Weekly Items of Note (5/5)
David Shasha
1. We have learned more about the Rabbi Michael Broyde affair that I featured in the Weekly Items of Note a couple of weeks back.
Here is the original post – found in item #4:
https://groups.google.com/group/Davidshasha/browse_thread/thread/03da2659022f1293#
And here is the new revelation:
It appears that Rabbi Broyde’s fraud continues to grow deeper with these new revelations. Coming from a man who sees torture as compatible with Torah Judaism we should not be surprised. This is the brave new world of Judaism in our day.
2. Rashid Khalidi of Columbia University’s Middle Eastern Studies department has just published a new book on America’s role in the Israel-Palestine peace process called Brokers of Deceit. C-Span is screening a lecture that Professor Khalidi did in support of the book:
The lecture and the Q&A provide an excellent elucidation of the problems that America has presented with its blind pro-Israel advocacy in the context of its role as a mediator in the peace process. Khalidi provides a wealth of information on America’s far-from-neutral role in the process and the duplicitous manner in which it continues to maintain its status as an “honest broker” in the conflict.
3. I just finished reading a fascinating history of Sephardic Jews written in 1841 by James Finn:
http://www.forgottenbooks.org/info/Sephardim_1000043376.php
Here is some background on Finn:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Finn
What makes Finn’s book so interesting is his primal Anti-Semitism that is combined with a fierce hatred of the Catholic Church and an abiding admiration for Sephardic culture. It is a very strange amalgamation of conflicting viewpoints that recounts in some detail the Sephardic past and shows us how complicated history can be when we take into account the complex ideological and religious attitudes of the writer.
For those who are not familiar with the details of the Sephardic past the book does an excellent job in its presentation. While it recounts Sephardic history sympathetically, at root Finn is a Protestant from England who was deeply involved in Jewish issues in a way that would today be considered offensive and racist.
4. Those who follow Israeli HASBARAH know well the important role that the Birthright Israel program has played. Birthright is a lavishly funded initiative that affirms the religious role played by Israel in the lives of those Jewish philanthropists who do not have time for Torah; people like Michael Steinhardt.
We have seen Birthright’s fruit in a number of excellent reports by our good friend Max Blumenthal:
http://maxblumenthal.com/2010/07/birthright-israels-hill-of-shame/
This video features an interview with Steinhardt himself:
Now we have an excellent piece on the matter posted on Electronic Intifada:
http://electronicintifada.net/content/jews-we-say-birthright-trips-must-end/12413
It is critical to understand the process that has deified Israel and made it the core of American Jewish identity. The way in which this deification has played into the lives of young American Jews has served to further inflame and radicalize the political situation and help prevent rational discussion of the issues involved in the conflict.
5. I have long been critical of President Obama for his inability to show some spine and stand for the things he believes in.
So I was quite interested to see him come out swinging at his enemies:
Sadly, his attacks on his enemies were part of the charade of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner; an affair that has become reminiscent of the old Dean Martin Roasts that we grew up with:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dean_Martin_Celebrity_Roast
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkiOXuT9mB4
When it comes time to really make a principled stand, the president is AWOL. He backs down before the battle is ever ready to begin. So his multiple jabs at the Republicans, FOX News, and even Maureen Dowd – one of the few Liberal columnists who has the nerve to criticize Obama! – rang quite hollow. Taking a shot at your enemies is only meaningful when there is something at stake. The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is not a place where anything substantial is going to happen.
It is yet one more example of Obama’s weakness as filtered through his charming style. We should not be duped by that charm – it covers a massive incompetence in governance.
Another egregious example of this weakness is Obama’s agreement to the so-called “Sequester”; a deal he made with the vile Republicans in order to avoid a confrontation on the matter of the Budget. We now see that the unresolved situation did indeed allow the draconian financial cuts to take place. This has been one of the results:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100694215
The Sequester shows us how Obama does not stand for principle; preferring instead to cave in to the Right Wing extremists and leaving them free to undermine our economic wellbeing.
After being attacked by name in the Obama tirade, Maureen Dowd wrote one of her most incisive columns on this incompetent and delusional president:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/opinion/dowd-bottoms-up-lame-duck.html?ref=opinion
Ms. Dowd’s opinion is seconded by Dana Milbank:
Finally, here is an excellent piece from The New Republic on Obama’s lies on the War on Terror:
The article shows us clearly how Obama has continued and in some ways intensified and extended the policies of George W. Bush. It is not the change we were promised.
6. The New York Times has now become the National Enquirer:
Job well done!
7. David Ignatius’ column on the “calm” in Israel speaks to the problem of Palestinian resistance:
When the Palestinians do not commit violent actions they see their situation become even more hopeless. Rather than seeing “calm” as an incentive to resolve the conflict, Israel and its supporters pretend that the situation is stable and that no resolution is necessary.
