Buerger Bites

Powerful Jewish Senators

When I lived in Detroit in the 1990s, I met with Sen. Carl Levin a few times. He’s the Detroit version of Ben Cardin – highly intelligent home grown Jewish boy who’s omnipresent in the ‘hood and hasn’t forgotten his friends or his roots.  Both Levin and Cardin have made the big time and are still mentches.

On Sunday, watching Levin, who’s the new Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on NBC’s “Meet the Press” TV show, couldn’t help being a proud Jew.
One of the topics he discussed with the tough moderator, Tim Russert, was the issue of alienating Joseph Lieberman, the Jewish Senator from Connecticut and former vice presidential candidate who recently became an Independent after losing in the Democratic primary.  Lieberman caucuses with the Democrats giving them a slim one seat majority, and control, of the U.S. Senate.

The discussion centered on the differences between Lieberman and Levin over Iraq policy and the possibility it would force Lieberman over to the Republicans, giving Senate control back to the Republicans.

That’s when it hit me. Sure, there’s anti-Semitism in the world, but when two Jewish Senators respectfully disagree about how the country should be run, that’s a very good thing indeed, speaking of both the maturity of our community and the nation. We have achieved a level of acceptability where Jews hold the most powerful positions and are making ethical decisions based on their best moral compasses. We have more than arrived; we are integral to our nation’s system of government.

I know that my family is not only safe in this country, but a meaningful part of it.  I don’t worry about the safety of my unborn grandchildren. My biggest worry is that this country is so accepting of Jews that someday my grandchildren will fully assimilate and not be Jewish at all.

Until that day, I’ll sit back and enjoy the healthy debates between Lieberman and Levin.

Who Are Our Friends?

The Saturday New York Times ran a story about a Texas state legislator who had been “circulating an appeal to ban the teaching of evolution as derived from ‘Rabbinic writings’ and other Jewish texts.”

The Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives apologized saying, “I had no intention to offend anyone.” Warren Chisum, who is chairman of the Texas House Appropriations Committee and represents the Panhandle, circulated a memo and attached his own letter railing on the teaching of evolution. He reasoned that “tax-supported evolution science” was based on religion and therefore unlawful under the United States Constitution.

It continued, “Indisputable evidence — long hidden but now available to everyone — demonstrates conclusively that so-called secular evolution science is the Big Bang 15-billion-year alternate ‘creation scenario’ of the Pharisee Religion…This scenario’s derived concept-for-concept from Rabbinic writings on the mystic ‘holy book’ kabbala dating back at least two millennia.”

It’s nice to know that he apologized. It’s another reminder that one can find Jewish enemies on both sides of the political spectrum. The political right had been pushing the idea that Liberals were no friends of Israel and the Jewish people. Furthermore, they continue to hammer the notion that George Bush is the best friend Israel ever had while Jimmy Carter is a traitor to the Jewish people.

Personally, I’ve lost faith in Carter and have become tired of the left who are champions of the underdogs and are currently siding with the Palestinians.
But, don’t lose sight that just because the right is supportive of Israel, they also want to trample the First Amendment and make our own country more Christian. We’ve seen this many times with the renewed push towards teaching creationism in schools. I thought that than issue was settled decades ago.
This is a reminder to be wary of those we embrace whole heartedly just for political expedience.

Arab Leadership?

Neither the Jewish people, nor the Jewish state is perfect.  It’s often frustrating watching Israelis do battle over major issues like defining who is a Jew or threatening to kill their Prime Minister for giving back land. 

Still, it’s amazing how functional the little democracy is, and how dysfunctional so many Arab nations are.  There are three Arab countries at or at the brink of civil war: Iraq, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Authority’s Gaza Strip. (Others would likely be in that situation if they weren’t run by theocratics or dictators.)

Amazingly, some Arabs still blame “the Jews” and “the Zionists” for their woes. Lebanon’s Hezbollah says they need arms because Israel still occupies the Shebaa Farm area. Never mind that every possible international sanctioning body – including the United Nations—declared Israel 100 percent fully left Lebanon in 2000. Despite the cease fire agreement that Lebanon signed with Israel this past summer, Hezbollah is still not disarmed and is now threatening the elected government. Plenty of Arabs think the United States invaded Iraq to do Israel’s dirty work.

