tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58810630355643758342024-02-01T21:22:42.645-08:00Writer of WrongsE. Scott Menter: Writer. Critic. Husband. Dad. Jew. Zionist. Entrepreneur. Cranky-pants.E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-82398789407320270532016-04-30T20:46:00.001-07:002016-04-30T20:46:32.571-07:00Easy Labour: Unmasking the Lie Calling Itself “anti-Zionism”Though a <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36160928" target="_blank">BBC Magazine piece published this week</a> piece is riddled with <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/06/aaron-sorkin-media-biased-toward-fairness-126357" target="_blank">fairness bias</a> (a malady shared, regrettably, with virtually all media coverage of Israel), its introduction to the subject of "anti-Zionism" was at least... tolerable. Missing are the BBC's <a href="https://bbcwatch.org/about-us/" target="_blank">typical and gratuitous attacks on Israel</a>; instead, one finds a discussion that—while dodging an opportunity to actually distinguish what is true from what is simply anti-Israel propaganda—nonetheless attempts to treat its subject matter objectively. <br />
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Still and all, the unnamed author never quite gets to the heart of the anti-Zionism/anti-Semitism dichotomy. That's strange, because frankly, it's not that hard a thing to understand:<br />
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<ol>
<li>Zionism is the movement arising from the desire and the right of Jews to political self-determination in their native land. </li>
<li>Like democracy, Zionism is not, and never has been, tied exclusively to the right or the left, to socialism or capitalism, or to any other single theory of governance. Every government of Israel, from that led by Ben Gurion's Mapai to that of Netanyahu's Likud, has been a Zionist government, despite stark political cleavages that make America's Democratic/Republican divide seem quaint by comparison. Religious or cultural, agricultural or urban, Ashkenazi or Mizrahi: there is room for all in the great nation-building project (including, by the laws of Jewish tradition and the customs of modern civilization, the country's non-Jewish residents and citizens).</li>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYv2-DPBlwlTS0ws3BJ5vzexqCcJvU2wnRohw0hzriWohzDJiNEVK5xOiIFIiB-yRFfJFcOQf74QRICCdVvduxyPpUSLtifXfcizYN5IJ-WuencK7GM0bQ1S9P-hPHKKJqiJoiH25I96A/s1600/360px-Theodor_Herzl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYv2-DPBlwlTS0ws3BJ5vzexqCcJvU2wnRohw0hzriWohzDJiNEVK5xOiIFIiB-yRFfJFcOQf74QRICCdVvduxyPpUSLtifXfcizYN5IJ-WuencK7GM0bQ1S9P-hPHKKJqiJoiH25I96A/s200/360px-Theodor_Herzl.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Theodor Herzl, 1860-1904</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<li>Therefore, identifying oneself as "anti-Zionist" implies precisely the opposite of what apologists would have us believe. An "anti-Zionist" is rejecting no particular policy, nor any set of policies; rather, he is denying to the Jews alone the right of self-determination extended to every other nation on the planet. For the "anti-Zionist", there can be no policy dispute, because no action taken by a Jewish state (other than suicide) is an acceptable alternative to any other action: all are conceived in sin.</li>
</ol>
The loudest and best-informed criticisms of any given position of any Israeli government are vigorously asserted by Israelis, every minute of every day, in print, online, and on the air; in cafes, in taxis, in demonstrations. Such disputes do not merely represent something other than "anti-Zionism"; they represent its exact opposite. The cacophonous political debate in fact epitomizes the stunning success of <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Zionism/herzlex.html" target="_blank">Herzl's vision</a>: a rowdy marketplace of ideas, established by the collective efforts of a diverse assortment of Zionists, as individuals and through organizations. The heat and light generated by this teeming intellectual bazaar power the Zionist enterprise and give it direction.<div>
<br />Nation-building is the Zionist mission; disagreement, its hallmark. Challenge any group of Zionists, if you wish—other Zionists do so continually. Challenge Zionism itself, however, and your veneer of humanity vanishes to reveal the same thuggish anti-Semitism that fueled the violent, illiterate hordes in murderous rampage through the shtetls of Europe.<br />
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E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-10518072314519904112015-08-05T20:59:00.000-07:002015-08-05T22:45:52.905-07:00Take the DealMy <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackiementer" target="_blank">beautiful and talented spouse</a> writes a blog called "<a href="https://tachlis.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Tachlis</a>". <i>Tachlis</i> is a Yiddish word meaning "reality", often in the sense of "the harsh reality". There is today no harsher reality than the Iran accords.<br />
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Let's ease into this subject by starting with something most American and Israeli Jews can agree on: the <a href="http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/world/full-text-of-the-iran-nuclear-deal/1651/" target="_blank">deal on the table</a> isn't the deal we wanted. It does not strip <a href="http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/middle-east/66881-150407-iran-holocaust-cartoon-contest-receives-hundreds-of-submissions" target="_blank">anti-Semitic</a>, <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/chanting-death-to-israel-iran-al-quds-day-marches-draw-millions/" target="_blank">anti-American</a>, <a href="http://www.cfr.org/iran/state-sponsors-iran/p9362" target="_blank">terror-sponsoring</a> Iran of all of its nuclear capabilities. It does not stop them from exporting terror, nor force them to accept the reality of Israel. Indeed, the <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iran/Ayatollah-publishes-book-calling-to-wipe-out-Israel-give-Iran-full-reign-in-the-Middle-East-410890" target="_blank">threatening rhetoric</a> continues to stream out of Tehran. And, even to the extent that the deal does manage to put the brakes on Iranian nuclear momentum, the agreement starts to phase out after only eight years—a relatively short interval, historically speaking.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilRL4mci6tjRzg5_zjSNulNhJtu1KWdx-AJJOgdLQubdgBOJS_nyI6MNWW6DmeykT44dyfUD5MXTdxYEYxRTrMwQ5mWwEBY7-LnnLSWPdatjP8SBqDvrXB7k5n2-59pvNvawgLFaiYCSM/s1600/IranIsraelUSNuclear.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilRL4mci6tjRzg5_zjSNulNhJtu1KWdx-AJJOgdLQubdgBOJS_nyI6MNWW6DmeykT44dyfUD5MXTdxYEYxRTrMwQ5mWwEBY7-LnnLSWPdatjP8SBqDvrXB7k5n2-59pvNvawgLFaiYCSM/s200/IranIsraelUSNuclear.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
We knew it was coming. For some time, it's been apparent that the tense negotiations were not going to result in a nuke-free Iran. And so we lobbied, we argued, and we protested—anything to leverage the Obama administration to push harder for a better deal, or to walk away in favor of imposing ever harsher sanctions.<br />
<br />
And perhaps we were successful. It's difficult to say to what extent pressure from the American Jewish community and other opponents of Iran stiffened the resolve of the US negotiators. It's easy to imagine that the deal could have been much worse. Indeed, the US might well have conceded the inevitability of an Iranian bomb, pursuing a strategy of containment rather than prevention. With most parties now acknowledging that Iran is only <a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-04-21/obama-kept-iran-s-short-breakout-time-a-secret" target="_blank">several weeks from having enough raw material for a weapon</a>, containment could well have been seen as the best of a set of bad options.<br />
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Fortunately, the administration did not abandon its <a href="http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/president/issues/iran.html" target="_blank">long-stated principle</a> of denying Iran a nuclear bomb. But while most experts agree that the deal does just that, it is more than reasonable to ask how long such an arrangement will actually last. Yes, sanctions will, in theory, "<a href="http://www.npr.org/2015/07/20/424571368/if-iran-violates-nuke-deal-a-look-at-how-sanctions-would-snap-back" target="_blank">snap back</a>" if Iran is found to be violating the agreement. But in such a circumstance, the reinstatement of sanctions also terminates Iran's obligations: the deal becomes moot, a dead letter. In that event, the world would find itself more or less where it is right now, but facing a far wealthier Iran, and without the momentum and collaboration amongst the P5+1 nations that characterized the recent negotiations.<br />
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In short, while there is some consensus that the deal will delay Iran's production of nuclear weaponry, it will not in and of itself prevent that unthinkable development in the long run. In the interim, Iran will be greatly enriched by the lifting of sanctions, and it's fair to assume that it will use some of that windfall to intensify its proxy wars with Israel and the West.<br />
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In the past week we've been favored with direct appeals from two heads of state: Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, and American President Barak Obama. <a href="https://vimeo.com/135402724" target="_blank">Bibi pointed out</a> the many flaws in the current deal, while <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/08/05/text-obama-gives-a-speech-about-the-iran-nuclear-deal/" target="_blank">President Obama underscored</a> the enormous achievement represented by a coalition formed under American leadership forcing Iran to the table and ultimately producing an agreement supported by nearly every country on Earth.<br />
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And so the battle lines have been drawn. Numerous Jewish organizations have <a href="http://www.jewishla.org/press-releases/entry/the-federations-response-on-irans-nuclear-program/" target="_blank">publicly announced their opposition</a> to the deal (though <a href="http://www.jewishjournal.com/rob_eshman/article/federation_take_it_back" target="_blank">not without controversy</a>). AIPAC, the premiere pro-Israel lobbying organization, has even formed a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/07/17/pro-israel-aipac-creates-group-to-lobby-against-the-iran-deal/" target="_blank">separate venture</a>—kind of like a subsidiary—to push for the deal's defeat in Congress. The decision by AIPAC to take on a sitting President on an issue of this magnitude is unprecedented. But is it a good one? Are AIPAC, various local Federations, and other Jewish organizations making the right choice in publicly lobbying against the Iran agreement?<br />
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Friends, the tachlis is that putting the defeat of the Iran accord at the top of our agenda is a huge mistake, one whose consequences we might still be feeling years into the future. Given the path we appear to have chosen, there really are only two possible outcomes. Both are awful.<br />
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<b>Outcome 1: The agreement is defeated</b>. Well, congratulations to us: our famed influence and activism have once again helped us to reach our goals. But, um... now what?<br />
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Tachlis: There is no other agreement, no continuation of sanctions, no way to improve on what was already agreed. It was fine for us all to talk about the deal's shortcomings, and how they should be addressed, when it was being negotiated. As I observed earlier, it's entirely possible that the influence of Israeli diplomacy (such as it is) and American Jewish activism helped the final agreement be stronger than it might otherwise have been.<br />
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But now an accord has been reached. If we fail to ratify it, do you expect that the coalition that came together to produce it will simply shrug, and with a wry "oh, those crazy American Jews!" will sit down and start again? Not a chance. As the President pointed out: we have a deal that each of those partners, and indeed, most every other country, have accepted. Even the Gulf nations, who live in fear of a nuclear Iran in much the same way as the Israelis, are quiet. Voiding the agreement will simply strip America of our leadership. It will leave us without a deal and without the leverage to produce a better one. The other countries of the world, having been left at the altar, will no longer be willing to sacrifice their financial interests to reinstate a sanctions regime that, in their view, had already met its goal. Now unfettered, Iran will simply continue building both nuclear devices and the missiles that can deliver them anywhere in the world. The Gulf nations, enemies of our enemies but not remotely our friends, will surely follow suit.<br />
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So you want to kill the deal? Great. Tell me your plan. But if it's, "we pick up where we left off and continue pressuring Iran until we get a better deal", then save it. You're simply dreaming.<br />
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<b>Outcome 2: The agreement is not defeated</b>. Oh dear, we seem to have come out on the losing side. Oh well: at least we tried.<br />
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Tachlis: There is a cost to fighting a losing battle, especially one to which we have committed such an enormous amount of political capital. If we declare the Iran deal as the hill we're willing to die on, we need to keep in mind that dying on it is indeed a possibility. By failing, in a huge and public way, on an issue we've declared to be of the utmost importance to us, we will be exposing ourselves as weak. Ineffective.<br />
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The worst part is, we will have chosen as a moment to neuter ourselves that very instant in history that Israel most needs us. For the duration of the accord, Iran will be on the brink—perhaps a year away, perhaps less—of a nuclear weapon. The US, aware of Israel's situation and of America's complicity in creating it, will be somewhat inclined to make it up to the Jewish state. But how?<br />
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<i>That</i> is when we must step up. Sure, the US is probably game for more joint R&D projects, like the one that produced the Iron Dome and Arrow anti-missile systems. And we'll surely share intelligence, combining US signal and satellite information with Israeli human intelligence to gain a complete and ongoing picture of what's happening within Iran. Similarly, joint air and naval exercises, increased US military aid, and so forth, are likely there for the asking.<br />
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But an intact American Jewish community can push for so much more. We can point out that Israel has taken an enormous, even unprecedented risk for peace by accepting the deal. In return, it is fair to ask our leaders to press the Palestinians to take a few risks of their own—to stop whining about Ariel and E1, to dismantle their terror infrastructure, neutralize Hamas, and finally accept the state Israel has been trying to give them for decades.<br />
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We should insist that the US push the Gulf states (independently of the Palestinian track) to reach an accommodation with Israel, including recognition and ambassadorial exchanges, in order to formalize an Iranian counterweight in the Middle East. And we should demand, and demand, and demand, that the US commit substantial resources to forcing Iran, through any means necessary, to disarm Hezbollah and its other terrorist clients.<br />
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Of course, we'll be lobbying for all of these concessions and more no matter what Congress ends up doing about the Iran accord. The question is: will anybody be listening? Congressfolk are notoriously uninterested in the concerns of toothless interest groups. In any event, foreign policy is largely the domain of the executive branch. If we alienate the executive, and worse, if we are publicly disempowered, having failed to gain traction on the single biggest issue for American Jews since the days of Soviet refuseniks, what leverage do we have?<br />
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The only thing worse for Israel than a nuclear Iran is an indifferent America. Such a scenario could surely never come to pass; never, that is, unless Israel's most passionate defenders have lost their way, and in doing so, lost their voice as well.<br />
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<br />E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-58449135455942854472014-03-01T15:56:00.000-08:002014-03-01T15:56:40.403-08:00Different<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>I really want to see you</i><br />