It is of course inevitable that violence will come in the future and that this seemingly idyllic state will come to an end. From what we know based on past experience, the status quo in Israel never holds.
8. Tablet magazine has posted a comprehensive profile of Rabbi Asher Lopatin who is taking over the reins of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah from its founder Rabbi Avi Weiss:
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/130760/the-new-morethodox-rabbi?all=1
For those unfamiliar with Rabbi Weiss there is an excellent piece from New York magazine that appeared in SHU 438:
https://groups.google.com/group/Davidshasha/browse_thread/thread/71f2ad6105bdd4fa/5af9c1475d2fca4e
Here is the original posting:
http://nymag.com/news/features/67145/
For those not acquainted with the complexities of Orthodox Judaism, YCT represents an important contrarian voice to the Ultra-Orthodox in ritual matters. What is interesting about the battle between what the Tablet article calls “Morethodoxy” or Open Orthodoxy is the political dimension: Rabbi Weiss is a radical Zionist whose views on Israel and the Arabs contrasts sharply to his liberality on ritual matters connected to Halakhic Judaism.
This is the great paradox inherent in the tensions of the Orthodox Jewish community: extremism and radicalism exist in a number of different areas and “openness” or liberality is something that must be assessed in these varying contexts. While on the issue of women and ritual YCT is quite liberal, on the matter of Zionism and the Arabs it is quite reactionary and retrograde; the very opposite of liberal.
The appointment of Rabbi Lopatin – who had intended to begin a new American Jewish community in Israel’s Negev – will provide an interesting continuation to the story of YCT and many in the Orthodox Jewish community will be watching it carefully in the coming days and months.
9. There is yet another Sephardic Jewish museum that has opened:
http://forward.com/articles/175620/spanish-jewish-museum-opens-in-granada-and-found/
For those who read Spanish here is another piece on the museum:
http://www.ideal.es/granada/v/20120907/cultura/casa-juderia-granada-20120907.html
Would that the actual Sephardic communities in the Diaspora and in Israel attained some awareness of their heritage as these museums counsel. On the other side of the equation, the dire reality of the Sephardim will only be reinforced by turning our noble heritage into a museum where things go to die.
10. Reading the following post on Joe Boyd in Rolling Stone gives me the opportunity to recommend the music of Nick Drake to our readers:
For those who have never heard of Drake – please do go out and buy his collected works as soon as you can:
Each of his three albums can also be purchased individually:
http://www.amazon.com/Five-Leaves-Left-Nick-Drake/dp/B000026FOA/ref=pd_sim_sbs_m_2
http://www.amazon.com/Bryter-Layter-Nick-Drake/dp/B000025H0Q/ref=pd_sim_sbs_m_3
http://www.amazon.com/Pink-Moon-Nick-Drake/dp/B000025XKM/ref=pd_sim_sbs_m_1
And there is the rarities collection that features his most haunting song “Time of No Reply” – one of the greatest songs ever written about death:
http://www.amazon.com/Time-No-Reply-Nick-Drake/dp/B000000617/ref=ntt_mus_dp_dpt_11
Nick Drake was at the center of the British Folk revival of the 1970s and along with his friends Fairport Convention produced some of the best and most memorable music of the era. Sadly, Drake never achieved commercial success and died young.
I would also recommend the following collections from Fairport Convention:
This is some of the most important music of its era and remains today a reminder of how brilliant these revivalists were.
11. The following article by Lyn Julius, the leader of a group in England called HARIF which is similar to the American Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, is a pointed and very representative piece that links Arab Jews to Palestinians:
The use of the Arab Jewish issue is textbook Zionist propaganda and shows the positive way in which self-hating Arab Jews – who of course blanch when they are called “Arab” – work on behalf of the Ashkenazim who have aided in the destruction of our cultural identity and the welfare of our community.
The attack on Gideon Levy is a garden variety one that speaks to the contempt Zionists have for anyone who would dare question the supremacy of Israel and its infallibility.
The use of Arab Jews as a foil to the Palestinians is a canard that we have dealt with many times:
There is of course an obsessive-compulsive need on the part of Zionist HASBARAH to undermine the legitimate claims of the Palestinian people. What better then to deploy the Arab Jewish question and present it in this duplicitous manner. As Yehouda Shenhav argues in his work, the Zionists present the matter in two opposing ways: On the one hand, the Arab Jews were natural Zionists and sought to come to Israel as their homeland. On the other hand, the issue of their emigration is blamed on the malevolence of the Arab states.
Which one is it?
Did Jews happily leave the Arab world to become proud Jews in Israel, or did they leave as persecuted refugees as these organizations claim?
The root problem here – as I have argued many times – is that the actual reality of the Arab Jews is elided in order to have the issue function as more Zionist fodder; as we see in Mrs. Julius’ article. The complex and often inscrutable reality faced by Arab Jews in the 20th century contains numerous factors that are not those of the Palestinians. But the chauvinism of the self-hating Arab Jews and their institutions insist to us that the matter is uni-dimensional and of a piece with the Palestine question. It is a simple matter of “population exchange.”
