Kesher Talk: 12/29/2002

Saturday, January 04, 2003

New daily read. Damn, the Head Heeb is good! Prolific, sensible, unique POV and analysis, clear writing style, and fresh links. What more can you want from a blog?

The decline of Europe proceeds apace. I'm glad this story is getting play on one of the mega-blogs, where it will eventually come to attention of the mainstream press.

On 16 December 2002 the Conseil d'Administration of Université Paris VI passed a motion recommending the rupture of the European Union's scientific cooperation agreement with Israel. A similar resolution is on the agenda of the meeting of the Université Paris VII Conseil d'Administration, which is to take place on January 7. This is in effect a call for boycott; the proposal would institutionalize the exclusion of Israeli researchers from scientific committees, conferences and scientific journals. It would kill international research projects involving Israeli scientists and academic hosting programs for university faculty. It would ban international student exchange programs.

It's been said that Jews are the canary in the coalmine of civilization. The EU should study what happened to Spain and Portugal after they expelled their Jews, and how things went for the Dutch and Ottomans after they took them in.

It's not so much our magic Jewish stuff that gives your civilization that edge (well, that too) - it's that the conditions that make a culture hospitable to Jews (comfort with ambiguity, free inquiry and debate, cosmopolitanism, practical approach to life, solid middle class, entrepreneurship) are also the same conditions that produce great science, art, high standards of living, international trade, etc.

So here's a contrasting news item from the USA:

For the second year in a row, [emphasis mine] two seniors at the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls in Hewlett Bay Park, L.I., were national finalists in the prestigious Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology. But this time, it was not necessary to explain their need to make their presentation before the Sabbath and for glatt kosher food. “It wasn’t an issue at all this year,” said Rebecca P. Isseroff, a chemistry teacher and the students’ research adviser. “There was a lot of discussion last year because it was the first time Orthodox students had won the Siemens contest. But ultimately, Siemens made every accommodation.

And what was their project?

. . . Simpser said it is hoped their research can be used in healing wounds. She said that since it was shown that cells can be made to adhere to a surface, perhaps a living bandage could be created to help a wound clot and heal faster.

One would think that most people would prefer to live in a society that supports this kind of research, but if the EU would rather demonize Israel - oh well. Let's help the French Jews leave, the US and Israel can continue making technological and scientific discoveries that make the world a better place, and Europe can bask in its improved relations with the oh-so-sophisticated civilization of the Arab world. (Maybe it is all about the ooooiiiillllll after all . . . .)

UPDATE: The Forward has an article on the latest European boycott activities, but it doesn't seem to be on their website.

All-Tolkein-all-the-time. Delicious parodies via Making Light and many comments in which too smart for their own good culturally over-saturated people guess the authors and add impromptu parodies of their own, which are quite good. (via Andrea, in her new digs) And don't forget Meryl's Tolkein blogburst!

P.S. Previous KesherTalk Tolkein moment.

We don't need no stinkin Santa. Howard is wrong about Jewish Israelis adopting commercial Christmas celebrations. They don't need such narishkeit - they've got a perfectly good culture already.

As the rift between religious and secular has grown, non-Orthodox Israelis themselves have ignored just how Jewish, just how religious, they are—on the streets and at home. The rhythms of their lives, the vocabulary of their land, the soul of their country remain intensely Jewish. Israeli history is Jewish history. And Jewish rituals are often Israeli rituals. A 1993 study by the Louis Guttman Israel Institute for Applied Social Research found that 98 percent of Israeli Jews affix mezuzot to their doors, 91 percent believe it is “very important” to conduct the Passover seder, nearly 90 percent keep a kosher home to some degree, and 71 percent fast on Yom Kippur. The typical Israeli attends Shabbat dinner Friday night and lights Hanukkah candles; most Jewish children masquerade on Purim.

