2009 Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion
The data reported here are from the 2009 Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion, sponsored by the American Jewish Committee. Among the topics covered in the present survey are U.S.-Israel relations, the Arab-Israel conflict, and the Iran nuclear threat. Many of the questions appearing in the survey are new; others are drawn from previous American Jewish Committee surveys, including various Annual Surveys of American Jewish Opinion carried out between 1979 and 2008.
How does one reconcile these two responses.
Do you approve or disapprove of the Obama Administration’s handling of US-Israel relations?,
54% approved
32 disapproving.
Do you agree or disagree with the Obama Administration’s call for a stop to all new Israeli settlement construction?
51% disapprove to
41% approved
In fact there are many responses which make you wonder how Obama can still have a 54% approval rating. Mind you, 78% voted for him.
6. In the current situation, do you favor or oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state?
Favor 49
Oppose 41
7. In the framework of a permanent peace with the Palestinians, should Israel be willing to compromise on the status of Jerusalem as a united city under Israeli jurisdiction?
Yes 37
No 58
8. As part of a permanent settlement with the Palestinians, should Israel be willing to dismantle all, some, or none of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank?
all 8
some 52
none 37
9. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? “The goal of the Arabs is not the return of occupied territories but rather the destruction of Israel.”
Agree 75
Disagree 19
10. Do you think there will or will not come a time when Israel and its Arab neighbors will be able to settle their differences and live in peace?
Will 43
Will not 51
11. Do you think that Israel can or cannot achieve peace with a Hamas-led Palestinian government?
Can 17
Cannot 79
12. Should the Palestinians be required or not be required to recognize Israel as a Jewish state in a final peace agreement?
Required 94
Not required 5
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This poll should permanently lay to rest the Theory Of Jewish Intellectual Superiority.
Very informative.
Who knew that forty-nine percent of American Jews sniff airplane glue?
Indeed this is an odd response considering this:
If you believe that the goal of the Arabs is the destruction of Israel and not simply territories, then why would you support the creation of a palestinian state?
ayn you cracked me up again.
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Listen folks, being stupid and dumb is not a Jewish trait, to the contrary.
I can only surmise as Yamit (Uncle Nahum) has put it, American Jews have distance themselves from Israel and also being Jewish. They want to be recognized only as Americans. Sad, why should anyone be ashamed to be Jewish? They are not paying attention as to what is going on in Israel and the ME and this is reflected in the survey.
I continue to beat a dead horse, (my oldest answers “then don’t”) Israel needs to put a PR program in the U.S.. All Americans need to know the truth about what Israel is up against and provide the support she needs.
If young men and women of Israel and those of the U.S. who volunteer to serve in the IDF’s, then American Jews should at least get off the liberal left wagon and support Israel, the Holy Land G-d provided for them.
Kids sniffing airplane glue [Lenny Bruce]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSfk6nKSCcI&feature=related
Lenny Bruce – How To Relax Your Colored Friends At Parties
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua0TT87KNwo&feature=related
Smart Jews and Stupid Jews: Normalcy is a bad goal for the Jews. The neurotic Jews with their pervasive case of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) produce an unusual number of geniuses. The intellectual difference between Jews and Gentiles resembles that between men and women: the Jews’ Bell curve is lower. Men’s intellectual abilities tend to be a bit more to the edges of the curve while women are more average. In other words, about 10% more men than women have non-average intellectual abilities. Of those, the majority is incredibly stupid, but some are incredibly smart. Women are a bit smarter than men on average, but entirely lack geniuses. Whether that has to do with evolution, biology, or Providence is a matter of one’s degree of atheism.
The Jews oscillated between extreme danger and windows of opportunity, the highest religious mission and the lowest temporary existence, self-righteousness and persecution. Relative to Gentiles, the Jews developed an enterprising spirit resembling the one that men possess compared to women.
Do we want a normal nation of macho Jews or a people possessed with OCD, but sprouting geniuses? The answer is clear: there are many normal nations around, and the world doesn’t need another such nation. Luckily, a besieged existence in the embattled state of Israel creates ghetto-like pressure on Jews and produces the requisite number of mental disorders. Out of non-average people, most are stupid. The Jewish nation produces many very smart people, but a hundred times more morons. From Jabotinsky to those who visited the Israeli FSU embassies in the late 1980s, many were shocked by the massive number of Jews from small-town ghettos who hardly resembled human beings. This mass of sillier-than-average Jews is the price our nation pays for producing geniuses. Today, that mass goes to the polling booths after receiving an injection of brainwashing propaganda. That mass votes.
