May 28, 2009

The U.S. government does not dictate what happens in Israel, regardless of all the foreign aid it sends to the Jewish state. And despite U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s statement Wednesday that expansion of West Bank settlements must cease, an Israeli official says construction will continue. More from Haaretz:

Israel contests that new construction must take place to accommodate for expanding families inside the existing settlements, which the U.S. and much of the world consider an obstacle to peace because they are built on land the Palestinians claim for a future state.

When asked to respond to Clinton’s call for a total settlement freeze, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said that normal life in those communities must be allowed to continue. Pressed on whether the phrase normal life meant some construction will take place in existing settlements, Regev said it did.

He noted that Israel has pledged to build no new settlements and to remove

unauthorized Jewish outposts in the West Bank. “The fate of existing settlements will be determined in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians,” he said.

Regev’s remarks echoed those of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has said Israel will continue to allow natural growth in the settlements – a

vague term that refers to construction in existing settlements to accommodate growing families.

The new U.S. administration has been noticeably more explicit in its criticism of Israeli settlement policy than its predecessor.

The two countries each have new leaders with strikingly different approaches to Israeli-Palestinian relations, with Netanyahu refusing to endorse Palestinian independence, a notion supported by Obama, his predecessor and the previous Israeli government.

Clinton said Wednesday the U.S. wants a halt to all settlement construction—including their natural growth.

Read the rest here.

I learned in Sunday School, as all Christian children do, that the way we are to survive the great spiritual war of daily life is to “put on the full armor of God.” Paul gives this instruction in his letter to Ephesus. The armor, he writes, includes the “belt of truth,” “breastplate of righteousness,” “the shield of faith” and “the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

This is about as militant a passage as the song we used to sing “Onward Christian Soldiers.” We’re not actually marching off to war, and if we were the battle would require different tools. The shield of faith only goes so far in hand-to-hand combat.

But this passage, along with a few other choice verses from the Bible’s New Testament, found there way onto Pentagon cover sheets around the time the United States led an invasion on Iraq. The cover sheets’ existence were recently revealed in a GQ profile of former Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld, titled “And He Shall Be Judged.”

See a slideshow here. The Think Progress blog offers this excerpt:

“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” [The quote appears over an image of a tank at sunrise]

“Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” [The quote appears over an image of a soldier in Baghdad]

“It is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.” [The quote appears over an image of Saddam Hussein]

“Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, The nation that keeps faith.” [The quote appears over an image of tanks entering an Iraqi city]

Obviously, these passages were stripped of context and re-appropriated for political purposes. But just how bad was it? Well, Manya Brachear relates a sobering comparison:

some Jewish and Christian leaders say that the biblical passages were misused—just as moderate Muslims say Al Qaeda twisted the Koran to justify the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

She goes on in her article, a follow-up on the GQ story for the Chicago Tribune and LA Times, to quote a few of those religious leaders and to question “Whether Rumsfeld acted out of authentic religious motivation or, as some critics have suggested, to sell a war to an evangelical president.”

I last mentioned Tamir Goodman, the much-hyped high schooler known as the Jewish Jordan who now plays for Maccabi Haifa, I was writing a profile about the NBA’s lone MOT, Jordan Farmar. I interviewed Goodman for that story, but ended up leaving him out.

Coincidentally, NBC Washington checked in on Goodman with the above report the following week—sort of a “Where is he now?” They capture him dribbling a ball between his legs, and having it sway his tzitzit back and forth. And discovered one surprising factoid: Goodman didn’t just become the first Orthodox Jew to play college basketball, he was the first Orthodox Jew to play professional ball in Israel.

“Goodman believes he’s a messenger from God, and he doesn’t spend much time looking back,” the NBC reporter says.

Often TV reporters are hyperbolic in such statements. But not here. When I spoke with Goodman, I was amazed by how passionate he was for the Jewish religion, and how strongly he felt that his skills at basketball were merely a vehicle for spreading Jewish pride. He seemed, as we Christians say, like a man on a mission, almost evangelistic.

“My biggest blessing that I have always had is being able to grow closer to the Torah and closer to God through the Commandments and it has just helped my basketball in every way. The same type of dedication and faith and hard work and everything that the Torah expects from you, is the same tools that you need to succeed at basketball—hard work, prepration, team work. You can’t just pray in the morning. You have to prepare. There are no days off in Judaism, just like basketball.”