To me, Israel has always represented a shining beacon of enlightenment and freedom in a world too often smothered in the darkness of ignorance, oppression and fear. When my family was forced to flee for their lives from Europe, some went to Brazil, some to North America and the rest to the Promised Land. It was only in what is now Israel that my relatives were accepted without restriction or reservation. They knew they had come to a place where the free expression of ideas was welcomed and even encouraged.
Today, I sit shiva for the death of all that Israel has come to represent. It was slain by a group of people who would sacrifice the noble ideals of what Israel is to further their own political agenda. And by committing this murder, they have betrayed not just their own country, but all Jewry wherever they may live, and even the Torah itself.
Laws and jurisprudence were created to facilitate a smoothly-running society. The original concept of Hammurabi?s Law, an eye for an eye, certainly added a necessary form of consequences to an evolving society, yet it was often unjust. One of the greatest contributions that Judaism has given the world is not mere law, but true and just application of said law. This is what separates us from such primitive societies who apply law without justice or morality. The Islamic law of Shar?ia, which requires a mother to be stoned to death for having a child out of wedlock, comes to mind.
King Solomon is revered as a jurist because of his use of the law to apply it in spirit and in fairness, not as mere punishment or legality. When two mothers claimed one baby, King Solomon used the law, equal division of property, to force the two women to reveal who was the true mother. By threatening to cut the baby in half, which was a legally acceptable way to apply the law, King Solomon demonstrated how a law could be applied and yet be unjust, or could be used as a means to determine that which was morally and spiritually, as well as legally, correct.
The decision to silence Arutz Sheva radio broadcasts, as well as to punish those involved with the radio, would horrify King Solomon, as it has so many of us who looked up to Israel as one of the few places where fascism could never exist. By applying and perverting the spirit of a law to silence dissenting opinion, the lawmakers and prosecutors who pursued this case with such malice have, in essence, become legal fascists. Such unjust application of the law was the way Germany started along the road to becoming the Nazi entity all the civilized world came to abhor.
Those people who have used the Pirate Radio Law to silence dissenting opinion have taken a big step along that very same road. King Solomon would weep, because the only place where his descendants could hope to have freedom of ideas, his very own homeland, has now silenced and plans to punish their own people for showing another side of many social and political issues.
And I mourn that such lawmakers and politicians who call themselves Jews would stoop to such a reprehensible and un-Jewish act as to stifle those who disagree with them. Today, when the government decided to silence free thought, a light unto the universe, Israel, was dimmed.
Today, I sit shiva for the death of all that Israel has come to represent. It was slain by a group of people who would sacrifice the noble ideals of what Israel is to further their own political agenda. And by committing this murder, they have betrayed not just their own country, but all Jewry wherever they may live, and even the Torah itself.
Laws and jurisprudence were created to facilitate a smoothly-running society. The original concept of Hammurabi?s Law, an eye for an eye, certainly added a necessary form of consequences to an evolving society, yet it was often unjust. One of the greatest contributions that Judaism has given the world is not mere law, but true and just application of said law. This is what separates us from such primitive societies who apply law without justice or morality. The Islamic law of Shar?ia, which requires a mother to be stoned to death for having a child out of wedlock, comes to mind.
King Solomon is revered as a jurist because of his use of the law to apply it in spirit and in fairness, not as mere punishment or legality. When two mothers claimed one baby, King Solomon used the law, equal division of property, to force the two women to reveal who was the true mother. By threatening to cut the baby in half, which was a legally acceptable way to apply the law, King Solomon demonstrated how a law could be applied and yet be unjust, or could be used as a means to determine that which was morally and spiritually, as well as legally, correct.
The decision to silence Arutz Sheva radio broadcasts, as well as to punish those involved with the radio, would horrify King Solomon, as it has so many of us who looked up to Israel as one of the few places where fascism could never exist. By applying and perverting the spirit of a law to silence dissenting opinion, the lawmakers and prosecutors who pursued this case with such malice have, in essence, become legal fascists. Such unjust application of the law was the way Germany started along the road to becoming the Nazi entity all the civilized world came to abhor.
Those people who have used the Pirate Radio Law to silence dissenting opinion have taken a big step along that very same road. King Solomon would weep, because the only place where his descendants could hope to have freedom of ideas, his very own homeland, has now silenced and plans to punish their own people for showing another side of many social and political issues.
And I mourn that such lawmakers and politicians who call themselves Jews would stoop to such a reprehensible and un-Jewish act as to stifle those who disagree with them. Today, when the government decided to silence free thought, a light unto the universe, Israel, was dimmed.