Haaretz runs Glenn Altschuler's fair review, in the sense of giving the author lots of space, of Marc Ellis's new book, Judaism does not equal Israel (alongside the new Einstein book on his opposition to religious nationalism):
Ellis insists that the equation of Israeli and Palestinians "sins" and "rights" distorts "the historical reality." In 1948, he claims, the Israelis were the aggressors, but it is they who now hold a monopoly on power. To restore their precious ethical traditions, "Israelis and their Jewish enablers in America" must confess their sins against the Palestinian people. He hopes, as well, for an admission that the two-state solution "is a fraud." Ellis advocates one state (with Arabs and Jews living together), and the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes and villages in pre-1967 Israel.
Acknowledging that Israel is not likely "to reverse its expansionist course," Ellis ends with mourning - and a warning. No state, he writes, apocalyptically, can exercise power over others indefinitely. As the day of reckoning nears, the children of Israel "will encounter such hollowness at the core of Jewish identity that their distance from things Jewish will increase until, incrementally, the core disappears" and Jewish affiliation dwindles "to the point of no return."
Mourning can be a sign of hope, in which God returns or doesn't, Ellis emphasizes, rather abstractly. And "too late can be right on time - when the time is right." For now, though, he?s a self-proclaimed prophet in exile. His book is often over the top, but Ellis's concerns about the ethical obligations of the State of Israel are, at times, worth listening to, even by those with a powerful urge to doubt, dismiss or destroy him
"No state, he writes, apocalyptically, can exercise power over others indefinitely." I don't see why this is necessarily the case. oh…and fred jerome's book on Einstein and zionism is WAY fascinating. interesting that pro-israel lout walter isaacson says nothing about any of this stuff. Isaacson's book is becoming a standard, due to all the hype, even though freeman dyson basically said it was junk in the NTRB.
In answer to your rhetorical question … When it's too late.
One state with Arabs and Jews living together is a pipedream. In reality, it would rapidly become one state with Arabs living and the corpses of the Jews being buried in mass graves.
Right Thom Just like in Iran, where the second largest population of Jews in the Mid East resides. They have always insisted on their identity as iranian Jews, practice their religion freely, travel at will (including to israel), and shop at kosher groceries in Tehran. Pogroms? Hardly. Make up some more crap, Thom It's one area in which you plainly excel.
The Jews in Iran are subject to religious persecution. They have no Rabbi, their schools have been mostly shut down, those that haven't have been taken over and turned into Islamic indoctrination schools. Jews have been executed without trial for helping other Jews to emigrate. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-... "Iran's official government-controlled media often issues anti-Semitic propaganda. A prime example is the government's publishing of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious Czarist forgery, in 1994 and 1999.2 Jews also suffer varying degrees of officially sanctioned discrimination, particularly in the areas of employment, education, and public accommodations.". Also, last I checked, despite the persecution and murders of Jews in Iran, the Iranians don't have an official policy of genocide.
Left off: Unlike the Palestinians who do have an official policy of genocide and have tried it many times before.
I just thought I would draw your attention to the following web article: http://raelianews.org/news.php?extend.373 There are only two possibilities, either this is the truth or it is not. If it is not true , then I would be at a loss to understand what or who's purpose it would serve? Perhaps one might say he is suffering from some delusion ? However If he is telling the truth then one would have thought this was of some import to Israel. Ultimately we are all family on this planet going to have to come to terms with accepting each other's differences in peace. if we do not then our humanity will go the way of the many humanities that have existed on this very ancient planet.
And Thom pretends that Israeli policy towards Palestinians is all peaches and cream. Thom propogates the usual propoganda lines like jews are persecuted in Iran. And when countered moves on to the next propoganda line
David Shasha, Director of the Center for Sephardic Heritage in Brooklyn, NY, sees a fundamental problem in the ethnic Ashkenazi form of Judaism: Guest Article: A Broken Frame. I did not make the point in my blog entry, but Maimonides is not remembered so much as a great religious thinker or philosopher among Muslims but as a great doctor because from a Muslim standpoint Maimonides is not an original philospher but merely a popularizer of Arab Islamic philosophy among Jews. The comments section of Yeshiva Bochers Study Arabic discusses awareness of Maimonides' philosophy among Muslims. In general Maimonides and his family introduced Muslim practices as well as Muslim thinking to Jewish communities strongly under Maimonidean influence.