<i>Really want to see you, Lord</i><br />
<i>But it takes so long, my Lord</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
— George Harrison </blockquote>
With the holiday of Purim approaching, the countdown to Pesach (Passover), just one month later, has begun. Pesach begins with a ritual dinner, the Seder. There are as many types of Seder as there are Jewish families, but virtually all share a common theme: a sustained focus on the asking of questions. The questions aren't necessarily meant to be answered—as has often been noted, the Haggadah does not even provide a direct answer to the famous Four Questions. At the Seder, it is the question—or, rather, the questioning—that is important.<br />
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Ironically, this subordination of answers may itself be the best response to the root concern of the Seder: <i>why is this night different from all other nights?</i> From our first breath through our last, we search relentlessly for the reasons behind the mysteries and obstacles life puts in our path. Tonight, though, we will expect no answers. We are reminded that the answers to most of life's questions will remain elusive; and that nonetheless, year after year, we must continue to ask.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover_Seder" target="_blank"><i><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj06eDXo7hTpo2qtgnnKb437XOQtf92kGbVBv_wyszMxg0GCJ4FTSr52NAm860oBo2_PnHWMyi0DMGfL009evy-zSXfxqNIWueWKQCg43STmkJAIcYT_PYjRKod-V9neKDtRAMc8qKZti4/s1600/Seder+c.+1800s+Ukraine.jpg" height="209" title="19th Century Ukranian Seder" width="320" /></i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover_Seder" target="_blank"><i>Depiction of 19th century Seder in Ukraine</i></a></td></tr>
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When it comes to Judaism, I'm rather partial to one particular question from the Seder: <i>What do these symbols and rituals mean to you?</i> A seemingly obvious inquiry, and yet it is the only one for which the Haggadah chides the questioner, calling him "evil" and explaining that by by saying <i>you</i> rather than <i>us</i> he sets himself apart, and should therefore be reprimanded.<br />
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Perhaps. But I'd prefer to believe that Jewish culture has progressed to the point at which we can be comfortable asking the hard questions. Why is this night—this Seder, this Shabbat, this Kol Nidre—different from all other nights? And surely this question is a proxy for the oldest and thorniest challenge of them all: why is this people different from all others? Are our values so different? Must we perpetually set ourselves apart from the rest of society? Would assimilation—even total assimilation, the complete loss of our distinct identity as a people—really be the tragedy that our parents believed it to be? If so—if the distinction is well worth preserving—then what role do God, religion, and ritual practice play in that preservation? Can our community continue to exist without them?<br />
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<i>What do these symbols and rituals mean to you? </i>And, by extension, what should they mean to me?<br />
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</i></div>
In a <a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/126217/an-atheists-synagogue-search" target="_blank">recent article in the online journal Tablet</a>, author Jonathan Zimmerman identifies himself as an atheist who grew up in a Conservative synagogue. Reaching adulthood, he set out to find a new home within the greater Jewish world, one that supported his rationalist beliefs. He describes his growing distress as he discovered that any community that satisfied him intellectually seemed to fall short emotionally. The liturgy and praxis that had nurtured him to adulthood were poisonous to those who shared his worldview, while his rational rejection of Abraham's God and the divine origins of Torah made it difficult for him to participate in those rituals, to recite those words, he found most comforting.<br />
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Zimmerman offers no answers. As the Seder reminds us, perhaps there are none. But we keep asking, even as, day to day, we continue to do the things that make us whole, that bring us peace, whether we understand why or not.<br />
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<i>I really want to see you, Lord</i>. I know you're not there, but I seek you anyway, in myself, in my children, in the world around me. I will address you, though my supplications remain forever unheard. I will ask your forgiveness, and perhaps in doing so I will be reminded to forgive others. I will proclaim you the ruler of the universe, who brought forth bread from the ground, because like my primitive ancestors it comforts me to believe—or in my case, to pretend—that you are conducting the whole orchestra, that your eye is upon me and upon the sparrow. Yes, yes: I know better. I am resigned to the real world, the world in which the hawk takes the sparrow, swiftly, remorselessly. But I will gladly spend a few hours in that idealized place in which the sparrow sings on, its trills threaded within the chanting and laughter of my family's Seder table.E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-10418116237825573122014-01-27T22:35:00.000-08:002014-01-27T22:35:02.944-08:00Discrimination, Incarceration, and Political StagnationIn his <a href="http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/25/readers-enemas-and-inequality/?module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog%20Main&contentCollection=Opinion&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs&region=Body" target="_blank">New York Times blog</a> this week, Nicholas Kristof finds evidence of a deepening societal rift revealed in a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/opinion/sunday/kristof-3-enemas-later-still-no-drugs.html" target="_blank">story of law enforcement run amok</a>. The columnist reminds us that bank executives (some of whom are my former employers) have harmed millions through shady and deceptive business practices, without spending a single hour in prison. Meanwhile, single moms, teens, and others who have used marijuana have hurt no-one, yet many—usually the poor—will sacrifice years of their lives incarcerated alongside murderers and rapists.<br />
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There are some encouraging signs. In reference to the tide of states legalizing marijuana, <a href="http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/21/obama-evolves-on-marijuana/" target="_blank">President Obama recently said</a>, "[I]t's important for society not to have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD901JFI8nRJ8-Yr2QLM9Tg5xGxamcrFndNDqVxOFNyt78xup04JEMKNrEvplYKmo4LjTIJHbhjTZMu4jPuXWUUC1MCt0VHQ7ree6NZhJLamNnLapDa1jYmoY_gZkCNLbUg0GXhFfDei4/s1600/American-flag-barbed-wire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD901JFI8nRJ8-Yr2QLM9Tg5xGxamcrFndNDqVxOFNyt78xup04JEMKNrEvplYKmo4LjTIJHbhjTZMu4jPuXWUUC1MCt0VHQ7ree6NZhJLamNnLapDa1jYmoY_gZkCNLbUg0GXhFfDei4/s1600/American-flag-barbed-wire.jpg" height="216" width="320" /></a></div>
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It's a relief to finally hear any American politician—much less the President—finally acknowledge the obvious: that the unnecessary, unjust, and arbitrary war on drugs has left our prisons overcrowded and our socially disadvantaged understandably resentful.<br />
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So far, little has changed. What's worse, arbitrary drug arrests are only a part of a larger and more ominous trend in American jurisprudence. Incarceration rates in the US are f<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/13/incarceration-rate-per-capita_n_3745291.html" target="_blank">ar higher than those of any other nation</a>—including those that routinely imprison political activists or engage in other human rights abuses. Higher than Iran. Higher than China. Higher than Saudi Arabia.<br />
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It's not that we have more violent crime than those countries (although we certainly have more gun crimes). Indeed, as many as half of these inmates have been jailed for non-violent crimes, with <a href="https://www.aclu.org/living-death-sentenced-die-behind-bars-what" target="_blank">over 3,000 non-violent offenders serving a life sentence</a>.<br />
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Absurd and hypocritical drug laws aren't the only problem. Our overflowing prisons are fed by many streams, including lobbying by private-sector prison operators, overreach of the post-9/11 security establishment, and failure of the mental health system to identify and treat seriously ill individuals before they act out.<br />
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Kristof is right when he suggests that selective enforcement is "a matter of profound social inequality", but he is, tragically, just as correct when he points out that "inequality in America has other dimensions" as well. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/social-mobility-is-a-myth-in-the-us-2013-3" target="_blank">Social mobility is stagnant</a>, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-wealth-gap-inequality-grew-20140112,0,7259559.story#axzz2rfbsg0pH" target="_blank">wealth inequality has reached record levels</a>, and voting rights are now routinely abrogated through gerrymandering and voter ID legislation. Taken together, it's clear that American democracy faces its gravest threat since the Civil War.<br />
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Our way of life is novel; a historical aberration. If we abuse or neglect it, democracy, like every form of government before it, will simply disappear, a glimpse of sunlight fondly recalled in the long, dark night that is human history.E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-15538075281383004432013-06-16T22:14:00.001-07:002013-06-16T22:14:30.834-07:00A Father's Day TaleI have long been fascinated by the Biblical story of the binding of Isaac, an event known in Hebrew as the "akeda" (ah' kay DAH). Perhaps my interest was first aroused because I share Isaac's Hebrew name, Yitzchak. But the story is compelling enough that I think I'd have found my way to it in any event.<br />
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Let's review. God grants Abraham a child, Isaac, in his old age. God then assures the new father, repeatedly, that a great nation will issue from Isaac. Until one day, when, without warning, God calls to Abraham and says to him:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Take your son—your favored one, whom you love—Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering.</blockquote>
(Translation adapted from the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hebrew-English-Tanakh-Jewish-Publication-Society/dp/0827606974/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371433563&sr=1-1&keywords=jps+tanakh" target="_blank">JPS Tanakh</a>.) Let's look at two interpretations of this shocking (even by biblical standards) demand. The first is from Rashi, the 11th century French Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzchak whose exegesis is still the first to be studied by any student of Torah or Talmud. The original text recounts no response from Abraham to God, jumping to Abraham's immediate compliance "early the next morning". Rashi, however, relying on Talmudic and Midrashic sources, describes this dialog:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
God: Take your son<br />
Abraham: I have two sons<br />
God: Your favored one<br />
Abraham: Each is the favorite of his mother<br />
God: Whom you love<br />
Abraham: I love them both<br />
God: Isaac.</blockquote>
Rashi goes on to explain that God is breaking the news to Abraham slowly, so as not to shock him. Thoughtful, no?<br />
<br />
A very different dialog is imagined by a commentator of greater fame but perhaps less scholarly repute, Bob Dylan:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Oh, God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"<br />
Abe says, "Man you must be puttin' me on"<br />
God says, "No", Abe say, "What?"<br />
God say, "You can do what you want Abe but<br />
The next time you see me comin' you better run"</blockquote>
Dylan clearly finds the idea that Abraham simply submitted to God's outrageous and immoral demand hard to swallow. He isn't alone. Earlier in the Torah, Abraham is unafraid to challenge God's decision to destroy Sodom, a city filled with strangers; surely he would do at least as much in defense of his own child!<br />
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In the end, of course, Isaac is saved by the voice of an angel who commands Abraham to stay his hand just as it is poised over his bound and vulnerable son. But the fact remains that, as the Torah recounts the story, Abraham was ready and willing to end his son's life there on Mount Moriah. Was Abraham's compliance a show of faith that God would ultimately retract his vicious command, or did Abraham simply subordinate his own sense of morality (not to mention his instincts as a father) to the will of the God he worshipped?<br />
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It is on this point that the fundamentalists part company with the rest of us. No God can command us to behave immorally; indeed, that is the litmus test for any God we might imagine. And yet, even today, God <a href="http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/7232.htm" target="_blank">commands fathers to sacrifice their sons</a>, tragically failing to intercede at the critical moment as He did with Abraham. But the father's hand doesn't just strike down the son; it sweeps away the <a href="http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/04/02/10-years-later-brutal-netanya-seder-terrorist-attack-remembered/" target="_blank">Passover celebrants</a>, the <a href="http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/remembering-the-dolphinarium-disco-terrorist-attack/" target="_blank">teenagers out for a night of dancing</a>, the mothers and fathers working at their desks on a high floor of New York's tallest towers. Because in the fundamentalist doctrine, morality is a purely secular conceit: it is only the will of God that matters.<br />
<br />
Modern Orthodox scholar Rabbi Shlomo Riskin <a href="http://www.ohrtorahstone.org.il/parsha/5768_printer/vayera68_printer.htm" target="_blank">writes</a> of the akeda, "[T]he entire story comes to teach that our G-d of ethical monotheism would never expect a parent to slaughter his son in His name". In other words, maybe Abraham was misled precisely so that we should not be. Whatever our idea of God, even His will cannot trump our duty of moral behavior. History has shown us only too clearly what happens when those priorities are inverted.<br />
<br />E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-81194534963958769362013-03-21T12:58:00.000-07:002013-03-21T15:45:57.184-07:00Two PresidentsTonight, two presidents are sharing dinner in Jerusalem. One, Shimon Peres, is among the last of his breed: the founders of his nation, the lions of Labor Zionism who wrested the Jewish homeland back from the hostile grasp of nature, Arab armies, and a criminally negligent god. The other: Barack Obama, the herald and voice of a new generation, a man who broke the hold of corrupt old white men on the highest office of the greatest nation the world has ever seen. Two presidents, two men who in age, appearance, and biography could hardly be more different, and yet who share an inspiring vision of the Middle East only they seem able to clearly articulate.<br />
<br />
Peres spent much of the 90s articulating his vision of a "New Middle East", one in which Israelis and Arabs would form an economic alliance, creating regional prosperity and hope and engagement for the people living there. Such a partnership could only be realized, of course, in the context of a multilateral agreement bringing peace to Israel and its neighbors. After the failure of Oslo, Peres was roundly derided for this ideal, as though the evil and cynical manipulation of the process by Arafat and his terrorist cohort was somehow enabled by those who had invested their hopes in it. And yet now, as President—a largely ceremonial post—Peres enjoys a degree of popularity that evaded him in his decades in politics.<br />
<br />
