The Wandering Jew

Israel Turns 59

From Sarah Honig's Pardon Us for Living:

Every year at this season we're urged to beat our breasts in agonizing contrition and atoningly exclaim a collective "pardon us for living." Pardon us for being Israelis, for founding a Jewish state and defending it despite incessant efforts to annihilate or drive us out. Pardon us for daring to exist like other nations, on our own turf, where our own language is spoken — where our customs, holidays, celebrations, lamentations and memories take center stage. Pardon the abnormals' desire for normalcy.

It must be a transgression indeed, since as each Independence Day nears, we're exhorted to apologize for breathing this region's air, infringing on Arab/Muslim hegemony and contaminating illustrious Arab/Muslim liberality, pluralism, freethinking, nonviolence and Scouting Movement values. Before our resolve to rebuild what we impudently claim to be our national homeland, reality here was harmoniously blissful (just read pertinent depictions in Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad).

We maliciously marred the indubitable perfection of a depopulating desert ringed by putrid, malaria-ridden swamps. For that we earned eternal condemnation, according to our foes and in-house enlightened moralists who empathize with enemy pain. Our domestic guardians of virtue (the likes of whom aren't tolerated in the great Islamic realm) blame us for Arab genocidal antagonism, dating back to the 1920s under the revered pan-Arab would-be fuhrer Haj Amin el-Husseini, the soon-to-become avid Nazi collaborator, Berlin-resident Holocaust accomplice, and wanted war criminal.

We're branded culpable for what the Arabs call nakba, their homegrown "calamity" and insidious synonym for our self-determination. Nakba is the lead entry in their lexicon of Israel's delegitimization and its ongoing effect on the Arab psyche is potent.

Read the whole thing.

Don't Know Much About History

Now students in the UK will know even less about history thanks to their government's slow but steady march towards dhimmitude.

From the Daily Mail:

Schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Government-backed study has revealed.

It found some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial.

There is also resistance to tackling the 11th century Crusades — where Christians fought Muslim armies for control of Jerusalem — because lessons often contradict what is taught in local mosques.

The findings have prompted claims that some schools are using history 'as a vehicle for promoting political correctness'.

The study, funded by the Department for Education and Skills, looked into 'emotive and controversial' history teaching in primary and secondary schools.

It found some teachers are dropping courses covering the Holocaust at the earliest opportunity over fears Muslim pupils might express anti-Semitic and anti-Israel reactions in class.

The researchers gave the example of a secondary school in an unnamed northern city, which dropped the Holocaust as a subject for GCSE coursework.

The report said teachers feared confronting 'anti-Semitic sentiment and Holocaust denial among some Muslim pupils'.

It added: "In another department, the Holocaust was taught despite anti-Semitic sentiment among some pupils.

"But the same department deliberately avoided teaching the Crusades at Key Stage 3 (11- to 14-year-olds) because their balanced treatment of the topic would have challenged what was taught in some local mosques."

A third school found itself 'strongly challenged by some Christian parents for their treatment of the Arab-Israeli conflict-and the history of the state of Israel that did not accord with the teachings of their denomination'.

The report concluded: "In particular settings, teachers of history are unwilling to challenge highly contentious or charged versions of history in which pupils are steeped at home, in their community or in a place of worship."

But Chris McGovern, history education adviser to the former Tory government, said: "History is not a vehicle for promoting political correctness. Children must have access to knowledge of these controversial subjects, whether palatable or unpalatable."

The researchers also warned that a lack of subject knowledge among teachers — particularly at primary level — was leading to history being taught in a 'shallow way leading to routine and superficial learning'.

Lessons in difficult topics were too often 'bland, simplistic and unproblematic' and bored pupils.

Why We Fight

If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no violence.
If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.

From Jon Medved's A 'Family' at War:

While it may seem strange to feel at war while living in the eerily peaceful atmosphere of Jerusalem, just a 90-minute drive from battle-scarred northern Israel, all it takes is a quick glance around our synagogue to know that, yes, our families are fighting for their very lives. With so many of our sons and daughters in the thick of the fight, this war is our war.

