Submitted Comments RSS Feed Comments by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Posted in: Rice in D.C. return speaking at day school
It is an honor to be vilified by anyone so disconnected from reality as to think Arnold Eisen is :"destroying" JTS. Going back to the question I raised: Condoleeza Rice is a terrible choice for a Jewish school to honor: She herself invoked the disgusting twin explanations of her stance on torture: "By definition, the Preasident cannot be said to violate the law," and 'I was only following orders" Both are perfect examples of stances abhorrent to Jewish tradition, experience, or values. Maureen Dowd in the NY Times reports today as follows: "Condi Rice, who plans to go back to being a professor of political science at Stanford, got grilled by a student at a reception at a dorm there on Monday. ". . . the young man at Stanford spoke up. Saying he had read that Ms. Rice authorized waterboarding, he asked her, “Is waterboarding torture?” "She replied: “The president instructed us that nothing we would do would be outside of our obligations, legal obligations, under the Convention Against Torture. So that’s — and by the way, I didn’t authorize anything. I conveyed the authorization of the administration to the agency.” "This was precisely Condi’s problem. She simply relayed. She never stood up against Cheney and Rummy for either what was morally right or what was smart in terms of our national security. "The student pressed again about whether waterboarding was torture. “By definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Conventions Against Torture,” Ms. Rice said, almost quoting Nixon’s logic: “When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.” "She also stressed that, 'Unless you were there in a position of responsibility after Sept. 11, you cannot possibly imagine the dilemmas that you faced in trying to protect Americans.' This is the classic language of toadies to tyrants. Jews have suffered from such people ever since the archtypal case of Pharaoh and his advisers. On Yom Kippur, we read in explicit and horrific detail about the torture of ten great rabbis by the Roman Empire. Our reading warns us that this is the conventional behavior of Empires. As a result, we should know better than to honor such behavior. Shalom, Rabbi Arthur Waskow The Shalom Center www.shalomctr.org
Posted in: Rice in D.C. return speaking at day school
It is deeply distressing that a Jewish school would honor someone who, though not the originator of the benighted decision to invade and occupy Iraq, took part in, helped plan, enabled, advised, and publicly supported a war that violated every level of Jewish, American, and human values. It violated international and American law, was profoundly implicated in the elevation of torture to become an instrument of public policy (to which there is no evidence whatsoever that she ever objected), weakened the security position of Israel by greatly strengthening that of Iran, drove four million Iraqis from their homes, killed 4,000 Americans and somewhere between 100,000 and 400,000 Iraqis, and maimed the bodies, minds, and souls of many thousands more. These deeds were all based on a set of lies that she facilitated and never resisted. Nor has she done any sort of tshuvah whatsoever for this massive mangling of lives, justice, truth. What does this teach our children and the general public about jewish values?
Posted in: Specter switches parties
Senator Arlen Specter has never been a conservative, nor a liberal, nor a moderate, nor an independent. He is a trimmer -- a sailor who trims his sails to meet any incoming political breeze. Perhaps the most unprincipled of these "trims" came after a dozen rabbis met with him in December 2004 to implore him not to vote for the pro-torture nominee for Attorney-General, Alberto Gonzales. We provided evidence of Gonzales' obeisance to extreme notions of presidential power, including the power to torture. Senator Specter not only voted to confirm Gonzales; he went out of his way to praise him, trashing his obligation to the Constitution in order to kowtow to right-wing Senate leadership. Within four years, as the political currents in the country changed, he denounced Gonzales for being exactly who Specter knew he was before. He did not and does not deserve the support of serious Republicans, Democrats, independents, or any Pennsylvanian. Shalom, Rabbi Arthur Waskow 6711 Lincoln Drive Philadelphia PA 19119 215/844-8494
Posted in: Op-Ed: Tough questions about Obama needed to be asked
Dear chevra -- Advertising that voting for Obama was inviting a Holocaust -- now that wasn't smear and calumny? Supporting the distribution of a vile attack on all islam (the ""Obsession" film) through ads in newspapers distributed specifically in "swing" states -- that wasn't vile calumny? Refusing to denounce a candidate who claimed that Senator Obama was palling around with terrorists -- that was responsible campaigning? Attacking Obama for having conversations with a Palestinian-American scholar and learning from him how Palestinians see the world -- that attack wasn't abysmal stupidity and smear? All these were actions of the RJC. Thank God -- and I do mean thank God, and the deep Torah-rooted values of our community -- these attacks seem to have motivated more, not less, Jewish support for a calm, focused, even-tempered, and highly intelligent man who has sought to understand the wide variety of opinion in the world, and integrate all of it into his ability to lead America and the world; who keeps saying (and setting forth policies that say), "We ARE our brothers' keeper; we ARE our sisters' keeper." If the RJC would remember that it was Theodore Roosevelt, scourge of corporate greed and protector of nature, who put the first Jew in an American cabinent -- Oscar Straus -- they might become both better Jews and better Republicans. -- Rabbi Arthur Waskow (Awaskow@aol.com)
RSS Feed Breaking News
Updated 11/22/09 @ 05:02PM EDT
- Hundreds of Jewish and non-Jewish Brazileans protested in Rio de Janeiro on the eve of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit.
