| Proud to be a Zionist - 5782noreply@blogger.com (Unknown), 05 May 04:00 AM I wrote the original essay around 2002 and I have been modifying it every | |  |
I wrote the original essay around 2002 and I have been modifying it every year since then. This year's version is largely rewritten.========================
To antisemites, Israel can do no right.
It can be more liberal than the US. It can be more tolerant of Muslims than Western Europe. It can be more friendly to gays than New York City. It can send more medical aid to disaster areas than nations that are 50 times larger. It can quietly spend untild amounts of money to ensure that its defenses don't hurt innocent people.
It doesn't matter - not only does it get no credit for this, the haters claim that Israel is doing this in order to whitewash its crimes. Meaning that even its altruism and progressiveness is twisted against it.
A normal reaction to this would be to say, "why bother?" Why do the right thing when the world will still treat you as a criminal?
But Israel doesn't do what it does to gather praise. It does what it does because it is the right thing to do, and what other people say has nothing at all to do with that.
That is a ethical level that most professional ethicists or religious leaders will never reach.
I am a Zionist and I am proud of it.
I know that Israel has the absolute right to exist in peace and security, at least as much as any other country. Given Israel's unique history and the resurgence of antisemitism worldwide, Israel arguably has more moral legitimacy than any other nation on Earth.
As Israel has grown, grown successful and become an economic...Read More |
As Palestinian officials have been threatening a religious war if Jews go to the Temple Mount on Thursday and unfurl and Israeli flag while singing songs, Israeli police issued a statement that no such thing will happen.Most Palestinian media are not publishing the denial, instead concentrating on the incitement and urging Arabs to come en masse and "defend al Aqsa." But some Palestinian arabic news media are reporting the Israeli police denial that any provocative actions will happen. The articles put quote marks around the statement, but it is not even close to what the police statement said.
The police statement: We call on the public not to listen to fake news and this wild incitement, which is mostly spread on social media by hostile parties with a foreign interest. It will be clarified that there is no change and no change is planned in the status quo that has existed for many years on the Temple Mount and the holy places in general, both in the context of Muslim prayers there or of tourist visits from abroad and Israelis according to accepted visiting hours. Anyone who upsets the order, incites violence, riots and acts of violence of any kind - will be treated harshly and with zero tolerance. Any support, identification or activity within the framework of terrorist organizations will be handled by the security forces with determination and with all the forces and means at our disposal. The...Read More |
From Ian: With 'quiet' fireworks and calls for kinship, Israel kicks off 74th Independence Day Israel slid from grave heartache to celebratory joy Wednesday evening, as the nation ushered in its 74th Independence Day, with calls for unity attempting to cut through political disputes that marred solemn events earlier during Memorial Day. "Right now, between these two days, with the transition that is so tough and so Israeli, we manage but for a moment to truly be one," Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy said in a keynote address at the main state ceremony marking the start of Independence Day at Mount Herzl. "We manage for a moment to not let any division get between us. And if we could do it yesterday, and we can do it tomorrow, I believe we can manage to do it every day; to choose to see the good in each other, to choose to brighten people's faces, to choose partnership over division, to be together in this home for us all." The comments echoed similar calls for unity that have marked the holiday period, including from President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Bennett, who was heckled by antigovernmental protesters during the state's main Memorial Day remembrance event for terror victims, said that while Israel is well-equipped to handle outside threats, it is still menaced by internal polarization. "We cannot let hate trap us, rule over...Read More |
1. No matter where you walk in the Old City of Jerusalem, you can be sure that your footsteps land where characters straight out of the Bible once walked, kings and prophets and priests. You even think to yourself, "I am walking where David walked. Where Solomon walked," and you give a little shiver, though you walk there every day. 2. In 2001, in response to terror, grief, and the loss of one of their own, a group of women founded a musical theater troupe called Raise Your Spirits that, until today, puts on shows written, produced, and performed by and for women. The actors will not let the terrorists win. It is a statement: "You cannot keep us down. We will rise up and live our lives, and bolster the spirits of our sisters, no matter what you do." Raise Your Spirits (author at center) 3. Traveling to pre-State Israel once meant an arduous trip by boat with no assurance that as a Jew, you'd be allowed to enter the country. Today, Israel is only a plane ride away and not only can Jews enter the country, but they can have citizenship and vote, because Israel is today, the Jewish State. 4. In an Israeli hospital, a Jew may be the recipient of care and kindness from Arab doctors and nurses and vice versa, on some level, a proof of de facto coexistence that gives lie to the Apartheid smear. Hadassah ICU, courtesy Barbara Sofer 5. On a crowded Israeli bus or train...Read More |
A Jordanian academic and "futurist" named Dr. Walid Abdel Hai says that Russian foreign minister Lavrov's claims that Hitler had Jewish blood are legitimate according to "science." His first "proof" is a paper by Leonard Sachs in the Journal of European Studies that cast doubt on a detail that had been used to debunk the "Hitler's grandfather was Jewish" theory: Hans Frank was Adolf Hitler's personal attorney. In Frank's memoir, published seven years after his execution in 1946 at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, Frank claimed to have uncovered evidence in 1930 that Hitler's paternal grandfather was a Jewish man living in Graz, Austria, in the household where Hitler's grandmother was employed. Contemporary historians have largely dismissed Frank's claim, primarily on the grounds that...Read More |
From Ian: Amb. Danny Danon: Remembering Israel's Fallen Soldiers On Remembrance Day for Israel's Fallen Soldiers on May 3-4, the country unites. The nation stands together to cherish the memory of the brave men and women who gave their lives to fight for and secure their nation's future. Every loss of a soldier tears a hole in the hearts of all the people of Israel. Each one is publicly reported with an extensive description of the circumstances. In addition to these fallen servicemen and women, each year dozens of wounded fighters pass away as a result of their injuries. While serving as a reservist, my late father, Joseph Danon, was badly wounded in a battle with terrorists in the Jordan Valley when he was just 29. After a lengthy hospitalization and numerous complex surgeries, the start of his never-ending rehabilitation process began. I was privileged to know a large number of severely injured IDF fighters. I will always remember that, despite the heavy price they paid as a result of their horrific injuries, their love for the State of Israel only grew and their belief in the righteousness of our nation's path was never undermined. May their memories be a blessing.Gantz to Bereaved Families: 'You Paid the Price for Our Existence'On Wednesday morning, Israel's Defense Minister...Read More |
The JCPA published an interesting article about how the status quo has changed on the Temple Mount since 1967 - mostly towards Muslim control. One point made in the article struck me:The expansion of the Muslims' prayer areas and the establishment of additional mosques on the mount stemmed from a new definition of the Temple Mount compound by the Muslims, who began to refer to all of the all of it as "Al-Aqsa" and to regard the entire mount as one great mosque. They began to call the Al-Aqsa Mosque itself, which is on the mount's southern edge, "Al-Jamia al-Kibli"—the Mosque of the Direction of Prayer (in the direction of Mecca, signifying Jerusalem was Muslims' first direction of prayer).
Until the Six-Day War the southern mosque was defined differently from the other parts of the compound and was called by its real name, Al-Aqsa; the compound as a whole was called "Al-Haram al-Sharif" (the Holy and Noble Place). But after the Six-Day War—as the Jewish-Muslim dispute over the mount intensified—the situation gradually changed and the Muslims applied the name "Al-Aqsa" to the whole compound, with all its buildings, streets, and walls. This is absolutely true. Here is how the Waqf guidebook for the Temple Mount looked until 1967: And here it is now: In the...Read More |
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