=jplt17 Re: English AM News 4 Jun '04: Sent; 2nd sent added 7 Jun '04 A Prime Minister may properly fire Cabinet Ministers for incompetence, or for refusal to implement government policy; but not merely because they won't vote for what he wants. In failing to address this as a constitutional crisis, the Israel Supreme Court marginalizes itself. ================================================================ from =jplt16 To: Jerusalem Circle Group (LIST) cc: Awaskow@aol.com Re: Jerusalem Circle Posting, 24 May '04 "A Shavuot vort" Art Waskow's paperback "Seasons of our Joy" is an excellent introduction to religous Judaism. It includes reproductions of intricate papercuts by JoAnne and Martin Farrin, that are a sort of visual midrash; and also includes suggested readings, and seasonal recipes. That said: I think that Art Waskow's posting of 24 May to the 'Jerusalem Circle' Yahoo Group, was not justified, neither procedurally nor substantively. Waskow speaks in passing, without noting his source(s), of "the Israeli Army's smashing of Palestinian homes and killing even unarmed, nonviolent protestors in Gaza" Procedurally, I think that statements of political opinion are not appropriate on this LIST. This LIST seems to be a Bulletin Board for persons striving to rise above political/religious/ethnic differences in order to co-exist amicably. The West Jerusalem YMCA states, in a plaque before its entrance: "Here is a place whose atmosphere is peace, where political and religious jealousies can be forgotten and international unity be fostered and developed." (from General Allenby's dedication address, April 1933.) Substantively, the matter is more complex; and a rejoinder would extend the procedural error. I am tempted, though, to suggest a few guidelines for persons, especially abroad in galutz, attempting to criticize or critique Israel's political/military acts and policies. We each live in monadic bubbles of virtual reality; intersecting comic-book worlds; "myths of the marketplace" from which we take political opinions fashioned to fit our self-image. One's opinions are largely shaped by one's sources: The main English-language source for news of Israel comes from The Jerusalem Post, http://www.jpost.com , which was more literate before the Histadrut sold it off, but still seems reasonably objective. Editorially the present Post supports the New Sharon and flacks for Bush. The secondary English-language source for news of Israel is HaAretz/English, http://www.haaretz.co.il , included as an unrequested supplement to the HaAretz-printed edition of the International Herald Tribune. Much of HaAretz/English is literate (particularly the movie reviews of Uri Klein), but overall it trips over its ideology. It seems to speak only for those who fancy themselves members an imagined Ashkenazi elite; and is vigorously opposed to Israeli occupation of the post-1967 territories. As a rule of thumb, if an alleged offense against Palestinians by the IDF (not to mention settlers) is not reported in HaAretz, it probably didn't occur. At the risk of hyperbole: If an IDF soldier sneezes on a Palestinian, HaAretz will respond the next day with 3 Ed_Ops in unreadable rhetoric claiming victimization by germ warfare. There is also the export-oriented fortnightly Jerusalem Report, http://www.jrep.com , which, with occasional exceptions (notably Ehud Ya'ari), is in general little more (intellectually) nourishing than a trayful of pareve ("shaving cream") pastry. Its commentaries on alternate biblical parshiot, while not up to Haverat Shalom standards, are a relief from the predetermined conclusions of orthodox gloss. ----------------------------------------------------------------- sa, Mevo Modi'in: 3 Jun '04 , 14 siVan , 14 Rabi' al-Thaany ---------------------------------------------------------------- Art Waskow replied to LIST primarily with a tu quoque -- that the critic had from partisan motive favored the JPost over HaAretz. Waskow also professed that he was not in galutz (exile) but in a Diaspora (meaning, he said, far-flung -- as in, I suppose, seeding the goyim with stars). He also claimed that even a minor prophet must meld politics with religion (as-it-is-said, 'a prophet is always at a loss in galutz'). ---------------------------------------------------------------- To which I'm inclined to rejoin, but won't: pardon, s.v.p.: it's haaretz.co.il "not haaretz.col.il" Diaspora? Kalispera. (o lune spuomoni, moonlight on the cresting waves) If Washington D.C. ain't galutz, Meshiach must be here. ------------------------------------------------------------- MISC: Scott Lehigh, IHT 4 June '04, deploring the reported commonality of (unmarried) teenage sex: "Conscinece isn't quite the right word. Perhasp self- consciousness owuld be more apt. A realistic approach to [teenage] sexuality isn't necesarily abstinence, s the varous conservastive movements would have it, but rather the recognitino taht libearty adn license arent' the same thing and that sex is important enough not to be trivialized." ================================================================= Sent JP 4 June '04 2nd sent added 7 Jun '04, not sent. What a coward Sharon has become. Less like a hawk than a mouse now. ================================================================= I see no reason why Venus needs progress across the sun; she is quite attractive enough in chaste darkness. I intend to disregard this eccemtric brazen display, and urge anyone who enjoys reading without a trained parrot to do so