Recently ‘Israel Nations News’ (aka ‘Arutz Sheva’) wrote an article that doesn’t directly make the charge of anti-Semitism against the Israeli government comes extremely close to doing so and you can almost see the jewish writer’s reflex response being to declare the IDF and/or the Israeli government as ‘anti-Semitic’.
He writes how:
‘A reserve soldier discovered that a restaurant he was referred to through a gift voucher from the IDF displayed a fake kosher certification.
The soldier, who arrived at the restaurant with his wife, was surprised to find that the certificate was not issued by an authorized body, and that according to the Chief Rabbinate’s publications, it constitutes kashrut fraud.
Following the incident, the soldier approached the Chotam organization, which filed a complaint with the IDF on his behalf, demanding that vouchers granted to reservists be redeemable only at restaurants under proper kosher supervision.
The soldier described his feelings after the incident: “When I arrived at the restaurant with my wife, I discovered that the kosher certificate presented at the location was issued by a body not authorized to grant kashrut certification by law. I greatly appreciate the army’s desire to provide benefits to reservists, but this caused my wife and me distress, shame, and discomfort. I was disappointed that the IDF would contract with non-kosher restaurants and provide vouchers for them to soldiers. Can the benefits not also accommodate those who observe Jewish law in general, and kosher observance in particular?”
Rabbi Aviad Gadot, CEO of Chotam, emphasized that this is a widespread issue: “A large portion of reservists are traditional and observe kosher laws. It is unacceptable that the IDF—the army of the Jewish people—would distribute vouchers for restaurants that are not kosher to those who fought hundreds of days for the country. We have received dozens of inquiries on this matter in recent months.”
Chotam has approached Defense Minister Israel Katz, demanding that he address the issue and work together with the Military Rabbinate and the Chief Rabbinate to prevent similar incidents in the future.’ (1)
The issue here is that the ‘IDF reservist’ looked at the kashruth certificate of the unnamed restaurant – which labels the standard of kashruth as ‘Mehadrin’ (i.e., adherence to the strictest kashruth opinions rather than the more lax standard kashruth) – and saw it was from an ‘unapproved organization’ in other words: wasn’t from an orthodox jewish kashruth certification organization and thus – because kashruth certification is the legal monopoly of orthodox jews in Israel – (2) therefore was ‘angry and upset’ because he and his wife couldn’t eat for free at the restaurant because it wasn’t kosher certified by an orthodox jewish kashruth certification agency and therefore it is ‘kosher fraud’ (aka breaking the orthodox rabbinate stranglehold on kashruth certification as a money-making machine for itself).
The reason that Rabbi Gadot and his ‘Chotam’ organization are taking this so seriously isn’t because it is an ‘anti-Semitic hate crime’ – although they are clearly implying it may as well be one – but rather because if the IDF issue meal vouchers as fringe benefits to its troops to restaurants that aren’t kashruth certified by the Israeli rabbinate – that is controlled by orthodox jews – it therefore breaks their monopoly and encourages other restaurants not to get kashruth-certified through the Israeli rabbinate but rather to use other – probably cheaper and less stringent – jewish kashruth certifications organizations.
The shrieking in the ‘Israel Nations News’ is simply jews covering up their real motives (money/power) by what they believe are more acceptable reasons (jewishness/anti-Semitism) nothing more.
References
(1) https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/414884
(2) See: https://yeahthatskosher.com/2021/05/navigating-the-israeli-kosher-restaurant-scene-understanding-kashrut-certifications-logos-in-israel/