Reflections on the First Day of School in Israel
I ask my son how the first day of his elementary school (sixth grade) went. He tells me that the number of guards has been upped from two to five, and now they have metal detector wands. One of the guards, as before, carries a .38 caliber pistol. For good measure, he adds that the guard at the nearby clothing store is now carrying a G36C fully automatic Heckler & Koch. (Daniel’s an expert on small arms and has a high opinion of this weapon, one of his many hobbies.)
They are not carrying this equipment because of concern over random trespassers or shoplifters. I often reflect that if terrorists were to attack the elementary school successfully, they would be regarded as heroes in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and among millions of Arabs and Muslims.
In contrast, of course, Palestinian schools, stores, and malls do not have to fear attack. On the contrary, certainly in the Gaza Strip and to a lesser extent on the West Bank, they are being taught in textbooks that it is proper and virtuous to slay Israelis wherever they find them. Would all this change overnight if there were an internationally recognized Palestinian state? Of course not.
And incidentally, in high school my daughter did a course on comparative religion, including a fair and accurate study of Islam. In the schooling of both children there has never been the slightest demonization of Arabs or Muslims while there has been a genuine effort to understand (without apologizing for or advocating) the viewpoint of those peoples.
Whatever the real shortcomings of the Israeli school system (don’t get me started!), my son isn’t subjected to the very conscious indoctrination that he faced during a stint in an American public school. (Long-time readers of my blog know the details. A personal favorite is how the math teacher used “Vote for Obama” playing cards for some math exercises.)
In both schools there is some bullying and low-level violence among students, but in the American school all of the teachers were so pious about how wonderfully tolerant everyone was that they refused to recognize it. Indeed, between all of the multicultural lessons, students were slinging racial epithets at each other to a far greater extent than when I was attending a similar public school back in the “dark ages” of supposed intolerance.
These are not “right-wing” observations but statements of fact that nowadays are understood by the great majority of left-of-center Israelis. We would all like things to be different and want to believe that the conflict can be quickly and fully settled with more concessions. But experience has taught us that it just isn’t true.
In general, this is the point that the mass media in the West keeps from its readers. In 2011 the situation is not a matter of “right-wing” Israelis wanting to hold onto the West Bank forever (and it was a “right-wing” government that pulled out of the Gaza Strip and removed all of the Jewish settlements there).
It is a knowledge that more concessions will not be met by real peace based on such things as: the withdrawals from southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip; the experience of the 1990s’ peace process with both the Palestinian Authority and Syria; and now the undoing of the Egypt-Israel peace agreement.
It used to be that these stories made the national and international news but today they are so ‘normal’ that they don’t get any coverage outside the city.
Teen arreste in shooting near Miami Gardens school
I think if this had happened in Israel it would have made International news.
It’s much easier to point fingers at Israel than face the pile of sewage in ones own front yard.
I wholeheartedly concur with all of Barry’s assessments. But I would add one caveat-while most Israelis(at least among the Jewish Zionist population)understand the score regarding dangerous policies of appeasement, tragically our leaders have yet to learn their lessons.
One doesn’t have to be a political junkie to realize that our leaders view concessions/gestures as viable strategic plans, as opposed to aiming for victory over our avowed foes.
It is their feckless and delusional behavior which often keeps me awake in the dead of the night.
Adina, while you may “wholeheartedly concur with all of Barry’s assessments” it seems Barry’s assessment is 180 degrees from yours on regarding your main point. Barry assesses that Israel is “a country governed by people who have learned from experience and who have no choice but to let reality guide their behavior rather than relying on lack of knowledge, Political Correctness (rather than Factual Correctness), and wishful thinking”. You seem to have a differnt opinion of Israel’s leaders. Please correct me if I’ve missed the point.
Respectfully,
MarcH
‘our leaders view concessions/gestures as viable strategic plans, as opposed to aiming for victory over our avowed foes.’
You don’t have permission to defeat anymore Arab armies.
