Zionist Conspiracy

1. Ariel Zilber is the Israeli pop singer that the Left most loves to hate. He upset the PC crowd for criticizing homosexuality. He endorsed political parties of the Right. He called for transferring Israeli Arabs to Arab states (http://www.allbusiness.com/middle-east/israel/113374-1.html?yahss=114-2974554-113374 ). He opposed the ethnic cleansing of the Jews of Gaza (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=78356 )
(He is not religious by the way.)

Now he is back to give the Left an even bigger dose of them heebie jeebies. As you know the Left wants a new different national anthem, one that does not mention Jews or Judaism. Zilber has composed his OWN alternative national anthem or at least a national protest anthem (http://www.nfc.co.il/archive/001-D-110095-00.html?tag=9-45-23 in Hebrew).
I
t is entitled Yula Yula Yula La
The Hebrew is on the above web site. In Hebrew it rhymes. Here is a rough translation of some of the lyrics:

Let's all sing the song of Yula
We are sick of all those crooks in the government
The missiles are flying about the nation is in a trauma,
The government has not idea of why or what
Yula Yula Yula La
The war breaks out all of a sudden
And the whole government is like Sharon on the upper floor
General Dan Halutz demolished Gush Katif One Two Three
When faced with the Hizbollah in his panties he peed
The Prime Minister received twice the value of his apartment
So he can hang out with his offspring overseas.
The media are a big festival devoted to throwing sand in our eyes
The nation is dying, starving with outstretched hands
They preach morality at us while assigning us the sign of Cain
Now is the time and moment to settle accounts with them
Yula yula yula la
Haim Yavin (TV news talking head) and all his ilk
Go embrace Hassan Nasrallah!
Aharon Barak holds the reins up in his tower of ivory
And Jew appearing before him will emerge guilty
Evicting the Jew from the land of his fathers
The court belongs only to him and his friends
Yula Yula Yula La What will be with us
A court like this we would not even wish on our enemies
(there are several moral stanzas)

2. Several years ago, Yossi Beilin, the godmother of Oslo, started floating the idea for a new form of "secular Rabbi" and "secular religion". The idea would be that people who have no interest in or knowledge of Judaism, people who feel nothing but disdain for Jewish tradition, would invent and practice a new "secular Jewish religion". It would NOT be the sort of Judaism Lite promoted by the Reformies and the Conservatives, which maintains at least some symbols and content from Judaism. Beilin's "secular religion" would consist of promoting socialism, eating bagels and lox, striving for Palestinian statehood, and learning all the dirty words in Yiddish.
Some of the loonier forces in Israel liked the idea and picked it up. This week the first batch of "secular Rabbis" was "ordained" by the "International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism in Jerusalem." Seven men and women, none wearing yarmulke or hat, at least some of whom are heterosexual, were so "ordained".
See http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1164881948042&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

3. The grandson of Alexander Penn:
A remarkable article was carried in the weekend Haaretz culture section. Unfortunately it can only be read in Hebrew (at http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?itemNo=804133&contrassID=2&subContrassID=7&sbSubContrassID=0 ) but it is partly similar to this piece in English from the Jerusalem Post about his grandson (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1162378496195 ). Here is the gist:
Alexander Penn was one of Israel's leading poets and songwriters. He was born in 1906 in the steppes of Russia. His father was a descendent of the Baal Shem Tov and his mother was a Swede (not Jewish). He was at first raised by his grandfather, a bear hunter. When the grandfather died, he moved in with his father and converted (although there are some who challenge this). In Russia he was a personal friend of Pasternak and other leading poets. He made aliyah in 1927, knowing no Hebrew. While he was a communist and member of "the party" most of his life, he also was a gifted poet and song writer. He also was unfashionably patriotic for a communist and broke with the party when he wrote a poem denouncing Adbul Gamal Nasser, and resigned from the party after the Six Day War.. Some of Israel's greatest patriotic songs were written by him (for example, "Adama Admati"). (See his bio at http://www.ithl.org.il/author_info.asp?id=198 )
The news piece in question is about Penn's grandson. Growing up in Israel as a WASP (white Ashkenazi Sabara with 'protektzia'), an ultra-secularist and standard left leaning middle class Israeli. He is now a Conservative Rabbi and a political hawk. Dr. Jonathan Fine is a lecturer at the Lauder School of Government in the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya and a fellow researcher at the center's Institute of Counterterrorism. He grew up knowing almost nothing about his famous grandfather. (Penn had divorced his wife, and Fine was only in touch with her and her family.)
Fine's went to LA as a counselor in a Reform synagogue summer camp in 1980. He quickly realized that even those Reformies knew far, far more about Judaism than he did. He was just out of the IDF, and the campers included Beverly Hills brats and even the son of Dustin Hoffman. He felt like an idiot at the first Kabbalat Shabbat. When he returned, he studied history at the Hebrew University but also started filling in the blanks in his knowledge of Judaism. He visited yeshivas. He started carrying a prayer book with him, esp in the army.
He fought in the first Lebanese War in 1983. One time he and his fellows literally stepped on a land mine. It did not go off. Miracle?
He traveled and understands that anti-Semitism has nothing to do with "occupation" and that the Arab war against Israel is a war for destruction and genocide. He considers himself a Labor Party guy who woke up from delusions.
He still has a way to go. He repeats the Conservative movement's party line about how homosexuality was only prohibited in the Torah because the Canaanites did it (sure they did!) but today is different because people do it out of love.
He is interesting largely because of who his grandfather was, and in what he may yet become.

