Wednesday, December 15, 2010

1. Master of Idiocy - in my last posting, I wrote about Jennifer Peloto and her Master's thesis controversy. Eli Rubenstein, who is among other things, the national director of The March of the Living program in Canada, wrote this very thoughtful piece - A thesis that hurts.

I will leave this issue with 2 comments. First, while I do not know him especially well, I have had the distinct pleasure of meeting Eli on a few different occasions. I listened to him speak about the MOL program and the Shoah, and I have watched him interact with his audience. In my opinion, he is one of the most compassionate people I have ever met. He is especially sensitive to issues of racism and the need for peoples from different cultures to understand one another better to prevent anything resembling the Shoah to occur again. The programs he runs are nothing like what Peloto described in her thesis - but that is to be expected when she never interviewed any participant, staff person or survivor associated with the programs.


Second, I went in the adult March of the Living trip in 2005 (the program did not exist when I was a student). I will unequivocally state that as emotional and painful as the trip was, it was one of the best things I have ever done for my own development and as a member of society at large. I hope that by writing this blog, speaking publicly about my experience on the trip, and regularly performing other aspects of pro-Israel advocacy, I am faithfully keeping my commitment to honor the pledge that all participants make when they undertake the program - March of the Living Canada Pledge.




3. Maybe These Guys Should Go As Well - Pajamas Media » The Leftist World Council of Churches and the Jews - somehow I don't think they'd get the message.


4. H & H - no, I do not mean the bagel store where Kramer "worked" in an episode of Seinfeld. I refer instead to Hamas and Hezbollah - David Frum: The crime that could fell Hezbollah Full Comment National Post and New clash with Hamas looms – defense officials.





6. The Rabbinic Ruling Controversy - still brews:


8. Obstacle To Peace - The Palestinian Proletariat - gee, I wonder if the UN is involved at all - let's see - the "UNRWA" - looks like it is!




11. There's Actually 613 Commandments - but who am I to quibble - Top Ten - by Vox Tablet Tablet Magazine - A New Read on Jewish Life - by the way, if numerology interest you (if Judaism referred to as "Gematria"), if you add 6 +1 + 3, you get - of course - 10. Apart from the Ten Commandments, there were 10 plagues visited upon Egypt, 10 men (or men and women if you are egalitarian) are required for a minyan, ten days of awe between the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur, and so on. I'm guessing that the fact that Montreal Canadiens' superstar Guy Lafleur wore number 10 is strictly a coincidence.


12. Oprah Forever (?) - I hope that everyone recognizes this as satire:

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Saturday, December 11, 2010 - Motzei Shabbat

1. Some Others Aren't Impressed Either - A number of organizations have strongly criticized the rabbinic ruling about selling land to non-Jews that I referred to in my last blog posting on Wednesday.
One of the regular readers of this blog agreed with the rabbinic ruling - and disagreed with my disapproval of it - and did so in the strongest possible terms. I read his comments, which are private between him and me, but his arguments do not change my mind.

Another reader opposed to the ruling commented to me, also privately, that among other things, the ruling is a terrible injustice that "discriminates against the countless Druze, Bedouin, and other Arab-Israelis who faithfully defend (and die) for the State of Israel in uniform"

"But academic freedom does not mean freedom from academic standards, and unfortunately, Peto’s paper seems to blur the line. After trudging through more than 100 pages of political hyperbole and unsubstantiated claims, it seems questions should be raised about the conception of academic standards at U of T’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) where Peto was awarded her master’s degree." (my emphasis)

3. Stupid Moves - Brazil and Argentina have recognized a "free and independent" Palestinian state - South American countries recognize Palestinian state and More Latino countries may recognize 'Palestine'.


Here's some good advice from the last link:
"Unilateralism is a two-way street. By abrogating the Oslo Accords, the Palestinians make it legitimate for Israel to withdraw from its own obligations to negotiate a final settlement and to recognize a Palestinian state. If the Palestinians unilaterally seek international recognition, Israel should move with all deliberate speed to create, unilaterally, a territorial arrangement that suits its interests: Separation from the Palestinians, while establishing control over territory needed for security, for its water resources and yes, for the security and further development of communities in Judea and Samaria."
4. Maybe They Should Be Concerned About This Instead - Iran Placing Medium-Range Missiles in Venezuela; Can Reach the U.S. :: Hudson New York - I'm going to go out on a limb and surmise that these missiles can be launched in a southern direction as well as in a northern direction. There's nothing more comforting to know that Hugo Chavez and his Iranian sponsors have their fingers on the triggers to these babies. Maybe all this chumminess with Iran wasn't such a good thing after all.


