists have no trouble finding Biblical condemnations of homosexuality. "If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them."(Leviticus. 20:13)
Yet David is one of Judaism's most revered figures. What he said when he heard about his friend Jonathan's death is widely quoted. Those wanting to preserve David's purity and the ban on homosexuality can find ambiguity in the statement. It does not describe lovers in a bathhouse. Nevertheless:
I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; you were very dear to me. Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women. (II Samuel 1:26).
SHAS is a member of the governing coalition. If the issue heats up to the point of the party leaving the government, Prime Minister Olmert would lose his parliamentary majority.
It probably will no go that far. Israel has learned to live with otherworldly expressions. The spiritual leader of SHAS, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, said that African Americans suffered greatly from Hurricane Katrina because they do not study Torah; and that IDF soldiers died in Lebanon because they did not pray correctly. Another SHAS rabbi explained a road accident that killed numerous school children by reference to flawed mezzuzzot in their home town. Other ultra-Orthodox rabbis have said that the Holocaust was God's punishment for the development of Reform Judaism in Germany.
Americans may actually be more affected by the consequences of religious doctrine than Israelis. The rights of homosexuals and lesbians in Israel to create families, to enjoy the economic benefits available to spouses, and to adopt children continue to expand despite apocalyptic denunciations. We suffer nothing like public schools required to teach creationism, one effort after another to limit the possibilities of abortion, or government coupling of campaigns against AIDS with the mantra of abstinence.
SHAS politicians may be more concerned about the laws of God than the laws of Israel. The attorney general has charged Benizri with accepting bribes, fraud, and breach of trust. According to the indictment, a manpower contractor paid Benizri, as minister of labor and welfare, for allowing him to import foreign workers. A former minister of interior and head of the parliamentary delegation, plus a SHAS back bencher both ended their political careers with terms in prison. Party supporters claimed that they were innocent, or involved in activities considered conventional for politicians who were not religious or Sephardi.
David remains a national hero.
1 | Reuven Ben-Daniel Israel, Sunday Feb 24, 2008
But there is no evidence that it was not a chaste relationship.There are married couples who by mutual choice have a chaste relationship.
2 | calev ben avraham, Sunday Feb 24, 2008
I advice the rabi who makes such a claime to study the book of job and then comare it with the book of Daniel,maybe his blind eyes will open to the fact that the holocuast was a proof for the Satan that Israel would never abandone their Creator.They where given into the hands of Satan for three and a half years after which the war ended and Hitler was slain!
3 | Velvel, Sunday Feb 24, 2008
Makes no sense. How can Shas be worried about the laws of G-d when they are busy dividing up Jerusalem. Why do you go by labels and rhetoric instead of actions. It is deeds that speak louder than words, all gay-bashing aside. It is a desperate attempt by Shas to maintain credibility among the religious by bashing gays. Your article is counter productive by trying to assign leniency in Torah to gay acts. It simply doesn't exist. Religious people laugh at this attempt. What you should be doing is pointing out the sinas chinam of Shas and its blatant hypocrisy.
4 | Walter (USA), Sunday Feb 24, 2008
David was a profit of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. His "love" for Jonathan was no different than the love I have for my daughter. I love my five year old daughter more than any love I could have for an adult woman. The God of the Bible does not say one thing and do another. A man that lies with another man is an abomination in the eyes of the Creator. Gods Words are far, far above any good law or idea man could perceive.WE should not give up our children to those that outwardly spit in the face of God, that is a mistake on our part. Isaiah 48:12-19.
5 | Samuel Ramirez, Sunday Feb 24, 2008
Not religious or Sephardi......what does this mean? Is a Sephardi Jew not religious or ignorant or just not Ashkenazi.
6 | Michael Martin Maury NC USA, Sunday Feb 24, 2008
In the case of David and Jonatrhan,Jesus made a qualifying statement:Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for his friend. That's the kind of love David and Jonathan had for each other.
7 | Morton Friedman Lanham, MD USA, Sunday Feb 24, 2008
G_d, please spare me from the 'Men of G_d'. No, nobody will ever accuse me of homosexuality, bur 'live and let live' is my mantra, and homosexuality is never a threat, and never has been.
