Poll: Majority of Israel's Jews back gag on rights groups - Haaretz - Israel News

Shocking news.
I realize that I just posted my weekly blog, but this is something special that I wish to call to your attention.



This news is frightening.  I have just received an email from the New Israel Fund calling for emergency donations to defend the Fund and its grantees as well as democracy in Israel from this attack.   For those abroad you can donate by going to the site  and clicking appropriately. For Israelis, just send a check to New Israel Fund,  9 Yad Haruztin St., Box     81534  Jerusalem 91534

Back to Normal Life, sort of...April 26, 2010

Jerusalem and Sheikh Jarrah

Most of the fake holidays are behind us and we can gear up for a real

  holiday Shavuot and the last  phony one of this season,

  Jerusalem Day, in which we celebrate the unification (sic!)
  of the Holy City.  Apropos Jerusalem, I went last Friday  to
  demonstrate in Sheikh Jarrah.  There was quite a good turnout as you may note from the

picture 

 

Goldstone Grandson Bar Mitzva

The flap over the attendance of Justice Richard Goldstone at the bar mtizva of his grandson appears to have been resolved-amicably.

The South African Zionist Federation has much to answer for and we must acknowledge the central role of bloggers, in particular Richard Silverstein who blogs Tikkun Olam and brings us a prayer of Bishop Tutu that was broadcast in a musical program on NPR.  The music is reviewed on NPR also.

Here is the text:

Goodness is stronger than evil
    Love is stronger than hate
    Light is stronger than darkness
    Life is stronger than death
    Victory is ours through Him who loves us.

 

Argentine Justice

There is much truth to the saying that justice delayed is justice denied.  Nonetheless, better late than never as General Bignone, the monster of the dirty war in Argentina is finally sentenced by a court to 25 years imprisonemnt.  

At age 82 this amounts to a life sentence and it is only unfortunate that it took over  30 years to bring this criminal to justice.

A Few Science Issues are worthy of our attention this week.  Bob Park weighs in again on the cell phone danger 

scare and there is some common sense coming out on mercury and the consumption of fish.

The synthesis of element 117 has some interesting background.

Tom Toles of the Washington Post gave us a cartoon this week that puts things in our part of the world in the sorry perspective they deserve.  

 

This week Armenians all over the world joined hearts for their Holocaust Day as they marked the 95th anniversary of their genocide  at the hand of the Ottoman Empire.  Alas we all share the shame of denial for the sake of so-called Realpolitik.  

As you are aware and as I mentioned last week, Elie Weisel put out some sentimental claptrap about Jerusalem in a full page ad in the New York Times and Washington Post (paid for my someone...).  A reasoned response  was published this week in Haaretz.  It is worth the read.

 Welcome to the J Street delegation that arrived in Israel this week.  Their leader, Jeremy Ben-Ami tells us that Obama must engage with the Israeli people.   It is worthy of note that for Lag B'Omer, burning of Obama in effigy will be popular, thanks to our good folk on the right.  In my time, we burned Hitler, but villians have been downgraded badly.

As a gedanke experiment imagine what might happen if President Obama were to nominate Jesus Christ  for the vacancy coming up on the Supreme Court.  Here are some speculations.  It has been said that He may not be as strong an opponent of capital punishment as expected since it only cost Him a lost weekend...

All of us labor under the burden of the paper spam that still comes to our snail mail boxes.  I recall that I once had a mail box in the office of the local Amnesty Section when I served on the board and would only empty it when threatened with mayhem by Malka the secretary.  It is interesting to see what happens when Gene Weingarten opens his snail mail at the Washington Post.

 

Holiday Week, sort of, April 17, 2010

This is the season of the year in which we in Israel indulge in our phony holidays.  I commented on Holocaust Day last time and now we are facing Memorial Day and Independence Day, to be followed in May by the equally fake Jerusalem Unification Day.   With our characteristic sensitivity and good taste, Independence Day immediately follows Memorial Day.  First we sadly mourn our fallen and then, a switch is flipped, and we start dancing in the streets to mark our glorious independence.  The idea is to convince us that the sacrifice was worth the price, i.e. that the loss of your neighbor's son in combat is a small price to pay for our present status as a recalcitrant (for the moment) vassal of the world's superpower  We seem to be able to say no when told for our own good to stop building in East Jerusalem and to stop throwing people out of their homes. We were unable to tell the CIA to send their own Marines instead of our commandos to get a Soviet radar system from the Egyptians on Green Island forty years ago.  My neighbor's 19 year old son gave his life for this dubious cause.  There are countless other vain sacrifices that we shall mourn on Monday until the switch is thrown, sacrifices to the settlements, to the Occupation and to the egomania of idiot generals.  Our houses and cars are supposed to be decorated with national flags, made of course in China, and patriotic fervor fills the air.  I present above a different kind of flag, courtesy of the Peace Now movement.
After the flip, the Army and the establishment hold a ceremony  on Mt. Herzl in which soldiers march up and down, flags are passed from one Colonel Blimp to another, politicians blather and selected citizens light beacons for the glory of the state blah, blah.  We invite all to attend the Yesh Gvul alternative beacon ceremony held at Emil Gruenzweig Square in Jerusalem.  Last year, I had the honor of lighting one of the beacons, an event of which I am very proud and which I documented in this blog a year ago.  Please come to the event on Monday night.