- "Real progress" has been made in negotiations to release a captured Israeli soldier, President Shimon Peres confirmed.
- The online auction Web site eBay said it took down an ad offering biological samples from Benito Mussolini before anyone could bid on them.
- Turkey has given Israeli defense contractors 50 days to deliver 10 promised drone aircraft.
- Iran began an air defense drill designed to protect its nuclear program, Iranian state television reported.
- Brazileans protest Ahmadinejad visit
- Peres: ‘Real progress’ in Shalit talks
- The Mofaz plan—state now, ask questions later
- eBay removes Mussolini brain, blood samples
- Turkey demands delivery of Israeli drones
- Iran begins air defense drill
- More Israeli recruits seeking to join combat units
- Haredim return to protest Jerusalem Intel factory
- Female Orthodox scholars helping women talk about sex
- Obama half-brother has Jewish roots
- Lieberman: Fort Hood could be terror attack
- J Street confab shows generational divide on Israel
- What really happened at the Reform biennial in Toronto
- Pro-Israel fliers confiscated at campus speech
- Rubashkin convicted on 86 charges
- Obama shifts to Israel’s corner, but tries not to show it
Posted in: Five things Biden shouldn't tell AIPAC
05/05/09 09:38 AM
Five things Biden SHOULD say: 1. The US is committed to securing a safe, creative and welcome place for Israel in the community of nations by achieving a comprehensive peace treaty and fully peaceful relations among Israel, a new, viable, and peace-committed Palestinian state, all the Arab states, and Iran. This achievement of peace and security for Israel is what the great founders of Israel yearned for and worked for, and achieving it is in the vital -- not the peripheral -- interest of the United States and the world community at this historic moment. 2. We are convinced that majorities of both the people of Israel and the Palestinian people will welcome a serious effort to achieve such a peace, and to that end the US is calling a Conference on Peace in the Broader Middle East . We expect and intend that all the major parties in the region will take part, and we will exert our strongest diplomatic efforts to make sure the conference is a success. 3. The US will take vigorous steps to bring about a Palestinian government of national unity, including all the major strands of Palestinian political life, and to make sure that all elected members of the Palestinian parliament are free to convene and choose such a government. that can take a fruitful peace-seeking role in the Middle East peace conference. 4. The US views the continuation of blocs of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, the demolition of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, and the embargo on civilian goods entering Gaza as inimical to such a peace settlement, and we will take steps to make sure that assistance from the US is not used to support those settlements, demolitions, or embargoes, and instead is used to fund and facilitate the resettlement of Israeli settlers inside Israel proper. 5. The US will strongly support, financially and politically, the return of any Palestinians from around the world who wish to live in the new Palestinian state, and will not support or encourage their resettlement inside Israel. Shalom, salaam, peace -- Rabbi Arthur Waskow The Shalom Center www.shalomctr.org