Yesterday the Wall Street Journal published my op-ed about “” title=”starting in San Francisco” target=”_blank”>starting in San Francisco, and they claim the act is no different than female genital mutilation.
I know. It’s bonkers.
My op-ed focused more on the cultural and religious implications of prohibiting a covenantal act that Jews and Muslims are religiously commanded to perform. (The First Amendment issue is it’s own animal, and I largely left that alone.) ” title=”SF Chronicle” target=”_blank”>SF Chronicle describe what is going on:
Hmmmmm. Blonde superhero. An evil rabbi before a baby, a glass and a bottle of wine. And there’s a character named “warrior” of the “intactivist underground” who doesn’t care about rules or law and has one goal: “to stop child circumcisers dead in their tracks.”
I spoke with Matthew Hess of Foreskinman.com this morning. I asked him if the comic is anti-Semitic. He answered, “A lot of people have said that, but we’re not trying to be anti-Semitic. We’re trying to be pro-human rights.”
More than 18 Arabs were reported killed after hundreds of protesters from Syria attempted to breach the border with Israel on the Golan Heights.
The violence Sunday, which was a repeat attempt at the border breaches of May 15 that left more than a dozen dead, came on what the Arabs call Naksa Day, commemorating the anniversary of the “setback” of the 1967 Six-Day War.
Israeli soldiers and border police used tear gas and fired their weapons in the air and then at protesters’ feet to break up the crowds threatening to breach the border. Syrian media reported that 19 protesters were killed and up to 270 were injured.
Israeli troops tried three times to evacuate the wounded for care, but the crowd took advantage of these efforts and attempted to infiltrate the border, the IDF Spokesman’s Office said. Later in the day, the Red Cross carried out evacuations. Arab rioters also threw firebombs at Israeli troops in the Golan Heights at the Druze town of Majdal Shams and the Kuneitra crossing in the northern Golan, the IDF spokesman said.
Syrian security forces, who usually block any attempts to reach the Israeli border, did not intervene when hundreds of protesters showed up at the border on Sunday.
In the West Bank, hundreds of Palestinian protesters confronted Israeli troops at the Kalandiya checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem. Soldiers fired tear gas and shot in the air to disperse the demonstrators. At least 40 people were treated for tear gas inhalation and two were seriously injured, according to Palestinian reports. Palestinians demonstrating on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem threw firebombs at the back of Hadassah Hospital, Ynet reported.
In the West Bank, about 40 Arabs and their allies marched toward the Jewish settlement of Elon Moreh and attempted to break through the village’s gates.
Despite calls for protests in Lebanon, that border with Israel remained quiet. On June 2, the Lebanese army had declared the area a closed military zone in order to keep protesters away.
“To my regret, today, there are extremist elements around us that are trying to break through our borders and threaten our communities and our citizens,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday at his weekly Cabinet meeting. “We will not allow them to do so. I have instructed the security forces to act with determination, with maximum restraint, but with determination to maintain our sovereignty, our borders, our communities and our citizens.”
The U.S. State Department backed up Israel’s right to self-defense.
“We call for all sides to exercise restraint. Provocative actions like this should be avoided. Israel, like any sovereign nation, has a right to defend itself,” the State Dept. said in a statement. “We are deeply troubled by events that took place earlier today in the Golan Heights resulting in injuries and the loss of life.”
Going to Taiwan felt different to me. I did not really converse with George about it. I did not waiver. I just decided and organized the tickets with frequent flyer miles. Sometimes I do not know what I want or honestly I do not want to share my preferences but this time I just did it and it felt liberating.
I do like being in a partnership and compromise is required, but sometimes it feels great to say no or to make my own decision.
The following story illustrates Israel’s dilemma. A Palestinian woman from Gaza arrives at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba for lifesaving skin treatment for burns over half her body. After the conclusion of her extensive treatment, the woman is invited back for follow-up visits to the outpatient clinic. One day she is caught at the border crossing wearing a suicide belt. Her intention? To blow herself up at the same clinic that saved her life.
Now what kind of culture leads one to do that? Sadly, it is a culture infused with resentment and hatred. But it is this culture that underlies the Palestinians’ and the broader Arab world’s refusal to accept Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. And this – this—is the root of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. It is not about the ‘67 lines.
Until Israel’s enemies come to terms with this reality, a true peace will be impossible.
And the reality is, as we say in Hebrew, “Ahm Yisrael Chai”: The people of Israel live—and what they want is to live in peace. If the Palestinians want to live in peace in a state of their own, they must demonstrate that they are worthy of a state.
So to Mr. Abbas, I say: Stop the incitement in your media and your schools. Stop naming public squares and athletic teams after suicide bombers. And come to the negotiating table when you have prepared your people to forego hatred and renounce terrorism—and then Israel will embrace you.
Until that day, there can be no peace with Hamas. Peace at any price isn’t peace—it’s surrender.
Over the weekend, I stumbled onto “Why Jews Laugh at Themselves,” an article written by Hillel Halkin that was published in Commentary Magazine in 2006. (Unless you purchase the article for $4.95, you can only read the abstract.)
In the Commentary article, Halkin, who has also translated Yiddish short stories by Shalem Aleichem (“Tevye the Dairyman and The Railroad Stories,” 1987), points to an old skit by Jack Benny that skillfully plays on Jewish stereotypes for laughs:
Benny is accosted by an armed mugger who threatens, “Your money or your life.” The comedian takes his time answering and, when prodded with a gun, protests: “I’m thinking. I’m thinking!”
Harkin says that Benny’s joke relies on two stereotypes about Jews: that Jews love money and that they “over-intellectualize.”
While steroetypes, as everyone knows, are often negative generalizations about groups or individuals, as a Jew I’m proud of our peoples’ tendency to over-intellectualize – which is Harkin’s point: that while self-deprecation is thought of being a primary characteristic of Jewish humor, real Jewish humor is both self-deprecating and self-praising.
“Are we not also forced to admire the person who refuses to be rushed even by a threat to his life,” Halkin says, of the Benny joke, “and insists on his right to rational reflection?”
“A stereotypical Jew,” Halkin says, “thinks before acting.”
