Seems I remember something by Hitchens about religion and poison and….

mop-o ~~~~ that’s two! i’ll throw in Meier Kahane for the third.  when you get to
10% of US Jews, about 300,00 let me know…..

have a nice day

heterochromatic~~~~.

In line with your “kinda bullshit” heres more of it…..

The Jewish sense of alienation from, and abiding distrust of, non-Jews
is also manifest in a remarkable essay published in 2002 in the
Forward, the prominent Jewish community weekly.

Entitled “We’re Right, the Whole World’s Wrong,” it is written by Rabbi
Dov Fischer, an attorney and a member of the Jewish Community
Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles.

Rabbi Fischer is also national vice president of the Zionist Organization
of America. He is thus not an obscure or semi-literate scribbler, but
rather an influential Jewish community figure. And this piece did not
appear in some marginal periodical, but rather in what is perhaps the
most literate and thoughtful Jewish weekly in America, and certainly one
of the most influential.

In his essay, Rabbi Fischer tells readers: “If we Jews are anything, we
are a people of history … Our history provides the strength to know
that we can be right and the whole world wrong.” He goes on:

“We were right, and the whole world was wrong. The Crusades. The
blood libels and the Talmud burnings in England and France, leading
those nations to expel Jews for centuries. The Spanish and Portuguese
Inquisition. The ghettos and the Mortara case in Italy. Dreyfus in France.
Beilis in Russia. Each time, Europe stood by silently—or actively
participated in murdering us—and we alone were right, and the whole
world was wrong.

“Even now the Europeans are wrong so are the Arabs.

omop~~~ your contention that the Jewish people’s primary commitment is to Israel
is sorta kinda bullshit ....and the writing of a single man as your justification for
asserting that proposition sorta kinda means that you’re pretty much an idiot. (at
best).

Robes ~~~~“Israel’s “democratic character” died the moment Avigdor Lieberman
and his fascist party became part of the government.”~~

In earlier days, Lieberman would have been legally debarred from government
office.

Any Religious state is a lunatic state ! And how far is the United States of America
from a lunatic state ? One election away !  Mo tea sir ?

mrfreeze,

Ultraconservative “anyones” are (with few exceptions) misogynists…..Orthodox Jews, Islamists, many Christian sects, Mormons….etc…...

They all share a hatred of women that manifests itself in violence, “shrouding” and a myriad of other dominating behavior.

I think Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin might take exception to that.

Report this

@ Ben David,
Face the reality Israel is a religious state by definition i.e. it is a Jewish homeland (Jewish being a religious descriptor not a genetic/racial/national one). As opposed to a secular state that recognises the private religious rights of all religions including Jew.

And therein lies it’s *primary* problem. A state that *claims* to be secular state for and dominated by a specific form of religiosity.
The issue is then a matter of degree without any implicit definer on tolerance. Thus legitimising the extremists in their claim to be the purest form and thereby giving impetus to political aspirations.
In effect the only Big difference between Israel and a Muslim/Islamic country is the favoured religion.
Before you do the usual deflection Let me say that the USA has allowed the the same sort of thing with legitimising it being redefined as a secular/Christian state which is now haunting its politics by empowering religion and the religious right.

In essence this story is comparable to US citizens campaigning against the extremes of the TBers.

Yes! I’m one of them I believe that all religions are equal and governments should treat them like any other business… or interest group. Be that chess players or football.
The idea of a chess/football based political party is in my mind the same as a religious one…..ludicrous and anti democratic.

@Ben David, Israel’s “democratic character” died the moment Avigdor Lieberman and his fascist party became part of the government.

Ultraconservative “anyones” are (with few exceptions) misogynists…..Orthodox Jews, Islamists, many Christian sects, Mormons….etc…...

They all share a hatred of women that manifests itself in violence, “shrouding” and a myriad of other dominating behavior.

Why? Because the men who hold power in these cultures/religions/societies are pussies. They’re afraid that the women could run things better than they do.

Since we have integration of the sexes in America
I’d like to see a comparison of divorce rates in
America with the ultraconservative Jewish communities in Israel.

No doubt this is an interesting story. These types of stories draw much attention within certain crowds. These types of stories summon up a great deal of
antipathy.

