THE WILLIAM DAVIDSON STORY

“He was optimistic, as most good entrepreneurs are,” recalls Peter Walters, who, before retiring, served as Guardian’s group vice president for international business development. “Entrepreneurs see things as having good outcomes — as opposed to the conservative finance people who would ask, ‘What would happen if the world comes to an end? Would we still be successful?’

https://williamdavidson.org/who-we-are/the-william-davidson-story/

Wonderwall

And all the roads we have to walk are winding
And all the lights that lead us there are blinding
There are many things that I would like to say to you
But I don't know how

Noam Gallagher

Elections again

The true cause is idol worship. Israelis worship the military like a god and want the Charedim to bow to that god. Why else the insistence that Charedim be drafted? There are already 18,000 soldiers too many. Because it's not fair? Is it fair that we keep Shabbos our whole lives and you party? Is it fair that the military is crafted in the image of Chiloni apikoris and arrogance? Hey Chiloni, how about you be a Toldos Aaron chossid for 2.5 years. That kind of culture clash is what you are demanding of us. You demand we join your culture, maybe you should join ours. How do you have three elections and none of the normal issues of a society get discussed: the economy, security, education, health. That's what normal societies talk about. The Mistake of Israel is not a normal society. It wasn't formed naturally as other societies are. It was formed as a rebellion against God and Torah. And so you get a political stalemate which is essentially all about the draft and a peacetime draft. There hasn't been war with another nation in 50 years but Israelis insist on the draft as if it were mesorah from Sinai. For them, it is mesorah, mesorah from Herzl, the man who wanted to convert all the Jews to Catholicism, mesorah from Ben Gurion, a self-professed atheist who according to Yeshayahu Leibowtiz hated religion more than any other person he had ever met, mesorah from Jabotinsky who was a fascist atheist. Choose your god Israel. Do you worship the Creator of heaven or earth or the Baal? It's one or the other.

A Little Respect Please

A Little Respect Please

From their broadcast studios, wearing fancy suits on loan from the TV networks, with their noses covered in powder to prevent sweat from shining up their foreheads under the studio lights, the sports analysts keep telling us that sports is all about championships and Michigan football hasn’t won any in modern history, which is the only history they seem to care about. “The most overrated program in history,” said one pundit. The disrespect Michigan is getting is off-putting.

It’s a strange notion that sports is all about championships. If that’s true, sports fans are fools because only one team wins every year. Sports viewing is a voluntary activity. Why would millions of people spend all that time if 95% of them are going to hang their heads in sorrow all through the offseason? Life presents enough sadness that we can’t escape. Why pay good money and spend precious time enduring more?

Now Michigan football has won national championships in modern history, which really should be defined as the AP era. It won in 1947 and it won a kind of protest symbolic post-bowl game national championship AP vote in 1948. It also won in 1997. The analysts keep calling the Lloyd Carr championship half a championship. If you win all your games, it is not half a championship. The NCAA, which also was not obsessed with national championships until the world turned rotten, didn’t have in those days a title game and a kind of way of determining an undisputed champion on the field. The AP voted for Michigan. That’s a full championship. The analysts keep talking about that exciting year as if the Michigan team and Coach Carr did something wrong. They won all their games fellas. What else can you do?

But that doesn’t even matter that much to me since I don’t watch sports to see my team become national champion. It’s nice to have one or two under your belt but I don’t need a dozen of them. I watch sports to be entertained and inspired. I want to see a good game, a competitive contest where people with enormous athletic skill, unlike me who has little, run really fast, jump very high, throw the ball very far, engage in dazzling feats of strength and footwork, and employ strategy and teamwork.

I love those moments just before the game begins, when the captains head out for the coin toss. They look so focused and determined. They are prepared for the contest. They are going to give it their best. And they do it as a unit, sometimes even holding hands! Hulking he-men holding hands in unity. How interesting. How unlike any place I ever worked. Something big must be happening out there in the field. How exciting. It gives my dull life a little voltage. That’s entertainment.

With college football in particular, I like the pageantry. I like cool uniforms and big stadiums and singable fight songs and mascots and excited fan bases. I like a team that stays in one place. Somebody tell me please, what’s an Indianapolis Colt? I’m sorry but Colts are from Baltimore.

