Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: rogel alpher

Showing posts with label rogel alpher. Show all posts

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Haaretz columnist Rogel Alpher compares fallen IDF soldiers to suicide bombers

Rogel Alpher continues to troll Jews. There is no way he actually believes this stuff; he just wants to get people outraged at him so he can keep his job at Haaretz.

The version of “El Maleh Rahamim” sung in official state ceremonies on Memorial Day is a jihadist text that turns fallen Israeli soldiers into shahids. The prayer begins: “God full of mercy, who dwells on high” and continues: “among the holy, the pure and the heroes ... the souls of the soldiers ... who gave their lives for the sanctification of [God] and who with the help of the God of Israel’s wars brought about the rebirth of the nation and the redemption of the land. God is their heritage, may they find rest in the Garden of Eden.”
According to the prayer, Israeli soldiers die in the sanctification of the name God. And thus in fighting and dying, they carried out the commandment that requires them as Jews to give their lives for God. This jihadism is clearly declared in the prayer commemorating the souls of the departed in state ceremonies on Memorial Day. As a result of being holy, the fallen soldiers’ place in the Garden of Eden is assured, and there they will rest. How is this different from the culture of the shahids? A shahid is also someone whose place in Paradise is assured, according to the verse in the Koran: “Think not of those who are slain for the sake of Allah as dead. Nay, they live, finding their sustenance in the presence of their Lord.”
According to “El Maleh Rahamim,” a shahid and a fallen soldier are the same. They both gave their lives for the sake of God, and in exchange, they are both in Paradise. The mentality is identical.

This is a modified version of a prayer that has been around for about a thousand years, changed to apply specifically to fallen IDF soldiers. There are versions for Holocaust victims as well as a group. It was first composed, apparently, to commemorate victims of the Crusades and of the Chmielnicki massacres

The IDF version is very close to the traditional version. It is blindingly obvious that in no way does the prayer encourage people to become martyrs.

Alpher, in his depravity, is pretending that the jihadist idea of martyrdom is the legitimate and original version, and the Jewish use of the term is simply an application of the Muslim jihadist suicide bomber version. No, Rogel, Jews don't want to die as martyrs, but too often there is no choice.

Muslim Shahids willingly die while trying to kill the infidel. Jews become martyrs while trying to save themselves and their people and their faith. To call these two mentalities "identical" is, as I said, trolling.

Alpher isn't that stupid. He just gets his jollies on making people angry. He is not worth hating - he is simply too pathetic a human being.

(h/t Yoel)

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Haaretz op-ed calls to boycott Maccabiah Games as "racist" - even though Arabs participate

Rogel Alpher writes in Haaretz:

The 20th Maccabiah Games, which opens July 4, is a racist and ultranationalist event that violates the spirit of the Olympics. The Olympics are based on universal values of rising above differences of race and religion. But the condition for participation in the “Jewish Olympics” is racist. Only Jews take part in the Maccabiah.

This is funny because four years ago Haaretz itself has reported on Arab athletes in the Maccabiah Games since the very first tournament in 1932 when Egyptian boxers participated. The newspaper interviewed Husam Aruk, who was a gymnast in the previous three Maccabiahs:

“I have never felt the need to ask myself what I am. I have a long history with Jews, and I’ve been living and training with them from the day I chose the sport of gymnastics. All my friends are Jewish and they certainly know who I am.”
Aruk says that even though he did not encounter many Arab-Israeli athletes in the two Maccabiahs in which he competed (2005 and 2009), he was never made to feel like an outsider. Nor did he encounter offensive behavior on the part of rival athletes. The crowd always rooted for him even though he is “a non-Jew,” he says. “This is the first time I’ve even thought about this issue,” Aruk admits. His parents do not object to his participating in the Jewish Olympics and encourage him to carry on in his chosen path.

