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"It is better to take refuge in Adonai than to trust in human beings; better to take refuge in Adonai than to put one's trust in princes." -Tehilah 118:8-9



Balagan: Israeli Government v. American Jews

Aauuugghhh.

First, I click on a link to Arutz Sheva to check out their minute-by-minute coverage of the Jerusalem Conference, only to see a picture of PM Olmert holding an umbrella over Abbas like he's some sort of man servant to the palestinian chairman. Then, I read Arlene Kushner's report from the Conference via Israpundit:
"We have to write down the principle of two states," [Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni] told us. Israel as a homeland for Jews, and Palestine as a homeland for Palestinians. If we don’t write this now and establish the principle, we might not have another chance. For we are facing people who want us gone.

Got it? She is so afraid of forces that would destroy us, that she's willing to accept what may be less than we are entitled to, just for the opportunity to get it in writing that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state. And she believes that if we are to do it, it must be "today," because another chance might not come.
And these are the people governing our nation. Incredible.

Meanwhile, American Jewry continues to go through its own identity crisis of sorts. Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League told the Knesset today that One-third of Americans believe that American Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the United States according to the latest research. "'This belief is so out of sync with everything else happening in America, with the fact that there's so much acceptance of Jews in all phases of life - academia, commerce, media, politics,' Foxman told The Jerusalem Post." Take a survey of the opinions expressed by the "accepted" Jewish Americans in academia, commerice, media, and politics, and I guarantee that you'll find the majority are left-wing in their views regarding America, and prefer to keep Israel out of the discussion completely. (Been there, done that, got the college ring and degree in television & film to prove it.) Foxman blames the poll results on the popularity of Walt & Mearsheimer's hack piece, "The Israel Lobby" and Jimmy "Peanuts" Carter's latest pro-pally tome. "MK Colette Avital (Labor)...told the Post that the figures indicated 'a failure to explain - I hate to use the word hasbara - that you can be loyal to both. In the US, people can live with several identities, such as Italian-Americans and African-Americans, and Jewish Americans should be seen in that context.'" How can you take on a hyphenated identity that is a total oxymoron? Can you honestly see anyone who truly identifies themself as a Jewish person identifying with a country that wants to divide Jerusalem and elect a guy named Hussein into the Presidency?

In a companion article in the JPost, Haviv Rettig writes, "Malcolm Hoenlein [Executive Vice Chairman, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations] has been telling everyone who will listen that something dangerous is happening among the American elite. A short version of his view holds that pro-Israel positions among American Jews are being delegitimized by being defined as "anti-American." ...Is support for what they see as the "Jewish interest" - supporting a safe haven outside America for their brethren worldwide - somehow against the interests of America?"

That question is easily answered in one word: No. However, the question is far more interesting in light of the fact that it illustrates the classic conundrum of "Jewish-American" identity: If 'Jews from around the world' need a safe-haven, and America is so great that the Jews here never plan to leave, why shouldn't the world's Jews seek their safe haven in America? If America is so safe, why should we bother supporting Israel?

Anyone with half a brain cell could take one wink at America today and comprehend that the question above is ironically rhetorical. Yet, for many loyal, patriotic American Jews, the duality of supporting a safe-haven for international Jews while maintaining squatter's rights on your own American turf has never hit home. I have heard American Jews proudly declare that Israel wouldn't exist without Jewish American money, and I have been to Seders where the older generation sings "G-d Bless America" instead of "L'Shanah Haba B'Yerushalayim" without blinking an eye. What? Is Israel for those "other Jews" whose ancestors weren't smart enough to get out when the getting was good? Why is Israel okay for the rest of the world's wandering Jews? What, just because we've managed to finally get accepted into Harvard Law, or pass a joke about being a shanda on premium cable, or scored a seat on Wall Street, we're suddenly supposed to feel "at home"? At least the most ultra-Orthodox anti-Israel protestors are willing to accept the idea that they'll return to Israel once Moshiach arrives. When will the successful American Jews head home-- when they're forced into early retirement by the kids who think that the be-all and end-all of being Jewish involves reading HEEB on Friday nights before going out to party?

