Hagai Amir, brother of Yitzchak Rabin’s murderer Yigal Amir, granted his first interview since his release from prison to the anti-Zionist, left-wing website 972, and attacked the Rabin Family, as well as, among others—the settlers. The interview followed a lengthy correspondence between reporter Ami Kaufman and Hagai Amir on Facebook.

Kaufman asked if Amir thought Netanyahu could bring about change for the good, to which Amir responded: “No one can change anything now. It’s too late.”

Kaufman: Too late for what?

Amir: A slow yet steady disintegration of the state.

Kaufman: Which will end in a bi-national state? The end of Zionism?

Amir: It depends how it ends. If they reach an agreement on a bi-national state, then Jews will be able to live here. But if there is no agreement, it will end like it did with the crusaders.

Amir then defines a Jewish state—unlike simply the state of the Jews, which he believes has no right to exist—is a state that cherishes Jewish values: Shabbat, Torah study, etc.

Both Hagai and his brother, Yigal, have been conducting many conversations with Hamas prisoners, including higher ups like Ibrahim Hamed, head of the Hamas in the West Bank, and Gaza-based Hassan Salameh.

Kaufman: Did you agree on anything?

Amir: On the important things we didn’t agree, of course. Too much blood has already been shed. From their point of view there is no way this state can be here. And I no longer know if Jews as individuals will be able to live here. Anyway, the atmosphere was relaxed, they respect us and we respect them and it is clear we are enemies on the outside, but for the meanwhile there is a ceasefire.

Regarding the struggle to preserve the settlements, Amir told Kaufman: “I would fight (literally) shoulder to shoulder with those Jews on their land if they themselves were willing to fight for their homes. But this is not the case, unfortunately.. 99% are not willing to fight, as you saw in the disengagement. It was clear to me back then that this is what would happen, They are simple bourgeoisie, not tough rebels. In my opinion, you fight for a home with a weapon in hand. He who is not willing to hold a weapon is not fighting for his current home, but for his next one.”

Amir told Kaufman that during his interrogation, “they took me to see the funeral to put mental pressure on me. Of course, this did not work. The Rabin family was never really moved by the blood of the murdered on the Altalena, whom the head of their family murdered. They knew how to live well in his midst. Therefore, the crocodile tears they cry do not move me. This family has earned a living quite well from this whole story. If it wasn’t for us nobody would have heard of them. The blood of the Oslo murdered is a thousand times more dear to me than the tears dropped for the one who killed them, with help from the Arabs.”

Amir told Kaufman, as, apparently, he had done several times before during their exchanges on Facebook, that he did not regret the Rabin assassination.

“Of course not,” he reiterated this time. “It didn’t just happen out of the blue. We thought about it for two years, we acted according to the Jewish halacha, and one must not regret doing a mitzvah.”

It’s been more than six years that attorney Dov Weisglass, Ariel Sharon’s chief of staff and one of his closest confidants, is convinced that what caused Sharon’s collapse, in addition to the blood thinning drugs he was taking at the time, was a broadcast on Channel 10 Television the night before, about corruption investigations against the prime minister.

In an exclusive interview with Yedioth Aharaobot’s weekend magazine, Weisglass relates, “According to a senior doctor with whom I spoke after Sharon had lost consciousness, it was a deadly combination of blood thinners and a sudden, sharp increase in blood pressure. The doctor asked me if I knew of anything unusual that happened close to the time of Sharon’s stroke that might have caused such a sudden increase in his blood pressure. He asked me if Sharon had been upset about something.”

Weisglass concludes: “The more I contemplate these issues, there is just one thing that I can think of, and that is the broadcast on Channel 10.”

According to Weisglass, it was an opening report on the news broadcast, talking about Martin Schlaff and the Cyril Kern affair.

The Cyril Kern affair involved allegations that former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon received millions of dollars of bribes from Kern, a South African businessman, and from the Austrian businessman Martin Schlaff, through Sharon’s sons.

“The report said that in a message given by the Israeli police to the District Court, the police confirmed that they are conducting an investigation of Prime Minister Sharon who is suspected of taking a bribe from Martin Schlaff. Sharon was very upset after he heard this, mainly because it was the first time this was stated explicitly.”

Explaining how he would know these details about the news broadcast, Weisglass recalls that Sharon called him up immediately after the show.

“I felt the tension and anger in his voice,” Weisglass describes. “Sharon would become hoarse immediately when he was nervous, and during this conversation, he was extremely hoarse. He asked me ‘What is this?’ I told him that I would check it out and started making phone calls. I got back to him and told him that it was an old story from a few months ago. Apparently, another businessman, James Schlaff, Martin Schlaff’s brother, came to Israel and was at his parents’ home in Jerusalem. Police arrived and confiscated his cell phone and laptop. The attorney for James Schlaff made a completely normal appeal in court, to return these items. Either the police or the state’s attorney opposing the appeal said that these items were required in relation to a bribery inquiry. This is what leaked to Channel 10.”

