Yes, I know what you’re thinking! “She’s praising Jeffrey Goldberg again?”
Well, if you’d been struggling as I have, trying to figure out what to say publicly about Caryl Churchill’s new play (I’m inspired to call it a playlet, it’s so short, and yes, I have indeed read it), you might be as grateful as I am to Goldberg for this post. (Then again, if you agree more with his interviewee, you might not.)
Late last week, Nextbook collected and compiled a number of links representing an array of takes on what has been happening in Gaza. Check them out here.
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Have you heard about Jon Stewart’s deplorable indictment of Israel? Jon, please, don’t do this to me. Must I abandon The Daily Show, too? Please consider the well-expressed response of Andrew Silow-Carroll. Or are you too busy, Jon (born Jonathan Stewart Leibowitz), savoring the praise you’ve received (says the San Francisco Chronicle) from the Muslim Public Affairs Council?
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Thank you, David Harris, for expressing, among other essential truths the world should remember when hearing some of the most twisted accusations currently being made against Israel–accusations and descriptions invoking Holocaust “vocabulary”–those embedded here:
What about all the clergy, cartoonists, protesters, and politicians so concerned about the human rights of those in Gaza? Have they ever uttered a peep while those 10,000 rockets, missiles, and mortars were raining down on southern Israel? Did they ever take to the streets to support the human rights of Israelis? Did they ever read the Hamas Charter and hear the echoes of Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, two European books that helped to condemn Jews to their death?
Did they ever put two and two together and ask what would happen if Hamas married its annihilationist goals with ever more advanced weaponry? And did it occur to them that, yes, nearly six million Israeli Jews would be in the crosshairs?
For the full Harris post, click here.
If you aren’t already following Jeffrey Goldberg on current events in Israel and Gaza, just go over and start. Really. Just do it. He earned my admiration with his book, and he’s sustaining it now. So just go read him. Did I say you should go read him?
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Tired of the cries of how “disproportionately” Israel is responding? So am I. And so is Jonathan Mark.
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We’d certainly be horrified if Hamas’s (or Hezbollah’s, or–substitute a relevant Islamist group of your choice’s) actions provoked attacks on Arabs/Muslims elsewhere. So why isn’t there more outrage about the violence against and victimization of Jews worldwide who have become targets of aggressors’ anger toward Israel? Like the Jewish girl who “was beaten in a northern Paris suburb by schoolmates who claimed revenge for Israel’s offensive in Gaza”? Or these incidents? I could post more, surely, but maybe that’s enough to get the point across.
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Think there’s a corresponding prayer like this for the children of Israel appearing in the Palestinian/Arab press? Somehow, I doubt it. This is certainly one case where I’d love to be proven wrong.
Unfortunately, I was unable to attend last week’s panel discussion at the Museum of Jewish Heritage on “Irène Némirovsky and the Jewish Question.” On the bright side, though, the Museum has made podcast segments available on its Web site, and I’ve had some time this weekend to listen. Well worth my time, and, if you’re interested in Némirvosky and her work, quite likely worth yours, too.