The article ends with a sharp inference comparing today's anti-Israel American elite with the fascists of the 1930s, another ironic twist considering that most American elites of the 1930s were just as anti-Semitic as their modern day counterparts. Thanks to the anti-Jewishness of the 1930s, FDR's Administration of Elites (see Whittaker Chambers' Witness) put the kabosh on any anti-Nazi messages being sent out by "Jewish Hollywood" (thanks to the ripe anti-Semite Joe Kennedy, who warned Jewish studio owners that if they didn't quit inserting anti-Nazi messages into their films, the gentile population would "blame the Jews" for "getting them into the war"--see An Empire of their Own by Neal Gabler) and effectively aided and abetted Hitler in the mass murder of six million European Jews (see The Abandonment of the Jews by David S. Wyman and The War Against the Jews by Lucy Dawidowicz) by implementing a strict immigration quota in the 1930s and doing absolutely NOTHING when presented with clear and precise information regarding the activities going on in concentration camps across Europe. If that was the effect of elitist American thinking then, what of today?

I recently spoke with an Israeli who told me real estate in Israel is on the rise. Along with an increasing western European Jewish immigrant population, many American Jews are beginning to buy second homes in Israel, "just in case." I wonder how many of those Jewish Americans had parents who walked around with JNF tin tzedekah cans at Pesach and mortgaged their homes during the Six Day War. I wonder, would they be pleased or horrified at the realization that their investment was paying off a lot closer to home than they ever thought.

The Israeli government operates on fear. American Jews operate on confusion. I am a Jew born in America who believes fervently in a whole and united Israel with a whole and united capitol of Jerusalem, even if that means calling negotiations a joke and fighting for it. And, perhaps, in all the logical sense of my commentary I am the greatest engima of all.

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posted by Shoshana @ 7:09 PM




Jewish Unity... the Stumblingblock

I'm digging around the blogosphere for something to write about, anything that hasn't been trudged over 5,000 times already, when I find this post, titled Pulse of the People from Blogs of Zion, buried in a conglomeration of Friday's listings on Israeli Bloggers in English:
What is the greatest challenge facing the Jewish People?

A few of the answers:

* "Hatred between different streams of Judaism."
* "The mis-transmission of what Judaism has to offer, because a watered down Judaism is a stagnant Judaism"
* "Apathy"
* "Freedom: Why be Jewish?"
* "Lack of a perceivable and compelling reason to be Jewish"
* "A tendency to get stuck in old habits and a tendency to forget the lesson of the past."
* "Acceptance in the Middle East"
* "Jewish Unity"
* "Self-Esteem"

Notice, that but for one, these are largely internal challenges–and that's representative of the rest of the answers that were not posted. And no one said Iran.
I don't know when it first started, but our self-reflexive trait can be a rather positive one, as long as we demand solutions to the problems we're so willing to expose.

All of these issues plague Jewish people, whether they're religious or secular, no matter what denomination they subscribe to, no matter where they live. What I don't understand-- perhaps because I'm tired of it-- is the idea that being Jewish is a problematic thing. Everyone has drek in their lives, but isn't being Jewish about having answers to clean up the drek? Isn't being Jewish the solution, not the problem? The issues listed above are issues that arise not within the individual, but within the group-- reading the list reminds me of a line from a favorite TV show: "This is what happens to love when people are in love." We're always participating in a struggle, whether it be between our humanity and our holiness, or between ourselves and our G-d, or between our nation and the world at large, that we wind up transmitting that struggle into our relationships with one another. We don't trust our G-d, we don't trust our individual identity (or, consequently, our ability to carry the responsibility of the identity we've been given), we don't trust the world around us-- so, naturally, we begin to view each other with suspicion.

How derranged and destructive is that?

