akuperma

1. If they are “real” Chareidim (e.g. Satmar, Neturei Karta) who hold that Torah prohibits establishing a secular nominally-Jewish state, then they are conscientious objectors. Such persons routinely minimize accepting benefits from the medinah (and refuse funding from zionist entities including the Israeli government). There are no good reasons for the medinah to conscript such persons, and probably should treat them as Arabs (i.e. Palestinian Jews) with no more rights, or disabilities that Palestinian Muslims who refuse to serve in the IDF. Such persons should be exempt regardless of whether they are learning full time or not. It should be noted that most western democracies have traditionally exempted conscientious objectors to military service, and arresting conscientious objectors would be a public relations nightmare for the medinah.

2. For individuals who accept the legality under Jewish law of the current Medinah, the only real issue the IDF’s accommodation of religious practices (or lack thereof). This could be addressed and to a certain extent is (e.g. in special units and Hesder yeshivos). For Zionists who believe that their learning is more important than playing soldier, accommodation can be done through Hesder programs or even arranging part time service or work in alternative services such as defense factories (and noting that the Israeli government considers a yeshiva student learning 20 hours a week to be full time, so many exempt students can do some gainful employment).

3. The government could tie support for yeshiva students to military service, if they similarly tied support for university students to military service, and also tied state benefits to military service. However this would alienate many non-hareidim (secular left wingers as well as Arabs) who don’t serve in the army (and according to government statistics, they outnumber hareidim who refuse military service.

“America First” means foreign countries LAST. Remember that Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are allied. There already are Russian troops stationed in Syria (referenced in reports of foreign troops supporting Hebzolah in Syria ready to enter Lebanon and fight the Israelis). If Trump wins, he will give much sympathy for Israel, but nothing that will meaningfully stop the Russia/Iran/China axis from attacking. And remember that Israel is hopelessly outnumbered, and receives a large amount of its arms from the Americans. Of course one could hope for a miracle, perhaps in zechus of Israel cracking down on Torah education, banning abortions and LGBTQ, etc. (I am being sarcastic). The Israeli might be able to survive if they give up their first world standard of living (which many if not most Israeli Hareidim don’t enjoy), and are prepared to fight without American aid – but that might be too little, too late.

While Kamala (and her movement, the WOKE Progressive wing of the Democrats) only hate Israel, they are not likely to meaningfully oppose the “axis” since they prefer to focus on domestic matters and WOKE policies, rather than rebuild national defenses which have been seriously weakening for the last 16 years, so if those who depend on the United States in Europe or Asia which to survive, they need to be prepared to make the sacrifices necessary to defeat their enemies.

Who is selling raw chicken eggs with a hecksher? What company is paying for such a hecksher?

If some “dairy” company has a contract with a hecksher that all their products get the hecksher, the eggs frequently sold by that dairy company would technically get a hecksher, but the marginal cost of that hecksher would be de minimis (the fee for the hecksher would be on products that require supervision). Processed food such as powdered eggs need a hecksher but the discussion is over raw chicken eggs sold with unbroken shells.

Non-chicken eggs that occasionally get sold commercially, which is rare, are from kosher birds such as turkey and duck. Almost all eggs sold anywhere are from chickens, largely since chickens have been genetically modified to produce eggs roughly once a day and even when they are not fertilized.

By retaliating against Hezbollah the Israelis warned them that they can expect that conquering Eretz Yisrael will NOT be a push over, and they did so in a way that minimized non-combatant casualties (how many people give their work pager as a toy for their kids to play with?). Report indicate that the injuries were from the pager exploding in the hand and near the face of the user, or in their pockets. If a thief and murderer can break into your house, do his will, and leave without fear of consequences, he’ll continue to do so. Seriously wounding a large part of the enemy’s armed forces is in fact a much more effect measure than levelling the houses of the civilian population.

Calling Hezbollah a “terrorist” organization is a mistake. It is a formal armed force that is under Iran’s de facto command. They are no more terrorists the Israeli artillery or air force units – the only difference is Hezbollah primarily targets civilians, which is illegal under international law and that fact should help us understand that the pro-Hezbollah (and pro-Hamas) movements worldwide are criminals similar to the National Socialists and allied parties in Europe in the early 1940s (and yes, I’m suggesting that the pro-Palestinian demonstrators and politicians, including most of the “Progressive” wing of the Democrats, are NAZIs, pure and simple). And we need to remember that successful deNazification involved inflicting mass destruction and executing the leaders.

There is no reason to believe that Vance would do better, The Republicans would have been better off 8 months ago Trump retired and endorsed Haley, who then chose Vance for Vice-President. Unlike the Democrats (whose split between WOKE and DINO is over ideology, e.g. WOKE supports Hamas and anti-Semitism in America, the DINOs don’t), the Republican split of MAGA vs RINO is based on style and campaign tactics more than ideology.