It votes the Jewish state out of existence both in Israel and America.
Einsteins definition of madness: continuing to do the same thing, hoping for a different outcome.
If any people fit this definition it is the Jews. Is it really madness or are most Jews exceedingly stupid? I tend to go with both but with more emphasis on stupidity.
Lenny Bruce: Dead & Well: Jews in Heaven
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7q-WIaNYdQ&feature=related
I had a different reaction to the poll. I thought it showed the Jewish Americans more knowledgeable than I thought.
58% didn’t want to yield on Jerusalem
Only 8% wanted to give up all settlements, 37% said give no settlements up, 57% only some.
75% knew that the Arab goal is not peace but Israel’s eradication.
51% said there will never be peace
79% said there will never be peace with a Hamas lead government
9 whopping 94% want recognition as a Jewish state
That’s a good start.
Seventy-eight percent of these “knowledgeable” American Jews voted for an Israel-hating president, and if the election were held again today Obama would still receive their votes. The religion of secular Jews is liberalism, and the Democratic Party is their holy shrine. When push comes to shove, they will abandon Israeli Jews in favor of Obama, just as they abandoned European Jewry in favor of FDR.
Voting Democratic is inimical to the interests of American Jews on everything from taxes to Affirmative Action. And being liberal means that American Jews must sully themselves by aligning with virulent anti-Semites.
But none of that matters. American Jews are emotionally enslaved to “progressive” politics, so their level of knowledge is entirely irrelevant. Lemmings may realize that marching off the cliff is unwise, yet they cannot stop themselves.
Ayn your on to something. Your pretty sharp and I need to know what drives the American Jews to the liberal left.
I mentioned before I asked Caroline Glick how is it the majority of Israeli Jews are conservative and American Jews were liberal.
She said because they were not in the line of fire and their only worry was about nothing.
All I know, if my family (all Jews are family whether related or not) and friends suffered and died as a result of the holocaust I would in no way shape or form ever support a anti-Semite. Hell would freeze over first.
As long as I have been commenting on Israpundit I have asked a number of times and no one has been able to tell me why Jews are hated.
I am begining to believe Jews don’t know either. No one can point to any single thing or actions committed by the Jewish people to warrant this hatred because there isn’t any. As a minority and being successful they became victoms of resentment and were blamed for everything and anything gone bad and others failures.
This may be an off the wall theory but I don’t have anything to go on. My only experience growing up in a community with Jewish neighbors was a pleasant one and I even sent my oldest to Jewish summer camp when he was young. We were all either Italian, German, Polish, Jewish, Lebanese, African Americans, all neighbors and friends and that’s how we saw each other simply family.
Quit while your ahead Ron, maybe I am not making any sense.
Hebrew lemmings, the strangest of the species known to all as Suicide Now.
Yes, The lemming is a small animal, about the size of a rat. The lemming is a strange animal with a very strange custom. The lemming, every few years, gathers together with a great many other lemmings, and they all march together – to the sea. The lemming and all the other lemmings march shoulder to shoulder and when they reach the sea they do a very strange thing: They jump in and drown. The lemming is a very strange animal and no one can understand it.
We call the Hebrew type of lemming “Suicide Now.” The Hebrew lemming is a strange animal, undoubtedly the most irrational of all. What strikes terror into the hearts of the Hebrew lemmings of the stature of the rodent, is an immense cancer called guilt, that grows inside of them until it gives them no rest.
The Hebrew lemming, who is a small animal about the size of a rat, deeply despises with a psychopathic passion everything that smacks of Judaism and the curse of fate that made him Jewish. In his little heart the Jewish lemming knows that Judaism’s values are at odds with everything that he wishes his life to consist of. The separateness and exclusivity of Judaism vis-à-vis other peoples is anathema to his universalistic desire to intermarry, assimilate, amalgamate with all the goyim and thus find love and escape in their midst. The concept of Choosiness repels him, for he seeks anything that will enable him to eliminate the barriers between Jews and others. The holiness that decrees discipline and sanctity and abstinence and personal limitations are all diametrically opposed to his materialistic need for total freedom, anarchy, limitless right to license. He sees in Judaism racism, primitiveness, parochialism, concepts that he abhors because he seeks to be a universal rodent.
