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Oren uses Yom Kippur pulpit to warn D.C. faithful to back Israel whatever it does Iran

I attended Yom Kippur services at Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center for Conservative Judaism. Speaking in English, the rabbi told the story of the scapegoat being sent out into the desert and said that its destination, Azazel, or the place of the demons, is used in the Israeli equivalent of “Go to hell.” “To Azazel,” Jews say in Hebrew. And isn’t it interesting, he went on, that Gaza is called Aza in Hebrew; and so Azazel begins with Gaza. So Gaza, a place where 1.5 million people live, is hell. Is that religion? Not long after, I voted with my feet.

How would I have done in Washington? Turned heckler? The Washington Jewish Week reports that Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren used the Yom Kippur service to visit several D.C. area synagogues, including one attended by new Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, to remind American Jews to support Israel no matter what it does in the near future re Iran. Reporter Debra Rubin says that Oren suggested Israel will be making a preemptive strike against Iran. Certainly this sounds belligerent. And notice the suggestion that the peace talks will fail.

“Back us in our efforts to defend ourselves from terrorist rockets. Uphold us if we have to make painful sacrifices for peace or if we decide that the terms of the proposed treaty fail to justify those sacrifices. Stand with us as we resist Iran’s efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. Respect the decisions we take through our democratic system and respect the risks that we, more than any other nation, take.”
 

The full transcript is at the link above. Oren sounds a lot like Jeffrey Goldberg. So this is the Israel lobby at work. Gosh I wish more American Jews came out to Israel, and saw how decisions are made in this polity, who is enfranchised and who is not, and then judged for themselves what a democracy it is, and how paranoia grips the Israeli soul.

Update: Thanks to Shmuel for correcting my misspelling of Azazel.

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