The “never Trumpers” are unlikely to rejoin the Republican party since they object to MAGA ideology and generally share the Democrat’s view that the Trump supporters are a “basket of deplorables”. TDS (Trump derangement syndrome) does make the Democrats act like idiots (e.g. calling for Trump’s imprisonment or execution, without or without a fair trial), and if Trump dropped out they might recover.

In America, pro-Hamas members of the socio-economic elites endorse what Hamas did on Oct. 7, and feel free to attack Jews. There is a strong movement to ban Jews from elite universities. And the political party that includes, and arguably is dominated by the anti-Semites is leading in the election.

We perhaps might be able to relocate to “Red States” but they have their own problems, and would still be in the United States. There are very few countries in which both Islam and “WOKE” are opposed but none have ever had strong Jewish communities in the past. While relocating Jews to a different planet has been discussed both in the real world (wasn’t practical in the 1940s) and science fiction, that probably isn’t practical for at least a few more generations.

Doing tseuvah might help, but most Jews are too attached to modern culture and perqs to give it up.

The English phrase is “caught between a rock and a hard place”.

The DINOs and RINOs both support Israel, as well as support a strong pro-democracy foreign policy. But the current situation is that the Democrats have gone WOKE and the Republicans have gone MAGA, and neither of them support a policy that would result in the United States actively opposing the alliance of Russia, China and Iran. Israel’s best chance for survival is that either: 1) one of the parties will lose so badly that their former leadership (today’s DINOs and RINOs) can retake control; 2) a third party will be formed by the DINOs and RINOs, with a foreign policy reflecting the mid-20th century “Cold War” bi-partisan consensus.

My suggestion is that Israel should be pursuing a policy of being self-reliant, which they clearly aren’t doing.

In all fairness, how many Yidden (voluntarily) visited Poland and Ukraine during the last war they had in the area (1941-1945). Sane people don’t go touristing in combat zones, most people do try to prevent insane relatives from hurting themselves.

AI is a computer program. It has whatever intelligence the programmer has and no more. It can calculate fast. If a fool programs it, the AI will spout foolishness. “Garbage In, Garbage Out” is as valid as it always was.

If your cost of living is more than you can afford, you need to be more frugal and more modest. If you are living better than a kollel family with poor connections, no supportive parents and a spouse who spends most of her time doing childcare, you need to cut back expenses.

If you like economics, businesses and math, accounting is fine. If you want to get filthy rich, you’ll have to move over to management. Pays well but is soul crushing. Note that if Ha-Shem really wanted you to be rich, your parents would have left you a trust fund.

Ex-CTLawyer: If you were brought up as Zionist, why are you not an “Ex-Israel Lawyer”. The last Zionist made aliyah in the early 1950s. In America there are only Hareidim and “fans” of the Medinah.

Given the growth of anti-Semitism in the Democratic party, I expect that many non-Zionists will be moving there in the near future (the only other options are the hope the “Progressive Democrats” are totally wiped out in the next election, or migration to “red” states).

yechiell: the government already admitted that they count as “died of Covid” someone who died of something else but whose corpse tested positive for Covid. And according to the official statistics, most death were older people who were dying of something to begin with. As early as March 2020, random testing revealed that the overwhelming number of people who tested positive for Covid did not get seriously ill. They should have limited to “shutdown” to old people and those with serious conditions (which made them at risk for flu). Note that the vaccine did not significantly reduce the chance of testing positive for COVID, which is why most people became skeptical of it (though it did reduce the already small possibility of dying from Covid).

Other the the initial “emergency” powers he claimed, Trump did the right thing by encouraging research and development of a vaccine. He made a big mistake in allowing the massive shutdowns which required massive federal handouts, which led to inflation (conveniently, after he left office, and for which the Democratic Congress was equally to blame)

Trump initially bought the COVID hoax and claimed all sorts of emergency powers. However the distortion of medical resources is probably what killed most people. By treating COVID as an existential crisis, regular medical care was disrupted (e.g. in person doctor visits, access to ERs, treatments that required using hospital resources). After the data came out that only a small percentage of people infected actually became ill, and almost all recovered without medical intervention, and that the fatalities were primarily old people who were in poor health to begin with – Trump back down for supporting the extreme measures the civil servants were enacting but wasn’t able to disrupt it. He should be blamed for not stopping the shutdowns and for not ending the emergency declaration.

Abstaining or voting for a protest candidate means you are equally happy with Harris and Trump, and believe they will follow similar policies on the issues that matter to you. If your big concern is need for a balanced budget (the late Tea Party’s agenda), you are probably right. On most other issues, you are probably wrong, though on international relations both candidates are trying to avoid taking a strong stand either way.

Among goyim (the ones who invented baseball), baseball caps are worn by both male and females. One should note that it is possible to make a cap more feminine (the teams sometimes give away “women’s” caps on Mothers’ Day).

