False Dichotomies

After another great year for the Jews, where the celebrations of 350 years of Anglo-Jewry led us to shmooze our way through 250, 000 smoked salmon bagels, we at Jewdas would like to follow the British custom of rewarding the great and the good (and those who give large donations to political parties) by honouring them at this time of year. We therefore present the

Jewdas New Year’s Honours List Continue Reading »

“I DON’T care about the principles! All that I want is that my wife can live with me and that we can raise a family!” cried out the engaging young man on the TV talk show.

  Sammy is an Arab citizen from Acre, studying for a doctor’s degree at Haifa University. Something terrible happened to him: he fell in love with the wrong woman - a Palestinian from Jenin in the occupied territories. He had met her by accident in Ramallah, obtained for her (on false pretences, he admits) a permit to stay in Israel for one day and married her. Since then he can visit her only once every few weeks in Jenin. Continue Reading »

To a sliver of land, without oil; amid a population far below that of many a modern metropolis - came the representatives of 131 nations. Thrones, Dominions, Powers, the crowned heads, potentates, heads of state, pontiffs, prime ministers, gangsters of the planet assembling at the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin. Some in grief of sympathy, some in unctuous indifference or opportunism, more than a clutch in concealed satisfaction and hatred. But they came. From every corner of the earth, as they would have to no other pomp. Of course there is a Jewish question. Only cant or a self-deluding investment in normalcy could deny that. The political map, the plethora of ethnic-historical legacies, the patchwork of societies, faiths, communal identifications across our globe teems with unresolved conflicts, with religious-racial enmities, with non-negotiable claims to an empowering past, to sacred grounds. Nonetheless, the Jewish condition differs. Irreducibly, maddeningly, it embdoies what modern physics calls a ’singularity,’ a construct or happening outside the norms, extraterritorial to probability and the findings of common reason. Judaism pulses and radiates energy like some black hole in the historical galaxy. Its parameters are those of ’strangeness,’ another key-notion in current theoretical physics and cosmology.

“An ongoing struggle for Bnei Brak residents against rental by non-Jews: Important rabbinical leaders published an announcement this week stating that it is forbidden to sell apartments to Arabs.
 

The rabbis signing the document include Rabbi Aharon Leib Steinman, Rabbi Shmuel Halevi Wosner, Rabbi Michael Yehuda Lefkovich, Rabbi Moshe Yehuda Landau and others.” Read on here.  

…originally published on guardian.co.uk… 

Sky News last night aired a half-hour tribute to the Thames Whale, the cetacean that “captivated the world’s attention” almost a year ago. At the same time, Dr Rowan Williams was slating the Coalition’s policy in Iraq claiming, among other things, that the “shortsighted” and “ignorant” intervention was putting Christians across the Middle East at risk. Both Sky News and Dr Williams are guilty of the same sin – namely, the elevating of certain ‘species’ to protected status, whilst avoiding the run-of-the-mill creatures who are slaughtered and dying everyday. Continue Reading »

“Was it a spontaneous kiss, like Haim Ramon’s? Was it planned by both parties in advance of the summit dinner? Or was it a little surprise cooked up by Ehud Olmert? One way or another, Abu Mazen’s face paled a little, as if he were about to faint, when our prime minister planted that pair of kisses on his cheeks.” Read on here.  
 

“The Defense Ministry has approved the building of a new settlement in the northern Jordan Valley, outside of the West Bank separation fence. The site of the planned settlement will be a former installation of the haredi branch of the IDF Nahal infantry brigade. The plans, approved on Monday, include the construction of 30 houses intended for families who were evacuated from Gush Katif as part of the Disengagement from Gaza in August 2005.” Read on here. 

“Fifteen percent of Israeli women are overweight, and 17 percent suffer from high blood pressure, as opposed to 14 percent of men. Eighteen percent of women have high cholesterol, as opposed to 15 percent of men. Forty-one percent of Israeli women see medical specialists, while only 31 percent of men do so. There are also large gaps between Jews and Arabs in receiving essential medical services. These and other findings are included in the most comprehensive health survey ever carried out in Israel, which is to be released by the Health Ministry this morning.” Read on here.  

“There’s been an important, wonderful development on the Israel/Palestine front that typically has gotten no attention: Hillel societies at American universities have helped sponsor the tour of the Israeli army veterans’ group, Breaking the Silence. I find this association as startling as that other great development of 2006: when the LRB published Walt and Mearsheimer on the Israel lobby.” Read on here.

“Marriage under 18 – a tragedy,” is the motto of the recent campaign in the Israeli-Arab community, an initiative of the Committee for Equality in Family Law in the Arab Society in Israel. The campaign aims to prevent mother and fathers from marrying off their underage daughters. The campaign includes testimony from doctors who explain the damage that arises from pregnancy at an early age, and attempts to create a discussion on the status of girls who are still in school by directly addressing their parents.” Read on here.