. . . In the Diaspora, Jewish space is mostly confined to the synagogue and perhaps, for some, the home. In Israel, the land itself is Jewish—be it the Golan’s ancient cities or its new collectivist settlements. In North America, Jewish time is time set apart, apportioned out to some specific Jewish ritual. In Israel, the whole country follows a Jewish rhythm, from slowing down on Saturday to vacationing during Sukkot. . . . The Jewish things Israelis choose to do, they do easily, unselfconsciously. So many Jewish activities, phrases, and concepts are woven into their lives, they think these actions are “normal,” as opposed to religious. In contrast to this coherence and harmony, most American Jews live fragmented lives.

Read the whole thing.

Another one from the archives. Ani DiFranco On My Radio Blues.

. . . At Ani's concert, she say 9/11 just what American deserved
At Ani's concert, she say 3,000 dead what America deserved
I got them Ani DiFranco on my radio blues, and she gettin' on my nerves

She said a poem, 'bout "why do they hate us, man?"
She said a poem - woo-hoo! - "why they hate us, man?"
You know when she say "us", she mean people who listen to Pearl Jam . . .

Friday, January 03, 2003

A liberal for the ages. It is now time to praise one of the true heroes of the 20th century - someone who embodies integrity, intellectual acumen, moral clarity, and the power of strategic peaceful resistance, the prime counter-example to 2nd amendment fanboys: Vaclav Havel.

Among Havel's myriad achievements, one of the most lasting is that he has helped to reorder our thinking about artist-intellectuals and political influence. Who is left to prize the fevered delusions of Sartre and Pound, the selective political blindnesses of Aragon and Shaw, when there is the clear-eyed example of Havel? Who is left to question that a thinking person, profound and humane, can find a place in real politics, both in opposition and in power? Countless countries still seem doomed to autocracy without a homegrown version of its antidote. Havel's journey has shown a way out. He leaves the Castle having provided the gift of normalcy to his people, and having restored to many others the dimensions and vigor of the liberal idea.

Read the whole thing. (via Amygdala)

On the subject of outspoken clear-eyed dissidents from tyrannical regimes, let us also praise Kanan Makiya - recent target of a hissy-fit by Edward Said - an Iraqi who has been trying to alert the world to Saddam's threat for 20 years and now lobbies for a democratic federated post-Saddam Iraq. (An excellent overview of the Iraqi opposition, some of whom want a constitutional monarchy instead.)

Brits deny engines to Israel: Israel is unable to procure engines following an extension of the British government’s embargo on arms sales to Israel, according to Globes. Britain is refusing to sell armaments to Israel because of the conflict with the Palestinians. It justifies its refusal by saying that it does not supply weapons to regions in conflict.

The ban on sales of engines comes on top of a ban on sales of components used in catapult propulsion systems for Israel Air Force Phantom plane ejection seats. These components are pyrotechnics manufactured by the Martin Baker Aircraft Company of Britain, the Israel Air Force’s sole supplier .

Meanwhile, previously secret files released by Britain's Public Record Office tell how the Britain blocked the sale of Chieftain tanks to Israel in 1969, even though it had agreed to the sale the previous year. At the same time of that blocked sale, Britain sold Chieftain tanks to Libya.

Headline: "Israel launches ‘biological war' " This AFP story is not about Israel waging biological warfare on the Palestinians. It is about trying to stop the spread of mosquitos breeding in Hebron. Just so you know, this is literal, not metaphoric.

Latest on gay rabbis debate. As I previously reported, The Jewish Theological Seminary (which produces rabbis for the Conservative Movement as well as scholarship in Jewish studies) continues to make its way through a minefield of halacha and inter-denominational politics to figure out how to fully include gays in Conservative Jewish life. Poignantly, the issue came home for Rabbi Elliot Dorff, one of the most respected and well-known Conservative leaders, in the same way it has for many people in public life. Personal ties are probably as big an agent of societal change as laws or editorials or protest marches.

Speaking of gay Jews,

A lot has happened in the queer Jewish world since the anthologies Nice Jewish Girls, by Evelyn Torton Beck and Twice Blessed, by Avi Rose and Christie Balka examined the intersection between Jewish and sexual identity. In fact, Aviv came up with the idea to do Queer Jews when she realized that Twice Blessed was already 12 years old . . . .