5. More On Unilateral Declarations - Bleak House - by Benny Morris Tablet Magazine - A New Read on Jewish Life - ridiculous unilateral declarations won't change the situation Benny Morris describes - only direct negotiations will. Also se - Ron Radosh » Israel’s Fate Hangs in the Balance: Is Benny Morris’s new Assessment Right?

6. Not Too Much To Ask For - Demonstrators call for basic human rights for Schalit - oops - forgot he is an Israeli Jew serving in the IDF - gee - three strikes against him - too bad....... (that's sarcasm, by the way).




8. Fire Update - Carmel, and its people, prepare to rise from the ashes. Also - First winter rain begins falling throughout country - ironically, for the reasons noted in the article - this may actually harm the recovery effort.

Also - see this article by Melanie Philips, which ends with this question:
"Question: who is the more cerebrally challenged – the Middle Eastern peoples who are brainwashed into believing in the US/Zionist all-powerful conspiracy, or the western intelligentsia who fail to find in this theory cause for serious disagreement, let alone profound alarm about the power and intentions of those in its demented grip?"

10. Convenient Amnesia - Pajamas Media » Bidding to Build Trains in CA, Deutsche Bahn Railroad Whitewashes Its Nazi Past - after all - the Jews and others who were murdered at places like Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Sobibor and Belzec didn't walk there.

(The inscription on the railway car reads: "We are going to Poland to strike at the Jews")



(examples of insignia of Nazi rail workers)

11. Iran - a number of things to keep in mind:



13. Attention All "Gleeks" - OK - I'm a "Gleek" - a fan of the show "Glee". On a recent episode, the character Arty, who is paraplegic, was able to "walk" courtesy of an Israeli invention - what a rotten country - green energy in the desert and now this! Those perfidious Jews - what they they do next? (more sarcasm, in case you didn't notice)


14. Israeli Slang - In Hebrew I can't say much more than "hello", "goodbye", "what's this?", "please", "thank you", "right", "left" and "where's the washroom?" (that last one is a biggie - though I am relying on the person I ask to point!) - so I would be completely lost on Israeli slang - Parsing Israeli Slang – Forward.com.

15. Yiddish - which I cannot speak either, again apart from some basic words, including some curses - but is a rich language that greatly reflects the Jewish experience in Eastern Europe before the Shoah - Is Yiddish Literature the Next Big Thing? – Forward.com - too bad the major sources of Yiddish culture - scholars, playwrights, poets, actors and so on - were wiped out in the Shoah - but the "good news" (sarcasm alert) is that they were wiped out very conveniently - either the Einsatzgruppen were kind enough to come right to their cities, towns and villages and massacre them more on less on the spot, or the German rail system provided free transportation to an extermination camp. Nothing's too good for the Jews on the way to their death!



17. Wow - This Speaks Volumes - this story is truly astonishing - or maybe not, given the countries concerned and the inept, bloated, corrupt waste of space on New York City's East Side known as the United Nations - and the ivory tower intellectuals in the West (and I'm guessing that a reasonable number of them are gay or strongly support gay rights) don't say a word.


18. College Football - I am a big fan of American college football - the games and the rivalries, not the scandals, the hype and the lack of a playoff system.

Being a good Jewish boy, my favorite team is, of course, Notre Dame (?) - a team that has struggled considerably over the last number of years. I also like Oklahoma, Penn State and pretty much anyone who plays Michigan, USC, Florida State or Miami.

In my opinion, even though I do not like any of their teams, recently the most dominant conference is clearly the Southeastern Conference (the SEC), which boasts last year's national champion Alabama, this year's SEC champion Auburn (which will play Oregon for the national championship), and other perennially strong teams such as Florida, Georgia, LSU, South Carolina - even if some of those teams are having off years. This year's "Iron Bowl" rivalry game between Auburn and Alabama was one of the best games in recent memory, and junior Auburn quarterback Cam Newton is an amazing talent who is on an incredible roll this year (and who will likely win the Heisman Trophy this evening).

Anyway, here is a video of some of the top plays of the past season - with the bowl games to come.



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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

1. Fire Fallout - The Atlantic’s Jeff Goldberg: ‘Don’t Donate To Those Rich Jews For Israel’s Fire Relief Fund’ - Big Journalism - I received this link from a number of people today - the title of this link is inflammatory, obviously deliberately so - and I think that Rob Miller (the author) is wrong to have done so - but I also think that Goldberg is dead wrong - maybe if Israel could live live as a normal country and not have to spend inordinate amounts of national treasure on defending itself, I might - might - consider his point. Despite the poor title, I do think that the other points that Miller raises are quite valid.



