The Raw Material
this is Michael Lumish talking to you from high atop my mountainous perch in the Oakland hills.
It is cloudy and cool again this morning, tuesday august 24, 2016.
Sar Shalom, at Israel Thrives, I am proud to say, wrote a very interesting and well-received piece entitled Surprise, surprise. JStreet U officer supports Black Lives Matter platform on Israel
Indeed, I'm shocked
Ian, at the Elder of Ziyon noted it in his daily list of links and Shirlee of Jews Down Under fame republished it, as did my friend, Yosef, at Love of the Land out of Hebron.
I want to take a few moments to discuss it because I think that it's central theme matters.
Sar Shalom is, in my terminology, acknowledging the obvious.
And that's not always easy to do.
Sometimes the obvious is the very last thing that people want to receive.
If that were not the case then people throughout the US and Europe and Australia and New Zealand (sorry, we tend to forget you guys - despite the lord of the rings) would stand up and say no to the Arab and Muslim re-creations of Jewish history
Sar Shalom writes,
"The important takeaway is what George Orwell taught decades ago, quote "He who controls the past controls the future." unquote.
That's absolutely correct.
I've been beating that drum for years, but we need intelligent and caring people like the guy who goes under the moniker, Sar Shalom, to stand up whatever their circumstances and whereever they may be.
In a certain kind of way I see people such as myself and Sar Shalom and all the men and women at Israel Thrives, like Trudy and Geoff from Australia and Jeff from the US and k - who is apparently on sabbatical - and oldschool26 who have great respect for, not to mention doodad who goes back farther than probably anyone else, from the old hideous Daily Kos day,
and Shirlee, the Elder of Ziyon and Ted Belman (of Israpundit) and Aussie Dave of Israellycool - a terrific blog that also features Ryan Bellerose.
I don't know what Bellerose thinks of me, but I love the guy.
I mean, look at this individual.
He's a big strong intelligent football playing Canadian native American Metis zionist.
How many people can say that?
I think that he is the only one in the universe!
But the point is that we have a small on-line community of people from throughout the world that care about the survival of the Jewish people and we need to connect with one another in a spirit of friendship, tactics, and coordination.
The new small vital groups include Stand With Us and I have had the priviledge of sitting on two panel discussions with my neighbor, Michael Harris, of that organization with Jon Segall who is a passionate advocate for Jewish rights to self-determination and self-defense, as well as a student and teacher of krav maga.
There are ladies and gentleman over at CAMERA and the algemeiner and the times of israel who are standing up
Professor Richard Landes of Boston University and the Augean Stables blog does so.
Professor Andrew Pessin who wrote The God Question: what famous thinkers from plato to dawkins have said about the divine
and my sincerest apologies to all you folk who are part of this fight, that I failed to mention
like Laurie, for example
At the end of the day, the purpose of pro-Israel / pro-Jewish advocacy is to defend the well-earned rights of the Jewish people going forward into the future and into the world.
This does not mean that we should neglect our friends in other communities, such as the African-American or Latino communities, but I do very definitely think that we should defend ourselves.
I knew that once I started down the road of naming people who are part of the movement that I would miss certain people.
ReplyDeleteApologies, please, to Tammi Benjamin of AMCHA and "Dusty" at Pro-Israel Bay Area Bloggers.