"Oppression is no longer the only way queer Jews approach their sexual identity," said Shneer. "Queer and Jewish are no longer just things to be overcome or reconciled; in fact, for many of the authors, they are mutually empowering." . . . "It's a really unapologetic anthology," said Aviv. Basically, what the writers are saying is "we refuse to abandon Judaism. We're integral participants in Jewish life, and we're queer and you all have to deal with it."

I previously wrote about gays in Judaism here, here, and here. Last year Moment (a great cross-denominational monthly magazine about Jewish issues) had a piece about Orthodox gays.

UPDATE: BeliefNet covers the current debate in the Conservative movement . They also ran a nice profile of the maker of the documentary "Trembling Before G-D."

Thursday, January 02, 2003

In Tal's discussion section an attempt is being made to compare the situation in South Lebanon, per Hezbullah activity there, with that in the "territories". Some seem to think the fact that Hezbullah does not use suicide bombers to attack Israeli civilians, and only targets Israeli soldiers (inside Lebanon before the Barak withdrawal, as well as in Northern Israel after that), is an indication of their long-term goals being different from those of the Palestinian terror organizations.

This could not be farther from the truth. The reason that IDF was in Lebanon all this years to begin with, were the almost daily attacks on the civilian population in Northern Israel (by Fatah at that time), before Israel finally invaded Lebanon. The long-term goal is the same: to drive Jews out of Israel. The tactics are different, as to be expected, since the situation in these three areas are different. Accordingly, the tactics the IDF uses in all those areas are different as well.

Some seem to think that because of these differences, these are two separate wars, and have to be considered separately. It may be so from a purely military point of view. But all military actions have always to be motivated by political considerations. This, I think, was the mistake made by Barak when he pulled out of Lebanon. He was thinking like a general, not a politician and a head of state. This move, if considered in purely military terms. may have made a lot of sense. Of course, it was also motivated by short-term politics, i.e. the Israeli public that was not willing to take any more losses in Lebanon. But I, and many others, have no doubt that we are witnessing the long- term effects of that move now in WB and Gaza, as well as throughout the Arab world.

What we have is two, or maybe three fronts (if WB an Gaza are viewed separately) of the same war. And that war, in turn, is part of a larger war that has been going on maybe since the the attack on the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut in 1983, and that hopefully will take a major turn in a month or so.

Is Sharon secretly negotiating with Arafat?: Noam Amit of Maariv has the scoop on rumors circulating in the Arab press.

The Saudi newspaper Al-Wattan reported Tuesday on secret negotiations between Prime Minister Sharon and the Palestinians. According to sources in Washington, the contacts are being held with Abu Mazen with the approval of Arafat. According to the report, Sharon offered a Palestinian state on 53% of the West Bank, with extensive withdrawals in Gaza, in a process taking 10 years. Sharon representatives emphasized that Jerusalem was not a subject for negotiations. It was further reported that the Palestinians had agreed to a temporary state on 65% of the territory, with roads linking Palestinian areas. In addition, Abu Mazen proposes to have the Arab neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem be transferred to joint PA-Jordanian rule - including the Temple Mount.

Israeli immigration: Immigration is at its lowest point since 1989, with only 34,508 registered newcomers having arrived in 2002, according to figures released Sunday by the Immigrant Absorption Ministry. This follows a steady decline over the last four years, with 44,630 immigrants having come in 2001, 61,700 in 2000, and 78,400 in 1999.

The number of immigrants from the former Soviet Union also reached a 14-year low, with only 18,772 arriving, compared with 33,850 in 2001, representing 54.4 percent of the total.

Of course, not every country is sending fewer people. The number of immigrants from the US was the highest since 1999, at 1,714, 5 percent of the total. Immigration from Argentina, meanwhile, increased to 5,960, 17.3%, up from 1,427, 3.2%, or in 2001. French immigrants accounted for 6.7% of the total, 2,326, up from 1,157, 2.6%. Immigration from Ethiopia totaled 2,693.

More faith than medicine: That is my verdict on the efficacy of acupuncture in my latest TCS column.

