guilty till proven innocent..

the media has told us the following over a dense series of prominent articles (not necessarily in this order):

a dad takes his son to the hospital with an ambulance..

the son undergoes tests and ultimately was found to have broken bones and was hemorrhaging.. the hospital immediately requests that the twin daughter be brought in and the police are involved..

the parents are immediately accused of child abuse and ultimately detained.. while this is happening the media enflamed by the talkbacks constantly reports (either directly or by heavy insinuation of child abuse)..

the parents stay in hospital the entire time until they are detained.. not moving an inch.. neighbours give overwhelmingly positive reports to the media of the couple and their twins..

a famous criminal lawyer is engaged..

the son is declared brain dead and the parents are allowed to visit the hospital to say goodbye..

the whole country follows the story with fanatic interest..

my questions to the country..

(a) helpless women are being persecuted all over the country and chased down alleys and attacked and spat on.. stories get reported and then they fade away.. where is the attention to this endemic issue that is now plaguing our capital and mixed (ultra religious - secular) towns and neighbourhoods?!?!? where is every parent who sends their child to school by foot?!?!

(b) the peace process.. our existential lifeline has come down crashing after israel at best presented a list of principles regarding borders rather than any real proposal.. why isnt the country enraged?!?! where is the left?!?! where is the right?!?! where is every parent in the country who is damned to send their children to life threatening military service during the best years of their lives?!?!

(c) our housing system is collapsing.. young people cannot afford anything.. anything.. seriously.. unless your parents cough up their guts and blood in a deposit most people cannot afford a home.. a colleague at work was talking to me yesterday about the shit box he was thinking of buying for $400K that was not even inhabitable.. he sent me reports of recent sales in the area to convince me why he should beg his and his wife's parents for help.. i wouldnt want to live in that area..

so the whole country ("lead" by dafny leaf) held a woodstock all summer long - camping out in protest bla bla bla.. and the government appointed a panel bla bla bla.. and now even the panel doesnt agree with the government's measures.. where are all the young parents who are stuck at their parents houses or in dire straights with rentals who will never afford to buy a home?!?! where are they?!?!

look this could go on.. for a long time.. my point being that the country is plagued with serious concrete issues that have solutions that are not being implemented.. and all these young parents are screaming out as the defenders of two twins against their "monstrous" parents.. parents who have not left the bedside of their kids for a second and who are cooperating with everything the police have asked of them and not wavered for a second.. parents who are reported to be normative and kind people and who have been lovingly assisted by their own parents.. and who have yet to be proven to be guilty..

im not blaming the media.. because the media is basically just the public dressed up with journo tags.. im blaming the country.. the people.. the so called do gooders.. the same people who will agree that fencing in millions of palestinians who have yet to be proven guilty and who need to beg that they are innocent at check points every day to get to their schools and workplaces etc.. the same people who will subject a whole nation to misery to insulate their mentality.. these people are delighting in this persecution because it makes them feel morally valid and is now distracting them from the rest of the disasters for which they are all collectively and democratically responsible..

this family is being monumentally destroyed - if they are innocent (which is supposed to be our presumption) then they have been served with the worst hand ever.. and the damage done to them will never repair..

my nation - rather than seeking to better its weaknesses - has decided to decimate a couple to distract itself from all the shit going on.. and the couple hasnt even yet been proven to be guilty..

so its true.. in a place where people will cannibalise others.. they will ultimately cannibalise their values and eventually themselves..

something is very wrong.. may the magic of this shabbat be dedicated entirely to its correction..

shabbat shalom..