Year End Reflections - Part I, The Pernicious Effects of Gender and Race on America

I have never been a fan of "identity politics."  No one should be.  Identity politics prevents many from assessing what is truly important - character.  And the result of this misplaced emphasis results in a serious lack of common sense and moral clarity.

Example number one.  In a story out of the Randolph Union High School in Vermont, a 14 year old girl complained to some friends that she felt uncomfortable having to change clothes in the girls locker room, with a male student present.  Presumably, the biologically male student identified as a female. Someone ended up reporting this girl's discomfort to the school principal.  Incredibly, she was then disciplined for harassment and bullying.  

Her punishment included suspension, writing a "reflective essay," and participating in a "restorative justice circle."  Thankfully, she was able to get representation from the Alliance Defending Freedom, which sued the principal and the Orange Southwest School District.  After the filing of the lawsuit, the superintendent decided to rescind the punishments.  But just how sick has society become, when a young girl is not even permitted to say that she feels uncomfortable having a male in the locker room where has has to undress and change clothes.  

Example number two.  The "Lion King" is playing on Broadway in New York.  The cast is mostly black.  An American Sign Language interpreter, who is white, claims that he was fired based on his race.  He asserts that he received an email telling him that (as told on Fox) although "he was an amazing ASL performer, he is not a black person and therefore should not be representing the Lion King as the majority of characters are black actors and the content takes place in Africa."

I see.  Just as I am no fan of "identity politics," I am also no fan of the idea of "cultural appropriation," although I am not sure if that was at play here.  But I am curious.  If a white ASL interpreter is inappropriate in a play with mostly black characters, how was it permissible for a black actor to portray George Washington in the play "Hamilton," which I saw in Los Angeles?  How dare they!  By all historical accounts, Washington was white.  Having a black actor portray Washington is a historical inaccuracy.  Having a talented, and white, ASL interpreter, regardless of the race of the cast, should just be common sense.  

Example number 3.  After the LA Mayoral race final results were announced, my wife and I were watching the local 11pm news on NBC.  The anchors were celebrating the victory of Democrat Karen Bass, a black woman.  They cheerfully told us that, once Bass is sworn in, the mayors of America's three largest cities (New York, Los Angeles and Chicago) would all be black.  Because, after all, what else matters?  Not competency.  Not the fact that all three cities are suffering from excessive rates of violent crime and property crimes and homelessness.  

I would like to see one of the local NBC reporters speak to a black family member whose black loved one had just been murdered.  After asking how they are coping, the reporter should ask this:  "But doesn't it make you feel better now that LA has a black mayor?"  Ridiculous?  Of course.  Inappropriate?  You bet.  And that should be a clue as to the nonsense regarding race.  

A final point, for those unclear as to the source of this dangerous focus on race and gender above all else.  That would be the Democrats.

The Aftermath of the Israeli Election and the Dismay of the American Jewish Left - Part II

 Thomas Friedman is a regular Op-Ed writer for the New York Times.  He authored a recent piece titled "The Israel We Knew Is Gone."  Like Myers and Sokatch, Friedman is extremely unhappy with the recent election results in Israel.  Based on the rise of the religious right-wing parties, and the likelihood (now a reality) of members of those parties serving in the Netanyahu government, Friedman asks this question:  "...a fundamental question will roil synagogues in America and across the globe:  'Do I support this Israel or not support it?'"  

As a Jew, I will never understand that question.  Of course I support Israel.  My support is not contingent upon whoever may be in control of the government.  That is no different from my support for, and love of the USA, regardless of which party is in power.  Friedman acknowledges being told by an Israeli columnist that "there has been a dramatic upsurge in violence - stabbings, shootings, gang warfare and organized crime - by Israeli Arabs against other Israeli Arabs, and Israeli Arab gangs and organized crime against Israeli Jews, particularly in mixed communities."  

The November 19 edition of the New York Times had a news article with this title:  "Ruinous Electoral Failure Has Israel's Left Groping for a Vision and a Future."  Says the author:  "The waning of the left began in the 2000s, when a wave of Palestinian violence was interpreted by many Israelis as a rejection of efforts to peacefully resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."  What the author does not say is that in the year 2000, Yasser Arafat started the "Second Intifada," sending waves of suicide (homicide) bombers into Israel in order to blow up Jews (civilians) on buses, in malls and restaurants, and even at a Passover Seder.  What the author does not say is that many Israelis saw that as one of many rejections of efforts at peace.  

Israel continues to face enormous threats - from Hamas, from Hezbollah, from Syria and from Iran.  And sadly, from terrorists within.  But, all of these threats notwithstanding, Israel remains a thriving democracy.  Elections are free.  People may protest the government's policies, as they often do.  And, contrary to the Myers and Sokatch piece, the LGBTQ community in Israel is alive and well.  Of course, none of these things can be said about many of the surrounding Arab countries, or about life in Gaza under Hamas, or life in the Palestinian controlled areas of the West Bank under Abbas.  But none of that is ever the concern of the Left.  