There are so many Jewish people out there--famous, powerful, rich Jewish people--who have made careers out of reaching out to develop relationships with different groups of gentiles. There are Jews reaching out to Christians, Jews reaching out to Arabs, Jews reaching out to palestinians, Jews reaching out to every possible ethnic and religious group in existence in order to establish friendships and alliances. Where are the Jewish people reaching out to their fellow Jews? I'm not famous, or powerful, or rich, but I if I could reach out to anyone in this world, I would reach out to my fellow Jewish people-- for the sake of establishing friendships and alliances among us all, for the good of us all.

So many people argue over what it means to be created in the image of Adonai, that they forget the most dominant aspect of His character: He is One. Sometimes, I think the reason the Shema was commanded by HaShem wasn't just to remind us that He is One, but that we are one in Him. We won't have success until we stop treating each other like drek. Look at it this way: Nobody can get through life successfully when they keep slapping themselves in the face.

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posted by Shoshana @ 8:07 PM




News Clips

News Clips:

Embattled Muslim aide to leave Pentagon job: Heshem Islam's "resume didn’t add up" [Israpundit]
At last, the truth about Heshem Islam, Muslim outreach aide to Defense Secretary Islam comes out in this WorldNetDaily report, here. As we predicted Mr. Islam’s embroidered resume did not stand up to the light of day and he was asked to vacate his post at the Pentagon.

Our friend Stephen Coughlin, the Pentagon’s lone Islamic Law and Jihad Military doctrine expert is vindicated and will begin a new assignment at the conclusion of his current Joint staff agreement with the Office of Secretary of Defense (OSD).
Britain's Encounter with Islamic Law Daniel Pipes [NetWMD]
Beneath the deceptively placid surface of everyday life, the British population is engaged in a momentous encounter with Islam. Three developments of the past week, each of them culminating years' long trend – and not just some odd occurrence – exemplify changes now underway.

First, the UK government has decided that terrorism by Muslims in the name of Islam is actually unrelated to Islam, or is even anti-Islamic. ...last week the Home Office completed the obfuscation by issuing a counter-terrorism phrasebook that instructs civil servants to refer only to violent extremism and criminal murderers, not Islamist extremism and jihadi-fundamentalists.

Second, and again culminating several years of evolution, the British government now recognizes polygamous marriages.

Third, the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, endorsed applying portions of the Islamic law (the Shari'a) in Great Britain. Adopting its civil elements, he explained, "seems unavoidable" because not all British Muslims relate to the existing legal system and applying the Shari'a would help with their social cohesion. When Muslims can go to an Islamic civil court, they need not face "the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty." Continuing to insist on the "legal monopoly" of British common law rather than permit Shari'a, Williams warned, would bring on "a bit of a danger" for the country.
Betar, Hasbarah launch Islamic State Apartheid Week [Jewish Tribune 2/12/08] Seriously, read it all!
TORONTO – A growing number of local university students, under the leadership of Betar Canada and Hasbarah Fellowships, have decided that enough is enough with the ongoing Israel-bashing on campuses. They launched Islamic State Apartheid Week last Tuesday at York University. Within hours, Zionist student activist Sammy Katz had received numerous death threats via e-mail.
Hizbullah announces Imad Mugniyah killed [Israpundit]
Imad Mugniyah, Hizbullah military commander and arch terrorist mastermind, who allegedly planned the Beirut US Embassy Marine Barracks and Buenos Aires Jewish center bombings that killed hundreds, has been assassinated in a Damascus, Syria car bombing according to this YnetNews.com report from Israel. Hizbullah accuses Israel, but Israel issues a 'no comment'.
My new goal for the week: learn how to say 'no comment' in Hebrew.

Laila Tov!

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posted by Shoshana @ 10:33 PM




Israeli Music is Amazing

I picked up 15 new Israeli CDs this weekend.

Yes, fifteen. Hey, I get to this store twice a year at best-- I have to stock up.

