Thursday, November 18, 2004
Walid Shoebat
Last night, I went to a speech at Aish New York given by Walid Shoebat, a former Palestinian terrorist turned Christian Zionist and staunch pro-Israel advocate. Let me just say that the man is awesome.
But what bothers me as a Jewish woman is the fact that there are almost no Jews who are equally pro-Israel and pro-Jewish. It seems to me that Jews get involved in lots of causes. But when it comes to matter of their group's own survival, they become moral-relativistic lemmings.
All of this reminds me of my awesome niece's Bat Mitzvah service this past summer. The Rabbi, who I'm sure meant well, made a long speech about Israel being the only democracy in the Middle East...blah, blah blah. He gave the example of how Israel gave sanctuary to a group of gay Arab men living in the Palestinian Authority, which is all well and good since Israel is a Western democracy. Then the Rabbi kept repeating "Israel must be above reproach."
What this well-meaning moonbat (my sister said he could be occasionally "putzey.") can't comprehend is that Israel will be reproached no matter what. To me, it's one example of Ayn Rand's expression "the hatred of the good for being good."
So anyway, I thought of this moonbat rabbi, and realized that the problem is with our Jewish leaders. All they seem capable of is whining about inter-marriage and assimilation. They can't conceive that the problem lies with them. The can't conceive that they come across as nothing more than a cross between a game show host and a politician, when they should speak and act with the moral clarity of Mr. Shoebat.
Another thing that bothered me after the speech was that fact that the two most bluntly pro-Israel/Jewish blogs -- the amazing Little Green Footballs and The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, are not written by Jews. Why can't Jews be as proud as the men behind these blogs?
But what bothers me as a Jewish woman is the fact that there are almost no Jews who are equally pro-Israel and pro-Jewish. It seems to me that Jews get involved in lots of causes. But when it comes to matter of their group's own survival, they become moral-relativistic lemmings.
All of this reminds me of my awesome niece's Bat Mitzvah service this past summer. The Rabbi, who I'm sure meant well, made a long speech about Israel being the only democracy in the Middle East...blah, blah blah. He gave the example of how Israel gave sanctuary to a group of gay Arab men living in the Palestinian Authority, which is all well and good since Israel is a Western democracy. Then the Rabbi kept repeating "Israel must be above reproach."
What this well-meaning moonbat (my sister said he could be occasionally "putzey.") can't comprehend is that Israel will be reproached no matter what. To me, it's one example of Ayn Rand's expression "the hatred of the good for being good."
So anyway, I thought of this moonbat rabbi, and realized that the problem is with our Jewish leaders. All they seem capable of is whining about inter-marriage and assimilation. They can't conceive that the problem lies with them. The can't conceive that they come across as nothing more than a cross between a game show host and a politician, when they should speak and act with the moral clarity of Mr. Shoebat.
Another thing that bothered me after the speech was that fact that the two most bluntly pro-Israel/Jewish blogs -- the amazing Little Green Footballs and The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, are not written by Jews. Why can't Jews be as proud as the men behind these blogs?