Jennifer Government Nation States: This game is fun, so far. If you're looking to run your own country, head on over, and join me in the "Kesher" region once you get acclimated.

Ghosts of Munich. Some dusty papers in the vaults of the British Foreign Office have just been declassified. In these papers, Britain's finest diplomats fall all over themselves justifying the coldblooded murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games.

Gayford Woodrow, the consul general in Jerusalem, sent a dispatch to the Foreign Office on Sept 12, six days after the attack, saying: "Before we reproach the Arabs too much, perhaps we might try to put ourselves in their shoes. They are, after all, human beings with normal human failings. The Palestinians in particular have seen their land taken away from them by a group of mainly European invaders equipped with superior armed force and modern technology.

Sound familiar? Tell you what, Mr. Woodrow, old chappie, if those pitiable Palestinians had murdered 11 British athletes (no, it would have to be more to be proportionate to the British population . . . ) would you be quite so sanguine, old thing? (Right ho, then, yes, you probably would. I'm sure after 9-11 you expressed similar sentiments to your fellow Foreign Office retirees in the hushed musty halls of your club, over a single-malt scotch.)

Whatever one's moral criticism, it must be agreed that the Munich operation was well planned and that the Arabs there carried it out to the bitter end.

Of course, the fact that it was done well trumps all moral criticism, doesn't it? Didn't we all secretly admire Hitler's extermination plan for being so damnably efficient, eh what?

It is said that lives were really lost because of Israel and West German bungling incompetence."

[No, actually the bungling incompetence was all on the German side. Israel's mistake was in allowing those highly efficient Germans to take over the rescue attempt.]

Mr Woodrow's head of department, James Craig, wrote on his letter: "Not bad but he goes just a little too far."

Too far. Oh quite. Won't hit quite the right note with the American cousins, what, old Craig, old thing?

David Gore-Booth, a first secretary at the Foreign Office, wrote: "Before we shed too many tears about the Lufthansa hijacking, decide to boycott airlines like the trade unionists at Heathrow or feel obliged to express our concern to the German government, it would be as well to ask ourselves what the implications are so far as the Arab/Israel dispute is concerned. It is self-evident that the hijacking is a manifestation of the Palestine problem. . . . What the hijacking does is to remind the international community that the Palestine problem exists: in one sense this is unwelcome to the Israelis as it shows their pretence for what it is,

Well! One certainly can't imagine they actually feel grief and horror that their finest athletes were cut down by thugs - after all, one did not get through Eton and Oxford and then into a cushy little post at the Foreign Office by having feelings like the lower classes, did one? (well, other than a certain, hmmm, fondness for those dashing Arab youth with the liquid black eyes . . . er, hmmm!)

but in another it provides them with an excellent opportunity to enlist the aid of the international community in erasing the problem.

[And that would be . . . the British and the Germans?]

Hence their apoplectic reaction to the hijacking, which is of course calculated to produce the desired attitude in airline workers at Heathrow. It also provides them with an excellent opportunity to slip into Syria, bomb a few more bases and kill a few more innocent people with impunity. Deplorable though the hijacking may be it caused the loss of no lives whereas . . . casualties in Syria may be as many as 45 or even more.

Quite. When one is a silly upper-class twit who can't quite grasp how normal human beings react to massacres and bigotry, and one is rather repelled at how those crafty J-E-W-S are always hatching plots (so common of them don't you think, hmmm? Well, blood will tell . . . ), well, they must be "apoplectic" (ha, ha, jolly wit, eh?) for some ulterior motive, eh what, old chap?

Can we please just blow up the entire British public school system now? (via Sullivan)

Wednesday, January 01, 2003

1 January 1660 (Lord's Day). Samuel Pepys' diary makes its blogosphere debut.

This site is a presentation of the diaries of Samuel Pepys, the renowned 17th century diarist who lived in London, England . . . . A new entry written by Pepys will be published each day, with the first appearing on 1st January 2003.

Bruce and I had a great conversation about how the founding fathers would react to blogs. We agreed (as our bus would its way up Broadway) that Jefferson would see its merits, but would be irritated by electronic communication and the hustle and bustle of 21st century Manhattan, and would desire to retreat to Monticello where he could think at his leisure. (He would take a subscription to New Scientist, however.)

