Hollywood actor and Kabbalah enthusiast Ashton Kutcher has visited the Holy Land to celebrate the birthday of Kabbalah Center founder Rabbi Shraga Berg.
While here, he also managed to do a few things to upset the moonbats.
Like visiting the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Joshua’s Grave, near Shechem, where he was greeted by Colonel Avi Gil, commander of the Ephraim Brigade, who presented him with the brigade’s baseball cap.
A cap he wore to the Israel vs Latvia basketball game later that day.
This sent at least one moonbat into a tailspin:
I wonder if Ashton Kutcher knows what poor judgment he demonstrated yesterday. Both Nablus and Hebron are well within the occupied territories. For more than 40 years now, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in these cities have no political or civil rights, can’t travel, work or study freely, and are tried in Israeli military courts under British colonial laws. The area of the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron is particularly nasty. Entire streets are forbidden to Palestinians, kept only for the use of a tiny and radical settlers’ community, which frequently harass and abuse the Arab residents.
Did anyone tell Ashton Kutcher that in 1994 a Jewish Terrorist named Baruch Goldstien (another resident of Jewish Hebron) opened fire on the Arabs praying there, killing 29 and wounding more than a hundred? Does Kutcher understand that coming to Hebron to pray with the Jewish community there is like riding into a black neighborhood in Alabama, 1950, with a KKK group? Does he realize that going to Nablus with an army hat is seen in the same way as going there on a Tank?
I don’t oppose the right of Jews to pray anywhere, just as I think Arabs should have this right (most of the Palestinian population is forbidden from entering their holy sites in Jerusalem), but context is everything, and right now the context in the West Bank is that of the occupation and the settlements.
If Ashton Kutcher wanted so badly to visit these holy places, he should have done it as a guest of the Palestinians. I’m sure they would have been happy to host him. But then he might have faced a different problem: the Israeli tendency to prevent foreigners from entering the occupied territories on the Palestinian’s invitation.
I am guessing aforesaid mentioned moonbat won’t like this either (hat tip and translation: Muqata):
Celebrity US actor, Ashton Kutcher is visiting Israel these days, and he took time out of his busy schedule to visit…Gush Etzion!
Under the initiative of project “Mashiv HaRuach” which deals with strengthening the values of Zionism, Kutcher visited the community of Efrat, listened with great interest to a historical review of the community and the Gush Etzion area, dined at a Glatt Kosher restaurant, and even dipped in a local natural spring “Mikva” no less than 151 times! (151 is the numerical equivalent “gematriya” of “Mikva”)
The project’s director, Rafi Even D’aan briefed Kutcher and the history of settlement in Gush Etzion and spoke to him at length about the region’s Jewish history. Rafi told Kutcher about the establishment of the new Jewish settlements after the Six Day War and explained the spiritual and historical significance of Gush Etzion.
“Mashiv HaRuach” is a project of the Israel Center of the OU (organization of Jewish communities) and hosts every year about 30 thousand IDF soldiers to help combine and strengthen the values of Zionism and the IDF.
I must admit, I am no fan of the commercialization of Kabbalah, or whatever watered down version these celebrities are being fed. But I am pleased to see more and more celebrities visiting Israel, especially sites holy to Jews. This helps raises awareness of our very strong connection to this land, which is something our own leaders are not so adept at doing.
Update: Judging by the photos, I’d say Ashton seems a bit overdressed. Especially for someone who seems to have noticed the heat in Israel.
