Sunday, August 30, 2015

Perusing the Jewish Journal

I had occasion to pick up the latest edition of the Jewish Journal (Los Angeles) today. There were a number of articles about Israel, Jews, Moslems, and the nuclear deal with Iran. The articles had various points of view. One by Gina Nahai pointed out that the Shah of Iran promoted the rights of women while the mullahs (including the supposedly more liberal Rohani) of present day Iran suppress women. I agree, but nonetheless at the moment those are the guys who have the power in Iran and with whom we have to deal. A number of articles opposed the deal to various degrees. Dennis Prager is opposed to the deal and criticized American Jews who support it. David Suissa disagrees with the deal, but is against allowing disagreement to split the Jewish people apart. Rob Eshman points out that not all Israelis are opposed to the deal. A number of Israeli security experts find it a good deal. My opinion is that it is not a good deal but it is the possible deal, and there is no better alternative. The brightest article in the Journal was one by Haissam Hassanein, a Moslem Egyptian-American student at Tel Aviv University. After hearing bad stuff about Israel before going there, he found Israelis to be a diverse normal friendly people of various religions and opinions. Promoting this sort of image of Israel in the Middle East may very well be the solution to achieving Herzl's dream.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Who is Netanyahu and Who are We Jews?

Recently on the Fareed Zakharia show, Thomas Friedman was interviewed. He pointed out that that despite Netanhyahu's bluster, he has actually acted in a cautious manner. So who is Netanyahu? He talks like a war monger but does not act like one. I think Netanyahu's problem is that he is a politician more than a statesman. that is why he has such difficulty with President Obama who is a statesman more than a politician. But it also brings into question who are we as Jews and who are the people of Israel? After all a political leader in a democracy is elected by the people. Many of the military and intelligence leaders in Israel have spoken more dovishly than Netanyahu because they do not have to be elected and therefore can say what is real. Netanyahu has to pander to the mob and actually can stir up fear in the mob when it is needed to get elected. When the election is over he then regains his sanity. The Jewish people have had much to fear during the last 2 millennia since the end of the Kingdom of Judah. The people of Israel are particularly exposed and therefore willing to follow a demagogue like Netanyahu when it suites his purpose to be one. We Jews in the diaspora as well as in Israel have more than our share of intelligent people and people who do good for the world, but we also have our mishegooyim (maybe more than our share). We are the product of our history which was molded by the Christian and Moslem world.