This blog comes out of alienation from my own tribe. I was staggered in midlife to find that the people I'd grown up believing were the best/enlightened were as power-hungry and materialistic as anyone else in the U.S. and indifferent to brutality in the Middle East. I needed to figure this out. The great thing about this effort personally–from the narrow standpoint of my own healing–is how many great Jews I have come upon who witness what I have seen in the Middle East and don't lie about it for one instant. Frankly, this discovery has made me a happier and more balanced person, not filled with shadowy doubt. For instance: Israeli Jonathan Pollack, who has led protests of the confiscatory fence and of human-rights abuses of Palestinians.
Well, it is sad to read, only in Haaretz, that Pollak is being investigated by the Shin Bet, or secret police– that the American Jewish virus of official attacks on dissenters is spreading there.
extreme right-wing activists suspected of subversive activities. This
time, the army has focused on a number of activists protesting the
security fence, those who help Palestinians harvest their olives, and
others.
This is apparently the first time left-wing activists have been the possible target of such orders.
Thus religious apartheid and occupation corrupt a society.
Phil,
You are a soul searcher, aren't you?
"the people I'd grown up believing were the best/enlightened were as power-hungry and materialistic as anyone else in the U.S."
Now, drop the "in the U.S.".
It's tough for us sometimes to face the fact that we're just human, just like everybody else. We weren't chosen by God, we aren't going to heal the world, at least not on our own. We smell bad, belch, fart, and spend our lives making a litany of mistakes just like the rest of the human race.
Good stuff!!!
PM
Soul searching would include clarity of what constitutes best/enlightened.
I would agree that those that are seeking personal power are not best/enlightened.
I doubt that I agree with the judgements of who are "best/enlightened" on the litmus tests that Phil describes.
In governance, the choices aren't of ideals, but of options with consequences.