Hat-tip: A7 via TrueSlant via The Purple Parrot:Let him go home to America already. Who needs him.Upon arrival in Israel Friday, the Emanuels headed for Eilat, where they dined on seafood at a restaurant. After the (unkosher) meal, which included cheviche (citrus marinaded seafood), calamari (fried squid), various fish, salads and hamburgers, the bill was handed over to a Ministry of Tourism representative who accompanied the Emanuels.
Michael Ben-Ari fired off a letter to the Attorney General in which he said: “I was amazed to hear that following the sumptuous meal at the ‘Boston’ restaurant Emanuel handed the bill to a Ministry of Tourism representative who was present. In my humble legal opinion there is no possibility of making the State of Israel pay for such a meal, as part of a private visit by the White House Chief of Staff and his family.”
“The public coffers are not up for grabs and the fact that the gentleman [Emanuel] sponsors anti-Semitic policies in the White House is certainly no justification for digging into the public coffer at the expense of the old lady in the corridor of the hospital.” [...]
“I ask you, sir, to immediately cancel the debiting of the Ministry of Tourism’s account and to promptly send the bill directly to Mr. Emanuel’s private home,” he added.
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34 comments:
What an embarrassment...
The dish is ceviche and it's not by definition unkosher. Plenty of good ceviche can be made from kosher fish.
Commenter Abbi: The dish is ceviche and it's not by definition unkosher.
And how about the calamari?
Gettin' a little weird there, Jameel.
I can't scan your archives, nor would I want to, but it's hard to imagine you normally make observations on the minutiae of visits of foreign dignitaries, even if they're the minions of the evil you know who.
When someone coming on a private trip, someone who is not out for the good of Israel, goes and charges the state of Israel for his treif meal, I think that's a worthwhile story to report.
It certainly isn't a very good Bar Mitzvah lesson.
look, i dont think emmanuel is a credit to our people either, but all jews are -- or should be -- welcome here.
His last name is spelled wrong, the food was presumably ordered off a restaurant menu (so it can't be said that anyone but the restaurant is treifing up the country) and the state is now denying that they paid for it, but hey we don't like the guy, so why should there be a single correct word in 7 word headline?
He pretends to be the Ortho on the inside protecting Israel in the Obama adminisitration. However we now find out that his wife and kids are gentile, and he comes to Israel and eats treife prior to his son's faux mitzvah. this is a story to be told.
Maybe he didn't know what calmari was?
Maybe he wanted his son to taste non-kosher food, before he became a man?
What is wrong with you people!? Even if he did eat treif, who cares?! Most Jews eat traif!
Non observant Jews eat treif.
No one ever accused Emanuel Rahm of being an observant Jew!
@anonymous-
"we now find out that his wife and kids are gentile,"
first this is a cheap shot. but now that it's on the table, can you back it up? according to wiki his wife converted before their marriage and they're members of a modern orthodox (!) congregation.
if his wife and kids are actually gentiles, i don't suppose there should be any problem with them eating treif.
there's no proof the gov't paid for the meal and they have in fact denied it.
the guy is a guest here on a private visit, following in the footsteps of many american jews some of whom are no doubt even bigger jerks than he is (boggles the mind, i know.) but in the name of simple decency, couldn't we leave his family out of it? if it were up to me i'd leave him out of it too, and save our vitriol for his political choices, but i know that's asking too much of a bunch of yentas like you. hmph.
Jonathan Becker:
Lets forget about his wife/kids since I have no idea about that.
However, the reason they are here (which has been shouted from the rooftops from every media outlet in Israel) is for his son's bar mitzva.
So, assuming his son is Jewish, and since he and his family attend an Orthodox shul, you don't find it newsworthy that he publicaly eats at a treif restaurant, eating calamari?
When the story was published (and I blogged it) I did not yet know about the denial that Israel paid the bill.
Rahm Emanuel is extremely involved in our lives here in Israel, as Chief Middle East policy adviser to Obama. He can't expect to come here to Israel and the press to ignore what he does here.
Eating treif in a treif public restaurant isn't the message for an orthodox bar mitzva boy.
What I found odd is that the article implies that this was a preparation for the Bar Mitzvah. What, they're leaving and coming back?
If you want an idea of where he's coming from, check out his rabbi's ideas on Israel. Short form: He wants Israel to cease to exist. (Via making a binational state in which all Jews and Arabs live in peace and harmony.) He thinks he's on the same side as Jabotinsky here, hilariously enough. He also plans on making Aliyah and setting up a new community here. In the Negev, of course.
By the way, for someone who goes to an Orthodox shul, I see coming here on a Friday, going directly to Eilat (at night?) and eating such obvious tarfut and then (trying to) bill Israel as yet another slap that Obama and his crew like to take at us,
Nachum: Well, it seems to me that you and J Becker have differing viewpoints :-)
if it could be proven the gov't paid for the meal i guess that would be "newsworthy". but i find these personal attacks on his (and especially his family's) jewishness/level of observance to be distasteful, low class, and even hypocritical considering all the treif eating american jews who fund and support projects near and dear to all of our hearts, and have their kids bar mitzvahd in israel without incident.
the problem with rahm emmanuel is his politics v'zehu. the rest is between him and god.
