Walk Free

Mike L.

Today I received the following.

Dear Michael, 

The story is all over the news – days ago, Rawan, an 8-year-old Yemeni girl was sold by her parents, forced to marry a man five times her age and on her “wedding night”, her fragile young body sustained fatal injuries. 

Right now, the collective horror of the world is focused on the devastating death of an 8-year-old girl. We’ve seen thousands of emails, Facebook posts and tweets from our community calling for action. We know that ending Forced Child Marriage everywhere poses big obstacles and yet, this may be one of few fleeting moments when millions of at-risk girls are counting on the support of a global movement of activists. We’re not going to let them down.

Forced Child Marriage is a form of modern slavery, and in Yemen there is no law that makes it illegal. It’s common for girls as young as 8 to be forced to marry to settle debts. In fact, 50% of girls in Yemen are married before they reach the age of 18.¹

The Yemeni Government has the power to bring an end to Forced Child Marriage forever; the first step is to ban the marriage of anyone under the age of 18, protecting children from a life of domestic and sexual slavery. The Yemeni government needs to know that the eyes of the world are watching and expect their swift response. Will you help?  

Ask the Yemeni Government to end Forced Child Marriage by making marriage under 18 illegal.

Rawan’s story has struck a chord with people everywhere.

As well as depriving girls of their right to a childhood, Forced Child Marriage leaves victims vulnerable to sexual, emotional and physical abuse at the hands of their so-called husbands and extended families.

Now is the time to act. The Walk Free community is over 3.7 million strong and growing rapidly. Our collective voice is powerful – we can urge the government of Yemen to pass crucial legislation protecting children and young girls from the brutalities of forced marriage.

Forced Marriage is modern slavery and can be stopped. Call on the government of Yemen to ban Forced Child Marriage.

The idea of being sold into a life of domestic and sexual slavery seems unbelievable, and it’s sad that only extreme cases like Rawan’s gain attention. How amazing would it be if these cases never made the media – not because they were unreported, but because Forced Child Marriage no longer existed?

Thank you in advance for your support. If you have a moment, please forward this email to 3 of your friends so we can become one step closer to building a world free of this form of modern slavery. 

In solidarity,

Debra, Nick, Mich, Kate, Ryan, Jess, Amy and the Walk Free Team

P.S. On Twitter? Follow us 




My main disagreement with our friend Pat Condell, above (which, it should be noted, was not a part of the walkfree.org email) is that he tends to speak out against Islam which he sees as a political movement as much as a religion, whereas my complaint is with the politicization of the religion, itself.

Political Islam is the largest growing political movement in the Middle East today, in part because Barack Obama helped it along and legitimized it to a western audience, with his affirmation of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

Islam is very, very big and the Jewish population is very, very small and wherever Islam represents the form of government, such as we see in Iran and such as we now see in Libya and Morocco and Turkey and such as we saw in Egypt until Morsi was deposed of, a violent form of Jew hatred tends to take center stage.

This is unquestionably the case and it needs to be acknowledged, studied, and confronted.

For those of us who think that standing up to political Islam is "racist" or bigoted or just unfair to the Muslim community, I would suggest that you reconsider the fact that the Jews in the Middle East are a tiny minority surrounded by a much larger and much more hostile Arab-Muslim majority.

Until you can honestly incorporate that particular truth into your understanding of the conflict than you have very little to say that can be helpful.

Ultimately, however, it's about moving beyond the the assumptions of Oslo.  When Bill Clinton came into office in 1992 we all hoped that the genial man from Arkansas could perhaps - maybe - arrange for a negotiated conclusion of hostilities.

He failed to do so, of course, but that failure was not his fault. The failure of Oslo was due to the fact that Yassir Arafat, and much of his constituency, simply did not want an end of hostilities.

And this is why it is important to stand up against political Islam.

Political Islam is at the center of the conflict and if we fail to stand up to it, then we fail to stand up for the well-being of the Jewish people.

One cannot claim to be a supporter of Israel without also standing up against radical Islam because radical Islam is a tremendous political movement and it is a political movement that seeks the demise of the Jewish State, if not the genocide of the Jewish people.

In fact, the so-called "Arab Spring" was the rise of political Islam and until liberal and progressive Jews, both diaspora and Israeli, get over their squeamishness in confronting a much larger enemy then we cannot really stand up for the Jewish people.

San Diego State University Teacher Eliminates Israel from the Map

Mike L.

The snippets below were written by Cristin Severance of ABC News.

SAN DIEGO - A map distributed in a language class at San Diego State University labeled Israel as Palestine, leading to an outcry from the local Jewish community.

