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Sep. 8th, 2006
What's missing from this article?
Sep. 8th, 2006 12:53 pm(Or: Another pet peeve rears its ugly head.)
Take a look at this: http://rodefshalom.org/_kd/go.cfm?destination=ShowItem&Item_ID=2096
Now ask yourself, "What's missing from this prayer?"
If you said, "Any concern whatsoever for the innocent Lebanese civilians who've also died," you got the correct answer. This kind of cultural chauvinism makes me sick - if Jews are supposed to be "a light to the nations" and an example of what a 'chosen people' should be, what kind of message does it send that we seem to only care about human life if that human life happens to be Jewish? I can understand hating members of Hezbollah, but they're an extreme minority in Lebanon - that's what an extremist is, an extreme minority - and most Lebanese people have nothing to do with them. I've encountered this racism among Jews countless times - even to the point where certain Orthodox Jews I've met seem to think goyim are untrustworthy and lazy. How is that any worse from a Nazi spreading similar propaganda about us?
It isn't. Not in the slightest.
Beyond this, I resent the implication not only that Jewish lives are somehow 'better' or 'more valuable' than non-Jewish lives (let alone Arab lives; with most rabbis, that topic is verboten), but that it's somehow my duty to support a politically psychotic state like Israel just because I'm a Jew. Last I checked, Israel was run by the ultra-Orthodox and still denied basic government funding and recognition to Reform and Conservative synagogues... despite most of Israel being pretty secular altogether. If the Orthodox want to try to explain their position to non-Orthodox people to try to convince them, great... but using deprivation to try to convince a fellow Jew that you're right and they're wrong is not only evil, it's against the teachings of Torah.
I've even met several American Jews who've gotten it into their heads that any Jew who didn't vote for Bush is a bad Jew, because "Bush makes the Middle East safe for Israel." No, Bush makes the Middle East safe for his own oil concerns, and Israel is just a side effect of that. The idea of a Jewish state is a great one and all, but Israel can fend for itself when the U.S. is being ruled by a tyrant who cares more for zealotry and oil money than the basic privacy and civil rights of his constituents (and we are ALL his constituents, at least those of us who bothered to vote in the elections he somehow managed to steal). Every time I hear that fucker talk about "evil" or "God bless America", I want to punch him in the face. I'll say it flat out - I don't want America to be blessed by his god, since his god is apparently one that supports destroying freedom of speech, the right to privacy, environmental responsibility, the separation of church and state, the distribution of birth control in countries that need it to prevent HIV, our former position as a good citizen of the international community, and the entire system of checks and balances upon which our government is founded. When compared with all that, little Israel with its petty sectarian and racial issues looks pretty unimportant.
(That's hardly to minimize the impact of the Israelis who have died in every war the country has ever fought, but we as Americans need to have perspective - how the hell are we going to help other countries when we're abandoning everything we stand for at home?)
*deep breath*
Okay. [/rant]
Take a look at this: http://rodefshalom.org/_kd/go.cfm?destination=ShowItem&Item_ID=2096
Now ask yourself, "What's missing from this prayer?"
If you said, "Any concern whatsoever for the innocent Lebanese civilians who've also died," you got the correct answer. This kind of cultural chauvinism makes me sick - if Jews are supposed to be "a light to the nations" and an example of what a 'chosen people' should be, what kind of message does it send that we seem to only care about human life if that human life happens to be Jewish? I can understand hating members of Hezbollah, but they're an extreme minority in Lebanon - that's what an extremist is, an extreme minority - and most Lebanese people have nothing to do with them. I've encountered this racism among Jews countless times - even to the point where certain Orthodox Jews I've met seem to think goyim are untrustworthy and lazy. How is that any worse from a Nazi spreading similar propaganda about us?
It isn't. Not in the slightest.
Beyond this, I resent the implication not only that Jewish lives are somehow 'better' or 'more valuable' than non-Jewish lives (let alone Arab lives; with most rabbis, that topic is verboten), but that it's somehow my duty to support a politically psychotic state like Israel just because I'm a Jew. Last I checked, Israel was run by the ultra-Orthodox and still denied basic government funding and recognition to Reform and Conservative synagogues... despite most of Israel being pretty secular altogether. If the Orthodox want to try to explain their position to non-Orthodox people to try to convince them, great... but using deprivation to try to convince a fellow Jew that you're right and they're wrong is not only evil, it's against the teachings of Torah.
I've even met several American Jews who've gotten it into their heads that any Jew who didn't vote for Bush is a bad Jew, because "Bush makes the Middle East safe for Israel." No, Bush makes the Middle East safe for his own oil concerns, and Israel is just a side effect of that. The idea of a Jewish state is a great one and all, but Israel can fend for itself when the U.S. is being ruled by a tyrant who cares more for zealotry and oil money than the basic privacy and civil rights of his constituents (and we are ALL his constituents, at least those of us who bothered to vote in the elections he somehow managed to steal). Every time I hear that fucker talk about "evil" or "God bless America", I want to punch him in the face. I'll say it flat out - I don't want America to be blessed by his god, since his god is apparently one that supports destroying freedom of speech, the right to privacy, environmental responsibility, the separation of church and state, the distribution of birth control in countries that need it to prevent HIV, our former position as a good citizen of the international community, and the entire system of checks and balances upon which our government is founded. When compared with all that, little Israel with its petty sectarian and racial issues looks pretty unimportant.
(That's hardly to minimize the impact of the Israelis who have died in every war the country has ever fought, but we as Americans need to have perspective - how the hell are we going to help other countries when we're abandoning everything we stand for at home?)
*deep breath*
Okay. [/rant]