He didn't treif up Israel. The restaurant- and many others like it- is already there because our visitors and a large percentage of our residents like seafood. What you gonna do?
For the Ministry of Tourism to foot the bill - well that's just plain embarrassing.
Look, when Ilan Ramon, not observant in his personal life, went into space, he took steps to make sure that he would, as best he could, be "Jewish"- he arranged for kosher food, said kiddush, etc. etc. When Shimon Peres, not observant (at least in the usual way we use the term) goes on official missions, he eats kosher food, keeps Shabbat as best he can, etc. When visiting the US, Bibi, not observant (although with at least two religious kids, you've got to wonder how treif his home could be), goes to shul on Shabbat and walks.
Emmanuel is famous as the Court Jew of Obama's administration. He's in the public eye and taking a trip to Israel. He can lay off the tarfut for a couple of days. That he didn't (and knows better) is, to me, a slap in the face. And yes, he's fair game.
And let's remember that this is a man to whom *everything* is fair game. Turnabout is fair play.
nachum, you're wrong. i happen to know that bibi,peres etc.- you might as well include olmert- do not look for hechsherim when on private business in the u.s., nor are they expected to. furthermore, emmanuel is not an israeli representative, but an american one. american representatives here are not expected to keep kosher even on official visits, kal v'chomer purely private ones.
if you're just saying emmanuel is one of the nastiest people on the face of the earth and it's perfectly fair to be nasty to him as "turnaboout", well i agree. but make it clear you're being nasty- as indeed he does- and don't try to hide behind some imagined halachic morality that it is not, in any case, your business to lecture him about.
why not go lecture irv moskovitz, or ron lerner or vidal sasoon or somebody, if you feel you must. or maybe i should lecture you about how you're also halachically out of control.
oh, but i'm already doing that.
it's a can of worms, folks, that you don't really want to open. emmanuel certainly isn't worth it, as you say he's just another court jew in a long line of them. his political influence is where criticism must be directed. if you open up his personal relationship with the aivishter, you open up everyone else's, too. at that point the entire settlement movement could be taken down in about 15 minutes of googling.
i say you're being rash.
sorry those last two were me.
sorry again, i meant lauder, not lerner.
"However, the reason they are here (which has been shouted from the rooftops from every media outlet in Israel) is for his son's bar mitzva.
So, assuming his son is Jewish, and since he and his family attend an Orthodox shul, you don't find it newsworthy that he publicaly eats at a treif restaurant, eating calamari?
When the story was published (and I blogged it) I did not yet know about the denial that Israel paid the bill.
Rahm Emanuel is extremely involved in our lives here in Israel, as Chief Middle East policy adviser to Obama. He can't expect to come here to Israel and the press to ignore what he does here.
Eating treif in a treif public restaurant isn't the message for an orthodox bar mitzva boy."
Jameel, seriously, chill.
You shouldn't be in the business of judging people's religiosity. It just makes you look foolish.
We get it. You don't like the man.
But leave his personal habits, religiosity, and non-policy activities out of it.
Again, it's hard not to point out that if there were an internet before churban bayit sheini, it would sound a lot like your blog.
Just worry about your own tarfut, anf Rahm Emmanuel will worry about his own.
Chill? I put up a post, quoting another blog, and add a photo of Emanuel in a lobster costume. At the bottom I wrote, "Who needs him."
Do I like the man? Well, considering he personally is doing all he can to influence policy getting Jews kicked out of their homes, then you're right. He's not on my top ten list.
I'm impressed that you can defend him to the point that any criticism of him is equivalent to causing the churban.
Where did you hear that he personally is doing all he can to influence policy getting Jews kicked out of their homes?! Do you have a source?
Source please/\\. u write like a bear.
Schmuck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mftHhQDPQDI&feature=related
1:49
Let's see:
Emanuel repeatedly says Obama says settlements are wrong, negative, provocative, and must stop.
Meanwhile at a meeting that Obama held with Jewish leaders in July 2009, the president referred to Emanuel as his "adviser on settlements."
Is Obama a liar?
Sounds very circular.
Does anyone think that Rahm and family are considering relocating? Could this really be a dry-run for Rahm's exit from the WH?
Jamel,
Dead Squid rambo goes to a conservative temple.Reverend Moline of Alexandria Va, is conservative
O.K., in case you didn't notice, I didn't site your blog reference; I sited your comments about RE eating treif.
It's really none of your business how observant he is. I am a religious Jew, but I try not to judge others by their level of observance.
My reference to the 2nd churban is a reference to your holier than thou judging of this obviously secular Jew who may associate, on some level, with "orthodox" Jewry. Your observation of what he eats just makes you look, to struggle for a polite word, silly.
The treif restaurant was already there before he got there, and will be there long after you've been thrown out of the Palestinian territories due to the action of the same patron Mr. R.E.
Most Jews don't want to be religious. If you're interested in maintaining a relationship with your brothers and sisters in Israel who don't share your orthodox values, you should try being less judgmental. If, of course, you're only interested in talking to the orthodox or the orange and want to keep declaring outrage at their religious or political "heresy", well then keep writing how you write.
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