tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4007294537807554242024-02-20T11:40:06.426-08:00Lipsey's in IsraelBill Lipseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846161589336754575noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400729453780755424.post-61850643128990094192011-07-24T03:10:00.000-07:002011-07-24T07:44:55.145-07:00<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Hey Dad, Why Do They Hate Us So Much? </span></b></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">We are near the end of our year here, and I can’t get Josh’s question out of my head. Why do they hate us so much? I think he asked this about six months ago. By then he had seen so much already, and this strange new life for him had become very normal. He was living in a community that reaches out to strangers, he saw and participated in tzedakah projects, he saw people of all ages striving to learn - both Torah and secular studies. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Life just appeared to be regular; neighborhood schools were filled with children, after-school activities of all kinds went on every day, carpools, teams, tutors, playstation...life for a kid looked just like it always had. His parents went to the supermarket, to meetings, out with friends, welcoming guests into our house, and on vacation. Life for them looked normal too. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">There were cars, highways, roads, businesses, large buildings, construction cranes everywhere. We saw busy cities, lovely suburbs, farms, beaches, mountains, desert...in sum, he saw the world looking very much like it always had to him. Yet here in the middle of the Jewish State, with all this normalcy surrounding us, he was brought to wonder; </span><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Why do they hate us so much?</span></i></b></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I had a business dinner about 20 years ago with Shari Lewis (z”l). She became famous as a puppeteer whose character creation “Lamb Chop” had been one of my childhood favorites. Dating myself I know, but the memory returned to me this week as I thought about this note.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Her husband Jeremy was also at the dinner, and I learned, he was a very successful book publisher, writer and producer. As I remember our discussion, he was in the early stages of producing a television program. I decided this was my big opportunity to get into show business so I told him that I had a great idea for a show. I told him I couldn’t believe it wasn’t already on the air. He said, “ok, I give, what’s the show?” I said, “it’s a news show, it’s called “</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Good News</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">.” Every week the show would report on situations and people from all over the world who were doing good, who were making the world a better place, who were helping other people.” He laughed out loud and said to me rather matter of factly; “who would watch?”</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Even after 20 years I am still a little sad that it was so easy for Jeremy to shoot me down. I lament that I am part of an age and culture which has taken critique, rebuke, and doubt to such heights. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">My senses are particularly heightened as we speed toward the end of our year. I have so many emotions and thoughts about what is happening here, and what is happening around us. I think that is why Josh’s plaintive query hits me so hard right now. Hey dad, why do they hate us so much?</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Like most towns, Ra’anana has a mall. Malls are very popular in Israel and they inject a western, modern sense of normalcy into life here. They are clean, bright, and some are even architecturally interesting. Both Israeli and global merchants are represented, offering every kind of shopping experience that the modern consumer demands. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And the customers. Ah, that’s </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“The Good News.”</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> The customers speak volumes to the possibility of the Middle East. Friday’s are the perfect time to see it in action (though the most painfully busy if you need something!) Next to the orthodox man leaving the wine shop with his Shabbat purchases walk two chiloni (secular) young women wearing the latest fashions (which often looks like a skimpy clothing competition). Amidst this incongruous scene strolls the Muslim family; the father and son in front followed by the mother and two daughters, pushing another one in a baby carriage. The mother is wearing traditional Muslim attire and the older girls are wearing fashionable looking hijabs (headscarfs). They appear to be a modern though traditional family, probably not too different in many ways from the orthodox man’s family. They are clearly enjoying their time; shopping, browsing, eating snacks, living normally. And why not? I admit to a certain sense of pride when I see these scenes in the mall. Amid all the turmoil here, it is encouraging to see hope in two peoples shopping side-by-side. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Unfortunately, the good news is not universal in this neighborhood. In an article last week by historian Benny Morris in “The National Interest”, he wrote;</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 18.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A well-known hadith (a saying of the Prophet Mohammed accepted by Muslims as canonical and weighty), relating to the prospective end-of-days battle between Muslims and Jews, states:</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 18.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Prophet … says: 'The hour of judgement shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, so that the Jews hide behind trees and stones, and each tree and stone will say: "Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him" …'</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 18.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This hadith is approvingly quoted in the 1988 Charter (or constitution) of the Hamas, the fundamentalist Palestinian organization that controls the Gaza Strip and won the 2006 Palestinian general elections.</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 18.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And last week it received the approval of 73 percent of Palestinians in a poll run by American pollster Stanley Greenberg, conducted jointly by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion, based in Beit Sahur in the West Bank, and the Israel Project, a peace-promoting international nonprofit organization. The finding was based on lengthy interviews with 1,010 Palestinian adults in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. About 80 percent of those polled agreed that it was the duty of all Muslims to participate in jihad to eradicate Israel.</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 18.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The poll also found that 61 percent of Palestinians rejected the American-Israeli formulation for a settlement of the conflict based on two states for two peoples, one for the Arabs and one for the Jews. Only 34 percent of Palestinians questioned supported a "two-states-for-two-peoples" solution.</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 18.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The poll reflects the decades of Palestinian—PLO-Palestine National Authority and Hamas—education and incitement of the population of the territories against Israel and, more generally, the Jews. Fifty-three percent of those polled favored teaching in Palestinian schools songs promoting hatred of Jews. But 66 percent of those polled adopted the PLO-PNA gradualist approach of a two-stage "solution" to the problem of Israel, approving a first stage in which there would be two states before moving onto "stage two" with the establishment of one Palestinian Arab-majority state over all of Palestine.</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This incitement is real, and its impact goes far beyond a simple listing of statistics. Last month the Jerusalem Post reported on the story of the delivery driver who took a wrong turn near Hebrew University in Jerusalem and nearly ended up lynched in the Arab town of Issawiya.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“It’s hard for me to understand how this could happen inside Jerusalem – inside my home,” said the driver Nir Nachson.</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Nachson was going towards Ma’aleh Adumim to deliver a package for his </span></i></span><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px color:#00992a;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">delivery company</span></i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, Cheetah, when he attempted to make a shortcut near the Hadassah Har Hatzofim Hospital to avoid traffic.</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Near Hebrew University, his GPS advised him to turn onto the main road in Issawiya. When he made the turn, an 11-year-old boy saw his car and started yelling “Al-Yahud,” (Jew!) and a crowd of young people suddenly materialized and surrounded his vehicle, Nachson said in the interview.</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“Dozens of people were throwing blocks and stones and pounding on </span></i></span><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px color:#00992a;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">the car</span></i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, from what I remember from all </span></i></span><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px color:#00992a;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">directions</span></i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">,” he said, adding that he hadn’t even heard of the neighborhood before his ordeal.</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Using rocks and heavy objects, the mob broke through the windows of the car, opened the doors, and started beating him.</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“I didn’t have a lot of options until one of the residents there – a really righteous person, which I prayed for – decided to stop them and told me to come with him,” said Nachson. “I have to say at that moment going with him didn’t seem like the best idea, but I didn’t have any other options. If I had been there two more minutes we wouldn’t be talking now.”</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The man, a mukhtar, or village head, named Darwish Darwish, rescued Nachson along with the help of his sons, Channel 2 reported.</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 18.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 18.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">So while I am still not sure how to answer Josh’s question, I am sure that I would rather live in an Israel where Muslims and Jews live and work and shop side-by-side. We were at lunch yesterday with an Israeli father who works in the construction industry. He related a story about his experience with the openness of Israeli society. He told us that every day Palestinians come from the West Bank to work on the many building projects going on in Israel. They come by the busload. In addition, other busses bring the mothers and kids to the parks, malls, and theaters that are all over Israel. He expressed a mixture of emotions remarking that they come and use Israeli facilities freely, paid for with Israeli taxes, but that it creates a positive experience both for Palestinians and Israelis. In short he said, “Israel has an open door.” </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 18.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Sadly though it does not appear that the Palestinians plan on a similarly open society in any future Palestinian State. On May 30, the Jerusalem Post reported the following: </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">At the Arab League meeting in Qatar on Saturday, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinian state “will be free of all Jews.”