Thursday, May 04, 2023

WHAT'S WORTH KNOWING ...

Iranian ships swarm and seize another oil tanker, US 5th Fleet says

 

https://www.stripes.com/branches/navy/2023-05-03/iran-seizes-another-tanker-navy-9996841.html

 

Schoolgirls in Iran say they are still being poisoned: here’s what we know – video

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2023/may/02/schoolgirls-in-iran-say-they-are-still-being-poisoned-heres-what-we-know-video

 

Yair Lapid - יאיר לפיד - אני יהודי.

https://www.facebook.com/100044530655544/posts/pfbid0oF1xigTx7bP6CrPQAxJm8fhgLqVt1fgbCZmCD7KwY21CvCkza8RnWFjmSfTcYJMyl/?d=w&mibextid=SDPelY

 

$1.2m racism payout ‘owed to every black Californian’

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/1-2m-racism-payout-owed-to-every-black-californian-vdvf09h83

 

UK Coronation Remains Religious, Even if the Country Isn’t

With King Charles’s ceremony, Christians debate the theology of the monarchy and celebrate a unique opportunity for public witness.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/may-web-only/uk-king-charles-coronation-church-of-england-religious-mona.html?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=d3eda0077a-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_05_03_02_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-d3eda0077a-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

 

What you are not being told about jailed 'activist' Jamshid Sharmahd

https://www.thegermanreview.de/p/what-you-are-not-being-told-about?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email


Nota bene - I am not endorsing the editorial slant of these articles; I am saying they are worth knowing about.  Your recommendations to WHAT'S WORTH KNOWING are welcome.  ej5@nyu.edu

Wednesday, May 03, 2023

WHAT'S WORTH KNOWING ...

 



בן גביר תועד נואם כשמאחוריו כתובת שמפארת את ברוך גולדשטיין ומאיר כהנא

השר לביטחון לאומי נאם בערב יום העצמאות בישיבת "הרעיון היהודי" שהוקמה בידי כהנא, וגם כיום מזוהה עם תורתו. עם כניסתו של בן גביר לתפקיד אמר ראש הישיבה: "תמיד היינו מחוץ למחנה, והנה עכשיו נכנסנו למרכז

https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politi/2023-05-02/ty-article/.premium/00000187-d721-d9b4-abaf-ffbf40020000

 

A Skirt, a Wig, and a Glock-19

With antisemitic hate crimes on the rise, Orthodox Jewish women are packing heat to defend their communities.

https://www.thefp.com/p/a-skirt-a-wig-and-a-glock-19

 

New book ‘Merchants of the Right’ explores culture surrounding guns in America

May 1, 2023 PBS News Hour

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/new-book-merchants-of-the-right-explores-culture-surrounding-guns-in-america

 

 

The rival pilgrim loosening Erdogan’s grip on the faithful

Sunni followers may not be enough to save president from an opponent offering a more secular vision of Turkey

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/president-erdogan-may-be-losing-his-religious-grip-in-anatolia-as-ballot-looms-bd0sdbfmz

 

 

South African Jewish journalist Jeremy Gordin murdered in home burglary at 70

https://www.jta.org/2023/05/01/obituaries/south-african-jewish-journalist-jeremy-gordin-murdered-in-home-burglary-at-70?utm_source=JTA_Maropost&utm_campaign=JTA_DB&utm_medium=email&mpweb=1161-56977-662472

 

Rabbi Harold S. Kushner, Reassuring Best-Selling Author, Dies at 88

With a wide-reaching spiritual message in books like “When Bad Things Happen to Good People,” he drew on his own experience with grief and doubt.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/28/books/rabbi-harold-s-kushner-dead.html?searchResultPosition=1

 

The Trump Campaign’s Collusion With Israel

While US media fixated on Russian interference in the 2016 election, an Israeli secret agent’s campaign to influence the outcome went unreported.

By James Bamford

https://www.thenation.com/article/world/trump-israel-collusion/

 

 Nota bene - I am not endorsing the editorial slant of these articles; I am saying they are worth knowing about.  Your recommendations to WHAT'S WORTH KNOWING are welcome.  ej5@nyu.edu

Monday, May 01, 2023

MEIR KAHANE: FOUNDER OF THE MOVEMENT FOR AN 'ABNORMAL' INSULAR ISRAEL

 


Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical by Shaul Magid, Princeton University Press, 2021, 296 pages.

I hesitated to broach this book because I anticipated it would be a hatchet job. Left-leaning academics are not known for admitting that "Kahane was right" in his assessments. As a card-carrying JDL member from 1969-1973, I felt that phase of his career deserved an appreciative albeit not uncritical evaluation. He was then right about a lot. Having overcome my hesitancy, I can report that Meir Kahane: The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical is a valuable treatment, an intellectual biography, of the militant rabbi's ideas.

