=jplts3 JPost etc. Letters, Collection #3: ================================================================== To whoever receives this by E-mail (and maybe to a few of the few who read it on Website): Again, I am interested in doing some volunteer work on the analysis/response to anti-Israel media-bias. I would prefer to work in a somewhat professional context, where I might learn something I could work at least partially at home. I do not want to crank out pressure-type responses. I am particularly interested in the more refined, subtler types of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish bias; eg with academic and religious (especially eclectic and humanist) communities. ================================================================ I. AUSTRALIA DEMANDS: TERRITORY FOR PEACE ---------------------------------------------------------------- THE FREE STATE OF STEVE Once again I am prepared to accept the principle of Territory for Peace. I am prepared to make my peace with the state of Israel in exchange for a bit of turf. I am prepared to be reasonable; I mean, we're not talking beachfront condo here. And I won't need that much perennial foreign aid, unless the dollar continues to weaken. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Estimating the number of demonstrators at competing Right--Left demonstrations at Rabin Square is an inaccurate way to gauge public opinion. People with large families living on endangered interior rural settlements are less free to go our for an evening in Tel Aviv than people with smaller families who live in the cities of the coastal plain. ------------------------------------------------------------------ [ Instant Opress'd of the Earth ] To the Editor: Evacuate Herzaliya Now! The 'Palestinians' should be granted, and allowed to return to, their traditional homeland. The only problem is, Philistine turf is not the dry rocky central highlands, it was the moist rich coastal alluvial plain. (Signed): Morris Herzog, Psd. [The Psd. is intended to be the protagonist of Saul Bellow's book, Herzog. Herzog constantly complains about everything, shallowly. (All Bellow's protagonists are shallow. With him it ain't (as in Rohmer or, delicately, Sallinger) an ironic depiction of the bouregosis; it's his alter-ego. Pop intellectuality. The Nobel Prize in literature is less than objective. ] ------------------------------------------------------------------ =============================================================== BUTTERING UP OUR UNCLE SAM: --------------------------------------------------------------- [On the new-format JP: from 7 to 6 columns wide] At last: a newspaper I can read on the subway, as soon as they build a subway. [printed, JP; 9/03] ---------------------------------- Where do you sell the ends that you trim off your daily newspaper -- with all those missing articles. ----------------------- Take 2: Those ends that you trim off the newspaper each morning -- do you sell them somewhere -- with all those missing features? ----------------------------------------------------------------- TIME says George Bush, Jr., needs a foreign-policy success, so let's do our part: let's evacuate Ariel, but trade it for San Francisco. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================= ------------------------------------------------------------------ Conspiracy fans, if not the Israel electorate, must eventually consider the theory that the Rabin assassination was a double- cross of an attempt by a secret security service to stage a provocation that would serve as motivation for a declaration of martial law that would have been used to evacuate the 'territories'. ----------------------------------------------------------------- =============================================================== NETANYAHU'S VOODOO ECONOMICS ----------------------------------------------------------------- DUELING DINOSAURS WITH EPEES Apparently Netanyahu and Amir Peretzx deserve each other; but we don't deserve either. --------------------------------------------------------------- The 90-day Strike (Netanyahu vs. Peretz) ] Letter to the Editor: Dear Sir: I am a consumer. `I can no longer live without' -- whatever it was that we didn't get today. (I believe it was my electric bill, or maybe the sunrise.) Tell the government to give whoever was striking whatever they wanted, and we can all go back to normal. [Ref: Zurich daily newspaper, featuring each day an illustrated interview with a lightly-dressed young woman, headed 'Ich kann nicht mehr leben ohne -- ' ] ------------------------------------------------------------------ WHILE WORKING ON MY SUN-TAN Each day, about mid-morning, I climb ot the highest hill on the Moshav. I gaze out the distant highway, and watch the litte red mail-truck drive by. There was a time, the old-timers say, when we too got mail. But who believes them. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Let's review this: The Finance Minister is leading a move to deport about 13,000 foreign workers, 20% of the total, to open up those jobs for unemployed Israelis who won't take them, because the jobs are minimum wage, and likely to be under unsafe and exploitative working conditions. And then maybe these people can be cut off unemployment compensation for having refused a job offer. That will help balance the budget & strengthen the economy & support the lifestyle of the well-fed Minister of Finance. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================ [Politically correct avocados, etc.] Reference: cartoon by Oleg, reprinted in Advt, Women in Green, JP 5 Dec '03 Reportedly (Israel English news) this cartoon was pasted on walls in Jerusalem, whereupon the Mayor ordered it removed (at least until the question can be properly resolved by Meshiach). Olmert is depicted, with Oleg's usual incisive humour, as a harried bureaucrat in a warehouse, rubber-stamping goods made in the territories. The rubber stamp is the notorious Nazi 'Jude' symbol, the yellow patch which, following medieval tradition, Jews were again obliged to wear. ] The cartoon by Oleg for Women in Green, depicting Olmert's acquiesence to the incipient EU boycott of goods from post-1967 Israel, seems well within the bounds of democratic process. Olmert's decision, in contradiction to previous policy and to the positions of other government officials, seems less so. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- [ Bushies Rampant ] =jp031021 Letter to the Editor, Jerusalem Post From: Steve Amdur, Mevo Modi'in, 73122 ISrael Date: 03/10/21 [ 21 Oct '03 ] Ref: JP 17 Oct 03, Advt, "Joint Declaration of Jerusalem Summit" ---------------------------------------- SAM HUNTINGTON WOULD BLUSH: The Declaration of the self-styled 'Jerusalem Summit' (posted JP 17 Oct 03) seems a bit overblown. Here are a few points in reaction (based only on the Jerusalem Summit Declaration, not its Website): Israel may be the testing-ground for a new paradigm of warfare; a sort of low-grade but multi-dimensional terrorist subversion of democracies. But if so, the optimal response is not necessarily the sort of unlimited international military opportunism practiced by the Bush administration. ("Fighting fleas with a sledgehammer.") Nor is Islamic fundamentalism necessarily the Arche-enemy. Maybe "civilization itself is in jeopardy" (if only from SPAM & McDonald's); but it has been at risk since the USA incinerated Nagasaki, and increasingly more so with nuclear proliferation. 'Civilization' is not exclusive to the USA-dominated bloc. 'Western civilization', such as it is, lacks the subtlety of Islamic culture, the depth of African culture, the tradition of Asian cultures. The role played by 'radical Islam' even in Arab terrorism, let alone international terrorism, is not clear (USA demonology notwithstanding). But it is not an imperial threat comparable to Nazi-ism, or even to Stalin-ism. Islamic fundamentalism, like Christian and Jewish fundamentalism, is not inherently malign; it is a particular cultural rejection of the excess of modernity. To advocate a 'war on radical Islam' [whatever that means] as a 'righteous cause' is conceptually incoherent, politically simplistic, and ethically irreponsible. Sam Huntington would blush, or should. ================================================================ ------------------------------------------------------------------ =jp031202.txt Printed, IJ, 5 Dec '03 Letter-to-the-Editor, In Jerusalem: Jerusalem should guard its character as the spiritual/cultural center of the Jewish people. Arterial automobile traffic should be excluded; unnecessary automobile traffic should be minimized. The tranquility of religious neighborhoods should be acknowleged and safeguarded; those few who take offense at the existence of religiosity should not be permitted to affront it. A broad multi-faith range of religious and cultural institutions should be encouraged, as should inexpensive housing, living, and recreational facilities. Sordid bars and the like should be discouraged. Parks and other public areas should be properly monitored. The Midrahov should not degrade into a sort of Coney Island. ------------------------------------------------------------------- =jp281003.txt To the Editor, Jerusalem Post: Really, it's too absurd even for Dry Bones: In their campaign for a subsidized mini-state, the 'Palestinians' choose a terrorist strategy of killing and maiming randomly selected groups of Jews. Israel responds with a tactic of individually assassinating identified mid-level terrorist organizers. And who does the world blame for civilian casualities -- Israel. ============================================================= [re: Sharon's vague threat of 'unilateral disengagement']: I seem to have missed something: Sharon's latest threat is that if the PLO does not reach a deal with us, we will surrender? ---------------------------------------------------------------- (11 Jan '04) It was a relatively good week. Sharon threatened to unilaterally surrender territory. And the PLO retaliated by threatening to unilaterally abandon its campaign for a Palestinian mini-state. ----------------------------------------------------------------- TELL ME PRETTY LIES The state of Israel wants to give aways Judea-Samaria, but nobody will sign for it. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------------------- [ 'Yossi Beilin's Peres' poodle' * [Rabin, ca. '93 ] Who are you? ] AND MAYBE A RELIEF PITCHER How about we trade Yossi Beillin for peace. SENT 22 OCT ------------------------------------------------------------------- Followup to: To the Editor, Jerusalem Post: Dear Sir: I didn't get my Geneva Initiative, -------------------------------------------------------- Persuant to our prevous correspondence, you will be pleased to here that I have received my copy of the Geneva Initiative, and placed it adjacent to the Small Common Room. Steve Amdur Moshav Mevo Modi'im (after Sam'l Jonson: "I am sitting in the smallest room of the house, with your letter behind me. Soon it will be behind me.") ------------------------------------------------------------------ LET'S BREAK THE ICE Oh h*ll, I give up, this media-events frenzy is overwhelming; let's trade Geneva for peace. The PLO can all go paddle-boating. ---------------------------------------------------------------- =============================================================== = TURF WARS 2003 Lately, inside the Jaffa Gate to the Old City, I have been subject to apparent low-grade political harassment disguised as aggressive begging. I do not really look like a typical businessman from Iowa. The rather intimidating men who demand my attention claim to be residents of the Armenian Quarter; that seems unlikely. SENT ------------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================= Two prominent and presumably objective foreign journalists recently claimed that Israel has engaged in an unprecedented escalation of the campaign against Palestinians. By this they apparently mean that a gentleman can no longer organize homicidal bombings without himself risking assassination. [ Reference is to talks given by Connie Mus and some dude from the BBC at the 2 Dec '03 CJS Media Conference.] ================================================================= BRECHT WITH A PENTIUM Cyberspace is a "jungle of cities". As us intelligentsia (including most of Israel and half Manhattan) move into it, we need honest guides. For every honest Website and helpful program there are a hundred hustlers and a dozen predators. The Post should run more Internet features. ================================================================== [ Orthodoxy & the Also-Rans ] If 'the rabbis' said (e.g. ad absurdum) 'we put pencils in our ears', many men would do so, and some women demand to do likewise. [After a remark by RSC ] ================================================================== UNLESS HE LEARNS TO PLAY FLUTE Netanyahu may be the only person in the world who could lose an election to Shimon Peres. And Peres couldn't be elected rat- catcher in Hamlin. ================================================================= The USA supports establishing a ("demilitarized") 'Palestinian' state 9 miles from Israel's coastline; but risked World War III to contain Cuba, 90 miles from the Florida shore. ================================================================= OK OK, NO MORE SWISS JOURNALIST JOKES A Swiss journalist asks: how does it feel to live on Arab land. Try it in Manhattan, or Massachusetts. ================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------ Maybe a third-world 'autonomy' will co-exist amicably within the first-world nation that reluctantly hosts it; but it seems more likely to survive as an extortionist pirate mini-state nurturing low-grade terrorist warfare. . Israel may be the first nation to try such an experiment. ============================================================== Sent 15 Dec. '03 AND I DIDN'T EVEN SEE 'THE MATRIX' I am confused. Maybe it's because I don't have a TV. Somewhere out there is a virtual reality, in which we are a grim, oppressvie state. And most of my friends from the old days are trapped in it, as involuntary spectators. ================================================================== 15 Dec '03 Draft JACK ARMSTRONG MEETS THE WARM FUZZIES Maybe George Bush, Jr., backed by Slippery Jim Baker, would be better for Israel than Howard Dean. But that's not self-evident. And could the world afford it? [Ref: 'Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy' was a radio show in the USA 1940's, if memory serves ] ================================================================ 15 Dec '03 RESTORE THE CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY: So OK, we're all agreed; 'two-state' is Out; 'one-state' is In. So now we're only arguing over voter-registration criteria for national elections. ================================================================ 15 Dec '03 Draft In that Remedia scandal, if anyone still cares, did anyone ask if the unexpected absence of Vitamin B-1 in a soy-based baby formula was due to the use of genetically-modified soy products? ================================================================ ------------------------------------------------------------------ 17 Dec '03 Not sent MEANWHILE THE ULTRA-HAWKS WERE EATING NAILS The general who had Saddam taken alive may turn out to have had more impact on U.S. and world history than anyone since Slippery Jim Baker stole the Florida election. ================================================================== 17 Dec '03 Not sent YOU'VE GOT MY VOTE George Bush, Jr.'s capture of Saddam Hussein is the greatest feat of courage and initiative by an American leader since Rudolph Guilliani single-handely rousted a bum in Times Square. We can't wait to hear where put his "weapons of mass destruction". [ Remark: Recall that Sadaam's sons were killed in a reported shootout with the U.S. Army ] ================================================================== ================================================================= Ref: Re: In Jerusalem, 5 Dec '03: Letter, Walter Zanger Response: [printed, IJ, 19 Dec '03; with minor edit.] editor's elision noted in {squiggly-braces} I really was shocked to find in your 5 Dec '03 a Letter {which included a remark about R. Shlomo Carlebach} that was false, libelous, and ought not have been published. --------------------------------------------------- Notes: [ I deal more extensively with this issue elsewhere; but why give a libel free air-play. I have/will forward this material to the Chair of the RSC Foundation (and anyone else properly concerned); it's the problem for which the RSC Foundation has been waiting for 10 years. My response was printed with several similar others, maybe better, including one from Lilien Ritchie and a Miriam Katz [ whom I've not yet met ] followd by an inept last-word comeback from the [presumably Assistant] Editor, that in some respects really was libelous [ for publication of a libelous letter can be defended on the ground that the publisher did not affirm the statement, but affirmed only that it was stated. I've since glanced for the first time at the 1998 Lilith article that seems to me to have been the sole source for both Letter and Editor's note in defense of that letter. I think that close internal analysis [ I can't attempt external confirmation/disconfirmation] could show some very questionable features in the source of that article; of that maybe later, & elsewhere.] It being by chance the week of the parsha of Joseph's flight from Potiphar's wife, I wrote in response the following, not printed: ------------------------------ Letter-to-the-Editor, The Jerusalem Post 'In Jerusalem' [Re: Editor's note, IJ 19 Dec '03 et prec.] Last weekend's Post carries a Note which cannot but send tremours through the hearts of the usually fairer sex. A hitherto exceptionally well-regarded gentleman of the Judaic persuasion is said to be accused by a Mrs. Portiphar, wife of a prominent butcher, of what might at best be termed inappropriate romantic importunity, if not precisely harassment, molestation, nor wolf- like predation. However, usually reliable sources suggest that these claims need not be taken at face value. Such canards seem to surface annually, and we have reason to suppose that things may yet turn out reasonably well for the young man in question. Ephraims Rufus-Leaky, Psd.* Mevo Modi'im *[Pseudonymn, Steve Amdur, Mevo Modi'in, 73122 IS] ------------------------------------------- I'd add now only: there seems a 2-pronged plot (by the Zeitgeist, no doubt; no other being could do it) to freeze-dry RSC: The fan-club has, at Modi'in (despite BZ's efforts with his CD et al to keep the vitality) packaged his nusach for Shabat visitors; the Foundation cuts publication of his teachings to a trickle, and those mostly very short excerpts, neatly edited, almost pareve. (Outside the loop, Ziv Ritchie offers longer verbatim teachings.) And on the other side: the -- well, 'anti's' -- seem to 'damn with faint praise' in order to retake the high ground; saying, he hugged the zaftig, but death redeems from sin so we forgive him and will republish a properly shlocked set of teachings, clean as a turnpike restroom. (Quite Christian of them.) Well, I would attend his ostensibly concerts whenever he was in town (and RSC once said, to a group a Naharayim, RN told me: I'm not here to entertain you, I'm here to fix your souls), and often stand and wait when he entered to be recognized [and Alev Dilber once said, everyone wants to be seen; some folks can tidy up your mind with a 'hello'] and what I recall is personal greetings, not physical contact, much less (cows defend us!) of a heterosexual bent. Ah, neo-Puritanism. Oh well. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ================================================================== GET =jplt4 ------------------------------------------------------------------ A BETTER BOONDOGGLE: Israel should immediately discontinue work on that atrocious and ruiniously expensive misnamed 'security fence', and instead open negotiations for a small portion of the Great Wall of China. Given the going rate for Chinese labour hereabouts, they could probably deliver. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Imagine how different the world might now be had Al Gore been recognized as the duly elected President. The USA wold not now be held in the international disdain provoked by Bush Jr.'s pose of know-nothing provincialism. The 'rogue states' of Afghanistan and Iraq might without war have been contained as superficially genteel tyrannies. And some steps would have been taken to acknowlege and confront the impending global ecologic crisis. Of course Israel mgiht now be managed by Holiday Inn on behalf of a Saudi-led consortium; but the U.S. economy would be in much better shape. ------------------------------------------------------------------ To the Editor, Jerusalem Post The foreign press hols Israel, not to a 'double-standard', but to a utopian standard. The Post's more intellectually fashionable competitors, from excellent motives maybe, do likewise. Variant: Israel is held, in the virtual reality of foreign news media, not to a double-standard, but to a utopian one. ---------------------------------------------------------------- [On talk from the Bush administration of war with Syria ] Why should Israel fight what for George Bush would be just another fantasy war. ----------------------------------------------------------------- In choosing the civilians of Jerusalem as the present primary target in this ethically lopsided war of attrition, the coalition of ostensibly pro-'Palestinian' terrorists