In front of me, Bob Rosenschein's two boys are missing from their regular seats and are sitting instead inside tanks. Steve Zerobnick's son is a commando, Asher Ostrin's son is in field intelligence, David Arnowitz's daughter is training soldiers, Yaron Shor's boy is in the air force, Meir Fachler's son just started basic training, and Howie Kahn's son Eli has emerged as one of this war's first heroes, retrieving an enemy grenade and throwing it back to kill two Hezbollah terrorists.
Perhaps I am more affected by all of this because I am the father of three teenage boys and one girl. My oldest son, Momo, 19, will be inducted into the IDF next week. My second son, Yossi, 17, just got his first call-up notice, and my son Itamar, 15, will not be far behind.

Herein lies a great secret of why we fight, why we have gone to war after the kidnappings of three Israeli soldiers. Why 90-plus% of the Israeli public backs this war. Because our army is our kids, and Jewish kids will not be kidnapped and slaughtered ever again without there being hell to pay. Because we will no longer sit idly while our enemies openly call for our destruction and amass the means to carry out their threats. Because we refuse to accept as normal a life where we must be afraid of a missile landing on our porch while we drink our morning coffee. Because this war is not being fought over territory, but our right to exist. It is for this that we fight the war critics call "disproportionate."

Why Is This Night Different From All Other Nights?

(Illustration by Tamar Messer) .............................................................................

From Jonathan Tobin's In Every Generation, They Rise Up (Jewish Exponent, March 29, 2007):

The Haggadah speaks of the Divine promise of the redemption of the children of Israel in Egypt by reminding us that "this promise has sustained our fathers and us. For not only one enemy has risen against us, in every generation men rise against us to destroy us." The answer to that puzzle — why it is that, in century after century, intolerance for the Jews continues, and why the will to destroy them is so immutable — is one that has challenged religious scholars and philosophers for as long as we've been reading that text. But though the explanations put forward are not in short supply, the basic truth of the assertion is not a matter of debate. Over the ages, the labels chosen by the haters has changed. In the past century, anti-Semitism has been adopted by fascists, Nazis, and Communists. Today, a new variant championed by Islamists and Arab nationalists finds itself in loose alliance with the remnants of the far left and right. But no matter what they call themselves, all seek Israel's extinction. Interestingly, the willingness to find inspiration at the seder for the courage needed to persist in our current battles runs somewhat against the grain for some. These days, many seek to make our religious rituals "relevant" by transforming the Jewish festival of freedom into a metaphor for every cause but our own. In these times, it sometimes feels as if to even raise the question of the Haggadah's prophecy of an endless assault on the Jews is to run the risk of being politically incorrect. It may be easier for many of us to view Passover through the prism of other struggles, but it's necessary to remind ourselves that it is still a tale of Jewish struggle and redemption. That's why students of all ages, as well as their parents, must recall that the goal of contemporary anti-Semitism is specifically to detach us from our history and our connection to Israel. The retelling of the story of the Exodus seems to inspire free people everywhere. Yet it also represents the aspirations of countless generations of Jews, who dreamed not merely of universal freedom but of the revival of Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel. We owe it to them — and even more, to ourselves — and to those who will come after us to never forget that. Refocusing on that narrative is daunting when you consider the rising support for Palestinian dreams of eradicating Israel and the world's willingness to tolerate Iran's faith-based drive for nuclear weapons to help accomplish that horrifying goal. In the face of such hatred, it's possible to lose heart and to stand silent while an intellectual mob bays for Jewish blood. But as difficult as the times may be, the words of the Haggadah, which may be hastily read or stumbled over in the rush to get to the food, can still supply us with the courage that we need. It's a lesson we must teach again to our children and ourselves. Like each Jewish generation since the Exodus that preceded us, we can dine well on the inspiration and the promise these words offer.