Some Arab athletes who participated wanted to keep a lower profile:

A Muslim athlete who competed in the past in the Maccabiah, and asked not to be named, theorized that the dearth of Arab-Israeli participants stems from, among other things, the objection of prominent figures in the Arab community to the “Jewish Zionist” concept of the Games. Despite repeated requests from Haaretz to Arab members of Knesset Ahmed Tibi and Hanin Zuabi for a comment on this matter, no response was ever received.
The MKs were not the only ones to keep mum. Many Arab-Israeli athletes declined being interviewed for this article, claiming that “nothing good for us is likely to come of it,” as one of them wrote in response to a request from Haaretz.

Yes, Arabs in Israel are reluctant to compete because of - Arab racism. A topic that Alpher wouldn't dare think to be worth exploring.

Now it is true that the Maccabiah Games is primarily for Jews worldwide, but it is up to individual countries' Maccabiah committees to decide who is eligible. So Argentina will allow non-Jews with Jewish spouses to participate, for example.

But does Alpher object to the Gay Games? To the Deaflympics or Paralympics or Special Olympics? To the Asian Games that exclude Israel? All of which have criteria that do not allow everyone to participate?

Alpher doesn't explore these questions. Instead, he says "The Maccabiah Games is a racist event that makes the 1936 Berlin Olympics seem liberal."

It is a waste of time to be offended by such stupidity. Alpher, like other Haaretz columnists, long ago stopped trying to make cogent arguments and instead now compete in their own games - to see how much they can outdo each other in insulting Israel.

Alpher tries very hard to be a gold medalist in the Haaretz Games, but he is always up against stiff competition from Gideon Levy and Amira Hass and others. I guess they get paid by how many howls of outrage they elicit as they try to one-up the other with more lies and insane accusations.

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Haaretz columnist compares Hatikva to Arab threats to kill Jews (update)

Rogel Alpher, one of the Ha'aretz columnists whose columns are often so extreme as to appear to be a parody, has done it again:

His thesis is that to Arabs, the lyrics of Israel's national anthem are just as offensive and extreme and frightening as Jews hearing the Arab chant, “in spirit, in blood, we shall redeem Al Aqsa."

What are the equally offensive lyrics of Hatikva, according to Alpher? “To be a free people in our land, the land of Zion and Jerusalem.”

Let's see. Hatikva expresses a millennia-old hope for Jews to return to their ancestral homeland. it doesn't say that this return should be violent, or even that it should dispossess other people.

The chant of “in spirit, in blood, we shall redeem Al Aqsa" appears to be much more recent - from 2002, coined by extremist Islamist Raed Salah, head of the northern branch of the Islamic movement. It is meant to be nothing less than violent and antisemitic. (Another source traces it to the same person but in 2000.)

The phrase reached the public consciousness in a 2011 rally sponsored by the Islamic Movement in Umm al-Fahem. Some 30,000 Arabs chanted the phrase. The rally also reatured a play showing ultra-Orthodox Jews destroying the Al Aqsa Mosque.

I can certainly understand why Israeli Arabs might not want to sing Hatikva. However, Alpher self-righteously claims to speak on behalf of Arabs in his assertion that Arabs feel physically threatened by the words of Hatikva - he says that "when Jews sing 'our hope has not been lost, the two-thousand-year-old-hope,' it scares [Israeli Arabs.]"

The only hate that I see from any Israeli Jew in his columns is that of Rogel Alpher himself, who despises his own nation so much that he has called the Israeli flag a "fascistic symbol" and who had pledged to leave the country because of how immoral it is.

Amazingly, he still hasn't left, since Ha'aretz apparently still thinks that he has useful things to say.

(Not surprisingly, this column is being translated into Arabic for Palestinian newspapers.)

UPDATE: As is often the case, PreOccupied Territory takes my story and runs with it.

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Haaretz columnist calls Israeli flag a "fascistic symbol"

What's wrong with this picture?

According to Haaretz' clown Rogel Alpher, it is the tiny Israeli flag in the bottom left.