Among the albums, I bought Sarit Hadad's "Ashlayot Metukot" ("Sweet Illusions"):




The album contains one of the most powerful songs I've ever heard. Titled, "Shma Elohai (Kshe'Halev Bocheh)" it was written after the "brutal lynching and mutilation" of two IDF reservists, Vadim Nurzhitz and Yossi Avrahami in October of 2000. If you don't recall the incident, perhaps the infamous picture will shake your memory bank:




The palestinian terrorist holds up hands covered in Israeli blood, moments before the bodies of the soldiers are thrown out of the window for the crowd below to pummel and destroy.




Here are the lyrics in English, translation via HebrewSongs.com:

SHMA ELOHAI (KSHE'HALEV BOCHEH)
HEAR MY GOD (WHEN THE HEART CRIES)

When the heart cries
only God hears
The pain rises out of the soul
A man falls down before he sinks down
With a little prayer (he) cuts the silence

Shma (Hear) Israel my God,
you're the omnipotent
You gave me my life,
you gave me everything

In my eyes a tear,
the heart cries quietly
And when the heart is quiet,
the soul screams

Shma (Hear) Israel my God,
now I am alone
Make me strong my God;
make it that I won't be afraid

The pain is big,
and there's no where to run away
End it because I can't take it anymore
(make the end of it because I have no more energy left within me)

When the heart cries,
Time stands still
All of a sudden, the man sees his entire life
He doesn't want to go to the unknown
He cries to his God right before a big fall
The store owner, who is Israeli, always plays the CDs for me before I buy them. "Listen before you buy! We'll play anything you like-- that way you know you like it before you buy it!" My Hebrew is rough, so I always ask her what the songs are about; inevitably, she replies, "They're all love songs, always love songs." But they're more than that. The crap you listen to on Top 40 constitutes "love songs" to most Americans. Israeli musicians may sing a lot about love, but it isn't always romantic and fun-- sometimes it is hard and painful, like the love lost through senseless murder, and love sought from enemies out of the desire to live in peace.

Israeli music is powerful. The store owner was amazed at my interest in and knowledge of Israeli pop culture. "American Jewishness doesn't really have much to offer," I explained to her, "Israel is where our culture is."

"Right?! Exactly!" And then she gave me four CDs for free.

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posted by Shoshana @ 9:45 PM




1938 all over again...

I am not predicting that American Jewry is immanently in danger from the imposition of the Nurenberg Laws or that the U.S. foreign policy toward Israel is destined to become overtly hostile overnight. We are, however, faced with foreboding winds of change. Let us not blind ourselves to that possible reality. In my opinion American Jewry may be living in a fool's paradise, much like the German Jews before the rise of Hitler.

I do urgently believe that the Government of Israel should assiduously be investing great capital on planning the future of the Jewish State without U.S. military and diplomatic support. Do I believe that is possible? I absolutely do which is why my children and grandchildren are living in Israel.
Dr. Irving Kett
Colonel, U.S. Army, Retired
Professor of Civil Engineering
California State University, L. A.
from his essay:
HOW SECURE ARE JEWS IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD?

Baruch haShem. Kett spends a great deal of time in his introduction exploring the destructive power of Jewish self-hatred. He cites Melanie Phillips's The Jewish Enemy Within, which discusses the far-left anti-Zionist Jews, those about whom Kett writes, "To these so-called liberal Israel haters, Jewish victim-hood is the only authentic moral Jewish existence. To them the most spiritually elevated moral Jew is the dead Jew. The real crime of Israel in their eyes is that Israel represents Jewish power."

Kett also cites a book titled Jews and Power by Ruth Wisse, which discusses the ambivalence, and even dislike of power and self-governance exhibited within Jewish culture. This "moral solipsism," as Wisse terms it, has an extremely negative impact on the psyche and survival of the State of Israel, as Bret Stephens notes in his review of the book in Commentary magazine, "Even so, as this salutary book insistently warns, misgivings about the exercise of power in self-defense retain a neurotic and damaging grip on the Jewish imagination."