Sources told Team 10 the map was handed out by a professor on the second day of class in an Arabic language course. Sources said students were upset and unsure how to protest the erroneous map because they feared speaking out publicly could have a negative impact on their grades.

The teacher in question is Ghassan Zakaria who can be reached at gzakaria@mail.sdsu.edu / (619) 594-8800.

The Department Chair and Arabic Program Director is Professor Ghada Osman at gosman@mail.sdsu.edu / (619) 594-1910.

Nicole Bernstein, of Stand With Us, questioned the department chair about the map, and she shared that response with Team 10.

The department chair said the professor used Palestine in place of Israel on the labels to "reflect the view of Arab-speakers in the region."

The chair of the department said this?

This is highly irresponsible.  Neither the department chair, nor one of his lecturers, gets to decide that because the "Arab-speakers in the region" think that Israel does not exist, that it doesn't exist.

Team 10 contacted SDSU late Tuesday morning with questions about the handout, and on Tuesday afternoon the school issued this statement:

"While SDSU encourages scholarly debate and discussion of varying opinions, presenting inaccurate information to students in not acceptable. SDSU's Provost has conferred with the department chair, who spoke with the faculty member. This inaccurate portrayal will not reoccur."

So, the university claims that this kind of thing will not reoccur, but is that enough?

Should Zakaria be reprimanded?  Suspended?  Fired?

I honestly do not know the answer to those questions, but I also do not know that I am satisfied with the reaction of the department or the university.  This kind of thing affects all of us, because we cannot have teachers on any level suggesting to students that Israel does not exist or should not exist or is something other than a sovereign, autonomous country.

University professors - and even university lecturers - have every right to criticize Israeli policy, but they do not have the right to simply wipe Israel from the map.

“This is not only anti-Israel, it’s the elimination of Israel,” Nicole Bernstein, of Stand With Us, told 10NEWS.

Letter From Israel

 elinor        אלינור   

                                                                                                                        

HOLIDAYS IN THE HOLY LAND—SUCCOT

  

5774 is upon us and people on the street are greeting each other with calls of Shana tova—a good year—whether they know each other or not.  Yom Kippur—the Day of Atonement—begins tonight and the call has changed to G’mar chatima tova, may you be inscribed in the Book of Life for good.  Thank you.

For those of us who aren’t certain as to what holiday falls when, Succot is the one that comes up right after Yom Kippur.  It’s called that because people build succot, huts, in commemoration of the 40 years following the Exodus from Egypt.  Each succa (or sukka or sukkah, there is no end to the translations and transliterations)—a temporary booth which implies a residence—reflects the builders’ tastes and family traditions. In any case there are no more than three full walls and the roof is left mostly open to the sky, as was the case without proper building materials during the Exodus. Throughout the holiday, which lasts for seven days, people eat in the succa and often sleep there as well. 

Succot (plural of succa) is a national religious holiday which is expressed in the building of the succa, acquiring the Four Species and needless to say, food preparation.

One of the best parts of living in Israel is the celebration of what is called in the Diaspora ‘the Jewish holidays’.  (We just call them ‘holidays’.)  Friends who had moved to Australia several years ago recently moved back here, saying they didn’t feel any real Jewishness in Sydney.  The atmosphere of the city didn’t change when the High Holydays came around, although they certainly had access to every sort of synagogue imaginable. 

The difference is clear:  In Israel, the atmosphere is the country—the scurrying to organise the essentials; the hustling for ingredients; the cooking of mounds of food according to ethnic dictates and if you’re lucky,  a noisy, hungry crowd to enjoy all that with you.  Then the peaceful hush of the holiday begins.  Even if you have no real connection to Jewish practices, it’s affecting.

So here’s the drill:  Succot follows on the heels of Yom Kippur and there are only four days in which to build a succa. Whilst many people buy them ready-made, or haul the pieces down from their boydem—overhead storage spaces—the succa still needs to be assembled, so the sounds of hammering and drilling are heard all day and much past the night-time legal noise limit, which is widely ignored. 

Palm fronds, called schach, are the preferred covering for the top of the succa and are purchased from the schach sellers who suddenly appear on street corners.  Wrestling those huge, awkward branches back to the site of the succa is easily a job for two grown men.

For the Four Species, a shuk—a street market—is essential.  Endless tables display samples, each vendor hawking his wares as pure, absolute perfection.  Observant Jews roam the shuk, comparing this etrog (citron) against that, considering the freshness of the lulav, calculating the relative costs and wondering if they’ll ever find a set of one fruit and three kinds of branches—willow, myrtle and palm—that will please them.  They inevitably do.

