Tikun Olam-תקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

I’ve got another piece that just came out in Comment is Free at The Guardian. It has the rather unfortunate title: A Texan standoff in the Middle East. I detest how Europeans focus on Bush’s being from Texas as if he’s a hick cowboy. Also, my article doesn’t at all describe a “standoff,” but rather a dangerous escalation of the Mideast arms race that could lead to regional conflict or even nuclear conflagration. My original title was: “Bush Mideast Arms Deal, Bad for Israel.” I wanted to focus my audience on the fact that I was writing from the vantage point of analyzing whether the deal was good for Israel or bad (i.e. “is it good for the Jews or bad for the Jews”).

But when all is said and done as someone once said so memorably: “I’m just glad to be here.” Glad to get published no matter what title they use.

By the by, I’ve just learned yet another derogatory terms for an Arab in the comment thread: “towel.” Yes, I kid you not. You’ve got to see it to believe it.

I’ve been marveling at the wonderful essays published at the Guardian’s Comment is Free blog on the Independent Jewish Voices initiative. I’ve especially noted the similarity of issues facing independent Jews in both England and America regarding the Israel-Palestinian debate. So I asked the editor if he’d consider publishing a few of my reflections. To my delight, they accepted a piece I’d been working on which incorporates some of the troubling incidents I’ve been writing about here over the past few weeks in which the mainstream Jewish leadership has been stifling the free flow of ideas on the conflict.

Cracks in the Wall has just been published at the site. I hope you go over and take a look. I’m trying to stay detached from the comments thread. But I’ve noted in other essays there, that the right wingers seems to predominate. So if you are of a mind too, and there’s anything particularly outrageous in the comments thread, let your views be known.