Kett argues that Israel must become totally and completely self-reliant, and stop nursing at its now (or, at least, soon to be) dead American pacifier. He's right. If the sudden "peace agreement" drawn up by America and France to end the War in Lebanon FOR Israel in 2006 wasn't clue enough, if Annapolis wasn't clue enough, if Bush's declarations of a "palestinian" state by the end of '08 aren't enough... Kett argues that we are in the same place Europe was in 1938. You be the judge.

Israpundit linked up to an article by Israel National Radio correspondent Yehudah HaKohen, The Zionist Revolution. He concludes with:
Instead of downplaying Zionism’s radical essence, we must employ it and direct it towards reigniting the fire that once drove Jewish teenagers to drain malaria-filled swamps, fight wars of liberation and make the desert bloom. The revolutionary spark that stirred our youth to become builders and farmers and fighters in our land can surely lead them to take up the cause of Jewish liberation in our own times. By utilizing the full scope and immeasurable beauty of the Zionist Revolution, we can educate our children to see themselves as participants in the great historic drama unfolding in our days.
To me, "the full scope and immeasurable beauty of the Zionist Revolution" is found in Ezekiel 36:24-27
For I will take you from among the nations,
gather you from all the countries,
and return you to your own soil.

Then, I will sprinkle clean water on you,
and you will be clean;
I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness
and from all your idols.

I will give you a new heart
and put a new spirit inside you;
I will take the stony heart out of your flesh
and give you a heart of flesh.

I will put my Spirit inside you
and cause you to live by my laws,
respect my rulings and obey them.
And Ezekiel 37:11-14
Then he said to me, "Human being! These bones are the whole House of Israel; and they are saying, 'Our bones have dried up, our hope is gone, and we are completely cut off.' Therefore prophesy; say to them that Adonai Elohim says, 'My people! I will open your graves and make you get up out of your graves, and I will bring you into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am Adonai-- when I have opened your graves and make you get up out of your graves, my people! I will put my Spirit in you; and you will be alive. Then I will place you in your own land; and you will know that I, Adonai, have spoken and that I have done it,' says Adonai."
Back in the 1880s, young Jews from Europe and Russia travelled to Zion to clean out swamps because they had to-- they were being persecuted in pogroms and simply had nowhere else to go. Now, however, the majority of the diaspora population is in America, and as Kett testifies to in his article, American Jews have, by and large, convinced themselves that America is their own promised land. We are not being beaten on the streets; American synagogues are not being burned down like the ones in France. In short, life is good, and because life is good, most Jewish Americans don't see the need for G-d, let alone Israel in their lives. Most American Jews do not even attend synagogue, and if they do, the majority do so for social reasons. Jewish America has buried itself in a spiritual grave.

No, for Zionism to succeed, it must be motivated by more than desperation. It must be motivated by passion-- a passion for and from HaShem. And this spiritual awakening has already been written about! Many correlate the prophesy of the Dry Bones with the horrors of the Shoah--and I don't doubt this to be true. But, I also acknowledge that history is cyclical. If we are, indeed, in the 21st century's own '1938' I pray that, this time, we heed the prophesy of our G-d before yet another six million of us perish.

I dislike people who grandstand before audiences and tell them what to pray for and how to pray for it. I am not the writer of a Siddur. But, I do know that now is the time for us to turn to our G-d and cry out to Him in prayer for the things we lack as a nation: strength; courage; passion; conviction. A nurse once told me that there are 613 bones, muscles, and ligaments within the human body--exactly the number of the mitzvot in Torah. Torah, the document that guarantees forever our tenancy in the land of Israel, is what we need to live by. But, as the prophesy says, to do so we must cry out for the Spirit of G-d, the Ruach haKodesh, to cancel out all of that fear and self-hatred that plague us as Jews.

Zionism began with Torah: Israel began with HaShem. Just as the prophet writes, to live in Zion, we need Torah, and to live Torah, we need HaShem.