In a speech today aimed at the Israeli public—one which could hardly have been delivered to the cynical dogmatists of the Knesset—<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/world/middleeast/transcript-of-obamas-speech-in-israel.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0" target="_blank">President Obama's message</a> recalled his dinner host's New Middle East vision.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So if people want to see the future of the world economy, they should look at Tel Aviv, home to hundreds of start-ups and research centers. Israelis are so active on social media that every day seemed to bring a different Facebook campaign about where I should give this speech.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That innovation is just as important to the relationship between the United States and Israel as our security cooperation. Our first free trade agreement in the world was reached with Israel, nearly three decades ago. Today the trade between our two countries is at $40 billion every year. More importantly, that partnership is creating new products and medical treatments; it’s pushing new frontiers of science and exploration.</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That’s the kind of relationship that Israel should have -- and could have -- with every country in the world. Already we see how that innovation could reshape this region. There’s a program here in Jerusalem that brings together young Israelis and Palestinians to learn vital skills in technology and business. An Israeli and Palestinian have started a venture capital fund to finance Palestinian startups. Over 100 high-tech companies have found a home on the West Bank, which speaks to the talent and entrepreneurial spirit of the Palestinian people.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">You know, one of the great ironies of what’s happening in the broader region is that so much of what people are yearning for -- education, entrepreneurship, the ability to start a business without paying a bribe, the ability to connect to the global economy -- those are things that can be found here, in Israel. This should be a hub for thriving regional trade and an engine for opportunity. Israel’s already a center for innovation that helps power the global economy. And I believe that all of that potential for prosperity can be enhanced with greater security, enhanced with lasting peace.</span></blockquote>
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Thanks to Shimon Peres, this is a message that is already familiar to Israelis, and resonates strongly for those with the imagination to share it. There is a long row to hoe before it can become reality, and some obstacles seem insurmountable. The Palestinians continue to deny history, to educate their children to hate Jews, and to embrace violence as a channel for their frustration. But as these two great leaders persist in reminding us: we cannot allow our anger over the past, however justified, to destroy our future.</div>
<div itemprop="articleBody" style="margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: -webkit-auto;">
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E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-9299381056486060872013-03-17T21:04:00.000-07:002013-03-17T21:04:17.731-07:00Nanny Knows BestWarning! Things that are good for you in small amounts may be bad for you in large amounts!<br />
<br />
Shocked? No? Well, congratulations, you're one step ahead of the media, which has apparently just discovered the "too much of a good thing" phenomenon. Always reaching for titillating new ways to fill air time in between natural disasters and terrorist attacks, news outlets are focusing on prescription drugs, and opiates in particular, as the latest Terrifying Thing That Might Kill You At Any Moment.<br />
<br />
Which is not to say there isn't a problem. Health advocates, such as <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/14/us/14florida.html?_r=0" target="_blank">these officials in Florida</a>, have observed that the number of deaths due to prescription drug overdose far exceeds that of deaths due to illegal drugs such as cocaine and heroin (or, of course, marijuana, which has resulted in exactly zero overdose deaths). In 2009, <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/17/local/la-me-drugs-epidemic-20110918" target="_blank">approximately 38,000 people nationwide died</a> as a result of drug overdoses. If Florida's figures are consistent with national trends, we can assume that about 28,000 of those deaths were due to prescription drugs.<br />
<br />
28,000 deaths; 28,000 tragedies. Every year. So yes, there's a problem. But as we search for solutions, let's not overlook another important number: 100,000,000. <a href="http://www.painmed.org/PatientCenter/Facts_on_Pain.aspx" target="_blank">One hundred million is the number of Americans suffering from chronic pain</a>, for which prescription drugs are the most effective legal path for relief. Put another way: every day, one in three of your fellow citizens goes to work, plays with grandchildren, runs errands—in other words, lives his life—while in pain. For every terrible, wasteful death associated with prescription medications, there are thousands of individuals whose lives would be shattered without them.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, chronic pain is <i>so</i> dog-bites-man. Boring. CNN isn't going to get all hot and bothered about some guy who <i>doesn't</i> lose his home because pain meds enabled him to work—not when they have <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/26/celebrity-overdoses-deaths-prescription-drugs_n_1831731.html" target="_blank">dead celebrities</a>, real ad-inventory movers like Whitney Houston, Heath Ledger, Brittany Murphy, Anna Nicole Smith, or Michael Jackson.<br />
<br />
Now <i>that's</i> a story!<br />
<br />
But, hey, don't take the talking heads' word for it. Bring on the journo-docs! Under the hot lights, even generally responsible types, like CNN's Sanjay Gupta, tend to over-focus on the risks at the expense of the context. The point out that, for example, the FDA believes we're in the midst of "<a href="http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/InformationbyDrugClass/ucm330614.htm" target="_blank">an opioid epidemic</a>". But when the context is tens of millions of people suffering chronic pain or other symptoms relieved by prescription drugs, context matters. Because, if you take these arguments to their ad absurdum conclusions, the only "logical" choice is to prohibit or severely restrict access to the meds that provide relief for all those millions of everyday people.<br />
<br />
Think nobody is calling for that? Think again. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, fresh off his victory against the corporate titans of Big Cola, is now taking on New York's addiction problem by <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/11/ny-mayor-bloomberg-limit-pain-medication-hospitals/" target="_blank">moving to limit the supply of pain medications</a> in city hospitals. (This effort, and <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_22406700" target="_blank">another in Colorado</a>, are focused on emergency room care specifically, which seems <i>prima facie</i> reasonable, until one considers the huge number of patients still receiving their primary care in ERs.)<br />
<br />
Of course, once they're on a roll, it's hard to slow the journo-docs and the politinannies down. After all, other drugs can also be dangerous, right? Gotta make sure people can't get their hands on them. Recently, my daughter had a nasty sinus headache. Due to the late hour, I had to drive all over the county to find an open pharmacy that would sell me the decongestant pseudoephedrine (which is also a key ingredient in one recipe for methamphetamine), thanks to regulations that inconvenience patients a lot more than they trouble drug dealers. (Did I mention that there are other recipes for meth that don't require pseudoephedrine at all?)<br />
<br />
Eventually, the medical chicken littles inevitably begin to bump into one another. In a recent piece in the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, columnist <a href="http://www.jewishjournal.com/nicejewishdoctor/item/benzonatate_a_cough_suppressant_so_dangerous_youd_rather_just_cough_2011020" target="_blank">Dr. Albert Fuchs wrote</a> of the dangers of the common, effective cough suppressant, Tessalon.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Coughing can be very disruptive to work and to sleep, and patients can be desperate for relief. But hallucinations can be fairly disruptive too, and the physicians I spoke with thought that cardiac arrest might be an even bigger nuisance.</blockquote>
Wow: take a little yellow pill, have a heart attack. Scary stuff. Except that none of the sources he cites actually warn of any such risk <i>in adult patients taking the appropriate dosage.</i> Dr. Fuchs goes on to quote <a href="http://secure.medicalletter.org/w1357a" target="_blank">one such source</a> (out of context) suggesting that codeine might be preferable to Tessalon (again, the original context is children, whereas Dr. Fuchs is specifically referring to adults).<br />
<br />
Hey—wait a minute. I thought the problem was opiates. Codeine is an opiate, right? You bet it is. You see, once you take away one type of medication because it's dangerous, you have to offer another to treat the symptoms for which the original drug was prescribed. And then... uh oh! That one's dangerous too; maybe the old drug was better. Apparently, in pharmacology, as in life, the grass is always greener on the other side of the regulatory fence.<br />
<br />
The vast majority of addicts did not get that way following their doctor's advice or carefully reading labels. Unlike those with chronic pain, or persistent cough, those addicts are suffering (at least to some extent) as a result of their own choices. Prescribing meds, taking them, or giving them to your children are fraught activities deserving of respect. Extra caution should always be exercised when giving drugs to children, and both children and adults should always be concerned about proper dosage and interactions.<br />
<br />
But the solution isn't to limit access to drugs that are effective and safe when used properly. Instead, let us demand that pharmaceutical firms label appropriately, and doctors counsel wisely, avoiding hyperbole and fads, so that we may permit adults the dignity of making informed choices about their own care.<br />
<br />E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-80846732298965259442012-12-25T16:01:00.000-08:002012-12-25T16:01:10.342-08:00Two Sizes Too SmallWhen I was a kid, my dad, a physician, was always on call on Christmas. Being Jewish, he would trade Christmas for Yom Kippur or some other day that his non-Jewish colleagues didn't mind working.<br />
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In those days, most everything was closed on Christmas, except movie theaters and Chinese restaurants—traditional Jewish Christmas Day haunts. Recently, however, there's been a much-publicized trend towards keeping some stores open on the holidays: last month, for example, some <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/12/target-black-friday-sale-start-thanksgiving_n_2116215.html?utm_hp_ref=money" target="_blank">large retailers opened earlier on Thanksgiving</a> than in any previous year. A <a href="http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/49914779#49914779" target="_blank">small employee revolt ensued</a>, but retailers reasonably pointed out that their customers demanded early access to Black Friday sales.<br />
<br />
The battle hasn't ended at Thanksgiving. In an effort to bolster end-of-year sales, <a href="http://adage.com/article/news/mcdonald-s-pushes-franchisees-stay-open-christmas/238797/" target="_blank">McDonald's has urged its franchisees</a> to keep their restaurants open on Christmas. (For their part, the franchisees complain that the kids who tend to make up their workforce don't much mind missing Thanksgiving with the family but are unwilling to skip out on Christmas.) And McDonald's is <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-mcdonalds-dennys-starbucks-christmas-restaurants-20121224,0,2392022.story" target="_blank">hardly the only restaurant chain remaining open</a> on Christmas.<br />
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By and large, the folks serve your food and run your credit card are hourly, non-exempt employees. They are at the bottom of the corporate food chain, and they have little say over which hours and days they are required to work. What's more, in California, at least, employers are not required to pay their employees extra for working on a holiday. Decide to spend Christmas Day with your family, and you may spend New Year's looking for another job.<br />
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How then do we balance the demands of consumers and employees? Surely a business owner should be able to decide if it makes commercial sense to remain open on major holidays. And, of course, a lot of people, not just hourly retail employees, have to work on the days the rest of us are spending with family: municipal workers, physicians, caterers, and so forth. There's no fundamental right to skip work on December 25th—if there were, my dad wouldn't have had any opportunity to switch on-call days.<br />
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I propose we let consumers decide. It is consumers that have driven holiday openings in the first place, but we're talking about a relatively small number of opportunistic buyers. Let's give the larger American shopping public a say, by providing them with the maximum amount of information about how each vendor treats its workers. Just as restaurant chains (in California, at least) have to post nutritional information at the point of purchase, let's require retail chains to publish their employment practices in summary form.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZC_csd4v-KWaFtrKv1oEoyjspVZumBfQevdQKWrnrRfUp3oOsZ-pkkWovPYZf7bTjfKr_mJhn5ZJn8CIEHu8pHx_Z5QrOrKDi1Jgwhv0Cjpq-nhQdNNlAhlq4VlQ-tYV9kZNNk05KdVg/s1600/erpractices.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZC_csd4v-KWaFtrKv1oEoyjspVZumBfQevdQKWrnrRfUp3oOsZ-pkkWovPYZf7bTjfKr_mJhn5ZJn8CIEHu8pHx_Z5QrOrKDi1Jgwhv0Cjpq-nhQdNNlAhlq4VlQ-tYV9kZNNk05KdVg/s320/erpractices.PNG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What an employment practices disclosure might look like</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Why? Because right now we're only hearing from that small segment of shoppers who cannot wait until the day after a holiday to hit the mall. Making employment practices available at the point of purchase offers the rest of us a chance to vote with our wallets all year around. All else being equal, I'd choose a vendor that treats its employees well over one that does not—wouldn't you? As things stand, such employers have no way to benefit directly from their generosity. By giving us the opportunity to recognize them for their good behavior, we can offer employee-friendly retailers a way to stand out from the competition. <br />
<br />
Early studies on the publication of nutrition data at the point of purchase suggest that <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20656098" target="_blank">additional information influences consumer behavior</a>. If such changes in behavior do indeed reward generous employers, we will have taken the first steps towards creating a virtuous cycle in which competition among store owners leads to a general improvement in employment practices over time. That's a change for which we could all be thankful.<br />
<div>
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E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-64312746715286861932012-12-02T14:26:00.002-08:002012-12-02T14:26:36.951-08:00Das neue jüdische GhettoMuch has been made of the lack of European support for Israel in <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-un-vote-palestinians-20121129,0,7457356.story" target="_blank">the recent UN vote</a> granting observer status to the Palestinian Authority. In reality, though, the UN decision is utterly uninteresting, handing the Palestinians a symbolic trophy that was theirs for the asking at any time over the past several decades.<br />
<br />
Equally unsurprising, but certainly more disturbing, is the European reaction to Israel's measured response to the Palestinian move. Israel recently approved plans to <a href="http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=294224" target="_blank">build about 3000 housing units</a> in the area connecting the capital with the upscale bedroom community of Ma'aleh Adumim. The planned construction site, quaintly <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E1_(Jerusalem)" target="_blank">dubbed “E1”</a> by diplomats and bureaucrats, comprises less than 5 square miles. That's equal to about 10% of the size of Florida's Disneyworld, or around 50% larger than the San Diego Zoo.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixDmDg0GGM7YzDeNBJ7UxtxSl16HPovKje9IobbfxpALm2JTlI3w85Uh8WTLEDZmQ-bfX0ZeKuWIxcmEjbT1f5gedl9m1enQfsgmqmqtBJhXdbpdgFcj9KusQh21Zf6mP2DVx3cijBVRc/s1600/tattered+EU+flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixDmDg0GGM7YzDeNBJ7UxtxSl16HPovKje9IobbfxpALm2JTlI3w85Uh8WTLEDZmQ-bfX0ZeKuWIxcmEjbT1f5gedl9m1enQfsgmqmqtBJhXdbpdgFcj9KusQh21Zf6mP2DVx3cijBVRc/s320/tattered+EU+flag.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>(iStockphoto)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Ma'aleh Adumim will become part of Israel in any negotiated solution; of this, there is no doubt. The status of Jerusalem itself, of course, is a matter of intense debate, but there is no possibility of turning Ma'aleh Adumim into an island in the middle of a future Palestinian state—a corridor connecting the suburb to French Hill, Pisgat Za'ev and the rest of Jewish Jerusalem is a given.<br />
