March 2007

Check it out over on MyUrbanKvetch.

Shavua tov.

We are now over a week into the British hostage crisis in Iran. Iran’s government, both in official press releases and in statements by President Ahmadenijad, is calling the entire world community “arrogant” and is threatening to put the captured “British occupier forces” on trial. I guess he can’t get enough out of propaganda statements made by his hostages under duress.

An Associated Press article quotes Iranian opposition groups claiming that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered the capture of the British sailors as retaliation for U.N. sanctions. This seems entirely credible to me. It makes sense. In fact, in a way, it’s brilliant. Let me explain.

The UN sanctions are in response to Iran’s nuclear program. The five permanent members of the Security Council have agreed on further sanctions which are now under discussion at the U.N. Suddenly dealing with Iran’s nuclear program is on the back burner as the hostage crisis takes center stage. At the same time Iran’s enemies, the United States, Britain, and the European Union, suffer through a period of much higher oil prices. Finally, the oft reported planning for a supposed U.S. strike on Iran is undoubtedly on hold (if it exists at all) so as not to endanger the forces of America’s most staunch and loyal ally. At least for the moment Iran benefits in every possible way. Meanwhile they buy time and continue their work to build nuclear weapons with the oft stated purpose of destroying first Israel and then the United States.

Think I’m crazy? I’m not the only one who sees it this way. I just found an article by Mario Loyola published yesterday in the admittedly right-wing National Review that says essentially the same thing.

It is time the western world in general and the United States in particular stops worrying about being politically correct and starts recognizing that the regime in Teheran as an enemy and, unlike Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq, a truly dangerous enemy with an internationally verified nuclear program.

15 months ago I called for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities by the United States. It needs to happen sooner rather than later. Yes, for the moment we should let the British take the lead and exhaust illusory diplomatic options. In reality there are no such options.

Soon President Bush needs to start explaining why an air strike on Iran is nothing like the invasion of Iraq. Then he needs to act. An American surgical strike is far less likely to set the entire Middle East aflame than an Israeli strike. Make no mistake, Israel will not sit around waiting to be nuked and, failing a real diplomatic option, it’s either the U.S. or Israel that will act. I prefer the U.S. Less chance of a wider war. Less loss of innocent life. If neither nation acts quickly Israel will be destroyed and the United States will be facing nuclear blackmail.

Want to join a team dedicated to creative exploration and generating new projects and applications for the Jewish community? Then apply to the PresenTense Institute for Creative Zionism (PICZ).

PICZ is a summer institute running from June 18th until July 31 in Jerusalem. Dedicated to transforming the way the Jewish people think, program and work, PICZ has been inspired by the vision of Zionist thinkers across the ideological spectrum such as Ahad Ha’am, AD Gordon and Ze’ev Jabotinsky, who foresaw Israel as the laboratory for the renewal of the Jewish People, and the reinvigoration of Hebrew culture.

PICZ is thus seeking innovators on the cutting edge of Jewish creativity: programmers and designers, informal educators and school vice principals, nonprofit managers and biotech visionaries—anyone with a vision and a portfolio of innovation. Through PICZ, Institute fellows will be introduced to the best and the brightest of Israel’s hi-tech, social and political circles – giving birth to a network of Zionist thinkers and doers: Chalutz 2.0.

More info here. 

When: Saturday, March 31, 10:30pm till the Exodus
Where: The Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard Street, New York, NY 10013
Cost: $8 at the door, $5 presale or with donation of bread or grain at the door.
How: You can take the 1 or 9 train to Franklin Street, walk one block south to Leonard, turn left and walk a block & a half to the club

If you’re an American Jew under 40, take this survey!

A lot has been written in the past few months on the phenomenon of “progressive” Jews who believe it is their duty to “alert” the world of Israel’s problems. Following the much talked about paper by Prof. Alvin Rosenfeld of Indiana University published by the AJC. Some have supported, others have detracted — but I have yet to see someone put it straight: some Jews simply get off on being holier-than-thou.

It’s not that hard to understand: being, except for the Neturei Karta exception, non-Orthodox Jews, these Jews have only a few opportunities to puff up their Jewish ego–claiming that they are “more Jewish” than others–and this is one of them. Moreover, it is the easiest choice–a two for one: not only do these self-proclaimed progressives get to feel “better” than someone else (a common human desire–one that Orthodox Jews are notorious for enacting in Israel), but these Criticize-Israel-At-Every-Turn folks also get to feel part of the International Community!

And to sweeten the deal even more, the two-for-one is free, because these fat-cat Jews, these mostly suburban, mostly comfortably middle class Western raised Jews will never have to protect their homes or their country; they have the minorities joining the police and the army to do that in the West, and Israelis to protect their city-of-refuge if Westerners ever decide that the neocons have done enough damage.

