Rally

I took the kiddies to the "Detroit Stands With Israel" rally the other night. Here the news focuses mainly on the Lebanese (we have a giant Lebanese community here), and it really made me feel great to see so many come out to support Israel.

As we were walking to the building a woman came up and gave me a giant hug. She said that she was a Christian and wanted to come show her support for Israel. She told me that she stands behind us, "G-d's chosen people." She then handed me a sheet that she said had scriptures from the old testament proving our right to Israel. I strongly suspect that there was more to that sheet, but I tucked it away in my stroller pocket and said "thank you," and never looked at it. Even if she was a crazy missionary or something, at least she showed up to support Israel - Right???

OK -- Maybe not, but she was really the exception. Of course there were a lot of speakers, some better than others, and a lot of blue and white in the crowd. One speaker really took me by surprise though. He was an African American reverend, and man can those guys bring a crowd to their feet. He spoke about how during the civil rights movement (which he was a part of), participants broke off into two groups. In one group were the followers of MLK Jr., and in the other group the followers of Malcom X and the nation of Islam. He basically said that the MLK group was the peaceful one and the ones who professed to follow Islam tried to use violence to accomplish their goals. He read some passage from MLK which praises Israel, then talked about how in the ME, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran are violent reactors, and Israel is truly seeking peace. WOW! This guy got up in front of an audience in Detroit and essentially equated the word Islam with violence. Yikes! He said lots of other great things and the crowd was cheering him like crazy. Then he told us that he is going next Monday to Israel to show his support. Then the crowd roared!

I left after his speech, because that was all my kids could handle, but I have been told that the state Attorney General gave another rousing speech later on.

While we were leaving the parking lot, there was a small protest group across the street holding signs of injured people in Lebanon, that read things like "who are the terrorists now?" This led me to a lot of contemplation and deep thought about the nature of terrorism v. the nature of war, word roots and etymologies, etc.... Essentially I settled on a profound and very complicated thesis about power and lack of appropriate definitions for various states, and stuff like that. I'll spare you the boring details -- for now.

As an English professor once told me, I have closingitis. So I will just say have a good shabbos or a happy weekend or what every ending you prefer.

Jenn

Crazy World

It's interesting how fast the world changes. A few weeks ago, our minds were filled with summer revelry. We worried about which fireworks display to go to, whether to have a barbecue, if there was going to be time to go to the beach this summer, etc.... Now, first and foremost on many a mind is the situation in the Middle East.

Since this blog attempts to reach into my shallow mind, I will share some of my feelings on all of this...

1) Way to go Bush, for cursing the Syrians! Perhaps you should use some more colorful language in your State of the Union addresses, and such. Oh, that's right, the FCC may fine you for that. Oh well. Definitely go with the "(wink) mike off thing (wink, wink) more often.

2) Way to go mom, for sticking up for the promised land!!! You're awesome.

3) I was watching Nightline for a while last night, and the new guy was trying to follow the Haifa mayor around all day. Every time he'd start to get his interview, a siren would go off and they would be running to a bomb scene. This brought three thoughts to mind.

- It was realistic, and scary, yet just seeing pictures of Israel (even it's bombed buildings) made my heart ache to go there. It's amazing how profound an impact a place can have on a person, as well as the world.

- I am not saying the whole piece was pro Israel, but Nightline has come a long way since Ted Koppel.

- The Haifa mayor was the most professional, articulate Israeli politician I have ever seen. When will he run for Prime Minister?

4) The Leader of Hizbullah has said that he will give Tel Aviv a one hour warning before raining 500 missiles on them. Hizbullah claims to be planning this attack carefully, and has divided the city into grided squares in order to reach every area.
Yeah right! Since when do any of these groups give warning to an attack and; weren't those his missiles I saw landing in the Mediterranean off the coast of Haifa on TV last night? Also, if he was in possession of these missiles, wouldn't it have made sense to use them when already. I guess it's possible that he's waiting for a big shipment to arrive from Iran.

5) Not all the news from Israel is bad, apparently the Seret Visnitz chasidim, decided to move their Yeshiva to Rechovot on Monday. At the same time, their Rebbe, went to attend to some business in another area. Not long after the relocation, a Katusha hit their original yeshiva, and a few more fell in the surrounding streets.


Jenn