Blog/May 2021/May 21st

May 21st

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Last week I spoke a bit about the current round in the “cycle of violence” here in the Land. I didn’t talk about the core reasons for it, nor did I mention how a proximal cause is the weakness and messaging of the current US administration. Suffice it to say, our declaration of a cease-fire before achieving the destruction of Ḥamas serves to ensure the next round will be soon upon us.

I recall that the wisest of men had something to say on that. Unfortunately, our leaders don’t know our traditions very well.

Though I did speak about the “situation” with Gaza, I was upbraided by a friend for not having mentioned what is in fact a much more serious problem: the violent riots across Israel in our “mixed cities” like Jaffa, Ramla, Acco, and many others. A “mixed city” is one where Jews and Arabs live side-by-side, in seeming harmony. They’ve been held out as models of “co-existence”, and until this past week or so they’ve been quiet.

Unless you ignore historical precedent, that is.

Israeli Arabs (Muslim and Christian) make up around 20% of the Israeli citizenry. The idea that such a large portion of the population actually constitutes a “fifth-column” identifying with Israel’s enemies is chilling. Of course, #NotAllArabs, etc. — but even a relatively small but very violent group can serve as the nucleus for further destruction and violence, and radicalize others who otherwise would have been more or less content with the status quo.

I won’t opine on possible causes of this developing situation, but I will say that our government bears some responsibility for it. The local leaders in the Arab sector have — for years — asked for more and better policing in their areas, complaining of “youth out of control” and rampant crime. For their part, the Arab party leaders in the Knesset have only served as shills for the PA, rather than doing anything for their Israeli Arab constituents.

That’s all water-under-the-bridge, though; the real problem is that this rioting has completely undermined the years of trust-building since the “intifadas”. I don’t think it likely most Jewish Israelis will feel secure amongst their Arab fellow-citizens, ever again. As I mentioned above, there is historical precedent for this kind of behavior, and it appears that a century isn’t long enough to eliminate it from what passes for their “culture”.

I leave it to wiser people (such as King David ob”m) to answer the question, “what should be done?”

Various and sundry:

• The vice-mayor of Jerusalem asks, “How did we get here?”.
• The truth about US “aid” to Israel.
• The “AP” are simply Hamas propagandists. But we knew that…
• Why the Left’s playing US race politics in the Middle East is dangerous and not helpful.
• Actual anti-zionism-not-antisemitism from “The Onion”. The Left has dropped the mask and gone full-on antisemite.
• And the irrepressible Gad Sa’ad apologizes on behalf of his and his wife’s ancestors.

Because of the Shavuoth holiday, we had a “short week” but still managed to wear ourselves out. I don’t even remember what all we did. It was a pleasant holiday, though!

And last but in absolutely no way least: happy birthday to Daniela’s twins! Three years old, working on twenty-three and counting…

The weather is turning delightful for shabbat! Below-average temperatures are forecast (into the coming week as well), with some chance of drizzle. A nice change from the well-above-average temperatures this past week!

Our shabbat menu includes:
homemade seeded sourdough rolls, orange soup, kebabs, roasted eggplant, roasted beets, rib cholent, various salatim, fruit, and homemade sorbet.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

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