And thus we have sites such as this one, thanking Nicholas Kristof for writing an article against Israel, thanking Jimmy Carter for writing a book calling Israel an Apartheid state–sites that owe their survival to Jews who want to finally be more kosher than the neighbors.

And so what is there to do about it?

At this point, I’m thinking nothing. Ignore’em. These aren’t Israelis who serve in the army, pay the taxes, live with their government’s decision–and therefore earn the right to criticize. No, the closest these folks will know about the complexities of maintaining a sovereign state will be if and when they’ll have to pay their own taxes. And since filling out a 1040 (or asking their family’s accountant to do it for them) isn’t that hard, there is not point getting into it. Sure, they are hurting Israel by continually refocusing the debate on the conflicts within a small state in a vicious area, but we are only deepening the sore by maintaining the focus on their ignorance. Instead, I think its best to join with those who represent the real Left–the Left that is actually concerned with freedom and liberty, the Left that actually cares about social issues around the world, the Left that sees things in perspective–one that I have been proud to represent throughout my life, a tradition that upholds its values.

Yes, these self-proclaimed progressives are simply sad individuals who can’t beat the Haredim at their Kosher game, and have found a new way to prove their mettle, so it’s better to just move on and to try to solve the real conflict. So what, let the hipper-than-thou set feel special for a change.

When Israeli TV is not busy copying inane reality television shows it is actually producing some powerful commentary about the reality of life here in our jumbled State and Society. Hands down, the leading show of this genre is Merhak Negia (A Touch Away), which revolves around the interaction between a Hareidi family and secular Russian immigrant family who live in the same building in Bnei Brak. Merhak Negia is breaking all time rating highs even as it deals with the most serious of subjects. Actually, specifically because it deals with those issues so compellingly it is speaking to all types of Israelis.

For you Hebrew speakers, check out this interview on ynet with Merhak Negia writer Shuki Ben-Naim. Shuki is one of Israel’s young rising stars of television writing, and this interview (no thanks to the actual questions) discusses the show but more than that reveals one man’s approach to the craft of creating entertainment that impacts. Check it.

Just thought I’d point out this incredible site that a friend forwarded to me. The idea is brilliant and shows the social value of the web

Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can “sponsor a business” and help the world’s working poor make great strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from the business you’ve sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan money back.

Check it out at Kiva.org.

[HT: EG]

Joshua Gross published a heartfelt and sweet op-ed in the Forward this week about his girlfriend that may piss a lot of people off a whole lot. Why? Because his girlfriend is Lebanese.

Well, Lebanese Christian–so the “being pissed off” part will mostly be relegated to the intermarriage-fearing folks that make a living publishing studies that show that we’re devolving into a community of in-married and a community of inter-married, but it also might piss off a few of the right-wingers who don’t want Israel to get in bed with the Arabs.

Being neither of these–believing that intermarriage is either a symptom of a larger problem having to do with a lack of internal justification for Jewish identity (when they leave the community) or a sign of an incredibly strong Jewish identity at work in growing the Jewish People (when they stay)–I actually think it is a sweet piece.

My issue with it, though, concerns its underlying assumption: that the micro (love between Joshua and his Lebanese girlfriend) somehow concerns the macro–which implies that lessons learnt from the micro can be applied to the macro. I’m not so sure about that. Sure, she’s Lebanese. But she’s Christian. And while Christian Lebanese have been some of the most prominent of Israel’s critics, and of the Arabist movement in general, they also happen to include some of the most pro-Israel elements out there.

Now, Joshua’s girlfriend might be a special case–she might have found a way to rise above the particularities of the Christian Lebanese existence and become somehow fully identified with the Arab cause–but then again, is there an Arab cause? I’m not so sure. Let’s take a case that readers of this blog might know better: Palestine. One of the main objections I have to some on the pro-Palestinian Left is that they are racist in their reductionist mindset: they assume that the Palestinians all want what they think they want. But the Palestinians are many and varied, and are unlike a national people such as the Americans or the French or even the Jordanians or the Jewish People in that they do not have a set line of authority in communal decision making; they are not yet truly formed in that they don’t really know the boundaries of their community. “Palestine” has been a century in the making, and there has yet to arise a Palestinian national entity in history. Until then, to speak for the Palestinians (who have a hard enough time speaking for each other) is nonsensical.
Now back to Lebanon: Lebanon is a country beset with the worst of inter-ethnic problems; massacres have occurred since the 19th century, and many people forget that Israel was formally invited to enter Lebanon by the Lebanese Christians.

So, can Joshua’s girlfriend speak for the Lebanese? Not really. Not that she should–and so Joshua’s story becomes a sweet story about an inter-ethnic couple, a micro-level exploration of falling in love with someone from a different tribe, a story of a Jewish boy who’d like to escape his exclusive obligation to the Jewish People so he could be “one of them, without division, just another human experiencing genuine empathy for the suffering of others.”

— Next Page »