College teams don’t move to better markets. Often, too often, they mess with the makeup of their league like when the Big Ten became the Big Thirteen and invited metro New York and DC onto the cow farm. I won’t complain about that right now. I take comfort that Badgers are from Wisconsin and Sooners are from Oklahoma. If that ever changes, I will stop watching altogether. I promise.

And speaking of Wisconsin, I like the rivalry with Wisconsin. I like the rivalry with MSU even more. I like the one with Minnesota too. There’s a lot of history there. I am entertained when Michigan goes up against Iowa. Leather helmets flash before my eyes. I see Neil Kinnock racing one way and Tom Harmon racing the other. Michigan has won many rivalry games and lost many and has entertained me most of the time. The contemporary sports analysts only seem to care when #1 plays #2. I like it when an unranked Illinois plays an unranked Purdue. It’s Midwestern football baby with or without your rankings. I love it. I care more about the Big Ten championship than a national one. I’m serious. And Michigan football has won plenty of those. Big Ten football baby. 

There’s always been an inherent problem with college football national championships even under the current system as sports writers and coaches historically have had a significant role in determining the winner or currently who plays to be the winner. Even if their choices are reasonable ones, the process is not very exciting except to themselves. 

Championships in any sport leave me with an empty feeling after a few days. I’m not into conquest I guess. Plus, what did I do? I watched passively. Maybe I added my voice to the crowd, one of 105,000. A good sports story is much more meaningful to me. It is not hollow when athletes inspire me to go about my life with more passion. That’s what Michigan football did for me this year as they had some trouble early on and heard all kinds of abuse but roused themselves and played like tigers the rest of the season. So they lost to OSU. Who hasn’t? And if they come back from that loss and play like tigers against Alabama in the Citrus bowl they will have inspired me again. Thank you boys.

The college football championship is doubly empty because much of it happens not on the playing field but in the calculations and biases of people who are not on the field. In college football, to win the national championship, a team usually needs a perfect record. Three of the four teams playing in the playoffs this year all have perfect records and style points on top of that, meaning they shamefully beat up on weaker teams. We are talking about college kids here folks. Young people aren’t perfect and their time is better spent rising from defeat than trying never to stumble. It’s more inspiring anyway, to watch a team get up after a defeat than being perfect. And smacking down weaker teams deep into the third quarter doesn’t help young men to build character.

One can learn much character playing sports if the coaches handle it right. Sports are full of lessons for life, even for fans. People who don’t understand sports think it’s all dumb jocks. But I have learned a ton from sports. From baseball legend Yogi Berra I learned that in theory there’s no difference between theory and practice but in practice there is. I don’t know if Yogi is even the originator of that brilliant quip, but I heard it from him. From sports I learned the term “mental toughness.” I saw the clip of Orlando Magic basketball player Matt Barnes faking an in-bounds pass towards Kobe Bryant’s head and Kobe not even blinking. The announcer said, you are not going to get into the head of Kobe Bryant. What a concept, not letting people in your head, not letting people intimidate you. I learned that from sports. I learned from NY Yankee Derek Jeter to slow down the game in my mind, to not fear failure, and to remember times I have been successful. I learned from Wisconsin quarterback Scott Tolzien to take it one play at a time, not to try to do too much, and to focus on my job. I learned from hockey legend Wayne Gretsky that I will miss 100% of the shots I don’t take.

I do try to limit my sports viewing because I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep. But I find Michigan football irresistible because it provides all that I seek from sports. It always fields decent teams. Michigan football is as consistent as a workhorse. It finds superior athletes. It shows up for games. It has a terrific uniform, one that was voted by sports fans as the best in all of sports. It has one of the classic stadiums in all of sports. It has a rousing fight song, a spirited fan base, and historic rivalries. The one with Ohio State is often voted as the best in all of sports. So lately it’s been one-sided? For those who know any history, the game count is still has Michigan leading 58–51–6. Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields said, “I think we just take it more seriously than they do. We prepare for it all year.” Now that’s a rivalry. The sports analysts just see wins and losses. OSU and Michigan players see an on the field onslaught among rivals.

As for values and life lessons, Michigan football packs a wallop. I have a book on leadership from Bo Schembechler. Bo’s Lasting Lessons. It is so packed with wisdom that I have read it ten times. It is an amazing book. I’d wouldn’t exchange that book for 10 national championships. He says to honor the seniors - starters and backups - for that inspires the underclassmen to stick it out and do their best. One day they’ll be the seniors. Seniors fly first class. Underclassmen and coaches fly coach. He says to seek mentors not money and to listen before you lead. The book is chock full of wholesome wisdom that in our disturbed era is rarely heard or found.