</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Unfortunately while Josh’s question is reasonable sounding, I have not found a reasonable sounding response. Instead, I tell him we must each seek to be part of the solution, to live our lives according to the Jewish values of </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">b’tzelem elokhim</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> (that we are each created in the image of God) and </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">hachnasat orchim </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">(welcoming the stranger). That way, in the long run hopefully they will stop hating us so much. And that will truly be </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“The Good News.”</span></i></span></p>Bill Lipseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846161589336754575noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400729453780755424.post-61988583170777967222011-03-14T09:53:00.000-07:002011-03-14T10:52:45.476-07:00<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><b></b></p><b><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b>Disasters - Natural and Otherwise</b></span></span></span></p></b><p></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">An earthquake and a tsunami hit Japan this past weekend and killed thousands of Japanese citizens. The world is reaching out to the Japanese people, helping to search for survivors and deliver aid in a global expression of empathy at the unexplainable loss of life and property from this natural disaster. Rightly so, people around the world feel sadness over the grief and shock that have overwhelmed the Japanese people.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In Israel, five members of the Fogel family were slaughtered while sleeping in their beds in the town of Itamar, a settlement deep in the West Bank this past weekend. The act was one of terrorists intent solely on murdering Jews. This (or those) subhuman monster(s) slaughtered Udi, 36, his wife Ruth, 35, and their children Yoav, 11, Elad, 4 and Hadas, 3 months. The Palestinian response to this <b>unnatural</b> disaster was telling:</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">From PA President Mahmoud Abbas:</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In a statement released by his office, Abbas "stressed his rejection and condemnation of all violence directed against civilians, regardless of who was behind it or the reason for it.” Abbas added that "violence produces violence and what is needed is to speed up a just and comprehensive solution to the conflict.”</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">From the Editor-in-Chief of the official daily newspaper of the PA:</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color:#353434;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">"I don't believe that the incident in Itamar is an act of resistance, but rather an act by individuals whom we condemn, in the event it was carried out by Palestinians. Stabbing children in their sleep is not a heroic act but rather that of the heartless, </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">like some of the occupation soldiers and settlers, who murder children</span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">," Hafez Barghouti, editor-in-chief of Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, wrote on Sunday.</span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">He added that </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">the "real murderers in Itamar are the zealous settlers</span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> and anyone who burned a tree, vandalized the cemetery in Awarta, forced out the residents of Khirbet Yanun, took control of a plot of land or robbed an olive harvest .... The act at Itamar was a message to the occupation and to the world ... whose meaning is clear - the occupation must go."</span></i></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">From Salam Fayyad, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority:</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">We "clearly and firmly denounces the terror attack, just as I have denounced crimes against Palestinians. We are against all types of violence. Our position has not changed. As we have said many times before, we categorically oppose violence and terror, regardless of the identity of the victims or the perpetrators.”</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 6.0px 0.0px; line-height: 19.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">From Hamas:</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">After arresting three of its activists near Qalqilya and Jenin in the West Bank, Hamas Spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said, "The report of five murdered Israelis is not enough to punish someone. However; we in Hamas completely support the resistance against settlers who murder and use crime and terror against the Palestinian people under the auspices of the Israeli occupation soldiers."</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">From the unbelievable; </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b>“there’s no proof we did it”</b></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> to the absurd; </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b>“you forced us to do it”</b></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> to the horrifying; </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b>“we are justified,”</b></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> these responses tell a story no human being should accept; that the lives of Jews are worth less than those of others. The PA’s unceasing policy of incitement of Jewish anti-semitism has generated its latest terrifying result. Five Jewish souls are gone, three little children, one just 3 months old. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Words matter, ceremonies matter, National honors matter. Naming streets and squares after murderers, encouraging public celebration at the news of Israeli deaths, teaching children from textbooks espousing Nazi ideology and denial of the Holocaust, sending children to summer camps endorsing suicide bombing, and on and on is a mark of shame on the Palestinians. From Israel National News:</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">On the day before the brutal slaying of the Fogel family, Sabri Saidam, adviser to Abbas and under-secretary of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, told PA Arabs in a speech that “the weapons must be turned towards the main enemy [Israel] and that internal differences of opinion must be set aside.” Saidam denounced the low monthly stipends to families of terrorists who murder Israelis. He also called for the naming of another public square in honor of Dalal Mughrabi, the bloodthirsty terrorist who led the 1978 Coastal Road massacre that left dozens of Israelis dead, including 13 children.</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">From Eli Hertz’s website, “Myths and Facts”:</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 8.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Political and religious incitement plays a crucial role in mobilizing and motivating Palestinian terrorism. After the horrendous 2002 suicide bombing of a Passover Seder in a Netanya hotel, Fouad Ajami, a Middle East scholar at Johns Hopkins University, wrote:</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 8.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">"The suicide bomber of the Passover massacre did not descend from the sky; he walked straight out of the culture of incitement let loose on the land, a menace hovering over Israel, a great Palestinian and Arab refusal to let that country be, to cede it a place among the nations, he partook of the culture all around him - the glee [that] greets those brutal deeds of terror, the cult that rises around the martyrs and their families."</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 8.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Despite pledges to renounce violence against Israel, PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas continue to incite, inflame and encourage Palestinian Arabs to pin every problem they face as individuals and as a society on Israel. This strategy of channeling frustrations into hatred and the desire for revenge against Israel is adopted both by Israel 's immediate Palestinian neighbors and Arab leaders throughout the Muslim-Arab world. Arab leaders and the European Union [EU] lend support to the Palestinian cause with money and a combination of anti-Israeli and anti-American messages from government-controlled media outlets and educational systems. Sermons that legitimize violence in the name of Islam are encouraged, delivered by extremists throughout Muslim countries and in free countries in the West.</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 8.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Absent from the texts, absent from the Palestinian media, absent from the PA spokespeople and leaders are the basic principles of normalization and co-existence with Israel. Israelis have made recognition of Israel as a Jewish State, in other words that there will be two States as envisioned in the original Balfour Declaration and UN vote, a prerequisite to an agreement. This weekend’s unnatural disaster is a reminder of the desperate need for these basic principles.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 8.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 8.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Sources for this post include:</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 8.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color:#1022a3;"><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><a href="http://www.mythsandfacts.org/Conflict/5/Incitement.pdf"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">http://www.mythsandfacts.org/Conflict/5/Incitement.pdf</span></a></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color:#1022a3;"><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><a href="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142857"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142857</span></a></span></p><div><br /></div>Bill Lipseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846161589336754575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400729453780755424.post-90033492556568590472011-03-07T03:34:00.000-08:002011-03-07T12:20:15.722-08:00<span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>אני ואתה נשנה את העולם<br />(Ani V’Atah L’Shaneh Et Ha-Olam)<br />You And I, We’ll Change The World</strong><br /><br />Arik Einstein, a beloved Israeli performer, sang these words some 20 years ago... They apply today as much as ever. After six months of living and being immersed in Israel and her culture, life and rhythms, I am intensely motivated to help be part of the effort to make this change, and I urge you to join me. Because it is true; </span><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>You and I, We'll Change the World.<br /></strong><br />The Lipseys are a little past the halfway point of our year in Israel, and as I have written (www.lipseysinisrael.blogspot.com), the experience has been beyond anything we could have imagined.<br /><br />One of the subjects about which I (along with many others) have written is the growing lack of religious freedom in Israel due to the mounting pressures from the Haredi / Ultra-Orthodox segment of society. This issue is tearing at the social fabric of the country, and left unchecked can easily result in Israel becoming a theocratic state; a place where none of our children, grandchildren, or beyond will be welcome.<br /><br />I believe there is a moment of opportunity today, before the next round of elections, to impact the country on this issue. That is why I am writing this now, I believe Israel needs our help.<br /><br />Israel’s Declaration of Independence, written May, 1948 says; “The State of Israel ... will ensure complete equality of social and political rights of all its inhabitants irrespective of religion ... it will guarantee freedom of religion and conscience.”<br /><br />Sixty-two years later this expression of religious freedom is but a dream. The political system here has created a State-sanctioned religion now controlled completely by the Ultra-Orthodox, that by most estimates represents just 8% of Israelis. But, due to the vagaries of its political system, this group has taken advantage of its State granted religious monopoly and accepts far more of the country’s resources than their fair share.