Just in case you were all wondering why I’ve not wieghed in on the Peter Beinart peice, I’ve not because he performed my song and dance bigger and better than I ever did myself. Nothing in there is new or that I’ve not said time and again before. But because he’s a war booster and [...]
Archive for the 'Musings' Category
Terror in my city
I have lived in conflict zones. I have traversed the hills of the West Bank, often alone. I have visited refugee camps and ghettoed villages. I have climbed walls and circumvented checkpoints to see for myself if they really prevented terrorism. I have seen militants with guns empty full clips into the air. In these [...]
May 9th, 2010 Filed under: Musings. 0 Comments
American identity
I spent four days in Washington, DC, with my father, who was seeing the city for the first time. He’s a 21-year veteran of the United States Army, an artilleryman and recruiter, who never saw the capital of the country he served for so many years until his 50s. He serves it still, as a [...]
April 27th, 2010 Filed under: Musings. 2 Comments
An addendum to my review of Joel Chasnoff’s “188th Crybaby Brigade”
My review of Joel Chasnoff’s humorous memoir, The 188th Crybaby Brigade: A Skinny Jewish Kid from Chicago Fights Hezbollah, is now up on Jewschool.
I really liked it. Israelis have an amazing sense of self-humor. Eretz Nehederet is their Saturday Night Live, a show that has portrayed Avigdor Lieberman as Darth Vader, the Palestinians as [...]
April 9th, 2010 Filed under: Israel, Musings and War. 2 Comments
I and all the things I stand for are under attack
I am under attack. I and all the things I stand for are under attack. Im Tirtzu has launched a campaign against the New Israel Fund, blaming it for the Goldstone report. “Without NIF, there would be no Goldstone report” they are claiming. Which is to say, without the Jews who support the New Israel [...]
February 2nd, 2010 Filed under: Israel and Musings. 2 Comments
Solicitations
Mail solicitations I have received since I last took out my paper recycling, say, 3 weeks ago:
The Salvation Army
The Police Athletic League
Brit Tzedek v’Shalom: The Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace
The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous
City Harvest
The New Israel Fund
The Children’s Aid Society
The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty
JDub Records x 2
American Jewish World Service x [...]
December 23rd, 2009 Filed under: Musings. 0 Comments
Pro-Peace Adrenaline
I write this on the subway home on the 2-3 train. My headphones are playing soothing music but my heartbeat is racing and my brain is slowly calming down. I’m on a pro-peace high, of sorts.
Why am I like this — after getting off the fourth conference call this week and a bigger, heavier to-do [...]
May 13th, 2009 Filed under: Musings. 0 Comments
I am 26, I am a brown belt, I am an activist
Thanks to the three dozen-some people who left birthday wishes on my Facebook wall and the twenty-two people who gave to my birthday cause. The outpouring of friendship was lovely. And I didn’t end up doing any party or gathering, I felt so warm in the company of my friends that a party was just [...]
March 3rd, 2009 Filed under: Israel, Jew York Culture Shock, Kung Fu and Musings. 1 Comment
Isaiah, always a good source of quotes
Spent the past 15 minutes musing on Isaiah 1:27, “Zion will be redeemed with justice, and her returnees with charity.”
Wondering what that means for refugees, returnees to home lands, Jews and Palestinians…
February 22nd, 2009 Filed under: Musings. 0 Comments
Any love I have for the Jewish state is rooted in her prophets
Can you love a state? A set of policies and procedures manifested as a bureaucracy and office buildings, people in uniform, and budgets for garbage collection, school, roads? I argue you can love a set of principles. But you can’t love a state. And I’ve fallen in love with the principles of many Israelis I’ve [...]
February 19th, 2009 Filed under: Israel and Musings. 0 Comments
