Category: Everything Else

There’s a classic Jewish story that goes something like this:

Avram and Shlomo have a dispute, so they go to their Rabbi to have him settle it. He and his wife welcome them into their parlor and settle down to hear them out.

Avram speaks first and tells his side of the story to the rabbi. He is articulate, emotional, and logical. He makes a great case for himself. And the Rabbi said, “Avram, you are right.” Next Shlomo stands up. He speaks with such passion and persuasion about his side of the dispute that the Rabbi says to him, “You, too, are right, Shlomo.”

The Rabbi’s wife is upset by this and says to her husband, “How can you say that both of them are right? If one is right, the other must be wrong.”

The Rabbi thinks long and hard and finally says to his wife, “You know, you’re also right.”

When it comes to the issue of Gaza and the West Bank, this story is particularly apt. After 30+ years of anger, misunderstanding, and bloodshed, nobody’s hands are clean, and nobody wants to admit that they might have been wrong about some things. And through all the hatred, lies, and pig-headedness, somehow, a way needs to be found for everyone to co-exist. (I didn’t say like each other, that might be asking for too much.)

Personally, I do not hold with those who say that all of Israel was given to the Jews, and that giving back Gaza is a sin against God. I don’t think God sits there with a map drawing lines as to what is or is not Israel. Israel existed in the heart of every Jew during our long Diaspora. Israel will continue to exist, with or without Gaza. And the wounds the occupation have given us, the spiritual coarsening we have fallen into in a vain attempt to hold onto that land is bad enough. For the sake our our collective soul, we need to let go in order to heal.

But even if giving up Gaza is a good thing, it’s still a hard thing to do, and a sad one. Seeing the photographs of weeping settlers holding onto IDF soldiers who were also weeping, was hard. The settlement policy was a deeply misguided one, but the settlers themselves are not puppets, they’re people. They are not all gun-toting Arab haters, and now they have lost their homes. Perhaps this is the karmic payback we have to go through in order to make amends for past wrongs. If so, then perhaps some good will come of it.

And I do wonder whether giving back Gaza will allow Hamas and their ilk to claim victory, or even worse, give them a reason to keep on sending out suicide bombers and spilling innocent blood. Giving up land for peace is one thing. Giving up land and not getting peace in return would be intolerable.

(Crossposted at the All Spin Zone)

Michael at AmericaBlog asks two related and very difficult questions:

What do you do if a people want to live in your society but don’t embrace the values that society stands for?

and

If you don’t want to live in a free society that respects the rights of women and infidels and other religions, why did you move to the UK/France/Holland/etc in the first place?

As a member of a minority culture, I’m all for retaining one’s unique religious and/or ethnic identity. But if you’re going to live in a country dominated by a culture other than your own, you need to face up to reality and make your peace with it. If you can’t find a way to navigate the differences, that’s where the problems happen.

America’s history with regard to immigration issues is far from pristine. But overall I think we’ve managed fairly well. Our country’s relative youth and large geographic size has helped. Europe doesn’t have those advantages. On the plus side, though, the creation of the EU and the Euro currency unification have given them some object lessons in how to play nicely with their neighbors. We’ll see how it all plays out.

It’s the little things that make a city special. Here’s one of the special things about New York:

On a steamy morning, traffic is backed up on West 89th Street near Central Park.

Moving vans and garbage trucks screech to a halt. Motorists fume. All they can do is honk their horns and watch as a line of eight horses and riders plods out of the Claremont Riding Academy up ahead, and enters the busy street.

“Look out for taxis!” shouts the leader to seven girls riding behind her. The horses walk serenely in front of the congestion. They clip-clop past a housing project and turn right at a pizza parlor. Minutes later, they disappear into the park.

The traffic begins to flow again.

Horses have been fixtures here since 1892, when a carriage depot was first constructed on the site. Today, the Claremont academy is the oldest continuously operated stable in the United States

Nathan Newman makes some excellent points about how liberals, too, can work against their own self-interest. In this case, by opposing efforts to build more local high-density housing in New York City:

while I understand the nostalgia for Brooklyn’s low-rise housing and it is lovely for those who can continue to live there, the reality is that blocking higher density there condemns others to homelessness and the rest to increasingly long commutes. And while quaint neighborhoods are preserved in Brooklyn, it means more people will be driven out into the suburbs to create more strip malls, SUVs, environmental degradation, and Republicans.

And don’t forget sucky commutes, too. The NYC area has some of the best commuter mass transit systems around but even so, trying to get to a job in Manhattan from the affordable-housing zones in New Jersey, Long Island, or further out is no picnic.

I used to live in a three-bedroom apartment in Soho. It was a sweet deal — the apartment had previously been the building superintendent’s, so it came into the market at the low end of the rent spectrum ($1200), and being rent-stabilized rent increases were less than $50 a year. Despite its being a sixth-floor walkup, I hung onto that place for a decade, knowing damn well I’d never find a deal like that again. I shudder to think of what that place is being rented for today – I would not at all be surprised to find that it’s been decontrolled and renting for $2600 or so.

At any rate, call me a hypocrite for supporting more housing out of my own self-interest, but I’m all for it.