chamsa

Although at the house religious judaism is being presented to me with principles that make me feel disgust and aversion for it, I'm still totally convinced that that interpretation of it is totally off. I have no idea where the inspiration for this fanatic, blinded, extreme shortsighted agression comes from, no idea where this is being indoctrinated - or indoctrinated is maybe not the right word - if you're not prone to it, you will not let it influence you? However, luckily there are more than enough jewish religious sources available to contradict the things people at my house are believing in and think it is judaism.

The first arab minister was appointed in Israel last week. Finally. Better late than never. The arab knesseth members were obviously (hahaha, such surprise) against Raleb Majadele's 'taking part in a *zionist* government' (blablabla) - those same self-centered arab knesseth members do nothing komma nothing for the arab israeli's and are busy all the time polishing their ego's abroad in the arab countries. Also his appointment was opposed by the israeli 'right' and 'left' - you can read all about that in the link provided hereunder - however this opposition (except for lieberman's of course) was not directly related to the appointment but rather to political games between right and left having nothing to do with Raleb Majadele in fact.

Rabbi Naftali Rothenberg wrote about this at ynet and again I was confirmed in my interpretation of judaism because of his approach:

The state, which was established to correct a historic injustice suffered by a people banished from its country and by persecuted people lacking rights in the Diaspora, was more than 50 years late in applying its moral argument to its own minorities, by allowing them to exercise their full rights and join the establishment as equals.

Anyway, good luck to Raleb who is still a minister without portfolio but that may change soon (with all the investigations against knesseth members and ministers - today Haim Ramon's verdict for example).

The link to the article and Van Leer's Institute (Rabbi Rothenberg staff member)

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3358870,00.html

http://www.vanleer.org.il/default_e.asp



Tse.

Let's not turn to anti-Arab racism
Rabbi David Forman Nov. 14th, 2005

History has proven over and over again that when a nation is faced with both an economic crisis and a security threat, the foundations of democracy can be readily sacrificed. But, it is under extreme circumstances that a nation is ultimately tested. For Jews, this is a serious matter. To bolster the country economically and militarily by trampling the basic rights of others is to deny the very values on which we Jews were born as a people.

[...]

In light of our present behavior, we should ask ourselves: Did we return to our ancestral homeland to become a nation like all other nations? If we teach our people the tactics of our historical enemies, will we not begin to look and act, at least in the eyes of others, as having assumed the posture of our most despised persecutors?

Whose image do we want reflected in the mirror – a Prophet or a Pharaoh? Israel and the Jewish people are at a crossroads. What hangs in the balance is not the matter of the territories, nor even the issue of war and peace. What hangs in the balance is the very face of Jewish civilization.

[...]

Ultimately, by introducing racist laws, it is not others, but we who are challenging our own legitimacy as a people and a nation.

http://rhr.israel.net/lets-not-turn-to-anti-arab-racism

Rabbis For Human Rights...

Amen
Tse.

I've always been reluctant to place personal stuff on the internet. First: what use does it serve? Second: who would be interested in one human being out of a few billion walking this earth? However...

since blogging itself is done from one's very own perspective and thus experiences mixed with one's own character and therefore is a 'personal' thing more than anything else ... maybe I should openly be as vain as we, bloggers, are anyway - by thinking that the story I gotta tell is worth being told (only where it serves relevance to the social/political conflict we are ALL experiencing in this region of course).

So, here it goes...

in 2 days time I'll 'celebrate' my 50th birthday... up until 3 years ago - I was looking forward to every birthday I was granted to live (I'm a late-bloomer or no 'bloomer' at all ~ it feels like my emotional world stayed stuck in my childhood years of simplicity and till now, although very hard to defend in a world where plain square moral integrity seems to need academic 'degrees' to analyze, found it -simplicity- my anchor on which I could always rely in order not to lose myself).