Another Michigan coach who has taught me life lessons is Brady Hoke. Brady Hoke takes a lot of abuse for his tenure at Michigan even though his first year was full of big wins. As his days at Michigan were coming to an end, he endured what must have been significant personal embarrassment. A sportswriter, one of the sensible ones - a lady sportswriter actually - was asked about how he was reacting to it. She said, he’s taking it rather stoically. Indeed, he carried himself with dignity, absent of any public expressions of bitterness or blame. Thank you coach Hoke. What a lesson for life. Take it stoically. My goodness, what an incredible example you set. I have been trying to imitate that ever since I witnessed you doing it.

At Michigan, it’s not all about victory. We care about values, something sports analysts today with their big salaries know little about evidently. If you go to Stassen.com and look over the historic records of various teams, you’ll find an awful lot of vacated victories. In 2005, Alabama vacated all ten victories due to a textbook scandal. In 2006, they vacated all six wins; in 2007 the first five wins. In 2010, Ohio State vacated twelve wins due to playing ineligible players. In 2005, USC vacated all twelve wins due to NCAA violations along with two wins from the prior year. In 2006, Florida State vacated five wins and in 2007 all seven wins. 

Nothing like that appears on the Michigan page. The winningest program of all time has never been forced to vacate a victory. The football team has been clean of major scandal. It appears to be clean even of minor scandal, except for the time that non-Michigan man Rich Rodriguez was cited by the NCAA for exceeding practice limits. He still disputes the citation saying, “"We got in trouble for, in the offseason, a strength coach putting a rubber ball on a stick for a get-off thing when (players) did their running. A rubber ball on a stick.”

The sum of the matter is that the sports analysts need to learn a little respect, but they probably never will. They can go on pontificating from Manhattan Island with the East River floating behind their heads. I grew up in New York. There was little interest in college football there. Why are so many of the decisions about the sport and so much of the analyses made about it made on Manhattan Island? Like the Rock n’Roll Hall of Fame, news programs discussing college football should be based in Ohio or at least Alabama or Indiana or Michigan. Even Southern California would be a more appropriate choice because there is meaningful interest in college football there.

I had my suspicions that creating a national championship playoff system was going to have its drawbacks and the cheapening of the game is one of them. Michigan football has much of which to be proud, has contributed mightily to college football, and will continue to do so. Many of the analysts don’t get it. But to reapply a line from the old Lynyrd Skynyrd song, “I hope the sports writer will remember, a Michigan man doesn’t need him around anyhow.” 

independence

 you cannot live your life on the basis of what other people think you should do, because when the chips are down, nobody really cares. You're giving them a power they don't really have.  roger ebert on a bronx tale

10-year-old Palestinian Boy's Arrest by Israeli Troops

Gideon Levy Chilling Testimony From a 10-year-old Palestinian Boy's Arrest by Israeli Troops
In hot pursuit of masked youths in a Palestinian town, soldiers arrested, handcuffed and blindfolded 10-year-old Qusay al-Jaar, then took him away to be interrogated. He, his father and cousin recall the ordeal

Gideon Levy and Alex Levac Nov 08, 2019 10:07 AM, Haaretz

He’s a fifth-grader, 10 years old, with a speech impediment that constantly hampers him. He is the eldest of the four siblings in his family. Their home is small and cramped, located deep within the town of Beit Ummar, between Bethlehem and Hebron. It’s a town that evokes a feeling of despair, just upon entering it: There is a fortified guard tower, an iron barrier that is sometimes manned and sometimes not, a narrow road, neglect, commotion and filth. Merging onto Highway 60 is dangerous, almost impossible. But who needs a proper intersection with traffic lights? This is a Palestinian town, after all.

Wearing a black shirt, Qusay al-Jaar has a child’s captivating smile. His mother, Hitam, sits next to us in the small living room. The father, Ibrahim, works in construction in Israel.

On Friday, October 18, Qusay, together with a cousin, 17-year-old Rami, helped Ibrahim clear rocks from the roof of their one-story house, in order to put in flooring. The work involved filling pails with the rocks and taking them downstairs. Qusay would took the pails by bike to a place behind the house, where other construction debris was dumped. They began work in the morning: Being Friday, there was no school.