Spinoza in 2010.
There were reports that Justice Richard Goldstone was to be excluded from the synagogue in South Africa where the bar mitzva of his grandson is scheduled to take place soon.  I could not but be reminded of the 17th century behavior of the Amsterdam Jewish community towards Baruch Spinoza who was excommunicated for the sin of thinking too freely.  I am glad to report that the leadership of the South African Jewish community has more values and decency than the local Zionist Federation.
I quote:
A report in the SA Jewish Report yesterday said that, following negotiations between the SA Zionist Federation and the Sandton shul, Beth Hamedrash Hagadol, where the bar mitzvah is due to take place, an agreement was reached with the family and Goldstone that he would not attend for fear of ruining the coming-of-age ceremony of his grandson.
However, last night, a spokeswoman for Zev Krengel, chairman of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies, told The Times that Goldstone had not been barred from attending the bar mitzvah.
"After thorough investigations, that Board found that the allegations are untrue," she said.
Earlier yesterday, reports on the alleged ban were met with outrage by Goldstone's peers, who labeled his exclusion from the family affair as "outrageous".  For more details click here.  I certainly hope that Justice Goldstone will attend the bar mitzva of his grandson and derive nachas from it.

More support for sending Burma to the UN for Investigation
The Czech Republic has become the third country, after Australia and the UK, to call for referring the regime in Burma to a UN Commission of inquiry.  This is good news and we hope it leads to an avalanche of nations supporting this initiative

A Bit on Science etc.

Here in Israel we complain, with justification, about the
  quality of education that our children receive and the
  depressingly low results on the PISA tests.  We might take a
  look at how the  Finns manage to be on top year after year.
 Proof of the Poincare Conjecture

There are problems in mathematics that bug people for
centuries and when solved generate a splash.  This story is
indeed strange, how someones can turn down a prize and
just become a hermit, despite obviously being a genius.



Saturn Lightning
Lightning is a fearsome natural phenomenon and gives rise to many
physical effects in the atmosphere.  It has been observed on other planets
as well along with the characteristic radio noise called whistlers that is familiar
to anyone who has ever listened to short wave radio.  My colleague Akiva Bar Nun
predicted that it would be found on Jupiter on the basis of chemical effects that would
admit of no other explanation.  It was found by the Voyager spacecraft both in images and
in radio observations by my friend, the late Fred Scarf.  We now have a movie of
lightning on Saturn from Cassini.  When watching it you should have your sound turned up to hear the
radio noise that was observed in synchrony with it.  Welcome to the show.

.
A Few More Rants

Here is a beautiful op-ed from the New York Times by Roger Cohen.  Thank you Yosefa for pointing it out.

I have refrained from discussing the Anat Kam case since there is not much more to be said until she has her day in court.  It is, however, worthy of note that the sensitivity of security spooks to whistle blowers who point out their shortcomings and corruption is not unique to Israel.  We have a report from the National Security Agency 
in the USA that shows how common this is. 

Some of us have trouble evaluating the opinions of experts who preach to
us about matters of public importance.  I am grateful to Bradley Burston for this
guide to MidEast experts.

A bit of good human rights news is always nice to add to our blog.  OTOH, it is unfortunate that someone thinks that everyone in Gaza has control over the Gilad Shalit issue and is refusing to allow a concert  by Daniel Barenboim's Youth Orchestra to take place there.

Be prepared to see saints wandering around Jaffa.  This week we saw a notice on the wall of the local museum providing a phone number to call to arrange a group visitation !!!

Finally congratulations to  Gene Weingarten for winning a 2010 Pulitzer Prize.  He deserved it indeed.  Now we can sign off with Below the Beltway.