We also agreed that Franklin would love modern-day New York and would take to the internet like a duck to water. Franklin would immediately want to learn how to use a cell-phone and a computer, and would have his own blog up inside of 15 minutes. We thought that it would be fun for some Franklinphile to write a blog in Franklin's voice, as if he were actually revived in the present day. Well, Pepys' Diary isn't quite that, but it's a pretty cool idea and excellently executed.

Greatest idiotarian hits of 2002. No New year's Day is complete without 10 Best or Worst Lists. Tim Blair takes us month by month, through journalistic errors, either in basic facts or in prediction. Some examples:

January.

* The Sunday Telegraph columnist Leo Schofield decides that the war in Afghanistan isn't working: "The so-called war against terror has been going for 100 days now – with what results?" Within weeks schools are re-opened. Men remove their beards. Television is permitted. Women and girls can return to school. Stonings and summary executions cease . . .

September

* Morag Fraser, in The Age, believes hugs can cure Saddam Hussein: "I met a woman who could tutor George Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard to their profit – if only they would stop and listen. She was a schoolteacher. 'I can tell you a bit about anger,' she said. 'I have this kid in my class. He is the angriest little boy I have ever known. Do you get angry back?' we asked. 'No. I am going to stick with this little boy day in day out,' she said, 'stick with him until he is whole. I am going to nurture him, I'm going to love him until he turns back into a happy child'."

* SMH television reviewer Bruce Elder demands perspective: "Just remember that while terrorists killed more than 3000 people in the events of 9/11, that 150,000 die each year (that's nearly 3000 a week) because of drunk driving throughout the United States. Perspective. That is what is needed most." What Bruce needs most is a calculator. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, 17,448 people died in alcohol-related road accidents in the US last year – around 2665 fewer per week than Elder alleges. . . .

Tim also makes some predictions for 2003.

Troll alert. Imshin is taking a break from blogging. She says it's more than just the idiotarians of the world getting to her, but she also says this:

The thing is, I am sad about those Palestinian children, Kalle Westman. I am deeply saddened by the suffering of the Palestinians. I often think of the Palestinians I have met in my life, and I wonder how they are getting along. I am sad, no, I am much more than sad, I am heartbroken that my dream of coexistence and peace was shattered in September 2000, when the Palestinians, having turned down the best offer they could possibly have hoped for (had they really meant to make peace), turned to violence in the hope of getting more.

Go away and leave me alone, Kalle Westman. Go back to your orderly world of good guys and bad guys and simplistic ideas of justice for the world’s oppressed. You may mean well, but your good intentions could very well leave my family and myself homeless and defenseless, if we’re lucky enough to live that long. Not that that would bother you. We had it coming after all, especially my seven year-old.

I am too weary to care what people like you think, or have to say, anymore.

I've read comments at Imshin's site, I've read comments by the guy she's talking about, and she's got him pegged. Totally canned jargon, self-righteous, no respect for subtle emotions of real human beings - your typical zealot.

(Go and read the rest of Imshin's farewell post, though.)

Monday, December 30, 2002

Change your name, change your luck. It's an old superstition. In this case, name changes would challenge the existing regimes, which - like many totalitarian structures - are threatened by the underlying ancient culture. ( Some links to Persia and Babylonia in the context of their ancient Jewish communities, and Iraqi Jews now living in Israel have some thoughts on the coming war.)

One of the neat things about living in New York is the chance to meet people from all over the globe and hear different languages spoken in the street. As much as I loved Austin, cosmopolitanism wasn't its strong point. In October I met 2 Iraqi Jews at a Jewish singles Shabbat dinner on the Upper West Side. Both had been in the States for a while - one guy was in menswear and the other in the jewelry business. They told me many Iraqi Jews emigrated to Iran when Saddam took power - there are few left now. They didn't mix much with Iranian Jews, which surprised me until I realized that from my vantage point they seemed to be indistinguishable, but of course from theirs they would be very different in language (Arabic vs. Persian) and customs.

