tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709671052477389617.post3582247438694925697..comments2023-10-28T12:06:09.436+01:00Comments on Charlie Adley - Double Vision: I don’t believe in God, I’m ashamed of successive Israeli governments, so why am I proud to be Jewish?Charlie Adleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17063071455000195762noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709671052477389617.post-75382598505577860562011-10-15T23:01:14.490+01:002011-10-15T23:01:14.490+01:00Absolutely Paz - I know I'm influenced by my s...Absolutely Paz - I know I'm influenced by my socialisation, just as we all are, so I'm as biased as the next person. But as you say, it's about looking at a situation from all perpectives, with empathy.Charlie Adleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17063071455000195762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709671052477389617.post-30014200923093433242011-10-15T12:18:54.092+01:002011-10-15T12:18:54.092+01:00Sort of ironic when you think that a lot of Irish ...Sort of ironic when you think that a lot of Irish people do not realise how much their RC upbringing has clouded their views and shaped their prejudices and fears. Luckily most of the kids today are getting a better education and see that there are many shades of grey and have a wider view of the world than their parentsPazhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09567652179692699929noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709671052477389617.post-64274854592945884102011-10-10T08:22:12.301+01:002011-10-10T08:22:12.301+01:00I left my last comment late last night, (hence all...I left my last comment late last night, (hence all the typos and errors!) and ever since I've been thinking through the irony of it all. <br /><br />PolitBlox started his comment with:<br /><br />"Most people understand, (including all the people that I mix with), that Judaism is certainly not just about a faith or a creed or a God. It is a nation, a heritage, a culture and a way of life."<br /><br />If that was the case for me, I wouldn't have felt the urge to write the piece! As someone who has lived in predominantly Muslim Bradford and then the Catholic West of Ireland, I hardly ever meet anyone who knows a Jew or feels that is the case.<br /><br />As soon as I encounter people out of Galway City (and in it sometimes!)I know that it's very likely that I am the first Jewish person they've ever met. To them a Jew looks like a Hassidic and sounds like is that crazy West bank Settler that they saw shouting at them from their RTE TV News, about how he will kill anybody who comes on his land, (which others feel is not his land anyway). They have no experience of secular Judaism, no experience of there being anything to modern Judaism other than Israel's expansionist and aggressive policies, and so I have to stand up and speak out and say there's a whole lot of us here with different viewpoints. <br /><br />If you live in North West London and mix in Jewish society, there's very little necessity to explain how many different things being Jewish can mean, or how many different opinions we might have, but living here, and many other places around the world where people don't understand what being Jewish means, such explanations are vital. I encounter all manner of anti-semitism on a regular basis, mostly born out of the perception of what Israel does to the Palestinians, so I am caught in an unenviable sandwich, as I explained in both pieces I quoted from in this colyoom:<br /><br />" When I call myself Jewish in Ireland people assume I am some kind of Zionist fascist racist anti-Palestinian bastard. In London, I am seen by some members of my family and the wider Jewish community as an embarrassing Arab-loving Palestinian hugging Hezbollah kissing terrorist.<br /><br />Why does everyone seek black and white solutions to problems? Why search for absolutes, where none exist? "<br /><br />And then, ironically, I find myself defending my opinions to my mother on the phone and my brother here, while out there, in my daily life, I defend Israel and its right to exist all the time. <br /><br />The point of this colyoom was to try to explain why I feel proud to be Jewish. I definitely failed with that, but at least I have shown my colyoomistas how hard it is to be a accepted as a pro-2 State Solution Jew. <br /><br />I know it’s very unlikely to happen, and I know that atrocities are performed by each side, but I live in hope, and will not let my roots inhibit me from hoping for justice.Charlie Adleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17063071455000195762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709671052477389617.post-55476963075572533942011-10-09T22:44:41.186+01:002011-10-09T22:44:41.186+01:00Fair enough, PolitBlox, I respect your opinion and...Fair enough, PolitBlox, I respect your opinion and feel your anger, but I think you've missed my point. <br /><br />A feeling is not something that you choose to have. A feeling, an emotion, such as shame, is not a ratonal reacton. <br /><br />If you search the archive of this colyoom or the Tribune you will find much scribbling which stands up for Israel's plight and its right to exist. Here's an excerpt from one I wrote in January 2009, at a time when Israel was being universally condemned for attacking Gaza:<br /><br />" To be Israeli is to live in constant fear of your life, your home and your children’s future; to live surrounded by nations sworn to your own nation’s destruction.