Magid is religiously and academically well-equipped for the undertaking; a professor of Judaic Studies at Dartmouth College, he lived in Israel and served in the IDF. He has a classic religious education and was ordained as an Orthodox rabbi. Today he holds the pulpit of the egalitarian Fire Island Synagogue. His is a substantive work with much to offer, providing you swallow his condescending asides (such as describing Kahane as a "middlebrow thinker") and permeating wokeness. For me, the reward outstrips any discomfiture. He also characterizes Kahane as a "reactive thinker" with short-term goals and weak follow-through. That is closer to the mark.

A central thesis of the book is that Kahane was a quintessentially American personality, the Israel stage of his career included. He saw Israel through an American lens and as suffering from the toxicity of US values. His intellectual battle was foremost against liberalism, first in America and then in Israel. What kind of liberalism? One that is defined by tolerance, humanist values, cross-cultural pollination, modernity, secularism, and majority rule constrained by overarching democratic values. In Israel, these foreign implants are to be uprooted. In line with New Left radicals with whom he had a love-hate relationship (they liked each other's tactics but disagreed over aims), Kahane rejected liberalism's notion that reforming the political system was desirable and could best be achieved through incrementalism and consensus building.

***

I joined JDL because it was the only group prepared to counter the street-level antisemitism I encountered on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. It was beside the point to differentiate between ordinary crime and violent antisemitism. New York City was a dangerous, uncivilized place with 1,000+ murders a year (starting in 1969 and abating only in 1996). Cemeteries were desecrated, synagogues firebombed, and observant Jews were targeted. So when Kahane, Burt Zweibon, and Mort Dolinsky founded a Jewish Defense League in 1968 to patrol Jewish neighborhoods and beat back Jew-hating hooligans – primarily blacks and Puerto Ricans – I saw this as a good thing.

Magid does not deny the visceral nature of black antisemitism. Still, he tries to contextualize it, suggesting that maybe as in Brooklyn's Ocean Hill-Brownsville, it was rooted in misunderstanding and miscommunication on both sides. Ocean Hill-Brownsville is where in 1968, a Ford Foundation social experiment went awry. The idea was to give local parents control over their neighborhood's schools, budget, and hiring. The activist parents and the school district superintendent they hired wanted the mostly Jewish teachers replaced, arguing that the predominantly black school population could best learn from teachers who looked more like them. The liberal Jewish head of the teachers union, Albert Shanker (1928 – 1997), who had campaigned down south for Negro rights, found himself and his teachers bashed for being "white" Jews.

In 1969, James Foreman helped draft a demand that churches (and synagogues) pay reparations to black people for America's legacy of slavery. Foreman had been a bigwig with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (which Jews had helped organize and fund until they were pressured to leave) and the Black Panther Party, a racial supremacist group originally formed to protect blacks from police violence. When Temple Emanu-El, a progressive Reform congregation on Manhattan's tony Fifth Avenue, invited Forman to make his reparations pitch, JDL showed up to block his way. This was done not to defend Emanu-El (which, in Kahane's view, didn't deserve it) but to make a broader statement against black intimidation and liberal Jewish cravenness. Foreman wisely stayed away.  

***

Magid explains Kahane believed that Jew-hatred was "endemic to gentile society" – as in "Esau hates Jacob." That liberalism erroneously presumed antisemitism could be made to disappear by inculcating tolerance and coexistence (such as through mandated Holocaust education in municipal schools). Liberalism's other fatal flaw, as Kahane saw it, was that it undermined Jewish continuity by fostering out-marriage. Magid denigrates such demographic concerns (which the Jewish establishment belatedly adopted) as "survivalism." Early on, Kahane correctly pointed to the phenomenon whereby progressive Jews conflated Judaism with liberalism. He took fair aim at a Jewish establishment that advocated bussing of inner-city black pupils and opposed designating NYC public housing for observant Jews while sending their own children to exclusive private schools and living in affluent lily white suburban communities. He condemned their philanthropic spending on non-Jewish causes, such as urban community centers and hospitals that did not serve Jews. He dammed them for ignoring Jewish poverty. JDL helped drive changes in all these areas.

Magid gives us a chapter on Kahane's understanding of – you should forgive the expression – the intersectionality between communism, the Vietnam War (which he supported), the Arab-Israel conflict, and the freedom for Soviet Jewry movement (which he helped spotlight). He saw the antiwar movement as a Trojan Horse for world communism and its liberal pro-Israel supporters as dupes who did not realize that with a Viet Cong victory, the movement's energies would be turned against Israel. It was.

