Yad Vashem

Today we had the joy of visiting the Israel Museum. Our major purpose was to explore the giant model of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is a great thing. And having spent ten days exploring the actual city it really helps to focus those explorations.
But, what a fantastic museum/art gallery it is. Apart from the fabulous display of modern Israeli art of phenomenally high quality I was also struck by teh outdoor installations, and the traditional paintings....why do there seem to be soi many Pisarros. One would think it rivals the Orsay; and the Gauguins, two beautiful Monets and Van Goghs, El Greco and Rembrandt. Didn't see a Picasso but there is almost bound to be the same!
But we then moved on to the Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, which is dveadtating in many ways and needs more careful reflection than this blog.
The picture alongside is a dome of phots of holocaust victims, amidst a room full of files ....possibly 6.5 million....as you look up....or at least as I looked up,  I was quite overwhelmed. The as you look down there isa  deeep, deep pit. "Is this hell?" I wondered. And then you see a pool of water so far down and clear that it is more possible to think of it as a place of re-creation.  One hopes so.
But, as I say, it needs and will have more detailed reflection on my return. Good and great stuff.

O Israel! O israel!

I hope (but doubt) that the rulers of the state of Israel prayed Psalm 4 this morning

Sons of men, how long will you turn my glory to my shame :
how long will you love what is worthless and seek after lies?

Psalm 4:2 (Prayer book Version)

As once again we see one of the most highly trained armies in the world claiming that it acted in 'self-defence' when it killed people during its aggressive attack on a boat which appeared to be in international waters. And which presumably they, therefore, had no right to board.

That luminary Andrew Bolt (not surprisingly) is able to rationalise this (see here) suggesting that all this is a plot to discredit Israel. This is exactly, he suggests, what Hamas wanted to happen. Seemingly suggesting that Israel had fallen into a carefully laid trap.

Tthere is interesting commentary (no doubt 'left wing' in Bolt's terms) from Crikey here.

BUT it just doesn't add up.

Once again we see that Israel reacts in a totally disproportionate way. The loss of 1 person nis bad enough...but 9.

It is the soldiers who you see toting the automatic weapons and dressed in full battledress. It is they who are the agressors and who have all the training to do what they like.

Israel can and only does act like this because the U.S., its benefactor and strongest ally, will never hold them to account. So, with Netanyahu at the helm, they are able to go unchecked.

As one commentator observed on TV the other night..."I am a supporter of Israel but sometimes they make it bloody hard to keep on supporting them".

I would concur

Sholem Aleichem

If you haven't yet watched Salam Cafe on Wednesdays at 10 (SBS) then next week is your last chance for a while. (Though in the way of modern things you can always download it on your pod).
It answers some important questions like "Do Moslems have a sense of humour?" "Are Moslems mindless robots who only think one thing?" "Do Islamic women subserviently keep quiet in the presence of men?"....All these questions are preposterous of course to anyone who knows the slightest thing about the diversity of Islamic culture, and about how settled Islam is (to the third and fourth generation) in this country.
These are highly intelligent, perceptive, constructive propagandists for a society more tolerantof Moslem Australians. God pray that they may be succesful.
Note: Semitic language scholars amongst you may note that the heading for this post is in Hebrew not Arabic...Sholem Aleichem...peace be with you! Salam Cafe always ends with this greeting in Arabic...Salam Allaychem....not much difference eh? Yes! I know I'm too smart for my own good!

It ain't necessarily so

I was loaned a tape of a talk of one who has worked in Bangladesh on and off for 30 odd years. Whilst still identifying herself as an outsider she had some interesting reflections to make on matters we don't readily understand.
She notes for example that when Carey first translated the Bible into Urdu he was unaware of dialectical variants between Hindus and Moslems. Which are significant.
She noted for example that Carey was advised by an Hindu and used the Hindu variants for theological language. Thus translating the word "pray" the Hindu word means to "bow down" as in ..bow down to an idol... which is of course anathema to Moslems , thus failing to realise that a stumbling block had accidently been put into place.
She noted also that Bangladeshi converts to the Way were not keen to be called Christians...because that word has about it the hidden cultural connotations..pork eater, drinker and womaniser. Another observation concerned some of the current political dogma, which I must admit has bothered me, and that is that the presnet political orthodoxy is that Democracy is the highest form of all government.
You could have a good argument about that.
But what is often now the case is that Imperialist US and Imperialist UK joined by the little cousin wagging our tail is now going about using the road to democracy as justification for almost everything.
We invade Iraq to establish democracy.
We tie foreign aid to the establishment of democracy.
We beg the question about how our form of democracy works.
Does for example American democracy deliver health care for the poor in the US?
Does democracy provide shared wealth for society? Or do only the elite share in that particular largesse.
Does 'democracy' mean that everyone can influence the politiocal process, or only those at the top of the tree?
Does 'democracy' actually discourage ideology and replace it with popularist dogma (bread and circuses) or patronising government (father knows best)?
We note that the US and the UK are remarkably silent about the lack of democracy in Saudi Arabia and in Brunei.
We note that the US does little to protect the democratic infringement of the rights of Palestine by 'democratic' Israel.

Yes, this lady has a point. Not unquestioningly she invites the world to be more open-minded to Islam, even daring to suggest that a culture which scorns drug-taking (questionable) may in fact be the onlky thing that holds out hope to the youth of the decadent west.
Ahhhhh, interesting days.