Today, on 14 Adar, Jews around the world celebrate Queen Esther and remember how she stopped Haman’s genocide. This day is known as Purim and the whole story is found in the Book of Esther.
(Seen in the picture is the painting of Haman (left), King Ahasuerus, and Queen Esther by Rembrandt.)
The most ironic political event is before us. Next week, the annual “Israeli Apartheid Week” begins. The organizers—who hold the exact same racist ideas that they project on the Zionist movement—are in effect demanding the abolishment of the Jewish state. They camouflage their hatred behind three official demands that, if enforced, would be the end of the Jewish population in the Middle East. Let us take a closer look at the demands:
If one knows nothing about the history of Israel and the Jewish people, one could get the impression that Jews somehow stole the land from the Arabs. The truth is that Jews have always lived in Israel and that the United Nations granted the Jewish people a modern homeland consisting of the parts of the British Mandate of Palestine where Jews were in a majority when the mandate ended in 1948. The Arab countries—including the much larger Arab-controlled part of Palestine restyled as the Kingdom of Jordan—refused to accept Jewish self-governance and attacked the new country militarily. The attacking armies promised Palestine’s Arab population a short and victorious war, and told them that they would be able to return to their homes once the war had been won. But against all odds, the Israelis managed to defeat the much larger Arab armies, and the Palestinians who left their homes to join the aggressors lost their property. This is what normally happens to people who side with enemy armies in war.
The irony of the Israeli Apartheid Week is that it sides with the racist Arabs that cannot tolerate the presence of any other ethnic group. The Zionists only longed for a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
The organizers of Israeli Apartheid Week want the Jews to leave “Arab lands” and give back to the Palestinian refugees what they left behind when they joined the assault on Israel’s Jewish population. This is nonsense meaning that Israeli Jews should accept to be forced into exile and that the Jewish people should forget all claims on the Jewish homeland. The people behind Israeli Apartheid Week say they demand equal rights for non-Jewish citizens of Israel, which is a demand already fulfilled. All citizens of Israel have the right to vote and are equally protected by the law.
I have a much better idea. Firstly, we should demand that the Arab countries nationalize the Palestinian refugees. Demolish the refugee camps and allow the second, third, and fourth generation of Palestinian refugees to become citizens of Jordan, Libya, Lebanon, and Syria. Secondly, demand an end to the assaults on Israel. The “wall” is an answer to repeated suicide attacks against civilians inside Israel. This separation fence can be taken down once Hamas and other militant groups stop their terror attacks. Thirdly, Jordan should take its responsibility and make it possible for all Palestinians to settle and acquire citizenship. The larger, Arab part of the British Mandate should make a Law of Return of its own.
The Mayor of Malmö, Ilmar Reepalu, tries to heal the wounds he caused by his latest round of anti-Semitic slurs.
And that is the country the UN, EU, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Church of Sweden, the African Union, and the Arab League seem determined to eradicate.
See the full-size map at Freedom House’s website.
Some people feared Barack Obama in the White House would be bad for the special relationship between Israel and America. A new opinion poll suggests they were wrong. Good!
I don’t believe in Hell, but this is how I imagine it when I hear about it—a dark forest in a snow-covered landscape; no sign of life besides your own footsteps.
“Iran said on Monday it is considering plans to build two new uranium enrichment plants concealed inside mountains to avert air strikes,” AFP reports.
Anyone who still believes that Iran has peaceful intentions?
The Daily Telegraph writes about anti-Semitism in Malmö.
Anders Karlson and Peter Berg’s marriage ceremony in a Stockholm church was an historic moment.
The UN nuclear agency on Thursday expressed concern for the first time that Iran may currently be working on ways to turn enriched uranium into a nuclear warhead, Jerusalem Post reports.
Why, if not for military reasons, would a country rich on oil invest heavily in uranium? Yes, Iran is aiming for an atomic bomb. And once it gets it, it’s too late to do anything to stop them from threatening Israel and all other countries in the Middle East. We are approaching a new Cold War.