<br />
And yet, rather than acknowledging the relatively bland way in which Israel has responded to the Palestinian's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_%E2%80%93_Palestine_Liberation_Organization_letters_of_recognition" target="_blank">abrogation of their previously undertaken obligations</a>, Europe has <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4314016,00.html" target="_blank">reacted with dismay</a>. This false outrage aligns seamlessly with the continuum of appeasement and anti-Semitism that has characterized continental politics since time immemorial. But never has the hypocrisy of European diplomacy been more exposed than in the events of this week.<br />
<br />
The UN initiative was a unilateral Palestinian maneuver to avoid sitting at the negotiating table with Israel. And yet, with the shining exception of the Czech Republic, no European nation supported Israel in the the vote on the floor. This, in spite of Europe's routine criticism of any Israeli action they view as unilateral; in spite of Europe's repeated support for negotiation as the path to peace in the Middle East; in spite of Europe's enthusiastic endorsement of the Oslo process, stabbed to death on the floor of the General Assembly with a knife bearing Europe's bloody fingerprints.<br />
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I am opposed to expansion of the settlements, and I favor a two-state solution. But we must never confuse pragmatism and morality. Jews are entitled to live anywhere in the world they desire, including the areas that will form the future Palestinian state—and certainly in areas that will not. Europe's insistence, only 67 years after the liberation of the camps and the ghettos, that Jews remain on their designated side of the wall is a dark reminder of why Israel remains the best assurance of Jewish survival in a dangerous and cynical world.<br />
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<br />E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-3393178608175140112012-08-12T18:34:00.001-07:002012-08-12T18:34:30.241-07:00God and CountryI believe that to really understand our country you have to look at the contradictions it embodies.<br />
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In America, the most popular, and arguably most athletic sport in the world is regarded as boring, while the slowest-moving competition since chess is so broadly cherished it's called “the national pastime”. Americans respond with outrage to the killing of whales, and yet only <a href="http://www.capitalpunishmentincontext.org/issues/juveniles" target="_blank">recently halted executions</a> of juveniles and the mentally disabled. America is a place where love and marriage are still idealized—unless the lovers are of the same gender; a place where “freedom” and “justice” are considered universally shared values, and yet <a href="http://blog.norml.org/2011/09/19/marijuana-arrests-driving-americas-so-called-drug-war-latest-fbi-data-shows/" target="_blank">each year nearly one million citizens are jailed for marijuana-related offenses</a>.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA16052.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA16052.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mars: no sign of Jesus so far.<br />
<i>Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
And, yes, America is simultaneously the world leader in science and technology and one of the <a href="http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/faith/2009/12/united_states_is_most_religiou.html" target="_blank">most religious nations on Earth</a>. We're like adults who still believe in Santa Claus: we ought to know better, but we can't let go of the fairy tales that made us feel good as children. While no harder to understand, perhaps, than the soccer/baseball paradox, the tension between Americans' religious beliefs and their devotion to technology is much more significant, a symbol of our immaturity.<br />
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Does that matter? Well, Santa is only an issue for the guy who's disappointed by the lack of gifts on Christmas morning. But American religion goes well beyond the requirements it lays on the believer. American Christianity, as embodied by the religious right, demands the fealty of its followers, the conversion of its skeptics, and the defeat of its opponents. It insinuates its mythical God—Our Father, Allah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—into all of our lives through the political process.<br />
<br />
The resulting situation not only represents a defeat of reason; it is also a failure of democracy. In fact, it's the same failure we are seeing today in Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood has, <a href="http://blog.writerofwrongs.net/2011/02/birthing-democracy.html" target="_blank">utterly predictably</a>, taken control in the wake of that country's “democratic” revolution. As the twentieth President of the United States, James Garfield, <a href="http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/president/detail.aspx?id=20" target="_blank">observed</a>, “the people are responsible for the character of their [government]. If [it] be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption.”<br />
<br />
No doubt. I'll touch on “recklessness and corruption” in a later post, but what happens to a democracy when “the people tolerate ignorance”? What if they indeed <i>demand</i> ignorance, as is now the case, as we litmus-test each candidate according to their belief in a supernatural being who responds to prayer and interferes in the natural course of events? What happens then?<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/portraits/ride-s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/portraits/ride-s.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sally Ride: American Hero. Lesbian.<br /><i>Courtesy NASA.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
What happens then, I'd argue, is what we're now experiencing: a country teetering between twenty-first century leadership and medieval oppression, between groundbreaking science and heartbreaking injustice. A country in which an inspiring leader like Sally Ride has to spend her life hiding her love for her partner of 27 years, who is herself in turn denied Dr. Ride's death benefits due to an archaic and religiously-mandated definition of marriage.<br />
<br />
I know what you're thinking: American history has been a steady march towards liberalism. In just over two centuries we moved from institutionalized slavery of African-Americans to electing one as president; from the total subordination of women to their emergence as a powerful bloc represented by successful leaders in business, academia, and politics. And you're right. But while this long view of history certainly leaves me with hope, it is a hope tinged with the impatience of mortality.<br />
<br />E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-45968459070370608722012-05-27T15:37:00.000-07:002012-05-27T18:35:22.623-07:00Lost<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>[W]hat sort of dejection is this, that leaves one the strength to write, and write, and write? If you can write about the wreckage the wreckage is not complete. You are intact. Here is a rule: the despairing writer is never the most despairing person in the world.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
—Leon Wieseltier </blockquote>
The story of other people's ennui is rarely uplifting or particularly interesting, so I'm going to try to keep this short. Still, I do have to say something, finally.<br />
<br />
I'm in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. I've been wandering there, more or less aimlessly, since losing <a href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000559618194" target="_blank">my brother</a> last fall. I'm looking for a way out—which is an improvement—but I'm not there yet. My next turn may reveal an exit, or may lead me down yet another wretched, darkened corridor. <br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqMa5Ltm9Z5u7dt1FxecOuv0D_kaVjL2Imy-dqu1PJI4H4VAq75kmwMh7exMSddn3SBjgCOWGKRkhabp4lssEsHhVTdGhf1P48skyLZ8xAnTLsxlM-AGoKlmuwMchOg5E8aemM36KuJZo/s1600/headmaze.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqMa5Ltm9Z5u7dt1FxecOuv0D_kaVjL2Imy-dqu1PJI4H4VAq75kmwMh7exMSddn3SBjgCOWGKRkhabp4lssEsHhVTdGhf1P48skyLZ8xAnTLsxlM-AGoKlmuwMchOg5E8aemM36KuJZo/s200/headmaze.png" width="141" /></a>Meanwhile, the rest of the world stubbornly continues to exist. I once had a traffic school instructor, an off-duty cop, tell me that for lost drivers the rules of the road simply cease to be relevant. They'll stop suddenly, cut you off, run stop lights, always with the same excuse: I didn't mean to, officer, but you see, I'm lost.<br />
<br />
As if that matters to the guy pinned under your rear tire.<br />
<br />
Depression, like so many other psychopathologies, is relentlessly, insufferably selfish. So for the unanswered email, the un-RSVP'd invitations, the missed appointments, the unreturned messages—both past and future: I'm sorry. For the short temper, the disinterested responses, the refusals to participate: I'm sorry. Above all, though, for failing to make the most of my life these past several months, even in the wake of such a cruel lesson in life's fragility, I'm truly and deeply sorry.<br />
<br />
I didn't plan it that way. But you see, I'm lost.<br />
<br />E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-75915037299553641362011-10-16T01:23:00.000-07:002011-10-16T08:43:44.055-07:00Prosecutorial IndiscretionOn February 8, 2010, Israel's ambassador to the US, <a href="http://www.israelemb.org/index.php/en/meet-the-ambassador">Michael Oren</a>, rose to speak before a crowd of students and local residents gathered at the <a href="http://www.uci.edu/">University of California, Irvine</a>. But not everybody in attendance was there to hear what he had to say.<br />
<br />
As is well known by now, a group of students from UCI's Muslim Student Union (along with some of their peers from UC Riverside) stood up one at a time to <a href="http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/02/09/1010535/oren-heckled-by-arab-students-in-la">shout down</a> Ambassador Oren, in accordance with a plan the group had prepared in advance. They were successful: Oren was unable to continue with his remarks until the last of the eleven "activists" had been led from the hall in handcuffs.<br />
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<a href="http://www.ocrcfl.org/images/logos/OrangeCounty_DA_logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.ocrcfl.org/images/logos/OrangeCounty_DA_logo.png" /></a></div>
<br />
The University, having long remained silent despite numerous instances of hostile behavior on the part of the MSU, finally took action. The administration <a href="http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/06/14/2739604/uc-irvine-suspends-student-muslim-group">banned the MSU from campus</a> for one year (<a an="" couldn\'t="" find="" for="" have="" href="javascript:alert('Sorry--I couldn\'t find a reference for this. You\'ll just have to trust my memory I guess.');" memory.');'="" my="" sorry,="" source="" this.="" to="" trust="" you\'ll="">later shortening</a> the already minimal suspension to a single academic quarter). Faced with overwhelming outrage from the Jewish community, Orange County <a href="http://orangecountyda.com/home/index.asp?page=384">DA Tony Rackauckas</a> filed charges against the eleven participants for "disrupting a public meeting" and for conspiring to do so. The students (save one who had earlier agreed to a plea bargain) were <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/24/local/la-me-irvine-eleven-20110924">recently convicted and sentenced</a> to 56 hours of community service, probation, and a token fine.<br />
<br />
Victory? Maybe. But I tend to agree with noted Constitutional scholar and dean of UCI's law school <a href="http://law.uci.edu/faculty/page1_e_chemerinsky.html">Erwin Chemerinsky</a>, who <a href="http://articles.ocregister.com/2011-09-26/news/30209659_1_uci-students-disruptive-students-israeli-ambassador-michael-oren">wrote</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
Unless there is harm to persons or property–or a serious threat of this–district attorneys are almost always content to leave discipline to school authorities. This is exactly what Rackauckas should have done. No one was hurt, and no property was damaged. After the disruptive students were escorted away, Ambassador Oren finished his speech. The students acted wrongly, and they were punished by the campus; there was no need for anything more.</blockquote>
<div>
Dr. Chemerinsky goes on to conclude that the DA "failed... to do justice". Here we part ways: there is no question that justice was done. The students broke the law and were arrested, tried by a jury, and properly convicted. But in his main argument, that Rackauckas should have exercised his discretion to avoid filing charges in the first place, Chemerinsky is correct.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The dean's primary interest may be the intrusion of law enforcement into internal University matters. But I'm more concerned with the megaphone that the prosecution has put into the hands of MSU and their supporters. Thanks to the trial, the self-described "Irvine 11" have become the darlings of the far left, anti-Israel, pro-Hamas mobs. Coverage of the trial and verdict has gone global, from the <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?ID=241870&R=R1&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter">Jerusalem Post</a> to the <a href="http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/irvine-11/">New York Times</a> to <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/09/201192493240548858.html">al Jazeera</a>. Most of this coverage inclines favorably towards the students, who have engaged in a relentless publicity campaign, making hay while the sun shines.<br />
<br />
It's hard to blame those who view the "Irvine 11" sympathetically. Yes, the kids are bullies, and anti-Semitic bullies at that. But my own kids will be in college very soon, and it seems to me that if they were to get arrested and tried for shouting at a lecture, I would be outraged. It would matter little what agenda they were promoting—such questions would be eclipsed by the seemingly greater injustice of the prosecutors' abuse of discretion. It shouldn't surprise us then when the MSU kids' families and community respond in the same way.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.uci.edu/graphic_identity/images/downloads/uci_seal_289.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.uci.edu/graphic_identity/images/downloads/uci_seal_289.jpg" width="199" /></a>This didn't have to happen. Without a trial, there are no op-eds in national and international journals, no speaking engagements before crowded mosques, no fundraising letters hinting darkly at the justice-perverting power of "the Israel lobby". Without a trial, there are no new martyrs inspiring the enemies of Israel and America. Without a trial, the event is local, the consequences local, and the media coverage local.<br />
<br />
We have only ourselves to blame. The Orange County Jewish community, in its appropriate but overwrought outrage at the MSU's frequent thuggish behavior, has played right into the hands of our opponents. In exchange for the dim comfort offered by the convictions, we have handed our enemies two invaluable assets: a cause célèbre and a set of attractive young icons. If this is victory, it is a Pyrrhic one at best.<br />
<br />
When will we learn? Some anti-Israel or anti-Semitic incidents, galling though they may be, simply do not merit a sustained, pugnacious response. Nuance, too, has its place. Discretion has its place. And, frankly, simple good judgment has its place as well.<br />
<br />
There are times when a quiet conversation will accomplish far more than a public prosecution. Irritating and offensive though it was, the UCI incident was one of those occasions.<br />
<br /></div>E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-58145042884445159422011-09-18T22:14:00.000-07:002011-09-18T22:14:20.500-07:00For RandallI've been told that each time its web is destroyed, the spider rebuilds it with less precision, less symmetry. Eventually the web barely resembles its original design.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ38yUfLFxA_Gjj8rzJa5R2DlAzc8ZR7WFTXgv-R5a0n3yjr_CR4wG8rPTvTVKO3WpqaCm6aaBjD8cKekzAw98FNqjqDa7ahTLY0V5hG6uk4i84dHnHiwX9ez80gw1pZjIlmaihHzZb1g/s1600/Randy+iso+at+wedding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ38yUfLFxA_Gjj8rzJa5R2DlAzc8ZR7WFTXgv-R5a0n3yjr_CR4wG8rPTvTVKO3WpqaCm6aaBjD8cKekzAw98FNqjqDa7ahTLY0V5hG6uk4i84dHnHiwX9ez80gw1pZjIlmaihHzZb1g/s320/Randy+iso+at+wedding.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Randall Menter (ז"ל ( 1964-2011</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
