Kesher Talk: 11/03/2002

Jews are flocking to the Tomb of Rachel: Jews regard Rachel's Tomb as the final resting place of the biblical matriarch and it ranks as Judaism's third holiest site. "We preceded the Arabs here by many, many years. They would stop us coming here if they could, as they did before 1967," said Ruth Koenigsberg, a visitor to the site. The Israeli government said in September that Rachel's Tomb would be folded into a Jerusalem "security envelope" to help seal it off from Palestinian attackers and suicide bombers.

Barren women have traditionally prayed for children at Rachel's Tomb. Muslims say the real Rachel's Tomb is elsewhere and the compound in question contains a revered old mosque, Bilal al Rabah, from which they have been barred since Israel seized the site and the West Bank at large in the 1967 Middle East war.

"Opinion leaders" support Israel: The Jewish Week reports:

American public support for Israel in the ranks of the country’s most educated, most informed citizens has risen for the first time since the current round of Palestinian-Israeli violence began two years ago, according to a national poll conducted by two pro-Israel organizations. The survey by ISRAEL21c and The Israel Project found that 50 percent of “opinion leaders” identify themselves as supporters of Israel, compared to 42 percent in July.

The poll also showed an increase in the percentage of respondents who base their support for Israel on its status as a democracy, and who have a “warm” feeling toward the Jewish state.

Hizbullah, Al Qaeda, coordinate against the U.S.: According to CNN, "several top terrorist operatives met recently" in South America "to plan attacks against U.S. and Israeli targets in the Western hemisphere. ... Sources said the meetings ... were attended by representatives of Hezbollah and other groups sympathetic to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network."

Why We Fight. Eric Raymond's Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto is polished and posted.

Remote Dwindling Jewish Communities Dept. Meet the Lakhloukh, speakers of Aramaic, who fled Persia for Georgia during WWI.

Ambulance harassment. The Jerusalem Post is considered a center-right paper, so if they publish a report criticizing how Israeli checkpoints treat Palestinian ambulances, it's not just knee-jerk anti-Israel noise.

According to the article, only one Palestinian ambulance has been found to contain explosives, but soldiers at checkpoints operate on the assumption that all of them might, and cause a significant number of deaths by delaying their progress. This is a direct result of the intifada.

Prof. Eran Dolev, director of internal medicine at Ichilov Hospital, former chief IDF medical officer and, until last year, chairman of the ethics committee of the Israel Medical Association . . . who retired from a 20-year army career as a brigadier-general, says the current harsh attitude toward Palestinian health needs is a departure from the IDF's history in dealing with Arab civilian populations. "After 1967 we instituted a program of innoculations for all the kids in the Sinai and Gaza," he noted. What's happened during the current fighting, he says, is that Israel has abandoned responsibility for the population it is ruling over.

The report drew on Israeli, Palestinian, and NGO sources:

{Physicians for Human Rights] based its report on the testimony of Palestinian patients and witnesses; employees of Red Crescent, Palestinian hospitals, the UN and human rights organizations working in the territories and, in a few cases, on IDF investigations. It also quoted a State Comptroller's Report of July 31 that found systemic deficiencies in the IDF checkpoint network's ability to deal with "humanitarian cases." Referring to findings by the IDF's own Operations Division, the Comptroller's Report found that "actions at the checkpoints do not observe the [IDF] orders and specific procedures; there is no supervisory mechanism to monitor the activities of IDF soldiers at the checkpoints and ensure control."

The article also notes that Mogen David Adom ambulances are targets for Palestinians:

MDA crews driving through the territories - usually to transport sick or wounded Israelis, but at times to ferry Palestinians to Israeli hospitals - have faced bullets, stones, false alarms followed by ambushes, "ninja" spikes on the road to cause blow-outs, grease on the road to cause skids, and rock piles to block an ambulance's escape route.