That’s the number one commandment which fearful Barak and Netanyahu and fearful Olmert and fearful Livni of the side entrance door at Annapolis have been following religiously.
A timid,restrained Israel is most pleasing to Israel’s neighbors and Washington can at least deliver one thing.
1.They’re not leaders but fearful followers.
2.They don’t have permission to do anything but deliver concessions and ‘goodwill gestures from their Washington masters.
3.The small men are afraid that if their big daddy no longer holds their hand that Israel will not be able to stand alone in the world and so they surrender to pressure and accept slavery to their destroyer America by way of the process fools call peace.
4.The faithless slaves in JERUSALEM just can’t say no and so when the phone rings from Washington they always say yes no matter how much it endangers Israel.
A real crisis of faith comes to Israel because the faithless and fearful who rule Israel to ruin by their failed,broken plans are backed into a corner and have no where else to turn but up or settle for dead slaves status.
Did you get that from Sanhedrin daf 97?
hamevin yavin
‘Did you get that from Sanhedrin daf 97?’
No,even better,Isaiah 1
I often wonder: how can someone who does A also do B? Specifically on the question of Israel and Zionism: How can one preach democracy and hate the most democratic state ever to exist in the region?
How can one value freedom and yet hate the freest, arguably the only free state in the region?
How can one espouse peace and yet hate the only state in the region willing to establish peace with all its neighbors?
And finally, the most perplexing of all: How can one love God and hate Israel?
I know, I know. Anti-Zionism and opposition to Israel is not the same as anti-semitism. Supposedly, not every anti-Zionist advocate of return to the indefensible pre-1967 borders hates Jews. Not every pious critic who screams “Apartheid” and “Imperialism” at Israel’s every measure of self-defense is an anti-Semite. Not every college professor demanding disinvestment from all Israeli companies would be happy to see Hamas achieve its bloodthirsty dreams. Not every anti-Zionist wants to see Israel swept off the map, or even the more “moderate” proposal of allowing Hamas missiles to be positioned 11 miles from Tel Aviv.
But still…
When I hear someone say “I am not anti-Semitic; I am just anti-Israel” I wonder. Isn’t that like saying “I don’t hate Americans, just America”? One hears that kind of thing on the Left on occasion, and I think for the same reason. Leftist anti-Americans believe the US is responsible for most or all of the ills in the world. They blame US aggressive capitalism and arrogant neo-imperialism for every problem, at home or abroad (including global warming). Anti-Zionists blame Israel for every problem, from Islamic Jihad to insane tyrants to the Muslim oppression of women. Of course, anti-Zionism is considerably more bi-partisan: from Walt and Mearsheimer to Noam Chomsky to Pat Buchanan to Jeremiah Wright to Dennis Kucinich to Ron Paul to… Well, you can add to the list at your leisure.
Anti-semitism is a poison which has proved useful to every despot, fully infected Islam, for too long distorted Christianity, undermined our faith in our own values, and now weakens the West’s resolve to face the internal and external threats we face.
And anyone who is comfortable with it should be confronted. Not shunned or avoided, but confronted.
To try and answer the question in your first paragraph one must consider also the “human rights” cliché and its use.
In almost every case it is used as a political stick to beat an opponent and not in the interests of some bi-pedal hominid.
Which human, what rights and when depend on circumstances.
Basically we are dealing with a hypocritical and bigoted world and this is brought to light daily as we see Christians loudly abused when the secular sects deny them their faith; Jews while still permitted to admit their faith suffer abuse and slanderous accusations.
Cognitive dissonance is rampant in this world turned upside down.
Cynic,
What we are dealing with, in Israel and the US, are opportunistic parasites moving up through the ranks of “power and influence” by selling off that which they can…namely, the security of their own people.
Politicians create nothing. They build nothing. Sacrifice nothing. Almost none have ever been Engineers or Doctors or Business Leaders, and even fewer (in the U.S.) have ever been Soldiers…They bring nothing to the table but their own ambitions and greed. They do not exist for us, we exist for them.