The author spoke with an Israeli woman, who is described as a senior member of the management team of an Israeli kibbutz.  After saying that she "...held out hope for the creation of a Palestinian state side by side with a Jewish one - obviating the need to dilute Israel's Jewish character," the article quotes the woman as follows:  "If that's no longer possible, 10 years from now, it'll be better to have a democratic state than a Jewish state."  At the risk of upsetting some of my readers, I could not disagree more with that woman.

Israel must remain a Jewish state - a safe haven for the Jewish people, and historic home of the Jews.  Would I like to see the Arabs living in peace with the Jews?  Of course.  Who wouldn't?  But this effort to destroy the one Jewish state in the world has been going on for 76 years.  On black Friday I purchased the book "Bibi, My Story," an autobiography by Benjamin Netanyahu. In it, he quotes his brother Yoni, who fought in the Six Day War of 1967.  Yoni:  "I want peace very much.  I don't like to live by the sword, a life of killing and trying not to be killed."

Then Yoni wrote this:  "I see with sorrow how a part of our people still clings to unrealistic hopes for peace.  Common sense tells them that the Arabs haven't abandoned their basic aim of destroying the state.  But the self-delusion that has always plagued the Jews is at work again.  They want to believe, so they believe.  They want not to see, so they distort (reality).  It would be comic if it wasn't so tragic."  (Book by Threshold Editions, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2022.)  

May Israel always remain the home of the Jewish people.  The people of Israel live!  Am Yisrael Chai!

The Aftermath of the Israeli Election and the Dismay of the American Jewish Left - Part I

(Note.  A post on the recent election in Israel (Israel Votes - And The Issues Are Similar To Here In The US) was written on November 6.  As discussed in that post, the conservative religious parties fared well in the election.)

In the November 4, 2022, Los Angeles Times was an Op-Ed co-written by David Myers (described as a professor of Jewish history at UCLA and president of the New Israel Fund) and Daniel Sokatch (CEO of the New Israel Fund).  I should preface my remarks by noting that I have previously had an email exchange with Professor Myers.  I also make mention of some of Professor Myers' opinions in my posts of 6/13/10 and 2/12/17.

Myers and Sokatch bemoan the rightward tilt of Israel's Jewish population.  They say that about 62% identify as right-wing, up from 46% in 2019.  "Especially depressing" to them is that 70% of young Israeli Jews identify as right-wing.  

But this one paragraph tells us all we need to know about Myers and Sokatch, and many left-wing American Jews:  "Israel has maintained an illegal and immoral occupation of Palestinian land since 1967.  And it has never reconciled its self-definition as a Jewish state with its professed desire to offer full equality to all its citizens, especially its large Arab minority, which makes up a fifth of the population."  The writers are particularly concerned about the likelihood (now a reality) of Itamar Ben-Gvir ("the avowed disciple of the hate-filled racist Meir Kahane") and Bezalel Smotrich ("a rabidly anti-LGBTQ rabble rouser") becoming part of the Netanyahu government.

But let's start with the idea of "Palestinian land."  What land is that?  In 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition the land of the British Mandate into a Jewish State and an Arab state.  The Jews agreed, but the Arabs never did.  When the Arabs attacked the new Jewish state, in a war lasting from 11/30/47 through 7/20/49, they did not succeed in destroying Israel.  When the war ended there was no peace treaty outlining the boundaries of two states.  Rather, there was an "armistice," a cease fire, the boundaries of which came to be known as the 1967 borders.  

During the "Six Day War" of 1967, the Arabs again failed to destroy the Jewish state.  Israel, on the other hand, won control of all of Jerusalem, the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), Gaza and the Golan Heights.  At the time of the armistice in 1949, Egypt controlled Gaza, Syria controlled the Golan Heights and Jordan controlled the West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem.  But those Arab countries lost the 1967 war.  In other words, Arab countries controlled the land people like Myers and Sokatch call "Palestinian land."  Only after Israel controlled that territory did it become "Palestinian" land.    

Israel is the Jewish homeland.  I cannot tell if Myers and Sokatch have a problem with that.  One would never know from their piece that Arabs are in the Knesset, in the judiciary and were members of the outgoing government.  One might not know that in Israel Arabs are doctors and lawyers and in other professions.  But it's also true that after last year's fighting between Israel and Hamas (the current rulers of Gaza), Israeli Arabs attacked Israeli Jews in various cities throughout Israel.  Whatever justification that these Israeli Arabs may have felt, it is clear that many Jews no longer felt safe from their neighbors.  It should have surprised no one that the left-wing government gave way to a conservative government.  That would be a natural reaction when one's safety and security is at risk.  

It is no longer a surprise to me that people like Myers and Sokatch do not acknowledge the countless times that the Arabs have, in fact, been offered a state, and have rejected it each and every time.  The first rejection, again, was in 1947.  So this rejectionist attitude has been going on for 76 years.  Myers and Sokatch do not mention the non-stop terrorist attacks on Jewish Israeli civilians, nor the thousands of rockets launched from Hamas.  I would ask Myers and Sokatch if 22 Arab countries is fine with them, but a single Jewish country is not.