And faced with his Judaism, he is faced, too, with the fact that he is a Jew. This is the horror that he cannot abide. From guilt emerges self hate, black and ugly self hate. The lemming cannot exist with self-hate. No one can survive with terrible malignancy growing within him. The Hebrew lemming must escape. His escape is through the sea. The Sea of Suicide.
The real tragedy is that while ordinary lemmings take the plunge themselves, the Hebrew ones seek to take all of us with them.
Ah, The old is the glass half full or empty question?
75% knew that the Arab goal is not peace but Israel’s eradication.
All subsequent conclusion should be derived from this statement of opinion but they aren’t. My question to follow would be why concede anything if this is what they believe? Like: Only 8% wanted to give up all settlements, 37% said give no settlements up, 57% only some.
58% didn’t want to yield on Jerusalem but almost 40% are willing! Jews willing to concede Jerusalem? These 40% should be discounted and excluded from any consideration by us of they being in any way Jewish. They aren’t, They have removed themselves. Forget them.
Same poll found:
A new American Jewish Committee (AJC) survey of American Jews shows that for the first time, a majority of them would support a U.S military strike against Iran, and an even larger majority would support such a move by Israel.
The AJC survey showed that 56 percent of American Jews would support, and 36 percent would oppose, United States military action against Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons. This is a real shift from 2008, when the AJC survey found that 42 percent would support the U.S. taking military action against Iran, while 47 percent were opposed.
Mounting concern
“Clearly concerns are mounting over the international community’s apparent inability to deploy tough and resolute sanctions to confront a belligerent Iran determined to build nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver them,” said AJC Executive Director David Harris.
Ron, American Jews ARE the liberal left wagon. It’s the blacks, many Hispanics and Catholics and many Yankees who have gotten on the wagon with them. Where do you think opposition to capital punishment, for instance, comes from? Colonial Americans? It comes from the writers and commentators of Talmud.
Rongrand,to answer your question, why are Jews hated, one begins by noting you are correct in saying it was nothing Jews ever did that warranted that hatred.
The Gospels and early church doctrinal writings laid the foundation for Christian Jew hatred that to this day, continues to inspire Jew hatred amongst many Christians and Christian organizations including some church organizations.
Early Christian writings thus taught and inspired Jew hatred and that led to conflict between Jews and Christians, especially as Christian numbers increased. It was the Christians who were the aggressors and persecutors against Jews living within the same communities and regions and the Jews were the victims. Christians however justified their persecution of Jews on a number of levels including creating fabrications that either Jews were the aggressors and Christians the victims or that the Jews deserved what they got. Christians could always point to their foundational theological tenets to justify the persecution of the Jewish “christ killers”.
A critical point was reached when in 325 A.D., Constantine convened the Council of Nicea to bring together the leading Christian sects, which until were not united in their theological beliefs. Having declared Christianity to be the Roman Empire’s religion for obvious reasons, Constantine realized that it was also necessary to avoid strife and conflict within the empire to unite Christians in their theological beliefs.
In order to do so, Constantine sought to unite these Christian sects to try to settle their differences and accept one uniform set of Christian prinicples. What emerged was the Nicean Code which included as one of the fundamental Christian tenets that those people who did not accept the divinity of Jesus were to be anathemetized and cursed. From that day forward, Christian antisemitism became lethal for Jews.
Many millions of Jews over the past 2 millenia were either murdered or converted to Christianity.
Christian belief in the antisemitic underpinnings of Christianity has eased or been erased within much, but not all of Christendom. Though the most virulent and lethal form of antisemitism is gone from much of Christianity, it still remains in lesser and more subtle forms in the sense of lingering suspicion or dislike of Jews.
The anti-Israel stance of many world leaders, even those professing support of Israel, can be seen in their so called balanced policies as between Israel and the Palestinians/Arabs, which policies are clearly and heavily tipped in favor of the Palestinians/Arabs.
Evidence can also be found in the world’s nations’ UN voting record as regards the myriad of annual politicized anti-Israel resolutions put forward to the UNGA by the O.I.C., which Resolutions are pushed by the Palestinians.
This lingering, dislike and suspicion of Jews also finds expression within the American government, be it the pro-Arab state department or the FBI.
It has been revealed a number of times recently that within the FBI (and possibly the CIA), Jews are passed over for high security clearance positions because of irrational suspicions of dual loyalty. It is interesting and telling that is not the case as regards the FBI hiring Muslims for such top spots.