They move up by playing “peacemaker” and “leader” while selling off what they can of their own culture’s security, in exchange for a lavish and conspicuous lifestyle in the uppermost circles of the Media World.
They sell our security, because there is nothing to be gained elsewhere for them. Politicians are not savy investors, or entrepreneurs. They cannot, do not, create any wealth for themselves or others, they must exploit the free and decent people of Israel and the U.S . who have created the wealth.
And they sell it to our enemies, who create none themselves. To the Dictators in failed states, or to Mob Rule in parasitic cesspools of failure, they offer concessions, luxuries, recognition and legitimacy, all at our peril. They do this instead of showing them the back of our hand, because there is nothing to be GAINED by a politician in being firm, resolute, or decent.
They need another Summit, another Meeting, another trip to an exotic locale, with private jets, helicopters, limousines and security, to discuss how much MORE treasure, blood and security can be squeezed from their people, in exchange for their continued status of arrogant self-importance. Telling Terrorists and Dictators to simply “fuck-off” would bring all that to a screeching halt, and then force them to LEAD.
And they cannot, because they are simple Con-men without balls. They all know this. They cannot depend on each other to do whats right, because each knows the other is a thief and a fraud.So the game goes on.
They all believe, somehow by magic, their people are “free enough” and “safe enough” that these small bits of security, these mere scraps of appeasements so freely handed to our enemies, can be sustained profitably without any real harm. “We will not KILL the Golden Goose of freedom”, they say, but merely cause a little DISCOMFORT to it.
Politicians are like shoplifters…they have no real intent to destroy the business they steal from. They merely take what they can, sell it at a loss (from the store owners perspective) and pocket 100% profit for themselves, and move on.
Your billion is my million. Your million is my thousand. Your safety is my bargaining chip. You can afford it. They assume we, through our hard work and savvy, have a sufficient profit margin and the business acumen, to tolerate a “normal” amount of “expected shrinkage” in our inventory, without being bankrupted.
Politicians need not worry of consequence, as they assume WE have a plan to successfully deal with the fallout. As long as that is the case, they can make a nice living for themselves , with their meaningful speeches , and truly EARNEST hand gestures .
We don’t teach about antisemitism in American schools, for reasons that are historically explicable. Partly because in the argot of multiculturalism, Jews are the chief oppressors of the victim population. I attempted a list of the many sources of antisemitism here: http://clarespark.com/2010/11/14/the-abcs-of-antisemitism/. But also see my latest blog on the big fight between the teachers unions and the charter school movement: American teachers are intent on keeping their jobs, not in educating students. See http://clarespark.com/2011/08/31/review-steven-brills-class-warfare/. I have followed Barry Rubin’s various blogs on his child’s education, and they are terrifying in their implications. What happened to teachers protecting their students, not following orders from above?
Agreed.
I am a Christian.
My Savior was a Jew, named Jesus.
I tolerate no ill word or gesture to the people and culture that brought my Savior into the world. I cannot respect my Savior, without respecting his people.
Period.
It is Judaism that connects me from Jesus, to Adam, and to God.
Without them, I would feel an insufferable gap in an otherwise PROVEN, documented, unbroken physical connection between God, Greation, Man, and myself. If they are satisfied to continue communion with the One True God from which they never strayed, and need not entry via the Savior Of All Others who were (or would later become) lost, I find no fault or displeasure.
My Christian heart can tolerate hatred of Jews no more than my American Heart can tolerate hatred for the The Founding Fathers, the Pilgrims, or Columbus.
They are all part of my history, my culture, and my being.
To hate them is to hate myself.
We need to stay focused, and confront the both the malicious and the just plain stupid, who spread discontent among our connected family.
There are in this world, far, far greater enemies TO us, THAN us.
Barry’s right, certainly as far as the school curricula goes. I have often used that example to highlight the glaring differences between Israeli and Palestinian societies, and their intentions for their respective next generation.
