Craziness and More Craziness

B"H
This week, I heard a couple of things that just made me scratch my head in disbelief. Both had to do with the word "rape" and both are just at a level of stupidity that are impossible to comprehend.

I'm on Naomi Ragen's mailing list. Naomi Ragen is an author (I've read most of her books and love them) and writer for the Jerusalem Post. She doesn't seem to be writing much for JP these days (at least most of what I get from her list is written by others, not her). [as an aside: I totally disagree with her position on American Politics and she's VERY sensitive about people even slightly disagreeing with her position of Bush as god of American Presidents -- as in anything bad Bush does is the fault of the "left" and by extension any Democrat elected to office in the entire United States.]

This week, I received from her an absolutely bizarre article. It was about a Master's student who wrote a paper stating that she has proof that Israeli soldiers are racist because they won't rape Palestinian women. Forgetting that, of course, most Israelis are the same race as Palestinians and, therefore, even if there was something wrong with the soldiers NOT raping Palestinians, it wouldn't be racist (since most Israeli soldiers are the same race as most Palestinians).

Now, I know everyone from politicians to journalists to the anti-Zionist on the street (or, should I say anti-Jewish person????) judges Israel to different standards (as in nothing Israel does is good including trying to defend itself and its citizens), but these are the same people who, if, Has V'Shalom, G-d forbid, any Israeli soldier raped any Palestinian woman, they would be the first to condemn this action (as well they should). So why are they complaining that our "boys" DON'T rape women????

The second use of the word rape that I heard about had to do with a publisher from Israeli newspaper HaAretz (which I call Am HaAretz) told Condoleezza Rice that Israel wanted the US to "rape [us] into a settlement".

Besides my feelings of mortification over this use of such a word for such a situation (shows a total lack of respect not only for Israel but for women everywhere) and my hopes that Ms. Rice, despite previous evidence to the contrary, will not attribute this sentiment to anyone other than this raving idiot, I am appalled that anyone would say this.

I am appalled that people criticize Israel (in this case for not raping women) about its treatment of women when Israel is surrounded by countries where "honor killing" (the murder of women, mostly young women, for supposed "crimes" including being raped, being outside of their houses unescorted by a male relative, doing things her father doesn't want her to do (like dating or learning to read, for example) etc. -- men who commit these crimes rarely get more than a "slap on the wrist") and female circumcision are part of their accepted way of life. I am appalled that women's rights groups (mind you, I am and have always considered myself a feminist, though at times, including/especially now, I often wonder about other feminists) condemn Israel (not, mind you, for its treatment of Israeli women, but for its treatment of Palestinian women -- women who Israelis treat considerably better than their own "government" and their own families). Feminist conferences of late seem to spend more time condemning Israel for non-existent human rights violations than they do condemning anyone else in the world for their treatment of their own women. High on the list of "condemnees" should be all 22 (or is it 23 now if you include areas under Palestinian Authority control???) of the Arab countries for their blatant violation of the rights of women within their countries, for "honor killings" and female circumcision, for keeping women down and illiterate, for punishing women for supposed crimes that only apply to women and not to men (including being raped) and a host of other human rights violations directed only to women.

Some might wonder why I still consider myself a feminist. A feminist is someone who believes that the rights of an individual should not be dependant on that individual's gender classification. It means the same thing even if people mislabel themselves as feminist when their only agenda is condemning one of the few civilized countries in this world. It still means the same thing even if people think it means something else, kind of like Liberal. Liberal still means someone who cares for others and isn't just concerned about the rich. Just because there are people out there who abuse the English language and coopt terminology doesn't mean that I can't use the words in their proper context. The only problem I have with this is that often people mistake my proper use of a word for the inproper definition others have.

As for the comments of Israel's top Am HaAretz, I can only scratch my head in disbelief. I can't imagine how anyone could say something not only that stupid from a political perspective but that inappropriate from a respect for women perspective. To use the word "rape" when talking to a female official of a foreign government is to show a total lack of any level of respect for women. To say that Israel "wants" to be raped shows a level of political flippancy that in any truly civilized world would lead to his forced resignation and his total condemnation.
One of the prophesies about the coming of Moshiah (the Messiah) is that the world will turn upside down -- right will be wrong and wrong will be right. I can only hope that what is happening today is in fulfillment of that prophesy.