<br /><br />It is hard to believe that some of the events that have occurred have happened in Israel, but they have; Separate city sidewalks for men and women; public buses where women must sit in a small designated section in the back of the bus, entering only through the rear door; women arrested for holding a Torah or wearing tefillin near the Kotel, Rabbis advocating for a law that exempts rabbis from civil law, ultra-orthodox schools knowingly submitting inflated student rolls to the State in order to collect millions in excess stipends...all of these have and are going on here.<br /><br />The challenge is big. The Haredi (ultra-orthodox) community votes as one bloc and in a Parliamentary system like in Israel, this creates significant power. Allocation of public resources, control over conversion, marriage, divorce, burial, all of these fall under the control of the Haredi Chief Rabbi of Israel, which by the way is a creation / remnant of the Ottoman Empire, not a Jewish structure.<br /><br />What can we do? There are Israelis who are seeking to cause this change. But as with many things they are understaffed and underfunded. The goal is to build a consortium of people representing Jews who are from reform, conservative and modern orthodox communities, and ultimately from the biggest segment of the Israeli population, the chilonim - secular Jews.<br /><br />The Israelis working on this issue have a three-part plan:<br /><br />1. Develop a serious ongoing national public relations and advertising campaign aimed at bringing this existential issue of inequity into the daily discourse in Israel.<br /><br />2. Build an AIPAC-type organization aimed at tracking the voting record of the MK’s and then provide ongoing reporting of the results nationally.<br /><br />3. Organize a face-to-face campaign to register voters for political parties so they can vote in the primaries to gain significant sway on the outcome of future elections.<br /><br />Here is my thought; come to Israel for 3 - 4 days. Meet with major politicians, community leaders, rabbis, and lay people who are seeking to help effect change. We need to raise $1 million US to get this started. I believe we can do this, and we can do this now.<br /><br /><strong>I tell my kids all the time that this country is theirs. I look forward to one day telling my grandchildren the same thing. This is where Jews have yearned to be and live for 2000 years. Finally we’re here. I want to help make sure that stays true for all Jews.</strong><br /><br />Thanks for “listening,” I look forward to doing this with you!<br /><br />In the meantime, here is the link to hear Arik Einstein sing this beautiful and moving song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNwPoqEBgyc<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong>Ani V’Atah<br /></strong>Ani ve'ata neshaneh et ha'olam<br />ani ve'ata az yavo'u kvar kulam<br />Amru et zeh kodem lefanai<br />lo meshaneh, ani ve'ata neshaneh et ha'olam.<br /><br />Ani ve'ata nenaseh mehahatchalah<br />yiheyl lanu ra ein davar zeh lo nora.<br />Amru et zeh kodem lefanai<br />zeh lo meshaneh, ani ve'ata neshaneh et ha'olam.<br /><br /><strong>You And I</strong><br />You and I we'll change the world<br />you and I by then all will follow<br />Others have said it before me but<br />doesn't matter you and I we'll change the world.<br /><br />You and I we'll try from the beginning<br />it will be tough for us, no matter, it's not too bad!<br />Others have said it before me but it<br />doesn't matter you and I we'll change the world.</span>Bill Lipseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846161589336754575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400729453780755424.post-56896392349987575842010-12-19T07:57:00.000-08:002010-12-21T06:55:22.643-08:00<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Elephant in the Room</span></b></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In so many ways, Israel is just like any other developed nation on the globe. Problems like traffic, jobs, wages, education, and housing are all part of life here too.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The difference in Israel is the elephant in the room. Whatever you call it; the peace process, the Middle East conflict, the Arab - Israeli conflict, it’s always there, no matter how quiet it seems...it is there waiting, taking up most of the space. Yet life goes on, for the most part seemingly undisturbed by this biggest of issues. While the press fills its pages with stories on the conflict, daily life in Israel is about life; the good, the bad, and the regular.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A longtime friend and his wife (non-Jews) recently visited Israel for the first time. Seasoned travelers, they came on a 12-day trip that included Israel, Amman, and Petra on their itinerary. Before their trip my friend had asked that I recommend some books that he might read to get a better perspective on the situation in Israel. I suggested the following three:</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <ol style="list-style-type: decimal"> <li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span></span><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Start-Up Nation</span></b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> by Dan Senor and Saul Singer</span></span></li> <li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span></span><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Saving Israel</span></b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> by Daniel Gordis</span></span></li> <li style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span></span><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Israel: Echo in Eternity</span></b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> by Abraham Joshua Heschel</span></span></li> </ol> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Following their visit, I received an email from him with some comments and perceptions from a first-time visitor to Israel about the situation on the ground here. I have used some of his comments and questions to help describe how it feels here after four months on the ground; the good, the bad, and the regular; and of course, the elephant in the room. Here is my response (name changed...):</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Hi Jerry,</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I have so many thoughts about your questions and observations! As you note, many of the issues Israel faces are seemingly overwhelming. You started with an entirely rational observation; how is it possible for such a tiny country, home to approximately half of the world’s Jews, to have a policy inviting all the rest of us to enter as full citizens.</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I am glad you opened with this issue because it is the foundation upon which Israel was created. In Psalm 137 it says, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither away...” These words, written following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, have nourished Jewish yearning for a return to their ancestral homeland for more than two millennia. </span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color:#333233;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Being a Jew is more than being a member of a religious group. In my October blog I quoted one of my teachers who described what it is to be a Jew; </span></i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“To be Jewish is to be part of a sacred religious community, to be Jewish is to live by, and share with the world, the ethical code bequeathed to us, and to be Jewish means to settle this particular land; Israel. To be Jewish is all of these things.” For two thousand years the ideal of settling this land was only a dream, now, in this moment in history that dream has become reality. </span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0pxcolor:#333233;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color:#333233;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Consider some data. During each of the past 10 years the number of new immigrants to Israel from all countries ranged from 15,000 to approximately 50,000. At the same time the number of births among just the ultra-orthodox Jews currently living in Israel is approximately 50,000 per year. Thus most of the population growth in Israel comes from the current population. Yes, the immigration door is open. And I would describe this open door as crucial following the Holocaust when almost no country would let Jews in (including the US). Still, most Jews not currently in Israel are free, and are happy to be living in the Diaspora. </span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0pxcolor:#333233;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color:#333233;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">You raised a series of questions about the economy and the difficulties facing Israel. As one who travels a lot too, I would say by observation the economy in Israel is comparatively robust. The unemployment rate in Israel is just 6.6% (versus nearly 10% in the US, 8% in the UK and 9% in France). In addition, Israel was one of the only western economies in the world that avoided most of the global financial crisis. The Israeli banks never permitted the kind of crazy mortgage lending that became so prevalent in the US and elsewhere. </span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0pxcolor:#333233;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color:#333233;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Still there are big problems here too. As you note, nearly a quarter of the country’s population is currently living below the poverty line. Most of these folks are either Israeli Arabs or Ultra-Orthodox Jews. As I described in my last blogpost, many of those Jews are electing to be on state welfare and subsist below the poverty line rather than seek employment. Many of the Arabs rely on construction jobs and while building activity is better here than in most places, it is still not high enough. Further, education achievement among Arab populations in Israel has been lower than that of Jews. No doubt there is shared responsibility for this, though solutions inevitably are long-term and require intense commitment by many.</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0pxcolor:#333233;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color:#333233;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Inflation and cost of living are issues here too. It is expensive to live here, though not extreme. As a measure, about a month ago the United Nations (an organization not prone to emphasize the positive aspects of Israel) released their annual Human Development Report, </span></i><a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2010/"><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px color:#1022a3;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development</span></i></b></span></a><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. The UN Development Program’s rankings depend on a number of factors: life expectancy, mean years of schooling, and gross national income per capita. Development is defined as freedom for people to engage in a long, prosperous, and above all else, creative life. This year, Israel is again ranked number 15 in the world, sandwiched nicely between Finland and France.</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">There are some basic quality of life issues here too. You mentioned the painful traffic conditions in and around Jerusalem. This is a two-sided coin...It’s a problem, but on many levels a good one. Tourism in Israel is at an all-time high right now. No doubt this creates some frustration for travelers, and I hope traffic did not mar your experience here. Jerusalem presents some unique traffic challenges. Perched high atop a hill, with many winding old streets, the city simply is not well-suited for the modern tour bus. However, there is a long-planned and “nearly completed” light rail system that should help reduce local traffic in the city. Still this is one of those issues that I think Israelis are comfortable enduring.