JDL turned its focus to the plight of millions of Jews in the Soviet Union who could not live as Jews yet were prevented from leaving. When he was not invited to strategize about Soviet Jewry at the February 1971 conference of Jewish movers and shakers in Brussels, he burst in anyway and got himself arrested, which was precisely what he wanted. Kahane was not only a gifted writer, investigator, and organizer, he was a master of publicity (and, as Brussels showed, self-promotion). In March 1971, he organized a mass rally in Washington for Soviet Jewry. Magid reports, "Over five thousand people showed up" and sat in the street. "Many heartfelt stories were told about Jewish teenagers calling their parents to ask permission to be arrested." My mother, who distrusted larger-than-life, conceited personalities no matter how charismatic, said nope. But even without me, the DC police had never before arrested so many kids for (genuinely) nonviolent civil disobedience.

Then in Magid's telling, things fell apart. On January 27, 1972, the offices of Sol Hurok Enterprises, which brought over Soviet talent to perform in the US, were bombed, killing a young Jewish female employee. Kahane was in Israel at the time. He had moved there in 1971, dividing his time between the two countries. He had intended to establish an international JDL headquartered in Jerusalem but immediately turned his attention to running for the Knesset. The JDL was left rudderless. Kahane had encouraged his followers to engage in violence, often leaving them to their own devices.

(Photo: Washington, DC sit-down for Soviet Jewry. I am the one waving.)

***

Kahane went through seismic personal, political, and theological transitions throughout his life. He is remembered chiefly for where he ended up. "In Israel, Kahane's radicalism expressed through his rejection of Zionism as 'normalcy' – that is, to be 'like all the other nations.' He believed this was a trap that had plagued the entire Zionist project and would ultimately cause its collapse," writes Magid. He strenuously opposed Israel’s democratic political system. And he latched on to opposing Arab-Israel dating (as if this is a pressing issue).

And he became the leading advocate of violent apocalyptic post-Zionism. Kahane, whose father Charles hosted Zionist firebrand Ze’ev Jabotinsky (1880-1940) and had himself been a member of Betar, repudiated Jabotinsky’s classical liberalism and cosmopolitanism. As Magid reveals, he also rejected the religious nationalism of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook. It was too mystical, optimistic, and accepting of the non-Orthodox to his taste.

In Magid's words, Kahane's quest was for an abnormal insular state. "To be isolated is not to be alone. The greater the isolation of the Jew, the greater the awe of G-d's ultimate victory. The more we stand 'alone' and the less who stand with us, the more astonishing is G-d's majesty," Kahane wrote. This is why his followers today not only don't fear a global war with Muslim civilization over sacrifices on the Temple Mount, don't care if Washington ends its military aid and diplomatic backing of Israel, don't fear a bloody third intifada, and are unconcerned over the prospect the country's economy and its financial system might disintegrate – they anticipate positively such calamities as openings to force the hand of God and His redemption. You can't make a messianic omelet without cracking some eggs.

In contrast to the principles of Herzlian Zionism, Kahane's vision for Israel – in many ways, today's Hardal picture, too – is of an Israel where Jews and non-Jews are separated. It is a post-Zionist theology that understands Israel's creation as a punishment to the Gentiles. The burden, though, is on Israel. Magid explains: "Either the Jews do God's bidding by destroying the gentile, or God will destroy the Jews."

***

After multiple attempts, Kahane's Kach Party won one seat in the Israeli Knesset in 1984. Its platform included revoking the citizenship of non-Jewish Israelis, banning marriages between Jews and non-Jews, imposing fundamentalist Halacha on the citizenry, and expelling Israel's Arab population. Kahane knew – as only a fanatic possibly can – that this was precisely what God wanted. To wit: "G-d longs for this trust in Him, which will lead Israel to isolation and to relying on G-d. This, in turn, will open the gates of kiddush Hashem." 

In 1985, the Knesset amended a Basic Law to include anti-racism; it expelled Kahane, and its decision was upheld by the Supreme Court.

Today's "Jewish and democratic" mantra came into being as a reaction to Kahane in an amendment to the Basic Law passed in 1985 (9:7/A). Magid takes a swipe at Israel's Declaration of Independence by pointing out that it does not explicitly mention "democracy." In my reading, democracy is presumed and implied by Israel's founders:

We hereby declare that as from the termination of the Mandate at midnight, this night of the fourteenth to the fifteenth of May 1948, and until the setting up of the duly elected bodies of the State in accordance with a Constitution, to be drawn up by a Constituent Assembly not later than the first day of October 1948, the present National Council shall act as the Provisional State Council, and its executive organ, the National Administration, shall constitute the Provisional Government of the State of Israel.

Regrettably, the Orthodox parties blocked – as they still do – progress toward a written constitution.

