Re: Nate Friedman versus fake protestors

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

. . .

One of the women interviewed by Nate Friedman - she was Jewish and
carried a sign supporting the protesters and got interviewed toward the
end - identified herself as belonging to a group of American Jews that
called for an end to the attacks on Gaza. I'd heard of this group before
for similar actions but I'm blanking on the name of the group right now
and can't spare another 40 minutes to watch the video again. I imagine
you know which group I mean.

There are multiple groups, and yeah, they all deliberately mischaracterize
the war as an attack on Gaza and the deaths (combined of militant and
civilian deaths) as a genocide. They barely criticize Hamas at all. Even
if the current phase of the war is too punitive, seemingly without
military objective, they have never called for release of all living
hostages and unconditional surrender of Hamas. Israel would immediately
stop shelling if that were to happen.

In the United States, I've heard of no group offering a practical
position that would lead to an end to war without continuing shellings
in which civilians are killed. It's always, Israel must back off without
Hamas needing to surrender.

I've also heard people like Douglas Murray and Melanie Phillips stating
their opposition to certain Israeli Jews that seemed more than a little
sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and their aspirations. . . . 

Ok. There may be a few that reject reality.

One question about the religious Jews. Didn't the Knesset vote to end
the exemption of religious Jews from the IDF around a year ago?

I should have been clearer. The religious parties are for Jews who live
separately from society, like Hassids. There isn't a political party for
Jews who more or less strictly practice religion.

The exemption is specific to rabbinical students, not all religious
Jews. There are numerous religious Jews in the army.

It's not being enforced as far as I understand, and there have been
court cases. I don't know what the final outcome will be.

I seem to remember seeing that in the news. It was supposed to come
into effect within a few days and they were anticipating significant
resistance from the religious Jews. But then I never heard about any
resistance so I'm wondering if the government backed away from that? Or
did the religious Jews (Haredi? Or am I misusing that term?) have a change
of heart and turn up at the IDF ready to begin training without protest?

Haredim is an Orthodox branch that rejects modernity in living according
to religious law. Orthodox Judaism has an enormous variety of beliefs,
whereas Reform and Conservative (an American movement) have relatively
uniform beliefs. Plenty of Orthodox Jews attempt to accomodate the
modern world while living within religious law. They don't try to live
separately from the modern world.