are trying to destroy the spiritual/cultural center of Judaism. What the world sees as a minor territorial dispute may be the first move in a campaign of religious/cultural if not physical genocide. ---------------------------------------------------------------- If the Cold War is really over, why is Israel now acting like a (reluctant) client state of the USA? -------------------------------------------------------------- Some way must be found to let the poor use plastic cash -- at least debit cards. Most internet subscription and service is now restricted to it. It's bad enough to have an economic divide; it must not become a socio-economic divide, with the poor excluded from a large segement of contemporary culture. --------------------------------------------------------------- (Sent, JP (under title: Seize the High Ground, Uncle Sam is with you); IHT. [ Note: It was annoying to see that the IHT promptly printed a letter from someone in Haifa supporting that head-scarf ban. I mean, in the real world, last time I visited, proposed regulations, much less legislation, forbidding Jews the right to wear kippot -- and on the preposterous ground that those pretty little tea-pot--holders are intended as prosetelization -- would provke unified, forceful opposition from the organized Jewish community. ] Although one ought not expect too much from a nation that invented the french-fried potato One ought not expect undue sensitivity from a nation whose philsophy of secularism starts with the guillltoine. But Jacque Chirac's crusade against schoolgirls' headscarves is exceptionally silly. It is also a violation of the human right to freedom of religious expression and to freedom of sexual decorum. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================ Sam Orbaum wrote with wit, warmth, charm and courage. He is missed. [Notes: The Post has had a small number of good writers (although, unlike HaAretz, no dreadful ones, except maybe Gillon and sometimes that Alex chap). Matt Nevitsky was one; though he seemed to have lost spirit after the first Gulf War; maybe he ran away from the assumed target area and couldn't forgive himself. Orbaum, though less witty (tho his, 'on the tip of Q-tip for pricking your pupik' can almost stand with Maureen Dowd's 'an Armageddon of dirty linen') could be warmer, especially when writing of his somewhat unplanned triplets and their dog. ] And the frum woman who first wrote 'Out There' in the late '90's. Of course Dvora ben Shaul wrote well; but she had something to say (which, for a contemporary journalist, is almost cheating). ------------------------------------------------------------------ We should not be drawn into the media-games set up by our opponents. I recall an osensibly sci-fi short story, wehre the news- media combat attempted terrorist hijackings by making a joke out of them, with the studied disdain and off-hand mockery that are stock-in-trade of establishment anchormen. The terrorists are thus denied the dignity of being cast as villains; and instead depicted as inept bozo's. Humor has a part to play, in the dimension of media, in a democratic nation's multi-dimensional battle against terrorist warlords. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 'self-styled Palestinians' ------------------------------------------------------------------ "ONE NATION, INDIVISIBLE" The USAn fought the then-bloodiest war in history rather than return independence to geographically discreet states of its own citizens, which had volunarily confederated and united. And now the present US government faults Israel for not granting autonomy to interspersed enclaves of Palestinians. ------------------------------------------------------------------- One should not compare, and if possible not even state, the numbers of Israelis and Palestinians killed. This is not a baseball game. ---------------------------------------------------------------- To JP: Your new yuppie format has dropped the Islamic date from the masthead. That's a discourtesy, and a lack: it's often important to know the dates of religious holidays. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Sent to metro@jpost.com re: Metro Friday 19 Dec '03 Printed 26 Dec '03 as noted SAILING TO BYZANTIUM TOURIST CLASS [Ed: Not Haut Cusine ] Can't say how much I relished your Review of that uniquely Bat Yam Body Sushi Bar. Only the Japanese could have re-invented cunilingus [Editor's edit: 'a certain sexual practice'] , and only Israelis would have bought it. ---------------------------------- MORE PAGE 2 NEWS: To titillate the literate: a recent Letter (IJ 9 Jan '04) stated that "only the Japanese could have re-invented" what the Editor elided & alluded to as 'a certain sexual practice'. It is: (a) abstinence or (b) the midnight refrigerator raid or (c) perusing the Sunday New York Times' 1950's lingerie ads or (d) none of the above. ---------------------------------------------------------------- [response to IJ Letter; not sent ] AMD WE SPEAK ENGLISH WITHOUT AN ACCAINT I like the USA. It's got lots of beautiful country. I like American food, eg Indian pudding and burritos. But it's a shame about the Bushies. ---------------------------------------------------------------- The possession and sale of little ammounts of marijuana and hashish should be legalized; it's a savoury reasonably harmless conscousness-enhancing natural product comparable to alcohol and caffein; better and much safer than commerically adulterated tobacco. And the sale of opiates should be faciliated, optimally at pharmacies: freedom from pain is a human right, recognized (Cf. 