Dumb Things I have Said...

Hi all...

One of my readers has accused me of being way too serious lately.  As such, I would like to tell everyone a couple of the dumber things I have said in recent memory.

In trying to convince my kids to do something they did not want to do: "if it kills you, I will not ask you to do it ever again."

I am not an actor, but I play one on television.

Have a good day.

R/SCG

News You Should Have Seen...

Top of the evening to all...

Last week, there was a protest outside the CNN offices in New York City.  The protest was by a pro-Israel group on the shoddy, biased reporting coming out of Gaza during Operation Protective Edge.

I have thought for years that the press has been strongly against Israel.  I believe this to be true.  However, there have been some interesting pieces over the last few weeks.  These news pieces have suggested other possibilities going beyond bias.  You should see them.

I have endeavoured to pull these web links from something other than the Jewish or Israeli media.

The first link is from NDTV - The Times of India.  http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/ndtv-exclusive-how-hamas-assembles-and-fires-rockets-571033 It reports on a rocket being assembled and launched right near their hotel.

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/08/01/finnish-tv-reporter-at-gazas-al-shifa-hospital-its-true-that-rockets-are-launched-here-from-the-gazan-side-into-israel-video/  This is from a Finnish reporter.  She was startled as a rocket was launched near where she was standing in the parking lot of Shifa Hospital in Gaza.

http://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/press-releases/unrwa-condemns-placement-rockets-second-time-one-its-schools  This is from the UNRWA.  It is after the second of three times that rockets were found on UNRWA property.

http://www.fpa.org.il/?categoryId=73840 - Foreign Press Association is an Israeli organization representing foreign reporters in the region.  In this article, the organization strongly condemns the behaviour of the peace-loving neighbours to our south in controlling the press so rigidly.  The rest of the article is not exactly pro-Israel,

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28688179  The statistician at the BBC questions the casualty rates as reported by the Gazans.  There is a similar article in the New York Times.

Out of ‪#Gaza far from ‪#Hamas retaliation: misfired rocket killed children yday in Shati. Witness: militants rushed and cleared debris  @gabrielebarbati  An Italian reporter tweeted what we have here, but only after he was out of Gaza.  

http://www.france24.com/en/20140805-exclusive-video-hamas-rocket-launching-pad-near-gaza-homes-un-building/  And this is from a French news station.  

All of these articles support what the Israeli government has been saying all along - that there has been weapons fire from schools, hospitals, and hotel areas and that there has been intimidation of the press.

Taken together, one must assume that much of what Israel has been doing is not in violation of Geneva conventions.  At the absolute least, the burden of proof on those making such accusations has just gotten much higher.

Have a good evening.

R/SCG

Laying Bare the Canard...

Top of the evening to all...

Over the years, we have heard many a person say that one can be anti-Israel without being anti-Semitic.  I have never believed that statement to be true.  No other nation in the world suffers the international criticism that Israel endures.  China is certainly worthy of such scrutiny.  Honest critics of nations should spend a great deal of time asking what India is doing to protect its young women.  It is a challenge though to state that the microscope under which Israel lives is anti-Semitism, or even anti-Israel.  Reasonable people can and do criticize governments and nations.  Perhaps there is a good reason that it seems like Israel endures this nonsense so much more than others.  Perhaps I have been overly sensitive to it. 

The challenge of proving that anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiments are one and the same is not longer.  It is an indefensible thesis.  What has happened that henceforth prevents the thesis from standing?

Since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge, there have been the usual protests by the usual useful idiots around the world against Israel.  The most notable took place in Paris.  There, protesters attempted to burn down synagogues.  They broke the windows of Jewish-owned businesses.  It was a mini-Kristallnacht.  If one is anti-Israel, protest at the embassy in Paris.  Boycott an Israeli-owned business.  To go after a place of worship crosses the line from the political to the religious.

At another protest in Washington DC, there were constant comparisons of Benjamin Netanyahu and the leader of Germany during World War II (his name will never be mentioned in this blog).  Of all the murderers in all the world, the protestors chose this one.  Let’s see…Stalin, Pol Pot, Genghis Kahn, Nero, Assad (either one), Kim Jong Un…any of these clearly fit the bill.  Stalin was also not so great for the Jews.  Why would the protesters choose the German dictator?  Jews have a sensitivity to this one more than to the others.  There was a reason.  By the way, I find it ironic that people who try to deny the Shoah (Holocaust) invoke its vocabulary when criticizing Israel.