Bevakasha, HaShem, hear our cry...

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posted by Shoshana @ 7:04 PM




Apathy: The Silent Killer

Jewish apathy is suicidal.

I just finished watching the classic film Animal House. Whether you agree or not with mass amounts of destruction and general chaos, you have to admit that the film made a great point about the power of empassioned protest. While I'm far from a hippie radical, I have a ringing admiration in my heart for students in films like Animal House and PCU, kids oppressed by the system because they're deemed "outsiders" and "unfit" for the general population for one reason or another. Call it the Jew in me. Watching Animal House just now, I realized that the passion was what I admired the most about these farces and it reminded me of the lack thereof in my own college experiences.

As an undergraduate, I attended an average east coast public university. Out of their entire Jewish population (estimated at 10% of the student body) roughly 3 people showed up to Hillel meetings, and at least 5 of the 15 attendees to the secular Pesach seder were gentile friends of Jewish students. At one point, a friend and I sat in the Student Center handing out fliers protesting the fact that we had nothing to protest. I even wrote an article for the college arts magazine in which I encouraged the students to be passionate about something-- anything at all. Those years were best summarized by one friend's well-quoted proverb, "Just because you poke a dead horse with a stick, and it moves, that doesn't mean the horse is alive."

Then came graduate school at what I suppose you could call an average, mid-western public university. This time, the 10% of Jews on campus were much more active in their Hillel-- "active" meaning they attended events, went to Reform shabbos services once a month on campus, and tended to hang out with one another in their spare time. By then, the climate on American college campuses was changing, and this particular school was no exception in feeling the effects of the wind of change that was blowing. A growing Muslim exchange student population was using the Muslim Student Alliance to promote anti-Israel propaganda, screening films about the now-disproven "massacre" at Jenin, and hosting anti-Israel/pro-Islam speakers on campus. A small number of us Hillel members decided we needed to counter these activities before they got out of hand. Six of us got together (I, the only female among them) and decided to form a grass-roots action coalition. We opted to keep it quiet; however, it was not quiet enough, and soon news travelled to the parents of the Jewish students.

These parents proceeded to use the Parents' Day Hillel open house as a forum to scream at one another and our Hillel director about exactly what Jewish students should be doing with their campus club. "I don't want my kids talking about Israel!" and, "They're here to socialize and have a good time with fellow Jews while they get their education!" were but a few of the empassioned comments made at the event. Needless to say, after that meeting our activties went completely underground. While they were relatively small and few, they still had a profound impact on the campus, as well as the morale of the Hillel membership as a whole.

To my great surprise, unlike my undergraduate east-coast Hillel, this group hosted annual "Israel Day" festivities, a time where we all got together and listened to music, did folk dances, and talked Israel in support of the Zionist state. The event was held outdoors, making it open to the entire campus. Many people attended, including a large number of Christians who were then just beginning to understand the importance of Israel in their own lives as believers. Needless to say, many opportunities for conversation ensued since I was the only Messianic in Hillel, and therefore declared the unofficial "ambassador to the goys."

There was a dark side to being a Zionist on campus, though. During my last year, we had a speaker from Israel come to campus. He did a few smaller presentations for Hillel members and one larger presentation open to the entire university. A row of us sat together towards the back of the crowded hall, intently watching the people around us and waiting for the inevitable reaction from the crowd. We spotted the Muslim Student Alliance plants before the presentation even started, and were therefore far from surprised when a few of them stood up behind us and started shouting out random nonsensical arguments in the middle of the Israeli's speech. Of course, they were promptly escorted from the hall, but for a bunch of average, middle class American Jews, listening to that kind of hatred--seeing it right in front of your eyes--was a rude awakening. Being a Zionist wasn't just about cool conversations on campus courtyards-- it was about countering a sinister, malicious kind of evil, an evil that refused to listen to reason. It was an evil that, as American Jews, we had simply never personally known.

