Support Tikun Olam
Every year I write this post asking for readers to step forward and support the efforts I put into this blog to light a fire under Israel’s Occupation regime and hold it accountable for its deeds and misdeeds.
In the past year, the most important expose I published was the Iran war plan prepared by the IDF for Israel’s political leadership arguing that an attack on Iran would be the Israeli version of Shock and Awe. My scoop was picked up by the BBC World Service and Der Spiegel. Even more significantly, in addressing my report no Israeli government representative denied its authenticity.
A sign of the damage this report did to the official Israeli narrative endorsing plans to attack Iran, was an assault directed against this site only three weeks later by Semion Kras, an Israeli rightist who works for IBM Global Services as a network administrator. Pointedly, David Lange, who writes Israellycool and who admitted to contact with (and likely encouragement of) the hacker, has not denied my ID of Kras.
UPDATE: In the paragraph above I wrote that David Lange had contacted Semion Kras. In reality, it was a contributing author of Lange’s blog who had these contacts and boasted about them in Lange’s blog. Regardless of this, I would think Lange’s Israeli employer, technology giant SAP, might still find it troubling that his blog celebrates the hack of my website, which after all is an illegal act in Israel and the U.S.
There are two reasons why it’s important to support this blog: first there are significant expenses associated with administering it. Just the server costs for switching to a far more secure web host went up ten times after the hack. The second reason is to associate yourself with my work in a tangible way. In other words, put your money where your values are.
The most compelling Jewish reason to support this blog is the concept of tzedakah, a word that derives from the Hebrew root, justice. Philanthropy is not just charity, something elected to be given out of the goodness of one’s heart. No, tzedakah is an obligation, just as doing justice and making the world better and whole is a firm ethical commitment.
For the first time, donors may make tax-deductible contributions via WePay thanks to the site’s new fiscal sponsor, Media Island International. My hope is that this will encourage even more of you to donate and give even larger gifts when you do. If donations via Paypal are more convenient, you may click on either the Donate or Subscribe buttons in the sidebar to give that way.
Finally, not everyone can donate money. If you can’t there are other ways to help. The work of building up a blog, credibility and a reputation is incremental. Every tweet, every link to a social media account, every new subscriber (there are well over 1,000 of you) and reader helps get the message to a wider audience. Please do whatever you can to help in whatever way you can.
Dear Richard,
I feel bad since for two bothering reasons I am unable to financially support your site, a great site that I visit everyday.
All my life I was an idealist who was seeking true justice for all. When I was a naive teenager, under the influence of a small Iranian leftist group, I got fascinated with the idea of Kibbutzim where egalitarianism is the paramount norm of a heart-warming cooperative existence. I woke up from that dream after reading one of Edward Saeed’s books. The sweet dream morphed to a painful duress when I realized my idol communities were built on the lands of the people who were forcefully driven out of their homes.
I remember at that time Kafka’s thoughts could easily seep deep inside the untouched corners of my young mind.
Yet, over the many decades and after so many long mental journeys, I haven’t totally surrendered to the dark pessimistic world-views. Among many optimistic endeavors I still feel a sense of subtle delight when I encounter persons of uncompromising honesty such as Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky, Hilary Mann Leverette and dozens of other men/women of high integrity— regardless of the fact that I believe no human is capable of being absolutely objective.
Richard, you too, you are one of those whom I cordially respect and revere. I am sure I am not alone, you must have many other invisible admirers. Please keep up the good work— I sense the colossal powers of history are on your side — and that, if we are right, is no small matter.
I’ll keep on promoting your site — and wish you and your family all the best.