"I tentatively and resentfully respected my parents' sentiment and wishes, and then later gleefully stuck it to them."

The point about the vows is that between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur one is expected to sincerely inquire into one's personal and collective behavior during the year. Many commitments are made on an annual cycle. (Some of that is from agricultural and seasonal lives, for which the harvest and winter are significant events.)

The cycle is complete.

On Yom Kippur, the new cycle is affirmed, and stated as already started. The degree of learning that occurs from self-reflection in the period, either is sufficient to motive the succeeding year in goodness, ambiguity, or cynicism.

That it is shared with a community adds a large layer of support and accountability to the inquiry.

Different communities emphasize and/or rationalize the political in different degrees.

But, in no real cases, is the political the primary determinent of a good, ambiguous, or bad conscience.

For those few individuals in roles of responsibility and power, the political scale is primary.

For Phil, it probably is as well, as the field of his work is the public.

In that regard, he has a HIGHER BAR to fulfill as to tell the story that he encounters accurately.

If it is wrong to emphasize one's own side and collectively punish others in a partisan approach, it is also wrong to collectively punish one's own community in a partisan approach, in some reactive orientation.

It takes self-inquiry and self-mastery to accomplish that. (Self-mastery is controlling one's own tongue, so that what is expressed is what is intended.)

Rich: give it up man. Your pal takes the holiest day of the year and uses it to indulge his angst/ Along with those two other paragons Shapiro, who married the broad with the bug eyes i believe. And Mermelstein. who aside from being a bitch break mirrors when she passes.

I have moved way past irritation, thru anger, bewilderment, then a sort of piqued attempt to ignore you Richard, into a stoic acceptance I thought was the last word. But lately I admit to a sort of affection, or at least a tolerant permissiveness toward your determination not to subordinate your cherished tribal narratives to anything as trivial as common sense or decency.

I haven't quite managed that with you SOG. Give it time. Lots of time.

I agree with Eva, another great post from someone who understands the need for genuine self-questioning and has the tools to accomplish it. Hopefully some of the quieter Jewish journos Phil alludes to will take his lead.

It goes to what weight Phil and others put on events, to determine what is important.

The accusation of being "tribal" is an irrelevant comment.

The nakba occurred, and still occurs in respects, as the holocaust occurred, and still dormantly occurs in respects.

BOTH fanatics within Palestinian and Israeli communities seek to remove the other.

So, to the extent that Phil speaks to that current sentiment and behavior, that is relevant to comment on communal (tribal if you like) ethics.

To the extent that he ignores the urge and behavior to dispossess Jews from Israel or from minority peacable title in the Arab world, then he is enabling injustice.

The conflict exists on MULTIPLE scales of communities simultaneously. Any over-simplification disserves the resolution of it. There is a relationship of small Israel to large Muslim and Arab environ. There is a relationship of American empire to allied communities.

There is the sentiment that the land of Israel is Arab land, in many cases thought of as excluding Jews from peer status, as you accuse Israel of excluding Arabs.

The first murdered thousands of Christian "Polack" innocent souls while the latter stole technology that was capable of killing millions of all types of Christians. Both were in the service of Jewish Bolshevism and their unsuccesful fight against the followers of Christ.

The Poles are a great people. An example of their greatness would be Jan Sobieski, the hero of Vienna, savior of Europe, and killer of Muslims.

You harm Jews by your profanity.