The latest is that people in Italy came out with a list of Jewish-owned businesses to boycott.  There are plenty of Jews out there who are not so pro-Israel.  Did anyone ask these people their thoughts prior to targeting?  I doubt it.  They were targeted again because they were Jews.

Let us make sure that we understand what things are before we respond to them.

Have a good night.

R/SCG

I Do Not Understand...

Top of the evening to all...

I have refrained from writing about the current conflagration in Gaza.  The primary reason is that I find myself remarkably hawkish on this whole thing.  That is not a normal position for me.

It has taken until today to figure out what I wanted to write.

I do not understand why even the bien-pensants of the world do not see what the peace-loving neighbours wanted to do with the tunnels.

I do not understand how people do not see that as causis belli.

I do not understand why shooting down a rocket seems to lessen the severity of the crime in its launch.

I do not understand who those who would deny the Shoah (Holocaust) would use its imagery to slam Israel.

I do not understand why the Secretary of State by all accounts angered both Israel and the PA in trying to bring about a cease-fire.

I do not understand why the world will condemn the death of innocent civilians, but will not utter a peep about those who place their weapons in schools.

I do not understand why the slugfest between Israel and the peace-loving neighbours to the south generates so much press, but the death of thousands of people in Syria does not even make it to the back page.

I do not understand how the gleaming vision of the founders of the UN developed into an organization of murderous dictatorships with international legitimacy.

It is bedtime.  Let's hope this gets better soon.

R/SCG

Dialect...

Top of the evening to all...

A few years back, I took a several weeks worth of training in public speaking.  I learned a great deal.  As I was getting started, the teacher and I discussed goals.  One of the questions she asked was whether I wanted to work on diction in such a way that I spoke with a Canadian accent.

My answer was no.  I said to her that I am an educated American.  It is better to sound like what I am than to attempt to learn an accent of something I am not.  It would feel fake.

Over the years, people have had increasing difficulty pinpointing my accent.  Then, very recently, people started guessing American, and clearly from the Northeast.  While I grew up in Virginia, being the child of two parents from Brooklyn has never entirely left me.

While we were in Israel, we were walking around the military cemetery on Mount Herzl.  I like the layout and serenity of it far more than Arlington, by the way.  Anyway, we were ambling through, chattering away in English.  Someone walked up to us and asked us where we lived in Canada.

(Trade secret - rabbis sometimes have to go several minutes into a conversation before we realize how we know someone.  We are very good at continuing a conversation while we figure that out.)

I assumed that I had met the man who asked us that over the course of my rabbinate.  I had not.  He said he is very good at picking out accents.

All of that leaves me wondering: what language do I speak?  What dialect of that language do I speak?

Have a good evening.

R/SCG

Different Mindsets...

Top of the morning everyone...

Certain phrases are permanently a part of my vocabulary due to my military training.  Every Marine will tell you that you must 'maintain positive control of your weapon.'  That means that at all times when one is holding any sort of rifle, a hand must be on it.  It shortens response time if there is a need to shoot.  As well, it makes it more difficult for a weapon to be removed from the owner's hand.

When we were walking around the streets of Jerusalem, I noticed that both the soldiers and the police did not adhere to this policy.  They wore their weapons on their backs.  It made me a little uncomfortable.

I asked a couple of policemen.  They were very clear that this was how they carried their weapons, and that there was no logic to always having a hand thereupon.

Since then, I have given it some thought.  In the US, it is illegal for a government-issued weapon to leave government control.  When Marines are in garrison, they do not carry.  When they are out in the field, they check out a weapon before leaving.  They return the weapon immediately upon return.  The same holds for deployment.

For Israelis, the weapon is with them all the time.  They take it home.  They walk the streets with it.  It becomes natural to have it, and keeping a hand on it would be cumbersome and annoying.

I did not get entirely used to it.

R/SCG

A Tale of Two Delis...

It was the borscht of times.  It was the wurst of times.

R/SCG