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by Peter A. Belmont / 2012-11-20
© 2012 Peter Belmont
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Please read Marc Ellis’s terrific essay Exile and the prophetic: A state of moral emergency on Mondoweiss.
As Ellis reports, “‘Few are guilty, but all are responsible.’ It’s from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a prophetic figure, who died in 1972. I’m still meditating on his statement.”
So am I.
This essay is my reaction to it.
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Israel in Palestine? Israel expelling Palestine? Israel dispossessing and enslaving Palestinians? It has been a constant emergency. Since 1948. Since 1967. Since yesterday. The slow boiling of a frog. But the frog which is being boiled sometimes makes to jump out of the pot.
”Terrorism” my foot.
In this matter, Jews and Americans generally are all responsible and some are guilty.
Those who refuse to know what’s going on have a particular sort of guiltiness (what shall we say of those who refused to know about the Holocaust when it was happening?) and those who know and refuse to act (what shall we say of those who knew about the Holocaust when it was happening and refused to act?).
As to those who have been misled, well, let’s save our deepest contempt and fury for those who have deliberately and knowingly misled anyone here. (Have some hasbara,[1] m’dear?)
We also know — we all know today, after friend Sandy’s recent visit — about global warming and many of us know the seriousness of it and how it threatens (or, rather, promises) a Holocaust of the earth, of mankind and the other living species (God’s creation, what he saw was good, and what he put together and mankind is busily putting asunder). And here too we know and we should act, and here too the frog is slow boiling (or so it seems to those who cannot assess the speed of the boil).
I think we should all be sending Ellis’s (and Heschel’s) telegrams to President Obama, on all the topics of all the frogs slow boiling and fast boiling so unacceptably. TO PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, THE WHITE HOUSE, NOVEMBER 20, 2012.
I LOOK FORWARD TO PRIVILEGE OF BEING PRESENT AT MEETING TOMORROW AT 4 P.M. LIKELIHOOD EXISTS THAT ISRAELI SANCTIONS AND AGGRESSION IN GAZA WILL BE LIKE THE WEATHER. EVERYBODY TALKS ABOUT IT BUT NOBODY DOES ANYTHING ABOUT IT. PLEASE DEMAND OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT NOT JUST SOLEMN DECLARATION. WE FORFEIT THE RIGHT TO WORSHIP GOD AS LONG AS WE CONTINUE TO HUMILIATE PALESTINIANS AND DENY THEM THEIR FREEDOM. CHURCHES SYNAGOGUES HAVE FAILED. THEY MUST REPENT. ASK OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS TO CALL FOR NATIONAL REPENTANCE AND PERSONAL SACRIFICE. LET RELIGIOUS LEADERS DONATE ONE MONTH’S SALARY TOWARD FUND FOR PALESTINIAN HOUSING AND EDUCATION. I PROPOSE THAT YOU MR. PRESIDENT DECLARE STATE OF MORAL EMERGENCY. A MARSHALL PLAN FOR AID TO PALESTINIANS IS BECOMING A NECESSITY. TELL ISRAEL TO STOP OCCUPATION OF PALESTINIAN LANDS AND WITHDRAW TO THE 1967 BORDERS. THE HOUR CALLS FOR HIGH MORAL GRANDEUR AND SPIRITUAL AUDACITY.
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[1] Hasbara: As often used, Israeli “diplomacy”, “propaganda”, “deceit”
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