Finally, Weisglass recalls, “I told him, ‘Arik, it’s nothing, forget about it. There are no new developments here.’ But I saw that he didn’t calm down.”

Rabbi Meir Lau, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv and Holocaust Survivor, attacked the Germans today with harsh words. Rabbi Lau said, “We don’t need their permission to live as Jews,” and added that, “I didn’t see such German sensitivity to Jewish blood during the Shoah.”

“It’s amazing, German spokesmen are sensitive to the cries of a baby and a drop of spilled blood like I did not see in my childhood. Then, Jewish children’s blood was worthless and trampled on by the boots of the Gestapo, while tens of millions of Germans collaberated or stood by and watched.”

Rabbi Lau continued to say that Jews don’t have anything to look for in Germany, but that we must fight this anti-Semitic law.

Rabbi Lau also attacked the idea, proposed by Rabbi Metzger, that German doctors would teach or certify Jewish Mohels on how to perform Brit Mila, he added that Rabbi David Goldberg, who was just arrested, has performed over 3000 successful circumcisions.

http://haemtza.blogspot.co.il/2012/08/informed-consent.html

“There’s nothing about filing a consent form that is inherently in conflict with [Jewish law]”

This statement by Agudah Executive Director, Rabbi Dovid Zweibel  should be the beginning and end of a conversation about a proposed law requiring written informed consent to do MbP (Metzitza B’Peh) – oral suction of blood from the wound during a ritual circumcision (Bris Milah).

The controversy continues however. I am not going to rehash the arguments made in previous posts about the danger of a Mohel unknowingly transferring to the infant the sometimes deadly herpes simplex virus (HSV–1) via this method of Metzitza. Nor do I want to debate whether the low statistical probability of MbP justifies continuing a centuries old practice. The statistical chances for infection are indeed very low.

Despite the fact that major Poskim spanning several generations declare that the lack of MbP does not invalidate Bris Milah – some even requiring alternative safer methods – the fact remains that there is a strongly held view mostly among Chasidim that MbP is an absolute requirement of Bris Milah. They even go so far as to say that it is forbidden to substitute other methods like a sterile pipette or gauze to withdraw blood from the wound – that it must be done by mouth!

There is no point in trying to convince them out of this notion.  Much as I would like to, it’s not going to happen. They would do MbP underground if it were outlawed. And my personal opinion is that the government should not be passing laws that interfere with Bris Milah in any way including a ban on MbP. I would rather see our own Poskim banning it or at least discouraging it. But that’s not going to happen either.

The bottom line for me – which I believe to be the most pragmatic approach – is to educate the public about the dangers in an honest fashion and not exaggerate them.  To clearly explain that they do exist and that opting out of MbP will eliminate any possibility – no matter how remote – of a Mohel ever transferring the disease.

But the government does want to get involved in a way, with which I have no issue… a way that may in fact get more people to look toward those Poskim who permit or even encourage more sterile method of MbP.  New York City’s Board of Health is set to vote on a proposal that would require parents to sign a consent form before subjecting their children to it. I think this is a good idea. In this way the government can inform people of the dangers without any actual interference in the practice of MbP itself.

But that is not the way the Chasidic world sees it. They see it as a declaration of war. They see it as an assault on Bris Milah itself. From the Forward:

“Unless the city is ready to subpoena mohels or break the doors in of synagogues around the city, I don’t really think they understand what they’re trying to do,” said Michael Tobman, a political consultant who is working as spokesman for a coalition that includes Agudath Israel, the large umbrella group that advocates for ultra-Orthodox organizations, and various Hasidic sects. “This is a community absolutely committed to resisting this ill-considered effort, up to and including civil disobedience.”

As noted – Agudah is helping them out in this cause.  In light of the opening line of this post I cannot understand why they would do this. If there is nothing Halachicly problematic with signing a consent form, why are they opposing it? Rabbi Zweibel has even gone so far as to say that if the law is passed the Agudah Moetzes will not call for outright civil disobedience. In my view they should go further and require all Jews to follow the law of the land.

If a consent form is required, not signing it would not only violate Dina D’Malchusa it would prevent people from knowing that there are dangers. People have a right to know that – even if those dangers are remote. What benefit is there to not knowing? What benefit would there be to defying the law by not signing a consent form? Is it any worse than signing any medical consent form where there are dangers involved?

The Israel Ambulatory Pediatric Association is calling for an end to a controversial circumcision-related rite that is also under fire in New York.

Direct oral-genital suction, known as metzitzah b’peh, should not be performed during Jewish ritual circumcision, the IAPA said. The association is calling on Israel’s Health Ministry to require maternity wards and clinics to advise parents against metzitzah b’peh, Israeli media reported.

IAPA is recommending that mohels, or ritual circumcisers, use a tube to take the blood from the circumcision wound, preventing direct contact with the infant’s incision.

The rite is not used in most Jewish circumcision ceremonies, but many in the haredi Orthodox community still adhere to it.