My world was recently shattered by the sudden and unexpected death of my brother on his 47th birthday. Losing Randall only two weeks before the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks was especially cruel, as <a href="http://blog.writerofwrongs.net/2011/05/sept-11-2001.html">that event has special meaning</a> for the two of us. I'd looked forward—no, that's not exactly right—I'd planned to spend some time with him on the anniversary, perhaps buying him a drink or two to thank him for what he had done for me a decade earlier.<br />
<br />
Instead, I spent that day mourning him, mourning the memory of the attacks, mourning the contentment and balance my brother had helped create in my life.<br />
<br />
I was unprepared for the devastation of this event, and its consequences for the rest of my family. And so, as has been the habit among Jews for thousands of years, I sought solace and guidance in the experiences of generations past.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonides">Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon</a> (1135-1204 CE), known generally as Maimonides or the Rambam, lived, worked and taught in Egypt. His family had been chased out of Spain by Moslem conquerers, and he briefly lived in Morocco and Israel before settling in the great medieval Egyptian port of Alexandria. A rabbi, community leader, and writer, the Rambam is today considered to have been one of the greatest exegetes and philosophers in all of Jewish history.<br />
<br />
The Rambam was able to dedicate himself to his studies and writings thanks to the financial support of his younger brother David, a businessman. In that period, Jews enjoyed a considerable advantage as international merchants, as they could travel almost anywhere and find Jewish trading partners who spoke the same language and held the same traditions. It was also not unusual for one family member to support another who spent his days studying Torah (though, as a side note, it would have been rare to find somebody studying full time at the expense of the greater community, an all-too common phenomenon in the Israeli and even US Orthodox communities of today).<br />
<br />
Tragically, when the Rambam was in his 40s—secure in his lifestyle and comfortable in the love and support of his brother—David was lost at sea. Moshe was bereft, inconsolable. Years afterward, he wrote to a friend:<br />
<blockquote>
The greatest misfortune that has befallen me during my entire life—worse than anything else—was the demise of [David,] the saint, may his memory be blessed, who drowned in the Indian sea, carrying much money belonging to me, him, and to others, and left with me a little daughter and a widow. On the day I received that terrible news I fell ill and remained in bed for about a year, suffering from a sore boil, fever, and depression, and was almost given up. About eight years have passed, but I am still mourning and unable to accept consolation. And how should I console myself? He grew up on my knees, he was my brother, [and] he was my student.</blockquote>
And yet, by the time the Rambam wrote these words, he had made significant changes to his life, changes whose effects would be felt throughout the world and across history. <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Rambam-portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Rambam-portrait.jpg" width="320" /></a>For, inasmuch as David's sudden death left Moshe in need of financial support, he took advantage of the medical training he had undergone earlier and became a practicing doctor. Due to his brilliance, and his incredibly hard work, the Rambam eventually rose to the position of personal physician to the Egyptian sultan and royal family. Nearly as prolific in his medical writings as in his philosophical and religious works, the Rambam influenced the philosophy and practice of medicine for centuries after his death, and is still widely studied and quoted today.<br />
<div>
<br />
I find Rambam's experience relevant and comforting, and beyond that, instructive. I have taken to heart some important lessons from the Rambam's response to his tragedy:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><b>It is permitted to mourn</b>. This may seem obvious to a 21st century American reader, but it has not been true of all times and all cultures. Even in our society we talk of "celebrating a life", but when that life has been cut short, it seems to me to be more appropriate to mourn what has been lost than it is to "celebrate" the incomplete story, the unfulfilled potential.</li>
<li><b>One should let their mourning run its natural course</b>. If even as great a figure as the Rambam spent a year in bed mourning the loss of his brother, who am I to think I might recover more quickly?</li>
<li><b>One may mourn not only the loss of a loved one, but the loss of a familiar and comforting lifestyle as well</b>. David left enormous burdens for his brother to confront, including a wife and child, and business debts. Moshe's life was clearly going to become much harder in every way imaginable, at an age when he had long since settled into a comfortable routine. The Rambam found himself straining to accept and bear this additional load even as he mourned the loss of his brother whom he had loved so much.</li>
</ul>
<div>
The death of his brother signaled the irreversible loss of the Rambam's cherished way of life. The same is true for me and other members of my family. So the most important thing I have learned from the experience of the Rambam is this: if we give ourselves both the permission and the time to mourn, we can try to construct meaningful new lives even as we grieve for the loss of the old.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Like the spider's web, my rebuilt life will not be quite as perfect as its earlier incarnation. But while my younger brother's life has been cruelly and prematurely taken, my family and I remain, our previous responsibilities intact, our additional new burdens weighing heavily on us. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=257653617614845">I miss my brother; I will miss him every day</a> of my life, a life I hope will honor him through accomplishments and good works inspired by his memory.<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-50384735111266453942011-08-21T10:00:00.000-07:002011-08-21T10:00:40.958-07:00Looks Like RainYou're at work. Today is Sunday, a normal work day here in Israel. But this is no normal Sunday.<br />
<br />
Every hour, people in their cars, on the street, and at home stop what they are doing and listen intently to the radio. They're listening for news of the expanding conflict in Gaza, and for warnings of new terror attacks in Beer Sheva, Ashkelon, even Jerusalem. But mostly, they're listening for names, code words really, each individual waiting for the specific words that mean them, their unit.<br />
<br />
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</tbody></table>In some places, it's not the voice on the radio that carries the message. Your phone rings; the conversation is brief. Set your job aside. Take that uniform out of the closet, see if you can still get it on without popping any buttons. Kiss your children, promise them you'll be back soon. Embrace your wife, making the same promise—but she knows the subtext, <i>b'mirtza Hashem—</i>an unspoken acknowledgment that fate will also play a role.<br />
<br />
In the army as a kid you were in electronic communications, something fancy. But that's a regular army billet. As a reservist, you'll be assigned the type of duty that doesn't require year-around training. Maybe you'll dig a trench around a base, or stand guard by a gate. That wouldn't be too bad—relatively safe. Or maybe they'll decide that "electronic communications" means you are just the guy to carry a radio through the mean streets of Gaza while soldiers half your age go door-to-door to search for terrorists. Some of those doors explode, having been booby-trapped by an enemy who wants to kill you so badly that he doesn't care if he's also murdering his own civilians living in that house.<br />
<br />
You tramp a ride on a southbound Jeep to meet up with your unit. <i>Shit</i>, you realize, <i>I forgot to tell Rivka to deposit that check to cover the rent.</i> There's too much to think about; there's nothing to think about. The Jeep never seems to miss a bump or pothole. Time goes slowly, but you're not in a hurry. You remember a song, a classic really, by Arik Einstein:<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><i></i></span><br />
<blockquote><i>.ואני חושב עוד מעט זה עזה, ורק שלא יעוף איזה רימון, ונלך לעזאזל. סע לאט. סע לאט<br />
And I think just a bit longer until Gaza... I just hope there's no grenade flying our way to send us all to hell. Go slow; go slow.</i></blockquote><br />
The driver is in his 30s, religious but not not the kind who get their kids exemptions from the army. He's got four at home, ages 2 to 10. He shrugs when you ask him how his wife is going to take care of the whole brood while he's on active duty: <i>savta,</i> he smiles. Grandma. Neither of you know any of the people killed in the recent terror attack, but then again, they were just like everybody you do know: the sisters headed down to Eilat for a relaxing weekend. The 22-year-old kid shot as he arrived at the scene to help rescue the survivors of the initial attack. <br />
<br />
The world, which could not bring itself to denounce calculated attacks on women and children in Eilat, will certainly have something to say about your arrival at Gaza. Dozens of rockets rain down on the Negev—your nephew's high school gym took a direct hit, though it was, <i>baruch Hashem</i>, empty at the time. Mostly they fall into open fields, because nobody's aiming: if they hit a stalk of wheat or a room full of kindergartners, it's all the same to Hamas.<br />
<br />
You suddenly comprehend a strange lyric from the same song, one you had never really understood before:<br />
<blockquote><i>צבי אומר שגשמים כאלה מזיקים לחקלאות<br />
Tzvi says that rain like this ruins the crops</i></blockquote>A land flowing with milk and honey. And steel rain. You wonder if you restocked the bomb shelter after the last time. You wonder if Rivka will remember the parent-teacher conference tomorrow.<br />
<br />
Here's the base. Finally. You thank the driver, hop down from the Jeep, and glance up at the sky. Looks like rain.<br />
<br />
E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-75421238761193690602011-07-31T19:42:00.000-07:002011-07-31T19:42:52.768-07:00Barbarians at the GateIf you heard about the legislative efforts in Oklahoma, Tennessee and elsewhere to <a href="http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/06/tennessee-bill-would-make-it-a-crime-to-practice-sharia-law/">ban Islamic sharia law</a>, you may have asked yourself, as I did: <i>What. The. Fuck.</i> Are they seriously concerned that sharia law is somehow threatening to engulf the American heartland? Did al Qaeda land some seats in the Tennessee state legislature? Have the Taliban opened a campaign office in Oklahoma? Whence, precisely, arises this imminent danger?<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_OTMevJ5M5jVRvyVyo2mr5XRLv-1GQUydyiiQX7B7bQCkloEnXrFWpAA2bIdHg-IepU6MSZ_q-tlSKstkVA0iR_EPVFQM1FjjHmAqT7YpMBeobqvVFitQ8AiSDv6QkXV-ODDcAvVppd8/s1600/barbarians.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_OTMevJ5M5jVRvyVyo2mr5XRLv-1GQUydyiiQX7B7bQCkloEnXrFWpAA2bIdHg-IepU6MSZ_q-tlSKstkVA0iR_EPVFQM1FjjHmAqT7YpMBeobqvVFitQ8AiSDv6QkXV-ODDcAvVppd8/s320/barbarians.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Tracing the history and personalities of this phenomenon, today's New York Times piece, "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/us/31shariah.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&adxnnl=1&seid=auto&smid=tw-nytimes&adxnnlx=1312095650-z4EnUmSxsj%203l4huGzfhKg">The Man Behind the Shariah Movement</a>", paints a troubling picture of anti-sharia hysteria in the US. The author, investigative reporter Andrea Elliott, "has reported extensively on Islam in a post-9/11 America", <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/e/andrea_elliott/index.html?inline=nyt-per">according to the Times</a>.<br />
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Elliott tracks the anti-sharia scare to the offices of one man, Brooklyn attorney and Chabad <a href="http://www.chabadgn.com/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/1568930/jewish/Crown-Heights-Great-Neck-Lawyer-Behind-States-Anti-Sharia-Laws.htm">Lubavitcher</a> David Yerushalmi. In 2006, Yerushalmi founded the Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE), dedicated to fighting a "<a href="http://righttruth.typepad.com/right_truth/2007/01/the_sane_war_ma.html">war against Islam and all Muslim faithful</a>". SANE's platform is anti-sharia, anti-immigration, and anti-Muslim, even proposing that promoting sharia law (perhaps by selling halal meat, for example? It's hard to say) should become a "<a href="http://www.adl.org/main_Interfaith/david_yerushalmi.htm">felony punishable by 20 years in prison</a>".<br />
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Common sense suggests a reasonable level of concern with the rise of Islamism around the world and its propensity for oppression, violence, and fanaticism. Furthermore, it's important to recognize the problem of mainstream Muslims in the US who preach co-existence and tolerance, yet offer political, moral, and financial support to terrorists overseas. (More on them in a moment.) But Yerushalmi and his ironically named organization have crossed the bright line from thoughtful awareness into paranoia and racism.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.adl.org/main_Interfaith/david_yerushalmi.htm">According to the ADL</a>, Yerushalmi has written that "most of the fundamental differences between the races [are] genetic," and that African-Americans in particular are a "relatively murderous race killing itself". Unsurprisingly, he has also suggested that liberal Jews, such as your humble blogger, are "anti-American". Even more shocking, for an organization founded by a Jew, is SANE's recommendation that undocumented immigrants be detained in "special criminal camps" for three years before deportation.<br />
<br />
So we've learned that Yerushalmi is a bad guy, and that SANE is anything but. But that doesn't mean we should close our eyes to the kernel of truth hidden within their giant pile of manure.<br />
<br />
Early in the 2800-word article, for instance, the author refers to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The unstated irony is that what Yerushalmi would have us believe is true of virtually all American Muslims may in fact be true of CAIR. Painting itself as a civil rights defender, CAIR stands accused of working for the benefit of Middle Eastern terrorist organizations. For example, according to the century-old human relations organization, the <a href="http://www.ajc.org/">American Jewish Committee</a> (AJC), CAIR "<a href="http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=849241&ct=4290407">undermines efforts</a> by federal law enforcement authorities to stem the flow of funds from this country to terrorist organizations".<br />
<br />
(By the way, kudos to Elliott for her description of CAIR as a "Muslim advocacy group", disregarding the phrase "civil rights organization" <a href="http://www.cair.com/AboutUs/VisionMissionCorePrinciples.aspx">used by CAIR</a> and too often parroted by the press. While even "Muslim advocacy group" doesn't paint nearly as dark a portrait as CAIR deserves, it is, at least, technically accurate.)<br />
<br />
Elliott also quotes a handful of Islamic studies scholars. But an examination of the funding and organization of Islamic studies in the US suggests that a certain amount of skepticism is definitely warranted. At the University of South Florida, a former Islamic studies scholar <a href="http://www.adl.org/PresRele/IslEx_61/2588_61.asp">went on to lead</a> a Palestinian terror organization. Yale's faculty includes two of the l<a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/71539/no-haven">eading American proponents</a> of the Iranian regime. The influence of Islamists in American universities is as undeniable as it is disturbing.<br />
<br />
At the end of the day, it appears that everybody agrees that the barbarians are at the gate. But exactly who are the barbarians? Islamic extremists, bent on dominating and, ultimately, destroying Western society? Or the xenophobic, alarmist, religious fundamentalists raising the alarm? Rational Americans are fighting a two-front war to defend our values and our way of life against these opposing threats.E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-77255223017593414642011-07-17T20:21:00.000-07:002011-07-17T20:28:58.385-07:00Jake's Vision[<i>Note: I wrote “Jake's Vision” for a contest. As it did not win (I know—I was shocked, too!), I thought I'd share it here with you. Enjoy.</i>]<br />