(via Tal G)

Jenin Redux. I was going to comment on the latest of Sylvia Foa's frequent "Letter from Israel" columns in the Village Voice, but Best of the Web got there first and said everything I planned to (Thursday, Nov 7, scroll down to The Massacre That Wasn't--XX). Lots of juicy quotes such as:

"Larry Hollingworth, 63 . . . was the guy with the long, white Santa Claus beard who led all those convoys through Serb lines to Muslim villages. It made him a real media star, and he deserved it. He's a really courageous fellow. Larry, a retired British army colonel, says the Israeli checkpoints are "like kindergarten" compared to the Serb ones. "Here we are dealing with arrogant, bored, inquisitive 18- and 19-year-olds—not drunken Serbs. The worst that happens to us is that we're delayed," he says.

Ian Rimell, a 52-year-old Brit, is an explosive-ordnance-disposal expert. . . . "There was a lot of Israeli stuff, including missiles which they said they didn't use," he harrumphs. "But most of it was Palestinian. We found six factory sites with components for making bombs. They were even making their own gunpowder . . . We refuse to tell the Israelis where we find stuff because we're afraid they might take retribution by knocking down the houses there . . . .And there were instances when guys with guns would show up and demand their bombs back," says Ian, who has done similar work in Kosovo, Albania, and Bosnia. "I always give it back--I have a wife and family."

Remember, that's a UN guy talking.

I've been reading Sylvia's columns for a while now and no matter how tentative she is, the minute she defends Israel in any way at all, there are three letters in the next issue of the Voice jumping all over her. I think this is her subtle way of getting the Voice audience to swallow the truth of Jenin - by sugarcoating it (so to speak) in sympathy for the poor victimized Palestinians. What do you think?

The times they are a-changing . . . Over the past 10 years Orthodox Jewish feminists and gays have been enacting a delicate dance of challenging halacha that they perceive as marginalizing them, while maintaining Orthodox practice and refusing to leave the Orthodox community. (There are similar dances going on in the Catholic and Muslim worlds; as I said about the movie Trembing before G-d, this ongoing conversation within the Orthodox community illustrates how an ancient civilization attempts to interpret the accumulated wisdom of the generations in the face of new conditions, and I believe this dialectic between the old and the new is one of the strengths of Judaism and a good model for Muslims.)

One of the areas of practice where many women are pushing for change is in the roles congregants perform in religious services, especially reading from the Torah and leading services. Howard noted last month some new developments in this dance, and according to the latest Jewish Week the trend is gaining momentum. (Which is the occasion for this new post on the topic.)

Halacha is a combination of statuatory law (the 613 mitzvot) and common law (their interpretations by authorities over the generations, expressed in Talmudic and later rulings to the present day).

Orthodox Judaism defines itself as considering all halacha binding upon the entire Jewish community, although variations among different Orthodox groups exist. All Orthodox congregations (with the exceptions noted here) mandate different roles for women and men. A few may be accepting of gays in a "don't ask, don't tell" kind of way. The Conservative movement officially holds halacha as binding (although most congregants are more lax) but allows equal roles for men and women by interpreting it in a certain way. The Reform movement simply doesn't view halacha as binding.

The main point of divergence between the Reform and Conservative movements lies in their interpretation of Halacha. For the latter, Halacha is still the framework in which changes must be ongoing. For the former, who already two centuries ago introduced substantial innovations in the liturgy, halacha is a point of reference, from which one chooses one's obligations in accordance with one's perceptions of ethics.

The Reconstructionist movement views halacha as the accumulated wisdom of our ancestors and it is therefore crucial to understand it to develop one's Jewish practice, but each Jew must individually decide - through study and reflection - what is binding and what is not (i.e. a post-modern view that strives to integrate the wisdom of the past and the present, with an emphasis on individuality).

So at this time most congregations affiliated with the Conservative movement are fully egalitarian, and some very welcoming to gays (although the movement itself is still figuring out its official position). All Reform and Reconstructionist congregations are fully egalitarian and officially fully inclusive of gays.

(And if anyone ever asks you what are the differences among Jewish denominations, that's it in a nutshell. For now.)