Channel 20 is the only television station in Israel which proudly waves a political flag. It is blatantly right wing. Sharon Gal was one of its presenters, until he joined Avigdor Lieberman's party and started to issue blood-chilling warnings to Arab Knesset members; the stomach churns just to hear the language that Gal used. Ar'el Segal, Zvi Yehezkeli, Kalman Liebskind and Avri Gilad – card-carrying members of right-leaning stream of the mainstream media – are the channel's stars. The channel itself is part of the inevitable trend of increasingly rightist content in Israeli news broadcasts.

In the corner of the screen Channel 20 has a strategically placed Israeli flag. It has been designed to look as if it's blowing gently in the breeze. The same flag that we salute and we drape over the coffins of fallen soldiers. What on earth is it doing in the corner of Channel 20's screen?

Even Israel Hayom does not print the Israeli flag on all of its pages. Army radio does not begin each day's broadcasts with a rendition of the national anthem. Is it considered unpatriotic to watch a television station that does not have the national flag on the screen every minute of every day? Is there some law that obligates Israeli TV channels to display the flag? Every time I see that flag on my screen, I want to cover it up or tear it down. Ironically, it reminds me of state-run television channels in some dictatorial Arab country.

This is just another fascistic symbol that is permeating our lives.

Haaretz columnist urges people not to vote

Haaretz columnist Rogel Alpher, whom we last saw attacking Elie Wiesel's hair and claiming that only Israeli citizens (and Palestinians, and people like him planning to leave Israel) may voice an opinion on Israel, is now urging Israelis not to bother voting altogether.

On Tuesday, we will be going to the polls and feeling like idiots. None of Israel’s pressing problems will be solved by this election. Even after the formation of the next government, the process of becoming an irreversible binational state will continue, thus depriving us of a normal, moral life.

As the campaign draws to a close, an aggressive push has been waged to encourage people to vote. Endless broadcasts on behalf of government agencies and the commercial television networks have called on Israelis to exercise their right to vote. Voting in these elections has been portrayed as an act that enables Israel’s citizens to influence their current existence and future fate.

An ideological steamroller of a campaign has tarnished the reputation of those who don’t vote: Comrades, these are negative types, a band of really dangerous people. They gripe, but refuse to roll up their sleeves. They are quitting the community, turning their backs on society – wild, rotten weeds that weaken our collective existence. So inform on them. The police will push them into the paddy wagons and you will no longer see them. Don’t get infected by their spiritual atrophy. Stick with us.

It turns out the only real, subversive act involves expressing a lack of confidence in the effectiveness of the election as a process – one that lets the citizens shape the country’s identity and as an instrument for change. The major fear – the only fear of the establishment – is that the public will wake up and understand that the election is just a virtual game, an Israeli version of sci-fi film “The Matrix.”

Is not voting an option? Is it an act of protest that will make a mark? At least it lets us maintain our self-respect. At least then we’ll know that we weren’t puppets on a string, fools unaware of the circumstances of our ridiculous lives. On the other hand, elections have become a ritual, like the Passover seder – something you have to participate in, even if you’re not overjoyed about it, without believing in the blessings, but rather to derive a measure of satisfaction from the tradition. Happy Election Day.

It is highly amusing that Alpher, who has been saying since last August that he plans to emigrate from Israel since he is such a moral person, is complaining about people saying people like him are quitting the community.

To Alpher, voting for Meretz is not an option. Voting for the United Arab List is not an option. Presumably, even they are too right-wing for his enlightened tastes.

Alpher sees the truth while other Israelis are blind. He is enlightened while all else are in the dark. He knows that not voting is a "protest" that can make change far better than voting can. How, exactly, he doesn't say.

Perhaps he wants an Israeli intifada to replace the democratically elected government with his own idea of a moral leadership that can then dismantle the state and become one with the Arab world which will treat the Jews fairly. Who knows what goes through the mind of someone who imagines police arresting people who don't vote? (In 2012, 32% of Israelis didn't vote; a steady deterioration from the above-80% turnouts in the 1950s and 60s The jails must be very, very full.)