</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0pxcolor:#333233;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color:#333233;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Last but not least, you asked about the issue of safety and security and the sense of relentless pressure from hostile neighbors. </span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Jews have been residents of this particular place dating back to Abraham for more than 3500 years. Unfortunately, the modern State of Israel has never been accepted by most of the Arabs living in the neighborhood. The West Bank Fatah-led Palestinians have never changed their charter to acknowledge the right of the Jewish State of Israel to exist. In Gaza, the Hamas charter vows the destruction of the State of Israel and the elimination of Jews from its land. Kind of hard to see a path to peace with these “partners.”</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In 1917 the Balfour Declaration stated; “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object...” </span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In 1922 the British Mandate for Palestine was unanimously approved by the Council of the League of Nations, which stated, “Whereas recognition has been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.” </span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In May 1948, the UN announced their partition plan drastically reducing the territory originally set-out for Jewish Palestine in the Mandate. Coming on the heels of the Holocaust, the Jewish leadership accepted the UN plan. The Arabs did not. On May 14, 1948 the day Israel declared its independence and the end of the British Mandate, Arab armies from five countries invaded the brand new State. </span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In 1956, in 1967, in 1973, in 1981...wars were waged against the Jewish State of Israel. Each time the State survived because of its independence and because of its friendship with other democratic nations, most notably the US and in 1956 France. </span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Israel has unilaterally withdrawn from Palestinian and Arab territory twice. In Lebanon and in Gaza. In return, the Jewish State was rewarded with attacks and more wars. The second intifada with its homicide bombers led to the building of a separation fence and checkpoints at crossings between Israel and Palestinian territories. The bombings stopped. The death stopped. </span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Of course, this is not the ideal. Someone once said; consider what would happen if either the Jews or the Palestinians agreed to a total cessation of war or hostility and agreed to dismantle their armies. In the case of Israel disarming, the result would immediate and complete annihilation. The end of the Jewish State and the death of many of its citizens. In the case of the Palestinian / Arab agreement to cease violence, there would be immediate and massive investment in the future of the region and the opportunities to combine the power of oil and technology.</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">So when you ask whether this state can exist given the pressures it faces from so many hostile parties, I can only answer that this State must do everything it can to protect its citizens from the stated deadly intentions of too many of its neighbors. Peace is a dream that Jews (and many Arabs) pray for, yet peace will only be possible when true partners accept that the Jewish State of Israel is a reality and will always be so. </span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0pxcolor:#333233;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color:#333233;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Sources for this blog include the following:</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0pxcolor:#333233;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color:#1022a3;"><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><a href="http://www.mfa.gov.il/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">http://www.mfa.gov.il</span></a></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0pxcolor:#333233;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color:#1022a3;"><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><a href="http://www.bls.gov/ilc/intl_unemployment_rates_monthly.htm"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">http://www.bls.gov/ilc/intl_unemployment_rates_monthly.htm</span></a></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0pxcolor:#333233;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color:#1022a3;"><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><a href="http://www.isrealli.org/un-ranks-israel-15th-best-country-in-the-world-for-quality-of-life/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">http://www.isrealli.org/un-ranks-israel-15th-best-country-in-the-world-for-quality-of-life/</span></a></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0pxcolor:#333233;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; color:#1022a3;"><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><a href="http://www.mythsandfacts.org/Conflict/mandate_for_palestine/Mandate%20for%20Palestine-11-20-07-English.pdf"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">http://www.mythsandfacts.org/Conflict/mandate_for_palestine/Mandate%20for%20Palestine-11-20-07-English.pdf</span></a></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0pxcolor:#333233;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></p>Bill Lipseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846161589336754575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400729453780755424.post-63559827715043364792010-11-14T02:27:00.000-08:002010-11-18T04:22:52.594-08:00<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It’s Complicated</span></b></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This is the reply to nearly every question asked here that begins with, “How is,” or “Why is.” In Hebrew they say; זה מסובך (zeh misubach), it’s complicated! </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“Truth and simplicity do not always overlap” wrote Daniel Gordis in his recent book, </span></span><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">SAVING ISRAEL: How the Jewish People Can Win a War That May Never End</span></i></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. He used this phrase to describe the seemingly endless fencing match between peace and hostility being contested by the Israelis and the Palestinians. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">On October 20, Thomas Friedman wrote a column in the New York Times titled; “</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Just Knock It Off; Will the Israelis and Palestinians Get Serious Already?</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">” While Mr. Friedman’s many admirers describe his willingness to admonish his fellow Jews about Israel’s errors dealing with the conflict as evidence of his evenhandedness, articles like this recent one are troubling. Perhaps it was merely the voice of frustration pouring out from one who has yearned for peace in this land for so many years. Or, perhaps it was a bit of journalistic hubris from one who “knows better.” Either way, it’s VERY complicated, and the suggestion that everyone should </span><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“just knock it off”</span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> seems out of place for an observer as seasoned as Friedman. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">As for my own complications, four weeks into ulpan (intensive Hebrew language immersion class), and I love being a student again. Of course, there is frustration, there is the painful reality of the difficulty of the task, and there is a very big time commitment. But there is more than enough genuine excitement at my progress to offset any pain. My repertoire includes upwards of 60 verbs from three “binyanim” (literally translates as “buildings” but in this case refers to categories of verbs). I can adequately conjugate between present and past tense. So linguistically, I am stuck in a live-for-the-moment by understanding the past orientation. (Not a bad perspective from which to view the world, though I am looking forward to developing even a rudimentary sense of the possibilities of the future!)</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This past week in class we read a paragraph by one of Israel’s most beloved authors; Amos Oz. In the story, Oz depicts wisdom as an old man, a new immigrant to Israel. Sitting in the park, decked out in his suit and tie, he is met by a young Israeli who depicts the passion and fire of youth. “It’s boiling hot, the weather is always hard here in Israel” says the young man. The old man says he has moved here from Romania and now lives in Ashdod (a southern Israeli town near the sea). Asked how he likes life in Ashdod, the old man says, “It’s wonderful. I think Israel is like the Garden of Eden.” This statement inflames the young man, and he cannot help himself, exclaiming; “How can this be the Garden of Eden?! We have wars, internal strife, cultural dilemmas between people of different origins, problems between the religious and the secular, etc., etc.”</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Unfazed, the old man sighs and says, “כן, גן–עדן עם צרות” (“you’re right, it’s the Garden of Eden (but) with troubles.”)</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Each day the local Israeli papers are filled with stories about these troubles. The peace process or lack thereof; the status of Israel's relationship with the US, with Europe, and with her Arab neighbors; the scandals of this or that politician...it’s all very complicated. But maybe the most troubling and perhaps the most complicated of all is the real and growing wedge that exists between the Haredim (the Ultra-Orthodox) and everyone else. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A little historical background is useful here. In 1947, in recognition of the need to address the complex nature of the legal status of religion in the coming state, a letter was sent by the Jewish Agency - the primary Zionist institution then - to the ultra-Orthodox community. This letter became known as the “</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">status quo agreement</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">,” and has become the precedent upon which the preservation of the religious character of the Jewish State has been built. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The letter dealt with many issues, including; Shabbat, kashrut, education, marriage and divorce. Interestingly though, neither this letter nor the Defense Service Law of 1949 addressed the issue of exemption from military service for Yeshiva students (religious men who study Torah in traditional religious institutions). In 1948, Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, agreed to postpone military service of 400 Yeshiva students. On the eve of independence, Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Herzog wrote a formal request to the first Chief of Staff, Gen. Ya’acov Dori: “The holy Yeshivas in Israel deserve special treatment because, after the destruction of the Diaspora, they are the remnant of the Torah institutions and their students are a small minority. . . Requiring them to enlist, even if partially, could undermine them, and Heaven forbid that we should do that.” </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">These several hundred deferments have swelled to more than 50,000 today, representing over 14% of the country’s 18-year old men eligible for the military that evade service by studying in Ultra-Orthodox yeshivas. Given current population size and birth rates, that number is expected to rise to 25% within 10 years. Unchanged, within 30 years more than 50% of the army-eligible population will avoid entering the military this way. In a country in which military service is a defining cultural marker, this separation has created a dangerous social chasm.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The wedge goes beyond military service though. Approximately two-thirds of ultra-Orthodox men do not participate in the workforce, compared to one-third of non-Haredi men. It is estimated that underemployment of Haredi men costs the Israeli economy NIS 5-15 billion ($1-4 billion) per year. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Further, the hottest political topic in Israel today is that the Israeli Government funds the studies of some 90,000 adult yeshiva students, for as long as they continue to study; the vast majority of whom do not work at all. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In addition, since the late 1970s (beginning with Prime Minister Menachem Begin), the Israeli government has provided a child allowance subsidy to all citizens that increases with each subsequent child. For two children a family receives NIS 360 per month, for four children the monthly subsidy is NIS 1090, and for six children the stipend reaches NIS 1822 per month. Given high birth rates among Haredi families, this policy adds to the tension.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Now layer on top of these socio-economic factors the emotionally and politically charged dialogue surrounding what are euphemistically referred to as issues of personal status; conversions, marriage and divorce. Let me start with a real and unfortunately typical story. Two weeks ago Michal, a daughter of our friends Emily and Jack, was married. Michal grew up in the Masorti movement in Israel. She and her new spouse Aryeh decided to enter the chuppah using a Masorti rabbi. She enjoyed a wonderful wedding, a beautiful Shabbat and weekend with family and friends celebrating the simcha of this happy, young Jewish couple. Yet in the eyes of the State of Israel, they are not married! If she had been married by a Masorti rabbi outside Israel, there would be no problem, they would be considered legally married. But here in Israel, unless one is married under the auspices of the Chief Rabbi’s office, they are not considered married. Thus to become legally married according to the State, these young couples must leave Israel and get married בחוץ לארץ (b’chutz l’aretz) outside the land of Israel!</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And then there are the conversions. This past spring and summer we witnessed the reopening of the “Who is a Jew” wound due to the so-called “Rotem Bill.” The response by Diaspora Jews was dramatic; more than 60,000 emails were sent from US Jews to Prime Minister Netanyahu imploring him not to make a bad situation worse by codifying the power of personal status into the hands of the Chief Rabbi (which by the way is a creation / remnant of the Ottoman Empire, not a Jewish structure). In part because of this pressure, the bill was temporarily set aside. But the Chief Rabbi’s office remains undeterred. This summer the Chief Rabbi’s office decided to call into question the conversions of several thousand IDF soldiers that the Chief Rabbi had previously approved. These converts, mostly consisting of Russian immigrants, went through the strict halakhic process of conversion while serving the country in the military. Now these conversions are being threatened with reversal by the same Chief Rabbi that approved them! </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Unfortunately this very complicated problem that began with the founding of the State has worsened. Israel’s Declaration of Independence, written May, 1948 says; </span><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“The State of Israel ... will ensure complete equality of social and political rights of all its inhabitants irrespective of religion ... it will guarantee freedom of religion and conscience.”</span></i></b></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Sixty-two years later this expression of religious freedom is but a dream. To fix the problem? No doubt, it’s complicated. The political system here has created a State-sanctioned religion (ultra-Orthodoxy) that by most estimates represents approximately 15% of Israelis. But, due to the vagaries of its political system this group has taken advantage of its State granted license and accepts far more of the country’s resources than their fair share. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Consider what to do at the store when a cashier hands us change from a $20 bill when we only gave a $10. Our sages are clear on this; to retain the extra change knowingly is theft. Unfortunately the cashier in Israel is the State, and the customer is accepting $100s of millions of extra change not $10 worth. To fix this inequity is very complicated, and perhaps will be painful for many. But to avoid fixing it because of the extreme challenge is even worse. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Sources for this post include: </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">An article from Daphne Bark-Erez - visiting professor at Columbia University Law School: </span><a href="http://www.tau.ac.il/law/barakerez/artmarch2010/36.pdf"><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px color:#1022a3;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">http://www.tau.ac.il/law/barakerez/artmarch2010/36.pdf</span></span></a></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Hiddush - For Religious Freedom and Equality: </span><a href="http://www.hiddush.org/"><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px color:#1022a3;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">http://www.hiddush.org</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">/</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 15.0px 0.0px; line-height: 22.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></p>Bill Lipseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846161589336754575noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400729453780755424.post-70943705651664761032010-10-17T12:54:00.001-07:002010-10-17T12:54:54.145-07:00<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Our Name is Israel</span></b></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Great teachers challenge our perceptions. As the Chagim (the holidays) have closed, and after two months here in Israel, I found myself reflecting on a class I took almost 20 years ago. “The question is not who is a Jew?” said Rabbi Herb Friedman in his booming bass voice with characteristic intensity, “the question is </span><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">What is a Jew?</span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">” Herb was an impassioned teacher and Jewish leader. He was the inspiration for, and the founding President of, the Wexner Heritage Foundation - a two-year program of rigorous Jewish learning for community leaders that has had a major impact on Jewish communal life in the Diaspora and in Israel.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">What is a Jew? I remember wondering as I sat in that class. Who asks such a thing. It’s obvious isn’t it?! But it is not obvious. Like most things important; it is complex, it is subtle and it is a question with which we must wrestle.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">As Rabbi Friedman fielded the Wexner students’ responses, his goal and the answer became clearer. One said, being Jewish means practicing Judaism, it is participation in a religious community. Another said, being a Jew means belonging to a cultural community, a people that has contributed the Torah and the ethical precepts that have been taught by our rabbis over the millennia. Still another said, it means being permanently connected to the land of Israel as a kind of biblical inheritance. “You’re all right,” he said with emphasis, “to be Jewish is to be part of a sacred religious community, to be Jewish is to live by, and share with the world, the ethical code bequeathed to us, and to be Jewish means to settle this particular land; Israel. To be Jewish is all of these things.”</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Living in Israel for the Jewish Holidays, the feeling of “being Jewish” in all three respects could not be more powerful. No matter where we are, Kol Nidre is an evening of intensity. The sea of people. The dominance of the color white in our clothes; kippot, tallitot (prayer shawls), dresses, and kittels (white robes). The seriousness of the prayers. Here in Israel everything felt magnified. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Then we left shul and began our walk home. The real power of Yom Kippur for me this year happened outside shul, after the services were over. We had been advised that no one drives on Yom Kippur, not even the most secular person, but we could not have prepared for the experience of walking home that evening. On Kol Nidre, all of Israel celebrates together. And I mean all of Israel.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Walking home we took the long way; through the adjacent town of Kfar Saba and then through Ra’anana. People poured out of their homes, out of their apartments and into the city streets, into the town squares and parks. Kids riding their bicycles and tricycles, teens walking and laughing together as if they had just completed the last day of school, adults smiling, talking, and greeting one another as if at a giant family reunion. There was a buzz of unrestrained joy in the air, coupled with an absolute sense of quiet and peace. I know it sounds like an odd juxtaposition, but it was real.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Road 4, one of the main north-south highways in the center of the country, was a perfect setting for a stroll, a bike ride, or an impromptu soccer game. Yet the absence of automation produced a natural quiet. Israel’s democracy was on full display that evening. Each individual was welcoming the New Year with the sense of hope, renewal and opportunity that each year offers, in a way most meaningful to them. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Then came Sukkot; always my favorite holiday. The physical and the spiritual seem perfectly blended on Sukkot. We build little huts in our yards, decorate them brightly, invite our friends and family over to share meals, and at times even sleep in them. This precarious little structure, physically reminding us of the uncertain nature of our lives, imploring us to look for meaning </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">inside</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> the sukkah; to our friends, to our family, and to God.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Sukkot started differently this year. We went to the Ra’anana Sukkot Street Market (shuk) to buy the necessary items for the holiday; the four minim (species) made up of palm, myrtle, willow, and etrog (a cousin of the lemon). The town square was alive with lulav and etrog salesmen, each offering us stories of why their table of goods was the best. Josh, Amy and I went with our neighbors and new friends the Maimon family. Josh and his buddy JoJo each received 100 shekels (about $25). Their mission was made clear to them; purchase your 4 species for less than 100 shekel and you can use the remainder to buy candies and goodies, also on sale in the square. It was a memorable evening, and Josh was proud to have completed his goal with plenty of cotton candy to spare! For Amy and me it was a wonderful first taste of Sukkot in the Jewish State. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">And looking back now, Sukkot was my favorite Holiday again, fulfilling that emotional and spiritual need at the close of Yom Kippur. We were joined by both new and longtime friends in our sukkah. We were welcomed as guests by others. And, by the end of the week, we felt that the community we have entered is but a continuation of the one we have always been in. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The closing of Sukkot comes with Simchat Torah (literally; </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Rejoicing of the Torah</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">). As Jews, we complete the annual cycle of reading the Torah in celebration, just as we begin the New Year with a renewed sense of purpose and hope that we can improve upon ourselves. We will read the same stories in the Torah again in the coming year, and we celebrate; hoping that we will glean just a little more in the coming year both from the Torah and from our lives. So as we danced with Torahs in one shul near our house, we went outside and danced in the street, meeting the community from another shul dancing in the streets.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Holidays in Israel are a remarkable time. Life’s rhythms are altered, offering us space to engage ourselves and each other on a more spiritual plane, giving us a chance to remeasure and re-gauge. Looking back, I think we timed coming to Israel perfectly, arriving here just before the beginning, giving us a chance to engage in our own remeasuring and re-gauging.