Um, isn't this against the Geneva Convention or something? Palestinians kidnapped a Red Cross official yesterday. Why they want to antagonize an organization that bends over backwards to coddle them is anybody's guess. Six months ago, ICRC was shocked! to find out that Palestinians were concealing bombs in ambulances, but less than a month ago, the ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger displayed the typical hypocrisy of international humanitarian organizations by urging Israel to

fully implement the provisions of the 4th Geneva Convention, namely "to take measures that will enable the civilian population living in the Occupied Territories to resume as normal a life as possible, and to respond to their humanitarian needs."

as if there were no suicide bombings, false accusations of massacre, incitement to war from surrounding nations, etc.

After the ambulance bomb concealment

Kellenberger also appealed for respect for the Red Cross and Red Crescent Emblems, and for all medical missions, which are protected under international humanitarian law

all the while knowing that the Red Cross has blocked Israel's Mogen David Adom from using its emblem, the 6-pointed Jewish star- for over 50 years.

So I am sure ICRC will figure out some way to cast the Palestinians as the poor victims in this incident and the Palestinians know it.

(via lgf comments)

UPDATE: The ICRC official has been freed. And now we know who kidnapped him and why:

Palestinian security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said all the gunmen were former police officers who had been fired from their duties in the Palestinian security services. About two months ago the same group abducted three Italians who were in Gaza to express solidarity with the Palestinians, the security officials said. . . . the gunmen were demanding to get their jobs back.

So when these guys look for work in the uh, security business, they can state on their resumes that they contributed significantly to two successful hostage-takings and subsequent negotiations. I think they have glowing futures as UN peacekeepers.

The pathetic state of Israeli-Palestinian trade: Trade between the two sides declined 44% betwee 1999 and 2002. The Palestinian economy has lost $4.5 billion since the intifada started. The Israeli business paper Globes looks at the ugly picture.

Israeli forces make life difficult for Hamas bomb makers: According to an Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson: During military operations in Jenin on November 5, the IDF uncovered a warehouse filled with hundreds of kilograms of fertilizer, a banned chemical substance used for making explosives [like the bomb in Oklahoma City]. In an interview in the Jordanian A-Sabil (Oct. 14, 2002), a member of Hamas' military wing admitted that Israeli restrictions on the import of raw materials used in explosives have hurt Hamas' ability to manufacture bombs, forcing the group to search for new routes to obtain such materials.

Is racism "normal"? John Jay Ray, after many years spent studying racism, concludes that "human beings are inherently tribal and that they therefore very easily develop group loyalties, including “racial” loyalties. In other words, some form of “racism” is normal and universal. Putting it yet another way, we are all racists but some of us are better at hiding or suppressing it than others." He has an interesting take on English anti-semitism (scroll down a little).

Only in New York. If you commute in the New York area every morning, check out the new talk show featuring Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and black journalist Peter Noel.

One is an Orthodox rabbi known for controversial self-help books who has challenged anti-Semitism in the black community. The other is a former writer for the Village Voice who parted ways with the paper over his favorable coverage of the Rev. Al Sharpton. Can these two men share a radio show without driving each other crazy? . . . . “The Peter and Shmuley Show” will enter the highly competitive 6-10 a.m. “drive-time” slot, the first time the station has teamed black and Jewish co-hosts. The call-in program will center on current events.

That's an understatement.

Your Official Jewish Guide to Post-9/11 Thoughts Too Daring to Say Out Loud. My favorite part of JWR is Jordan Gorfinkle's cartoon strip, which used to be called The Promised Land and is now known by the much more prosaic title Everything's Relative. It also appears in the print version of The Jewish Week. Most readers of this blog should be able to relate to this.

