In the past year, with the help of you, my readers, and new friends of this site who’ve helped me break major stories censored within Israel, Tikun Olam has broken new ground. It has gone where few other blogs have gone. My Israeli sources and I revealed Anat Kamm’s secret arrest and detention. We did the same regarding Ameer Makhoul. We told Israel and the world that the toturer known to Israelis only as “Captain George,” was the flesh and blood Doron Zahavi. We revealed with the help of the Operation Cast Lead Dirty 200 list that Lt. Col. Yehuda HaCohen was under investigation for approving the killing of a Palestinian mother and daughter who were walking under white flag. Most recently, I reported that an Iranian general and former deputy defense minister is being held incommunicado in an Israeli prison.
The world is starting to take notice. There have been profiles in two Israeli media outlets. Readership is up 50% over last year. The blog is ranked 9,000 among all blogs read in Israel in addition to its readership in many Arab states as well.
I know you think fighting the good fight for peace and justice and Israeli democracy is worthwhile. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here. But now I’m asking you to do more. I appreciate every one of my readers, even those who disagree with me. But you must become more than a reader or commenter. You must become a donor, a financial supporter. There is no George Soros funding my research. No Nation Institute. Not even plum writing assignments for glossy magazines (or ANY magazines!). Comment is Free won’t touch this. Not even Al Jazeera English. Not The Nation, nor The American Prospect, nor Haaretz. As far as they are concerned we are voices crying out in the wilderness.
You are my mainstay. You know how cutting edge this reporting is, even if the rest of the progressive media doesn’t quite recognize it (yet, dare I say?). So please, in this season of giving, of thankfulness, of spiritual contemplation, be as generous as you can on behalf of my efforts to light a very dark corner of the world. Give $100 if you can. But don’t stop there. If you can give more, give $500 or even $1,000.
One of the greatnesses of the Hebrew language is that the word tzedek (“justice”) is found in the word tzedakah (“charity”). There can be no true justice without a financial commitment to make justice. In the Jewish tradition, giving tzedakah is not voluntary, it is not optional. It is as important as the most important mitzvah (“good deed”). It is a duty, one that isn’t onerous, but rather welcomed. It is truly an honor to give tzedakah and the one who gives it is blessed many times over.
So I ask you to use the Paypal button to make a gift. Or if you want 100% of your gift to support my work, send me an e mail and I’ll send you my mailing address. And further, don’t wait till these appeals to give. I urge you to consider making regular gifts if possible to sustain this work that I do 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
RE: “So I ask you to use the Paypal button to make a gift. Or if you want 100% of your gift to support my work, send me an e mail and I’ll send you my mailing address.” -R.S.
MY COMMENT: It is my understanding that there is no fee when I use my PayPal account to make a payment to another Paypal account in the US when the funds are transferred electronically from MY “VERIFIED” CHECKING ACCOUNT (not using a credit or debit card). So, if I make a $50 payment in that manner, the recipient gets the entire $50.
FROM PAYPAL:
I do notice that some donations have no fee & some do. Thanks for explaining that.
“Tikun olam” means “fixing the world” and not ‘make the world a better place’, as you have written. Your translation is more midrash. And hence, based on what I see you write about, and how you write about it, you are not making the world a better place, and not fixing the world either.
It seems you care more about throwing middle eastern sand in the air, rather than letting it settle and helping to work towards true peace. Maybe you can explain why your approach is “tikun olam”…..
First, if you bothered to read my About pg. you’d notice the literal translation of the phrase. I never claimed that “make the world a better place” was a literal translation. As you said, it’s a midrash which has always been a respetable form of interpretation in Jewish tradition.
Second, I’m missing something. Because the phrase you find offensive is a “midrash” that means it’s pasul? Howso?
Your comment has blinded me with sand in my eyes…
Richard, can we also help by clicking any of the ads, and if so, is there anything specific we should know that will get Tikun O’lam the revenue?
Anything anyone buys by clicking on ads on the blog earn me revenue. If you shop Amazon & start at this site, I’ll earn 5-6% commission on whatever you buy.
“Comment is Free won’t touch this. Not even Al Jazeera English. Not The Nation, nor The American Prospect, nor Haaretz. As far as they are concerned we are voices crying out in the wilderness.”
Please explain why the publications referenced above won’t touch you. I would’ve thought CIF and Al Jazeera would eat it up. Curious.
You’d have to ask them as I don’t make their editorial decisions. I’ve written for both in the past but my work is no longer published by either. You might want to check a piece of rubbish called CIF Watch if you don’t mind taking a shower after you do so. I fear at least in the case of CIF that those authors attacked most vociferously by CIF Watch may be a liability to CIF.
Richard I have checked out CiF Watch, which is an excellent site, well-informed about what is really going on, which is more than can be said about CiF.
As for the rest, your post at 1.19am is as prime an example of splitting and paranoid ideation as I have seen anywhere in my working life. May I respectfully suggest that you get yourself some help?
And now I’m off to get a shower having had a stroll through your blog….
If you like CIF Watch then you’re slummin’ here with the demimonde. There are a score of other website where you would be far more comfortable & among yr own kind.
May I not so respectfully suggest that you take your nonsense somewhere else. I can’t ban you merely for being obnoxious & stupid. But if you publish any future comments here you’ll be on a very short leash.
richard,
a) you wrote: “You might want to check a piece of rubbish called CIF Watch if you don’t mind taking a shower after you do so.”
b) you wrote: “If you like CIF Watch then you’re slummin’ here with the demimonde.” Pardon for my not understanding, but are you saying that you are part of the demimonde? (and that Babs is swimming here – in your blog – with you and your kind, the demimonde?)
When I think of the demimonde, I think of Virginia Oldoini -is that really your role model? C’mon Richard….
c) you wrote: “May I not so respectfully suggest that you take your nonsense somewhere else. I can’t ban you merely for being obnoxious & stupid. But if you publish any future comments here you’ll be on a very short leash.”
C’mon Richard…is this who you really are? Is this your midrashic interpretation of Tikkun Olam???? (calling your fellow ‘obnoxious’ AND ‘stupid’?????)
Gonna keep me on a “very short leash” too? Treating people like animals must certainly be antithetical to your values, no? C’mon Richard….
Love,
Seth
In case anyone here hasn’t heard of a concern troll, this is a textbook example. Someone who professes the utmost concern for one’s reputation & well being, but maintains his own agenda which is anything but mine.
I majored in literature in college and when we read novels we talked about point of view and irony. You’ve apparently never taken any such course but it’d be advisable for you to read here paying some attention to those elements. The demimonde is solely in the mind of the commenter who finds CIF Watch edifying. I frankly can’t understand why she’d be here at all since they speak of me in terms little short of leprosy.
Good golly Miss Molly…I had no idea that I had to meet yr standards of conduct. I thought I had an obligation to meet my own. Anyone who says what she did about CIF Watch is that & more. It’s an odious piece of trash.
When CIF Watch stops lying about me then I’ll stop thinking it’s a shmatteh. Deal?
Nope, no deal. If they call you a liar (or anything else), you can indeed think that they are a shmattah.
In fact, I don’t care what you think of CiF, me, yourself, etc. – I do care that you chose to call someone stupid.
I have called in the Humanity referees, and they have assessed you a 2 Blog Post Penalty for Conduct Unbecoming of a Jew.
Time for real tikkun.
They’ve done that & far worse. Frankly, I don’t care what you think about what I do or say. And don’t tell me how to be a Jew. I didn’t ask for your advice or approbation.