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In a little over a month we will read Parashat Va-Yishlach, during which we will read about Jacob wrestling with an angel and because he does so his name is changed to Israel, “for (he has) striven with beings divine and human, and has prevailed.” (Gen. 32:29) As I remember Rabbi Friedman’s class, now I understand even better his question, “What is a Jew?” Yes it is the religion, yes it is the culture and values, and yes it is the geography, but even more so, it is the engagement in all of it that makes us Jews. We wrestle with it all and because of that our name is Israel.</span></span></p><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><br /></span></div>Bill Lipseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846161589336754575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400729453780755424.post-86906244790862233502010-09-17T05:15:00.000-07:002010-09-17T05:16:25.069-07:00<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Where Else?</span></b></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I had an “aha” experience last week. I think I finally get it. Having just spent Rosh Hashanah in Israel for the first time, I can better appreciate the Christmas experience most Americans enjoy. For me Christmas has always seemed a time of pretty lights, nice music, and commercial scenes of Clydesdale horses pulling sleighs filled with laughing people on a sparkling winter day along a rural picket-fence lined road. People greeting each other during this season with the warmth and niceness typically reserved exclusively for Disney World; with “Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas” completing each conversation. But I was never really a part of it. I never felt like I was in the club.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In Israel I am a charter member. Walking down the street a young man is hurrying someplace, as he passes he looks at me and smiles saying “shanah tovah” wishing me a “good year” as he races on. In the shopping mall the security guard at the supermarket, typically a pretty surly sort of guy, greets each incoming and outgoing customer with a steady stream; “shanah tovah,” and “chag sameach (happy holiday).” At the Druze village in the north we stop for lunch at the hummus restaurant, “shanah tovah u’metukah” (a good and sweet year) says the owner and his wife as our meal is delivered. Every conversation, every advertisement, every interaction is laced with the sentiment of the possibility and opportunity that new years bring.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">My dad turns 80 in a couple of weeks. He likes to tell a story about me as a kid growing up in suburban Chicago. The way he tells it, he and I were taking a walk around our neighborhood on an unusually warm December day when I was 4 or 5. As we walked past houses decked out in Christmas splendor, I am said to have remarked; “we’re Hanukah people, aren’t we daddy?” In Israel, Hanukkah people are everywhere, and during the High Holiday season there is a sense of connectedness that I have never felt before.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">For the past 15 years at Agudath Israel in Caldwell, NJ, the High Holidays found us in the choir, on the bimah, in the pews, walking through the neighborhoods on breaks, sharing dinners and break-fasts with friends. We’re not only members of a shul, we are part of a community. We know most people and most people know us and it feels comfortable and nice and like home. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">So when people asked me “aren’t you excited to be spending the Holidays in Israel this year” my reply was simple, “I am thrilled about the prospect of spending a year in Israel, but I think I will miss being at home at Agudath for the Holidays.” So after Rosh Hashanah I can say I was right and I was wrong. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I was right because it is true, I do miss being at Agudath. I miss knowing everyone, and sharing the experience with people I have known for a long time. I miss my Rabbi’s sermons, my Cantor’s melodies, the familiarity of our space, and my seat in the choir.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">But I was wrong, I am part of a community. Four Rosh Hashanah meals, eight invitations to people’s homes for our family. Attending services in an intimate setting where for the first time in my life, I understood the power of the shofar. I had always experienced the shofar from afar, and from a sort of anachronistic perspective. The ancient Jews blew the shofar from mountain to mountain to alert those in the neighboring towns of the coming holiday. I know it sounds a little hokey, but this year, the shofar sounds felt like they were aimed at me, calling me personally to heed the messages of renewal and selflessness that are thematic of the High Holidays.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">As we prepare for Kol Nidre tonight I am filled with awe of the opportunity and blessing our family has been given to experience living in Israel. As we meet people who are here from America, the UK, South Africa, most of whom came on a six-month or one-year adventure five to fifteen years ago, I ask them all the same question; “why did you decide to come here?” The answers are all so similar and all so powerful:</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“We have had a Jewish homeland for only the past 62 years after more than 2000 years without one. Given those odds where else would I be.”</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I am grateful to be here in Israel this year, experiencing the adventure and possibility that is the Jewish homeland. I wish everyone who reads this a Shanah Tovah U’Metukah (May We Each Have a Good and Sweet New Year), and G’mar Chatimah Tovah (May We Each be Inscribed for Blessing in the Book of Life).</span></span></p>Bill Lipseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846161589336754575noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400729453780755424.post-28839465327424411842010-09-01T13:27:00.000-07:002010-09-01T13:29:47.612-07:00<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Will It Be Different This Time</span></u></b></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I had been thinking about writing this posting all week. I was going to describe my impressions of the coming peace talks from my new Israeli lens. I was going to talk about complexity and complication. And then last night, sitting here in Israel on the eve of the first meaningful direct peace talks between Jews and Palestinians in years, terrorists murdered four Jews while they were driving their car near Hebron. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">A terrorist attack. Four innocent lives stolen in an instant. There have been so many over the years. But being in Israel, being here with my family, it just felt different this time.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I spent all morning reading and rereading the responses from the various parties:</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Israel’s leadership</span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> declared their anger at attempts to derail the peace talks, and further declare the IDF’s and Shin Bet’s commitment to “get their hands on those who perpetrated the attack.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged settlers in the West Bank to show restraint and respect the rule of law in Israel in the wake of the fatal attack that took place near Hebron on Tuesday that left four Israelis dead.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Palestinian Authority</span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> expressed their “outrage over the attack and accused Hamas of attempting to thwart the negotiations.” Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Prime Minister, said measures would be taken to prevent further attacks. “We condemn this operation, which goes against Palestinian interests,” he said in a statement. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Hamas</span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> issued its remarks drenched in the evil of its own complicity with this barbarous act; “we praise the attack and consider it a natural response to the crimes of occupation.”</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Those on the right</span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> described their insistence that; “the leaders of Israel wake up from their delusions of an imaginary peace...Netanyahu must at once freeze the talks and concentrate on securing peace for the citizens of Israel.” </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">While the left reasoned</span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, “The shooting attack in the Hebron Hills yesterday could not have been a surprise. Palestinian opposition groups, especially Hamas, were highly motivated to embarrass the Palestinian Authority on the eve of the start of direct talks in Washington.”</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">President Obama said,</span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> “I want everybody to be very clear: The United States is going to be unwavering in its support of Israel’s security and we are going to push back against these kinds of terrorist activities.”</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">And, I saved the most pernicious response for last; </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The US State Department</span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, whose spokesperson P.J. Crowley offered the following remark; “Any time one human being takes out a weapon and fires and kills other human beings, it’s a tragedy. We just don’t know the circumstances under which this occurred.”</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">As I read and thought about all of these reactions it jumped out at me; </span></span><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">not one</span></b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> reflected on the individuals whose lives had been stolen. </span></span><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Not one</span></b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> mentioned the families whose brother, sister, mother, father, daughter, son, and grandparent had been erased from the earth. The replies are all so banal and predictable. The claims are all so hollow. Has politics dehumanized us so far that no one even bothers to mention the individuals who were slaughtered?</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">At the end of the first chapter of the Torah, Bereshit 1:27 it says:</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">“And God created man in his image (B’tselem Elohim), in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them...”</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">There are no political sides in the Torah. There are human beings, male and female, each created in God’s image. Four images of God had their lives taken from them yesterday. Yitzhak and Tali Ames, parents of 6 children from ages 5 to 24 and grandparents for just six months. The other two have not yet been named though one was said to have been a pregnant woman.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">As these direct talks begin, my prayer is that the individuals responsible for leadership accept each other as B’tselem Elohim, as being in the image of God. That way, this time it really will be different.</span></span></p><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><br /></span></div>Bill Lipseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846161589336754575noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400729453780755424.post-84292394405278855972010-08-26T12:14:00.000-07:002010-08-27T04:49:37.198-07:00<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Access, Intensity and American-ness</span></b></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">When I was in fourth grade I remember coming home from school one day and telling my mom that I was having trouble seeing the blackboard. Like any good mom she promptly took me to the eye doctor who gave me my first pair of glasses. That first moment outside with my new glasses is permanently emblazoned in my memory. The blackboard wasn’t the only thing I had been missing. Lawns were made up of individual blades of grass! I was stunned. Leaves on trees were distinct and unique. The world was fresh and new and I was thrilled.