Kesher Talk

I just wanted to pop up for a minute and say hi from sunny warm Austin TX. Well, it was warm and sunny yesterday - what I call California weather: dry, mid-70s, cloudless blue sky. Today it's kind of gray. (When I boarded the plane in Newark on Thursday morning, it started snowing and we had to wait for 2 hours while they de-iced the wings and requeued us for take-off.) But Austin had an ice-storm 2 weeks ago, so I had to pack for any weather from 40 to 80 degrees.

I moved to NYC last March and had a return ticket that I had to use before one year was up, so I went "home" for a visit. Coincidentally, SXSW starts this week, and tomorrow I will use my free day pass to hang with my homies at the Her Domain booth and check out the The Third Annual Weblog Awards. (The ones Meryl said she would not set foot in Texas for because she hates Texas.) (I know she made a comment to that effect on her blog, but I can't find the link.)

I am staying with very wired friends with a balcony with hammock and lovely view of hill country, and an ethernet connection. But blogging will continue to be intermittant because, hey, I'm here to visit my friends and go hiking on my favorite trails and maybe hear some music. But if you are a local blogger, email me and maybe we can meet for a cuppa. I hear Ruta Maya moved, but Spider House is still the same old charming patio hangout.

posted by Judith @ 3/08/2003 08:43:34 PM  

Two Israel events in DC on Monday, both at the American Enterprise Institute.

1. Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Daniel Ayalon will be discussing the new strategic environment in the Middle East in the morning. (9:00-10:30 a.m.)

2. Yale University's David Gelernter will be asking "What is Israel for?" at the Bradley Lecture in the evening. (5:30 pm)

posted by William @ 3/07/2003 03:58:35 PM  

Reader Jennifer asks in a comment to this post:

What to you constitutes antisemitism?? I'm really not being silly... I guess let me sort of try to explain. To me there are degrees of antisemitism, or any other form of bigotry or prejudice... for instance, to me obvious antisemitism would be painting swastikas on the Israeli flag... or defacing or destroying a Synagogue... Then you have other things that aren't so obvious.... maybe even things that could go either way... For instance, there are some who insist that even criticizing policies of the Israeli government and/or military constitutes antisemitism/antijewish sentiment... Me, I don't agree... but as a Jew do you see it that way?

There are degrees of antisemitism, and there are degrees to which it manifests itself in people’s actions. Jennifer is talking about its manifestations, and that is what counts in real life. In the Western world there is no thought police, (not yet, anyway), so no one can tell a person that they are not allowed to dislike Jews, or Blacks, or anyone else. But they are not allowed to discriminate against them. What counts is the actions, not the thoughts or the feelings. But often it is also important to understand the real motives behind people’s actions, especially when their actions can be interpreted either way.

If we leave out the obvious manifestations of antisemitism, like painting swastikas on Jewish graves, or burning synagogues, we are left with actions that can be interpreted either way. In those cases the logical and fair thing to do is to give a person all the benefit of a doubt. Just as someone might not hire a black person for reasons other than their race, someone may criticize Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians, for example, and it does not automatically mean that they are antisemitic.

However, if an employer chooses a white candidate who is obviously less qualified than a black one, and the white candidate is not his relative or friend, one has to wonder. If a representative of a European country, in fact most representatives of most European countries, (not to mention those of most European media and academia, and the Vatican) are constantly citing Israel for human rights violations, while constantly ignoring far more severe human rights violations by Israel’s neighbors (not to mention those committed by their own countries), one has to wonder as well.

Furthermore, if something like that happens once, or twice, one might still wonder whether it might be a coincidence.
When it happens over and over and over again, even while not taking into account the long history of antisemitism in Europe, isn’t it time to stop wondering?

posted by Alisa InWonderland @ 3/07/2003 09:31:08 AM  

All good dogs don't go to heaven...:

When "animal rights" groups advocate for better treatment of cows or chickens being bred for food, they may well simply be seeking to prevent needless pain to non-human creatures - a quest entirely in keeping with the Jewish religious tradition, the source of enlightened society's moral code. But, in our increasingly morality-shunning world, they might also be acting as the subtle advance troops for a determined and concerted effort to muddle the distinction between the animal world and the human.

... much indeed of import to the contemporary world in the end revolves around the difference between animals and humans. It is a difference that not only keeps pets from meriting heaven (or, of course, hell), because they lack true free will and the divine mandate to utilize it, but also charges us humans with quintessential human behavior, as delineated by the Torah.