There is a good summary by historian Gustavo Perednik antisemitism which appears to have found expression first in pre-Christian times, first with the Greeks and then the Romans that adopted these Hellenist anti-semitic beliefs. See:
http://www.zionism-israel.com/his/judeophobia.htm
There are 3 chapters that from my brief reading I think fairly sums up the history of anti-semitism, however the article deals in the main with the roots of modern antisemitism bound up in Christianity.
There is of course the other stream of antisemitic belief and a most virulent and lethal stream at that, which is found in the foundational writings of Islam. Millions more Jews since the advent of Islam have been persecuted by Muslims and that includes murdering of millions, converting millions to Islam or subjugation of Jews within Muslim lands.
Much has been written in that regard on these pages and I trust you are familiar with that history.
Candor dictates admitting that we did murder the Son Of God.
And then there is that little thing about draining the blood of Gentile children into our Passover matzos.
And of course, controlling the media and international banking system from behind the scenes.
And, as Colonel Khadaffi exposed this week, assassinating President Kennedy.
Perhaps worst of all, there is John Stewart.
But aside from that, we did nothing to provoke all this hatred.
Except for killing over twelve million Palestinians in Jenin…
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8569915248186739599&hl=en#
Roman Catholic Bishop Richard Williamson on 9-11 being an inside job
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7fjGxfNsKk&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L2bf18Hatg&feature=related
Not having the power to enforce capital punishment for most of the last 2200 years had a lot to do with our Talmudists aversion. There were on many occasions where the Rabbis did have the authority and did authorize executions
Torah pragmatically affirms that only actions matter. A person who does not steal is a better neighbor than someone who does.
Truly evil acts are few—murder, maiming, stealing, lying in court—and so basic that no one is justified in committing them.
Hedonistic societies, unwilling to suffer and see suffering, interpret the gospel pronouncements against punishment literally. Judaism balances justice and forgiveness, trial and mediation in civil matters.
Punishment should not be relegated to an afterlife. Human beings are not absolutely good or evil, but the eternal judgment is absolute. People should punish non-absolute temporal evil. Weak people shy from biblical participatory justice where witnesses start the execution, but such participation creates community, neighbors responsible for eradicating crime.
Torah has no idea of divine forgiveness through sacrifice, prayer, or confession. People have free will; G-d cannot settle their disputes. Only the offended can forgive the transgressor. G-d forgives idolatry, the only sin against him. Forgiveness comes from repentance and restitution; forgiveness is social concept, and its theological ramifications are secondary. Criminal punishments are intended to vindicate victims. If the criminal repents, vindication is unnecessary, and the criminal compensates the victim without violence. Murder makes compensation impossible, and vindication requires the murderer’s death. Forgiveness for murder comes only through both repentance and death.
In Judaism, repentance is an action, or more precisely a counter-action, a correction of the wrong done, not a sense of guilt. A repentant person must restore the damage and thereafter keep the commandments as a respectable, law-abiding member of the community.
Torah’s legal doctrine of vindication has advantages over modern doctrines of compensation. Rabbis traditionally interpret “an eye for an eye” as fair compensation, likely because Jewish courts in the Diaspora could not prescribe corporal punishment. Transgressors had to compensate victims for damages, which can be unpredictable, since that requires value judgments.
The Torah requires witnesses to carry out the court’s sentence of punishment. Far fewer people would testify falsely or from hearsay if they had to execute the person they accused.
Bill, people certainly did some bad things in the name of religion. I know G-d did not sanction any of this bad behavior and in some cases it was worst than bad behavior. The Jesus I know said we should love our neighbor no where is it stated otherwise.
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Ayn, I don’t know any Catholic or Christian for that matter believes that. His death should not be an albatross for Jews to bear. It wasn’t Jews against Jesus, Jesus was a Jew. There were a few who didn’t care for his preaching and I believe they figured a scorging would scare him off however, a mob gathered and it only take a few to insite, the rest is history. It would be safe to say 99.9% of the Jewish people were not even aware what took place.
Since G-d did not speak directly to us we are all at the mercy of the writing of others and we all should hope to G-d they weren’t heavy drinkers.
By the way, was this site down yesterday and part of today?
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Yamit, Uncle Nahum, Williamson is one sick puppy. He should be excommunicated. He isn’t fit to serve or ware the vestments of the church. He and the Pope owe the Jewish nation an apology.
