Posts Tagged Terrorism
Why are you missing out?
Posted by Yonason Goldson in Philosophy on March 19, 2015
What does the bar-headed goose have to teach us about striking spiritual balance in our lives? Is the separation of church and state really as fundamental to the constitution as everyone thinks it is? When is stress really a good thing?
If you’ve been following my new blog, you know the answers.
But for some reason, the majority of you who follow this blog have not switched over to my main blog yonasongoldson.com.
If you’ve enjoyed my articles up to now, why miss out by not updating your subscription? Just click on the link and look for the “follow” button, then add in your email as you did when you began following Torah Ideals. Alternatively, send me an email and I’ll sign you up myself. You can reach me at yonasongoldson [at] gmail.com.
I look forward to hearing from you.
More Moral Confusion over Israel
Posted by Yonason Goldson in Culture, Israel, Politics on July 24, 2014
Published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
After Charles Krauthammer wrote so articulately about the moral clarity in Gaza (July 18), it is astonishing that there remains such profound moral confusion.
Exactly why are Arielle Klagsbrun, Hedy Epstein and Maya Harris (“The American Jewish community must value all life,” July 22) so eager to misrepresent the history of Israel, and to condemn their fellow Jews for the unspeakable crimes of self-defense and survival? They denounce the “illegal occupation” of captured territories. Why are they not equally concerned about the Jewish-owned land appropriated by Arab governments — all 38,625 square miles of it (compared to Israel’s total area of 7,992 square miles)? Why do they condemn Israel as oppressors when it was the Palestinian Authority that rejected Ehud Barak’s offer — after the Camp David Accords of 2000 — to return an equivalent amount of territory to that captured in the defensive 1967 war?
Have they forgotten that Israel withdrew unilaterally from Gaza and handed it over to the Palestinians, who promptly destroyed much of the infrastructure the Israelis left behind and embarked on a campaign of terrorism against Israel?
Most important, by what twisted logic do they suggest that Israel is guilty of murdering the Palestinian civilians used by Hamas as human shields to protect the rockets targeting Israeli civilians in an unprovoked rain of terror? It should be obvious that there would be peace tomorrow if the Palestinian leadership would stop seeking Israel’s destruction today.
Even the Washington Post editorial staff has reached the inevitable conclusion that the leaders of Hamas have no motive other than to sacrifice their own people on the altar of public opinion in hope of inciting world condemnation against Israel for defending itself. If they read the letter written by Ms. Klagsbrun, Ms. Epstein and Ms. Harris, the Hamas terrorists will rejoice, as their people die, knowing that their stratagem has not been completely in vain.
Searching for the Way out of Exile
Posted by Yonason Goldson in Culture, History, Israel, Politics on March 17, 2014
At first glance, the soggy, green downs of Ulster bear little resemblance to the parched and craggy hills of Israel. But a gentle tugging at the cultural fabric of either place unravels an unmistakable common thread: two peoples, impossibly close geographically, impossibly distant ideologically, with more than enough fuel for hatred between them to burn until the coming of the Messiah. Tromping over hills and through city streets, however, first in one place and then in the other, I discovered a more compelling similarity: the bitter struggle of humanity in exile.
“Which are the bad parts of town, the ones I should avoid?” I asked the owner of the bed-and-breakfast where I passed my first night in Belfast.
She dutifully pointed out the Shankhill neighborhood on my map, cautioning me to steer clear of it. I thanked her and, with sophomoric self-confidence, proceeded there directly.
It was the summer of 1984, and central Belfast exuded all the charm of a city under martial law. Policemen on patrol wore flack jackets. An armored personnel carrier idled at a major intersection waiting for the signal to change. Blown out shells of buildings sprouted weeds, and street signs warned, DO NOT LEAVE CAR UNATTENDED. But as I worked my way up Shankhill, I discovered even more disconcerting landmarks: elementary school yards swathed in barbed-wire and churches pocked with scars from automatic-rifle fire.
I stopped in at a corner pub and took a seat at the bar beside two locals. Each was nursing a pint of Guinness. Another glass, two-thirds full with boiled snails, rested between them. The men took turns using a bent eight-penny nail to dig each snail out of its shell before popping the meat into their mouths.
When violence seems the only answer
Posted by Yonason Goldson in Culture, Philosophy on April 19, 2013
Zebadiah Carter describes himself living in “an era when homicide kills more people than cancer and the favorite form of suicide is to take a rifle up some tower and keep shooting until the riot squad settles it.” In 1980, this remark by the main character in a Robert Heinlein novel sounded like the science fiction that it was. Now it echoes like a prophecy.
Random acts of mass violence in the United States still horrify us but no longer shock us. We’ve heard too many stories, seen too many pictures. And too many of them are depressingly the same.
Read the whole article here.
The Media War on Israel
Posted by Yonason Goldson in Israel on December 19, 2012
I ask the New York Times: Why does the paper give equal placement to the photo of Jews mourning Mrs. Mira Scharf and the photo of Muslims mourning Ahmed al-Jabari, the terrorist mastermind largely responsible for Mrs. Scharf’s murder? I ask the anchors of NPR, why does virtually every story covering violence in the Mideast begin with Israeli fire and Arab causalities, mimicking the sardonic Israeli joke that Western reporting typically begins: Israel incites violence by retaliating?
And I ask the editors, writers, and news anchors of CNN, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the BBC and major news outlets around the globe, why do you continue to ignore the facts and the history that prove only one irrefutable equation – that Israel’s neighbors are as disinterested in peace as Israel is in war?
Read the whole article here.
We Con the World
Posted by Yonason Goldson in Israel, Politics on June 9, 2010
If you haven’t seen this yet, it will make you laugh and cry to consider how so many can be so willingly fooled.
The End of Exile
Posted by Yonason Goldson in Culture on March 10, 2010
In his prophetic dream described in the Book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar foresaw the four kingdoms that would rule the Jewish people: Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome — each with its own distinct character, each posing its own unique threat to Jewish survival.
The final exile, that of Edom (Rome) manifests in our time as the superficiality of Western Civilization, distorting universal values based in Torah until they become gross caricatures whereby all attempts at moral reasoning yield perversely immoral conclusions.
Case in point: the latest from Paul Greenberg.
An Israeli officer describes the actions of Hamas
Posted by Yonason Goldson in Israel on January 20, 2010
Speaking Arabic, this Israeli Captain exposes the commitment of Hamas to sacrifice its own people in order to bring harm to Israel. I’m told that YouTube wants to remove it, claiming low traffic (only 700,000 visits).
Why there won’t be Peace in our Time
Posted by Yonason Goldson in Israel on October 13, 2009
This isn’t news; it’s been going on for decades. But that’s just why we need reminding.
Neville Chamberlain failed to understand that you can’t make peace with a megalomaniac. Now Western leaders continue in their failure to understand that you can’t make peace with an entire culture devoted to your annihilation.
Jonathan Rosenblum reminds us how that culture has been cultivated among the Palestinians.
Greenberg on Terrorism
Posted by Yonason Goldson in Politics on June 4, 2009
What’s the answer to terrorism? What’s the question?
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