4. Hey - Didn't Spielberg Direct the Movie "Jaws"? - and isn't he Jewish? Egyptian Official: Israel Could Be Behind Deadly Shark Attack - FoxNews.com - OH PLEASE!


5. Better Call The ADL - just kidding - Last Night's Winner: Not The Jews


6. On Much More Serious Notes - vigilance and diligence are essential - one of the reasons I write this blog and write to the newspapers - trying to do my little bit:

8. If This Story Is Correct, I'm Not Impressed - This fire is still burning: Racism is spreading - people will probably disagree with me, but as a people who have suffered from the shoe being on the other foot, this just strikes me as wrong.

9. Vasily Grossman - the famous Russian war correspondent and novelist - Eyewitness - by Blake Eskin Tablet Magazine - A New Read on Jewish Life - his description of Treblinka in A Writer At War still sends shivers down my spine - his report was used in evidence at the Nuremberg Trials. I am currently reading Life and Fate, a work (often compared to War and Peace) that was banned in the Soviet Union but published after being smuggled to the West during the Cold War.


10. Good Old Hamas, Good Old UN - Commentary » Blog Archive » Hamas Returns To Executing Opponents, UN Returns To Boosting Hamas Aid - I wonder if George Galloway and his supporters see any issue here.



12. Canadian Political Humour - the controversial Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador recently resigned abruptly - putting another Newfie out of work.

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Saturday, December 4, 2010 - Motzei Shabbat

1. Blaze Update - As noted in yesterday's posting, Hanukkah has been deeply overshadowed by the terrible fire in the Carmel region of Israel near Haifa.

It is hard for someone who has never been to Israel to understand the devastating nature of this tragedy, and I am sure that my explanatory comments that follow would pale alongside that written by someone who lives in Israel, especially in the affected area.


As I have often stressed, Israel is a tiny geographic entity, which, defined by its pre-1967 borders, consists of about 8,000 square miles. A fire of this magnitude is not like some naturally-caused wildfire in, for example, a remote region of British Columbia (which, for example, consists of just under 365,000 square miles - even Nova Scotia consists of 21,345 square miles). The amount of arable land in Israel is very limited, and forests are very important to Israel's ecology - a fire of this type has a disproportionate impact.

As well, I think that there is a strong symbolic issue. When Jewish pioneers started to return to what was then known as Palestine, one of their prime efforts was to plant trees - including the use of eucalyptus trees to help drain swamps. Growing up in a Jewish home, there was always the famous "Blue Box" into which we (and millions of fellow Jews around the world) placed spare change to help fund the planting of trees in Israel. The Jewish National Fund has achieved tremendous things in Israel, and the JNF has worked closely with many countries, including Canada, on forestry-related issues. Here is another example of the type of positive contribution that Israel makes to the world community - El Salvador to copy Israel's national forestry model | social-action.


If there is any silver lining to this very dark cloud, it would be that a number of nations have promptly offered aid (including Turkey, Jordan and Egypt) - Israel battles forest fire with foreign help - Yahoo! News and Grateful prime minister hails international response - much in the same way that Israel has when disasters occur in other countries (even if sometimes the aid is refused). Prime Minister Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas have had one of their rare telephone conversations over the issue, and the PA has lent some support - PA lends firefighters a hand - Israel News, Ynetnews. However, the tragedy has "delighted" certain groups - Northern blaze delights many in the Arab world - the usual suspects, one might say:

"There is no need to tell you how delighted we are that more than 40 cadets who tortured prisoners were killed in this fire. We never met with your compassion when Israel attacked us. Let the fire consume (Israel)," he said.
Not that it would matter to Islamic Jihad in the least, but for the record, the cadets who died were on their way to rescue Palestinian prisoners who were in a facility threatened by the fire.

2. She's Probably Delighted As Well - Helen Thomas stands by remarks about Israelis | detnews.com | The Detroit News - what a wonderful human being.





6. The Shoah - A number of interesting pieces about the Shoah:


8. Demographic Difficulties - Counting Jews

"Israel is a nation that dwells alone, with few friends and many prejudiced enemies. Rather than Rabbis and lay leaders attacking Christians as having nefarious motives for their charity, we should offer thanks and gratitude to hard-working Americans (and Canadians - my note) of faith who believe, as the Bible says, that through Israel all the earth is blessed."
10. An Important Anniversary - before the UN had turned into the corruption machine of today, a vote of the United Nations General Assembly made a run at the original two-state solution - the Jews of Palestine accepted, the Arabs didn't - and the rest is not only history, but current events.


Also see this article by Michael B. Oren - the Israeli Ambassador to the United States.



12. Well, It Is Hanukkah - so despite the tragedy in the Carmel, let's try to celebrate a little bit:

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