However... the past 3 years have been different and this year looks like it's gonna be the worst. Simplicity and personal integrity contains the control only over oneself and, there are people, even very -very close, that cannot and will not let their worldview be influenced by what I think. And, rightfully so - of course. Still... they clash. The worldviews that -when they filter down - are in effect the essence of one's character = a person...

While I'm calling for 'extremists' such as AlGhaliboon to please speak with me, recognize that we are all humans with feelings, no matter which side of the fence you're located at... at my house I'm struggling that very same battle.

Where once the only real good friends we had were muslim and jewish arabs and where palestinians were met without the hautain 'treatment' they received from ashkenazi jews (not all, but still it was very much notable) on terms of equality as it should be anyway - extremism has taken root in my house (not home - I can't feel at home where I'm met with fanaticism).

Maybe that sorta explain the very critical position I'm taking in my postings regarding Israel. What you don't want that happens to you, do not inflict that upon someone else as well. But, they are... doing it.

I love this country dearly. Spent the first 25 years only complaining about it ;) The people, so loud, so impertinent, the education they were giving their children that placed them above good manners and reasonability like they were a kind of miniature kings and queens - it sorta vanished, blended into a mixture that I find way more 'healthy' than the average European sneakyness.

I love this country dearly. But my heart cries... It cries even harder now I came to experience personally, in a private life manner very close to me, that religious fanaticism is inexplicable and a two-way road - each side keeping the other alive - and people like me are squeezed between the by-passing radicals each furying ahead in their own direction...

I love this country dearly. I've never 'done' drugs and don't intend to (although sometimes it surely sounds very attracting LOL) - but that day in late December 2005 - when I got outta the taxi in Jerusalem and heard the moazin of the al-Aqsa and the humming of praying jews underneath near the Western Wall while at my left side Christian bastot were selling religious souvenirs - I felt high. That must have been the closest someone has ever come to feeling PERFECTLY at peace, feeling 'this is how it SHOULD be"...

Where did men come in anyway to claim 'power' over whatever when religion is concerned? What is religion worth if it would take the almightly power of God and place it in the hands of men?

I fight people like you, AlGhaliboon... I fight the people at my house (and it hurts and no-one can have any idea of how difficult this is - but) .... I fight and fight and fight... and through all this just remember religious bigots such as you (including the people that were once close to me at my house) - that MY victory is that I won't lose faith - I won't let go of MY religion: the religion that I am convinced was the root message of ALL religions: the preaching of tolerance, respect, recognition, equality - in short the religion of PEACE!

MY victory is that I won't lose ME.

Tse.

PS... above is a bit of a dramatic post I realize - and I am certainly no drama-queen (I hope, LOL) so here's another 'look' on things:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewPnbjiyRXA

The good:
[...]Two teenage refugees who escaped the massacre in Darfur traveled via Cairo, Sinai and Israeli jail to finally find refuge at Kibbutz Tse'elim. 'This is our family,' the two say[...]

[...]Another surprise awaited him when he was invited to drink tea in the kibbutz's Bedouin tent. The tent reminded him very much of the refugee villages he had passed on his way, but the smell of smoke from the campfire and the taste of the tea that was cooked there reminded him of home. When his friend, A., who is also from Darfur, explained to him that the tent was a tourist attraction, M. burst out laughing. It was the first time he had laughed for many days.[...]

[...]But it is not just them; the entire kibbutz is lending a hand. The secretary solved the bureaucratic difficulties, one woman volunteered to teach them Hebrew and another to take care of their daily needs. "Someone has to supervise that they are eating properly and that they don't lack for anything," says Shulamit.[...]

[...]judging by their behavior in the family's home after only one week, the youths feel very much at home there. They ask Shulamit to prepare their favorite drink (chocolate) and run off to play with the computer when the adults are talking. "This is our family," A. says with unabashed pride.[...]