Male circumcision is a controversial topic. Since I posted my entry about Pelle Billing’s comparison between circumcision and maiming on Monday, I have received several emails from people who disagree with me. Two of the emails came from the organized anti-circumcision lobby, and I thought it might be interesting for you to read them. Since readers cannot post comments on this blog, I take the liberty to publish emails I think are meant as comments.
The first email is from Michael Keith, coordinator of MGMbill.org, an organization seeking to outlaw the practice of male circumcision in America:
Dear Christopher,Following your logic regarding negative opinions about male genital cutting, you would have us think that all those activists working against female genital cutting are anti-muslim. After all, most Muslims worldwide practice Suni circumcision on their little girls: snipping off the clitoris. 96% of women in Egypt have been ritually circumcised in just that way and they like it just fine. So if we complain about it, then we must be anti-muslim
Your logic directs us to accept female circumcision as a legitamate religious practice.
Given your rabid (shades of “fanatic anti-abortion activists”) attack on Dr. Pelle Billing, I really don’t expect you to poses the competency to be able to examine your basic hypocracy.
Dr. Michael Keith
Oakland, CA
Here is my reply:
Dear Michael,You are misinformed about religion and female genital cutting. Neither the Bible nor the Koran mentions female circumcision or anything of the sort. In northern Africa, where female genital cutting is still quite common, parents have their daughters mutilated for non-religious reasons. It is a tradition that dates back at least three millennia. It has been made illegal in most modern countries because it causes severe problems to the women.
Male circumcision is something altogether different. Jewish men are demanded by the Bible to have themselves and their sons circumcised. It is the most important commandment, the very sign that someone is Jewish.
For Muslims, male circumcision is not a Koranic commandment but rather a recommendation. Muslim tradition speaks of hygiene being the reason.
Male circumcision does not cause men any of the problems that female genital cutting causes women. The male foreskin is not comparable to the female clitoris. Male genital cutting does exist as a method of torture and punishment in some cultures. This is when the glans or the entire penis is cut off, which makes it impossible for the mutilated man to ever have a normal sexual experience. This mutilation is the only practice comparable to female genital cutting.
Best regards,
Christopher Aqurette
Here is Dr Keith’s reply:
Dear Christopher,Please do your research on female genital cutting, particularly the most common form practiced today by Muslims and Coptic Christians throughout the world. The type of female genital cutting you cite in Africa, though horrible, is rare.
Please also visit the following link to see what many Jews are saying and doing about circumcision:
I have many close Jewish male friends who feel deeply harmed by what was done to them and the recent studies published in the British Journal of Urology comparing the sensitivity of the circumcised and intact penis back them up. The findings conclude that 75% of penile nerves and 100% of the most erogenous, located at the opening of the foreskin, are amputated at circumcision. The glans of the penis is one of the least sensitive/pleasurable areas of the penis. Indeed the sexual functioning of the foreskin is comparable to the clitoris.
Though, you probably could care less that your penis lacks normal sensitivity. But then what do you say about all of the boys who die every year from circumcision?:
http://www.circumstitions.com/death.html
Jewish law states that after two children have died from circumcision, sequentially, the third need not be circumcised. So Jewish law recognizes a death rate associated with the ritual and Jewish law recognizes that one need not be circumcised in order to be Jewish. Have you ever wondered why Jews are not afflicted by hemophilia. Hemophilia was literally bled out of the Jewish race, with each infant afflicted with this genetic disorder, bleeding to death after circumcision.
The Jews that I know care deeply about not harming children and the adults that they become. They are saying no to male genital cutting or MGM and would agree with Dr. Pelle Billing’s findings on circumcision.
Dr. Michael Keith
Oakland, CA
I decided not to continue the discussion. We have different opinions and I don’t think any of us would be able to convince the other. However, one thing I find interesting is that all but one of the rabbis and Jewish organizations I found through Dr Keith’s links seem to be secular humanists (atheists), which helps to explain why these Jews are less inclined to practice traditional Jewish customs.