'Lot') in the Bible. ------------------------------------------------------------------ For In Jerusalem, et al: maybe one of the frumie mags -- Connections -- editor@thecapitalnews.com [ not sent ] Visiting Kotel Plaza for the lighting of Chanuka, I was disappointed to see that six Holocaust memorial torches placed by Rav Goren above his yeshiva were not lit. Each torch is topped with a silver-colour Magen David; those should be polished, to boldly reflect the sun by day. --------------------------------------------------------------- [response to an article on shooting a demonstrator at the Security fence: Sent via www.jpost.com First of all, that mis-named 'security fence' should be moved back to the Jordan River. Relatively normal nations build fences on their borders, not through the middle of their own country. It's not yet reasonably clear to me from media reports what happened. Maybe a few inexperienced reservists misjudged the situation and yielded to panic. If, as initially reported (Israel radio English news), this was essentially a non-violent (albeit 'militant') media-oriented symbolic civil disobedience protest -- (eg, using a pair of pliers(!), rather than bolt-cutters, bulldozers, and explosives, against a wannabe Berlin Wall -- then the military's use of force, let alone lethal force, is entirely unjustifiable. ------------------------------------------------------------------ As I recall from the USA '60's: non-violent media-oriented protest demonstrations, including those based on civil disobedience, have several rules. The first is that the authorities (police and/or military) are notified in advance; that hopefully forestalls police/military over-reaction. The next is that the civil disobedience is merely symbolic: eg, the CNVAniks who paddled kyaks out into Groton harbour to climb on board a just-launched nuclear submarine did not seriously intend to capture the vessel. And finally, a demonstrator who commits civil disobedience should be prepared for arrest/imprisonment, to 'bear witness' to his/her beliefs. A quaint notion nowadays, I suppose. Incidentally, 'non-violent' is usually taken to mean: refraining from inflicting harm upon human (if not all sentient) beings. Assaulting a fence or police barricade, without intending to attack those on the other side of it, merely characterizes a demonstration as 'militant'. ------------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================= It seems to be a, like, 'meta-legal principle', even in totalitarian societies, that 'sins of omission' necessarily (ie, 'logically') ain't criminal. (In contradistinction, 'sins of commission' may be criminal.) Israel's very selectively applied law against 'failure to prevent a crime' , like the USA's Fugitive Slave Act (1863), thus seem violations of the essentially unwritten Constitution. (Incidentally, Unanumo noted, in Tragic Sense of Life, that an unenforced law is like a loaded gun.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- BATTLE OF THE WOMBS, TAKE 2 I'm not sure that Israel should entrust its salvation to a demographic competition. I mean, what if 18 years & 9 months from now they all pierce their belly-buttons and vote Shinui? [the phrase 'Battle of the wombs' was first coined, as far as I know, by Lynn Gottlieb at a Shabbaton with R. Zalman outside Philadelphia, mid-70's; in reference, of course, to the story of Leah and Rachel in Genesis. ] ---------------------------------------------------------------- This new idea of opting for a two-state solution to forestall a demographic crisis has great potential. The USA should immediately grant autonomy to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and possibly the State of Vermont, in order to enhance the chance of continued employment for George Bush, Jr. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ================================================================= To the JP; not yet Sent. It is not obvious that what Israel most needs now is a kulturkampf. A bit less rant & rave about 'The Left' etc. would be a constructive gesture. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Re: Letter-to-the-Editor (Glaubach-Gal, Bundaki (LA), Arch. Stallings (NYC)) JP 23 Dec 03 The 'Moonies' -- that is, the Unification Church of the self- annointed 'Reverend' Sun Myung Moon of South Korea -- are apparently a 'cult-like organization': that is, a group in which individual freedom of action, expression, and even thought is subordinate to a single leader; with a system of belief such that any possible question can be answered within that system. They may also be a crypto-facist organization, with some politically rather powerful allies. Comparison with Lyndon LaRouche's group, in the USA '70's, might be useful. ================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------- Extention of the Western Wall Plaza 'davening area', characterized by a 'vertical' seperate-sex barrier, may be unnecssary and a boondoggle -- the area is filled only on special days; and a job that could have been done in a day has turned into an slow ugly disruption which has inched along for months. But the Conservative Movement's opposition to it is churlish and disingenuous. The Western Wall Plaza is on most days sparsely filled, and the extention takes only a very small part of that usually empty space. ------------------------------------------------------------------ It is unhelpful to speak of the PLO/Hamas 'killing Israeli civilians', as if intentionally killing and maiming Israeli young men and women while they are in uniform, guarding the people of Israel, is not as much a crime against human decency. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Continuing a rather old tradition of ostensibly attempting to save the Jews from themselves ( before, perhaps, the afternoon's scheduled entertainment, at a venue in this world or the next, of an auto-da-fe), Brad Pitt & Jennifer Anniston, a most fashionable Hollywood couple in the gentile (and genteel) analogue of show business, write to their legions of followers: "The last few years of conflict mean that yet another genereation of Israelis and Palestinians will grow up in hatred. We cannot allow that to happen." "That's cute and sweet" but it presupposes a false equivalence: I've noticed almost no instances of hatred of Palestinians, Arabs, nor Muslims by Jewish Israelis. [Ref: RSC would often say, referring to one or another innovation in religious observance, "it's cute and sweet, but it's not Yiddishkeit." ------------------------------------------------------------------ For a nation busy prostituting much of its security and economy to the USA, Israel is under-equipped with English-language electronic interfaces. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Sent JP, IHT 29 Dec '03 Letter-to-the-Editor: Re: Pollard Case Date of article: 14 Nov '03 In a recent procedural decision in the Pollard case, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Hagan denied Pollard the right see the documents upon which his (exceptionally severe) sentence was based, on the ground that 'he has presented no no credible evidence that the current president is any more willing to grant him clemency that the previous three presidents who declined to do so.' This is a real Catch-22: You can't have it because it wouldn't do you any good even if you did have it. This judicial decision is blatantly incorrect; it abrogates the rights both of the President and the petitioner. It pre-empts and pre-judges the Presidential right of clemency, in blocking the President from the opportunity to read a thoroughly researched and reasoned appeal. And it violates the explicit constitution stipulation that 'the people [individually as well as collectively ] shall have the right to petition for redress of grievances': it denies a prisoner the right to make a properly-based and due-process appeal for clemency to the remaining senior authority. ================================================================ Draft: To IHT BECAUSE HE'S NOT BUSH Who is this chap Howard Dean who keeps getting his name in the papers, if not his ideas. And why should he be elected President of the USA? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Sent to In Jerusalem The Mayor has the right to hire as many deputy mayors as he deems fit; provided, of course, that they meet the City's operating expenses out of their salaries. ----------------------------------------------------------------- To the Editor, JP Not yet sent It is not obvious that what Israel most needs now is a Kulturkampf. A bit less rant & rave about 'The Left' etc. would be a constructive gesture. ---------------------------------------------------------------- For a nation busy prostituting much of its security and economy to the USA, Israel is under-equipped with English-language electronic interfaces. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================= ESSAY-LENGTH LETTERS; AND SKETCHES FOR LETTERS; ----------------------------------------------------------------- There are some unwritten rules about hustling American tourists and the galutz Jewish community for tzdaka, if not charity, on the individual but especially the organizational level, that maybe need reconsideration. Tzdaka (Cf. Gr. dike, eg Heraklitus: justice as restitution, restoring balance) is necessarily justified and hence obligatory. Charity (fr. Latin caritas, from the heart) is compassionate, even merciful. Tzdaka is necessarily bounded, limited [QUOTE FROM KITZER: let him not give more than etc. ]; charity is in principle unlimited. Tzdaka is a Jewish concept (eg Marx); charity is a Christian notion. (Although R. Shlomo Carlebach is said to have practiced charity.) The neo-conservatives, (sophmoric, shallow, class-ist, and self- pleading as they seem), espouse tzdaka; the careful delimitation of aid to the poor. That has certain implications. The poor, and their organizational advocates, can't demand money from the rich merely because the rich have more. We can't, or should not, feed too much off 'liberal guilt' and 'galutz guilt'. The rich need their money too; they have a part to play in building up civilization ( although most do so in rather vulgar, inefficient, and self- flattering style). As so clearly perceived and precisely stated in the USA Declaration of Independence, 'all men [ people ] are created equal rights ... among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' As a corallary, a person, regardless of his merit, is entitled to minimal food, lodging, clothing, and essential medical care. And so he can claim those of the rich. But beyond those basic needs, there are other needs (which Maslow arranges in a hierarchy). And the