As Time Goes By . . . This came in one of those emails with a recipient list longer than the actual text, but I think it's cute:

> You must remember this,
> A bris is still a bris,
> A chai is just a chai.
> Pastrami still belongs on rye,
> As time goes by.
>
> With holidays in view,
> A Jew is still a Jew,
> On that you can rely.
> No matter if we eat tofu
> As hours slip by.
>
> Old shtetl customs, never out of date.
> All those potatoes mother has to grate.
> Honey, tsimus, latkes, chopped liver on our plate
> The best that gelt can buy.
>
> Some would send us to perdition,
> But we're strengthened by tradition,
> That no one can deny.
> We roam, but we recall our birthright,
> As time goes by.
>
> Dreidels and chocolate, never out of date.
> Ancient Jewish stories that we all relate.
> Blue-and-white giftwrap, everything that's great?
> And festive chazerai!
> It's still the same old Torah,
> It's still the same menorah,
> We've latkes still to fry.
> It's at yomtov when we feel most blessed,
> As time goes by.

Go here. (via Spleenville)

Autism on the rise? Joanne Jacobs notes a perceived increase in autism, and predictable calls for federal funding. WiReD investigated this phenomenon in Silicon Valley a few years ago, speculating that borderline-autistic technogeeks - who previously would not be employable or considered marriage material - now populate a respected societal niche and can reproduce themselves.

It's a familiar joke in the industry that many of the hardcore programmers in IT strongholds like Intel, Adobe, and Silicon Graphics - coming to work early, leaving late, sucking down Big Gulps in their cubicles while they code for hours - are residing somewhere in Asperger's domain. Kathryn Stewart, director of the Orion Academy, a high school for high-functioning kids in Moraga, California, calls Asperger's syndrome "the engineers' disorder." Bill Gates is regularly diagnosed in the press: His single-minded focus on technical minutiae, rocking motions, and flat tone of voice are all suggestive of an adult with some trace of the disorder. . . .

Autistic people have a hard time multitasking - particularly when one of the channels is face-to-face communication. Replacing the hubbub of the traditional office with a screen and an email address inserts a controllable interface between a programmer and the chaos of everyday life. Flattened workplace hierarchies are more comfortable for those who find it hard to read social cues. A WYSIWYG world, where respect and rewards are based strictly on merit, is an Asperger's dream. Obviously, this kind of accommodation is not unique to the Valley. The halls of academe have long been a forgiving environment for absentminded professors. Temple Grandin - the inspiring and accomplished autistic woman profiled in Oliver Sacks' An Anthropologist on Mars - calls NASA the largest sheltered workshop in the world.

Liberal uprising. Liberals on the lgf comment section come out of the closet.

Tough luck: U.S. Rep. Ray Browne, D.C. Democrat, earned 74,507 votes on his way to defeating Statehood-Green candidate Adam Eidinger, who obtained 12,374 votes. Yes, the same Adam Eidinger who was discussed recently in the same breath as Cynthia McKinney. Tough luck, Adam.

And just to show there are no hard feelings, I will reprint the letter of outrage Adam e-mailed me last month. No commentary necessary...:

Dear Howard:

Do you have a superiority complex or are you just an asshole? What I am referring too is the bullshit you wrote about me on Kesher Talk. Kesher Talk? Sounds more like gossip and lies, something of which isn't kosher. I am concerned about this comment, "I must also point out that I grew up with Adam Eidinger, the prospective Green nominee for DC shadow congressman. He was elected class president in high school with a Bart Simpson-esque campaign promising to lengthen lunch hours, shorten the school day, turn wine into water, and so forth. He is one of the sleeziest populist power-seekers I've ever encountered. Luckily, he is on the short road to no-where."

Where do you get off writing such fiction. I never promised anything of the sort. First of all I ran for Student Council President and won on the promise of a carnival and to ensure we had recycling in the school -both of which we did. I was class Prez in 10th grade, but that was not a major deal like student council and frankly the way I behaved then is not a fair assessment of how anyone will turn out. It was 1oth grade and i have changed in many ways. Did you know that i lived in Israel, served in the IDF briefly, had close family killed in a terror attack in 1996 in Tel Aviv, that I survived the first World trade Center bombing, that I have struggled to organize mass demonstrations in Dc for a host human rights issues and nuclear dissarmament, against war and social injustices?

"Luckily, he is on the short road to no-where."

