Ulpan Etzion is coming to an end, and on Sunday night we had a mesibat sium, celebrating our quickly approaching freedom. As always, Jewish Agency bigwigs were on hand and various Zionist speeches were made. There was eating, music, dancing, and a mildly entertaining awards ceremony. The event was held outside, which was nice, albeit a bit chilly. The Israelis love a good tekes - ceremony - so we're having another one on Wednesday. It's like kindergarden with all this "lets sit around and talk about how great we are, how great our program is, and how we're gonna all do so well going forward." Of course, sociliast committees have a lot to do with this Israeli tradition of constant ceremony. But, once again due to socialist roots, the ceremonies are the least formal events you have ever attended. Don't let pictures of Olmert in a suit fool you. When not posing for the press, politicians and businessmen look like the just rolled out of bed and threw on whatever was hanging instead of laying around on the floor. Since I got to Israel, I've worn either jeans or running shorts. That includes dealings with government agencies and private offices. Maybe there is a corporate culture in Tel-Aviv, but it's small and it is totally absent anywhere else in this country. To a New York eye, it may look like this country is full of schleppers, which is kind of true. But that's only because they simply don't care.
Anyhow, I went to a pizza shop with some people on Emek Refaim to watch the US-Czech Republic game. Adding tons of chopped garlic in olive sauce and zatar on the pizza, thereby "Mizrahizing" it, bumps up the concept of pizza a few notches. The game was fun to watch, I was rooting against the US team, as always, so I was happy with the outcome. Take that, you evil imperialists!
After the game, I checked out Book Week, which is being held in the old train station off Derekh Hevron. It's the perfect venue - large open space, rustic, old-school appearance. There were stands of every publishing company in Israel. Which, interestingly, also includes the publishing departments of everything from political think tanks to the Ministry of Defense. There were a broad variety of Jerusalem residents there, from all ethnic and religious streams that the Jewish mosaic has to offer. The great thing was that they were all avid readers. No shortage of intelligence in this country. I am not saying that's such a good thing though. It's much easier to rule a place where the majority of people are plain stupid. No such luck when you have 5.33 million Jews, and growing, packed into one little nation. That's probably one of Israel's biggest internal issues - too many Jews. Ha ha.
Seriously though, I am hardcore - we need more Jews here, the more the better. This land has a power no other place has. The more there are of us here, the more deserving we are of it, the better of a place it becomes to live in. The better of a place it becomes, the more we have to fight. The more we fight, the more people we need. G-d has his way of forcing unwilling Jews to come here. Those Jews that he wants here anyways. He'll reach every Jew's heart, or he will force him toward the Land. Or, He will let you go and vanish amongst the Gentiles. But no one knows what their part is in G-d's plan unless they explore that part of themselves, as the power of choice is with the individual.
As for the problems here, as I said, it's all part of G-d's growth plan. And, clearly, it works. We're witnessing a Jewish population explosion in Israel. Two thousand years of near abscence, and we're back. There's no need to compromise, no need to beg for help or for mercy from our so-called allies. If they were true allies, they'd stand by us if we assert ourselves. Our goals should be based on Jewish truth, on a Jewish vision. And we have to pursue the vision as a priority that cannot be traded in for short term gifts. Any compromise to the enemy only weakens us as a people and weakens our eternal claim to this Land. The current Gaza situation is proof that the disengagement, on the whole, didn't benefit Israel. Granted, it's easier to shoot at the enemy from afar than to have ground troops in the Gaza Strip. But, their ability to fire rockets at Israel has grown exponentially, and everyone knows that there are small IDF infantry units in Gaza, setting up for air and artillery strikes. Combat-wise, Israel may be slightly better off. But from the perspective of the Israeli citizens living in daily fear of Kassams hitting their house in Netivot or Sderot, the situation has gone inexcusably out of control. The residents of these communities, along with the kibbutzim in the Western Negev, are now the front line pawns of this silly game we play.
However, there are still plenty of left-wingers who believe that giving up more land will improve the situation. And these mental midgets operate most of the media outlets in Israel. But, try as they might, the undecided center is starting to realize the Right is right and the Left is stupid. The current government will either do nothing on the political-security front or will be brought down and new elections will be held.
