Roni Alsheikh - dancing with Torah in Auschwitz. Left, right, left, right...

The man in the picture, the one in the uniform amidst the pair of civilians, is our (relatively) new police chief, Roni Alsheikh. His ascent (?) to the new throne from the post of Shin Bet's deputy head wasn't easy due to resistance of the police hierarchy to appointment of an outsider, and I guess his life is not easy right now. Besides, who likes a cop?

Yep, no one likes a cop, but nothing would have prepared an innocent reader to the histrionics displayed by local ultra-lefties at the sight of the following scene. In the recording, Roni Alsheikh and a group of other cops and border policemen are dancing with the Torah scroll in Auschwitz, on the last Holocaust memorial day.



I have several examples here and here, but all this in Hebrew and I wouldn't bother with translations for now - just believe me that the fury at the "senseless, insensitive, expensive, ultra-religious, callous, [add your adjective] ritual" is simply overflowing. And the bile eruption is simply remarkable.

I might personally not find it in me to dance anywhere, Auschwitz included - that besides being an incorrigible atheist. But I do understand what Roni Alsheikh was up to there. Affirming our right and our love of life and sticking a finger into the eye of the Nazis (dead or alive) isn't something I would object to, the opposite is rather true. You can and even should dance in Auschwitz, see another example of doing just that (with explanation, too):



And this is definitely related to the subject of Alsheikh's appointment to his position. The said appointment was met by a similar eruption of bile. A short version could be seen here:

To make things short - the take over of the goverment [sic!] by fundamentalists.

a longer version belongs to the baron of deceit industry, our incomparable Gideon Levy.

Roni Alsheich is a man with a very dubious past. In a law-abiding country, no one would even imagine appointing him police commissioner. In Israel, they place a crown on his head. The national chorus sings his praises.

The two main elements on which Mr Levy builds his attack are: the [past] residence of Alsheikh in a settlement; and his service in Shin Bet. If you want to buy this logic, it is up to you. Then we should descend a bit more into the cesspool, where Richard Silverstein aka Doucheblogger resides:

And when we get to the bottom of that pit (or the gutter, if you will), you shall find there one Uri Avneri. If there ever was a pretendent to the title of the king of yellow journalism (with pink stripes in this case), here is one. And here comes his article on a site called Redress Information & Analysis. That site willingly hosts authors like Mr Avneri, Gilad Atzmon and other Holocaust deniers, with other Jew-hating rubbish. I don't provide a link in this case, you can easily find the article by its telling headline: "Roni Alsheikh, Israel’s ultra-primitive chief of police". And why does the esteemed yellow journo call Roni Alsheikh "ultra-primitive"? Here it goes:

So, unlike his younger colleague Mr Levy, the attack here is three-pronged:

1. His father is of Yemenite descent, his mother is Moroccan.
2. He is the first police chief to wear a kippah, or skullcap.
3. Also the first who was once a settler.

If you don't detect a strong stench of the good old-fashioned lefty Ashkenazi racism and/or the innate and totally undeserved superiority complex here, you have to check your sinuses asap... 'nuff said.

Now, compare all of the above to the demented response of an ultra-right-winger to the appointment of an Arab police officer, Jamal Hakroush, to the post of Deputy Inspector-General. Here it comes, in all its glory:

Granted, in this case the writing style and content might indicate a need for a chemical intervention, but how is this screed, in its essence, different from Mr Avneri's racist rant and Mr Levy's hatchet job?

All in all, without any prior prejudice against (or for) Roni Alsheikh, now I feel myself rather invested in the success of his stint as our chief cop. Good luck, Mr Alsheikh!