With so much going on in the world, many of us still have a hard time understanding how Israel copes with all the new realities facing it:
-changing political environment in the Arab world
-existential threats from Iran
-ongoing stalemate with the Palestinians
-ongoing efforts to integrate the newest wave of Ethiopian immigrants
-the efforts to portray Israel as a pariah nation by conducting a boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against it
In spite of all of the above, we also are amazed at the innovations that Israel has created:
-technological advances that far outstrip any country of its size
-new cultural expressions that are innovative and cutting edge
-new approaches to create educational and social opportunities for the underpriveleged
-the cultural center of the Jewish people.
We want all of you to experience the new Israel this fall by learning, viewing, discussing, touring,socializing and interacting with all the parts that make up the new Israel.
Mark October 23-31 2011 on your calendar for an Israel experience you will remember for a lifetime.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
The New Israel
Last Sunday, I attended Israel Education Day, where over 80 people heard from Dexter Van Zile speak about the BDS campaign.
Dexter is a Christian media specialist who works for CAMERA, a media watchdog that monitors reporting from the Middle East.
He emphasized the human rights abuses that the Christian minorities, women, gays and other populations experience in the Arab world, and highlighted the scant attention that is paid to those injustices. Yet, Israel is the one country in the Middle East where women are equal, gays serve in the military, and Christian minorities as are all minorities treated fairly and equally.
We also heard from two other speakers about the technological and medical advances that Israel has given to the world...a treasure that no other country its size or population has come close to.
I would like to invite you to see what they are were talking about when we visit Israel from Oct 23-31, 2011.
Get a true picture of what is really happening...from a political, economic, cultural and security point of view.
Experience the New Israel.
Dexter is a Christian media specialist who works for CAMERA, a media watchdog that monitors reporting from the Middle East.
He emphasized the human rights abuses that the Christian minorities, women, gays and other populations experience in the Arab world, and highlighted the scant attention that is paid to those injustices. Yet, Israel is the one country in the Middle East where women are equal, gays serve in the military, and Christian minorities as are all minorities treated fairly and equally.
We also heard from two other speakers about the technological and medical advances that Israel has given to the world...a treasure that no other country its size or population has come close to.
I would like to invite you to see what they are were talking about when we visit Israel from Oct 23-31, 2011.
Get a true picture of what is really happening...from a political, economic, cultural and security point of view.
Experience the New Israel.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Free Speech?
Our Supreme Court has issued its opinion:It is ok to shout obscenities and slurs at the funerals of fallen soldiers as long as the screaming is done from public spaces.
At the same time as this ruling is being issued, the French government is prosecuting John Galliano, the top designer at the House of Dior for allegedly making anti-Semitic slurs at two women who were not Jewish. He could face up to 6 months in jail and be fined up to $31,000.
Does anyone see the irony in this?
Speech is not free-it comes with a price tag. Just ask those kids in school who are bullied incessantly with insults and put-downs. What about those bosses who bully their employees, and create an environment of anxiety and hostility.
We have always understood the impact that bullying has on its victims; yet it took the deaths and suicides of bullying victims for our society to take notice and implement consequences to those acts.
Speech is not free in those instances, so what makes hurling slurs ok if they are done by a different group to a different audience.
I guess then it's ok for Holocaust deniers to have a legitimate claim to spew their venom in our country. Yet in Germany it is illegal...and France prosecutes those who are found to be uttering anti-Semitic insults.
There are limits to "free" speech. And we put ourselves in terrible danger if we do not realize that there are boundaries to everything we do.
At the same time as this ruling is being issued, the French government is prosecuting John Galliano, the top designer at the House of Dior for allegedly making anti-Semitic slurs at two women who were not Jewish. He could face up to 6 months in jail and be fined up to $31,000.
Does anyone see the irony in this?
Speech is not free-it comes with a price tag. Just ask those kids in school who are bullied incessantly with insults and put-downs. What about those bosses who bully their employees, and create an environment of anxiety and hostility.
We have always understood the impact that bullying has on its victims; yet it took the deaths and suicides of bullying victims for our society to take notice and implement consequences to those acts.
Speech is not free in those instances, so what makes hurling slurs ok if they are done by a different group to a different audience.
I guess then it's ok for Holocaust deniers to have a legitimate claim to spew their venom in our country. Yet in Germany it is illegal...and France prosecutes those who are found to be uttering anti-Semitic insults.
There are limits to "free" speech. And we put ourselves in terrible danger if we do not realize that there are boundaries to everything we do.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