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I loved that feeling of seeing the world anew. As my glasses have thickened over the years, each time I shift prescriptions I try to remember that sense of wonder and joy I had with my first pair. Sight, clear vision, is truly a gift.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I have been given another moment with my first pair of lenses here in Israel, and I am again in awe. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Going for a coffee (at any time of the day) is clearly a very normal Israeli activity. Social, business, political, community, whatever the excuse, going to the coffee shop is just what people do. So Amy and I went to the coffee shop a few days ago, invited by our friend Emily, to meet with a Knesset Minister, Yohanan Plesner from the “Kadima” party and the nearby town of Hod Ha-Sharon. (Kadima means forward and is Israel’s centrist political party.) </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Sure this is a small country, but going to have coffee with one of the 121 members of the country’s legislative branch of government seemed like a big deal. Except that it isn’t. Here Yohanan is truly a people’s representative. Sitting in the coffee shop he greeted his constituents like any politician would anywhere in the world. Yet dressed just like the rest of us in short sleeves, chatting about the future of the country, he is just another Israeli intensely focused on the risks and opportunities facing the Jewish State. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And intense he is. Filled with youthful zeal and dreams, he spoke with passion about the critical nature of political involvement. “Too many people reject politics as dirty or corrupt,” he said, “but politics have an impact on each of us and we must encourage each other to become actively engaged.”</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Following the meeting with Yohanan he asked whether I would like to attend a conference this week with Tony Blair as the keynote speaker. I said yes, and he asked me for my mobile number. Later that day, I received a text from him with my invitation attached. Hard to imagine that exchange happening with one of my Senators or my Congressman...</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The conference was eye-opening. Held at the Recanati Business School in Herzliya (right on the Mediterranean Sea about 15 minutes north of Tel Aviv) the conference was titled </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“The De-Legitimization of Israel: Threats, Challenges and Responses.”</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> My first reaction was disappointment that by holding a conference with such a name Israel would give credence to the mere idea that the State could be considered “de-legitimate.” </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">But after listening to the Israeli speakers (through translation) share their intense and energetic perspective on the importance of reinforcing Israel’s strengths and contributions throughout the world, I understood that the conference had critical purpose internally. With the whole world seeming to peg you as villain, holding a conference to discuss the implications seems rational. Then when Tony Blair spoke, representing the Quartet as Envoy to the Middle East, he reinforced the evil of de-legitimization, and his avowed admiration for, and support of, the rights of the Jewish State of Israel. I applauded along with everyone else as the crowd’s sense of pride from the support of a major player in the upcoming direct talks was palpable.</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">After his speech I walked out of the auditorium feeling almost buoyant. As I stood in the lobby I listened as two people shared their perspectives on the prospects for peace. Clearly at opposite ends of the political spectrum, the dialogue went something like this:</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b>Left:</b> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">So what do you think of the chances at the talks?</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b>Right: </b></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">No chance. I sure hope that Netanyahu doesn’t give up an inch. We have compromised over and over. It’s time for<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">them to compromise!</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b>Left: </b></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Or else what?</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b>Right:</b> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Or else we stay with the situation we’re in today. It has gone on for 60+ years, it </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">can keep going for 60 more. </span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b>Left:</b> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">How can you say that! Don’t you care that our children and our grandchildren may not be able to live in this land? </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Have<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>we been so perfect that we can’t compromise a little more to truly establish peace!?</span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><b>Right:</b></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">They don’t want peace! Can’t you see that!? I was in Gaza in 2000, taken through by a Palestinian human rights </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">group. They were building spas and hotels, and resorts by the sea. I believed that they would never be willing to </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">throw away economic opportunity if they could just see it. But they did! They believe that we do not have any right </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">to be here and they will NEVER truly accept </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">us.</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">As I watched and listened to this exchange, I cringed wondering who would resort to personal vitriol first or even lash out physically. But neither did. They concluded their disagreement by talking about friends in common and work they have done together. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">I told one of them that such an exchange just cannot occur any longer in America. There we only speak about politics with those whose views are identical to our own. If we stray, we risk being ostracized, ridiculed, or worse. The individual said to me, we Israelis don’t have such a luxury, here we all have the same ultimate goal; survival. </span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Intensity appears to be at the core of being an Israeli. We see it everywhere, in the coffee shops, in the newspapers, walking through supermarket aisles, and especially on the roads. We were warned about driving in Israel, to be patient, to avoid engaging in any roadway debates, and to drive extra defensively. </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">One interesting observation about driving is related to what appears to be another of Israel’s technological firsts; car horns are apparently connected by a microchip to traffic lights! There must be a sensor in the cars that flips on when the light turns from red to green; how else to explain the cacophony of horns?! </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">But that intensity is critical to their real goal. Survival. I love seeing the individual blades of grass again. I look forward to seeing more.</span></span></p><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><br /></span></div>Bill Lipseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846161589336754575noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400729453780755424.post-90253478324976948592010-08-18T00:00:00.000-07:002010-08-18T00:08:40.016-07:00<p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="text-decoration: underline ; letter-spacing: 0.0px"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Good News Matters</span></span></b></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Just open any newspaper, anywhere in the world and it’s obvious: Negative sells. Bad news sells. Good news is boring...except when it applies to you. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">If you are reading this entry, this good news matters because it applies to you! Hospitality, genuine caring for the stranger is legendary in the Middle East. In Va-Yera, just the fourth parashah in the Torah, Abraham and Sarah set the standard for hospitality:</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">He (Abraham) was sitting at the entrance of the tent as the day grew hot. Looking up he saw three men standing near him. As soon as he saw them, he ran to the entrance of the tent to greet them, and bowing to the ground, he said, “My lords if it please you, do not go on past your servant. Let a little water be brought; bathe your feet and recline under the tree. And let me fetch a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourselves; then go on -- seeing that you have come your servant’s way...”</span></span></i></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The story goes on to describe how Abraham and Sarah did not just bring </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“a morsel of bread.”</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> Instead they brought the best of all of their food, prepared a great meal including the finest meat from their herd, and waited on them while their guests ate. My own attempts at hospitality, while genuine, and I hope meaningful to my guests, seem feeble in comparison.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Not so regarding Israeli hospitality is our experience here. A little perspective; this past February I was here for a five-day mission with the Masorti Foundation Board and leading US-based rabbis to learn more about the 55 and growing Masorti communities in Israel. During the visit I got to know the lay Chairperson of the Masorti Movement in Israel, Emily Levy-Shochat. Emily spent several hours with our group during the 5 days. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A couple of months after the trip, as Amy and I were becoming serious about the move, I emailed several people about our nascent idea; Emily among them. Once we decided to come for a “pilot trip” to confirm that none of us would succumb to complete panic, her response was immediate, “you’ll come to stay with us (she and her husband Jack). You can’t stay in a hotel. That’s no way to live in Israel. You’ll stay in a couple of rooms in our house, we’ll give you a key and you’ll live like Israelis.” I was stunned. She barely knew me, had never met Amy or Josh, yet here she was opening her home to all of us!</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">We stayed for five nights. We all know about the correlation between guests and fish... We violated that rule, and still were embraced by Emily and Jack. As we came back a few days ago, this time to live, our house wasn’t ready for a few days. Emily and Jack again, now real friends, opened their door as Abraham did. </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The family whose house we are renting were remarkable to us. Though introduced though our “commercial” relationship, they took making our transition into Israeli life a personal mission. As they prepared to move to China, they had us over for a Shabbat afternoon meal, introduced Amy to several NBFs, drove us throughout the area showing us shops for every imaginable item, giving us lists of every imaginable, and hopefully avoidable, doctors, telling us which rabbi gives the best shiurim (classes), helping find the right neighborhood 11 and 12 year old boys to bring Josh into Israeli sports life, and on and on.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Saturday night Scooter’s cousin Ilana and Joel made a party in our honor. Serving Josh his favorite schnitzel, inviting 7 couples over to welcome us to Israel while standing on their balcony overlooking the rooftops of Rishon l’Tziyon, it was memorable evening. The highlight came when a retired general from the Israeli army’s “Signal Corp” (the Communications Division of the army) gave a speech / toast. In it he described that the mission of Jews everywhere should be to come and help make Israel great. Speaking directly to Josh, he offered that his coming here was a great sign for Israel and the Jewish people, because the future in his hands; that he is the future of the Jewish people...needless to say, I thought it bit too much pressure for one 11 year old boy, but Josh seemed charged by the challenge!