... [Of course,] whatever the case with pets, humans can indeed go to heaven. But only if they earn the privilege. (Jewsweek, Jan 14)

posted by William @ 3/07/2003 08:26:30 AM  

What do they do with all that money and time? Palestinian Finance Minister Salaam Fayad has published a report detailing Palestinian Authority investments. The Jerusalem Post touches on some of the lowlights.

Meanwhile, since December of 2001, PA dictator Yasser Arafat has been a virtual prisoner in his muqata (district offices) in Ramallah. What has he been doing all this time? Ha'aretz investigates.

posted by William @ 3/06/2003 08:31:37 AM  

The Past Revisited: go read - it is absolutely fascinating.

posted by Alisa InWonderland @ 3/05/2003 03:55:11 PM  

There was a suicide bombing on a bus in Haifa: So far 15 dead, 37 injured, 10 seriously. All that is left of the bus is its front part, including dome of the front row seats.

Police says that there were no specific warning about this particular attack. But I doubt that there is anyone in Israel who is surprised by this. This is the first terrorist attack after two months of numerous thwarted attempts. The previous one was a month and a half before that. IDF radio cites a "senior security official" as saying that the low frequency of the attacks suggests that Israel's current approach is effective, and thus we should not expect neither any major operation on the scale of "Defensive Wall", nor the expulsion of Arafat.

They interviewed the bus driver who happens to be an Arab, and who spoke from the hospital, where he is being treated for his injuries. He said that most of the passengers wer elderly. There were no security guards on the bus, which he said was unusual.

Haifa is my hometown, BTW. (IDF radio)

Update: It turns out many of the victims were highschool kids.

posted by Alisa InWonderland @ 3/05/2003 09:16:41 AM  

Jewish biker gangs on the rise? Their T-shirt motto? "My hog is kosher." Their slogan? "We're loud, we're proud, we're Hebrew." But relax already. The members of the Star of Davidson Motorcycle Club will not be rattling windows here as March roars in like a lion. Instead, the guys with the mezuzas on their Harley-Davidsons will be riding for the first time as a group in Daytona, Fla., during Bike Week, the annual bikers' Woodstock for half a million motorcyclists.

Club president Drew Rayman spoke with the New York Times (Feb. 28): "When I was at Daytona last year, I was offended that there weren't any Jewish bikers, though they had every conceivable group: Christian bikers, Hells Angels, Neo-Nazis. We are the silent minority. We are devoid of any organized presence."

"I know, I know, good Jewish boys aren't supposed to ride bikes or get their hands dirty... But there are a lot of us out there who like to get their hands dirty."

Other Jewish biker gangs? The Armonk Biker Boyz, the Chai Riders, the Hillel's Angels, and a Canadian group called the Yowies (Yiddim on Wheels).

(Kudos to Holy Weblog for pointing out this story)

posted by William @ 3/05/2003 08:46:10 AM  

Of course, it is all Israel's fault: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat accused Israel of inciting the United States to go to war against Iraq, in a speech Saturday transmitted from his Gaza headquarters to the Arab Summit in the Egyptian report of Sharm El-Sheikh.

The Israeli government "is the first inciter for the war against Iraq," Arafat said. "This Israeli government is putting now its final touches of the scenarios of its role and the goals it wants to achieve out of the war against Iraq," Arafat said. "Israel considers the war against Iraq as its war against the whole Arab world," as well as a war against the Palestinian people. (UPI, Mar. 1)

posted by William @ 3/04/2003 08:44:35 AM  

Alert! Intermittant blogging ahead. I'm going to Austin for a visit later this week, where I will have my laptop and dial-up at my friend's house, but I don't want to tie up her phone for hours so I might not blog much.

In the meantime, check out the latest in this week's brouhaha about Catholics and Jews. This may be the longest single post I've ever seen on InstaPundit. Meryl has a great response to Jesse - she's been on a roll for a few weeks now on all sorts of topics. I posted a few comments on the blogs of Tacitus and Jesse. (Any comment thread where someone says "Arabs are semites too" and belabors the point and someone else pulls the old "you Jews call anyone an anti-semite who criticizes Israel" is a comment thread where the signal-to-noise ratio may not be worth the effort to participate, but I did anyway.)