ethical obligation of the better-off and the more powerful to satisfy those needs would seem to become increasingly discretionary. Following Maslow, once might ask: will satifaction for such a person of such a need enhance his/her self-actualization. So those who solicit tzdaka have an obligation to show either that the request aid is essential, or, if it is discretionary, that it would be well- spent. Fund-raising organizations should adhere to standards of financial responsibility, accountability and transparency required of (although often evaded by) capitalist business and democratic government. Money intended for clients, stockholders, and the public should not be dissipated on staff salaries, bonuses, and perquisites. Overhead should be kept down to the minimal functional requirements. ================================================================= THE FOLLOWING, ALTHOUGH IT INCLUDES A Letter-to-the-Editor, is not intended for general circulation. It relates to my work with RSC materials. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ================================================================= Generic Complimentary close: Holding my breath in anticipation of your prompt reply, I remain, Sir, your most obedient servant (which don't say much for you) etc. ================================================================ Complimentary saluation for use in replying to unsolicited correspondence: ( attributed, doubtless accurately, to Dr. Samuel Jonson) Dear Sir: I am sitting, with your letter before me, in the smallest room of the house. Soon it will be behind me. ================================================================= SKETCHES: The EU Report on Anti-Semitism is in one way good news: in finding that the recent increase in anti-Jewish 'incidents' was primarily due, not to a spontaneous increase in anti-Semitisim, but to agitation and instigation from young radical Arab &/or Islamists, and to radical non-Islamic rightists, it indicates that mainstream non-Islamic Europe has not (as was and is feared) become more anti-Jewish. The Report was intially suppressed, with a methodologic excuses (which likely would not stand up well to analysis), butteressed with an excuse of political correctness: that it was defamatory to members of Islam to conclude that some of them were responsible for attacks on Jews. [ As Sarah Honig pointed out in the JP; that is political correctness reduced to absurdity. ] =============================================================== Sketch for a response to a Letter-to-the-Editor in the IHT, ca. 10/'03 A recent correspondent argues, plausibly, that a 'right of return' should be limited those (or their descendents, tho presumably for a limited number of generations) who have been more or less forced to leave their land of birth. A few points in response: Setting criteria for admission and citizenship is considered a national perogative of a sovereign nation. Of course the Israel Law of Return intentionally though belatedly mirrors the Nazi genocide; had Israel then existed, the European Jewish people and living culture might have been saved. The religious culture of Judaism, like that of aboriginal cultures, is interwoven with a particular land/ecology. Jewish religion outside the land of Israel is 2-dimensional. ================================================================= [response to a feature in the JP, ca. 11/'03 As _____points out, Zionism and humanism both presuppose the meaningfulness of life; and both tend (in the perspective of adherents) to take a teleologic standpoint. Post-Zionism and 'post-humanism' tend to presuppose an anarchic viewpoint. But the persuasiveness of post-Zionism stems from an unacklowleged Marxist teleologic standpoint: the notion that, as a consequence of some sort of cultural inevitability, there has been an evolution through and past Zionism. So in that sense -- by presupposing the deterministic inevitabilty of meaninglessnesss - post-Zionism is diabolic. Except foor those who can take refuge in the notion of international solidarity of the working class. [N.B.: Cf. the Buddhist principle 'I take refuge in the sangha.' (community of believers). ================================================================== jrep@report.co.il 19 Nov '03 [Sent; some subsequent additions) Gershon Gorenberg (JR 17 Nov '03) makes several interesting but questionable assumptions. First is to give ethics ontologic priority, if not exclusivity; disregarding a 'transcendental spirituality' (eg traditional religious Judaism) that embeds religiosity in a particular geography/ecology. Second is to presuppose that the events of history occur in a closed system. "If only we had accepted their demands, all those lives would have been saved." And of course such would have been the case -- all other things being equal. But in real-world contexts (unlike laboratory experiments) 'all other things' never remain equal. Had Israel accepted the PLO demands, it is also possible that the outcome might have been disasterous, not utopian. As Robert Frost observed ironically: "I took the road less traveled -- and that has made all the difference." [ I subsequently developed the philosophic aspects of these points; I'll try to dig that out and post it elsewhere. ] =============================================================== Mevo Modi'in 13 Jan '04 (19 Tevet). SEND IT TO BED FRED ===============================================================