4. http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/greenberg122006.php3
(Biblically) illiterate in the Ivy League
By Paul Greenberg

5. More on Neturei Pagans:
http://www.bnaibrith.ca/pdf/NotInOurName.pdf

6. Stalin's Jews (no, not the political science department at Ben Gurion University or the philosophy department at Tel Aviv University):
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3342999,00.html)
(Plocker is a recovering communist, by the way, and not all hius facts are correct here)

7. Holocaust Denial at Peace Now:
Holocaust as alibi for occupation
By Dror Etkes (Peace Now)
Haaretz
Dec. 22, 2006
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/804275.html

8. Goobers Carter is afraid of Alan Dershowitz - Brandeis helping Carter debate with himself:
_http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/12/22/brandeis_g
roup_pursues_carter_visit/_
Brandeis group pursues Carter visit Professors call debate an insult
By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff December 22, 2006
President Jimmy Carter may yet come to Brandeis University to speak about his
controversial new book about Israel -- and even get the stage to himself.
Some professors are planning to craft a new invitation to Carter to give a
lecture without having to debate an opponent.
Last week, the former president told the Globe he declined an invitation to
Brandeis because of the string attached. President Jehuda Reinharz, at a
trustee's suggestion, invited Carter to campus to debate "Palestine: Peace Not
Apartheid" with a vehement critic of the book, Alan Dershowitz, a professor at
Harvard Law School. Carter said Dershowitz knows nothing about the situation
in Palestine.
Several dozen Brandeis professors have been trading e-mails on what could be
done, according to two professors on the e-mail list of left-leaning
faculty.
Patricia Johnston, a professor of classics, said she and many colleagues have
offered to chip in perhaps $100 each to pay for whatever travel and security
costs a Carter visit would entail.
"Who is Alan Dershowitz?" Johnston said. Carter "is the former president of
the United States, who has done so much to further the cause of peace in the
Middle East and elsewhere. It's an insult to suggest that he should have to
defend himself that way."
She said she envisioned Carter giving a traditional speech and taking
audience questions.
Carter's spokeswoman did not return a call yesterday.
Brandeis spokesman Dennis Nealon said the university is and always was open
to Carter coming to campus.
"Jimmy Carter is welcome to speak on the Brandeis campus," he said.
While Reinharz has not invited Carter to speak solo, Nealon said the
administration would work with faculty who wanted to set up a visit. He indicated
that money would probably not be an obstacle.
"I think the administration would be willing to figure out how to pay for
it," he said.
Carter told the Globe last week that he would give the talk for free, if the
university sent a plane to pick him up from Georgia , where he lives .
The saga began about a month ago when the chairman of the faculty senate,
Harry Mairson, wrote to Carter asking whether the former president would be
interested in speaking about his new book, which has raised passions on both
sides of the debate over Israel and its conflict with the Palestinians.
Carter called his friend and former adviser, Stuart Eizenstat, a Brandeis
trustee, to ask whether he should take up the offer. But Eizenstat advised
Carter against accepting the invitation of an individual professor without
knowing the professor's agenda.
Eizenstat proposed the debate to Reinharz instead, because it "would make
this a real academic exercise," he told the Globe last week. "The president of
the university is not in the business of inviting someone, even a former
president, for a book tour."
Since the Globe reported last week that Carter felt unwelcome on the Waltham
campus, people have argued over whether he is unwilling to answer for his
views, or whether Brandeis, which was founded by the American Jewish community,
can't tolerate criticism of Israel.
The latter is a view that some professors hope they can dispel by reviving
the Carter visit.
Faculty members will probably set up a committee to craft an invitation, and
to discuss security, space and cost if Carter accepts, said David Gil,
professor of social policy.
The main organizer of the effort, according to other professors, is Gordon
Fellman, a sociologist who is chairman of Brandeis's program in peace,
conflict, and coexistence studies.
In an e-mail yesterday, Fellman wrote: "Some faculty are talking about trying
to figure out how to invite Carter here. No plan of action yet."
He could not be reached for further comment.
Gil, who lived in Israel for many years, has his own suggestion: Brandeis
should choose Carter's book next year as the work that all incoming freshmen
read over the summer and discuss it during orientation. Carter could visit to
talk with them about it.
Gil also has decided to assign the book in his spring seminar.