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Words of the Week: Bret Stephens

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

“But the important point is not whether you’re for a democratic Israel or you’re for a Palestinian state. The important question is how that Palestinian state is going to come into being, whether it’s going to be a — it’s going to come into being in a negotiated and peaceful way and, also, what the character of that state is going to be in the future.

Is that state going to be a progressive, forward-looking, liberal-minded state that really wants to live in peace with Israel or is it going to be another miniature of Lebanon or Iran or another state the sort of remains irredeemably intent on destroying what remains of Israel.

That’s the issue. It’s like needing an operation. Just because you need an operation, I think both Peter [Beinart] and I can agree that, at some point, Israel might need an operation, doesn’t mean that you just take out the hack saw and cut off your leg because otherwise you’re faced with the possibility of the cancer spreading.”

Source: Fareed Zakaria GPS. I watched this on Sunday and I thought that in these lines, Stephens captured something significant. (Emphasis in the second paragraph is mine.)

Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
Every Friday, My Machberet presents a set of Jewish Literary Links to close out the week.

  • I’ve publicized application deadlines for the Daniel Pearl Investigative Journalism Initiative in the past. The latest issue of Moment features an article reported through that initiative. It’s gripping–if dispiriting–reading about anti-Israel sentiments and activism in Olympia, Wash.
  • Q&A with Lesléa Newman on the occasion of the adaptation for the stage of her short story, “A Letter to Harvey Milk.”
  • Sample poems from “four Jewish guys”: Philip Terman, Jake Marmer, Jay Michaelson, and Yehoshua November.
  • On my other blog, Practicing Writing, I make it a point to publicize only calls for submissions that promise payment to contributing writers. But because the literary marketplace for specifically Jewish-themed writing is smaller, I’ll consider nonpaying calls for My Machberet. This call, for work to be included in A Family Treasury of Mitzvah Stories, is one example.
  • And as the 2012 London Olympics open today, I remember the 11 Israeli athletes murdered 40 summers ago in Munich. Part of the commemoration: I’ve recorded brief excerpts from my short story, “Homecomings.” Background and link to the audio here.

    • Shabbat shalom.

    Words of the Week: Ambassador Michael Oren

    by Erika Dreifus on
    2

    “Unfortunately, we Israelis observe several minutes of silence every year. We stand in silence for the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, for our soldiers who fell defending the state, and for the victims of terror. We stand in silence for the five Israeli tourists recently murdered by a Hezbollah suicide bomber in Bulgaria. And we will stand in silence tomorrow for our athletes who were senselessly killed at Munich. We stand in silence because we remember and honor, and we stand in silence because this is the loudest expression of our humanity.”

    Source: Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, for The Washington Post‘s “On Faith.”

    Beautifully said, Mr. Ambassador. Thank you.

    Words of the Week: Deborah Lipstadt

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    “I have long inveighed against the tendency of some Jews to see anti-Semitism behind every action that is critical of Israel or of Jews. In recent years some Jews have been inclined to hurl accusations of anti-Semitism even when they are entirely inappropriate. By repeatedly crying out, they risk making others stop listening—especially when the cry is true.

    Here the charge is absolutely accurate. This was the greatest tragedy to ever occur during the Olympic Games. Yet the IOC has made it quite clear that these victims are not worth 60 seconds. Imagine for a moment that these athletes had been from the United States, Canada, Australia, or even Germany. No one would think twice about commemorating them. But these athletes came from a country and a people who somehow deserve to be victims. Their lost lives are apparently not worth a minute.”

    Read Deborah Lipstadt’s full essay, “Jewish Blood is Cheap,” on Tablet.

    Image courtesy of StandWithUs

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    2

    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
    Every Friday, My Machberet presents a set of Jewish Literary Links to close out the week.

  • First up: I’m currently reading Francesca Segal’s The Innocents, a novel that updates Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence and transplants it to Jewish London. You still have time to read a copy yourself before the Jewish Book Council’s Twitter chat with the author, which is slated for July 16.
  • Also looking just a bit ahead: If you’re in New York, you may want to catch “Four Jewish Guys: Poetry and Performance,” scheduled for July 19 and featuring Jake Marmer, Jay Michaelson, Yehoshua November, and Philip Terman.
  • Not easy to read, but noteworthy nonetheless: “The American Girl in the Bunker,” a first-person account of a volunteer from New York serving in an IDF paratrooper unit–and dealing with rockets from Gaza.
  • Very different material, but also worth your time: Deborah Eisenberg’s new short story, “Cross Off and Move On.”
  • And over on Bagels and Books, there’s a nice recap of this spring’s Writers’ Festival in Jerusalem.

    • Shabbat shalom!