Valentine’s Day: Christians and Jews Make Music Together
Fascist Hindus and Muslims Riot Together Against Valentine’s Day
As a Valentine’s Day card smoldered, more than 100 members of the Hindu extremist group Shiv Sena gathered in central New Delhi chanted “Death to Valentine’s Day” and “People who celebrate Valentine’s Day should be pelted with shoes!”
Valentine’s Day has in the past two decades made strong inroads in India as the country has slowly opened itself up to the outside world – its economic boom bringing in not just foreign investment, but also aspects of Western culture virtually unknown here a quarter-century ago.
Across the country, stores stocked heart-shaped balloons and chocolates, restaurants offered Valentine’s Day specials and young lovers found refuge from prying eyes in the parks.
It’s a state of affairs that enrages Hindu and Muslim hard-liners, who on Wednesday vented just as they do every Valentine’s Day -_ burning cards, holding rallies and even threatening to beat couples caught canoodling in public, a strict no-no for those who claim to defend traditional Indian values.
“This is a conspiracy to misguide the young people of our country,” said Jai Bhagwan Goel, chief of the Shiv Sena’s north India branch.
In his hand the card, with its image of a Victorian couple pictured in a tepid peck under a parasol, went up in flames.
About 40 protesters, calling themselves the Forum Against Social Evil, marched on a popular restaurant area in Srinagar, the region’s main city, calling on shop owners to refuse to serve couples and refrain from un-Islamic practices on Wednesday.
Weather intervened to stop Hindu extremists in the northern city of Lucknow from carrying out their threats to beat couples found kissing, hugging or even holding hands in public. With torrential rains pouring down, young lovers stayed out of the parks where the usually seek privacy.
Valentine’s Day: A Day to Mourn and Remember
Meanwhile, Lebanese Christians around 300,000 Lebanese waving flags and blue balloons demonstrated in Beirut on Wednesday to honor Rafik Hariri, two years after the ex-premier’s killing, and show support for the anti-Syrian government.
Christian Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea said: “We will pursue the criminals across the world and to the end of time,” pledging that Lebanon would resist Syrian influence.
The rally went ahead despite twin bus bombings on Tuesday. The ruling coalition accused Syria of organizing the blasts, which killed three people and wounded 20 in a Christian area.
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora declared February 14 a national holiday and day of mourning. Shops, schools and businesses were closed. Troops reinforced positions in downtown Beirut.
Yisroel Appoints New General
Newly-appointed IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi convened his first formal meeting with the General Staff at IDF Headquarters in Tel Aviv on Wednesday afternoon.
At the meeting, which Defense Minister Amir Peretz also attended, Ashkenazi was expected to present his goals for the future management of the IDF:
“the central challenge that stands before us is the improvement of the IDF’s operational readiness.”we will do all we can, and we will not be silent until the missing [IDF soldiers] are returned home.
He then thanked departing IDF chief Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz for his guidance. “I salute you,” he said.
Halutz, who spoke just before Ashkenazi, declared that it was most important for the civilian and military fronts to work together.
“The green, the blue and the white are all [part of] this country,” he said.
“The ‘guillotine’ culture is a destructive culture,” Halutz said. “We need to be patient and tolerant of mistakes, as well, as long as they’re reasonable – and [as long as] the one who makes them works to find the error.”
“The IDF has finished its inquiries, and I wonder, what about the national inquiry, which will scrutinize us all, down to the last man – an inquiry that will examine the discussion, the leaks, the superficiality, the short memory,” he said.
New Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi will be the man who will have to ease the sense of frustration, to bring hope. What does Ashkenazi know that Halutz doesn’t? Will he be able to reinstate our pride in the IDF and give us the confidence that the IDF is a reputable and leading organization in Israeli society? How will he instill different standards of excellence and organizational culture? How will the reserve units be rehabilitated? How will he assure order, organization, efficiency and discipline? Will he know how to keep worthy persons in place and lead the way? And most importantly: Will Ashkenazi be able to meet the challenges ahead? Will he be able to handle the next war?
If there were a background song this Valentine’s Day for Christians and Jews, it would be: “Send in the Clowns” over a glass of Maneschewitz wine…
- Joel 1:8-13 The Complete Jewish Bible
- 8 Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the husband of her youth! 9 Grain offering and drink offering are cut off from the house of ADONAI. The cohanim are mourning, those who are serving ADONAI. 10 The fields are ruined, the ground is grieving; for the grain is ruined, the new wine dried up, and the olive oil is wretched. 11 Despair, you farmers; lament, vinedressers, over the wheat and the barley – the harvest from the fields is lost. 12 The vines have withered, the fig trees wilted, also the pomegranate, date-palm and apple tree – all the trees in the fields have withered, and the people’s joy has withered away. 13 Cohanim, put on sackcloth, and weep! Wail, you who serve at the altar! Come, lie in sackcloth all night long, you who serve my God! For the grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.
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