There is still a substantial community of Jews in Iran. I met two Iranian Jews at a singles event the previous week. One guy came to LA at the age of 13 and considers himself an American. The other one still has family in Iran, and since 9-11 it is even more difficult for them to come here, even to visit. His younger sister, who has never been to the States, can't get permission to enter at all, and his parents and other siblings would like to leave Iran permanently, but won't without the younger sister. So get this: this man is an American citizen, from a group that would have every reason to hate terrorists, and he cannot bring his family here. Disgraceful.

Kudos to Howard! Honest Reporting cites Howard's piece in its critique of the Christian Science Monitor article which distorts the cost of supporting Israel.

India, our ally in the war against terror. Interesting factoid:

Almost 40 percent of the technology start-ups in Silicon Valley are owned and financed by Indian money. Between business and professional ties, the Indian population in the U.S. now numbers almost 2 million, and they are the single most affluent ethnic group in America.

Erm, any of those rabid anti-immigrant types that periodically infest certain discussion threads care to comment? Hmmm?

Let's not forget India is also an Israeli ally in fighting terror.
(via lgf comment thread)

Have a merry little Nitl. I mentioned that on Erev Xmas I went to a party wherein a skit was performed about dark-of-winter rituals throughout the ages. Here are two stories about the origins of Nitl, a European Jewish way of coping with being surrounded by Xmas. (Also an etymology of the X in Xmas.)

Firearms and freedom, continued. Argument about Bill Whittle's essay continued here. (Scroll down for the whole thing - about 10 posts.) Many new points made, many new counter-examples.

Some people thought I was too hard on Bill. Well, this is the warbloggersphere, where folks get pretty scrappy. I certainly wasn't harsher than the usual invective from Misha, Mike, Andrea, or the dear regulars at LGF and DailyPundit.

Some people think my response was overwrought because Bill besmirched my Holocaust-refugee family. The way I phrased that reference certainly gives that impression; my writing was sloppy. I did mean to criticize Bill's use of Holocaust stereotypes for his own purposes, and since I am a child of survivors I do take that personally. But I gave a link to a long post about my uncle for an additional reason, and I should have been specific about it:

If you read my list of questions I never got to ask my uncle, you will get a mental picture of what he and his family were dealing with. Ask yourself how and where gun ownership would have made a difference to them. Would guns have helped them figure out what exactly was happening in Germany and how bad was it? Would guns have kept the kids from being taunted by teachers and fellow students in school? Would guns have helped them get sponsored for citizenship in the US or legal resident status in Paris? A gun might have been handy for personal protection when they walked to Marseilles from Paris, but the war had begun 2 years before that, and they had fled from their Berlin home 3 years before that. While they were walking to Marseilles, Jewish partisan groups were already roaming the forests of Europe blowing up Nazi trains. But that was a little late in the game. (And my father's family reached Marseilles intact.)

Sometime after 9-11, someone (I don't have a URL) pointed out the contrast between the passengers of the two airplanes which were flown into the WTC, and the passengers on United Airlines Flight 93, who were able to take action. The first passengers had no inkling of what would happen - this had never been done before. They thought it was a "typical" hijacking, and they would be safest if they cooperated. But the passengers on #93 got phone calls informing them of the WTC attack. They knew their hijackers could be part of the same group, and therefore they knew that cooperation might not be the best response.

By the time the Nazis arose, Jews in Europe had suffered from Christian anti-semitism for 1800 years. I am not going to go into that history here, but the Jewish response to violence and repression from state and neighbors was designed to preserve as much Jewish life as possible, which was a sensible policy for a small, widely distributed, vulnerable group within a large hostile population. Armed battles between Jews and Christians would have resulted in extermination of the Jews.

