Video - High Five New York

Footage of an Orthodox Jewish man high-fiving unsuspecting cab-hailers in New York City is spreading like wildfire online and has attracted the attention of major news outlets.

Aspiring filmmaker Meir Kalmanson told Fox 5 News on Tuesday that so far, he has received mostly positive reactions to his unsolicited outstretched arm.

“A lot of positive feedback,” said the Brooklyn native. “People are just sending me messages via Twitter, and Facebook, on YouTube, they’re like…’Wow that was amazing.’ Just so many types of reactions, but all positive.”

On Sunday, Kalmanson uploaded the video, titled “High Five New York,” to YouTube and, so far, it has attracted over 200,000 views. And it isn’t Kalmanson’s first clip to reach such a large audience either. He hit the 1 million “views” mark with his video “Sleeping on Strangers in the Subway,” which was uploaded to YouTube in November 2013.

Kalmanson said that with his high-five social experiment, he was trying to lighten up people’s frantic and serious moods as they wait for cabs.

“Especially when they’re getting a taxi they’re just there [thinking] nothing about anything else. They’re not even in the present they’re in the future just trying to get a taxi,” he told Fox 5. “So [I try] to bring them back to the now, to the moment and giving them a high-five.”

He added, “In a world of electronics, cellphones and all that jazz - which is great - we’re getting so caught up in, sometimes its great to have human connection.”

People who engage in criminal activity are just that. Criminals.

People who engage in criminal activity are just that. Criminals. HT: IMRA. Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 3 July 2014.

Weekly Commentary: No Excuses. Period

People who engage in criminal activity are just that.

Criminals.

And they remain criminals even if they are spurred to engage in this criminal activity by frustration, desire for revenge, or the "occupation".

Yes.

It is criminal activity to murder.

It is criminal activity to assault someone.

It is criminal activity to throw rocks at people and vehicles.

It is criminal activity to wantonly destroy public property.

People who engage in criminal activity are criminals.

And they should be prosecuted and punished for that criminal activity.

There is no place for a free pass on this.

To repeat: they remain criminals even if they are spurred to engage in this criminal activity by frustration, desire for revenge, or the "occupation".

And that. Unfortunately. Is the chasm between how we and how the Palestinian leadership sees the world.

We believe that all criminals, be they Jews or Arab, should be prosecuted and punished for their criminal activity.

But the entire Palestinian leadership, including Mahmoud Abbas, maintains that Palestinians who engage in murder and other forms of violence against Israelis should get a free pass. 

They insist that Israel should release all the Palestinian criminals no matter how heinous the crime.

The Palestinian leadership essentially takes the morally revolting position that the Palestinians are uncontrollable savages.

The irony?

If the Palestinians are the uncontrollable savages that their leadership makes them out to be, how can they possibly expect to ever be able to have their own state?

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il
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IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis
Since 1992 providing news and analysis on the Middle East with a focus on Arab-Israeli relations
Website: www.imra.org.il