Opinions of a Wandering Waif

* If there is no self, whose arthritis is this?
* Be here now. Be someplace else later. Is that so complicated?
* Drink tea and nourish life; with the first sip, joy; with the second sip, satisfaction; with the third sip, peace; with the fourth, a Danish.
* Wherever you go, there you are.. Your luggage is another story.
* Accept misfortune as a blessing. Do not wish for perfect health, or a life without problems. What would you talk about?
* The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single Oy.
* There is no escaping karma. In a previous life, you never called, you never wrote, you never visited. And whose fault was that?
* Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then, what do you have? Bupkis.
* The Tao does not speak. The Tao does not blame. The Tao does not take sides. The Tao has no expectations. The Tao demands nothing of others. The Tao is not Jewish.
* Breathe in. Breathe out.† Breathe in.† Breathe† out…†† Forget this and attaining Enlightenment will be the least of your problems.
* Let your mind be as a floating cloud. Let your stillness be as a wooded glen. And sit up straight. You’ll never meet the Buddha with such rounded shoulders.
* Deep inside you are ten thousand flowers. Each flower blossoms ten thousand times. Each blossom has ten thousand petals.You might want to see a specialist.
* Be aware of your body. Be aware of your perceptions. Keep in mind that not every physical sensation is a symptom of a terminal illness.
* The Torah says, Love your neighbor as yourself… The Buddha says, There is no self. So … maybe we’re off the hook . . .

We are living in the era of total war, mass murder and the Big Lie. The last named facilitates the first two. The currently fashionable Big Lie is that Israel is an “apartheid state.” It seems that apartheid has become a smear word for one’s enemies that no longer has a specific, objective meaning. What it meant in South Africa is far from Israel’s reality. But the Israelophobes don’t care. At the same time, ironically, countries where this Big Lie is commonly propagated actually advocate, even demand, apartheid in Israel, particularly in Jerusalem, a city which has had a Jewish majority since the mid-19th century, although Arab irregular forces starting in December 1947, later joined by Transjordan’s Arab Legion, ethnically cleansed Jewish neighborhoods in what became “East Jerusalem” under Arab rule. Jews were forbidden by Jordanian law [Transjordan changed its name to Jordan circa 1950] to live anywhere under Jordanian rule, including formerly Jewish neighborhoods of Hebron and “East Jerusalem” plus a number of farming settlements such as in the Gush Etsion area, `Atarot and Neveh Ya`aqov in northeastern Jerusalem, etc.

European Union member states with representations in Jerusalem actually work to promote apartheid between Jewish and Arab Jerusalemites. According to EU rules, the national day celebrations and festivities held by the consulates of these states in Jerusalem must comprise separate receptions for Jews and Arabs. Teddy Kollek protested against this policy repeatedly when he was mayor, to no avail. The Euros insisted on apartheid.

Moreover, in order to promote Arab nationalism and Islamic interests, the EU wants to divide Jerusalem, where, as said above, Jews have been the majority since the mid-19th century, since 1853 at least. The EU went so far as to sponsor a “concert” for youth with the Irish singer, Sinead O’Connor, circa 1997, that was to call for division of the city. Fortunately, this racist “concert” did not take place because not enough tickets were sold.

Kollek protested this European practice of apartheid in the way that he thought most practicable. He boycotted national day celebrations by the Euro govts that practiced this racist policy.
This use of the “apartheid” label by those, both Arabs and Westerners, that in fact want to impose apartheid on Israeli Jews, is another sign of the Orwellian character of our times. Here is one report on Kollek’s policy:

Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek’s office announced today that Kollek is planning to boycott next week’s Bastille Day celebration sponsored by the French Consulate here to protest the longstanding diplomatic practice of holding separate social receptions for Arabs and Jews.

The policy of separate receptions is one of several western diplomatic practices Israelis contend deny the reality that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital and, since 1967, has been united under its rule. But many Palestinians argue that to hold only one reception in the Jewish part of the city, where most of the consulates have their main offices, would amount to tacit recognition of Israel’s 1967 annexation of their sector. [Washington Post, July 7, 1987][see here]

Now the EU govts as well as the US State Department, demand that Jews not be allowed to live in what was “East Jerusalem” for 19 years, not even on Jewish-owned real estate. Those were 19 years of exclusion of Jews, of refusal to allow Jews access to Jewish holy places, of taking Jewish tombstones from the Mount of Olives and using them to pave a path to a Jordanian army latrine, etc. The govts now members of the EU never complained about Jordanian abuse of Jewish tombstones in that demeaning way. But now they echo all sorts of bizarre Arab complaints. This is most repugnant when coming from the British who facilitated the Arab expulsion of Jews from Jerusalem neighborhoods in the period of civil war in the country initiated by the Arabs shortly after the UN General Asssembly recommended partitioning the Land of Israel [“palestine”] into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an internationally governed enclave in and around Jerusalem [also meant to include Bethlehem, Beyt Sahur, and Beyt Jala]. Now Britain and the other Euro friends of Arab fascism deny the Jews the right to return to places whence Jews were expelled in the period from 30 November 1947 up to the first truce in June 1948. That is, according to the EU and the US State Dept, Jews don’t have the right to come back to Jewish-owned real estate. Jews today are in the position of the American Blacks according to the notorious Dred Scott decision of the US Supreme Court:

“The negro … had no rights which the white man was bound to respect”

Just change “negro” to Jew and change “white man” to Arab or Westerner —or both together— and you have the situation today.

