Perverting The Law Of Mercy: Part II

Like so many leftist rags today, The Times of Israel is a popular online magnet to disseminate anti-Jewish values. A forum of filth where moral defectives frequently share their relativism with a large and often shockingly ignorant audience.  For Jewish writers, The Times of Israel will gladly share your writings if you meet the following criteria:

• you are an aggressive advocate for gay rights
• you are an unprincipled “hasbara” activist with an agenda, or a prominent messianic hasbara activist
• you are a member of a reform, liberal, or “open-orthodox” movement or organization
•  you are a card-carrying member of the “Women of the Wall” or a militant shrill feminist eager to rant about the evils of rabbinical patriarchy
• you are a peacenik, or a radical halachic innovator
• you mock and denigrate Torah values

In order to retain some modicum of credibility, some “conservative” or “right-wing” bloggers are permitted a place at the table, provided they moderate their sentiments and refrain from tackling provocative issues. On the other hand, if you maintain some principles and write something that rocks their general liberal sentiments, they will probably remove your article. This explains the ever-growing number of hasbara “right-wingers” who suddenly have a problem with TOI. When most writers complain about them, it usually follows a bit of professional narcissism. The script is predictable. One of their articles was removed and now they have a complex. In truth, any one with eyes can see that most of their featured articles are of a type. So why should anyone expect leftists to suddenly play fair?

I am proud to say that several years back my second article for TOI was the last one I ever wrote for them. The editors bounced me out so fast after I wrote an unflattering article about President Obama. Evidently, their original assumptions about a curly haired nature loving guy from the remote Negev were way off.

My writing is generally reactive to what I perceive to be societal dysfunction. The Times of Israel is often a good source to go fishing for freaks, in the same manner that I peruse other liberal forums to search for material. It is a medium to discover the dysfunctional faces of contemporary Judaism.

One of the TOI’s more notorious editors frequently receives criticism for her liberal views, where she often beats her chest for “oppressed Palestinians” and vilifies normative Torah values and traditions. In many ways, she is a caricature of a caricature, in the form of the archetypal misguided self-righteous liberal Jew. If you created her character as a work of fiction, no one would believe you. She is often taken to task for her articles. All of it is well deserved. But she is an easy target.

Many other writers fall under the radar, since they lack her notoriety. Some time ago, I wrote an article, “Perverting the Law of Mercy” in response to an article by Rabbi Daniel Landes entitled “Rachmanut for Gaza.” Here we had a purported religious Rabbi expressing a thoroughly un-Jewish position by advocating mercy for ghouls (in the manner of all merciful Jewish fools), and I felt it required a response. A chillul Hashem unanswered is a chillul Hashem run amuck.

Michael Lesher is another such deviant, and his recent article, “Crime and Punishment”: Fadi Qunbar, Elor Azaria and Israel’s Occupation” was one of the more grotesque things I have read in a while. Thus, Part II of the same title was born. Michael Lesher identifies as an orthodox Jew, and his opening comments speaks volumes about his mindset and the kind of pornographic views we can expect from him:

“First of all, I do not want to write about Elor Azaria. He is a cipher: a smirking, undersized bully who murdered a helpless Palestinian because the State of Israel put a rifle into his hands, corrupted him with a racist ideology, and hardened his conscience with a 50-year-long military occupation of the West Bank – to which Azaria added another victim last March.”

I found it ironic that a man whose profile pic accompanying his article resembles the visage of a grinning cartoon villain (pencil moustache, contrived smirk where the eyes betray the smile!) would have the gall to write about “a smirking, undersized bully.” Elor Azaria killed a terrorist. Yet in a shocking admission of Sodom morality, Lesher mourns the terrorist and vilifies the hero. Yet in accordance with the wisdom of never judging a book by the cover, the rest of the article betrays that in this case, the content is indeed FAR worse than the cover.

“But I do want to write a few words about Fadi Qunbar, the young Palestinian father of 4 who, on January 8, became yet another casualty of Israel’s occupation.

Yes, that Fadi Qunbar – the Fadi Qunbar whose life is now summed up in the media under the single word “terrorist,” because he used his truck to kill 4 soldiers of the enemy force occupying his land before their comrades gunned him down. The Fadi Qunbar whose death was not even counted in the headlines that screamed about “4 Killed in Jerusalem Attack” – four soldiers, that is – because a dead Palestinian cannot be mentioned in the same breath as Israelis, just as the newspapers that mourned his oppressors could not spare the ink to correctly identify the site of Qunbar’s death as “occupied East Jerusalem.”

After reading these sick sentiments, the following words danced through my head. “And to the informer may there be no hope” ……

Fadi Qunbar. The same Arab beast who plowed his truck into four beautiful young Jews and murdered them. Injured scores of others. Fadi Qunbar. A genuine man-ghoul who ended the life of the pure and the innocent because of his burning Jew hatred and his bloodlust to finish the Mufti’s quest.

Putting aside for a moment Lesher’s grotesque leftist views relating to his imagined “occupation,” his sympathy for a demon says everything we need to know about him. His hatred and callousness towards the brutal murder of fellow Jews is the reason Chazal had such harsh words for such people. Lesher would have made an effective capo or judenrat, since his writings, in effect, play the same role. One who would destroy his brother. One who has no love for another Jew. One who makes the perverse association of “victim” with a modern-day Nazi.

The four murdered soldiers were murdered because they were Jews, and in addition to the fact that they were soldiers committed to protecting fellow Jews, halachically they sanctified G-d’s Name. They are truly righteous Jews. Michael Lesher is a sneering self-hating grub, who lacks the morality of a sewer rat. Generally, we should love our fellow Jews, despite our differences. But then are other types of Jews. Villains who eagerly join hands with the enemy, to fight against their fellow brothers. For such people, the Torah mandates that we only show them hatred. And even in the absence of Rabbinical courts, there were often harsh measures meted out to such dangerous personalities.

Lesher’s article represents yet another low for TOI. 

Any forum which would feature such abominable views (and they frequently do!) should be vilified and exposed for what they are. Jews need to stop pretending that TOI used to be better. It was always a cesspool. But a cesspool rarely becomes cleaner with time. And given the general erosion of values, one can expect continued regression.

The word “Erev Rav” (mixed multitude) is often thrown around incorrectly, sometimes falling upon the heads of who do not deserve it. Michael Lesher is certainly a representative of the mixed multitude. The same can be said for those who would publish such filth. Lesher is a self-hating anomaly (presumably with a kipah) with a twisted soul. Sometimes a kipah reflects an awareness of The Almighty, by sitting squarely on our brainbox and reminding us that G-d exists. Other times, it merely covers a hollow head.

The Lesher’s of the world are welcome on TOI, since the latter love nothing better than sickos with kipot or pretenses of “orthodoxy,” to justify their own misguided beliefs. Michael Lesher is the worst kind of Jew, and despite his self-identification he is about as “orthodox” as the Pope, or a Satanist. A quick perusal of the web illustrates what he is. A self-hating cretin willing to write for The Electronic Intifada. He is an enemy. A diseased soul who sides with Arab murderers in their genocidal war with our people. Chazal had much to say about such defectives and none of it is good. There is really nothing more to say about such people. Like the Neturei Karta, they are the enemy. May they all merit the same fate as their beloved “victims.”