The Jewish Sandwich

B"H

Last night, I was one of the privileged few (I heard 15 hundred???) who was part of Brigitte Gabriel's conference call "town meeting". I missed the beginning (I was talking to my best friend), but I was on the phone listening (with the mute on the phone) for over a half hour.

Brigitte Gabriel's organization, American Congress for Truth, is trying to defeat Islamofascism in the United States and the World. For that I applaud her and the organization.

But as a Jew (in particular, an Orthodox Zionistic Jew) I have an issue. The issue is not specifically with Brigitte. We have for centuries had to deal with hatred and people wanting to destroy us and most of the time they fell into one of two categories: the Hamans of the world (represented by Purim), who wanted to destroy our bodies, and the Antiochuses of the world (represented by Hanuka), who wanted to destroy our souls.

Hitler was a Haman. Torquemada, for all the Jews whose murder he had a hand in, was an Antiochus.

But in this century we have to deal with both Haman and Antiochus. The Muslims want to kill us like Haman and the Christians, with all their "love bombing" and deceptive Messianic tactics, like Antiochus, want our souls.

This puts us in a very strange position. Politics makes strange bedfellows and for us right now we have to "to go bed", so to speak, with the Christian right, the very people who are after our souls with their financial support of Jews for Jesus, because they are the people in the US who are actually supportive of Israel. These are the people who visit Israel, who get up on their Radio and Television shows and promote Israel. These are the people who are working on fighting the Islamofascists, the ones who lauded Israel for attacking terrorists in the south of (the Syrian puppet regime of) Lebanon.

But these are also the people who are trying to convert us. These are the people who think that their quickest route to heaven is by converting Jews. These are the people who believe we will burn in hell for all eternity. And these are the people, who, in their heart of hearts, believe that when Jesus "returns" in his "second coming", those of us who don't join them in the final war of Armageddon will die.

These are the people who use the word "crusade" to describe a holy mission against the Muslims. But what they either don't know or choose to forget is that for us Jews, the Crusades were hardly a picnic. Just as we are today, we were sandwiched between the two big religious "super powers".

What neither side seems to understand (probably because both sides are so entrenched in societies where their religion holds sway to the extent that they don't need to analyze other ideas) is that there is a very good reason that Jews have historically not converted. Obviously, it's not because we lived in societies where OUR religion held sway. So maybe, just maybe, there's something more to Judaism than either "side" wants to admit. Maybe, just maybe, our way of life is so meaningful that we just don't want to live any other way. But as a Rabbi I know once said, it's like being inside a circle and all the people inside the circle understand what's great about the circle. But the people outside the circle don't understand. And they probably never will until they come into the circle, if only for a short time.

Judaism, unlike Christianity and Islam, doesn't claim that its adherents have a corner on truth, justice or goodness. We don't say that if you aren't Jewish you will "burn in hell for all eternity". That's because we don't have to scare people into following our Tora. The Tora has a special place for Gentiles. There are laws that non-Jews are responsible for. These are basically moral laws, like not murdering (yes, murdering -- it doesn't say in the 10 "commandments" that you shall not kill, it says you shall not MURDER), not stealing, not having inappropriate sexual relations (like adultery and incest), setting up courts, not worshiping idols, not pulling a limb off a live animal, etc.

We don't need to scare people into following our Tora because we know that following the Tora is to everyone's benefit. From my perspective, you only need to scare people into following your religion if you instinctively know it's not the truth.

So what can we do? How can we protect ourselves from the two pieces of bread in the Jewish Sandwich? I don't know. But one thing I do know -- we can't protect ourselves by giving away our land or by arming our enemies or by ignoring the missionaries. We can't protect ourselves by ignoring the Tora. And we can't protect ourselves by turning our backs on G-d.

Strong Jewish Women Merchandise
More of my writing:
Strong Biblical Women
Strong Biblical Women 2
Strong Biblical Women Part 3