The Cell Phone Gestapo

A word of advice to chareidi parents: don't let your children see your "unauthorized" cellphone. That's right - if you are using a cell phone that is not rabinically certified (read: twice as expensive), your children are being advised to report on you to the Va'ad HaRabbanim L'Inyonei Tikshoret (read: Chareidi Goon Squad).

This week, Yated Ne'eman, the voice of moderation and reason reported:

"The public campaign, which directly affects everyone in Klal Yisroel, demands constant vigilance against the destroyers of religion."

And this message, possibly targeted at Chareidi youth:

"The public has an obligation to hinder these attempts to interfere!"

The Regime will tolerate no dissent. Resistence is futile. You will be assimilated.

Cellphones Part II

Last week Yated reported that despite claims to the contrary, the rabbincally certified MIRS cellphones could not be hacked to allow internet access or text messaging. People who claimed to have done so had simply switched the SIM card (correction: they switched the actual components of the phone) with that of another model:

...the phone in question was located through concerted efforts. Company technicians found the hardware had been removed from a kosher model and replaced with hardware from a stolen Mirs device undergoing testing and not among the line of approved phones. The perpetrators then misled several media figures who subsequently published articles indicating that the new kosher phones still allow access to the Internet.

Thus, they concluded the reports were a fraud and and did not detract from the desirablity of the "kosher" phones.

The following appeared in a recent pamphlet from the "Vaad HaRabbonim L'Inyonei Tikshoret", entitled "L'Kadeish Shem Shamayim":

...the Gedolei HaPoskim came to the conclusion that the approved device must have a different external appearance and dialing prefix which demonstrate that it is kosher! And this on condition that its appearance reflects its true nature (tocho k'baro)! That is, it must be impossible to switch the internal cards and the like and to break into it, because if the kosher device can be easily broken into it is even worse! Because people will think the person carrying it is kosher and not distance themselves and be wary of him.

(Underlining from original. Translation by PN Staff.)

Bizarrely, later in that same pamphlet the "Vaad HaRabbonim L'Inyonei Tikshoret" reached the same conclusion as Yated regarding the hacked phone. (Or more correctly, Yated was simply listening to the Vaad when they wrote the article on this topic). This would appear to be incomprehensible in light of the above declaration.

Point to ponder:

a) Why can't these people get their act together?

More Yated Internet Hypocrisy

Being the self-proclaimed mouthpiece of the Gedolim, Yated Ne'eman's Staff obviously listen to their own proclamations. For example, they needed a special heter from a beis din in order to go online and download an article from the New York Times. Naturally, they would never use the internet except under exceptional circumstances. As Yated writes regarding more "modern" seminaries:

Parents ought to be aware for example, that in some seminaries, students of computer engineering are connected to various Internet sites. Even linking up with a harmless site is terrible, for it establishes a connection with the source of impurity and evil.

If it is "terrible" for female computer engineering students, it is simply impossible that Yated - the purveyors of pure Da'as Tayrah - would be connected to the source of impurity and evil.

Alas, that seems to be the case.

On April 1st, the Israeli news site Walla published a spoof claiming that Israeli MK Binyamin Ben-Eliezer was appointed ambassador to Iraq. The article only appeared on their website... until Monday, when it was printed in the Yated Hebrew daily.

Some points to ponder:

a) Are the editors of Yated stupid and politically naive? Anyone even vaguely familiar with Israeli and Middle Eastern politics would immeadiately realize the article was a joke.

b) Does Yated have any journalistic integrity? They attributed the report to "sources in the foreign ministry". Insofar as Walla made up the whole story, it's rather unlikely for Yated to have such a source.

c) Perhaps most importantly, it's clear that the Yated gets at least some of their news from browsing through news sites on the TreifeNet.

d) This would seem to be confirmation of what many have long suspected: namely, Yated is connected to the "source of impurity and evil."