It is clear that Alpher is on the fringe of the fringe, a person who lives in a tiny bubble even within the Tel Aviv bubble. He doesn't want to vote because he feels that he is better than everyone else, yet no one was brilliant enough to nominate him.

But to the world community, for whom Ha'aretz represents their idea of how liberal Israelis think, Alpher is mainstream.

Rogel Alpher writes what may be the dumbest Haaretz column ever

Look at that hair!

This may not be the most offensive Haaretz column ever written, but it very possibly is the most idiotic.

From Rogel Alpher in Haaretz:

I saw you during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech in Congress, Elie Wiesel. You were there, in the gallery, next to Sara Netanyahu. Your appearance was impressive and powerful, leaving its mark on everyone who saw it.

...Your thin, elderly body hardly filled the suit you wore for the occasion. It is obvious you are accustomed to such suits. They are your natural clothing. Their touch is familiar to your skin. You looked like you were completely in your element when Netanyahu pointed you out – the most famous Holocaust survivor today, a Nobel laureate, an admired author – to illustrate his commitment to stopping the fulfillment of the Iranian threat to destroy Israel with nuclear weapons. Never again, and all that Holocaust jazz. You stood and thanked all the members of Congress, who gave you a standing ovation. You sat down, but they would not stop.

There is an intolerable ease in the applause you receive. It is automatic. Applauding you is the easiest, safest thing to do. And how they applauded. You sat down and stood up, modestly, to receive their overflowing esteem. You gave Netanyahu your symbolic and moral support. It is obvious you are well aware of who you are. You are Elie Wiesel. You are 86 years old. And for you, I count for nothing.

What were you doing there, Elie Wiesel? Netanyahu is my prime minister. You are not an Israeli citizen. You do not live here. The Iranian threat to destroy Israel does not apply to you. You are a Jew who lives in America. This is not your problem. By what right did you stand there, using your reputation and your prestige, to try and influence the members of Congress to accept Netanyahu’s position on an issue that has nothing to do with you?

If Israel’s future is so important to you, if the fate of Jerusalem matters so much to you, why do you not live here? Do you think that you and I have some shared fate because we are both Jews? Think again. Everything that happens to me here in Israel does not happen to you there in New York. Where do you get the right to interfere in my affairs? You have some nerve.

Rogel Alpher has created a new moral rule for the world.

Genocide in Darfur? Beheadings by ISIS? Girls kidnapped by Boko Haram? Don't speak out about it, unless you live in Nigeria or Iraq or the Sudan. Otherwise, you are a hypocritical blowhard.

Sorry, Peter Beinart. In Alpher's world, you have no right to write a column for Haaretz anymore, you damned American.

In Alpher's world, Wiesel has no right to speak out in support of Nicaragua's Miskito Indians, Argentina's Desaparecidos, Cambodian refugees, and Kurds. That's almost as heinous a crime as Wiesel's speaking out in defense of Israel Jews!

What chutzpah for a person who survived the genocide of six million Jews to speak out against the potential genocide of six million more Jews! What a hypocrite!

The ironic thing is that Alpher has said that he is so sick of Israel that he will move out - but meanwhile, his opinion of the people he is abandoning is far more important than that of those who identify with and care about them.

Hilariously, the longest paragraph in Alpher's nonsensical piece is about Elie Wiesel's hair. I kid you not.

It is impossible to ignore your white hair, visible from afar, parted by a deep gulf on the slope of your high forehead and dividing into airy stalks of a fluttering, almost youthful, forelock with something Parisian about it. The professorial hairdo of an esteemed intellectual, the kind that characterizes a creative, instinctive and turbulent sort of person. You carry it with open self-awareness, a bit like a preening peacock, a hallmark of the icon you have become. It flew over your elongated head, your beneficent and wise eyes. The feeling was that your very hair carried something of the victory of the human spirit. That is how the hair of a distinguished humanist looks.

This photo of Alpher may explain his obsession with the hair of an 86-year old man.

This is the sort of serious thought that is esteemed by Haaretz and its shrinking readership.