I raised three children from pre-K to high school at Israeli state “nationalistic” religious schools (triplets, they graduated this last spring), and I have seen umpty-eleven times the syllabus, the homework, the lesson plans, the arts and crafts displays, and even the felt boards and display case dioramas along the hallways over the years:
If anything, the Israeli pedagogic policy is either overt education towards dry-eyed coexistence (…and not US/UK multiculti claptrap), or at the very least, not defaming or misrepresenting the Israeli Arab or Palestinian side. On the flip side, examples are rife in all forms of official Palestinian educational curricula and media that portray Israelis and Jews in political and demonic terms that would make Nazis blush. Just Google Farfur + Youtube, or take a look at Memri and Palestinian Media Watch translations of schoolbooks and pedagogic material for salient examples, not to mention the schools and sports centers named after suicide bombers.
As far as Israel’s safety is concerned, I should add one more reason why one can feel safer in the Jewish State than in America: John Brennan is not the Israeli counter-terrorism chief.
I hate to drop a bag of reality on your head but Israel serves and follows her masters in Washington with extreme religious devotion as if they were God.
Israel always,always runs to Washington for her orders,permission and restraint and never to God.
‘for you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God— otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods,’
Exodus 34:14
That is why the relationship of Pimp to Prostitute will end badly for Israel.
It already has as we see with Egypt ,Lebanon and the Palestinians of the U.S. led no peace Road Map.
And yet the prime US anti-Zionists, like Walt and Mearsheimer, proclaim that Israel pulls the strings and makes America dance. So who is the puppet and who the puppet master?
Actually, one of the few things that makes sense in all of this is that those who hate Israel hate America and vice versa. And that is the way it ought to be.
“…a country governed by people who have learned from experience and who have no choice but to let reality guide their behavior rather than relying on lack of knowledge, political correctness (rather than factual correctness), and wishful thinking.”
That succinctly nailed it.
Israel couldn’t teach their children the same kind of delusional nonsense we do here. Surrounded by enemies, outside of one generation they’d fall to the barbarians, all the while singing Kumbayaa and not understanding what was happening to them.
Barry, this is from your article…
” But the mood in Israel today, and for the last dozen years or more, is ready—even eager—for a lasting, stable two-state solution. ”
I think it is quite fitting that this is linked to an article about education because it points out how dismally educated the Israeli populace truly is. Don’t get me wrong, when it comes to science, technology,etc., Israel is a world leader. Yet even folks like yourself cling to this blind acceptance of the great lie. Anyone with a library card can see for themselves that the muslims of palestine have had their own country since 1946. In fact the muslims of palestine now have three operating governments in three distinct territories. For some reason this willful self inflicted blindness pervades sections of Israeli society, even educated folks who should know better. Why expect any better of any member of the
” world community ” when Israelis allow themselves to become a political football?
The Nazi technique of using different color permits for allowing Jewish exemption from deportation, causing Jews to scramble for the ” good color ” as opposed to organizing and arming themselves , providing false hope for those desperate for help, is echoed today with , ” if only we give them this…. ” even though the writing is on the wall.
‘Yet even folks like yourself cling to this blind acceptance of the great lie’
Give Barry and and the blind ones a little more time.
The majority of Israel are presently ‘vertically challenged’ completely focused in a trance with eyes glazed on Washington for peace and security.
When the God of Israel turns their idol, America into rubble,the blind idol worshipers of Israel will finally begin to look up.
Thanks for wishing ruin upon a Christian nation whose people support both Israel and Jews, despite our blustering fool leaders – who we are working to replace.
As an American by birth and an Israeli by choice I echo your sentiments. The American people are wonderful. Sadly the political leadership is not worthy of their trust and support. American support for Israel is strong as was evident when Prime Minister Netanyahu received a standing ovation when speaking to both houses of Congress.