1. Most of the military leadership in the United States is conservative, not socialist. Marxism never caught on here.
2. A major component of the armed forces of the United States is guaranteed by the 2nd amendment, and they tend to be Republicans
3. Almost half the surface forces of the organized military are under state, not federal, control.
4. American have a tradition of free elections going back to the middle ages, whereas the Spanish countries only had their first free elections in the 19th century, and have no democratic (small “d”) tradition
5. Americans have a tradition of the military not seizing power (which originated with George Washington), Spanish countries don’t

Evil people die all the time. If it was clearly a miracle (נס) or if he was someone threatening our existence, it might be an occasion for the gedolim to declare a yuntuf. The individual killed was a soldier fighting Medinat Yisrael, who in accordance with traditional of soldier everywhere and everywhen, specialized in killing civilians (technically illegal under international law, especially if your side loses the war). Since Nazi soldiers died on every day of the year (not heard, they lost millions and there are less than 400 days, so it is as mathematical certainty that every day is the anniversary of the death of a Nazi). Note than during World War II, which was a real threat to our existence, we didn’t cancel tachnun to celebrate the death of a Nazi. And the act he was killed in a very ordinary way by the Israeli forces makes it a stretch to say it was a miracle..

Also remember we get to take a vacation every week, no to mention yuntuf and especially Hol ha-Moed.

1. Until the earlier 20th century, most women had full time jobs working on farms. Only the super-rich got sit around managing the household (which meant supervising a large number of servants). Middle class urban women ran businesses, engaged in home manufacturing, or had jobs as servants. To be a “traditional” wife who never had to have a career, you had to be wealthy. It wasn’t just Jewish women who worked for a living.

2. Given that the secular elite are proving unable to have children, there is a high probability that they will die out. This will be a messy matter when in about 40 years senior citizens have to cope with programs as social security cutting benefits, while most voters will be the younger persons who are having children. Already some countries are suffering from falling populations.

Perhaps in 2028 there will a “Reagan-like” Conservative running for president. Of course by that time Taiwan will be a Chinese province, the South China sea will be a Chinese lake, Eastern Europe will be under Russian control, and the most important foreign language to learn in Eretz Yisrael will be Farsi. It is always possible that Harris or Trump will evolve, but at this point it doesn’t look like it.

1. Many Democrats have been calling for violence against Trump whereas Trump never called for anything more than a demonstration against the Congress.

2. If Trump is very clever, he’ll announce an end to “lawfare” and propose a statute to make it very hard to sue or prosecute people for political purposes including rules on standing to sue, disqualification of prosecutors who announce they have a goal of prosecuting political enemies, venue rule changes, charging attorney fees for lawsuits bought for harassment, etc. He might start by offering a pardon to Hunter Biden, as someone whose prosecution was clearly political. By becoming the candidate who favors a “return to normalcy”, he will increase his chance of a landslide (and on the other hand, seeking revenge will help the Democrats).

The threat of war on the north is more serious. Unlike Hamas, Hezbollah never had restrictions on arming itself (thanks to the cooperation from the Lebanese government and the Iranians), and Iran may become directly involved (and already has substantial troops in the area). Gaza is a relative sideshow, and perhaps a mere diversionary tactic. The possibility of at attack from Hezbollah, assisted by Syria and Iran, is existential for Israel, Gaza is an annoying mosquito bite.

One should remember that the United States is not geared up for a full scale war, and both presidential candidates are somewhat anti-war, and more importantly, Russia and China and control of Europe and East Asia, are much more important to the USA than the Middle East (and unlike 1973, the US is a major oil exporter, so a disruption of Middle Eastern oil make North American oil more valuable and more profitable).

Beryl is an English name with roots going back to the ancient world, but at no point to any Hebrew or Jewish or even Semitic. I suspect its use by Jews reflected a desire to assimilate (cf: Moshe who became Morris, Aharon who became Arnold, etc.).

He is very ethical and lets his sense of ethics guide his work. He knows to try to throw Trump in jail on absurd charges (paying off a blackmailer is legal, the blackmailer is the criminal, not the victim). He understands that Trump is be definition the enemy of the people and needs to be in prison, and since the Constitution prohibits Bills of Attainder, he uses the tools available.

He also knows that Jews are “our misfortune” as the goyim say, and that those demanding the elimination of the Jews are doing a public service and should of course not be prosecuted.

Bragg’s perceptions of ethics reflect the mainstream of the American left, and the Democratic party. The problem are the “useful idiots” who enable those with such beliefs to come to power and use their power to implement their anti-democratic agenda.

smerel: The Palestinian governments (included Hamas, which is the elected government of Gaza) have both tight control over their territory, plus the advantage that anyone who is going to object is likely to have left the country rather than being executed (which was not really an option in Germany once the war began, especially for citizens of Axis or occupied countries). Also both Gaza and West Bank (areas under Palestinian control) are Judenrein.