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<div class="p1"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu18GAGiwC-Or7CP5PPnRXgp9rGGFlxI3lYwEYX1SF6cdyevgRhj7YrjkkiTLHD2DqUBp2z1D1BlN55xRaHej_Z3A82jW_DDODNUcf5pehqD8UiJD1ByD382Esal_DG6sztXn-iTH2FbI/s1600/firefighter+smoke.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu18GAGiwC-Or7CP5PPnRXgp9rGGFlxI3lYwEYX1SF6cdyevgRhj7YrjkkiTLHD2DqUBp2z1D1BlN55xRaHej_Z3A82jW_DDODNUcf5pehqD8UiJD1ByD382Esal_DG6sztXn-iTH2FbI/s320/firefighter+smoke.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><span class="s1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;">B</span>y the 18th floor, we were breathing pretty heavy. The trucks were staged outside, but the ladders could only reach as high as the 10th floor. So we grabbed our gear and headed up the stairwell, clearing casualties and trapped victims as we made our way to the top of the smoke-filled, 25-story apartment complex, one landing at a time.</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">Jesse was on point, as usual. He wasn't the senior guy, but ever since we were kids his air of leadership had been as undeniable as his lanky build and blue eyes. "How many cops does it take to get a cat out of a tree?" Jesse's voice betrayed none of the effort of our ascent.</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">Somebody groaned. Most of the guys knew this routine already, Jesse using humor to distract us from the heat, the stress.</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">"Two. One to call the fire department and one to fetch the donuts."</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">Hoarse laughter crackled through the speakers as we turned and started up the next flight of stairs. A small, crumpled form came into view through the haze as we approached the landing. "Jake!"</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">"On it." I scrambled up the remaining steps and knelt beside the tiny figure, setting my medical kit on the ground. "She's unconscious. Nine, ten years old." I leaned over her, took her pulse, watched her chest rise and fall. "She's breathing. Thank God."</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">Jesse reached the landing. "Same God trapped her in this hell-hole, little brother?"</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">A long-running disagreement, one that would never be settled. "Same God that left her right here where we'd find her." That's how I saw it, anyway.</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">The last casualty had suffered a broken ankle, couldn't make it down the stairs. Didn't occur to her to remove her heels when escaping a burning building, I guess. One of the other guys carried her down, but the kid was going to need a paramedic to stay with her, make sure she kept breathing.</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">"Think you can handle her alone, Jake?" More ribbing: the girl weighed maybe 60 pounds soaking wet.</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">"I'll manage."</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">Preparing to head back downstairs, I slung my med kit over my shoulder and picked up the limp child, oxygen mask snug on her face. Along the way, her eyes opened. Terrified, tears streamed down her cheeks. I tried to soothe her, but she refused to be comforted. </span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">At least the kid was awake, active. One for my side. Despite her squirming, I managed to keep hold of her long enough to reach the windows on the tenth floor. I handed her off to another firefighter just as a voice came over my radio: "Jake, they're starting to pile up down here. We need you."</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">"On my way, captain. Jess, you copy that?"</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">"Roger. See you in a few."</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">Swinging around, I grabbed the ladder and started my descent. I was still climbing down when the explosion blasted out the windows somewhere high above me. The concussion blew off my helmet, threw me to the ground ten feet below. I blacked out.</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1">Eventually my vision began to clear. As though in a dream, the building rose up before me, its upper floors engulfed in a cloud of smoke. Firefighters raced up and down the ladders with renewed urgency. The cloud swallowed them up as they ascended, sometimes reappearing with one of their own slung over their shoulders. </span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><span class="s1"><i>Well, big brother,</i> I thought, a lump forming in my throat. <i>Looks like we're gonna settle that argument after all.</i> </span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div><div class="p2"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span class="s1">I laid my head against the hard asphalt and waited.</span></div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"></span></div>E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-22578397034373125932011-06-19T21:51:00.000-07:002011-06-19T21:51:09.839-07:00Divide and Conquer<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f0f0f0; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"></span><br />
As I mentioned <a href="http://blog.writerofwrongs.net/2011/06/normal.html">last time</a>, <a href="http://tachlis.wordpress.com/">my wife Jackie</a> is currently in Israel leading a trip for Jewish twenty-somethings as part of the <a href="http://www.birthrightisrael.com/">Taglit Birthright Israel</a> program. So it was with some interest that I clicked over to a piece entitled <a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/70183/birthright%E2%80%99s-true-aim-and-is-its-aim-true/">Birthright’s True Aim, and Is Its Aim True?</a> by <a href="http://twitter.com/marcatracy">Marc Tracy</a> in the online journal <a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/">Tablet</a>.<div><br />
</div><div>Tracy briefly reviews a 4,000-word piece by <a href="http://twitter.com/KieraFeldman">Kiera Feldman</a> entitled <a href="http://www.thenation.com/print/article/161460/romance-birthright-israel">The Romance of Birthright Israel</a> in the left-wing magazine, <a href="http://www.thenation.com/"><i>The Nation</i></a>. Tracy correctly notes that “Birthright is a central aspect of Israeli-diaspora relations,” and that it therefore deserves close examination. He praises Feldman's essay in those places in which it “earnestly relays what Birthright is about, for its organizers as well as its participants.”</div><div><br />
</div><div>But Tracy also identifies some troubling aspects of Feldman's analysis. He notes that Feldman seems to have “cherrypicked her data and interviewees,” and identifies a past Birthright participant quoted in Feldman's piece who, as it turns out, had a running dispute with the Israeli government—a fact left undisclosed by Feldman.</div><div><br />
So kudos to Marc Tracy for uncovering some of the less-than-savory techniques used by Feldman to tarnish the Birthright program. But he misses the big picture, which is not Feldman's overt attack on Birthright's agenda, but rather her covert rhetorical campaign against Israel itself: </div><div><br />
</div><div>Israel is an “ethnocracy” built on the “forty-four-year illegal occupation of Palestinian lands”. The Green Line is an “internationally recognized border”. Seven hundred thousand Palestinians were “expelled” in 1948. These allegations require no support because, naturally, <i>The Nation</i>'s readership already knows them to be true.</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzc_xze2TpUObfOVi_E6Q5AQk3MNrdksVRB9pCuaTzcbtUULbY9aGnq9rXCRyNu1lav93qpzSGJVsMXtvnvlT6jjzO1lFjZs60rb6g6v4hlrWNZt8z_i1cWVUnycaMMiQm_6_vrsIJtyo/s1600/Jackie+on+Birthright.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzc_xze2TpUObfOVi_E6Q5AQk3MNrdksVRB9pCuaTzcbtUULbY9aGnq9rXCRyNu1lav93qpzSGJVsMXtvnvlT6jjzO1lFjZs60rb6g6v4hlrWNZt8z_i1cWVUnycaMMiQm_6_vrsIJtyo/s320/Jackie+on+Birthright.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Birthright Israel indoctrinees, er, I mean, participants</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div><br />
</div><div>I've <a href="http://blog.writerofwrongs.net/2011/03/zionism-left-right-and-center.html">used this forum</a> in the past to make the liberal case for Zionism. Others, such as <a href="http://weareforisrael.org/2011/04/03/ammiel-hirschs-response-to-peter-beinart-at-the-ccar-convention/">Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch</a> of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and <a href="http://videos.shalomtv.com/video/liberal-proisrael-david-harris-feb-16-2011?msource=IMPACT69&tr=y&auid=7907119">David Harris</a> of the American Jewish Committee, have also done so, far more effectively than I ever could. This case needs to be made, in part, because there are those, such as the Republican Jewish Coalition, who would claim the mantle of Zionism exclusively for the right. </div><div><br />
</div><div>They are wrong to do so. As Harris and Hirsch so clearly explain, there is a compelling liberal interest in the Zionist cause. The right has its Zionist argument, and so does the left: all that remains are the anti-Zionists, who have sought to divide and conquer by clothing themselves in the rhetoric of the left, as Feldman has done, or in the politics of the right. This strategy has proven tragically effective: as <a href="http://www.israelemb.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=235&Itemid=245)=en">Michael Oren</a>, Israel's Ambassador to the US, <a href="http://www.njdc.org/blog/post/orenisraelpartisanship102510">has stated</a>, “Israel has become a partisan issue in the U.S., and this... is bad for us.”</div><div><br />
If support for Israel does split along party lines in the years to come, it will not only be the fault of the Republican Jewish Coalition and its cynical campaign to make the GOP the home of pro-Israel American politics. No, it will also be the fault of writers like Ms. Feldman, whose casual and presumptive misrepresentations of history can be immediately transformed into fodder for the next RJC appeal.</div>E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-70743164324400316672011-06-18T23:17:00.000-07:002011-06-18T23:18:11.188-07:00Exceptionally Normal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNpjwl49R_MMbQkLw1JssB3LGsCMjZkjnAWCk9bxTCUP9omB9imowxGpUQ3PqOhBgg7s2CwB2YAToPhZfPtlfHXt5JnGHFha9V8ZW8E5co5jXRjM3xLZQRpUSjKq6rLa447eu8jPm3Yws/s1600/israel-iba-mabat-news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNpjwl49R_MMbQkLw1JssB3LGsCMjZkjnAWCk9bxTCUP9omB9imowxGpUQ3PqOhBgg7s2CwB2YAToPhZfPtlfHXt5JnGHFha9V8ZW8E5co5jXRjM3xLZQRpUSjKq6rLa447eu8jPm3Yws/s1600/israel-iba-mabat-news.jpg" /></a></div>Here in Southern California, we're fortunate enough to be able to <a href="http://www.kcet.org/shows/iba_news/">watch Israel's IBA News</a> on the local PBS affiliate, <a href="http://www.kcet.org/">KCET</a>. I've taken an even keener than usual interest in news from the region this week, as my gorgeous and very, very busy wife <a href="http://tachlis.wordpress.com/">Jackie</a> is in Israel leading a <a href="http://www.birthrightisrael.com/">Taglit Birthright Israel</a> trip.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>As I was watching the other night, I was almost mechanically <a href="http://twitter.com/esmenter">tweeting</a> the various headlines. Here are a few examples:</div><ul><li>“<a href="http://twitter.com/esmenter/status/81602773006815232">Apparently there's a cottage cheese boycott going on in Israel in response to rising food prices.</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="http://twitter.com/esmenter/status/81603561062023168">...doctors are threatening a strike... That's been going on since before Pesach; things aren't improving I guess</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="http://twitter.com/esmenter/status/81604880288071681">Violinist Vanessa Mae performing in Ceasaria this Shabbat</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="http://twitter.com/esmenter/status/81606359543586816">Total nerdfest: mega-yoyo contest at @TechnionLive in Haifa</a>”</li>
</ul><div>Unlike American “news” programs, the IBA (Israel Broadcast Authority) news usually spends several minutes covering one or more important topics in depth with a guest. In this instance, the interview focused on the <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4082686,00.html">cottage cheese boycott</a>. Around the time the anchors turned their attention to sports and weather, it dawned on me: there had not been one single terrorism-related news item, and only brief coverage of the peace process, featuring yet another prattling EU technocrat. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Reviewing my posts, it occurred to me what <i>normal</i> stories these were, the type that could easily have been featured on the local news anywhere in America. Don't get me wrong: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%98%D7%92-%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%A6%D7%A8-%D7%9B%D7%9B-%D7%91%D7%A1%D7%99%D7%A1%D7%99-%D7%A9%D7%A2%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%AA%D7%95-%D7%94%D7%92%D7%99%D7%A2%D7%94-%D7%9C%D7%A7%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%91-%D7%9C-8-%D7%A9%D7%97-%D7%9C%D7%90-%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%91%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%9A-%D7%97%D7%95%D7%93%D7%A9/137421826333963?ref=ts&sk=wall">rising food prices</a> are a serious matter. Unfortunately, the Israeli economy is still in some ways a prisoner to its socialist past, and perhaps to an overheated rush to deregulation as well. But compared to bus bombings, missile attacks, and coerced cross-border rioters, well... all in all, I found it rather refreshing.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Israel, like any country—indeed, like any human enterprise—is imperfect. The government, the society, the leaders: they err, they are tempted into corruption, they lose their way, and we do the Zionist cause no favors by pretending otherwise. So the evening news will, no doubt, continue to be filled with stories of individuals and groups failing to live up to our millennia-old, hope-sustaining vision of Israel as a beacon to the other nations of the Earth.</div><div><br />
</div><div>So I make this offer to the universe: give me news of visiting musicians and student competitions—I'll gladly embrace them, even if they are mere sidebars to headlines filled with consumer revolt and labor unrest. Take away the terror, the baseless hatred, and the nuclear saber-rattling, and I'll accept the scandals, the crime, and the poverty as unavoidable subplots to the ongoing story of a normal country struggling to become exceptional.</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div>E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-62394652372895449632011-05-21T11:33:00.000-07:002011-05-21T11:33:24.050-07:00UntimelyThese should be heady days for Israel. The world is awakening, at long last, to the true villain in the modern history of Islamic medievalism and ignorance: the corrupt Arab ruling class. The rejectionist front dictators of the Arab world are either under siege or already fallen, and the horrifying crimes they have for decades committed against their own people have been exposed. The international community, armed with this new evidence, could in theory draw the surprising conclusion that Israel may not be the root cause of all the world's conflicts after all.<br />
<br />
Not so fast.<br />
<br />
In an ill-timed <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/05/19/moment-opportunity-president-obama-middle-east-north-africa">speech earlier this week</a>, President Obama declared his vision for peace between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors:<br />
<blockquote>The United States believes that negotiations should result in two states... The borders of Israel and Palestine should be<b> based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps</b>, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states. The Palestinian people must have the right to govern themselves, and reach their potential, in a sovereign and contiguous... <b>non-militarized</b> state. </blockquote>(Emphasis mine.)<div><br />