too. ================================================================= Today the PLO said that, because Israel sentenced a PLO mass- murderer to life imprisonment, it would henceforth kidnap and kill women and children; and the U.S. Secretary of State told Israel not to confine the PLO to 'Bamtusolands'. ================================================================== 7 Jun '04 The Israel Cabinet has become an abstraction of overpaid nonentities that persist in sinecures by contriving self- contradictory policies. ================================================================= Re: JP 4 Jun '04 (Stephens) Trying to conflate the Bushie Crusade to World War II, Brett Stephens asks all the right questions and gives all the wrong answers. ================================================================ (To the RSC LIST) 9 Jun '04 -- 19 Sivan For the convenience of those who, due to prevailing winds, find it difficult to get to the Moshav Mevo Modi'in Free Peoples' Public Library during Opening Hours (1), and who, as I now do, find my Website, http://www.geocities.com/sa73122a , an impenetrable thicket of scattered wit, and who are prepared to disregard Official Government Travel Advisories (2), I have yesterday on dispatched to the Upper West Side Carlebach Shul a copy of my collected (3) RSC transcripts et al. --------------- Footnotes: (1): The Moshav Mevo Modi'in Free Peoples Public Library will be open when (a) the necesary preliminary arrangements have been completed, or (b) when the Vaad pays its library bill, or (c) when Meshiach arrives; whichever comes first. (2): Walking more than 3 blocks crosstown in Manhattan, or riding more than 5 minutes on the L.A. Freeways, have been deemed to exceed the Israeli Level of Acceptable Risk. (3) I inadvertantly omitted \weds1094 , a Patri-Soft PSearch 'd set of ordered topical excerpts (from \wittweds ) of wedding remarks useable for slap_dash__ing together a Do_it_Yourself Instant RSC Wedding Handbook. ================================================================== To: comments@iht.com The IHT should recognize its Israel HaAretz/English insert as a liability. Most folks hereabouts to whom I've mentioned the matter, regard HaAretz/English with contempt. Some, myself included, have at least temporarily discontinued subscriptions to the IHT for that reason. The journalistic cliche is that HaAretz is "left-wing". That's simplistic and sanitized. With some exceptions (notably Uri Klein's movie reviews, articles by military correspondents, and many articles in the Weekend Supplement), HaAretz/English is badly-written, intemperate to the point of hysteria, and biased. The bias seems to be toward a secular/humanist Ashkenazi pre-1948 elite, against religious subsequent immigrants, especially those settling in the post-1967 territories of Judea-Samaria and Gaza. But HaAretz ain't anti-religious per se; on the contrary it preserves the cultural/religious Zionism of the first, Europo_Russian wave of settlers. I think one would find that the bulk of native-English Israeli citizens, residents, and visitors identify themselves as 'religious'. I think one would find that HaAretz is perceived by many as anti-religious. And I'd guess that circulation of IHT/HaAretz is substantially lower than that of the Jerusalem Post (which, but for a Bushie tilt under its present sophmoric management, is centrist-nationalistic, with embedded respect for the marriage of state to the blandest possible established religion. ============================================================== Sent JP 9 Jun '04 [without bracketed wit] Can someone please explain to the Bushie's that we didn't ever really mean it. Sharon just wants to stay out of jail [stop Mazuz from putting him on the slippery slope that slides down into a jail cell ], and the 3 Rebels just want to keep their nice jobs [as long as they can without having to face the folks who elected them]. ================================================================ Re: HaAretz 6 June '04 (Gideon Levy, "A Murderer like any other") Gideon Levy, whom one daily longs to short-list for the Lord Haw_Haw guerdon of misplaced patriotism, argues honorably that Yigal Amir should not be subjected to prison conditions more severe than those imposed upon any other murderer. (If only for fear that, before he is murdered, suicided, or driven to suicide, he might tell the truth about the Rabin assassination. It is still not clear how an ostensive nonentity could get unsearched within point-blank range of the Prime Minister, in the garage by his auto. The suspicion remains that Amir double-crossed a staged pseudo-assassination, which may have been intended to serve the Rabin Administration as a pretext for taking some otherwise unacceptable action to faciliate relinquishing all territory captured in the counteroffensives of the 1967 War. ================================================================= Sent JP 10 Jun '04 Is this government still aware that legislation is enacted by the legislature, not by a (packed) Cabinet? ================================================================= 10 Jun '04 re: IHT 10 Jun '04 It seems now reasonably clear that the Bush Administration, with Powell's State Department in dissent, deliberately and intentionally adopted a policy of mistreating prisoners, in knowing violation of US international treaties and national legislation, in quest of confirmation of their conspiracy theories that one or more centrally organized terrorist wars had been launched against the USA. =================================================================