The Nazi regime had many elements of the old church-state persecution, but no one could have forseen genocide as clearly enunciated state policy, the extermination camps, or the coldbloddedly efficient way they were administered. That was new. Although some - Jew and gentile - understood the enormity of what the Nazis were planning, most did not want to believe it, just as most people now don't want to believe the enormity of the Islamist threat. A Jew who did understand assassinated a minor German offical in 1938, who gave Goebbels an excuse to launch a huge pogrom which came to be known as Kristallnacht. So foreknowledge did not always lead to success, even when firearms were used. In this case it led to crushing reprisal, and there were others as time went on. Gentile partisan groups refused to work with Jewish partisan groups, even though they were fighting the same enemy. These people had guns, but the guns did not make them smart.

60 years later, we all have enormous hindsight. We have learned what can happen, and we figure out different ways to respond. Jews get alarmed at any possible outbreak of anti-semitism, and we get told we are paranoid. We run thousands of workshops teaching tolerance, and get told we shove the Holocaust down everyone's throat. We reclaimed our old state and armed it, and we get told we are oppressors, and Israel still needs the good will of other states to keep themselves fed (and armed). There aren't any easy answers, and even hindsight doesn't guarantee success. The passengers of Flight 93 still died. Israel is still defending itself against Arab aggression. Synagogues (protected by armed guards) are still being bombed.

How will firearms in every home change this? Promoting gun ownership as a magic bullet is a great way to avoid the really hard work: changing the way people treat each other.

This reminds me of a family I know. Their son was in preschool with mine. His mother is an Indian Muslim (although not a practicing one), who was born and grew up in Africa. The father is a Jew from New England, and is an atheist. They met while studying in England.

In that preschool they celebrated every possible holiday out there (as opposed to our stupid public school).When I asked my son what holiday does Salam celebrate, he told me that he does not celebrate anything. When I got to know his mom better, we became friends, and I asked her about this. She said that her husband opposed to a celebration of any religious holiday, due to his atheism. She also told me that she would celebrate anything: Hannuka, Christmas, whatever - as long as there was some kind of celebration at home. I really felt for her.

Americans fleeing to Canada: "The number of Americans making refugee claims in Canada has skyrocketed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to statistics from the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board."

Skyrocketed?

"The number of Americans seeking refuge in Canada increased by 135 per cent before the end of October over the entire previous year."

How shocking! Until you find out the real numbers, not just the percentage increase:

"From January to the end of October this year, 191 filed refugee claims citing persecution in the U.S., compared to 81 in 2001. In 2000, 85 had sought refugee status, already a huge jump from the 40 that sought refuge in 1999."

The Canadian Press seems to embrace the tyranny of small numbers in this story. Not only that, but it is all part of an unpaid advertizement for immigration lawyer Dave Matas, who held a press conference to announce these pointless statistics in Winnipeg. "I expect that what we're seeing is a reflection of the change in due process in the U.S. as a result of Sept. 11," he told CP.

According to the article, the IRB "has not had time to evaluate the increase, but believes some of it could be attributed to a number of American-born children of migrants in that country illegally who then come to Canada to claim refugee status... Only one American has ever been accepted as a refugee by the board."

The enlightenment comes at the end of the story, long after the reader has been innundated with a lecture on the oppressive and racist police state that America has become since 9-11. Vancouver immigration lawyer Phil Rankin said most of the American refugee claimants he's dealt with suffer mental illnesses that lead them to believe they are persecuted in the United States. Others are trying to avoid prosecution south of the border. None of them are successful, he said. "Nobody's going to buy that the United States is not a democratic place," Rankin said. "The problems that a lot of people have are legal. . . . That doesn't make you a refugee."

So the people fleeing the U.S. for Canada appear to be running away from the law, into the gracious embrace of Canada's pathetic immigration/refugee system. Once they get their citizenship, then they can easily travel back into the U.S. and get into more trouble. Hooray.

Hungarian Jews and the U.S. Civil War: I came across this reference site on the role of Hungarians in the American Civil War. To my surprise, one of the notable Hungarians was also a notable Jew:

A close friend of Lew Wallace, the author of Ben-Hur and other popular novels, Frederick Knefler started his Civil War career under Wallace in the 11th Indiana Infantry. When Wallace was promoted to brigadier-general in September 1861, he chose Knefler, then a captain, as his assistant adjutant-general. In May of 1862 he was promoted to major. Upon the formation of the 79th Indiana Infantry in August 1862, he was appointed the regiment's colonel. Knefler fought in several of the bloodiest engagements of the war, including Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Perryville, Stone's River, Chickamagua, Missionary Ridge and Nashville. On March 13, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier-general, the highest rank attained in the Union army by a member of the Jewish faith.

