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Israeli and American flags fly at half-staff in the Five Towns

photo photo-1Yesterday I took these pictures of flagpoles at two Jewish centers that are across the street from one another in Cedarhurst, Long Island: the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Kulanu center for special services for Jewish kids.

As you can see, on both flagpoles, two flags are at half-staff. Not just the Israeli flag, but the American one.

It’s not clear to me why any Jewish organizations in the United States should be in mourning for an Israeli prime minister. We’re not in Israel. The flagpoles are indicative of ways of thought that have entwined us in very bad patterns. The same can be said about Hillel International’s guidelines telling Hillel chapters what they can and can’t talk about. Why should Hillel have any concern about how American students talk about Israel?

Then of course there’s Ariel Sharon’s legacy. A large part of his reputation is as a butcher. His entire life was dedicated to military ventures, many of them brutish. The Lebanon invasion killed thousands across that country, even before the massacres in Beirut. His reputation began in 1953 when he led a unit that carried out reprisal raids on Palestinian villages for Palestinian attacks on Israelis; in one of them, his unit slaughtered 69 people.

And now Americans– including Palestinian-Americans — can look at this display, for children, and say, You see, they’re revering a murderer.

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The issue of an Israeli flag at half-stand is bizarre, but at least on some level partly understandable if you wish to remain committed to a country far away. I mean the vast majority of Jews in America are not immigrants or even 2nd generation immigrations anymore. There Israeli and Soviet Jewry who are, but they comprise a clear minority. But this is a messy identity politics issue that requires long debate, not sufficed in a single commentary.

Why they chose to make an American flag fly at half-stand, however, does merit a response for the sheer craziness/nuttiness of the act.

Doing so indicates that Sharon’s death was somehow America’s loss.
This is beyond merely crazy. This is deranged, utterly deranged and delusional.

Extraordinary. I trust Scott Roth and I see the photos. Otherwise I would think the story was a spoof.

Lunatics not just in the Five Towns looks like the NSA selected one such perp for pickup:
——————–
Andrew Scott Boguslawski, 43 of Moores Hill, Ind., is charged with illegal assembly and possession of chemical weapons and illegal manufacture or processing of explosives.

in total, bomb squad members found 58 improvised explosive initiators, 25 IEDs inside bottles and one bomb weighing 1.5 pounds. They also found materials to make more bombs, according to court testimony.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/crime-law/bomb-suspect-repeatedly-denied-having-weapons/ncmrY/

You Do Not fly the US flag at half staff to recognize Any foreign official…..Except by Executive Order of the US President.
I havent seen where Obama issued any such order for Sharon.

Here are the rules:
http://www.usflag.org/nff.half.staff.html

Compare: U.S. condemns Iran decision to put wreath on Hezbollah leader’s grave (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-rt-us-nuclear-iran-obama-20140114,0,7073389.story)