The second emailer is Gerald David Coleson of the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers. He writes:
“Circumcision” has nothing to do with being Jewish or Muslim. Learn the history and understand that 60 percent of Jewish boys in Scandinavia are intact today. The only reason Jews or Muslims defend it is because they have already done it. They are no more immune to the repetition of the cycle of sexual abuse than anyone else. So the article about Pelle Billing where at the end you write that “circumcision has been used to legitimize anti-Semitism” is wrong. Just because Freud noted some misconception on it, doesn’t make anti-”circumcision” anti-Semitic. In fact, “circumcision” is anti-Semitic because it denies a Jewish boy his birthright to his full range of sexuality. Speak with a Jew who is against the practice and they will tell you that it has nothing to do with being Jewish. The practice isn’t written anywhere in the Koran either. It is simply a bad habit they picked up along the way because of some idiot in their tribe that imagined that somehow this had to be done. It is a product of a superstitious minds, to which religion is prone.
My reply:
Dear Gerald,I don’t know where you get your information from, but I live in Scandinavia and I’m an active member of a synagogue and several Jewish organizations. (People assume I’m Christian because of my name, but I’m not.) The large majority of Jewish parents here, as in all other parts of the world, circumcise their sons. There are, of course, those Jews who don’t care for religion and tradition, but even among secular Jews, circumcision is the norm.
To outlaw circumcision would be to criminalize the Jewish faith. It is the most important commandment and the very sign of God’s unique relationship with the Jewish people.
So I suggest you learn the history. Banning circumcision is what every anti-Semitic regime has done since the Roman Empire was Christianized. To portray Jews (and later Muslims) as barbaric and bloodthirsty is something Christians have done for two thousand years. It all dates back to Paul’s letters in the New Testament.
Best regards,
Christopher Aqurette
Other people have sent me all kinds of comments, ranging from supportive encouragement to disapproving insults.
One thing I find a bit annoying is libertarians who somehow turn into enthusiastic government supporters on this issue. Why is it all right for politicians to dictate how people should practice their religion when we say no to political interference in all other private matters? I think it has to do with many libertarians’ fondness for Ayn Rand, which includes her atheism. Personally, I don’t care if people are religious or not, what is important to me is that government stay out of people’s private lives. I’m a big fan of negative liberties. Freedom of religion is such a liberty. Most, if not all, international and European declarations of human and civil rights include a protection of religious practice. This protection is there for a reason. History has taught us that people’s religious convictions are one of the most common motivators for violence, war, and social instability. Religion is closely linked to ethics and ethnicity; so much so that most people don’t even realize that the ideas they take for granted have religious origin. To protect the freedom of religion is to protect universal human rights, basic civil liberties, and the civilized peace of Western democracy.
Update: A made a mistake when I wrote the last paragraph. I meant “negative liberties”, not “negative rights”. I have now corrected my mistake. However, although I didn’t mention it in this entry, I would argue that a Jewish boy has a positive right to his heritage.
I spent a few hours today driving in the countryside. I took this picture during a break. It’s very unusual with this much snow in this part of Sweden.
Sweden is quite big on pride, but we are not even close to being among the top sinners. Here are the number-one sinners:
Background and more information here.
A new study suggests the risk of complications following circumcision is extremely low, especially if the procedure is done on neonatal boys. The median frequency of any complication for boys of all ages is 1.5%. I think this could help to explain why reported complications among Jews are significantly lower than among Muslims.
I made a private study on the matter last year. I talked to a number of Swedish urologists about their experiences, and they all seemed to know about cases where older Muslim boys needed medical help following private circumcisions. No doctor knew of any case involving a Jewish boy, which might be explained by the boy’s young age at the time of his circumcision. While Jews normally circumcise their sons on the eighth day, Muslims tend to wait several years.
More in Swedish here.
An iconic president’s romantic love letters are for sale.