You know, this just blows my mind. You don't know a thing about where i have been and done. Did you read my bio at Mintwood.com? I bet not, but even if you did how can you say such mean spirited things? Did you know I did advance work for the Dalai Lama, that I worked on Ehud Barak's campaign and when he came to DC orchestrated his first real meetings with U.S. media? Did you know I traveled to Croatia and Bosnia three times to defend journalists who were in court charged with criminal libel for writing critically about modern day holocaust deniers?

Howard, do you have a conscience? "Sleazy" you say! I have a very stable life, run a small cooperative business in DC, I am married and faithful, I don't lie and my campaign is based in principles, not thousands in $$$s from corrupt business people. I don't take money from corporations or engage in the type of lesser of two evil-ism of the democrats and GOP. I am likely the only Green running for federal office that has a real chance of winning since I have only one opponent and he is the incumbent that hasn't done crap to get DC residents equal rights. I have run a serious grassroots campaign and have been praised by even the Washington Post for doing it. I have been helping the homeless in DC for years. You have alot of nerve to say what you said. It says alot more about how sleazy you have become over the years when you write such garbage gossip.

Explain yourself.

Adam Eidinger

Woo-hoo! If I wasn't just waking up I would probably dance a jig for the Republican wins last night. More importantly, the Virginia transportation tax ballot issue went down in flames, defeated 55 percent to 45 percent.

JTA has has coverage from the perspective of the tribe, and Israel. There were some hiccups, like the disputed Alabama governor's race. And we will have to wait a while for any result out of the South Dakota Senate race.

Which Founding Father Am I? Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of Jefferson, but I guess this doesn't fit too badly.

Which Founding Father Are You?

Election night griping comes from my wife. After two hours in traffic (rain has left VA traffic all messed up), she finally got found her voting place, only to be confronted by vexing ballot questions, aside from the asinine transportation tax, which she (and I) had not read about before. Plus, she was extra peeved that most of the offices had no Democrats running for them.

Oh, by the way, I was a fool and missed the deadline to register. I did not get to vote this year. And yet they keep the voting booths open late in other states where people can register on the spot. Go figure.

Professorial Angst. Martin Kramer claims this "letter" was "reportedly retrieved from the bottom of the mailbag of Campus Watch." He doesn't have permalinks so I'm reproducing the "letter" in full:

Dear Campus Watch,
I am outraged that you are listing professors with whose views you take issue. This is an appalling McCarthyite tactic, which is designed to shut people up and stifle free speech. It is a serious infringement of academic freedom, of the sort academe hasn't witnessed since the terrible 1950s. You can be sure that I will be urging the American Association of University Professors, the Middle East Studies Association, and any association that includes Joel Beinin, to pass a resolution of condemnation against your despicable website.

Having said that, I notice that my name has been omitted from your list. This causes me considerable angst. For some years now, I have been more Palestinian than the Palestinians in advocating their rights—their right to a state, their right of return, their right to preferential campus parking. And there's more. I've taken the lead on my campus in showing respect for Islam. In my noon class, there is even a prayer break, and the two sections are divided into male and female. And I have invited Edward Said, Noam Chomsky, and Sami Al-Arian to speak, all on the same subject: "America's War of Aggression against [speaker: please fill in the blank]."

So just what do I have to do to get on your list? I'll be coming up for tenure in a couple of months, and a listing on Campus Watch would really help me out. I have a patchy publications record, although I've signed an impressive number of petitions. (In our department, we have a special section on our c.v.'s for "petitions signed." It's got the same weight as a co-publication.) Problem is, ever since Campus Watch appeared, getting listed there trumps everything else. My departmental chair has told me quite bluntly that without an entry at Campus Watch, my file will be borderline. Some of my senior colleagues are also cold-shouldering me. They see my omission as a sign of a certain lack of commitment to the profession.

In short, by leaving me off, you've effectively blacklisted me. It's a notorious McCarthyite tactic, for which I intend to propose that Campus Watch be condemned at the next annual meeting of the American Association of University Professors, the Middle East Studies Association, etc. Unless, that is, you include me. Please?