Not to be outdone by Sullivan, LGF has a BBC-bashing thread. wherein an actual BBC employee (starts at comment #26) valiantly tries to defend the institution and gets buried in well-honed sneers and links to BBC-debunking sites. (Meanwhile, Brits are getting tired of knee-jerk Beeb analysis too.

posted by Judith @ 3/03/2003 11:38:54 PM  

Prejudice produces counterprejudice. You are probably aware of this if you have been following the modern American Black culture. I dare to say that it's the same with the Jews. Or at least with this particular Jew: me. Well, not entirely the same. The background, including the reasons for the original prejudice, is different. And the way it is played out in reality is different as well: no one knows I am Jewish by just looking at me, and I have no way - at least not always - of knowing if the other person is Jewish just by looking at them.

I was born and grew up in Russia, where it went without saying that most non-Jews don't like Jews. When I came to Israel, I learned from Jews from other European countries that it is more or less the same there.I know the historical and religious roots of the European antisemitism, and I take it for granted, and most of the time quite dispassionately (no, I did not say "always").

After I came to the US, I discovered that there is antisemitism present here as well. I was not surprised by this. Most Americans are descendant from Europeans, so it is natural for them to inherit at least some of the prejudices their ancestors brought with them. Luckily, antisemitism is much less prevalent here than it is in Europe (both Old and New, BTW), for a number of reasons. But still, it is here, all-right.

So I am prejudiced towards Europeans, wherever they are. Or, more precisely, towards European Christians. I am not at all proud of my prejudice, and the only reason I am discussing it, is that I think it is pointless to discuss antisemitism, without examining the Jewish view of it. Also, since I am mostly dispassionate about it, I am able to control it, which is to say I do not automatically assume that every Christian is an antisemite. But when I discover that one is, I am not shocked. In fact, I have a neighbor with whom I am quite friendly, who is an antisemite (she says I am not typical - how very typical...)

So is the Vatican antisemitic? Not as an institution, at least not in its modern reincarnation. But I am sure it has enough antisemites to make it look that way. Is John Paul II an antisemite? I have no idea, but he is Polish, and his nation has a very bad record on the issue. Combine this with some of his own actions, and it makes one wonder. However, his Catholicism seems to have only some relevance to his supposed antisemitism, in my view. His Christianity has more. His ethnic culture has the most.
Here you go, I give you my prejudice in action.

P.S. A couple of related posts here and here.

posted by Alisa InWonderland @ 3/03/2003 11:32:38 PM  

Is new PETA pro-animal initiative in bad taste?The Anti-Defamation League is denouncing the new "Holocaust on Your Plate" campaign organized by the radical pro-mammal organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals because it trivializes "the murder of 6 million Jews." PETA has asked the American Jewish community to give its approval to the campaign, consisting of eight over-sized panels showing photos "of factory farm and slaughterhouse scenes side by side with photos from Nazi death camps" that will tour the United States.

ADL's National Director, Abe Foxman, says "effort(s) by PETA to compare the deliberate systematic murder of millions of Jews to the issue of animal rights is abhorrent. PETA's effort to seek 'approval' for their 'Holocaust on Your Plate' campaign is outrageous, offensive and takes chutzpah to new heights. ... Abusive treatment of animals should be opposed, but cannot and must not be compared to the Holocaust. The uniqueness of human life is the moral underpinning for those who resisted the hatred of Nazis and others ready to commit genocide even today," he says.

Through a spokesman, PETA says the ADL's "understating and compassion and empathy on this issue is dangerously narrow" though they acknowledge its good work on a host of other issues. (UPI's Capital Comment, Feb. 26)

posted by William @ 3/03/2003 09:30:18 AM  

Is it the Vatican or the Catholics in general? I think this is the wrong question. The right question should be: is it American or European Catholics? Or, better: is it American or European, (or, for that matter, Arab) Christians? In case you don't know, I am talking about the Pope's and some French Cardinal's siding with the Arabs against Israel, and now also against the US. No, I am not talking about their antisemitism, are you nuts? They are not antisemites, and besides, it is all the Jews' fault anyway.

This is just another case where the discussion of religion obstructs the obvious, and that is the fact that it has nothing to do with religion. That Polish-Italian guy (well, yeah, you have a problem with that? You have African-Americans, don't you?) just happens to be a Pope, and that French guy just happens to be a Cardinal. So what. Like I said before: it's the culture, stupid.

posted by Alisa InWonderland @ 3/02/2003 06:15:01 PM