Settler Revenge

By now everyone who cares about these things has heard the story of the three Israeli teenagers who were kidnapped and killed.

As revenge for their murders the settlers of Israel - which operate with support of the government of Israel, has decided to build on more occupied territory.

http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Israeli-settlers-councils-build-three-outposts-in-West-Bank-361618

The above article is one of many; the day after the bodies were found Israeli cabinet members called for immediate settlement building in occupied territory.

How is building in occupied territory revenge for murder?

Simple. By building in the occupied territory you

a) increase the amount of jews in the occupied territory making removal of them in the event of a peace deal near impossible. Removing 5000 jews from Gaza nearly split the country apart, wait till they try removing 500,000 jews.

b) break up any contiguity to a potential Palestinian state - with settlement blocks break up any connection from arab town to arab town.

c) force more Palestinians off their lands and into ghettoes where water, electricity, and movements are all under martial law.

d) prevent any possibility of a 2 state solution.

Building settlements in occupied territory is the non-violent form of creating a combination of apartheid, genocide, and transfer.


Hard to keep crying you're the victim when you refuse to acknowledge your own actions.

Helen Thomas, a True Friend of the Jews

Helen Thomas, the multi-decade political reporter, got into hot water for saying that the Jews don't belong in Israel and should return home to Poland and Europe.

While I disagree with her, the upcoming Jewish holiday of Purim has made me realize that most Orthodox Jews are firmly in her camp.

The story of Purim, when the Jews under the rule of the Persian King Xerxes (made famous by the movie 300) were spared annihilation by the workings of a wise Jewish man and a pretty Jewish girl.

The story of Purim took place in Persia; renamed Iran during WWII because they were allied with the Nazis and Iran sounds like Aryan. And as I reflected on the story of Purim, I realized that every single story, event, happening that occurred in the Jewish texts of the 5 books of Moses, the Prophets and the Writings, all took place in Middle Eastern countries. The history of the Jews, as Orthodox Jews pray, read, study and celebrate, is the history of Jews in places like Egypt, Persia (Iran), Babylon (Iraq) and Canaan (Israel).

Not one single event in the the texts that the Jews claim to revere took place in Poland or England or the US or Europe. And yet, the leading Orthodox Jews of today, the most religious Jews who live in Israel, the mouthpieces and proclaimers and followers and true believers almost exclusively wear the clothes and eat the food and follow the rituals developed from places like Poland.

Certainly when one was living in pre-industrial Poland you would eat and dress like the natives, but these rituals and affects have become the symbol of their religion, and in many ways has become their religion.

The orthodox Jews are so concerned with maintaining their Polish and Germanic heritage, their ashkenazi mannerisms, that they imported these christian values into the middle of the desert, a land which is the polar opposite of Ashkenazi land. To be an Orthojew today you must be a shtetl polanya yid, a Polish Ghetto Jew.

And retaining the dress and mannerisms of that Polish Jew is more important than honoring the history of the Jews as the texts documented.

So if these great Jewish minds love Poland and Germany so much, let them follow Helen Thomas's advice and get out of the Middle-East. Don't import Poland into the heart of the desert and pretend it has anything to do with Judaism.

Racial Unity in Israel

Every country deals with racial issues.

In Israel, I am often shocked by how I hear people speak about Sephardiim, Jews who come from Middle Eastern/Spanish countries.

I feel that the Sephardiim have a more honest connection and link to the history of Judaism, after all, they stayed in the region of Israel and maintained a distinct cultural connection. This cultural connection is most visible in their food and in their dress.

The Ashkenazim, the Eastern European (aka polish ghetto/white) Jews, maintained their european cultural heritage. The food is based on European ghetto food and their dress is black suits and black coats and black hats, perfect for a cold Polish ghetto or Siberian exile.

And the Ashkenaziim have typically had the political and financial muscle and they grew up in the same racial atmosphere as their Gentile European brothers and used their muscle to discriminate against those darker, or less refined then those who hail from the European ghettos.

As a side note: Israelis today act like their country is located in the center of Europe and not on the edge of Africa. No way do white jews want to be in anyway associated with Africa or darkness.

But the truth that the Sephardiim have carried with them for almost 2000 years has been destroyed.

Here is a picture of one of the most renowned political leaders of the Sephardi movement: Eli Yisahi:

What does it mean to be sephardi if you adopt the culture of the ashkenaziim?

Or maybe he just wants power and has to play the game and dress the part of ashkenaziim, like a gay man who stays in the closet and runs for Republican political office.

Have the ashkenaziim won the racial issue? Is their culture so powerful that it has simply gobbled up the sephardiim?

The highest grossing resteraunt in Paris is McDonalds: and its not just from American tourists.

Marriage, Civil Unions, Ghetto Nostalgia and Zealisim

A few posts down, when I wrote about why terrorism works on liberals, I touched on the conservative's intellectual falseness in their desire to retain a glorified version of a non-existent past.

A young zealistic (note: made up word meaning: one who is driven by zeal and the ideal is merely secondary to the opportunity to be zealous.) Rabbi once told me how he yearned to live in the Ghetto like his grandparents and generations before. He was jealous of their simple peasant lives. He wanted the community and family closeness that comes from huddling together for warmth. I had to assume that this vision of the ghetto was under the condition that their were no Nazis, no pogroms, no specific anti-Jewish laws. I also assume that his vision of the ghetto included: antibiotics, toilet paper, plumbing, rights as citizens of the state. I thought it might be rude to ask and challenge his implanted memory.

The conservatives have the same problem that afflicted that Rabbi, they refuse to accept the past as a whole human reality. There is nothing traditional about marriage. In the world of today and the past, there are and always were, a wide range of what constitutes marriage from culture to culture and time to time.

In a free society, where change is recognized as unstoppable and ever present, there is no reason to limit any groups wishes based on the concept of what is traditional. Traditional does not exist. Tradition is a fiction of the mind.

The honest solution for a free government is to offer civil unions to any group of two or more consenting adults.

If people wish for marriage they can go to their respective religious/cultural organization and receive their version of marriage. When married, they would automatically also receive a civil union certificate.

The government should not be in the business of retaining specific groups versions of what is traditional.