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Bev’s picks the best Zionist reads this week
Bev Goldman serves up her Top-11 reads from Zionist writers and titles around the world. Whatever your views of Zionism, Bev always makes sure she has something for everyone.
BEV GOLDMAN
OPINION AND ANALYSIS
Week Ending 2 June 2015
The doyen of SA Zionist communication and education, Bev Goldman, scours the internet every week to bring Jewish Report users the best Zionist Op-Ed pieces from around the world every week. As always, this week’s crop cover all aspects and views of broad Zionism to ensure a good Shabbos read for all. Pic your favourites from the following eleven pieces and print them out for Saturday.
1. Anti-Semitism and Oren Ben-Dor
Sarah Brown, Fathom Journal, Winter 2015
According to Ben-Dor, the current situation in Israel/Palestine and the case of 1930s Germany are forced together in order to suggest that there is something inherent in the Jewish mindset or condition which inspires hatred and perversely feeds on that hate. Here the point is made still more explicit – the Jews, or Jewishness, were the cause of the Holocaust. Again the rhetoric works to indicate that this destructiveness is essentially uncanny, something which cannot be pinned down or controlled.
2. A grim prospect for South Africa
RW Johnson, Standpoint Magazine, June 2015
Mandela never tired of praising South African Jews for having sided against apartheid and provided so many members of the Progressive, Liberal and Communist parties.
Yet Israel now lists South Africa as a country where the Jewish community is under major threat and strongly recommends that the entire community here leave for Israel as soon as possible. So how has it come to this?
3. Loving Israel, hating how it’s treating Ethiopians
Shmuel Legesse, Forward Magazine, 1 June 2015
More than half of Ethiopian immigrant families, and nearly two-thirds of Ethiopian children, live below the poverty line, with the average monthly household income for Ethiopian families being more than 6,000 shekels below the national mean. There is more, but this is enough.
4. Selective integration in the IDF
Emily Rose, The Times of Israel, 1 June 2015
While serving in this unit I learned why it is that Cherev works so well. Cherev is unique because it allows for the preservation of culture within an integrated system. It is yet another example of brilliant Israeli innovation. Cherev accomplished what I never thought possible. It embodies what is, indeed, separate but equal. I have learned that the Druze village, as an institution, is the cornerstone of Druze society.
5. We haven’t shown enough outrage
David Harris, The Times of Israel, 31 May 2015
It is high time, I believe, for us to show more outrage at a number of the things that have been going on. It’s not acceptable that Jews in some European countries worry whether they have a future because it’s no longer clear if governments, however much they might wish to, can protect them. It’s not acceptable that we’ve witnessed murderous attacks, all by Islamists, against Jews in Toulouse, Burgas, Paris, Brussels, and Copenhagen.
6. How to fix the Iran deal
Amos Yadlin, The Times of Israel, 29 May 2015
The most likely scenario is that by Fall of 2015, a comprehensive agreement between Iran and the world’s main powers will have already been signed.
7. Israeli path to peace: Entrepreneurship
Dr Elinor Garely, Tourism Executives, 28 May 2015
While the media encourages dialogue about terrorists, border patrols, and ISIS, the enlightened Arabs and Israelis are taking a different tack: Integrating Arab-Israelis into high-tech and other Israeli economic sectors.
8. Barack Obama’s anti-Semitism test
Caroline Glick, Jerusalem Post, 28 May 2015
Right after Obama provided us with his definition of anti-Semitism, he endorsed and indeed engaged in the very anti-Semitism he had just defined. Obama “holds Israel to a higher standard than he does other countries.” He judged Israel in accordance to what he defined as Jewish values. According to Obama, Jewish values require Jews to prefer the interests of others over their own interests in order to “repair the world.”
9. Israel and EC can work together for prosperity
Ambassador Arthur Lenk, Daily Dispatch, 26 May 2015
The Eastern Cape has many challenges, but there is great potential for opportunities and sharing experiences and ultimately benefiting the region.
10. Politicians, get your act together
Isi Leibler, Word from Jerusalem, 26 May 2015
Every time we feel that our dysfunctional political system and its political leaders have descended to an all-time low, we wake up the next morning to learn of additional shenanigans and irresponsible behavior by those we elected to represent us. It is outrageous that such behavior is tolerated when we are surrounded by barbarians committed to our destruction, facing a tsunami of global anti-Semitism and confronted with greater hostility from the world at large than any time since our creation.
11. A policy to defeat both ISIL and Iran
There are two main external threats to the Middle East state system. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS or the Islamic State, embodies the most direct threat, particularly with its declaration of a caliphate designed to replace existing states. The Islamic Republic of Iran also constitutes a threat, perhaps not as blatant in its assault but no less real. It uses its militia proxies to undermine states and deny them authority throughout their territory, a process that has already given Tehran leverage over four Arab capitals – Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut and Sanaa.