Wars of the Jews

Rabbi Reuven Hammer makes excellent points in his Jerusalem Post opinion piece today reminding us that the Western Wall – site of premeditated ultra-Orthodox rioting Friday against Women of the Wall group – 

is (a) not part of the original second temple structure and 

(b) is the remnant of an edifice built by Herod.

It has symbolic and mythic value, of course, and its antiquity is an expression of the connection between Jewish civilization and the Land of Israel.

My sentiments -- needless to say --  are  with the progressive and liberal forces within Judaism.

 

I myself tend to avoid the Jewish Quarter of the Old City unless we have guests from abroad or out of town. The area strikes me as a Diaspora-oriented Disney-like theme park.

 I'll stick with the Herod exhibit at the Israel Museum.  

IHT Publishes Israel-friendly Cartoon

Thursday's International Herald Tribune has published a cartoon that shows President Obama in two frames.

"Syria's Assad is out of control!
There's only one thing to do."

"Hope that Israel shows some guts!"

I don't know how such a sentiment escaped the oversight of Serge Schemann, whose idea of balance is to present an Arab or European critic of Israel countered by a Jewish or Israeli critic of Israel.

Nice way to start a Thursday morning.

Modest Step Toward Electoral Reform?

The Israeli Cabinet is set to propose a bill that if passed into law would be a modest step toward badly needed electoral reform.

The measure includes raising the electoral threshold to 4% -- I'd like to see it higher but this would be a good beginning.

It would limit the number of cabinet ministers to 19 and it would require that 61 Knesset members support a vote of no confidence.

In sum, it would foster a less parochial, more centrist, more stable, more efficient government and could strengthen the Knesset. Now, so many MKs are also ministers or deputy ministers that legislative oversight of the executive is weak.

I'd still like to see half the Knesset elected on the basis of constituency representation.

File Under "The masses are asses."

Curious, troubling, survey released by Fairleigh Dickinson
University’s Public Mind on Wednesday finds that 29 percent of
Americans think that an armed revolution might be necessary in the next few years -- five percent unsure.

Here is the press release:
http://publicmind.fdu.edu/2013/guncontrol/