Neighbourhoods clatter with activity until the last hour before the holiday begins. Some families construct a small succa, meant only for themselves; other succas are gigantic—often built on the grounds of synagogues—so that those who have the need but not the means can eat and rest as prescribed.  Electric lights (with timers) for the evening meals  are connected by endless cords to their home base outlets—and you’d best watch your step, those cords are pernicious.

Many apartment buildings assemble one conjoined succa, each unit belonging to a different family but attached without interior walls so that neighbours can eat together.  Meals are carried into the succa and often shared.  Tree roots and various fauna are forgiven their intrusion and the tables, which are left in situ overnight, often provide early morning sleeping quarters for local cats.  There are no proper doors, so the tablecloths are renewed daily. 

After the banging and the building, what?  As in any new home, decoration!  For days and days before the holiday begins, schoolchildren have been creating artwork for the succa, featuring the elements of Succot.  All those kindergarten mornings, slaving away over paper chains; all those afternoons in primary school, depicting the Four Species and the Exodus from Egypt; producing hanging lanterns; crafting ungainly fruits of papier mache in improbable shades along with the best of holiday wishes scrawled on every colour of paper—those are the homey arts of Succot.  If the decorations are well made and the rain doesn’t come to ruin them, they might feature again next year. In the ultra-religious zones, one can buy a range of Christmas decorations, with lots of dazzle. 

Succot engages the whole family, from the crayon pushers to the kids who this year are finally tall enough to help hang the artwork to the teenagers who wrestle with the schach and handle the tools to the adults who are schlepping, banging and cooking.  As holidays go, Succot is a winner.

G’mar chatima tova.

cross posted Geoffff's Joint

Rosh Hashanah is Over

but this still rocks.

Muslim Views on Suicide Bombings

Mike L.

The snippets below were written and published by the Pew Research Global Attitudes Project:

More than two years after the death of Osama bin Laden, concern about Islamic extremism remains widespread among Muslims from South Asia to the Middle East to sub-Saharan Africa. Across 11 Muslim publics surveyed by the Pew Research Center, a median of 67% say they are somewhat or very concerned about Islamic extremism. In five countries – Pakistan, Jordan, Tunisia, Turkey and Indonesia – Muslim worries about extremism have increased in the past year.

Well, that's certainly hopeful, although it must be noted that Arabs who live in Judea and Samaria and Gaza do not necessarily share this concern.

Widespread Muslim concern about Islamic extremism is generally coupled with rejection of suicide bombing and other forms of violence in the name of Islam. However, in some countries, substantial minorities of Muslims say attacks on civilians are at least sometimes justified to defend Islam from its enemies; in the Palestinian territories, a majority of Muslims hold this view.

The question is, what are we to make of these numbers?  I would argue that we can say two things definitively.  The first is that the majority of Arabs within Judea and Samaria and Gaza are something other than civilized.  Excuse me, but when a majority of people within a specific place think that suicide bombing is just dandy than there is something seriously wrong with their culture.

It is a culture of death.

The second thing to note is the reluctance among so many westerners - particularly of the progressive variety - to condemn this culture of death for what it is.  The truth is that many westerners blame the Jews in the Middle East for Arab attitudes because they believe those attitudes are grounded in "occupation."  They might have a point accept for the fact that Arab citizens of Israel have more freedom, civil liberties, and financial well-being than Arabs anyplace else throughout that part of the world.  Furthermore, Arabs in Judea and Samaria are almost entirely under the control of the Palestinian Authority and even they have it significantly better than their cousins throughout most of the rest of the Arab world.

The western left has got to stop blaming the Jews for the dysfunction of local Arab culture.  It is not the fault of Jewish Israelis if Arabs in Judea and Samaria are enamored of a cult of death.  Those people could be living free and prosperous lives if they had ever shown a significant inclination to accept the Jews in their midst, but they never did.  Just as they did not in 1947 and 1948, so they have not since the middle of the 7th century and the reasons for that have to do with extremely hateful religious bigotry.

The only thing that has changed is that the Jews of the Middle East, after 1,300 years of abuse and persecution and dhimmitude, finally took their country back.

Good for them.

What I want to see is the Tibetans do likewise and the Kurds finally gain a measure of self-determination and self-defense.

Heck, maybe the Copts should carve out a little country for themselves within Egypt.  Why not?  If the world is so hell-bent on taking a giant chunk out of Israel in order to give it to the most brutal people on the planet, then why shouldn't the Copts have a state for themselves in Egypt?

Given the fact that they are being chased out of their own country and Egyptian Muslims are burning down their churches, they certainly deserve it more than do the so-called "Palestinians."

The Copts are a persecuted indigenous minority within Egypt.  Maybe the Palestinian-Arabs should get their state sometime after the Copts get theirs.