</div><div>The pro-Israel community has reacted strongly, but the plain fact is that the President's remarks were neither surprising nor novel. Yes, it's true: Mr. Obama did make reference to the hated, illegitimate, and (in Prime Minister Netanyahu's words) "<a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4071641,00.html">indefensible</a>" 1949 armistice lines (commonly—but misleadingly—referred to in diplomatic and media circles as the "1967 lines"). But pundits seem to have overlooked the fact that he qualified his statement carefully, carving a vitally important semantic safe harbor. As my son has observed, the phrase "with mutually agreed swaps" essentially leaves every option open.</div><div><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJMcA8YNh09_hC-z3Bc36kgBGtI2a9hWYSc7Zl9ewFKYZTU3myLTUZuBMRqB8Pa9Jqh6iV6jXQsXeDgNjzHkAb_dkBaRuCR3o1Cjw2bswZ03bDvb_haIi1Y65aOaOmCa2ntE6QnEEtWmQ/s1600/obama+netanyahu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJMcA8YNh09_hC-z3Bc36kgBGtI2a9hWYSc7Zl9ewFKYZTU3myLTUZuBMRqB8Pa9Jqh6iV6jXQsXeDgNjzHkAb_dkBaRuCR3o1Cjw2bswZ03bDvb_haIi1Y65aOaOmCa2ntE6QnEEtWmQ/s320/obama+netanyahu.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(White House Photo)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div>And let's be honest: the armistice lines, with modifications, have formed the basis for negotiations since there has been anything to negotiate about. Israeli governments have offered the Palestinians <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/cd2000art.html">nearly all the territory captured in 1967</a>, with adjustments for demographic changes and large settlements (mostly, suburbs of Jerusalem) that have appeared in the decades since. Few harbor any illusion that a final deal, if one is ever reached, will differ substantially from those on the table previously. (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/world/middleeast/21ross.html?pagewanted=1&seid=auto&smid=tw-nytimes">According to reports</a>, the President resisted calls from within his administration to outline a tougher stance, even <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/may/13/world/la-fg-mideast-mitchell-20110514">accepting the resignation</a> of his hand-picked envoy, former Senator George Mitchell, barely a week prior to the address.)</div><div><br />
</div><div>Although Jewish groups had mobilized against the President's invocation of the armistice lines in the days leading up to the speech, it is difficult to ask the leader of the free world to be more conservative in his dealings with the Palestinians than the Israelis themselves have been. If this President, or any other, is seen as a hostage to Israeli policy, his effectiveness—and, ultimately, his ability to wield American leverage to Israel's advantage—will only be weakened.</div><div><br />
</div><div>So what, if anything, was new in Mr. Obama's message? To my ears, the real novelty was the use of the phrase "non-militarized" in referring to the future Palestinian state. Ultimately, if one believes, as indeed most Israelis do, in a two-state solution, one can hardly expect a better outcome than "mutually agreed" borders and a "non-militarized" Palestine.</div><div><br />
</div><div>It's also useful to review what the President did <b>not</b> do. He did not summon the parties to negotiations. He did not issue new peremptory demands on Israel, as he disastrously <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/18/obama-netanyahu-meeting-o_n_204759.html">attempted to do</a> in 2009. He did not threaten that a solution would be imposed by the United States; in fact, he said quite the opposite. And, ultimately, he did no harm to Mr. Netanyahu, who is certainly going to reap political rewards at home for his direct and immediate dismissal of the President's vision.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Mr. Obama's real mistake is not in his formulation but in his focus. This should be a time of great hope. The long-suppressed bill of grievances of the Arab everyman has finally been aired, and there is nary a word about Israel. Poverty, ignorance, and oppression have been revealed as the essential casus belli of the Middle East, not the presence a few million Jews on a narrow strip of previously neglected real estate. Now is not the time to bury the lead of Arab self-liberation within the mythology of Israeli misbehavior. In trying to make history, Mr. Obama has instead misjudged it, shining a light on Israeli/Palestinian discord just as it was becoming clear how small a role that conflict actually plays in the larger tragedy of the Arab Middle East.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Does anybody remember what the President said about Iran in his address? About Syria? Egypt? Has there been any coverage at all of any topic raised by Mr. Obama in three-quarters of an hour of continuous speaking <b>besides</b> the Israeli/Palestinian matter? Through his insistence on dredging up that issue, Mr. Obama gave the remaining strongmen of the Arab world the one gift they most wanted: an alternative target for the world's reprobation. You're welcome, Muammar.</div><div><br />
</div><div>The drama will continue to play out this weekend at the <a href="http://www.aipac.org/pc/">AIPAC Policy Conference</a> in Washington, DC. With 10,000 supporters of the American-Israel relationship in attendance, President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu will each have an opportunity further to lay out his vision for peace and security for Israel and the region. Netanyahu is guaranteed a warm and welcoming reception, but, having chosen this time to refocus on Israel, the President will have to work hard to win over an audience understandably suspicious of his priorities. </div><div><br />
</div>E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-84090264248230077412011-05-02T21:48:00.000-07:002011-05-02T21:48:56.508-07:00Sept 11, 2001<i>This is a nine-year-old piece I was planning on reposting on Sept 11, 2011. But in light of this week's events, I feel that now would be the right time.</i><br />
<i>It was originally <a href="http://www.jewishjournal.com/articles/item/a_911_family_tale_20020906/">published in the Jewish Journal</a> (LA and Orange County Editions) on the occasion of the first anniversary of the September 11, 2001 atrocities.</i><br />
<div><br />
</div><hr /><div><br />
</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 36px;">A</span>lthough I was there, I can't tell you much about the events of Sept. 11, 2001, that you don't already know. After all, you had CNN; I only had my two eyes and the prescription lenses I thankfully remembered to grab as I fled the apartment. Yes, I watched from a few blocks away as the towers fell, but without the benefit of a zoom lens or slow motion video (thank God for that—there was nothing that I saw I wished to see again or in greater detail).<br />
<br />
Indeed, the overwhelming personal tragedies and the incredible acts of heroism have been recorded and retold. I cannot add to them. But I can tell you one story, a small one, about two brothers from Long Beach who found themselves that morning on opposite sides of a river.<br />
<br />
A decade ago, my wife, Jackie, and I returned to Southern California from New York City, where we had lived for five years. I continued to make frequent business trips there. On the bright, clear morning of Sept. 11, I lazed sleepily in the apartment my company keeps in lower Manhattan.<br />
<br />
I was alone. My brother, with whom I share the place when I come to New York, had an early plane to catch, and had left a couple of hours earlier. As I debated whether or not to get up and shower, he was sitting in the terminal at Newark Airport waiting for his Atlanta flight to be called. At the next gate, passengers lined up to board United Flight 93, bound for San Francisco. Randall casually watched them embark; he would be one of the last to see them alive.<br />
<br />
Within minutes of the first attack, my building was evacuated. I stood in the park, 37 floors below my apartment window, with my eyes squinting against the sunlight, my heart racing, my mind recoiling, rejecting the evidence of my senses.<br />
<br />
As the first tower fell, I was speaking with Jackie on my cell phone, reassuring her that I was alright, although she surely knew otherwise from the sound of my voice. I stood, a couple of hundred yards from the billowing smoke, trembling and terrorized. Randall watched helplessly from the airport, from which the towers were... had been... clearly visible.<br />
<br />
Stunned, I began wandering the city, dazed and aimless. Randall, however, had the opposite reaction: he was galvanized, committed and determined to find a way back into Manhattan. His goal was to reach me and make sure I was OK.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT6_hPm3w_io_8p8KIGSxaGcMm3RofxzFdhC4rQelGRcBfpJNg_x9zaNk-3pAwKFuRg4BSR0Jc6VitIxTGp8WkXwvHXpEoNIJHrnZchAXZawdhj6ZJ7rOZJZr6_RromGJ9_92IzRjsm9A/s1600/FDNY_Flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT6_hPm3w_io_8p8KIGSxaGcMm3RofxzFdhC4rQelGRcBfpJNg_x9zaNk-3pAwKFuRg4BSR0Jc6VitIxTGp8WkXwvHXpEoNIJHrnZchAXZawdhj6ZJ7rOZJZr6_RromGJ9_92IzRjsm9A/s320/FDNY_Flag.jpg" width="275" /></a></div>Like me, Randall grew up in Long Beach, attended Jewish day school and celebrated his bar mitzvah at Temple Beth Shalom. Unlike me, though, he never left the neighborhood until the day I asked him to come work with me. Within a couple of weeks, he was setting up an apartment on Manhattan's Chambers Street, learning the subway system and discovering ways to have videos and snack food delivered on demand via the Internet. By Sept. 11, my brother had been working with me for three years, spending about one week a month in Southern California and the rest of the time in New York City.<br />
<br />
And so it was that morning, as about 8 million people worked desperately to leave Manhattan as quickly as possible, Randall focused his considerable ingenuity and sales ability on doing just the opposite.<br />
<br />
The obstacles to reaching this goal were fairly considerable. Of course, all of the usual routes into Manhattan—subways, ferries and bridges—were closed. River traffic was warned away from the city's many docks.<br />
<br />
Randall, through a combination of persuasion, bribery and alert observation, finally reached Manhattan's Upper West Side. Like our great-grandparents over a century earlier, he arrived on the island without a dime in his pocket. He set out on foot for SoHo, about 3 miles away, where he found me a couple hours later.<br />
<br />
I was shaken, but fine. He was exhausted, but fine. I was relieved to have him with me. We spent the rest of the week together before finally coming home. Our flight was on Rosh Hashana; as Randall said at the time, "It's not a problem. God is on vacation this week."<br />
<br />
Soon it will be Rosh Hashana again. The High Holiday prayerbook, the Machzor, includes the words "These things I will remember." I carry hundreds of memories of Sept. 11, 2001, many of them terrifying that I would gladly be rid of. But I will also remember that somebody crossed a blockaded river and walked half the length of a city just to look in my eyes, to be reassured that I was OK.<br />
<br />
Thanks, Randall.E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-77484010790713596572011-04-09T11:32:00.000-07:002011-04-09T11:32:29.372-07:00Zionism: Left, Right and Center—A Quick PostscriptI do my best here in my little blog, but there are many others out there who can make the liberal case for Israel better than I ever could. I mentioned one such advocate, <a href="http://www.ajc.org/">AJC</a>'s David Harris, in <a href="http://blog.writerofwrongs.net/2011/03/zionism-left-right-and-center.html">my earlier post</a>. Since then I've also discovered (thanks to friend and Jewish social networker extraordinaire <a href="http://twitter.com/daroff">William Daroff</a>) another <a href="http://weareforisrael.org/2011/04/03/ammiel-hirschs-response-to-peter-beinart-at-the-ccar-convention/">outstanding piece</a>, written by Reform Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch. Rabbi Hirsch delivered this tour de force at a meeting of the <a href="http://ccarnet.org/index.cfm?">Central Conference of American Rabbis</a> just a couple of weeks ago. It's a quick read: <a href="http://weareforisrael.org/2011/04/03/ammiel-hirschs-response-to-peter-beinart-at-the-ccar-convention/">don't miss it</a>.E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-47661838840301013432011-03-12T19:38:00.000-08:002011-03-12T19:38:52.280-08:00Zionism: Left, Right, and CenterAs a Zionist, I welcome the support of my conservative friends for Israel. I can understand where they're coming from: quite apart from religious concerns, the pro-Israel position is not inconsistent with the conservative worldview. Israel is a democracy, standing for decades as a bulwark against Soviet imperialism in a Middle East largely controlled and supported by the USSR. Israeli society, though historically to the left of the American conservative ideal, is thriving and entrepreneurial, rewarding risk and innovation, governed by the rule of law.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNNTYLnJZqpJgo-dt-80Bk7asskIlvPel6fuB_q5yd0HuBDOz_iuwhWFSmelASCppqeULPmpbmxsDcqFf9umZr_2dgtgmYRJ2eKcfwLU9gggjkWXZfYcf-i0v1ADYiSZ4ttVWqR_tjGXM/s1600/bush_israel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNNTYLnJZqpJgo-dt-80Bk7asskIlvPel6fuB_q5yd0HuBDOz_iuwhWFSmelASCppqeULPmpbmxsDcqFf9umZr_2dgtgmYRJ2eKcfwLU9gggjkWXZfYcf-i0v1ADYiSZ4ttVWqR_tjGXM/s200/bush_israel.jpg" width="160" /></a></div><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-nlpnMzEsRWP8-AQOhs_5i20HyA8jlm_KKh9onRX_xUOfWvMDjaExpHLWgM9BBK2fUDRFcs3_mO2K73ufEBX5Y34IZwT92qws-G7_lZBU-R9IfnJihInPwWJpATP_9BkSPslJTEGp24k/s1600/bill-clinton-yarmulke-synagogue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-nlpnMzEsRWP8-AQOhs_5i20HyA8jlm_KKh9onRX_xUOfWvMDjaExpHLWgM9BBK2fUDRFcs3_mO2K73ufEBX5Y34IZwT92qws-G7_lZBU-R9IfnJihInPwWJpATP_9BkSPslJTEGp24k/s200/bill-clinton-yarmulke-synagogue.jpg" width="184" /></a>And yet, while support for Israel is compatible with American conservatism, it is absolutely essential to American liberalism. Israel pioneered individual rights in the Middle East, built a social safety net for its citizens, and established the kibbutz, the world's only example of successful communal living.<br />
<br />
The <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.ajc.org/">American Jewish Committee</a>'s David Harris recently <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://videos.shalomtv.com/video/liberal-proisrael-david-harris-feb-16-2011?msource=IMPACT69&tr=y&auid=7907119">gave an interview</a> in which he discussed the relationship between liberal values and Zionism:<br />
<blockquote>I am a liberal, in the sense that I believe in liberal values. I believe in human freedom; I believe in human rights; I believe in human dignity... I believe that supporting Israel means defending those values... In fact I believe that Israel is a liberal cause, and I believe that pro-Israel advocates who have given up on defending Israel as a liberal cause are really giving up [on those values]... Who exactly is it they are defending, and what are the values [they] espouse?</blockquote>Is Harris correct? Let's look at the facts:<br />
<ul><li>Unlike its neighbors, Israel is a robust democracy with strong, transparent democratic institutions, including labor unions, advocacy organizations, and political parties. </li>
<li>Unlike its neighbors, Israel operates a policy of full access to holy sites to all religions.</li>
<li>Unlike its neighbors, Israel guarantees equal rights to its thriving LGBT community.</li>
<li>Unlike its neighbors, Israel has accepted millions of refugees—black, white, and brown—offering them assistance, equality, and the privileges of citizenship.</li>
<li>Unlike its neighbors, Israel has an energetic free press that is openly—sometimes brutally—critical of the government.</li>
<li>Unlike its neighbors, Israel's universities offer its faculty and students unfettered academic freedom. </li>
<li>Unlike its neighbors, Israel is not afraid to investigate, and, when appropriate, convict, even its highest leaders when they have violated the law. </li>
</ul>All these and more represent beliefs and actions not only consistent with, but absolutely essential to the liberal ideal. But if support for Israel is such a key liberal value, what then should we make of that minority of self-styled American "liberals" who express contempt for Israel, call for the boycott of Israeli goods, seek to prevent Israeli academics from working with their counterparts outside of Israel, and even voice solidarity with terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah? <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.ajc.org/site/c.ijITI2PHKoG/b.817851/k.2E7F/AJC_Experts.htm">David Harris</a> says these individuals have "abandoned" liberal values; if he is right, as I have suggested, then they are not true liberals—so what are they?<br />
<br />
On the extreme end of the political spectrum lives a political philosophy unconcerned with traditional liberal values like freedom of the press and equal rights for all. To denizens of this dark corner of the left, the wealthy are always evil and the poor always worthy. Power exercised by the strong is never appropriate, no matter how carefully deployed; power exercised by the weak is never unjustified, no matter how brutal. If a terrorist bomber targets and murders teenagers at a dance club, that is because the killer had no other way to vent his justifiable rage. If a soldier fires on an armed thug who is attacking him, that soldier is no better than a Nazi.<br />
<br />
