Dear Sarah Palin, George Bush and other End of Time Believers,

I am sorry to inform you that I will be preventing the second coming of you savior. It's nothing personal, but I just don't intend to move to Israel just to suit your religious beliefs. Let me explain below.

You see, End of Timers, I'm Jewish. Now, I don't actually keep Kosher (I love pulled pork way too much...and bacon cheese burgers are pretty damned good too) and I only occasionally attend synagogue. In fact I think I have visited more Buddhist temples in Japan than I have visited synagogues anywhere in the world. Though I did spend some time and effort a few years ago to help save a synagogue in Latvia, if that counts.  read more »

There is a room 8 diarist of the name "Chaim Yankel" who has a beef with a city council candidate named Brad Lander. Yankel (actually a name that runs through my family as a first or middle name, though I used the more modern form "Jacob" for my son) wrote an article on room 8 about an anti-Israel statement made by Mr. Lander in a book which compiled the views of anti-Israel Jews. Yankel was pretty harshly criticizing Brad Lander, and I came, mildly, to Brad's defense. I made the following comment to Yankel's original article:  read more »

I, along with many others, reported on the Israeli ban on Arab political parties for the 2009 elections. This ban was almost universally criticized, including by myself.

What has not gotten any attention is the fact that the Israeli Supreme Court reversed this ban quite rapidly. This is an example both of how a government with proper checks and balances works, and an example of how everyone who loves to criticize Israel ignores it when Israel does something right. I saw lots of diaries on Daily Kos criticizing the ban but none that I came across reporting on the reversal.

From Ynet news:

The High Court of Justice overturned Wednesday the Central Elections Committee's decision to disqualify the Arab parties, Balad and United Arab List-Ta'al from taking part in the next Knesset race.

The Central Elections Committee explained its decision by saying that since neither party recognized Israel as the Jewish homeland, they were not eligible to bid in the nearing general elections...  read more »

David McReynolds, anti-warrior, professional pacifist and sometime Socialist Party candidate for President sent along this moving meditation on Gaza & Israel. It’s long, somewhat painful, but, in my view, worth reading.

Shiv'a in Gaza: December 2008
By Deb Reich

"My heart has been broken so many times", writes Alice Walker somewhere, "that it feels like an open suitcase with the wind blowing through it…" But maybe, she muses, hearts are made to be broken, and what is required of us is simply a steadfast acknowledgment: Open up and let the wind blow through; that's what hearts are for.

If so, Gaza 2008 is good cardiac training.

I am an American-Israeli Jewish woman of 60 living now in an Arab town in Israel and working for Jewish-Palestinian-Arab-Israeli reconciliation. I have two friends in Gaza and I will tell you how we came to be acquainted.

The first step was simply refusing to be enemies.  read more »

It is easy to feel horrifed at the images of Israeli planes hitting Gaza. But the context behind the attacks is that Gaza has been attacking Israeli civillians almost constantly since Israel withdrew from Gaza.

(House in Sderot hit by Qassem rocket, image from Bokertov.com)

(Injured woman in Sderot, image from BBC news)

I supported the withdrawal from Gaza. The dismatling of the illegal settlements in Gaza was a controversial move in Israel, but a necessary move. The withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza was also controversial, but necessary. Likud, the far right wing nut jobs of Israel, predicted that Israeli withdrawal from Gaza would result in increased attacks on Israel from Gaza.  read more »