Thursday, February 1, 2007
From Jeremayakovka: My Kampf: The Islamic Mein Kampf and A Mea Culpa
Thought this part was interesting, and topical:
...What demonstrated definitively where my anti-Zionist, pro-Palestinian sympathy was leading was a telephone conversation I had with Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh (right). Shortly after he founded Al-Awda, "The Palestinian Right to Return Coalition," I contacted him to suggest offering some outside support to his effort to secure for the surviving Palestinian refugees of 1948 and all their living descendants the right to patriate within the State of Israel. After confiding to Qumsiyeh my idealistic hope for a "secular, democratic Palestine" he in turn confided that indeed this one-state, not a two-state, solution was his ultimate aim. Here was a meeting of minds I had long hoped for, but it also served as a real (albeit puny) "little drummer girl" moment. There, clear as a bell, was the looking glass. However, I decided not to go through it, and shied away from any further involvement or contact with Al-Awda...
That's a great link at Jeremayakovka's blog.
Thanks for the mention, Solomon. I just discovered Yaacov Ben Moshe's examination of his good intentions of years past.
I picked up Hannah's Origins of Totalitarianism yesterday (she & I are on a first-name basis -:) ) and noticed in its first chapter she emphasizes the importance of understanding the exact nature of antisemitism: not just its sources but why it takes hold among populations; and Jews's misreading of it.
Taking cues from that chapter are imperative, imperative right now.
It is powerful to have beliefs and to stand up for them. It is more powerful to have values and to express them clearly in your actions. It is especially powerful when such a one as JMK is able to let his core (very Jewish)values interact with the truth and thereby drive and evolve his public beliefs.