[…]

SALARINO

Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take

his flesh: what’s that good for?

SHYLOCK

To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else,

it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and

hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses,

mocked at my gains, scorned my…

And this is 500 years old, but still relevant. ~ waif

The Taboo That Just Won’t Shut Up, Chapter 43

by Jeffery Goldberg

Andrew Sullivan, in a post on the root causes of jihadism, praises a writer for the American Conservative, Daniel Larison, for his bravery in addressing what he sees as a strong connection between terrorism and America’s support for Israel. Larison, Andrew writes, “as often, treads where angels fear to.”

How true! How brave it is to stand athwart the Jews and yell “Stop!” We are a dangerous group of people. Just look at what has happened to other critics who have gone where angels fear to tread and criticized Israel. Take, for example, Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer, the authors of “The Israel Lobby.”  Walt, as many of you know, is in hiding in Holland, under round-the-clock protection of the Dutch police, after the chief rabbi of Wellesley, Mass., issued a fatwa calling for his assassination. Mearsheimer, of course, lost his job at the University of Chicago and was physically assaulted by a group of Hadassah ladies in what became known as the “Grapefruit Spoon Attack of 2009.” Now he teaches political science at a community college in Hayden Lake, Idaho, under police guard. And Michael Scheuer, the former CIA man who argues that American Jews are traitors to their country, was recently burned in effigy during a riot led by a cell of Reconstructionist rabbis.  All across this country, assaults by Jews on their critics are on the rise. It’s gotten so bad you can’t even publish a mildly anti-Semitic cartoon without having your office sacked by gangs of extremists from the North American Federation of Temple Youth. It’s tough out there for brave truth-tellers these days.

Movimiento de Mujeres Dominico Haitiana (MUDHA)—an AJWS [American Jewish World Service] grantee working on risk reduction and emergency response efforts in Haiti and the Dominican Republic for over 10 years—has been organizing the Haitian and Dominican populations to respond to the immediate needs of communities affected by the earthquake.

MUDHA’s team reports that thousands of Haitians in remote areas including Jacmel, Grandade and Leogane have not been reached by relief efforts, and many are in desperate need of potable water and treatment for infection.

In an astounding grassroots organizing effort, MUDHA transformed its Santo Domingo headquarters into a collection site for needed items and coordinated relief caravans with medical and personal hygiene supplies. MUDHA has installed 12 encampments in five communities outside of Port-au-Prince, and has undertaken an innovative strategy to train youth in first-responder skills to support the work of doctors. MUDHA has already trained 45 youth to provide counseling, emotional support and needs assessment for survivors, and plans to train an additional 183 youth in the coming days.

AJWS is proud to support MUDHA and so many other grassroots organizations whose sustainable, long-term strategies for rebuilding Haiti’s infrastructure are vital for the renewal of civil society.

RT @SpiritualArtfct

[…]

The tightening ties between extreme left-wing activists and Islamists were noted in the report, as well as more tolerance shown to Muslim acts of hate against Jews.

Iran and Venezuela stand at the top of the list as the world’s most anti-Semitic countries.

The list also includes countries which are not actively anti-Semitic but are indifferent to anti-Semitic incidents.

In the Netherlands, some one hundred incidents were noted following the Gaza incursion, the same number as what the country witnessed in the entire previous year.

In France, 631 incidents occurred in the first half of 2009, compared with 431 during all of 2008. In Britain, some 600 anti-Semitic incidents took place during 2009.

In Ukraine and Hungary, some public displays of anti-Semitism surfaced as tools of competing parties in election campaigns.

Ukraine, Mexico the United States and the Czech Republic were noted as the countries which most ardently battle anti-Semitism.

The report highlights a relatively new phenomenon - the “modern blood libel” - the dissemination of unverified or deliberately false reports tying Israel, Israelis or world Jewry to occurrences such as organ theft or kidnapping non-Jewish infants in order to give them to adoptive Jewish parents.

[…]

This is why the wingnuts always ask me how I can be a Liberal Democrat, when there is so much antisemitism on this side of the aisle.

Israel and Diaspora Jewish groups rushed to get aid workers, supplies and money to the disaster zone.