The bad:
[...]M., who is 16, managed to escape when his village was attacked almost three years ago by Arab militias. Like many others, he wandered from village to village and town to town until he reached the capital, Khartoum. There he was told by a group of survivors that his parents, sister and two brothers had not been so lucky; they had all been killed. M. who was only 14 at the time,[...]

[...]The story of A., who is 17, is very similar to that of his friend. He fled for his life, along with his family, when his home village of Kurma was attacked in 2003. His first stop was at a refugee camp in a nearby village, Nalma, where they arrived one night after a massacre in that village. "Everyone was dead there," he says. "There were men, women and children and we saw all the bodies. There were many bodies. I saw my father was in shock. He was never the same after that." A few days later, the camp where they were staying was attacked. In the flight from the camp at night, A. lost touch with his parents, brothers and sisters, and to this day has no idea whether they survived or what happened to them.[...]

The ugly:
[...]M. and A. were caught together while they were trying to cross the border in September 2005 and were taken together to jail.[...]

[...]When jail got really bad, the two declared a hunger strike together; in response, the prison authorities separated them. The one time that M., normally introverted and quiet, lost his cool and tried to resist the policemen, was the day they tried to put him back in his cell alone. The price for him was a broken left arm, which has not yet completely healed. For A., it meant a weekend in the Ofek prison for juvenile delinquents, which was accompanied, he says, by a terrible fear - "I didn't care where they took me but I was afraid M. would lose heart and do something to himself."[...]

[...]Musa is still a boy, "about 17," he says, his large, coal black eyes fixed on the floor. An orphan from
Darfur, he has been on the run since gunmen shot and killed the aunt who raised him and set fire to the family hut, burning alive his young cousins.

His escape led him through Egypt and across the Sinai Desert into Israel. Here, instead of finding the freedom he sought, he has spent a year in prison under an Israeli law that jails infiltrators from enemy countries. He is one of about 220 Sudanese being held in Israel, most of whom have come in the past 18 months.[...]

http://www.israelfordarfur.org/refugeesinIL.html

*************************************************************

This was 9 months ago. I wonder how they're doing now....

Israel - homeland of the jews - jews that have been victims of genocide - jews whose Torah orders them to be a light among the nations..... why is it so dark in the jewish homeland - and so cold?

Israel - in 1949 you've inserted a special clause into the Geneva Conventions :
"requiring countries to differentiate between refugees from enemy countries and enemy nationals, citing the example of Jewish refugees seeking safety in England from Nazi Germany."

Israel - why do you measure with two measurements? Why do you trample on all of the principles you were supposed to defend, to shine your light on and show how it should be done? Don't you know.....

that the only right to exist is through practising what you've been preaching for centuries?
those centuries you were persecuted.... maltreated.... discriminated.... killed.... and:

you are failing!

I'm a jew. I believe in God. I believe jews are the 'chosen people' - but in the true meaning of the word, Israel..... a chosen people - as an example - whose light stems from the Torah and it's humane message towards mankind.....and:

you are failing!

The only way to win a battle is by showing your heart - a cause without a heart can't exist - not for long, anyway.

Wake up, Israel - go and look for your heart, before it's too late :(

Tse.

In spite of their desperate SOS signals, ships from East Germany, Norway, Japan and Panama had already passed them by.
The Israeli captain and crew immediately offered food and water and decided to bring all the passengers on board. These were the first of three groups of Vietnamese refugees to be rescued and resettled. In the years 1977 through 1979, Israel welcomed over three hundred Vietnamese refugees. Now there is a thriving Vietnamese community in Israel....
“It was a natural act to us, Mr. President. We remembered, we never have forgotten, the boat with 900 Jews [The St. Louis] having left Germany in the last weeks before the Second World War… traveling from harbor to harbor, from country to country, crying out for refuge. They were refused… Therefore it was natural that my first act as prime minister was to give those people a haven in the land of Israel”.

# posted by Tsedek @ 4:48 p.m. 7 comments