The controversy over metzitzah b’peh was reignited in New York in March after it came to light that an unidentified infant died Sept. 28 at Brooklyn’s Maimonides Medical Center from “disseminated herpes simplex virus Type 1, complicating ritual circumcision with oral suction,” according to the death certificate.

New York Health Department investigations of newborns with the herpes virus from 2000 to 2011 have shown that 11 infants contracted the virus when mohels placed their mouths directly on the child’s circumcision wound to draw blood away from the circumcision cut, according to a statement from the department. Ten of the infants were hospitalized, at least two developed brain damage and two babies died.

In its war against the West and Israel, Iran has apparently given up its attempt to portray itself as being unaffected by the sanctions against its economy and, taking a page out of the Palestinian playbook, is now switching to the opposite approach, pushing the suffering of individual Iranians under the cruel sanctions.

For instance, earlier in August, Deputy Iranian Health Minister Mostafa Qaneyee told the Fars news agency: “The foreign states have threatened us that they won’t sell us laboratory kits” but the Pasteur Institute of Iran has managed to produce the blood kits needed for the country and it will achieve the Euro Standard in the near future.”

And only last Friday, at Tehran University Campus prayer service, Prayer Leader Hojjatoleslam Kazzem Sediqi played down effectiveness of the economic sanctions imposed by the West against Iran, saying that such pressures are nothing new to the Iranian nation.

Sediqi pointed to the economic sanctions and restriction on Iran during the eight-year Iraqi imposed war on Iran in the 1980s, and stated, “Sanctions are not effective and the eight years of the Sacred Defense was an instance of the same fact, when our nation faced the toughest pressures and sanctions.”

But now, according to the Mehr News agency, the Iranian hemophilia society has sent a letter to the president of the World Federation of Hemophilia and the president of the World Health Organization on July 28, warning about the negative effect of sanctions on the health of hemophiliacs in Iran.

“As you are aware, hemophiliacs and other patients suffering from serious blood coagulation disorders need to regularly take medicines and receive blood products imported from the United States and European countries. In the event of any disruption in the supply and purchase of the necessary and vital medicines,” many patients may become paralyzed or may die, part of the letter said.

It added, “Unfortunately, extensive sanctions against the Iranian government and nation by the European Union and the United States—despite the fact that in official documents of these countries, the sanctions do not include a ban on the supply of medicines—have practically made it difficult for patients to purchase and access to medicines. The measure has also seriously endangered the lives of many patients, particularly children, suffering from special diseases.”

The Iranian hemophilia society also called on the World Federation of Hemophilia and the World Health Organization to condemn the disruption in the supply of medicines to patients in Iran and take the measures necessary to prevent a “humanitarian crisis” from occurring in Iran.

The real effect of the sanctions may be measured by Tehran’s lackluster response to the needs of the victims of Saturday’s earthquake.

As AFP reported, despite the fact that relief workers were quick to get to the damaged zone and set up rescue operations and aid handouts, survivors said they had expected more from the authorities.

“We spent the whole night outside in the cold until the Red Crescent arrived at 4:00 am and gave us bread and two tents and blankets,” one man in his 30s who asked not to be identified told AFP.

The faces of other survivors reflected the same mix of disappointment, exhaustion and despair, according to the same report.

Of course, for all that to change practically overnight, all Tehran has to do is stop its nuclear project and open up its facilities to international inspectors. That’s another spot where Iran’s and the Hamas playbooks converge: they will point an accusing finger at the countries that blockade them, omitting only the reason why they’d been blockaded in the first place.

A video uploaded to YouTube by English Spokesperson for Hebron David Wilder shows a stream of blood on the rocks of the Abraham’s Well underground spring, following a near-fatal rock attack by a local Arab on a 60 year old Jewish man who came to immerse in the spring.

Jewish tradition connects the Patriarch Abraham – the central figure connecting Judaism and Islam and one of three great Jewish patriarchs buried in Hebron – with the small natural spring, saying it was the place where Abraham and his wife Sarah would go to purify themselves.

On Wednesday, a 60 year old resident of Kiryat Arba went to perform a cleansing immersion at the site, and when he reached the bottom of the stairs, was attacked by an Arab who threw a large rock at his head.  The man was found unconscious on his back at the bottom of the stairs leading to the well.  He regained consciousness at a Jerusalem hospital, to which he was evacuated by paramedics.

Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv passed away early Wednesday evening. His funeral will be conducted Wednesday at 10 PM Israel time, as is the custom in Jerusalem. (Update: Police estimate over 300,000 people participated in the funeral procession).

Since the early afternoon, Israel time, Rabbi Elyashiv’s condition was unstable and his blood pressure erratic. According to a report, his breathing was shallow, and he was anesthetized and ventilated.

Family members were called to stay at his bedside.

The doctors told the family that only prayers could help the situation.

Rabbi Elyashiv was the leader of the Lithuanian-Haredi community in Israel and the diaspora , and many Ashkenazi Jews regarded him as the posek ha-dor, the contemporary leading authority on Jewish law.