LOL ayn reagan…thanks
Rongrand, to the contrary, the Catholic Church for almost 2 millenia did blame all Jews for all time for the death of Jesus.
That changed only during the Second Vatican Council in 1965 when the Vatican passed a Declaration, formally called DECLARATION ON THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS
NOSTRA AETATE PROCLAIMED BY HIS HOLINESS POPE PAUL VI ON OCTOBER 28, 1965, or Nostra Aetata in short.
By that declaration the Catholic Chuch moderated its view and understanding of scripture to no longer blame all Jews for all time for the death of Jesus. Rather, the Vatican thereafter has blamed Jewish leaders and some Jews living at the time for the death of Jesus.
The full text of Nostra Aetate is found at:
http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_nostra-aetate_en.html
The relevant portion of the text of Nostra Aetate states:
There have been numerous scholars, Jewish and not, knowledgable in bibilical history and the history of Judaism, law and society at the time of Jesus. These scholars have all concluded that to blame any Jew at the time for the death of Jesus is a most heinous, outrageous and lethal lie perpetrated by Christians upon the Jews.
That damnable lie has stood for 2 millenia and still goes strong in some sectors of Christendom.
Though Christians became sectarian as they broke away from the authority and control of the Catholic church, they took with them and acted upon the lies and the hatreds against the Jews created 2 millenia ago. Instead of just the Catholic Church disseminating Jew hatred and lethal violence against the Jews, so too did many other Christian sects over the past 2 millennia.
I have nothing but unmitigated contempt for the Vatican and all sects, churches and people within Christendom that continue to foster all the heinous lies they invented out of the air about the Jews and of course the Jew hatred that those Christians feel because they continue to believe those lies.
Hopefully it will not be yet another 2000 years before the Vatican passes a new and revised Nostra Aetate that not only absolves all Jews at any time of blame for Jesus’ death, but also finally has the decency and honesty to admit that it is responsible for this heinous lie that has led to so much murder, pain and suffering visited upon Jews by Christians.
And why did these early Christians invent the lies against the Jews, including the most heinous one that the Jews killed Jesus? They did it because they would have been signing their religious death sentence if they blamed the Romans who were solely responsible. The Romans already hated the Jews. What better way to improve chances of survival of one’s newfound religion but to whitewash the Romans, blame the Jews and thus share common ground with the Romans in the hatred of the Jews.
My deep contempt is for the Vatican and those other Churches and Christians who to this day continue to harbour Jew hatred of any degree. Obviously Rongrand my contempt does not extend to all Christians.
Many Christians today have erased any and all vestiges of Jew hatred from their religious beliefs or their beliefs in general. These are the Christians who truly believe in the goodness and decency their religion teaches, which incidentally all came from Judaism
I can tell you however Rongrand that growing up, I was more then a few times labelled a christ killer by a number of Catholic and other Christian schoolmates. That however was many years ago.
Times have changed so that it is no longer politically correct for Christians to speak of Jews in that way. Times have not so changed however that those politically correct Jew haters don’t think those thoughts or are careful to only share them with fellow Christians they know are of like mind.
What you say of yourself Rongrand and by your words on the issues of concern to many of us here on Israpundit, it is clear that you are not antisemitic in the least. I suspect that any Jew hating Christian or Catholic you have ever encountered would have seen that in you and thus would not have candidly shared their antisemtic views with you.
Bill I am familiar with Nostra Aetate, although a long time coming. I was never brought up with any idea of dislike for Jews. I lived 1/2 block from the Jewish Community Center and hung out there. Our Cahtolich HS didn’t have a gym and our basketball team practiced at the center that was 1/2 block in the other direction. We didn’t have lay teachers in those days and were taught by the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) nuns and anytime they were in need of any assitance they would call the JCC for help.
Hell I didn’t know what anti-Semitism was thank goodness.
Rongrand, I figure you are much younger then me. Experiences as regards relations between Catholics and Jews varied according to time, place and circumstance. I grew up in a small town where antisemitism often broke to the surface.
Our experiences with nuns differs. You told me your story, so I will share mine with you.
My Dad died when I was six. I lived a half block from the Convent. The nuns passed by every day to Church and I made a point of politely saying “good morning sisters”.
When I was about 12 or so, my Mom related a story to me that opened my eyes to a dark facet of the nature of the Catholic Church, at least a dark facet prevelent then.
In my Dad’s last days, my Mom was going to the hospital daily to be with him. Both knew my Dad had very little time left. It was a Catholic Hospital run by the Nuns as nurses and staff.
