back to the stone age

There are definite signs that Israel is now starting to take on the outward characteristics of its neighbors. Cursing (as in no profanity required) an IDF officer in public will get the IDF in an uproar and the Israeli police will begin a criminal investigation on your “cursing activities”. Ynet News:

The Judea and Samaria Police decided Thursday to launch an investigation against Professor Hillel Weiss who is suspected of incitement for cursing IDF Hebron brigade commander Colonel Yehuda Fox during the evacuation of Hebron settlers this week.

"May your mother be bereaved, your wife be widowed, your children be orphaned and may you be struck down in the next war and any memory of you be erased,"
Weiss was heard saying during a protest against the evacuation. The Bar Ilan professor also said that "the policemen are worse than the Nazis."

Following the incident, which was caught on video by Ynet's cameraman, the head of the Investigation Unit at the Judea and Samaria police launched a criminal examination of the statements, which turned Thursday into a full-fledged investigation.

Bar Ilan University president Prof. Moshe Kaveh said the university was considering steps against the offending professor. "Weiss' words were chilling and should be condemned and denunciated. We are looking into taking serious steps against him," Kaveh said. He praised the police's decision Friday morning to open a criminal investigation into his case.

I blame Sharon and his disengagement from Gaza for all this foolishness. I am positively astounded by the fact that neither the police, a president of a university (an institution for allegedly higher thinking no less) or the major Israeli newspapers see nothing bizarre or ridiculous in launching a criminal investigation for someone who publicly wishes you ill by “cursing” you.

I know cursing, I grew-up with cursing, I have relatives who still sell curses, and "May your mother be bereaved, your wife be widowed, your children be orphaned and may you be struck down in the next war and any memory of you be erased," is both tame and lame. I know where you can get an authentic gypsy curse for under $100 dollars and it comes with all kinds of unnatural unpleasantness for generations.

I can’t help but wonder what David Ben Gurion would think of all this foolishness. He regularly described Zev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky as “Vladimir Hitler”. Of course, if he said it today about a government official in Israel; it could get him convicted with pen time included.