Sometime around 6 P.M., they noticed two young masked people running down the street outside, an army jeep in hot pursuit. With their disguises, Qusay and his cousin couldn’t identify the two, who fled into the alleyways, the vehicle behind them.

 few minutes later, the jeep returned, without having caught the masked people, and stopped next to Qusay, who was standing outside with his bike. Four Israel Defense Forces soldiers got out, grabbed Qusay by his shirt and dragged him forcefully into the vehicle. His mother and father shouted and tried to approach the jeep to free him. The troops fired into the air and hurled tear-gas canisters. Hitam was fearful for her son and for the safety of two of her other children, Ruya, her 3-year-old daughter, and the 18-month-old Umar, who were also on the roof at the time.

Ibrahim al-Jaar gave the following testimony to Musa Abu Hashhash, a field researcher for B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights organization: “I was removing debris from the roof of my house ahead of tiling. My nephew, Rami, who’s 17, and my son Qusay, 10, were helping me. They each got a pail from me, which they emptied near the house. Qusay carried the pail on his bike and then came back for another load. While this was going on, with me on the roof of the house, I saw two masked children running on the street nearby. I saw a jeep driving fast and figured it was pursuing the two of them.

“I went on working. After about five minutes the jeep returned and stood across from the house. Four or five soldiers got out. I saw Rami and Qusay standing next to the house. Two of the troops snatched Qusay quickly and pushed him into the jeep, and one of them shut the door. When I saw that, I jumped down from the roof. One of two soldiers fired two shots in the air. I saw Rami trying to approach the back part of the jeep; he tried to pull Qusay out. The soldiers kicked Rami hard in the stomach and shouted at him. I pulled Rami away and tried to calm him down.

“Very quickly women from the neighborhood arrived, and also my wife, Hitam, and she tried to intervene. My wife started to cry and begged the soldiers to release the boy. The soldiers threw stun grenades and tear gas, and then got into the jeep and drove away toward [the settlement of] Karmei Tzur. I had tried to explain to them that the boy is my son and that he was working with me; the soldiers spoke in Hebrew and ordered me to back off and shut up. I tried more than once to get close to the jeep, and my wife also tried, in order to get Qusay back, and then one of the soldiers fired a shot in the air.

“I calculated that the jeep was going to the military base next to Karmei Tzur. I went there with my two brothers, Mahmoud and Maher. The soldiers allowed only me inside. I saw Qusay, his hands bound in front and blindfolded, sitting on a chair, crying and scared.

“I stood near Qusay. There was a soldier – not one of the ones who arrested him – who asked him about his friends and people who throw stones. I tried to intervene, but the soldier ordered me not to. He asked Qusay about older friends, and Qusay told him he doesn’t have any older friends. The soldier said he was looking for an older boy named Abdallah. I intervened more than once during Qusay’s interrogation. The interrogating soldier said that he wouldn’t stop asking questions until Qusay gave him the names of the stone throwers.

“The soldier questioned me about the two minors who ran past the house before Qusay’s arrest. I told him that I didn’t know them and that both were masked. I heard Qusay tell the soldier that he wanted to go back home. The soldier told him he would be able to go back, but that he was waiting for an order. Qusay was released at 9:30 P.M. and I went home with him. Qusay was frightened and confused, and I tried to calm him down. A few relatives and neighbors came over to welcome us. After he ate supper he went to sleep. During the last few nights he’s been waking up suddenly and looking all around.”

The cousin’s testimony: “I am Rami Alami and I live with my family in Beit Ummar – my parents are not alive. I am in the 11th grade. On Friday morning, I went to my uncle’s house to help remove covering from the roof of his house. At around 6 P.M., while we were working, I saw an army jeep driving fast along the road close to us. I thought they were chasing two young people (minors). The masked people ran along the road before the jeep arrived. Five minutes later, the jeep came back and stood under the house. Qusay was close to me, with his bike. Without asking a question, four soldiers got out. Two went over to Qusay and one of them grabbed him by the shirt collar and pulled him toward the jeep. I heard and saw Qusay crying and shouting, ‘I didn’t do anything.’