But history is not that simple and what we are seeing is the ongoing attempt to delegitimize the Palestinian claims by using the Arab Jews as a straw-man. It is a particularly heinous strategy that in the end does great damage to Arab Jewish identity and ultimately to our cultural heritage.
One would think that with all the damage that has been done to us by the Ashkenazi Zionists that we would emphatically reject the approach of these individuals and organizations whose primary desire is to assist Israel regardless of the truth and justice of the matter.
For more on these groups:
http://www.justiceforjews.com/
http://www.forgottenrefugees.org/links.php
12. A cover story in this week’s Sports Illustrated is causing a great stir in the world of American Sports:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/magazine/news/20130429/jason-collins-gay-nba-player/
Jason Collins is the first male athlete in a major American team sport to come out as Gay. In the frat-boy macho world of professional athletics this is a big deal and for Sephardim is yet another reminder of the great strides that have been made by a vilified community to seek equality and recognition. In point of fact, it is probably easier to express the Gay identity than it is to be a proud Sephardi. A Sephardi who is Gay is likely more inclined to move to the Gay community as being Sephardic is a losing proposition today.
It is to the credit of the Gay community that it has continued its social advocacy and achieved such positive results. It is to the eternal shame of the Sephardic community that it has buckled under the weight of Ashkenazi pressure and relinquished its cultural and historical identity to fit into the majority culture of the European Jews.
When we begin to look at the reaction to the revelation we will find that it is not at all easy for Homophobes to freely express themselves anymore:
Mr. Broussard has already started feeling the heat:
Broussard has indeed been involved in Christian causes, but shows himself in this case to be a religious hypocrite: over the years many sports players have had out-of-wedlock children and committed various other religious sins and yet this current outcry is directed – as it is with so many other pundits – at one specific group rather than all the players. I do not recall Broussard or his Christian cohorts calling out other athletes for their transgressions and saying they are not Christian.
Naturally, Broussard walked back his comments the following day:
http://allchristiannews.com/espns-chris-broussard-quickly-clarifies-gay-comments-on-twitter/
The hatred for Homosexuality seems to outweigh the hatred for other religious sins. It is something that we see in many religious groups. There are Jews who will vilify Homosexuals but turn a blind eye to theft and other violations.
A critical part of social advocacy is not merely to raise awareness of your cause, but to strike down those who would keep you back. Those who speak out against Gays are duly aware that their words will be strongly rebuffed and there is the threat that what they say will come back to hurt them.
Sephardim can learn an important lesson from the Gay community: never give in and never cave in to the pressure and oppression of your enemies.
13. Last February I made note of the vile rapper Lil’Wayne’s idiotic insult of the iconic African-American martyr Emmett Till:
That note may be found in item #9 of the Weekly Items of Note.
We now learn that Wayne has attempted to apologize to the Till family:
Wayne’s PILPUL-infused “apology” is a combination of Hip-Hop delusion and arrogance peppered with a strong dose of corporatism. It seems that Wayne’s corporate handlers – in this case Mountain Dew – were getting antsy about his idiotic antics in the Till matter.
But the Till family was having none of it:
Apropos of Mountain Dew, we have yet another Hip-Hop connected scandal involving more venal rappers:
It appears that Hip-Hop apologists continue to work overtime to exonerate their decrepit heroes.
14. Here is a really interesting post from The New Republic on the actor Robert Downey, Jr. that gives us a strong sense of how the whole Poptrash thing works:
As the article states, Downey was once a very promising actor who resembled an American version of Cary Grant; a very charming and debonair presence who could also act. But his life spiraled into disaster and he has now re-invented himself as an action star. Downey’s current work is a perfect example of what has gone wrong in Hollywood and his beguiling redemption story is in truth an acrid flowering of trash writ large. He is rich and successful but has jettisoned any sense of artistic integrity in order to – as they now put it – create a “brand” whose sole aim is to generate money and more money.
Our current movies are infected by greed and slick incompetence. Downey the former poster boy for drunk excess has been transformed into something almost as bad: a vacuous celebrity who peddles blockbuster garbage geared to the ignorant and the impatient.
15. An article in The New York Times expresses “surprise” that suicide rates are increasing among Middle Age Americans:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/health/suicide-rate-rises-sharply-in-us.html?ref=us&_r=0
In our increasingly dire economic circumstances, a situation begun in by Ronald Reagan and continued by his disciples George W. Bush and Barack Obama we have seen contempt for working Americans increase exponentially with a concomitant rise in despair and hopelessness. There is clearly little or no concern about our fellow human beings as greed defines the value-system of the elites who want more for themselves and less for the rest of us.
David Shasha