Like many of you (Jews at FSU that is), I never knew Hillel existed on campus before, but I am more than happy to have discovered Hillel. My name is Daniel Vahab and I will be starting a weekly political blog on the FSU Hillel website. Check it out!
Blog 1 - A Fair Trade-off of Blood?
The prisoner swap has popped its controversial and philosophical head once again. Which life is worth more? Well, obviously, Jews say the Jew and not the “extremist” Palestinian Hamas and Hezbollah supporters. But it’s not that simple.
In retrospect, if one of the terrorists that are released is found to have been involved in a future bombing—very likely—that kills Israelis, then many will say the swap wasn’t worth it. And Israeli’s Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, will take harsh criticism as a result.
But I thought there was an unspoken rule that you’re not to negotiate with terrorists? The swap will show the terrorists that as long as they continue to kidnap innocent Israeli soldiers, they will be rewarded for it. This could become a never-ending cycle. That‘s not me taking a side; that’s me saying a fact.
The present leadership in Israel is in support of prisoner swaps, but Conservative Jews seem to be against it. Who is right? One thing is certain—Palestinians are in favor the swap. Analyze that.
Israelis dedicate three years of the lives starting when they’re eighteen years old to become soldiers. They do this not just because they are forced to but because they have national pride for their country. Israel, their country, has a responsibility to protect its soldiers and many say that by not engaging in prisoner swaps, Israel is allowing its country’s soldiers to die. Thus, if there wasn’t prisoner swaps, then, as my Israeli friend said, no one would join the army.
Hamas and Hezbollah keep the conditions of the kidnapped soldiers secret. In the most recent incident, the two Israeli soldiers that were swapped were found dead.
Worse, the ratio of one Jew for one Hamas is not the case; rather, the ratio is largely skewed in favor of Hamas and Hezbollah. The brunt of the decision of whether to do the swap lies with the family members and friends of the captured Israelis. Their personal connection makes them more inclined to be in favor of the swap.
The subhead for an article on recent Israeli news from Jewish News Today, by Robert Berger from VOA News Jerusalem, is “Israel has decided to release Palestinian detainees in a bid to advance the peace process.” Notice the closing words “peace process.” I only hope peace prevails in the end.
Blog 2 - Not Your Average Olympian
Ok, so I just read this amazing Oped from the Jerusalem Post on Olympic Superstar Michael Phelps, entitled Invisible Fathers at the Olympic Games, by Shmuley Boteach. Boteach highlights the fact that Phelps after winning a Gold metal gave the bouquet of flowers that he got to his mother instead of some hot babe like a lot of superstars do.
Boteach says, “Children retain a lifelong dept of passionate gratitude toward a mother who sacrifices all on their behalf. They will move heaven and earth to show appreciation for a mother who made her child her entire universe.”
“Champions are not born, they are raised. And those who do the raising, especially when it is done in solitude, earn their moment in the sun.”
His mother, Debbi Phelps, is a single mother of Phelps and his two sisters, Whitney and Hillary. Boteach makes a parallel from Phelps because he too was raised by a single mother. I and my two brothers were as well. We all appreciate our single mothers and know personally how strong they are and how much they had to struggle. Raising a child is a burden in itself, but to do it alone is even more of a burden. Thank you single moms. You are a special breed and we love you.
Boteach raised the question of whether fathers are needed in raising children anymore. The bible says “Honor your father and mother” but how can a son or daughter honor their father if he doesn’t contribute to raising the child.
Today more than half of Americans get divorced and single mothers are common. Boteach came to the conclusion that the father is needed not to raise a successful child because many single mothers have proven this false, but to give the love and compassion to the mother that the child can’t.
Blog 3- Book Critique: The Case For Peace, by Alan Dershowitz
A sigh of relief, anxiety, and hope is raging inside me. It was a compelling four days as I read the critically acclaimed book, The Case For Peace, by Alan Dershowitz, New York Times bestselling author of The Case for Israel.
In The Case For Peace, Dershowitz main premise is that peace is possible if Israel were two be divided up into two separate states—a Jewish state and a Palestinian state. Since Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Israelis have proven that they unfortunately can’t coexist peacefully, this seems like the only possible solution. The main concern would be than would this spur more terrorism and hate, or would it quell that? Because Palestinian Israelis are living within the state of Israel, Israel is able to regulate terrorism to an extent. Not only that, Palestinians are also given human rights that they wouldn’t otherwise have in an Arab state. Another important point that Dershowitz brought up was that the American Jewish perspective is limited to living in America and not Israel, and anyone who hasn’t served two years in the Israeli military has a limited perspective as well. Dershowitz says that we should leave it to the experts, therefore. I agree.
The Republican’s main tactic involves placing fear on the lax in national security that could result from an Obama president. I wish I could disregard that statement—but I can’t. It’s a real and needed fear. It’s a fear that could cost more lives if it’s ignored. The Republicans want to paint a negative picture of Obama’s utopian-esque promise for the future. Republicans say that Obama is living in a fantasy land. They bash Obama’s message of hope and change.
I’m not a foreign affairs expert or an American soldier fighting in Iraq. I’m just your average concerned citizen and I, like most American Jews, will ultimately base their decision for presidency on instinct.
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Blog 5 - Iraq and the Crusades, A Scary Parallel Have we not learned to abide by the dictum: “If we don’t learn from the past, we are damned to repeat the past”? Many consider the “War in Iraq” a religious war much like the Crusades, a series of religious wars of Orthodox Christians against Muslims in an attempt to seize Jerusalem and the Holy Land. There were over nine Crusades that shed lots of blood. Many agree that the Crusades accomplished nothing, much like the “War in Iraq”. In fact, it just led to more bitter hate between Christians and Muslims. The “War in Iraq” wasn’t supposed to last this long? We, America, need to cut our losses and move on especially since we can’t even define “victory” in Iraq. We need to shift our focus on our domestic problems, namely the economy. There’s anther dictum that says you should concentrate on the task at hand while not ignoring present tasks. Here’s my worry: While America expends much resources in Iraq, both expressive and instrumental with our deployment of military war tanks, guns, etc. and the morale build-up around “victory” in a far away, virtually unknown area, the rest of the world, namely China and Western Europe, are getting stronger by harnessing their resources and developing them for the improvement of their country. As time goes on, as this continues, our superpower, hegemonic nation status that we all love, will need a facial to replenish and rejuvenate us. Blog 6- The Plea for Florida’s Elderly Vote
CNN has predicted that if Obama wins Florida, a battleground state, which has a large Jewish population, he will become the next president. That means that Jews can swing the election. Extraordinary!
Comedian Sarah Silverman is campaigning for Obama with a comic touch of course. She’s made a parody telling Jewish teens to get their grandparents out to vote for Obama (see “Sarah Silverman and The Great Schlep” on YouTube) by comparing African Americans with Old Jewish grandparents, saying both groups die in great numbers and both groups love tracksuits, Cadillacs, and Jewelry.
The elderly vote is significant because they consistently vote in greater numbers than any other group of voters. So Ms. Silverman’s tactic may just work to make Obama president.
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