<br />Since its inception in 1948, Israel has been invaded three times, and involved in five separate territorial wars, as well as the ongoing Intifada."<br /><br />I have nothing to prove and nothing to apologise for. I feel much sympathy for the plight of all those who live in fear of attack and destructon. I have no mixed feelings about it at all. I chose my words very carefully, that is: 'Israeli governments', not Israel as an entitiy or the Israeli people. In fact, for what it's worth an Israeli friend of mine in Tel Aviv just 'liked' the piece on facebook!<br /><br />Of course I'm aware of both sides of the argumewnt, but equally I'm not going to ignore what i feel to be wrong. Apartheid South Africa sickened me, but (and this is the point of the piece) with Israel it's personal.<br /><br />I certainly do not need reminding of the horrors of the Yom Kippur War. The moment my brother came downstairs yeling at us to put on the TV, just as we were breaking the Fast, that dread and horror will never leave me. <br /><br />Forgiove me PolitBox, but I'm going to quote that January 2009 colyoom again, because it says it all for me:<br /><br />" It is crass to see Israel as baddies and Hamas as goodies. There are no goodies or baddies. There is only dreadful human tragedy, on all sides.<br />There is no moral high ground in this conflict, only terrible crimes of scale. All loss of innocent life is a crime against humanity.<br /><br />I cry for each terrorised Palestinian.<br />I cry for each terrorised Israeli.<br /><br />Think only of the people on all sides and humanity might have a chance.<br />No single human life is lesser or greater than another.<br /><br />This Atheist prays for a free Israel, a free Palestine and lasting peace.<br />Amen. "<br /><br />Thanks for your comment though. Good debate never hurt anyone!Charlie Adleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17063071455000195762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709671052477389617.post-23646585724268761092011-10-09T12:55:50.562+01:002011-10-09T12:55:50.562+01:00I am going to be quite tough.
Most people unders...I am going to be quite tough. <br /><br />Most people understand, (including all the people that I mix with), that Judaism is certainly not just about a faith or a creed or a God. It is a nation, a heritage, a culture and a way of life. <br /><br />However, I am not Israeli, and nor are you. We don't suffer from the same threats that they do. We don't live within range of the Ketushas or the Iranian nuclear bombs. We don't pay high taxes, or watch our sons go in the army. We don't do regular air raid warnings and we aren't asked to sort out the mess that is the Middle East. <br /><br />I just came back from Israel and this is how I feel: neither you nor I have the RIGHT to feel ashamed of Israel. Without it, Jews would again feel the threatened, belittled, persecuted refugee race that Moses Mendelsshohn took out of the Ghettoes. With it, we have something to be PROUD of, to aspire to. We have the right to criticise Israel, as do other Israelis, it being the ONLY democracy in the Middle East. Yom Kippur, the day that so many Holocaust vicitims would have liked to have fasted on, on the day Israel nearly lost its nationhood altogether in 1973, is NOT a day, that many of us want to hear about a Jew who is Ashamed of Israel. Certainly, I don't, and I'm not.<br />James AdleyPolitBloxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04514014774521402267noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709671052477389617.post-23618111570929189642011-10-08T05:55:48.073+01:002011-10-08T05:55:48.073+01:00So deep so true JB, up at dawn to watch the Irish-...So deep so true JB, up at dawn to watch the Irish-Welsh celtic encounter, part of me hoping for an England Ireland semi final, part of me dreading it...Charlie Adleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17063071455000195762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709671052477389617.post-86608784285768733642011-10-08T05:13:42.639+01:002011-10-08T05:13:42.639+01:00Good Yomtov and Well over the Fast. Oh and Come on...Good Yomtov and Well over the Fast. Oh and Come on England! Our allegiances are many , our inner thoughts are fewjohnbendelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17248104512268346330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709671052477389617.post-60035596775605902822011-10-07T21:48:55.359+01:002011-10-07T21:48:55.359+01:00Glad you enjoyed it, Jeanne - thanks for the feedb...Glad you enjoyed it, Jeanne - thanks for the feedback!Charlie Adleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17063071455000195762noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3709671052477389617.post-14032246127671285982011-10-07T18:01:24.584+01:002011-10-07T18:01:24.584+01:00Thanks for your blog post, Charlie. Fantastic!Thanks for your blog post, Charlie. Fantastic!Jeannehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02128567499022991048noreply@blogger.com