As much as I have lately thought about how Hardalism and how it has combined the worst of two

worlds, haredi ultra-Orthodoxy with messianic apocalyptic politics, Magid crystallized for me the significance of Hardal's adaptation of haredi cultural insularity as an ethnonational principle. In Kahane's worldview (which more and more is the Hardal worldview enunciated by Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich), Israel needs to insulate itself from the values of the nations; from the foreign principles embodied in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and America's Bill of Rights, which Israel's "Hellenistic" Supreme Court on occasion looked to. These must be held in contempt. Israel must map out a Torah-based future; and depend exclusively on God. This takes haredi communal insularity and raises it to an ethno-state level. (PHOTO: Ben-Gvir addresses Kahanist gathering on Independence Day eve 2023.)

Meir Kahane, in his final intellectual phase, denounced modern Orthodoxy as culturally defiled and Herzlian Zionism as a Hillul ha-Shem. Of course, what makes modern Orthodoxy 'modern' is precisely its willingness to engage with the larger culture. But for him, ethno-purity and separatism is the goal. This requires the removal of non-Jews, their churches, and mosques from the Holy Land. He also wanted Jews to embrace revenge and violence as positive commandments. Israel's duty is to obliterate the sources of Hillul-ha-Shem. The Arabs personify Hillul-ha-Shem. So do Jewish liberals.

***

The government's campaign to "overhaul" Israel's judiciary is something Kahane might adjudge as an excellent first step, a prerequisite to achieving the insular illiberal Israel he envisioned. He would have viewed Yariv Levin and Binyamin Netanyahu as useful tools. Our prime minister egotistically supposes he can calibrate regime change; take it so far (to stay out of prison) but no further (avoid bringing down the Third Commonwealth). For now, a united front of the neo-Kahanist Hardal parties, venal haredi parties, and Bibi's illiberal Likud serves everyone's interests.

Kahane was a man of ideas – some repulsive, others spot on – and foremost, a demagogue par excellence. He would have reveled in the tropes of Israel's alt-right; the scapegoating of "Ashkenazim," "elites," Supreme Court justices, Aharon Barak, and the vote-stealing "leftist media." He would have been impressed by how a government in power can portray itself as the victim of a vast global conspiracy. Nevertheless, in the final analysis, he'd have little mercy for Netanyahu. I can imagine Meir Kahane, who knew a thing or two about Lenin, muttering, "With G-d's help, those tref-eating, bareheaded, homosexual-endorsing Zionist-Hellenists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them."

 

 

Sunday, April 30, 2023

GERSHOM GALE, VETERAN JERUSALEM POST STAFFER, 72

Gershom Gale passed away on 19 April 2023 at Hadassah Ein Keren at age 72.

He was a devoted and outstanding longtime member of the Jerusalem Post’s editorial staff and editor of the Christian Edition.

I learned a great deal from Gershom about editing, graphics, and layout. And most of all, about fortitude and courage.

He will be missed by all who worked with him.

Gershom is survived by his devoted wife Dinah, sons Ben and Josh, and their children.

MAY HIS MEMORY BE FOR A BLESSING.

Thursday, April 27, 2023

WHAT'S WORTH KNOWING ...

  



From one of my favorite veteran journalists….

Examining how U.S. politics became intertwined with personal identity

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/examining-how-u-s-politics-became-intertwined-with-personal-identity  

 

Yes, apparently….Jewish

Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe welcomes new baby with partner Erin Darke

The Jewish star was seen strolling with his child in New York

https://www.thejc.com/news/israel/yom-hazikaron-2023-israel-commemorates-24-000-fallen-soldiers-556dU5GpcqsYVec0ekwq19

 

What a NY journalist found on a recent visit

Even On Memorial Day, Israelis Are Divided

Fears of new laws that would weaken democracy cast a shadow on traditional day of national solidarity.

https://garyrosenblatt.substack.com/p/even-on-memorial-day-israelis-are?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

 

This is a favorite …. A kind of “what if” all Jerusalem Arabs were interested in normalization…

Palestinian reporter breaks barriers by reporting in Hebrew on Israeli TV

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/24/middleeast/palestinian-reporter-israeli-tv-mime-intl/index.html

 

Why is conservation and saving the planet such a problem for conservatives?

Concern About Several Environmental Problems Dips in U.S.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/474278/concern-several-environmental-problems-dips.aspx?utm_source=news&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_week_in_charts_send_4_april_04252023&utm_term=newsletter&utm_content=image_imagelink_4

My New York…the way I remember it

Alton H. Maddox Jr., 77, Lawyer in Tawana Brawley Rape Hoax, Dies

The case inflamed racial tensions, with Mr. Maddox later calling New York “the Mississippi of the ’90s.” After the fraud was revealed, he was unrepentant.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/nyregion/alton-maddox-dead.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=highlightShare

 Nota bene - I am not endorsing the editorial slant of these articles; I am saying they are worth knowing about.  Your recommendations are welcome.