</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"></span><br /></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Welcoming the stranger is one of the great mitzvahs in our heritage. I hope that we are able to extend ourselves to be hosts in the tradition of Abraham and Sarah as we have experienced during our first days here. As you come to visit us, you be the judge.</span></span></span></p>Bill Lipseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846161589336754575noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400729453780755424.post-14718292434772504912010-08-05T04:44:00.000-07:002010-08-06T06:11:18.377-07:00<div><strong>The Israeli Frame</strong></div><div>( August 5, 2010)</div><br /><div>The frame matters. We bring our perspective, biases, judgment, and experience with us. We can't escape it, and shouldn't try. We are and become who we are through the frames that encompass our lives. Husband, Father, Son, Friend, Executive, Partner, Business Owner, American, 50-something, Jewish Community Lay Leader...I know all of these frames. I do or have worn them all.</div><div> </div><br /><div>The frame of "now" is unusually powerful. This is especially so during moments of great change or stress. My business as a value investor is actually built on this very real human tendency to overweight the present. Making good investment decisions requires a willingness to examine the investment from all sides, from near and far, and most importantly with facts. As with investing, so too in life.</div><div><br /></div><div>Our "pilot trip" a couple of months ago coincided with the flotilla incident surrounding the issue of the Gaza blockade. Tragic loss of life, caused by a premeditated attack on the Israeli soldiers who boarded the ships. Seven ships, one partially loaded with armed members of a terrorist group aligned with Al Qaeda, nine people dead, two Israeli soldiers badly injured.</div><div><br /></div><div>While we were there and the details were beginning to become known, it was clear that as I observed this incident from my Jewish American lens, my perception was vastly different than that of most Israelis. We all were sickened by the unnecessary loss of life and the disdain for life inherent among these terror groups. But Israelis viewed their military as having terribly botched the situation. Their frame told them that their military must not be anything less than perfect, and when they are less so, the fault is theirs.</div><div><br /></div><div>Over the last year Israel has been beset by an internal conflict that risks tearing the societal fabric of the country. One woman was arrested for wearing a tallit. Another women was arrested for carrying a Torah. Women riding on government funded buses have been physically and verbally assaulted should they dare to sit in the front of the bus. The debate about "who is a Jew" was reopened in the Knesset and tabled only after Prime Minister Netanyahu received over 50,000 emails from American Jews concerned for their rights as Jews. </div><div><br /></div><div>My Jewish American lens sees basic issues of religious freedom that I cannot believe exist in the country that was established for <b>all</b> Jews after 2000 years without a homeland. Ask most Israelis about this dilemma and they wonder what we are talking about. They have lived in a country where everyone knows there is a state-sponsored religion, and if one isn't ultra-orthodox then they are simply not welcome in the religion.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Masorti Movement in Israel today has 55 communities spread throughout the country. The opportunity exists to build upon this and offer the 85% of the people who are not ultra-Orthodox access to Judaism in a modern context. Connection to a spiritual base while living in the modern world. The Israeli government has a religious affairs budget of over $450 million. Of this only $100,000 is dedicated to non-Orthodox streams. I look forward to helping to support the enterprise of expanding access to modern, Israeli forms of religious expression through Masorti. I look forward to engaging in dialogue with others about the imperative of religious freedom. Israel must not be allowed to become a Jewish version of the fundamentalist and religiously intolerant states surrounding her.</div><div><br /></div><div>We teach our children about Am Yisrael...the people Israel...it is with great fear that as our family prepares to enter Israel, the country is devolving into Shtai Am Yisrael - the two people of Israel. I hope and pray that will not be the case. One Israel for the haredi and one for everyone else must not be an acceptable outcome. </div><br /><div>So as I write this blog I knowingly bring my life's experiences, my perspective, my biases into this journey. I look forward to building on those experiences and see life through an Israeli frame.</div>Bill Lipseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846161589336754575noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-400729453780755424.post-17563929851846681812010-07-19T07:28:00.000-07:002010-11-18T04:25:53.896-08:00Moving to Israel – What are You Doing!?<p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-family:arial;">Moving to Israel - What are You Doing!?</span></strong></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;">(July 9, 2010)</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span> </p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;">I was always fast.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>Really fast.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>As a kid, our games of choice had no wires, no components, and no bandwidth requirements…we played tag, we played pick-up games in the park until it was too dark to see, or your mom was yelling so loudly that even from two blocks away you heard her all too well.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;">But speed was my thing.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>I still recall the moment I realized that I was fast…I was about 9…funny thing is, I have never stopped running.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>Until now.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;">I have this image in my mind of a train.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>Traveling along the fixed tracks.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>Moving with certainty and purpose; no deviation.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>The train stays on its tracks.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>It’s not a prison train, it’s a nice train. Very posh inside, lots of services for the rider, speeding on to fantastic locations and destinations.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>I love the ride.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>I am blessed to be on this train.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>But still, I can’t help but notice those amazing sites racing by outside the windows.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>Sure, I know, “the grass is always greener…”<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>But while the grass may not be greener, it is likely to be different.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>Maybe not even grass; maybe forest, maybe rivers, maybe people, maybe horizons…</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;">Speed can be deceptive.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>Sometimes you can’t tell you’re going so fast.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>Traveling through a cloudless sky on a jet, even 500 miles per hour feels speedless.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>No reference points, no speed. Yet there we go, racing through space nonetheless.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>Too often, life on the train desensitizes us to speed.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>You don’t even notice time is going by so fast, until it already has.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;">A couple of years ago our son Josh (then 9) and I went to <st1:placename st="on">Kennedy</st1:placename> <st1:placename st="on">Space</st1:placename> <st1:placetype st="on">Center</st1:placetype> in <st1:place st="on"><st1:state st="on">Florida</st1:state></st1:place> with my dad.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>We had lunch with a rather remarkable guy named Story Musgrave.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>Among other things, Story is an astronaut who at the time had logged more hours on the Space Shuttle than any other pilot at NASA.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>His life story is inspirational.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>Born in 1935, he grew up on a farm in <st1:place st="on"><st1:state st="on">Kentucky</st1:state></st1:place> and during his life of exploration he has earned master’s and doctorate degrees in math, physiology, medicine (surgery), biophysics, literature, business, computer programming and an undergraduate degree in chemistry!<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;">I read an interview with him this month in <i>“Flying”</i> magazine on the dilemma of missing the forest for the trees from a pilot’s perspective.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>He described the pilot’s imperative of strict adherence to detailed checklists versus missing the miracle of flight and space travel and the experience of just looking out the window.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>The pilot’s dilemma that Story describes, just like the sole destination while on the “achievement train” helps me define the impetus driving me to pursue this year of exploration and adventure in Israel.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;">My friend and teacher, Rabbi (about to be Dr. too!) David Hoffman, shared some of Abraham Joshua Heschel’s thoughts on this topic with me last Thanksgiving.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>I have kept these words on my desk since he shared them with me because the message is so fundamental and yet so easy to miss.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;">Heschel said; <b><i>“Indifference to the sublime wonders of living is the root of sin.”</i></b></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><strong><em><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span></em></strong> </p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;"><strong><em></em></strong><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;">As David wrote in his lesson; “an unwillingness to identify the wonders and acts of kindness present in each of our lives creates an obstacle for us to bring more loving-kindness and peace into the world.”<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;">The writer who interviewed astronaut Story Musgrave reflected on the pilot’s dilemma as follows; “it involves balancing a left-brain, checklist focus with a far more right-brain immersion in a moment of experience.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>One might think that accomplishing that balance – in space or as a pilot within our own atmosphere – would be fairly straightforward, since we all have right- and left-brain functions going on within us every day.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>But…that balance can be hard to achieve.”<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"> </p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></o:p></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:arial;">I look forward to engaging in the struggle to achieve more of that balance.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>I am asked frequently, “What are you going to do while you’re in <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place>?”<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>My answer so far is to be open to the experience, to explore the world, and to allow myself the privilege of seeing some of what’s going on outside the train.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>I’ll keep you posted.<span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:10;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></p>Bill Lipseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02846161589336754575noreply@blogger.com0