Council for the National Interest battles the "pro-Israel lobby": The Council for the National Interest, an organization founded by Paul Findlay, a former member of Congress who blames the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and pro-Israel activists for his defeat, is running television ads on the Middle East on Washington-area cable stations.

Findlay has charged in books that the "pro-Israel lobby" has too much power and silences those who "dare to speak out" against Israel.

CNI has been running 30-second advertisements calling for a "sensible" Middle East policy on CNN's Crossfire, MSNBC's Donahue and the Fox News Channel, according to the organization's president, Eugene Bird. He said the campaign, which began earlier in December, was scheduled to wrap up earlier this week, after the ad had been run 120 times.

One ad features a picture of Middle East envoy Gen. Anthony Zinni on one side of the screen, with a drawing of the Statue of Liberty, wearing a blindfold, on the other. An announcer slowly reads words that scroll by next to the Zinni picture, stating: "General Zinni and other leaders say that the Middle East peace process with Israel and her neighbors comes before any action on Iraq. Sensible. The road to Baghdad runs through Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Common sense." The ad then identifies its sponsors, provides two Web site addresses and ends with "Tell the truth about the Middle East. Very sensible."

The second ad script cites a "new Zogby poll" that found that 49 percent of Americans "believe Israeli policies are endangering American security" and urges viewers to "send that message to Bush on the Web."

CNI supporters around the country are being sent videotaped copies of the ads and being urged to buy time on their local cable companies for the ads' broadcast, Bird said. Bird said the CNI ads were in part a counter to pro-Israel ads that ran on Washington cable stations last spring, and on cable systems throughout the country this fall. CNI has also been running newspaper ads throughout the fall.

The CNI president said Israel and its supporters in the United States have strongly influenced President George W. Bush's Middle East policy, specifically in encouraging the president to make Iraq his first priority. He also said pro-Israel activists have "intimidated" the American media. Bird said his organization, which calls for a cut in aid to Israel on its Web site, did not favor the Camp David peace proposal in 2000, but liked the plan that arose from talks in Taba in January 2001.

More Shinui. Something from the Forward to add to the Alisa, Imshin, and Diane (scroll down) discussion about Shinui and Tommy Lapid. I don't follow Israeli politics (there are only 24 hours in a day and I don't even have time to follow American politics at a microscopic level), but if they want to take haredim off the dole and into the army that's fine with me.

Sunday, December 29, 2002

A pessimistic practical optimist in Israel. Howard has been nudging me to do something about all my archived draft posts. Some of them are outdated by now, but this essay, which I bookmarked last summer, stands the test of time.

Josh is speaking soothingly to his horse in English, while his teacher is giving commands in Hebrew, and I'm achieving a new level of humility as I consider that the horse is more comfortably bilingual than I am. It's anything but the typical, idyllic scene repeated at countless riding stables in the West, but it hits me that for all its improbability, it feels perfectly normal. Beautiful Jerusalem hills in the background, a pair of Israeli fighters streaking across the sky, and a nervous 10-year old in the nearby corral getting lessons from a wrangler in cowboy boots, spurs and tzitzis flapping in the breeze.

What the academic "divestment" campaign really means:

Jews who support divestment may consider it a simple way to support "social justice" and separate themselves from responsibility for Israel's sins. They may read the text of the petitions and find them reasonable. But for the world community, most of whom will never bother to read the text, the overall message of divesting from Israel can only be to challenge its right to exist, and to support its replacement by a state with an eventual Arab majority. (Rick Heller)

Kesher Talk

Saturday, January 04, 2003

Friday, January 03, 2003

Thursday, January 02, 2003

Wednesday, January 01, 2003

Monday, December 30, 2002

Sunday, December 29, 2002

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