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Susan Hirshorn's avatar

Although it's easy to see how being part of a "secret side chat" can make one crazy - those of us with fertile minds (and which Jewish mind ISN'T fertile?) must be able to express ourselves. I, too, am grateful for my politically conservative leanings. However, I staunchly refuse to limit my thinking about Israel to secular ideology from the galut. Because the galut lacks the G-d given wisdom of our Jewish scriptures. Because Israel - the Israel that emerges from this horrific war - must be something new; something that not only secures Israel better than we have secured her for the last 75-odd years but also brings the world closer to the Redemption.

Some of my ramblings about this "new Israel" expressed in this forum have not been liked, even by readers who typically “like” my comments. In fact one reader - a non-Jew claiming to be a friend of Israel - called me delusional because I emphasized the strengthening of a Jewish majority in the Jewish homeland. Because I called for considering the needs of the many Diaspora Jews fleeing 1930s style anti-Semitism over the needs of non-Jewish refugees from Syria, Lebanon and such.

Our scriptures describe the Messianic era as one involving an ingathering of Jews to the Holy Land. But I fear the world (even our friends) will do all it can to “shrink” Israel - both geographically and in terms of Jewish influence. Karol, I would appreciate your asking the folks in your “secret side chat” to answer this question: Is there anything wrong with an Israel that puts Jews - and Judaism - first? Clearly, this is a matter to be discussed privately, and certainly feverishly. My brain needs a rest.

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jerry kleiner's avatar

I wish we would spend all our time on identifying problems and then finding solutions. I wish all our big Jewish organizations would work together so that we tackle these problems as a unified group. The constant regurgitation of how awful things are serves no purpose whatsoever. In fact it takes energy and focus away from finding solutions.

For example, I will take what I think is a big problem:

Problem 1 - The pro Hamas demonstrations that we see popping up all the time, they get violent, they call for genocide, they intimidate and harass Jews etc.

Solution 1 - Push the govt and local authorities to enact a law or bylaw that says all demonstrators must have their faces uncovered. No more keffiyeh hiding bullsh-t from these cowards

Solution 2 - Push for laws that ban demonstrations near places of worship and ban them from interfering with traffic etc And if they do have laws, why are they not enforced?

So these are some possible solutions that I, in my lack of wisdom, came up with.

Here is the question ..... who is doing something about it? Who is in charge of solving the Demonstration problem? Are Jewish organizations working on this at all? Are they unified? Of course not. Is there any accountability? Of course not.

This is just one example of many. We know what the problems are but we are not fighting it as a unified group. We just spend so much time whining about it.

The author says we are strong .... I disagree completely. We are weak, not unified and without direction

We are in a war both in Israel and frankly in the Diaspora. The ones winning are the Israelis. They are winning cuz they are unified, they are organized and they are incredibly strategic. The Jews in the Diaspora are losing every day because they are the complete opposite.

Its funny how so many including myself are hoping that Trump will solve our problems cuz our Jewish organizations don't do sh-t.

papa j

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