Sincerely,

John Jones (Abu Courtney)
Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern Narratives
Center for Middle Eastern Studies (excluding Israel)
Lower Michigan University
Dar al-Harb

(via lgf comments)

UPDATE: Memo to Diane: You're being ironic, right?

Watching the American elections: Since this is Kesher Talk, we open with the Jerusalem Post analysis of Jewish voting today.

But as the Drudge Report is reporting that the Voter News Service, the media's exit polling conglomerate, cannot report reliable results tonight, the news media are going to be spinning their wheels all night with very little to actually say. Why? Hell, I warned about this in an article with my former colleague Iain two years ago. Want to know who won what tonight? You'll have to wait until tomorrow - at minimum.

Even if most Muslims are peaceful, so what? Dennis Prager points out that most Germans under Hitler and Russians under Stalin were peaceful law-abiding citizens too. To paraphrase an adage, all it takes to encourage evil is for good people to do nothing.

Bring on the smallpox vaccine: Some people scoffed when I advocated allowing for public smallpox vaccinations (see my TCS column and later article in the Record), but further evidence of threat came up today. Al Qaeda, North Korea, and Iraq probably all have stockpiles of smallpox. The Washington Post reports, "A Bush administration intelligence review has concluded that four nations -- including Iraq and North Korea -- possess covert stocks of the smallpox pathogen, according to two officials who received classified briefings. Records and operations manuals captured this year in Afghanistan and elsewhere, they said, also disclosed that Osama bin Laden devoted money and personnel to pursue smallpox, among other biological weapons."

Ross Silverman (who differs with me on public vaccination) focuses on the right to know: "Apparently, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices was left out in the cold when it was asked to make its recommendations."

In related news, public health officials are wrangling with what to do about vaccinating children (I am against it). And the Post also has a story on the British firm Acambis, which has been contracted to produce more smallpox vaccine for the U.S. government.

JDL leader reportedly brain dead: Not just figuratively, but literally. CBS News reported last night, "In California, a jailed leader of the Jewish Defense League is reported brain dead tonight after a suicide attempt. 57-year-old Irv Rubin was rushed to the hospital today and put on life support after surgery. Rubin and another man were accused of plotting to set off pipe bombs at a mosque and other Arab American targets." The New York Times has more.

Assassinating al-qaeda in Yemen: I don't have any problem with this, except for who specifically carried out the action -- the CIA. The CIA, first and foremost, is supposed to be about gathering and analyzing intelligence. Since they don't seem to be doing that so well right now, perhaps they should refocus their efforts on the primary mission, and leave the military matters to the military...

Too Deep: I went to the Bradley Lecture at AEI last night to hear Andrew Sullivan lecture on "The Skeptical Conservative." It was an interesting look at the political philosophy of Michael Oakshott - though, not having read the guy, I'm not certain if what I got was the real deal of Andrew's interpretation thereof, since it all seemed to fit Andrew's worldview to a tee.

Regardless, if you have the chance to catch Andrew speaking, do so. He is even more articulate and interesting in real life than in the blog-world...

And all hail Bill Levenson, a Kesher Talk fan I talked to following the lecture.

Best 404 page. Ha. Cute. (via Phil Agre, an intellectual whose specialty is social effects of computing technology. I used to enjoy and learn a lot from the URLs and position papers Phil would send out, and he could definitely be considered a way early proto-blogger, an email newsletter version of Glenn Reynolds and Stephen den Beste combined. But he took a sharp nose-dive into campus idiotarianism right around Durban and hasn't managed to pull level yet. Still, Phil has funky links like no one else.)

Stupid American government bureaucracy Dept. Arrrgggghhhh. (via the Shark, who also has a link to yet one more article detailing the corruption of the Palestinian Authority to add to your collection.)

Zog nit keynmol az du geyst dem letstn vet. The Jewish Partisan Education Foundation commemorates the Jewish partisans of WWII, who fought the Nazis mostly unaided by gentile partisan groups which did not want to work with Jews. even to defeat a common powerful enemy.

Though the Jewish partisans made up only 10% of the total partisan force of Lithuania, they were responsible for over 79% of the sabotage to Nazi trains.

