Now if only there was a way people could read blogs on Shabbos afternoon.
actually I heard a rumor that if you tie a string up around the upper corners of the room your computer is in, then it’s OK if you read websites on shabbos, at least in certain parts of brooklyn 😉

maniacs like ragen can just never approach this subject from a reasonable perspective. one which implies that, palestinians are people too, and that while the intifada may have been fostered by vicious tyrants, its participants believe they are justly fighting their oppressor. whether they’re right or wrong you can’t dehumanize them nor negate their concerns, even if some of them do the same to you–two wrongs don’t make a right, and you should be bigger than that.
no, instead, ragen immediately takes the side of the pro-israel “journalist”, attacking the palestinian nusseibeh’s character in an attempt to defame seidler-feller.
in order to do so, ragen cites one example of an extremist nusseibeh once shared a stage with.
ya know, throw a stone in palestine and you’ll find an extremist–no pun intended.
grow up watching your neighbors’ houses being demolished, your brothers getting shot, and your cousins blowing themselves up in displays of pride and desperation, and you’ll give props to your local martyrs too.
i’m not saying it’s right, or good, or respectable, i’m just saying–it is what it is. you can either work within those parameters and be as humane as possible, or you can walk the road to armageddon.
there are jewish extremists too. the jewish press, arutz sheva, the settler camp, the ultrazionists, right wing republican conservatives… and their stubborness, their blockheadedness, but most importantly the ingenuity of their brilliantly twisted arguments, is so infuriating, so disconcerting, that it can cause otherwise well-tempered, well-mannered, composed individuals, to lose their cool and fly off the handle–and not because what they say is true or accurate, but because the way they say it is so personally hurtful, and pushes so many buttons, the mind just breaks down and devloves into jungle-ape feces throwing.
and the worst part is, they then use that emotional outpour against you, after the fact, to demonstrate your decomposure, your frailty, and thus, your inability to justly defend your positions. it’s sheer manipulation.
that is what transpired when rachel neuwirth called chaim seidler-feller, a man who has been deeply committed to the jewish community for a quarter of a century, a capo. and i think that what ragen is doing by inferring that seidler-feller’s character is in fact questionable for merely recommending that interested parties attend a lecture by nusseihbeh, is just doing the same…calling him a capo–just for having a commitment to fairmindedness and objectivity. just for having the courage to listen, to learn, and to make up his own mind, rather than tow the party line. just for being an “honest partner” for peace.
oh the sheer horror. he’s pushing us right into the ovens.
oh. fucking. please.
att. universe: extremism is idiocy, on the right, on the left, from the jews, from the arabs. do not tolerate extremism (especially when it comes from your own) and we will not be forced to wade through the mess extremists have made and continue to make, for the rest of our lives.

in addition to mo1’s insightful comments… seidler feller and richard joel both have their jobs not b/c of fundraising but b/c of thier commitment to the jewish people. ragen is playing the trump card of dismissal: if you don’t like them but can’t impeach their character…just write it all off as “fundraising”

babylonian — don’t diss the eruv son. uncalled for. to say, “i’m just making a joke” is one thing, which is how i took it. an eruv’s not a magical invention.