One morning on opening the door my Mom told me she was shocked and stunned speechless for a moment as she bore witness to two nuns at my Father’s bedside trying to get him to accept Jesus and convert to Catholicism before he passed. My father in a weak voice was refusing their appeals, but they kept at it.
My Mom says she gathered herself and kicked the nuns out of the room, giving them a bit of a tongue lashing for what they had been trying to do to my Dad. I say “a bit” advisedly because speaking harshly to anyone was not in my Mom’s nature. My Dad died a day or so later. He died a Jew.
On hearing that story, it hurt me to my core. I never again said good morning to the nuns passing by. I just stared angry darts at them.
I would like to think that would not happen in today’s Catholic Church, but I am not certain. Still your experiences with the Nuns, gives me reason to hope there has been a change for the better.
I would like to ask a follow-up question to the 60% that are also part of the 75%
My question is:
What jackass, in their right mind, would ask Israelis to give up any of their homes to the murderous, implacable, merciless, peace-hating muslims? Would any of you give up your home to a muslim? The home that is probably paid for, the home that you will retire in, the home that is part of your kids’ inheritance? If not, then why do you think it is acceptable to ask Israelis to give up theirs, you imbecile? Do you really condone having approximately 350,000 Israelis being made homeless for the ‘religion of peace’? Do you really think it is okay to ask the displaced Israelis to watch as all they have built for decades is destroyed as it was in Gaza?
I have a solution. Any Israelis that ends up giving up their homes to the muslims should be compensated by any American Jew that voted affirmatively. Sell your home in the States and send the money to any Israeli family of your choice so that they can buy a replacement. While you are at it, sell your car so that they will have moving expenses. Sell your furniture to replace all the trees, flowers and vegetable gardens that will be left behind. Sell your TV, stereo and cell phone to compensate for the misery of leaving all their friends. Sell your stocks and bonds to compensate the children that will have to be yanked from their schools. Sell your first born to compensate for the agony of leaving the home you were born in. And last of all, sell yourself to compensate for giving away the next generations’ inheritance (even though you are not worth a plugged nickel).
Even this will not make things fair, but it would be a start.
What morons.
SarahSue, now tell us what you really think? LOL
Bill I opologize for the behavior of these nuns. I am in my mid 70′s and sometimes I feel much older when my bones ache. A former jogger for over 30+ years jogging 25 to 30 miles a week. Unfortunately we were not smart and if you jog that much you should change your running shoes at least every 5 – 6 months as the soles of the shoe compress before the shoe wears out and the no longer absorb the shock. Everyone I ran with including myself had orthoscopic knee surgery, twice for me.
Fortunately we had the IHM nuns and they would not have behaved like those you experienced. To the contrary, we were taught to respect everyone for their faith. Our Catholic HS was small and since has been replaced.
We only had about 145 students in the whole HS 9 -12. Most of the nuns grew up and came from Phila and local area. Our school was co-ed and the nuns that circulate throughout the diocese generally taught at one of the large all girls (2,000) school in Phila. and having their fill of girls for a few years they were happy to see boys in the classroom. We were spoiled.
The problem we all face today is the secular-progressive movement, those who want to eradicate our Judeo-Christian principals this great country was founded on.
Talk about skeletons in the closet, we Catholics had quite a bit. It’s best they are exposed as we should learn from our past mistakes, with the help of G-d.
SaraSue, not to worry. Any peace deal that still has little chance of coming to fruition, will not easily, if at all see 10′s of thousands of Jews uprooted from their homes to be resettled within new borders for Israel. Within the context of the 2 state peace paradigm, the GOI has spoken of having to resettle about 80 – 100 thousand Jews.
Consider the estimated cost of uprooting and resettling the Gazan Jews back in 2005. Estimates run at about 2 billion dollars. Still many of the Gazan Jews have not been fully restored. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1084832.html
Multiply that by a factor of 10 or more. The cost to Israel would be too staggering to bear.
It is one thing to talk about relocating Jews en masse from their homes and quite another to be able to carry it out.
Regardless of what criticism might be heaped on the GOI for contemplating uprooting her own people from land they consider their own, the earlier forward looking precient policies of the GOI to engage in constructing settlements to create facts on the ground have borne fruit, for these facts will be difficult if not impossible to do away with.
Rongrand, your young at heart nature misled me to think I was your elder. Don’t apologize for the nuns Ron. That was their sin, not yours.