There may still be some people around who think European Jews went to their deaths in the camps like "sheep to the slaughter." Let's put aside for a moment the implicit assumption that these ordinary citizens of Poland, Germany, France, could have physically "fought back" and kept themselves from being loaded onto cattle cars without massive help from the outside, which was withheld. That's like blaming the rape victim. They were in the same position as the passengers of the planes that flew into the WTC: nothing like this had ever happened before, they weren't soldiers, just people trying to live their lives, they couldn't see into the future. Yes, some sensed danger and left, others tried to leave and couldn't (my family was in both situations before making it to the USA), and most resisted in whatever way they could.

But once the war was on and the Nazi plans began to surface (and in the fog of war it took a while for anyone to figure out just what the Nazis were trying to do - most Jews thought they were going to internment camps for the duration), Jews who had not been rounded up formed into partisan groups and fought (and sang). Even in the concentration camps, including the women's camps, sick starved tortured prisoners staged uprisings.

BTW the partisans didn't blow themselves up, nor did they blow up women and children.

One, two, three . . . aawwwww. I believe James Taranto would file this under "world's smallest violin." (via lgf comments.)

KesherTalk - the blog that follows up on obscure links in other blogs' comment threads so you don't have to!

Finally, a good article on Zionism. I have been saying this for years (and for months in the blog world). I kept planning to work up my voluminous DailyPundit comments on the subject into a real essay and post it here, but Michael Anbar does a much better job than I could. Thank, you, Lynn, for linking to it and thank you, Meryl, for sending me to Lynn (although InContext is one of my regular stops and I would have seen it eventually).

I rarely say "go read this, now." Go read this, now.

When you come back, tell me just what criteria qualify Palestinians for a state that don't at the same time qualify Jews (aside from being Arab, that is)? (Actually, the Arabs know the answer to this question, which is why they lie about Jewish history just as vociferously, insistently, and inventively as they can.)

PS While you're at InContext don't miss Lynn's meticulously annotated dissection of a Palestinian massacre myth (the permalink's not working, so look for the headline "My favorite massacre myths").

UPDATE: Some comments and links on Lynn's articles over at lgf.

Jewish candidates and Jewish voters: It ain't just a Cohen, eh? Four Jewish candidates are vying for seats in the U.S. Senate, 35 for seats in the House of Representatives and two for seats in their state’s governor’s mansion. For those keeping a Jewish scorecard, it’s an average year, as the number of Jewish candidates goes.

My latest TCS columns: So I've been gone for a while, so what? It doesn't mean I wasn't getting published. See my column today on blood safety, my one last week about anti-schizophrenic drugs, and my column from mid-October debunking the Muslim civil rights reports put out by the Council on American Islamic Relations.

Tracing the hate-mailers: David Melle of FactsOfIsrael alerted me to his handy-dandy tutorial on tracking down the people that send you hate mail, and what to do about them.

The most unique wedding present: That was what I received a week ago, Monday morning, when I returned to work after my honeymoon.

You see, there was a good reason I've been blogging AWOL... I was laid off last week. As a matter of professionalism, I will not share the details. Am I angry? You betcha. But I am hustling to set up some freelancing and consulting work to keep me going, while I look for a hopefully better full-time position. No time to languish in depression.

My new email contact info is in the left margin.

I will reveal more about our wedding and honeymoon soon. But for now, I will try to do a little more blogging, so that you all have a reason to come back to Kesher Talk again and again...

Cheers,
Howard

Tupac Shakur on the Wellstone funeral. Well, I wasn't quite ready to go to bed yet, and I realized I hadn't checked Stephen Green in a few days, and he sent me over to Tony Pierce, who I had never actually read before and may not again, but Tony sent me here. I hope for your sake it's constitutionally protected speech, Jesse, but in any case, folks, do not imbibe beverage while reading this. Did I mention it was Peggy Noonan channeling Tupac Shakur on the Wellstone funeral? Check it out.

Kesher Talk

Friday, November 08, 2002

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