A Pyrrhic Victory for the Progressives at the Kotel Yesterday

2 Cheshvan

November 3, 2016

Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours

24 hours, 20+ terror incidents: such was Wednesday. Most of the attacks involved Molotov firebombs and “rocks”; some of the locations were Hawara, Eli, Beit Ummar, Sebastia, Makel, Azzun, Mt. Hevron, Jalazun, Hizma, Atarot, Efrat, and near Jenin.

A number of Israelis were treated for trauma, but fortunately, there were no reports of Israelis being physically wounded.

Farces and farces . . .

Farce 1: The ultra-left Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Ben Gurion University Beersheva is at it again. Following last June’s university cancellation of a $20,000 university award for the hideous “Breaking the Silence” organization, members of the department got together and raised 36,000 shekels (around $9000) to award Breaking the Silence themselves.

The university administration could only muster this meek response yesterday to a group of students protesting the new departmental award:

“This is a private initiative of university professors who wish to . . . provide an alternative prize . . . “

Farce 2: It was reported on Israel Channel 1 television last night that 3 so-called “human rights” organizations have been selling their permits to Palestinians seeking to come into Israel.

Apparently, each “human rights” organization operating in Judea and Samaria is issued large numbers of monthly passes so that its members can travel freely between Israel and Judea and Samaria.

However, the organizations have been fraudulently selling their passes to Palestinians who want to come into the country for whatever purpose. 

Not giving them away, but selling them . . .

TODAY’S BLOG

A Pyrrhic Victory for the Progressives at the Kotel Yesterday

The violent clashes at the Kotel yesterday were a disturbing reminder of how self-proclaimed “progressive” Judaism is so self-consumed that its adherents will even violate the sanctity of the Western Wall.

Nothing is more important to them than getting their own way, and getting it now. They don’t seem to realize that by engaging in massive provocation, they only succeed in hurting themselves.

They may have termed yesterday’s disaster as a “great victory” and a “turning point”, but it most assuredly was not.

So who is “they”, and what did “they” do?

“They” was a consortium of about 200 leftist activists, Israeli and foreign members of the Conservative and Reform movements, and Women of the Wall.

What did “they” do? Armed with 14 Torah scrolls, they stormed into the Kotel plaza–breaking through the security guards of the Western Wall Foundation. Once there, several Women of the Wall made it with scrolls into the women’s section and carried out a prayer service, while the men and other women carried out another prayer service in the upper plaza.

As this was taking place, violence broke out between the security guards and the “progressives”, and between orthodox worshipers and the “progressives.”

All of this according to the “progressives” was meant to protest the lack of implementation of a government solution to “progressive” demands at the site.

However, you may remember that the government solution, which involves the “progressives” praying together in mixed-gender prayer at the southern part of the Wall at Robinson’s Arch, stalled months ago when Women of the Wall abrogated the agreement by insisting on praying in the orthodox section.

In fact, the “progressives” could have prayed together yesterday in front of Robinson’s arch and thereby avoided all conflict, but they refused.

All in all, it was a cynical and sickening display of mishandling Torahs and violating the status quo in order to make a media moment for themselves.

By the end of the day, even PM Netanyahu, who goes out of his way to never criticize “progressive” reform and conservative Jews–especially from the Diaspora–issued this statement:

“The unfortunate events that happened today at the Western Wall plaza do not contribute to advancing the agreed-upon solution for prayer arrangements at the site. The prime minister and the Knesset speaker emphasized yesterday in front of the non-Orthodox leaders that this is the time for dialogue and not friction. The one-sided violation of the status quo at the Western Wall harms the ongoing efforts to reach a solution.”

A great victory? A pyrrhic one at best . . . one that will arouse the Orthodox community to fight the “progressives” tooth and nail.