Thursday, March 6, 2008

Terrorist attack and the Scare Tactic

Unfortunately there was a terrorist attack in Israel. I do not have to many details, but people died, and so therefore its bad. Unfortunately, I feel like I can't really do anything to help the situation. If it were up to me I would've bombed those terrorist bastards 100x's over and totally ignored the UN, the US, and whatever other country or "peace organization" says. But unfortunately (fortunately for the terrorists) the world does not listen to what I have to say (yea I vote, but you know what I mean). Anyway, here I am, being a NORMAL person, and I'm putting blame where blame falls- on the terrorists. Yes, the terrorists in Gaza! Not the evil frum girls who do not dress tzniously or the evil Jews for not having achdus and for not having Kevanah in our tfillah.

Back at my HS there were posters all over the place part of the A"wear"ness campaign. Each poster had a different picture, but the one I happen to vividly remember is the one that had a picture of a blown up bus in Israel (obviously after a terrorist attack), that was on fire, and fuel was being poured on it. The fuel jar read "Immodesty." The concept of the poster was to scare girls into dressing more modestly. After all, its our own fault that the terrorists are entering our yeshivos isn't it? I mean, its not at all the fact that Jews have been and always will be hated. Nope, nothing to do with that, its the fact that girls don't dress tzniously. The posters also showed pictures of low-necklined blouses with a picture of a safety pin next to it, so that the girls use safety pins to make their outfits more modest. Those a"wear"ness posters have been irritating me for years. And now that I realize I should've taken down a poster and kept it, its too late.

My sisters HS earlier today had an assembly. The principal told the school about the terrorist attack and told them that it would help if the Jews had achdus and had kevanah in their tefillah. After the speech one girl walked into my sisters class and said "I hate those stupid Arabs" and another girl said "it's not the Arabs, its us."

!!!!!!

!!!!!!

Seriously, I am the only one (aside from my immediate family) that sees that something is SERIOUSLY wrong with this practice? Come on people!!! Its the fault OF THE ARABS! Antisemitism isn't our own fault. Its not something we WANT or CHOOSE. No normal person wants to worry about getting shot by a psycho terrorist. We don't CHOOSE this. It's not because we wear "untznious" clothing or because we don't daven with full kevanah or becaus of any reason that we can be blamed for. The only people to blame are the retarded psycho terrorists. If anyone starts dressing more tzniously out of fear that their at fault, I recommend therapy. If anything this psychoness makes me want to go out there and parade around in a bathingsuit to prove a point that a terrorist attack will not be a direct result of it.

10 comments:

Originally From Brooklyn said...

I think if there is any heavenly correlation it must be that Hashem is angry at the Rabbunim for banning the Lipa concert. After all that just happened and this just happened.1+1=2. Who ever said modesty was the cause of all problems? It is very simple math.

Orthoprax said...

FS,

"Its the fault OF THE ARABS!"

No, it's the fault of particular people who happen to be Arabs. Don't over-generalize.

frumskeptic said...

ortho:

You're right. Its the fault of the terrorists and their sponsers.

Jewish Side of Babysitter said...

I remember learning the same thing in HS. We learnt in Jewish History about germany that one of the reasons for the holocaust was cause Jews were assimilating and calling Germany their Ir Hakadosh.

I never took to the idea to well either. But then I would use it as inspiration to try to be a better Jew in whatever way possible. (Didn't last too long though)

Child ish behavior: That's funny

Anonymous said...

FS- I was at that speech today and I don't think she was trying to say it's our fault. I think it was more along the lines of yes those terrorists are horrible, but in the bigger picture, it's reallly Hashem who controls the world and Bnai Yisrael need as many zchusim as they can get. She also tied in Yom Kippur Kotton, which was today and another tragedy that happened in the school, as you might have heard. Yes it may be the arabs' fault in a sense, but it wouldn't have happened if Hashem didn't "want" it to.

frumskeptic said...

frummy: "I was at that speech today and I don't think she was trying to say it's our fault"

If the girl said "Its not the Arabs, its us" its very clear exactly what the point was. Scare Tactic.

"but it wouldn't have happened if Hashem didn't "want" it to"

Agreed. So why point fingures at achdus or tefillah? Why not just say "we don't understand Hashem, lets pray for understanding"?

No scare tactic there, and the job is accomplished- you get the girls to pray.

Jessica said...

It is a terrible tragedy. Whether it is our fault or not, we should be praying for them, giving tzedaka on behalf of them, taking on a new mitzva (MITZVA, not chumra!) on their behalf, etc. Maybe that's where your school got confused. What they were doing is blaming you guys for what was going wrong in the world. What they should have done was just to connect you to the things that were going wrong. Explain that if you do something good, it can potentially change the world. But not accuse you of (1) doing something bad and (2) doing bad deeds that cause other's deaths.

Anonymous said...

This is actually a very interesting topic. If one believes (as, in the Yeshivot and seminaries, they do) that Hashem controls the whole world and nothing happens without His consent, then one has to accept that Hashem wanted this particular tragedy to happen to His chosen people. If that is true (and if we are, in fact, the chosen people), then, logically, what happens to us is NOT the Arabs' fault, but, rather, the result of something to do with us.

Conversely, if you want to say that it is the Arabs' fault that this occurred, then you have to be saying that Hashem can not or does not exercise full control over the day-to-day occurrences involving the Jewish people.

Frankly, that's ok with me. But it makes sense to understand why someone would drag seemingly irrelevant notions like tznius into this horrible tragedy.

Anonymous said...

She wasn't blaming it on our achdus and tefillah. She said Bnai Yisrael need a zchus and how about working on those two things, which are very fundamental parts of Judiasm. Another teacher suggested shmiras halashon and tznius.

frumskeptic said...

frummy: If that girl got that impression, that means that either a) the teacher IMPLIED it somehow, or b) throughout all her years at the BY like system she has fallen prey to the scare tactic and she feels as if they are blaming her.

Either way, not a good idea to educate like that.