Politics & Society

Michael Lerner on Goldstone in the London Guardian

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The Guardian emailed yesterday asking if Michael could respond to a pretty extreme denunciation of Goldstone by Harold Evans, transatlantic superstar journalist (once voted the greatest newspaper editor of all time, married to Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and the New Yorker, etc.). Michael was given two hours to come up with a response, and he did so, voila:
A War Crime Whitewash

The global choir of ethical cretins who condemn Goldstone’s Gaza report do Israel no favours
By Michael Lerner
I recently met a leading representative of the foreign ministry of Israel who acknowledged to me “off the record” that Israel had made a tremendous blunder in refusing to cooperate with the UN Commission led by Judge Richard Goldstone, which investigated the charges of Israeli and Palestinian war crimes in the invasion of Gaza last December and January. Judge Goldstone, an internationally respected jurist whose Zionist credentials include being a member of the governing board of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, wanted to hear Israel’s account of what happened, but Israel blocked that inquiry so Goldstone could only report what the victims of Israel’s attacks sought to convey. Unfortunately, Israel’s predictable choir of ethical cretins around the world have joined in condemning Goldstone and the UN instead of urging Israel to investigate the charges by creating an impartial, objective and open process in which the victims can testify and the perpetrators can be brought to justice. Instead of seeing this as “Israel’s crimes”, Israel would easily be able to show that it is concerned about these violations, punish appropriately those who violated international standards of human rights, and show that it is regretful about what those particular people did.

Politics & Society

J Street and the Poet

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We all have a lot of hope for J Street as an Israel lobby that can counteract AIPAC and promote justice for the Palestinians, just as we all have a lot of hope for Obama as a president who can talk with “our enemies” and create a more caring and ecologically sane society at home. We forgive their efforts to capture the center by ditching any of their friends who appear troublesome, we forgive, we forgive, and we mourn because when you start throwing your friends overboard, you only let the opposition know you have little belief in your ship, and so your potential friends may not wish to board. It’s an old story that pundits keep pointing out, but the liberal left-of-center seems so shellshocked by thirty years of rightwing ascendancy that they just can’t act as if they were as strong as they are. “So Van Jones resigned, but did the right wing stop attacking Obama?” You know the answer to that.

Politics & Society

Borders, Limits, Scarcity, and Generosity

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This is provoked by Sam Ewell’s post, and also by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove’s work on the economy, especially his recent article in the Christian Century called “Economics for Disciples. An alternative investment plan.” These New Monastics are challenging. Sam wrote about borders that keep poor people out of rich countries, and about the limits to capitalist growth, and what these two kinds of boundaries might have in common. The word that came to my mind, that is often used about both, is ‘scarcity.’

Environment

No Impact Week

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Here’s a great project worth cluing in on: Huffington Post’s effort at helping us all to trim down our fossil fuel use (intro by Arianna Huffington here). It’s inspiration, or hook, is the guy who tried to live a zero-waste lifestyle for a year in New York City with his young family: a great story if you haven’t read it (at left). Our own Zach Dorfman, Tikkun Daily blogger and former Tikkun staffer is hard at work on HuffPo’s No Impact Week, which is this week. Zach asked us at the Tikkun office to think what we could do to trim down ourselves. We thought about it and checked off the things we are doing already.

Christianity

Bishop Robinson: Get the Churches Out of the Civil Marriage Business

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Has any bishop said a wiser thing about marriage and the separation of church and state than this? Bishop Gene Robinson very simply and clearly points out that marriage is a civil act that the state deputizes clergy to perform. But it doesn’t deputize them to end it: you have to go to the courts for that. And of course you don’t need clergy to perform the wedding in the first place. He is going to ask his clergy in Maine New Hampshire [edit thanks to the comment below] to stop performing the civil part of weddings.

Politics & Society

The Idea of Obama by Tom Tomorrow

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Am too delighted with this cartoon and too short of time and energy to find out if I can post it here, so it may come down tomorrow. But then you can find it at http://www.credoaction.com/comics/. Tom Tomorrow’s blog is here. Later: reading the New York Times op-ed page today I find this, by Bono, no less:
So here’s why I think the virtual Obama is the real Obama, and why I think the man might deserve the hype. Read the rest.

Politics & Society

The Real Unemployment Rate and: If Unemployed Beware of Self-Blame!

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If 15 million people are unemployed at the same time, are they each individually to blame? Of course not. How could they be? You can discuss that with us on our Tikkun Phone Forum topic tomorrow night (more below). The Rate
If you count the “discouraged workers” (who gave up looking in the last year) and the “marginally attached workers” (who gave up before that but would take a job if offered) and those who need a full time job but are meanwhile working part time, the number of unemployed is more like 27 million people.

Politics & Society

Veterans Against the Wars

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Our friend Bill Distler, a Vietnam veteran on disability in Washington state working with Iraq vets and others against the current wars, wrote this op-ed hoping to get it in the Seattle Times before the anniversary of the bombing of Afghanistan on Oct. 7th, 2001. They didn’t print it so we are presenting it here. Afghanistan: Success Means Ending the War
by Bill Distler

We are now in the ninth year of our war against Afghanistan. The conversation about Afghanistan centers on the concept of “success”.

Culture

On Art, Despair, Contempt, and Healing From Same

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So let’s imagine you are a progressive, committed to social justice and peace — and close to burning out. You once had tons of social change energy, but now are deeply despondent about the state of the world or the corner of it you have been trying to improve, and just as despondent about your relationships with your activist colleagues who are, to say it politely, difficult. It happens. So you turn to — what? Banned substances? Passivity?