Back in August 2005, Israel fully withdrew from the Gaza Strip. Yet dozens of Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks by Hamas and PA infighting as the area teeters on the brink of all-out civil war. Yes, Saudi Arabia just stepped in to broker some calm. Otherwise, there is a huge vacuum of Arab leadership as the citizens of Arab nations are killing each other and manage to still blame it on the Jews.

Whether it’s al-Qaida loyalists, Sunnis, Shiites, Hamas or Hezbollah, there’s no open outrage amongst Muslims about the Muslim-on-Muslim strife.  Yet, there is plenty of finger pointing that blames their problems on the Jews.

Where’s the Arab leadership? Hiding because they know if they embraced democracy and let the people have their say, their nation could be next on the list of countries in chaos.

How to win the war on terror…

After President Bush announced another $250 billion in military spending for Iraq and Afghanistan, I just had to call Greg Mortenson. First of all, like I aspire to be, he’s a serious mountain climber. Secondly, he’s the co-author of the book “Three Cups of Tea.” http://www.threecupsoftea.com

His book tells what happened to him after weather prevented him from summiting K2, the world’s 2nd highest mountain. On his decent, Mortenson – dehydrated, hungry, exhausted and lost for a week – is nursed back to health by a local Pakistanian village. When the American mountaineer learns the village has no school, he pledges to return with $10,000 to build them one. He sold all his possessions and lived in California while he raised the money.

Twelve years later, Mortenson has built 58 schools in the extreme mountain regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and will affect 24,000 students this year alone, half of which are girls.

He told me on the phone about the importance of educating girls. “It’s like the old African proverb: If you educate a boy, you just educate a boy. But if you educate a girl, you educate an entire society.”

Mortenson went on to tell me how we can win the war on terror. The former soldier thinks the cluster bombs we dropped on Afghanistan that killed thousands of innocent civilians created a generation of hate towards America.

Instead of increasing military spending, we should be implementing a Marshall Plan for the region where the money is given out locally because of the tribal nature of the region. The key, though, is education and land ownership.  “We’re trying too hard to plug in democracy,” the ex-climber told me. “You can drop bombs, build roads, but you can’t change societies until you educate them.”

After almost $1 trillion spent in the region, perhaps it’s time to give Mortenson’s plan a try. His cost to build 20 schools and reach 100,000 kids? About the same as one Tomahawk cruise missile—$840,000.

For more info: http://www.ikat.org/

Or to read my full column on this: http://www.jewishtimes.com/opinion

Keith Ellison

In case you missed it, Representative Keith Ellison denounced the international Holocaust denial campaign of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinedjad. Ellison, Democrat of Minnesota and the first Muslim Member of the United States Congress, issued his statement in the U.S. Capital.

“I have spoken out against Holocaust denial, and I use this opportunity to speak out against Holocaust denial again,” said Representative Ellison.  Rabbi Marc Schneier, Chairman of the World Jewish Congress American Section commented, “The Congressman has added his significant voice to the condemnation, not just as a member of the Congressional Black Caucus but as the first Muslim Member of Congress.”

Yes, the same guy who was ridiculed by both Jewish talk show celeb Dennis Prager and Virgil Goode (R-VA) for using a Koran at his swearing in. God-forbid someone would want to use their own religious text in their private ceremony. Even funnier is that it was the Koran that belonged to the Constitutional writer, Thomas Jefferson. And, I thought the Bill of Rights allowed us to practice our own religions.

Never mind that Eliot Engel (D-N.Y) used a Pentateuch — the first five books of the Old Testament — in his private swearing-in ceremony.
Goode wanted to pass stronger anti-immigration legislation to prevent more Muslims like Ellison from entering Congress. Goode wrote, “...if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.”

Never mind that Ellison’s family has been here since 1742 and is a convert to Islam.

It’s nice to see the leadership coming from the Islamic lawmaker.