Everyone is talking about the Internet Asifa with the backing of the Gedolim. Many different people have pointed out all the many things wrong with the idea from beginning to end.

What hasn’t been pointed out (as far as I’ve seen) is that it seems obvious to me that this is not primarily about the speeches of the Gedolim (whoever they may be – so far no names have been mentioned). Surely the most important thing here for the organisers is the Expo which will take the first 2 hours.

I know that I am very cynical, but based on past history my guess is that the main purpose of this Asifa is to define ‘kosher internet’ and not kosher internet. Those who spend money to hire a booth at the expo will (for some unexplained reason) get a hechsher for their product. Anyone who purchases any other product will be excluded from the Chareidi community. It will not take long before Beis Yaakov schools require parents to sign that they don’t have any other products. There will be special e-mail addresses which will be the only ones acceptable for those who wish to be part of the Chareidi community. etc. etc. etc.

In other words, it seems to me that the main purpose of this whole thing is to allow a few individuals to have an exclusive market of several thousand customers.