This Times piece about rabbis who will teach rich busy executives the Torah in their offices left out some of the main business of the religious group, Aish HaTorah: rightwing Zionism.
It opposes the peace process, with the usual invective about "judenrein" territories. It contains ugly descriptions of what will happen to Jerusalem if the Arabs get their filthy hands on it. And it says that the Times is biased against Israel.
I keep hoping the Times will be more straightforward about Zionist agendas–say as straightforward as it is about rightwing Christian agendas. Its big piece on Obama's money guys said nothing about Alan Solomont besides financial/business details. But Solomont is the chairman of the Israel Policy Forum, a leading lobby group for the two-state solution. As I keep saying, this is the big ideological divide in this election, between McCain's one-Jerusalem crowd and Obama's two-staters. Please, media, scoop me.
By the way, I got to meet Aish people in suburban Philadelphia two years ago. I went to their annual celebration under the stars, where they raise money from Main Line Jews. Aish's big sell is that it is marketing Judaism to modern Jews without emphasizing the religious strictures. It wants Jews to be orthodox, but it's saying, take this one step at a time. This was an event for women only. It was at a McMansionish place with a huge back yard and a tent, and hubby by the pool, on his cell phone. I left before the speeches. Esther Jungreis. But it was a week or two into the 34-Day War was starting, Lebanon '06, and the feeling in the crowd was very 1967. Oh poor existential Israel, when already it was pulverizing southern Lebanon. Not a word about the Arabs, of course. Pure ethnocentrism. We're too powerful to get away with this stuff.
