Daily Archives: 06/05/2010

(Community Matters) I’ve been in many email exchanges about this week’s flotilla confrontation and the Gaza blockade. I’ve expressed my opinion that the flotilla confrontation was mishandled by Israel, that the blockade of Gaza as it is being enforced against 1.5mm Palestinians is counterproductive, no longer in Israel’s best interest (if it ever was), and that Israel as a civil society must avoid rationalizing certain military practices.

Of course this path is not unknown to the US or any country which finds its citizens physically threatened. One must remember that Hamas continues to fire thousands of missiles from Gaza at Israeli families and to express its intention to wipe Israel off the face of the map. I’ve little doubt most Americans would be advocating even more aggressive practices were our citizens similarly threatened.

I speak these opinions as a friend & supporter of the State of Israel and Jewish people worldwide. One should not mistake my candidness for any softening of my support.  If Israel is attacked by its neighbors, I want US forces to join in defending the country. If my friend Kirk Rudy went to fight, I would join him. Continue reading →

(Community Matters) Charles Blow in the NYTimes

• For the first time, the percentage of Americans who perceive “gay and lesbian relations” as morally acceptable has crossed the 50 percent mark.
• Also for the first time, the percentage of men who hold that view is greater than the percentage of women who do
• This new alignment is being led by a dramatic change in attitudes among younger men, but older men’s perceptions also have eclipsed older women’s. While women’s views have stayed about the same over the past four years, the percentage of men ages 18 to 49 who perceived these “relations” as morally acceptable rose by 48 percent, and among men over 50, it rose by 26 percent

Additionally, I find the below interpretation especially encouraging and it causes me to reflect on my assumption about a cultural war underlying most of tea party revolt

• Men may be becoming more egalitarian in general. As Dr. Kimmel put it: “Men have gotten increasingly comfortable with the presence of, and relative equality of, ‘the other,’ and we’re becoming more accustomed to it. And most men are finding that it has not been a disaster.” The expanding sense of acceptance likely began with the feminist and civil rights movements and is now being extended to the gay rights movement. Dr. Kimmel continued, “The dire predictions for diversity have not only not come true, but, in fact, they’ve been proved the other way.”