Category Archives: Politics

Is Israel the proud new owner of a hamster?

Always fun to throw a shout out to fellow bloggers ranting (or passionately discussing…) about Jewish life way out here in the Diaspora. The lovely Brooklyner (is that what you call someone from Brooklyn?) has picked up on the moral delicacies of what to do with the current state of affairs in Gaza.

There’s something odd about the notion of Israel continuing to provide water to Gaza, yet cutting off oil as a power source. It seems a little two faced. Shouldn’t the response be a little more balanced? I’m always caught at a loss to find the balance between Israel’s right and responsibility to defend itself, it’s responsibility to care for those Palestinians who live in its midst under its direct or indirect control (the ger toshav who the Torah explicitly instructs us to respect and treat as one of our own), and it’s responsibility to find some way to get the Palestinians to care for their own.

Look, there’s no concrete answer right now. I don’t pretend to have one, and I don’t imagine anyone else does right now.

And I’m not going to go on and on and on and on about how the situation sucks and it’s so and so’s fault and blah blah blah.

That’s been done. Ad nauseum. By me, and others. But here’s what I have to share…

There was a comment posted in response to a Ha’aretz article some years ago. I don’t recall who posted it, or where they were from. But I will never forget the undeniable wisdom that this anonymous being shared. I hold it dear to me and I continually find that it helps inform my entire perspective of the matzav.

It went something like this:

The Torah says that Abraham and Sarah’s decedents will inherit the land, but it odes not tell us what to do with it. Wise beneficiaries will use an inheritance wisely… the book of Deuteronomy says “Lo bashamayim hi” – it is not in the heavens that we derive authority. God gave authority and wisdom and patience to us. Now let us use it.”

This beautiful midrash has much to teach us. Much more than my pedantic musings will allow. So in short here’s my question in response to the Gaza brouhaha – Is it a show of divinely bestowed authority and wisdom and patience to dangle canisters of oil over the heads of ordinary Gazans, while graciously letting them drink from our hands?

Contrary to the rhetoric of the anti-Israel crowd, the Gazans don’t live in some sort of hamster cage. Or at least that’s what we insist on. I think. Right?

Of hearts and minds…

There’s brotherhood here. Even if it is through killing.

Writing a play about Iraq is no easy task. Writing a play in protest of the war in Iraq is almost impossible to do successfully. Already you’re fighting a losing battle. The clichés and stereotypes already abound. Bombshells have been dropped on Bush over and over and over again. And littering a text with half-assed military references and war-speak has been tried, tested, and most of the time proven useless. We get it. The war sucks. People died. People are dying. Dying is bad, and fighting is bad, and killing is bad, and destroying a nation in the name of who knows what is bad.

The war in Iraq is bad.

The play I saw tonight is good. Quite good. Really good.

Now, I need to qualify good, because apparently “good” is not good enough. Unfortunately, I still need to absorb much of what I saw this evening, and it wouldn’t be fair to review the play without doing some deep thinking about it.

In the meantime, it is comforting to know that someone has actually been able to bypass all the bullshit and write a contemporary commentary on war and Iraq that is imminently relevant and appropriate. It is instantly both heart-wrenching and heady, and I encourage you to see it if you can.

The play is called Gas and is written by NTS graduate Jason Maghanoy. Directed by Guy Spring, it is presented by infinitheatre and is playing at Bain St-Michel here in Montreal. Check out their website.

Please, go see it.

Nobody loves Luxembourg. Nobody hates Luxembourg.

Zionism is a strong and powerful word. It’s about something that is much bigger than Israel. It’s not just about Israelis. Whenever you have a strong and powerful word, you’ll always have people who are opposed to it. For people who aren’t strongly committed to something like Zionism, to see people strongly attached to this idea is a scary thing.

If you “like” someone, most people won’t argue against you. But if you “love” or “hate” someone, you’ll have people who argue with you.

I once heard it put (admittedly unfair to Luxembourg): “Nobody loves Luxembourg. Nobody hates Luxembourg.”

Israel is either loved or hated. Nobody just “likes” Israel.

