Today’s Ma’ariv reports that out-going US Ambassador Dan Kurtzer chose to take advantage of his farewell reception at the President’s Residence in order to severely criticize Israel for not destroying the synagogues in the Gaza Strip. Obviously, there are all sorts responses that these remarks invite (especially in light of the identity of their author). However, that task can best be left to others.
His comments did, however, remind me of a true story that a dear friend and colleague once told me. At the time, this person was teaching at an institution of higher learning in New York City. One day, a fellow faculty member was carried in beaten within an inch of his life and bleeding, after having been mugged on his way from the subway to the campus. Yet all he could say was, ‘It’s all our fault.’
4 comments:
Generally, the saying goes that "A Liberal is a Conservative who has never been mugged". However, the Jews have a unique national condition in this regard.
There are rabbis that get beaten up by arabs who preach that "it's our own fault" in the name of rational religion. There are terror victim support associations in Israel dedicated to entrenching the view that "it's our fault". For that matter it's been argued that the entire State of Israel and Israeli society as a whole operates under this principle (see "The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People Under Siege" by Kenneth Levine)
The best words in that post were "farewell reception". Good riddance to bad rubbish; too bad that these people never really leave.
Does anyone believe that Kurtzer would have risen so fast in the State Department-if he were not an Orthodox Jew who could be counted to take on Israel-and be exempt from the anti-semitism charge.
FYI-he was an Acting Dean at Yeshiva College in his 20's and I believe as a student he was in the then new YU Senate.
The State Department Middle East Division is full of Jews eager to prove their impartiality by taking on Israel. It's quite sad.
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