Oh, and a message to those of you who think I am having an existential crisis and that I am "searching" for answers. The fact that you think so means that you're a victim of post-modern thought. Meaning, you have been brought up to believe that systems of thought exist in order to be deconstructed. Since every system becomes just an alternate way of answering the same set of questions, and since every system can be deconstructed by someone who doesn't accept its underlying assumptions, the post-modern thought process leads to the ultimate stage of a total lack of philosophy and a complete absence of connectedness to anything. To be connected and to know, you don't "search for answers." Instead, you take in something much greater and more powerful. There's nothing to search for, it's all already here, staring you in the face, every day of your life. It's our choice to deny reality and to allow such nonsensical ideas as deconstructionist post-modernism to swallow our very being and blind us to the truth. If we accept that which is obvious, yet sublime, we can proceed with learning and expanding our amazing intellectual powers as human beings. There's no need to be confused, to "search" for anything. There's just the basic human need to accept the assumptions he knows deep inside are true, and the basic need to learn all forms of thinking. Don't let some druggie 19th century German philosopher tell you otherwise.
Anyhow, I went to a pizza shop with some people on Emek Refaim to watch the US-Czech Republic game. Adding tons of chopped garlic in olive sauce and zatar on the pizza, thereby "Mizrahizing" it, bumps up the concept of pizza a few notches. The game was fun to watch, I was rooting against the US team, as always, so I was happy with the outcome. Take that, you evil imperialists!
After the game, I checked out Book Week, which is being held in the old train station off Derekh Hevron. It's the perfect venue - large open space, rustic, old-school appearance. There were stands of every publishing company in Israel. Which, interestingly, also includes the publishing departments of everything from political think tanks to the Ministry of Defense. There were a broad variety of Jerusalem residents there, from all ethnic and religious streams that the Jewish mosaic has to offer. The great thing was that they were all avid readers. No shortage of intelligence in this country. I am not saying that's such a good thing though. It's much easier to rule a place where the majority of people are plain stupid. No such luck when you have 5.33 million Jews, and growing, packed into one little nation. That's probably one of Israel's biggest internal issues - too many Jews. Ha ha.
Seriously though, I am hardcore - we need more Jews here, the more the better. This land has a power no other place has. The more there are of us here, the more deserving we are of it, the better of a place it becomes to live in. The better of a place it becomes, the more we have to fight. The more we fight, the more people we need. G-d has his way of forcing unwilling Jews to come here. Those Jews that he wants here anyways. He'll reach every Jew's heart, or he will force him toward the Land. Or, He will let you go and vanish amongst the Gentiles. But no one knows what their part is in G-d's plan unless they explore that part of themselves, as the power of choice is with the individual.
As for the problems here, as I said, it's all part of G-d's growth plan. And, clearly, it works. We're witnessing a Jewish population explosion in Israel. Two thousand years of near abscence, and we're back. There's no need to compromise, no need to beg for help or for mercy from our so-called allies. If they were true allies, they'd stand by us if we assert ourselves. Our goals should be based on Jewish truth, on a Jewish vision. And we have to pursue the vision as a priority that cannot be traded in for short term gifts. Any compromise to the enemy only weakens us as a people and weakens our eternal claim to this Land. The current Gaza situation is proof that the disengagement, on the whole, didn't benefit Israel. Granted, it's easier to shoot at the enemy from afar than to have ground troops in the Gaza Strip. But, their ability to fire rockets at Israel has grown exponentially, and everyone knows that there are small IDF infantry units in Gaza, setting up for air and artillery strikes. Combat-wise, Israel may be slightly better off. But from the perspective of the Israeli citizens living in daily fear of Kassams hitting their house in Netivot or Sderot, the situation has gone inexcusably out of control. The residents of these communities, along with the kibbutzim in the Western Negev, are now the front line pawns of this silly game we play.
However, there are still plenty of left-wingers who believe that giving up more land will improve the situation. And these mental midgets operate most of the media outlets in Israel. But, try as they might, the undecided center is starting to realize the Right is right and the Left is stupid. The current government will either do nothing on the political-security front or will be brought down and new elections will be held.
Oh, and a message to those of you who think I am having an existential crisis and that I am "searching" for answers. The fact that you think so means that you're a victim of post-modern thought. Meaning, you have been brought up to believe that systems of thought exist in order to be deconstructed. Since every system becomes just an alternate way of answering the same set of questions, and since every system can be deconstructed by someone who doesn't accept its underlying assumptions, the post-modern thought process leads to the ultimate stage of a total lack of philosophy and a complete absence of connectedness to anything. To be connected and to know, you don't "search for answers." Instead, you take in something much greater and more powerful. There's nothing to search for, it's all already here, staring you in the face, every day of your life. It's our choice to deny reality and to allow such nonsensical ideas as deconstructionist post-modernism to swallow our very being and blind us to the truth. If we accept that which is obvious, yet sublime, we can proceed with learning and expanding our amazing intellectual powers as human beings. There's no need to be confused, to "search" for anything. There's just the basic human need to accept the assumptions he knows deep inside are true, and the basic need to learn all forms of thinking. Don't let some druggie 19th century German philosopher tell you otherwise.
posted by Felix at
2:22 PM
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