'Israelity Bites' Back on JBlog

Buzz off?? Yo? No, Señor
Dialogue can work wonders. After the sudden and pre-emptive disappearance of blog postings, a webmaster at the Israel Forum replied and then reinstated Israelity Bites on JBlog Central, the mosaic of 400+ Jewish and Israeli blogs in English. Note that most are decidedly conservative.

His message?

"it's a little difficult to distinguish between certain far-Left views and plain old anti-Israeli, anti-American, and possibly anti-Semitic views. Put simply, I don't mind giving a platform to Leftist blogs/bloggers with whom I disagree vehemently on the issues, but I do mind giving a platform to anti-Israel, anti-American, or anti-Semitic blogs."

Ouch. My sometimes biting commentary was misunderstood, obviously. Izzy Bee is not anti-anything here in the Land of Milk and Honey except hypocrisy, despicable suicide bombers, and the hideous separation fence that instills hatred and hardship on the have-nots. Israelis live in a first world country built smack dab in the Middle East, one of the world's hottest and holiest places. We must come to grips with the myriad contradictions of life in a young Jewish state which mingles outlandish customs from all over the diaspora. Many residents seem to exist inside a bubble that distorts their view of all outsiders.

What I value is peaceful coexistence, and I find humor a way to deal with the fear and fatigue in working towards this. I cannot ignore the Palestinians and Israeli Arabs in our midst, either. Frequently, I am called a naive peacenik, but this is the first time someone questioned my patriotism or hinted that I am an anti-Semite.

Why not join the fray and JBlog Me?

Ominous Knock at the Door for Ploni Almoni

Many ultra-orthodox bloggers in Israel are to be forced offline, according to Yair Ettinger in Haaretz. Kosher computing is quite a struggle. Already a home internet connection for the Ger Hassidics requires a rabbi's approval, so most family PCs are used just for word processing or to play G-rated kosher DVDs--though allegedly never on the Sabbath.

promotional for cartoonstock.com.

Ultra-orthodox online forums are braced for the fallout and most dread the plug being pulled. This Rabbinical decree against home computing will, er, forever Alter the hobbies of Orthodox nerds.(Pairs of Ger elders in fur hats soon will go house to house, knocking on doors to warn against the "spiritual dangers" of cyberspace. Last year, two ultra-orthodox brawlers were named and shamed by an anonymous John Doe, who dubbed himself "Ploni Almoni" on the internet. This post spurred a long drawn-out vendetta against orthodox bloggers after Gerrer Yisrael Ackerman, one of the accused, petitioned the court to force the cyber-slanderer to reveal his identity.

Big communities of Gerrer chasidim, originally from Poland, now are established in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, New York, London and Antwerp. More Israeli communities flourish in Ashdod, Bnei Brak, Arad in the Negev desert, and Hazor in the Galilee, as well as Beit Shemesh and Kiryat Gat. Will their emails cease?

In Modim Ilit, an all ultra-Orthodox community outside Tel Aviv, men who pursue religious studies are increasingly unable to provide for their large families. To fight poverty, which is as dire as for Bedouin families in the area, cyber-savvy wives and daughters have begun to work online from home, earning the entire household budget through outsourced telemarketing, or even tech support. Edicts like the Gerrer crackdown on the internet would lead to their financial ruin.