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Ask JTF for Sunday. September 5, 2010

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Dr. Dan:
Shalom chaim

Give us your opinion on glen beck and what he did in Washington d.c.

David haivri was interviewed by CNN about the deadly shooting. What is your opinion of that.
Toda
Dr. Dan

lines:
Shalom Chaim,

Are you familiar at all with what things have been like historically and presently for jews in Latin America?

Daniel:
Last week, you discussed how there is no term in Judaism for "coincidence." I'm curious to know if there is a term for "non-sequitor." Whenever we experience a natural disaster, I don't view that as a coincidence, but as a non-sequitor to human events. It seems like we often try to attribute a higher meaning to natural disasters by blaming and scapegoating people for their immoral behavior and stating that this is the cause of the natural disaster. I fail to see the logic in this. There is absolutely no empirical evidence to show that immoral behavior causes natural disasters to occur. It just seems like it is a lot more psychologically comforting for us to believe that bad people and bad behaviors are causing bad natural events to happen, rather than to accept the fact that nature dishes out events without any regard to human conditions. Why can't we just accept the fact that hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, etc., are just simply a part of nature? What is the point of believing that there is some sort of human moral cause to natural events? Aren't we just fooling ourselves and living in a rose-colored fantasy world by believing that we somehow have control over natural events? If we are to believe that moral behavior causes natural events to occur, then why not also believe that it must have been the dinosaurs' immoral behavior that caused the meteor to smash into the earth and wiped them out? Why can't we just accept the fact that these are natural phenomena without any type of human agenda? Why can't we just accept that these events occur without any higher rhyme or reason?

Spiraling Leopard:
Dear Chaim,

can you tell me a bit more about the debate you had with Jerry Goodman on 'Crossfire' on CNN?
Was it a very 'heated' discussion? What were the issues discussed? Did he hate you? Did he try to smear you in any way or was he a fair debater?

Thank you,

Robert.

Estragon1396:
Dear Chaim,

Thank you for answering my questions last week. I'm aware of the existence of the Hebrew forum and have visited it several times, but for now I'm more interested in exploring the English forum, with its international audience.
Now, with your permission, I'd like to ask you a few more questions about your political beliefs.

1. What are your thoughts on the issue of foreign workers in Israel? As you must know, there are tens of thousands of illegal foreign workers in Israel, and right now there's a big debate about the deportation of their children. Do you believe that all foreign workers and their children must be deported? Also, if you were in power in Israel, what would be your policy on this issue? Would you allow workers to come to Israel from non-Arab and non-Muslim countries (such as China or Eastern Europe) to perform all kinds of menial jobs? Or do you insist that all jobs in Israel (even the most menial ones) must be performed only by Jews, in accordance with the early Zionist principle of "Avoda Ivrit" (Hebrew labor)?
If the latter option is true, how would you convince Israeli Jews to take up menial jobs? I can imagine that many of them would be opposed to such policies.

2. (Related to the previous question) If you were in power in Israel, what would be your policies concerning immigration and granting citizenship to non-Jews. You've stated in the past that righteous Gentiles have a right to live in the Land of Israel together with Jews. So, what criteria would you use to determine the right of any given non-Jew to settle in Israel?
Also, would you allow foreign artists and musicians to come to Israel in order to perform?

3. Conversely, would you allow Israeli Jews to emigrate from Israel to other countries, or would you force them to stay in Israel?


Thank you for your answers, and I wish you a Happy Jewish New Year.

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