א כשר'ע חזיר פיסל - מאל טויזענט

Natruna ad in the Washington Post this weekend - click to enlarge

An anonymous reader's comment made me realize that the topic here needs to be discussed and these lunatics - the ones that sponsored the ad on display here -exposed for what they are - Jew-haters minus the Arab scarves. They even kept most of the name, Natruna, so that they sound like Neturei Karta! We talked about Hirsh & Co., but these people may even be a greater threat, since there's less hugging of Hamas going there. Everything about them is the same; the language, the catch-phrases and the general disregard for Jewish life. The only reason they exist is because the ones who travel to Iran make them look bad, so they made a sorta toned-down version of the same group with the same ideas and the same lust for "Zionist blood." I'm not sure when this became the norm in Satmar; They were always very anti-Zionist, yes, but it was mostly when there was something to demonstrate, like when there were archeological digs in Israel and Police brutality when the digs were protested, or brutality at the Shabbos demonstrations. But as far as I know there wasn't this thing about protesting the existence of Israel or its policies about building in East Jerusalem or the Peace Process. These Natruna people pop up every once in a while and give the rest of us the absolute jitters with their rhetoric - whether spoken or in print.

Natruna is as close to Satmar as it gets. It's like Shaar Press and Artscroll, if you will - official and unofficial at the same time. When pressed against the wall Satmar can always claim that it's not them, so when the next boycott against the CRC (Hisachdus) is mentioned, like it was several years ago, they can always claim innocence. But it's a Satmar production, make no bones about it, and considering that they have other major issues on their hands; the fact that they have time and money for this is quite intriguing. Maybe one commenter on HydePark's Kol HaOlam Kulo forum summed it up right: All others have minhogim and k'peydes that they have, Levushim that they're so makpid on, and even the "Gor Veite Lubavitch" has what it does and insists on, and does it mit a shtoltz! What do we have? he asks. All we have is Emunah. The Emunah needs to be "rein," and it can only be so (not by believing in G-d, mind you) by fighting Tziyonus... Therefore, he says, we need to support the people of Natruna, he says, and fund them as much as we can.

One look at the ad and you see what they're trying to prove: basically that the soldiers in Israel are like the Soldiers in 1939, if you know what I mean. The traditional Jew just sits and prays all day. Which is the same tactic used by the Arab and Muslim media, and by student group that protest for "Palestinian rights." Not that this is something new; they've always been "Natzim" to them, but to do this in the International Media, to make a nonchalant soldier - all soldiers, that is - into some kind of brute, no matter what you think of them, is wrong. There were apparently ads running on New York radio stations as well, and I would imagine it made your blood boil as well. What you think of the Israeli Government and what you think of their policies is totally irrelevant; what we're talking about is Millions of Jewish lives here, not some petty political disagreement. I'll go out on a limb here and steal a page from thei playbook. Just like they LOVE to use the Rebbe Rashab N"E for their cause I can also say that the late Satmar Rov would never have agreed to these tactics, which basically tell the Goyim to have their way with the Jews and their State, since they're in Galus anyway and G-d wants them to suffer... He was fervently anti-State, yes, but not like this, and not for no reason. If I wouldn't know better I'd say that part of this ad looks like an Obama campaign ad...

Schneur is right, we need to find out who funds them...