Such a belief system is not compatible with liberalism, regardless of how its practitioners choose to identify themselves. The correct term for this worldview is <b>Communism</b>—yes, <i>that</i> Communism, the utterly discredited ideology of the last century: the movement that gave the world Stalin, Castro, and the KGB; that destroyed Russia, leaving it a broken and lawless kleptocracy; that murdered millions of its own people and brought the world to the brink of nuclear holocaust. There is simply no other political ideology compatible with support for oppressive totalitarian regimes whose only appeal is the poverty in which it traps its citizens.<br />
<br />
No nation or political philosophy is without flaw, but support for Israel is as intrinsic to liberal values as it is consistent with conservative ideals. The Zionist enterprise appeals to left, right, and center—until, that is, one reaches the fringes, the extreme endpoints of the political spectrum. Fortunately for Israel, Americans of both parties, having universally shunned 20th century Communism, are also bound to disavow that movement's 21st century ideological heir, anti-Zionism.E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-50627576457812860602011-02-18T21:29:00.000-08:002011-02-18T21:46:32.536-08:00156 PagesThis week I received my copy of <i><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.thehummingbirdreview.com/">The Hummingbird Review</a></i>. I had awaited this particular edition—<a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0984635912/">Volume 2, No. 1</a>—with what can only be described as childish impatience. Now, at long last, the unremarkable manila envelope was waiting in my mailbox. Recognizing the return address, I tore into the pouch as though it were the only thing standing between me and a tray of freshly baked cookies. I took a deep breath and slid the eagerly anticipated journal into my palm.<br />
<br />
It was smaller than I expected. But thicker. There are a lot of words in there, I realized. And about 1500 of them are mine.<br />
<br />
As of this writing, the issue of THR containing my story, <i>Dolphinarium</i>, is #160,658 on Amazon. Of course, I am not concerned with such matters, which is why I scoured the Internet in an effort to determine exactly how many sales that figure represents. I was impressed to learn, according to <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.fonerbooks.com/surfing.htm">one source</a>, that I can reasonably estimate that at least ten copies of this rare and precious paperback are flying off the shelves each and every week.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, as literally dozens of books make their way into the hands of discerning, highly educated, and extremely attractive readers, I have begun the rich journey through the volume that ended up in my mailbox. My little story is swaddled in 156 pages of incredible prose, poetry, and journalism—and I am determined to read each entry, seriatim, from page one onward.<br />
<br />
Did you ever eat at one of those restaurants famous for its chocolate souffle, the kind you have to order with your dinner because it takes so long to prepare? I don't care how good the dinner is—how flavorful the soup, how succulent the chicken, how crispy the fries—a little bit of your mind is just marking time until dessert.<br />
<br />
<i>Dolphinarium</i> begins on page 150. In case you were wondering.<br />
<br />
You should buy <i>The Hummingbird Review</i>. No, really: it's only twelve bucks. And while I'm very proud of <i>Dolphinarium</i>, I can assure you that you'll find that the other 151 pages are filled with memorable characters, revealing portraits, and moving verse at least as deserving of your thoughtful attention.<br />
<br />
But if you want to start with the souffle, I'll understand.E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-28145107637681683052011-02-03T11:39:00.000-08:002011-02-03T11:39:10.022-08:00Birthing DemocracyAs I write these words, I'm sitting in a large room crammed with people called to appear for jury duty. Along with voting, jury duty is the experience that best exposes ordinary Americans to the democratic ideal envisioned by the founders. Arguably, in fact, jury duty is the purest form of democracy, in that a jury can nullify laws by refusing to enforce them, thus providing a mechanism by which the people can override the decisions of their elected representatives.<br />
<br />
Is this what is happening in Egypt and the Arab world today? Are the people, through their demonstrations, expressing a desire for freedom and democracy that has been denied them by their (illegitimately) elected rulers?<br />
<br />
To a certain extent, yes. Those happy young faces you see being interviewed on TV belong to young idealists, born and raised under the thumb of the present leader. They seem certain that the only thing standing between them and their liberty is Mubarak, or Hussein, or Assad. So all they need to do is get that bad guy out and <b>poof!</b> ...democracy will descend from heaven to rest gently on their shoulders for all time.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/uc004215.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDyqqc0qAH_x9azPXlfM3DuHXEwvguB6Le2v_ZOq-O0DiClDlyS5Ic9HznJa2pr4BqTtnHYrhCzFA3gP-CTy_SrJlWUFmRqt29KHA31MJ5J6yV2AgjjDoYfDXGtHlDLoaV1AVxS1s7TLE/s400/original+declaration+of+independence.jpg" width="230" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Draft of the Declaration of Independence<br />
(Library of Congress)</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
Our Forefathers were under no such misgivings. But then, they were no schoolchildren; rather, they were, by and large, highly educated civic leaders, scholars, and property owners. They had a list of grievances, to be sure. "The history of the present King of Great Britain," <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/">Jefferson wrote</a>, "is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States." <br />
<br />
But Jefferson, Hamilton, Adams and the rest knew that airing grievances and fomenting revolution weren't sufficient to the cause. They also needed to communicate a vision of what they planned to build to compete in the public mind with the reality they were already experiencing. Yes, it would take them another decade and more after independence for this vision to find its ultimate expression in the Constitution. But even in the years of the Continental Congress, even before the revolution, the Founders were driven not only to divorce themselves from Great Britain, but even more importantly, to build a nation of virtue on the ideas of Locke, Montesquieu, and others.<br />
<br />
One searches in vain for the Jefferson of the Arab street. Certainly, Egyptian revolutionary figurehead Mohamed ElBaradei does not fit the bill. Known internationally but lacking any local constituency, ElBaradei is useful as a placeholder that all sides can live with until the post-Mubarak power struggle begins. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the Muslim Brotherhood remains the best prepared and most likely successor to Mubarak.<br />
<br />
In the past couple of days, the Muslim Brotherhood has become more visibly involved in the struggle to overthrow Mubarak. The group has been proclaiming its commitment to democracy, but as journalist Yossi Klein Halevi <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/02/opinion/02Halevi.html">points out</a> in the New York Times:<br />
<blockquote>Israelis fear that the Brotherhood’s nonviolence has been a tactical maneuver and know that its worldview is rooted in crude anti-Semitism. The Brotherhood and its offshoots have been the main purveyors of the Muslim world’s widespread conspiracy theories about the Jews, from blaming the Israeli intelligence service for 9/11 to accusing Zionists of inventing the Holocaust to blackmail the West.</blockquote><blockquote>Others argue that the responsibilities of governance would moderate the Brotherhood, but [among Israelis] that is dismissed as Western naïveté: the same prediction, after all, was made about the Iranian regime, Hezbollah and Hamas. </blockquote><blockquote></blockquote>The incredible <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html">treasury of documents</a> left us by our Founders testify to the great democracy they would eventually form. We can only assume that the past statements and writings of the eventual leadership of Egypt are similarly indicative, however hard we wish it were otherwise.E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5881063035564375834.post-24184048634076402432011-01-29T13:25:00.000-08:002011-01-29T13:25:13.798-08:00Be Careful What You Wish ForIt's easy to get caught up in the excitement of the wave of anti-government protests sweeping through the Arab world. As Americans, our first instinct is to view every revolution against tyranny through the lens of our own history. Reflexively, we root against the dictators, corrupt fascists who have denied freedom to their people for decades. Such an instinct is entirely appropriate: our democracy means nothing if it is used as a pillar of oppression overseas.<br />
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Unfortunately, misreading history is also an American instinct. Revolution may be common, but democracy is precious and rare. The upheaval in the Muslim world is not inspired by a philosophy of what those governments should be; they are inspired by a revulsion at what those governments have become. The common goal of the rioters in the streets is change, but once they have successfully forced the autocrats from their palaces, that goal will have been met. What will be left is a vacuum demanding to be filled. If history is a guide, it is likely to be filled by the largest, best organized, or most heavily armed aspirant to leadership.<br />
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In the Muslim Middle East, revolution has never yielded democracy. Indeed, the only Muslim democracy in that part of the globe was not the result of popular rebellion, but rather, imposed by the United States on Iraq (and, let's face it, the long-term viability of that experiment is still very much in doubt). If, as George W. Bush <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="javascript:alert('State%20of%20the%20Union%20address,%202003:\n\n"Americans%20are%20a%20free%20people,%20who%20know%20that%20freedom%20is%20the%20right%20of%20every%20person%20and%20the%20future%20of%20every%20nation.%20The%20liberty%20we%20prize%20is%20not%20America\'s%20gift%20to%20the%20world;%20it%20is%20God\'s%20gift%20to%20humanity."');">suggested</a>, "liberty... is God's gift to the world", it is a gift rejected time and again, not only by Middle Eastern tyrants, but by the revolutionaries who supplant them.<br />
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The situation in Egypt is no different. Modern Egypt was born of a revolution against British rule led in part by Gamal Abdul Nasser. Assuming the premiership in 1956, Nasser, a military dictator, ruled Egypt with an iron hand, even as he maneuvered to become the leader of the Arab world. Nasser's position only deteriorated after his humiliating defeat at the hands of Israel in 1967 in a war he precipitated.<br />
<br />
The correlation of Nasser's career with his military success—or lack thereof—against Israel is unsurprising. Egypt's leaders in the latter half of the 20th century depended on the average Egyptian's antipathy towards Israel for their popularity. One of Nasser's first acts in office was to provoke the 1956 Suez Canal crisis; the resulting failure of Israel, Britain and France to hold the Suez, and Israel's withdrawal from the Sinai, firmly established Nasser's position at the head of the Egyptian regime.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzRXY0whIsyb4QBZMAYln9uSCUyAkajqEdd1BcWPSesqIoLIS05Ebl6Nn2EDPEEsxT_9H0iLDzIyjnhqufZEyiq3OdgDGZy-Rg4w0de4jb-7nSjiF8EXztxd94UWQYIw3x4MJB5SFKsoY/s1600/arabian+sunset.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzRXY0whIsyb4QBZMAYln9uSCUyAkajqEdd1BcWPSesqIoLIS05Ebl6Nn2EDPEEsxT_9H0iLDzIyjnhqufZEyiq3OdgDGZy-Rg4w0de4jb-7nSjiF8EXztxd94UWQYIw3x4MJB5SFKsoY/s320/arabian+sunset.jpg" width="297" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">As the sun sets on Mubarak, will the peace with <br />
Israel be plunged into darkness?</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
Indeed, one contributor to the current unrest—unmentioned on CNN but implied in the <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/world/middleeast/28jazeera.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=al%20jazeera&st=cse">cheerleading coverage of al Jazeera</a>—is dissatisfaction with Egypt's peace with Israel. Don't get me wrong: the cold peace with Israel, the status of which has remained unchanged for some time, probably didn't spark the outbreak of popular revolt. But it is and remains an irritant, a perennial entry on the list of grievances nursed by Egyptians against their leader.<br />
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So what can we expect in post-revolutionary Egypt? The main players in the revolt are the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization with ties to Middle Eastern terror groups, and <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2501/is_1_29/ai_n27223613/">Kefaya</a>, a more secular opposition movement. Neither has asserted itself as a successor so far—it is still too early for such positioning. But perhaps we can get a clue to the outcome from the reaction of other Muslim nations.<br />
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The most important Islamic revolution in my lifetime took place in Iran in 1979. Fed up with the history of oppression under their US-backed dictator, the Iranians rose up, successfully replacing their secular autocracy with an Islamic theocracy. Most Iranians today were not yet born in 1979—the only oppression they've known has been at the hands of the Imams. Their 2009 revolt, perhaps the first such rebellion in the region with any chance of producing a native-born Islamic democracy, was ruthlessly crushed by the Ayatollah's regime. <br />
<br />
And so, the Islamists remain in charge in Tehran. Their reaction to rioting in Egypt? They are <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/29/world/middleeast/29iran.html?scp=1&sq=iran%20egypt&st=cse">cheering on the revolution</a>:<br />
<blockquote>[In Egypt], Muslims are more active in political agitation and, God willing, they will establish the regime that they want... Today, as a result of the gifts of the Islamic revolution in Iran, freedom-loving Islamic peoples such as the peoples of Tunisia, Egypt and nearby Arab countries are standing up to their oppressive governments.</blockquote>Clearly, the Islamists are betting on the Muslim Brotherhood. American intellectuals, such as <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.tnr.com/article/world/82435/american-liberals-and-the-streets-cairo">Leon Wieseltier</a>, fear that the Iranian analysis may be on the mark:<br />
<blockquote>[T]he politics of the revolt are murky. Its early stages have not been the work of the Muslim Brotherhood, but it is hard to believe that the Islamist organization will not be tempted to play the Bolshevik role in this revolution: it has the ideology and the organization with which to seize control of the situation, and it is the regime’s most formidable political adversary.</blockquote> Whatever Egypt looks like in the post-Mubarak era, we can be pretty sure of a few things:<br />
<ol><li>The government will be hostile to Israel. While the Egypt-Israel relationship under Mubarak has hardly been a love affair, it's entirely possible that a new Egyptian regime could scuttle the peace treaty entirely. That treaty, brittle though it may be, has been the platform on which decades of relative stability between Israel and its neighbors (Lebanon being the notable exception) has rested.</li>
<li>The government will be hostile to the United States. As an incentive for its treaty with Israel, the US has gifted Egypt with about $2 billion per year of foreign aid. The average Egyptian, not without reason, has viewed this money as a means of propping up the dictator they hate and as a reward for their sworn enemy, Israel. Make no mistake: anti-US sentiment is a significant driver behind the protests in Egypt's streets.</li>
<li>Jordan will be next. If anything, Jordan's relatively enlightened monarch, King Hussein, is even more hated by his subjects than Mubarak. Perhaps as much as half of <a bitly="BITLY_PROCESSED" href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3464.htm">Jordan's population</a> is of Palestinian extraction; in 1970, the PLO even tried (unsuccessfully) to overthrow the father of the current king. Needless to say, Jordan's peace with Israel and solid friendship with the United States are deeply unpopular with Jordanians. </li>
</ol>When all is said and done, we can shed few tears for a dictator who is at long last deposed by those he has oppressed. At the same time, however, it's imperative to take a clear-eyed view of developments in the Islamic world, armed with a thorough understanding of the threats and opportunities presented by these events.E. Scott Menterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03728804527795190789noreply@blogger.com6