Muslim and Jewish Women in Nazareth

'We can live in peace'...John Lennon (photo: Dafna Tal)

Mahzor

Mahzor

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Sarajevo Haggadah

Mah Nishtanah

Sarajevo haggadah

Antaea Darom

Israeli women's art

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Torah as music

Ben Heine

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ceramic bowl

Mohammad Said Kalash, "Offering Reconciliation" exhibit (photo: Ilan Amihai)

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Punch and Judy/Pinchas and Jamila

Avi Katz

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David Grossman

Ben Heine

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Eldrige Street shul

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Dove

Ben Heine

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Two birds

Hoda Jamal

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Israeli and Palestinian boys

from documentary, Promises

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Cat in the Hat

Yiddish version

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Daylight through the Wall

Banksy: graffiti art on Separation Wall

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Maurice Sendak's Brundibar set

New Victory Theater (photo: Nan Melville/NYT)

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Daniel Barenboim, West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

Palestinian-Israeli musical ensemble (photo: Kerstin Joensson/AP)

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Great Day on Eldrige Street

N.Y.'s klezmer greats celebrate shul rededication (photo: Leo Sorel)

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Joint Appeal for Peace

(Avi Katz)

Joint Appeal for Peace

Ketubah, Ancona, Italy (1772)

(Jewish Theological Seminary library)

Ancona ketubah

Posts Tagged ‘joe the plumber’

Joe the Plumber: ‘A Vote for Obama Means Death of Israel’

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

MyDD brings news that yet another McCain surrogate has gone, not only off the reservation, but off the deep end.  The campaign has been dragging Joe the Plumber around to show how the common man views McCain’s candidacy.  The only problem is that the campaign hasn’t vetted Joe to see whether he’s lost his political marbles.  This is what happened:

At an RNC [Republican National Committee] event for John McCain in Ohio earlier today, Joe “the plumber” Wurzelbacher was confronted by a man in the crowd who asserted that “a vote for Obama would be a vote for the death to Israel.”

Joe’s response:

Actually I’ll go ahead and agree with you on that one…I agree with you, I really think that would be a problem.

Instead of tamping down the madness, the McCain campaign, showing yet again it’s utter cluelessness, had this to say:

While he’s clearly his own man, so far Joe has offered some penetrating and clear analysis that cuts to the core of many of the concerns that people have with Barack Obama’s statements and policies…

Well, golly gee, Obama means the death of Israel–that’s sure “penetrating and clear analysis” now isn’t it? I’d suggest if they haven’t done so by now that somebody with half a brain in McCain’s senior echelons oughta flat out deny any validity to this statement. And they also might want to get Joe off the road before he shoots himself or McCain in the foot some more.

You’ve heard of March Madness and an October Surprise? I think John McCain’s October Surprise IS outbursts like Joe the Plumber’s. But I do think instead of October Surprise, we should call it “October Madness,” which seems all John McCain has to offer the American people.

EVEN FOX News was sickened by Joe’s wingnuttery.  This is what Shepard Smith had to say after his interview in which he tried three separate times to get Joe to say he didn’t really believe that Obama meant the death of Israel:

I just want to make this 100% perfectly clear. Barack Obama has said repeatedly and demonstrated repeatedly that Israel will always be a friend to the United States no matter what happens once he becomes President of the United States. His words. Umm, the rest of it…man…some things…it just gets frightening sometimes.

The way things are going, we may hear Rupert Murdoch or even Roger Ailes endorse Obama on air to separate themselves from the smuttiness and new lows to which the McCain campaign has sunk.  Before this election ends, there may not BE a conservative movement in this country left to save.  That’s how far off the deep end McCain is taking it.

Thanks to reader, Issac for bringing this story to my attention.

Joe & John, Their Heads in the Toilet

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

Tim Egan’s take on the 3rd debate:

…In the third debate, he [McCain] scuffed and huffed, but ended up with a somewhat muddled conversation with a plumber. Little wonder, in the ideological wilderness of 2008, a time when McCain’s dark-side supporters want him to stay dirty, that McCain chose to dwell on a guy who spends a lot of time with his head in the toilet.

No offense to Joe since he makes a better living than I do.  But Egan has it about right as far as McCain is concerned.  His campaign is dirty and his head’s in the toilet.

A few months ago, I predicted that McCain would end up running a campaign that looked a lot like Bob Dole’s given the age, ideology and temperaments of the respective candidates in both races:

I’m beginning to think a McCain candidacy is going to echo the clueless, out of touch 1996 campaign Robert Dole ran against a far younger, more politically nimble Democrat by the name of Bill Clinton. If 6 in 10 Americans and some of his own key advisors believe the precise opposite of what McCain espouses regarding Iran, how long before we all see that the Republican emperor is hopelessly out of touch and has no clothes?

Turns out, I was dead on.  I predict this election is going to have an outcome similar to 1996 as well.  The only question is how badly other Republican candidates will do.  And that doesn’t look good for them either.

This brings up an important question of governance.  What will the Dems do with their newfound success?  Will they govern from the center?  Or will they meander into ideological territory like the Republicans did under Bush and DeLay?  Will they squander the mandate they’ve been given?  Or will they resort to squabbling among themselves and the sort of aimless agenda that they’ve been known for in the past?

Will Obama also grab the bull by the horns and act decisively in confronting economic and foreign problems?  I’m looking forward to what could happen regarding the I-P conflict, Iran and Iraq.  If Dems play their cards right things could look a lot better in the Middle East by the end of Obama’s first term.  Especially if Tzipi Livni is prime minister.  If Netanyahu wins, then all bets are off.