8 | Melvin Gilbert Jr., Sunday Feb 24, 2008
homosexuality is a sin before GOD and that is that! King David's admission of love for Jonathan is not an admission of perversion but is the same kind of love a man would feel for his very best friend. It does not intimate that any perverse act was going on, only that they had a close kinship, the kind of closeness any man can feel for a fellow warrior. the struggle men have to bare up to in life. and the fact that Jonathan stood by David even against his own father King Saul.
9 | marilyn l anna, usa, Sunday Feb 24, 2008
David and Jonathan had one of the closest relationships in the Bible. Their commitment to God and to each other was one of respect and love in the Truth of God's Word. The love that was shared between them held a bond of true friendship that did not compare to the pressures of marriage to a women. David loved God and feared Him. David's relationship with Jonathan was one which continued to show the love of God to others.
10 | Michael Peters, Sydney, Australia., Monday Feb 25, 2008
The author of this article, Ira Sharkansky, should pore over responses #6 and #8 to understand the Bible text unless it is a clear attempt on her part to deliberately misconstrue it in order to add weight to her argument.
11 | Shaul, Monday Feb 25, 2008
What complete intellectual dishonesty. You found one source, which you quote out of context, and suddenly you have "discovered" an Orthodox Jewish "hetter" for homosexuality where no prophet, Tanna, Amora, Gaon, Rishon or Acharon found one before. Go and justify your perversions from any other source, but please spare us the insult of trying to justify it from the Torah.
12 | Jo 24 February 2008, Monday Feb 25, 2008
The comments 8 and 9 are good. Sometimes
I wonder whether the fact that a strong bond of friendship between two men, in some
socieities might seem to be regarded/spurned as evidence of homosexual tendencies, might in the end cause some men to think that society is right - and that they must in fact be homosexuals, when they would not otherwise have thought of themselves as homosexuals but just good friends with a bond of brotherhood. I should add that, of course, the theory could only apply to men who do not consider homosexuality to be immoral.
13 | God loves King David because he obeyed God's laws, Monday Feb 25, 2008
God's laws in Tanakh & NT condemns homosex and liars. King David was neither else he could never have been so beloved and honored by HaShem and Yeshua for keeping Torah in letter and in spirit.
Blog writer obviously doesn't know God's laws. He should actually READ the Bible (God's laws) before he deigns to write about them.
When it's God's laws v. Secular Israel's laws, God's laws wins hands down. Whereas, God's laws and Holy Israel's laws are the same.
14 | Robert Nickisson, Thursday Feb 28, 2008
Waiting 2000 years for its religious apparition to appear, it should be obvious its a no show. A cult wishes to run the country has added to the rubbish pointed out in the article Homosexual knee knocking causes earthquakes. Wasting legislative time to debate tripe. Let Secular Government run the everyday affairs of the living. Religion stick to running the affairs of the gullible. Or make Religion the Law of the land and revert to the Dark Ages. Religion, man made tradition over time becoming fact. Its place in society is for those who need it and the Worlds biggest business.
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Window on Israel
Hebrew University Political Science professor evaluates the latest happenings in Israel.
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Recent Comments
Dan, USA: There's a saying in America that you can say anything you want on your last day of work. Despite that (or because of it), very few employers ever hear anything useful from their departing employees - whatever the circumstances of their departure. Mr. Olmert's recent remarks should be treated no differently than a boss would treat advice coming from an employee he just fired. It doesn't matter what his motives are.
Darrell M. USA: As an American I am well aware that far too many politicians serve only themselves. I suppose the same is true everywhere. Israel needs another of her strong leaders to come to the fore. For that matter, so does America.
Vinegar Hill, Madrid, Spain.: An interesting article Mr. Sharkansky but out of all the options that you offer in response to the question of motive(s) I am not to sure what your bottom line is! Perhaps we should take Olmert at face value and accept that this is what he feels as he heads towards the close of his political life as prime minister. He has nothing left to loose at this stage, so why should he not offer up his real views. Often problems have simple solutions which are difficult to recognise because they are just that- truthful and simple.
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