“Just then, I saw Ibrahim jump from the roof to the ground. He started to talk to the soldiers and told them that Qusay was a minor and that he had been working with him. He tried to pull his son away, but then a soldier fired a shot in the air. Qusay’s mother, my aunt, also came out and tried to get close to her son and pull him away, but one of the two soldiers pushed her and kept her from approaching. Some women and neighbors gathered around and tried to get closer. One of the soldiers threw tear gas and stun grenades to disperse them. I also tried to get close to the jeep and pull Qusay out. One of the soldiers kicked me twice, once in the stomach and once in the leg, and threatened to shoot if I tried it again.

“One soldier quickly shut the back door of the jeep. Qusay was still crying inside. The other soldiers got in and drove off in the direction of Karmei Tzur. I saw Ibrahim and his brothers getting into a vehicle and understood that they had decided to catch up with Qusay. I knew they [the troops] were sending him to the military base near Karmei Tzur.

“I waited at my aunt’s house until 9 o’clock, in the hope that Qusay would return, but decided to go home. I was tired and went to sleep early. I found out in the morning that Qusay had been released at 9:30 and that he was back home. I learned that a soldier had accused him of throwing stones and had questioned him about whether he knew the names of the children who threw stones.”

Qusay’s testimony: “On Friday I was helping my dad… Around 6 o’clock that evening, when I was carrying a pail on my bike, an army jeep passed the house going fast. Before that, I saw two masked children running along the road. One of them was wearing a green shirt that was the same color as my shirt. After a few minutes the jeep came back and pulled up next to our house. I had enough time to get on my bike and stand next to Rami. Four soldier got out of the jeep fast. Two came toward me and one of them pulled me by my shirt into the jeep. I saw Dad jump off the roof and he started to talk to the soldiers. I heard the sound of a bullet fired in the air.

“The door of the jeep was open. Mom came out of the house and tried to approach me. She asked the soldiers to let me go and [told them] that I was a minor and hadn’t done anything. I saw a soldier push her and not let her stand there. My cousin, Rami, tried to get closer, and then the soldier kicked him and pushed him away from the jeep. I saw and heard women and men around the jeep who were trying to help me and were talking to the army people. Suddenly I heard the sound of stun grenades and smelled [tear] gas. The soldiers got in fast and the jeep headed toward the settlement. I was scared and I cried the whole time. I said I didn’t do anything. One soldier covered my eyes in the jeep and put metal handcuffs on me. After a few minutes they took me out and put me on a chair next to an army tower.

“A soldier came over to me and pulled the blindfold up and started to ask me if I threw stones, and I said I didn’t. I told him I was helping Dad take things off the roof. The soldier asked me to repeat what I said, because I have a speech problem. After half an hour Dad got there and stood by my side. The soldier was still asking me and kept on asking me. He asked me about my friends and their names and ages. I told him that my friends are in my class. He said he wanted older friends. He also asked me to give him names of people who throw stones and I answered him that I don’t know a single one.

“After my father got there, the soldier took the handcuffs off my hands, after I told him they were too tight. I saw the soldier asking my father questions about the people who throw stones in the neighborhood. I kept on sitting in the chair the whole time.

“After 9 o’clock, I heard the soldier tell Dad that I was getting released and sent home and that he was waiting for an order on the phone. After a few minutes they let me go. I went home with Dad and with my uncles, who were waiting outside. A little bit after I got there I went to sleep, I was very tired. During the arrest I was very scared and I cried all the time. I only stopped crying when Dad came to the place where I was under arrest.”

The IDF Spokesman’s Office told Haaretz in response that the incident is now under investigation.

According to B’Tselem, at the end of August, a total of 185 Palestinian minors (under age 18) were incarcerated in Israeli prisons, two of them under the age of 14. In the past few years, the number of children and teens imprisoned by Israel has ranged between 180 and 400 at any given time.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-chilling-testimony-from-a-10-year-old-palestinian-boy-s-arrest-by-israeli-troops-1.8095912

Nagen

Rabbi Yakov Nagen Interview part 2- Torah Study, Zohar, and Interfaith

by Alan Brill

The first, the Brisker approach, views the Torah as divine and eternal in which the
Torah is abstract and autonomous, and thereby disjoint from life and reality.
The Torah being alienated from the nature flow of life is, in most aspects, a Brisker
dogma and ideal. They created a closed language of lamdanut, denigration
of “baalabatish” reasoning, and seeing a divide between how people think and
how the Torah thinks. They view the Torah as devoid of emotional or human
elements, thus claiming that the mitzvot lack reasons.