It is highly unlikely that the apologetic words of Yoel will be received with warm open arms by the chareidi or dati leumi communities. A week after his interview to a Channel 2 TV crew spewing his hate and disdain for the dati leumi community were aired nationwide he expresses a measure of remorse over granting the interview. According to most, his actions were nothing less than a major blow to the chareidi image in Eretz Yisrael, not to mention the chilul Hashem factor. In his interview, Yoel justified spitting at an 8-year-old dati leumi girl simply because he feels her modesty code falls short of his standard. He stated that even without his words, “they are against us. They always incite against us”.
Needless to say the section including his interview (which can be seen in this video) was aired over and over again, driving the message home, making sure no one in Israel missed it.
Kikar Shabbat asked him a week later “how do you feel now?”
YOEL:
One thing is for sure. I regret appearing in the secular media. This is certainly not my forte, not my place and I should not have played into the hands by giving the interview. They entrapped me with their words and took some of my comments out of context. I said a great deal, words that were cut out of the portion aired. I fell as if they put words in my mouth.
KIKAR:
A non-Orthodox person standing at this side confirmed his statements for Kikar, that his words were edited to reflect the statements as they were aired.
So what do you conclude from all this?
YOEL:
I will tell you the truth. Yesterday I secluded myself to contemplate the events. I learned a lesson here, just how potent our words can be and how they can have a major impact. I learned just how important each word is that we utter to HaKadosh Baruch Hu in our tefilos as well as our words towards family and friends.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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12 Responses
Nothing to do with harrassment of young girls is his concern or regret just be careful what you say in the future.
This guy is not who allegedly started it all. That would be the “spitter”. And the alleged spitting never happened:
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/was-there-really-a-spitter-in-beit-shemesh
How dare you,
How dare you call yourself YWN when you are guilty of the same misrepresentation as the secular media. Your title of the article “the man who started it all” is absolutely false!!! Check your facts before reporting. I know Yoel personally and can vouch that he has no hatred towards our secular brothers. He loves them as he loves any and every Jew. He defnitlly learned his lesson about giving interviews to secular media, but he does not deserve the title you gave him. I hope you apologize and change the title.
I have a problem with the assumption that the dati leumi are innocent bystanders. They can also be provocative and rebellious toward the standards the hareidim keep, and sometimes outright vicious.
Don’t apologize to Kikar Shabbat for embarrassing Charedim. Apologize to an eight year old girl for giving verbal ammunition to the grown men who yell and spit at her when she walks to school.
This sounds an awful lot like “I’m sorry I got caught”
10952 Ask the parents and girls who walk daily to their Torah school – Orot what is happening and join them in the morning trek through gehinom.
10952 midvar sheker tirchak. Maybe you don’t
want to believe it but there have been several spitters, and one assault, which was prosecuted. Did not make much news – we had mazal back then. Just one spitter made the news. There have also been spreading feces and smashing windows of classrooms.
the article you refer asks a question, it does not state a fact as you do.
Those of use who live here know this actually happens,
By the way one of us (haredi) who tried to speak out against the sikrikin had (literaly) his bones broken. The truth is tough but it’s still the truth.
He is only sorry about opening his mouth to the secular media.
He is not sorry about his action or tactics. He is not sorry about spitting, screaming, lurking, and intimidating little girls everyday. He has not said that he will stop or convince others to stop the harassments.
His goal along with the other Zealots/Sikrikim is to drive down the real estate value in the Dati Leumi area in Beit Shemesh and take it over one block at a type.
The American Chardal/Charadi community is next.
I wonder how many people were interviewed until they got the sound bite they wanted.
#2, he admits it. This has also been admitted and videos aired on this site have shown them screaming vile words at little girls. Whom do you think you are fooling?
#4 EzratHaShem: “They can also be provocative and rebellious toward the standards the hareidim keep”
How does one rebel against another’s standard? The fact that the D”L community paskens differently is not rebellious. That they live in the same neighborhood and walk the same streets is not “provocative.”
I actually think it’s Hillary Clinton who started the current hostilities with her speech. Everything else that’s happened since then — fingers can be pointed in every direction as to wrong-headed actions. The secularists certainly did their part to cash in on Hillary’s obvious bias for them, but the violent actions on the part of some Charedim played right into the secular propaganda. The saddest thing is that just when Jews need to be together, when the rest of the world is against us, is exactly the time when we implode against each other.