How instructive it would be to find one story, just one, concerning Saudi Arabia, the State’s singular, conservative, Wahhabi religion and the fact that not one Christian church or Synagogue can be found inside the entire country.

In September of this year a small group of Saudis took to the streets in protest of government sponsored religion, government corruption and human rights abuses. - These are the ‘Liberals’ in Saudi society - Seventeen men and three woman were shot on the streets. Six of those people lost their lives. How many words did we see devoted to the story here on TruthDig? Zero.

TruthDig editors, I’m sad to note, simply do not care about human-beings. They care about certain causes.

The view that Jews are a distinct people with a primary commitment to
Israel and the Jewish community is forthrightly affirmed by Elliott
Abrams, who was President George W. Bush’s senior advisor for “global
democratic strategy,” and in 2006 was a key advisor on Middle East
affairs to the US Secretary of State.

In his book Faith or Fear: How Jews Can Survive in Christian America, 
he writes: “Outside the land of Israel, there can be no doubt that Jews,
faithful to the covenant between God and Abraham, are to stand apart
from the nations in which they live. It is the very nature of being Jewish
to be apart—except in Israel—from the rest of the population.”
Judaism and the Jewish way of life,” writes Abrams, is not “entirely
voluntary, for the Jew is born into a covenantal community with
obligations to God.”

Jews, he goes on, “are in a permanent covenant with God and with the
land of Israel and its people. Their commitment will not weaken if the
Israeli government pursues unpopular policies …”

Add to that view Mr. Nethanyahu’s insistance on the Palestinians et al
“accept Israel as a Jewish State”.  Does not that entail “living according
to Jewish scriptures” as the arabs live Muslim lives in Saudi Arabia?

Want a SANE way out?

The concept of the sovereign State of Israel is a valid one, especially given the
ages old history of the persecution of the Jews as a way to defend ourselves
from those who would start another genocide against us (& don’t think for a
minute that there aren’t plenty of those still around).

That said, there seems to be many who are confused as to the differences
between “POLITICAL ZIONISM” and “MESSIANIC ZIONISM”.

The FORMER denoting a more secular State of Israel devoid of strict Rabbinical
doctrine as a matter of governance.. promoting peace and the recognition that
there is a dire need for a “Two State Solution”.. a sovereign State of Palestine ...
one that has as much right to exist as does Israel… and as much of a historical
claim there as does Israel.

The LATTER, a cadre of radical, fundamental dogmatists, more akin to the
Taliban than the Knesset… Avigdor Lieberman, Bibi Netanyahu and those whom
they enable.. including the “settlers”, a great majority of whom are nothing
more than bored, disaffected Jews from the United States and Europe… trying to
fulfill some “sanctified mission” to hold the Palestinian territories as part of
“Eretz Yisrael”... a misguided “Manifest Destiny” in lieu of any real rationality. 
These hardliners took it much too far & likened this “sovereignty” to a blood
libel, the (once deserved) chip on Israel’s shoulder after the Holocaust was
grafted to the worldview of these dogmatists.. putrid, destructive attitudes that
need to be excised from the soul of Israel once & for all before it’s too late.

It is precisely this kind in intractable mindset that has caused countless
generations of innocents to suffer & die, living their lives in fear & loathing,
hopelessness & despair, & it is this state of mind that will end up destroying it.

This same problem happened recently in Brooklyn within the Hassidic community.  The community bus system was sued by a woman who was asked to move to the back of the bus.  It turned out that the buses were partially funded by public money and that no more discriminatory seating would be tolerated.

I guess in Israel, busing could be resolved by who pays for it.  If it is paid for by the conservative community then they have the right to call the shots.  If not, then gender discrimination would be unlawful.

It’s not just a religious issue in Israel. For years now Israeli writers like Uri Avnery and Gideon Levy have compared the situation there to Weimar Germany and warn that a classic fascist state is being produced. Consider this: Most of the secular Israelis protesting over this theocratic issue would probably never speak out against the occupation of the Palestinian territories, in 2008-09 proudly secular Israelis cheered on the bloodbath in Gaza. The issue being discussed here is just one of many in a country which Norman Finkelstein calls a “lunatic state.”