Four years ago I knew that college campuses were becoming dangerous places for Jews. Since then, things have only gotten worse. UT Austin hosted an "exhibit" by the campus Palestine Solidarity Movement that consisted of pairs of shoes meant to represent the number of palestinian "refugees" "murdered" at the hands of Israeli soldiers. In 2005, a Jewish student at Columbia University released Columbia Unbecoming a film about three Arab professors at one of America's preeminent Ivy League universities who, "...stood accused of imposing their politics onto their classroom and of verbally bullying Jewish students who did not tow the pro-Palestinian line." At UC Berkeley, the anti-Israel hatred has reached mind-boggling heights, resulting in large pro-palestinian marches and demonstrations, spates of anti-Jewish graffiti reading "Die Juden" and "F*CK JEWS", as well as acts of vandalism and violence against the Jewish population, all fueled by growing palestinian-solidarity movements populated by muslims and the radical left.

In response to Israel's 60th Anniversary, pro-palestinian movements in Great Britain, South Africa, Arabia, Norway, Australia, Canada, and the United States are hosting "Israel Apartheid Week" events from February 3-19. (They have a website, but I'm not giving them any help by linking it-- if you're that interested, Google-it.) These events will find their main forum on college campuses, where propagandists can pay little to nothing to plant seeds of ignorance, hatred, and evil into fertile, young, naieve minds that have been properly tilled by years of academic backwash. To prepare Jewish students to combat these events, Jewish organizations at the University of Toronto banded together to host a half-day seminar, which Ted Belman of Israpundit attended today.

What he was witness to was frightening.
Unfortunately the students weren’t interested. Less than fifteen showed up.

The most dangerous speaker was Prof Derek J Penslar who described himself as a leftist Zionist. (What’s that?). He was the opening speaker. He started by saying Israel was a racist state. Later on he said Israel committed atrocities on the Arabs, or something to that effect, in the ‘48 war. He advised that students come to university to become education. He, as a professor, does his best to be objective and to deliver the unvarnished truth.

...And this guy is the Director of the Jewish Studies Program and the one chosen by the Jewish establishment to prepare our kids for the propaganda war.
Israel is on the chopping block at universities in the United States, as well as Canada and around the world. As goes Israel, so go the Jews.

And most Jewish students aren't doing anything about it. Sure, there are pockets of protest here and there, but for the most part, Jewish students remain largely silent when it comes to countering the growing anti-Israel hatred exhibited on university campuses. Perhaps Gen-Y apathy has taken over, and they just don't care. Perhaps their apathy is linked to the growing rift between young Jewish Americans and the sanctity of their Jewish identity, illustrated, for instance, by two Princeton University students who declared in not-so-nice terms a few years ago that they were sick of talking about the Holocaust and having a Jewish identity defined by death and persecution. Instead, they opted for a Jewish identity earmarked by sarcasm and shtick (which made it radically different from their white, upper-middle class gentile friends' identity how... I don't really know). Or, perhaps, since they are so few in number, many Jewish students are just too afraid to stand up and speak out against this anti-Israel, anti-Jewish anger for fear of retribution.

Now, many years after college, I can proudly say that I am a published writer. My work may not be gracing the pages of the New York Times, but it has managed to work its way into more than one publication; it has also managed to win an award from time to time. Which is why many people (including more than a few former professors) would be shocked to learn that I was given a 'B' in the only Creative Writing class I ever took in college.

One day, the professor of this class proceeded to begin our session by distributing an article about Israeli "agression" against "palestinian refugees." "Read this, just read this!" he said to a group of kids who came to write poetry for 45 minutes before heading off to party with friends. We sat there in silence, and as I read, I looked around the room. "Excuse me," I interrupted the silence, "but this article is extremely prejudiced. It's only presenting one side of the story." He sneered at me and said, "Be quiet! There will be time for discussion later." Five minutes later, he broke the silence by declaring, "I want you to think about that. I want you to think about what it means to be persecuted," before going on a five minute rant and then diving straight into the day's lesson, without giving us a chance to respond. I tried-- I sat with my hand raised, but he ignored me. And that was the only time I received an evaluation indicating that my writing was anything less than excellent.