So what to do? The only thing, I believe, is to make sure that those who hate Zionism don’t get to define Zionism for the rest of us. If we let others define who we are, then what are we?
Let the lovers of Zion (and I might add that love of Zion includes a healthy dose of criticism) be the ones who get to define it.

Ponderings

Working at a Zionist organization can at times give you a headache. Working at a Canadian Zionist organization can at times make you feel like you’re having a stroke – cut off from the oxygen of the various American Zionst movements and organizations. That’s not to say that Canadian Zionist organizations are dependent upon their sister American organizations. But it is to say that in a world where Diaspora Zionism is largely U.S.-centric, things up here in the “head” of North America can feel a little vacuous at times.

It has led me to ponder many things as I sit at my desk and work on what others have (perhaps incorrectly) described as “Zionizing” Canada. What follows are some of my recent ponderings. Following them is some fascinating insight from none other than John Cusack – a brilliantly intelligent man. I caught him on one of my favourite pop-news shows, The Hour and was blown away. On that note, if you don’t live in Canada and want some brilliant insight served up daily, check out George Stroumboulopoulous’ (the host of the Hour) podcast.

Onto the pondering. Your insight is welcome…

Where’s the middle ground between being a political organization – essentially an arm of various democratic parties – and a religious organization?

How can you be a Zionist organization and not have “secular” political ideals?

“There has to come a point where things are beyond political discourse for left and right, and if there isn’t, if everything is a political question, everything is just something to be debated by the right wing and left wing, then we’re really marching down a road of bones, it’s total madness.” ~ John Cusack

“Ultimately, if you’re not talking about God and justice, what are you talking about?”
~John Cusack

A religio-politico “oops”

If you look at how the Reform movement has changed since its inception, it’s quite clear that we simply got some things wrong, realized that, and changed. In the grand scheme of Jewish history, fifty years of anti-zionism is just a blip on the radar… a religio-politico “oops.” That being said, it’s an important blip, and one we should understand as part of our history.

What do we do with this history?

Selections from the Liberal Leadership Convention

Bob Rae quoted Hillel. Check it out…

“There’s more culture in a bowl of yogurt than in the Conservative government.”
~Stephane Dion

“The main issue of the centruy, the one on which all others depend, is the junction between the economy and the environment. In other words, no less then the reconciliation between the people and the planet.”
~Stephane Dion

“We do not in herit the planet from our ancestors, we borrow it from our grandchildren.”
~Aboriginal Proverb, quoted by Stephane Dion

“We talk about equality, but Afghanistan has more women in its parliament than Canada”
~Justin Trudeau

“We are not just a party of power. We are a party of purpose”
~Gerard Kennedy

“The new language of politics is action. What we do, not what we say, is what Canadians will care about.”
~Gerard Kennedy

“I want to talk to you from the heart, without a speech, as the Rabbi said, If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I?”
~Bob Rae

“How do we get people who think differently and act differently to work together?”
~Bob Rae

“First of all, this is about the country, this is about Canada, this is about our love for Canada. The Liberal party has suceeded… because it has been able to find itself in the heartland of Canada, and its values have always tried to reflect the values of Canadians. It’s about the country before its about the party.”
~Bob Rae

“How do we take the vision and turn it into something called politics? If we can’t put it into practice, then we can’t make a difference, and we haven’t really succeeded”
~Bob Rae

“I see a Canada whose vision is of the world… which understands that our foreign policy is as critical as what we do at home; that we can’t break down these barriers. I see a Canada where the resolution of conflict is just as important as what we do at home.”
~Bob Rae

“I see a Canada where every child that goes to school, goes to school hungry for knowledge, and not hungry for food.”
~Bob Rae

“I see a Canada whose focus is on fiscal responsibility. But fiscal responsibility is just the means to do other things.”
~Bob Rae

“Stephen Harper went out for dinner with his cabinet. The waiter asked what he wanted. He said ‘I’ll have the steak.’ The waiter said ‘what about the vegetables?’ Harper said ‘they’ll have the steak, too.'”
~Bob Rae

“If not now, when? We have to be united as we go forward together. Let us remember what we owe to Canadians. We owe them our integrity. I committ that of my time.”
~Bob Rae, quoting R. Hillel