On Friday, when the enormity of the tragedy in Meron became known, people were rendered numb and speechless. Then heartbroken. Then watching the funerals, aching for those who had to bury fathers, sons and children. Then the questions began to emerge.
Who was responsible for the entire event? Who was taking care of crowd control? Where were the police? Did someone block exits to keep people contained? Was there anyone checking that the structures were solid enough to hold the tens of thousands of people that everyone predicted would show up?
It appears that as of now, there are no coherent answers to most of these questions. What is emerging is in 2013, the police chief of northern Israel warned his colleagues of the potential for a deadly accident. And in 2018, the editor of a major Haredi magazine said the Meron Lag B’Omer event was a recipe for disaster.
We are also learning that lack of a coherent leadership structure at the site made it harder to enforce a proper safety system there. If this next statement is true, then many people bear responsiblity: Different parts of the site fall under the jurisdiction of four competing private religious institutions, all of which resist state intervention.
It appears that this site is not under the responsibility of one single management.
We are guessing that this will change after what happened, but it’s too late for a father who left behind 11 children, or another father who left behind 6 children, or two sets of young brothers who died together, or the young man who just got engaged, or the many Yeshiva students who went to celebrate Lag B’Omer with full hearts.
This catastrophe added yet another dimension to what has been a very difficult and often painful year worldwide. What was brought to the surface was the unity of the Jewish people. It didn’t matter if one was secular or ultra observant – the pain of another Jew was felt by all Jews and mercifully, most thinking Jews are not even trying to make sense of the insensible.
Here’s a surprise – Bill and Melinda Gates are getting divorced after no less than 27 years of marriage. No financial details have been announced but just his shares in Microsoft are worth about $27 billion. This news comes after Jeff and Mackzenie Bezos said they were getting divorced after 25 years of marriage.
Not that we want to disturb their moment, but don’t you wonder when the other woman will appear?
If you live in New Jersey and you are not sure if you want to be vaccinated, they are now bribing you. Get the vaccine and get a beer.
Not sure if anyone is following l’affaire between Chief of the Defense Staff Jonathan Vance, the National Defense Minister Harjit Saijan, Katie Telford, Trudeau’s chief of staff and Justin himself. In normal times, this scandal would be just that – a scandal. Alas we are not in normal times, parliament partially sits, Justin is virtually unaccountable for anything, Erin O’Toole is just useless and as we said, Jagmeet Singh is in bed deeply under the covers with Justin.
In a nutshell when did Justin Trudeau know that there was serious sexual misconduct in the armed forces?
Here are the salient and very juicy points:
…Vance was Saijan’s commander when they both served in Afghanistan. …Vance is now under investigation for sexual misconduct. …In 2006 Saijan claimed to be the architect of Operation Medusa – the land battle between the Taliban and Nato. That was not true and Saijan apologized profusely. …Vance never investigated this fully as Saijan was his friend. …Instead of investigating these serious sexual allegations against Vance, Trudeau has decided to carry out a second review of the nasty and unsafe place for women called the armed forces.
…So when did Trudeau know about this?
Did Saijan not tell him or did Katie Telford, who seemingly knew, hold this back from Trudeau?
O’Toole wants Telford fired, claiming a cover-up and that she knew and failed to tell Trudeau about a serious allegation against Vance.
Telford isn’t getting fired because she’s besties with both Justin and Butts – the old chief of staff who quit during the Jody Wilson Raybould scandal. Saijan is another story and he may not survive this.
The bottom line: Yet another scandal Justin will nicely sidestep because there is no opposition. Oh yes. One more thing. That whole we’re-the-best-feminist-government-since-sliced-bread? Not.
Read this and weep at the ineptitude of your government. The Federal government’s vaccine advisory committee said that people should wait for the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine and not take the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Dr. Shelley Deeks said and we quote: the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are the preferred vaccines. No, that’s not what you said all along.
Your boss, Justin, said that we should take any vaccine offered to us. And now you know why there is vaccine hesitancy. Confusing messages cause confusion.
Here’s a surprise. One of the jurors in the Derek Chauvin trial (George Floyd) was found wearing a black lives matter t-shirt. Not that we don’t think Chauvin needs to go to jail for what he did. He does. But…
Jurors are supposed to be impartial – that’s the whole point of having a trial of your fellow human beings. Seems this juror attended a demonstration in Washington last year as well. He said it was an “opportunity to be around thousands and thousands of Black people” and “to be a part of something.”
That’s well and good but don’t then go and say that you are an impartial juror cause guess what – you’re not impartial.
We’ll talk…
Comments