You want to know the best part of the story? In the long term, his simple little 'B' didn't mean a thing to me or any of my readers.

But, perhaps, now it does.

I don't care if you're on a college campus or not. Now is the time to speak out in favor of Israel-- to counter the lies being taught in classrooms and spouted in public forums. We also must realize that we are already facing a tidal-wave of muslim influence in academia, the military, the federal government, and our economic institutions. For the first time ever in the course of this country's history, we stand the chance of seeing a president elected who has strong, direct ties to the muslim world. Don't just speak up: WAKE UP. Realize where we are at in time, and act before it is too late.

We have a responsibility to our land, our people, and ourselves. We have a responsibility to stand up for what is right. And if we claim to be the children of Israel, the chosen ones of G-d, we have an inherent duty to speak and live the truth, to acknowledge the world situation for what it really is, and to do something about it. And if you can't handle that, then you need to get out of the way.

Now is the time for passion, not apathy; pride, not fear. Now is the time to do what is right in the eyes of our G-d. If we don't, there will be no Israel left to defend and no Israel left to defend us. We will return to the dust with lives un-lived, and if we do that-- what will be the point of us all?

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posted by Shoshana @ 8:01 PM




"Hayit bi-pigua?"

Because in Israel, asking someone if they've been in a bombing is another aspect of everyday life.... No, actually, because in the Diaspora, especially in America, we have absolutely no clue what that means, read Gila's blog, "My Shrapnel".

I recently heard one Jewish American say that they are a part of every Jewish person who has lived in the past, who is living now, and who will live in the future.

Gila is still in the process of surviving. And so, therefore, are we all.

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posted by Shoshana @ 4:53 PM




America Sold Out... to allah, for Challah- er- Dough

Back in December, the The JPost reported, "The Mossad claims that the Iranians will be able to develop a nuclear bomb by the end of 2009; Military Intelligence warns that Teheran will cross the technological threshold within six months; and now the Americans are putting the timeline toward the middle of the next decade, or 2013 at the earliest."

This week, Israpundit linked to an article at World Net Daily under the "HOMELAND INSECURITY" section, titled Islamist 'Trojan horse' in Pentagon, say experts FBI: Top defense advisers linked to radical Muslim Brotherhood
Hesham H. Islam, a special assistant to Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, recently criticized Maj. Stephen Coughlin, one of the military's leading authorities on Islamic war doctrine, for making the connection between the religion of Islam and terrorism.

After Islam lodged complaints, Coughlin's contract with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon was not renewed.
Better still, Islam is best-buds with a fellow Muslim Brotherhood member who also happens to be a U.S. Navy Chaplain. Islam's boss, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, recently dedicated an Islamic prayer center at Quantico based on Islam's buddy's suggestion. Need more info? Check out this companion post at Israpundit.

Israpundit also linked to a FrontPageMag article on Islam's relationship with corporate America, and what that might mean regarding the future of your investments. Along with the concern over the obvious implications of Muslims gaining controlling shares of stock in major American corporations (i.e.; forcible corporate giving to Islamic interests; running businesses according to Islamic principles), Jonathan Schanzer writes:
There is also a question of whether our new Middle Eastern partners seek the long-term success of the world financial system, upon which most Westerners rely to grow wealth and ensure a comfortable retirement. Indeed, Wahabbists – among which many Saudis and Emiratis can be counted – have little interest in the long-term viability of the U.S.-anchored world financial system. Wahabbists, in fact, seek to destroy the current world system and to return to the world to a time and place in which Islam reigns supreme. Buying out the U.S. stock market would be an easy way to destroy it from within.


Military and Economy. What's next, electing a guy with the middle name "Hussein" as President?

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posted by Shoshana @ 3:50 PM