I agree that there is a secular progressive force at work that impacts both Christians and Jews. Christians however number 2.5 billion, so the loss of millions of Christians to liberalism, agnosticism or atheism is barely felt. With there being only about 13 million Jews, even one Jew detaching from their religious and Jewish heritage is sorely felt by those Jews who value their Jewishness and are growing increasingly concerned that assimilation, not the enemies of Israel and Jews will wipe Judaism and Jewish life off the map.
Okay, smarty pants, I will. I think that many American Jews are guilty of hebetudinous reasoning. They are so unconcerned and unaffected by their fellow Jews in Israel that they do not even realize how oxymoronic their opinions are.
P.S. Thanks for the cool new word. And no, it does not describe Bill Narvey. But then, you knew that.
Gee, Bill, I feel so much better knowing that only 100,000 Jews will be affected.
My sarcasm is not directed toward you, but rather to anyone that thinks the road to peace entails giving the muslims anything.
Only war and the complete annihilation of any muslim refusing to take a loyalty oath to Israel will lead to peace. (Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was on to something and I am sorry that adverse world opinion derailed him.) Anyone that thinks differently is a moron and delusional.
I know this, Bill, but I do get tired of those that propose solutions that they would never countenance in a New York minute if they, themselves, were effected.
I get weary of the suspense of waiting to see if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has the fortitude to stop being a politician and instead, be a strong leader. I long for a PM that would mimic General Ariel Sharon before he was elected PM and became a turncoat.
All in all, it is up to ‘us’ to educate ‘them’. We need to continue to expose foolish thinking with cold, hard facts. That is my mission and the mission of many of you. May we continue to have the strength of our convictions.
Alternative suggestion: Just think how much the Palestinians would enjoy living at Barbra Streisand’s beachfront Malibu estate. Or at Jason Alexander’s palatial estate in the San Fernando Valley. Or in Joe Klein’s gorgeous East Coast digs.
These leftist American Jews don’t need to wait for the Zionists to cede land to the Palestinians. They can just sign over the deeds to their own property. Every member of J Street should donate real estate to the Palestinians they so love. I am sure that a Palestinian family – so persecuted by the diabolical Israelis – would jump at the opportunity to live in Jeremy Ben-Ami’s house.
SaraSue, I’m on your side.
You took my point out of context, which is that the situation on the ground has made it impossible for Israel to include in a peace deal, the relocation from the West Bank of any sizeable number of Jews.
I am as perplexed as you as to why Olmert and Sharon before, spoke of relocating large Jewish communities when they still have not been able to even completely relocate and restore the 8 thousand Gazan Jews.
The Quartet must be aware of this yet they have not altered the peace paradigm and thus continue to demand Israel pull back from the West Bank and take the Jews with them. Israel for its part still seems to be speaking with such pull back in mind.
There are of course other problems with the 2 state solution peace paradigm that we have canvassed here.
Discussions we have on these pages point to the air of unreality in the American led Quartet’s pushing for negotitations to begin anew within the context of the 2 state solution paradigm.
One further point in that regard, there is a history of the Palestinians accepting Israeli concessions while refusing toe conclude peace or do sign an interim agreement only to break it. The Palestinians once they are ready to negotiate again insist that Israel’s last offer be the starting point for renewed negotiations.
Common sense says that if Israel gave a concession in return for something from the Palestinians and that which the Palestinians gave was a lie, worthless or they later reneged on the deal, Israel should get back that which she gave uo in good faith that the Palestinians would hold up their end of the bargain.
Israel has generally been letting the Palestinians get away with their negotiating strategy. As dishonest as the Palestinians are, the Israelis have been guilty of foolishness.
Recently however, I believe it was Pres. Obama or his envoy George Mitchell who supported the Palestinian view that Israel cannot recant its last position offered, but must enter negotitations with that offer still on the table and a willingness to offer more.
All this is very worrisome.
Thank you, Ayn. I said essentially this on another post, and was accused of being and Anti-Semite for having said it. Jews are nuts.
Oat, I am not one of those who have accused you of being anti-Semitic because I think I understand what you mean…as opposed to what you write.
If what you mean is that liberal American Jews have their colons where their brains should be, we agree completely.
However, if that is what you mean then that is what you should write, rather than issuing blanket generalizations that are easily misinterpreted.
Upon reflection, you may perceive that
could be construed as an anti-Semitic attack, and without much of a stretch.