Obama is a tragedy not just for Israel but even more so for the USA. Marcel is bitter and I understand his bitterness. However Jews all over America routinely include a Prayer for America in the Sabbath Service. And Jewish Law requires loyalty to whatever country a Jew resides in, unless, of course, demands are made by a government to violate a fundamental principal of Jewish Law.
I accept the fact that The Almighty blesses some nations and has harsh Judgement for others. Like yourself I long for an American President that sincerely asks the Almighty to Bless America and understands the importance of accepting His Laws. In 2012 the American people have an opportunity to right the ship of state. I pray we do so.
Anybody but Obama. MBY
Christian nation, where ? In your dreams ?
All I see is a cursed,decadent,perverted,sodomite nation which has turned it’s back on God and now assumes it is God.
Dear naive,comatose Christian ,open your dusty bible and read a verse, Zechariah 12:3 to see what awaits a nation which sticks its nose where it does not belong.
Marcel, the following is a personal note I received from Rabbi Lazer Brody , an amazing man in every regard. I had sent him a video and this was his response-
” Menachem,
I do not have the time to watch the entire video, but I watched the first couple of minutes. Thank you for sharing, but my approach is not to incite hatred and anger towards the arabs. They are just a stick in Hashem’s hands. If we focus on the stick and not on The One who is wielding that stick, we will never get the message that Hashem is trying to send us. Instead, we should focus on strengthening our emuna and return in teshuva. Don’t get caught up in the hatred and finger-pointing- it’s a dead end street.
Blessings,
LB ”
I don’t think he would mind me sharing this lesson with you. Please accept this in the spirit it is offered.
Shabbat Shalom, Menachem
“…I’d rather bet my future on a country governed by people who have learned from experience and who have no choice but to let reality guide their behavior rather than relying on lack of knowledge, political correctness (rather than factual correctness), and wishful thinking.”
We live in a world of doublespeak. US universities have become PC indoctrination factories, poisoning young minds and reinforcing the lack of critical thinking that permeates the K-12 public school system.
In US universities these days being PC means being anti Israel. Small example-my son was directed by a professor to use a book by Chomsky in a paper he was writing about the media. In the middle of unrelated material, Chomsky diverges into an anti-Israel rant. My son used the theoretical content, but in order to be intellectually honest, added a repudiation of Chomsky’s example of Israel. My son is rare. Most college students take the PC Pablum like eager fledglings with open, eager minds.
We have an entire generation of young, open minded Jews being taught self hatred in the name of “social justice”, the “as a Jew Jews” who have ingested poison and don’t even know they are committing suicide by PCness.
The danger of denying reality is that you can’t live there. Israelis live in the real world, warts, our own, and others, and all – but it is real. Denial is always a poor long term defense mechanism against harsh realities. Doctors can’t help patients unless they know the reality of their condition, people out of touch with reality are considered psychotic–so why do we accept the artificial construct of a PC universe as an acceptable reality? To deny reality is to deny oneself or ones people, the opportunity to exist, to thrive, and to make the world a better place for all who live in the real world.
It is going to just get worse for the people of the Middle East, in particular Israel with Obama at the Western helm.
http://msmignoresit.blogspot.com/2011/09/week-in-review-september-2-syrai-iran.html
There is no political correctness whatsoever in Israel. Israelis laugh at any sort of rules and regulations or PC silliness. They live a life of common sense and do what they like. Some of the lefties are introducing revisionist history into the schools, but most intelligent Israelis think it’s nonsense.
Marcel,
Zechariah Ch 12; It is indeed a wonderful description of the Might of the Holy One.
But you must also understand from other Scripture about the ‘enablers or helpers’ of His enemies. It is they who have brought His enemies into the Christian lands.
You think the Lord does not know His enemies from His servants? Did He not tell us that their baby jihad is just ‘fuel’ to go down in His anger?
As His enemies are now invaders of all the earth, He will show His Might and Power and they will then know, that He is the Lord. Allah is a dustmite.
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