A problem with a socialist-style welfare system is the lack of room for atypical individuals. In Sweden, this is manifested in the bureaucratic assumption that all people eat the same food, celebrate the same religious holidays, and hold the same set of values. This is not true, which is why I welcome the court ruling that gives a Jewish man the right to spend his last years in a Jewish nursing home.
Pelle Billing, a Swedish medical doctor and editor of Men’s News Daily, is an opponent to male circumcision. He wants to criminalize Jews and Muslims who practice their religion. Like the most fanatic anti-abortion activists, he often makes his case with grotesque pictures. Normally, he uses surgery pictures with plenty of blood, but now he goes one step further and illustrates an article about male circumcisions with a picture of a man whose nose and fingers are cut off.
When I discussed human rights and freedom of religion with Dr Billing, he denied any attempt to humiliate Jews, Muslims, and circumcised men in general. But this picture makes it obvious that he has no interest in a serious discussion on the matter. No circumcised men can relate to the absurd claim that a life without a foreskin is comparable with a live without nose and fingers. This picture only speaks to the xenophobic sentiment of secularists and Christians with no personal experience of Judaism and Islam.
Circumcision has been used to legitimize anti-Semitism for many centuries. In Little Hans (1909), Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) noted that, “The castration complex is the deepest unconscious root of anti-Semitism; for even in the nursery little boys hear that a Jew has something cut off his penis and this gives them a right to despise Jews.”
Update posted on 2 March 2010: Pelle Billing threatens me with legal action if I don’t remove a portrait of him from my blog. He claims that the photographer holds the copyright to the picture I used to illustrate this blog entry. Furthermore, he threatens to contact my friends and the web hosting company I use, and he says he will discredit me to prominent party members. I realize that these threats are only meant to silence my criticism, but I also realize that he might be right about the photographer’s copyright. I have therefore replaced the picture with a screenshot of Dr Billing’s blog. A copyright expert has told me that this is legal even if the screenshot contains a portrait picture. (Click on the image to enlarge it.)
I think it is important to write about people like Dr Billing. He is not a private person when he debates circumcision and links Jewish customs to torture. Dr Billing is a professional debater hired by NGOs and government agencies to speak about gender issues. The taxpayers pay him, and therefore it would be wrong not to criticize him when he uses terminology and imagery that resemble ancient anti-Semitic propaganda.
Below is the complete email correspondence with Pelle Billing. It says quite a lot about the man.
With party members like these, we need no enemies. The whole thing is embarrassing.
The UN climate change panel admitted on Sunday to having imprecisely stated in a key report that 55 per cent of The Netherlands is under sea level, saying that is only the area at risk of flooding.The Dutch government this month asked the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to explain the figure, used in a landmark 2007 report, saying its numbers were that only 26 percent of the country is below sea level.
It was a new embarrassment for the panel. The same 938-page Fourth Assessment Report also contained an erroneous claim that global warming could melt Himalayan glaciers by 2035.
The IPCC admitted in a note sent to AFP on Sunday that the 55 per cent figure was actually the portion of The Netherlands “at risk of being flooded”. It insisted that the imprecision did not affect the conclusions of the report.
I think future historians will find that most of what IPCC wrote in its report was wrong. I’m not saying global warming is not happening; however, I’m quite sure most of what we hear and read about it is exaggerated by people who see it as an opportunity to change the economic system.
“When Israel is accused, however unjustly, of any alleged misdeed against the Palestinians, the din is immediate and deafening,” David A. Harris writes. “But when fellow Arabs are shown to be inflicting real damage on the Palestinians, there’s hardly a peep.”
Bess Twiston-Davies of The Time’s Faith Central blog reports about a London bus driver that let his passengers wait while he did his prayer. The blogger asks, “Is it ever legitimate to stop work for prayer?” Well, I think it is as long as we allow people to take a ten-minute cigarette break every hour. I can’t see the difference.
A gay couple in Israel has petitioned the country’s High Court of Justice for the right to have a baby through a surrogate mother. It seems this will be the next big issue for the gay movement in many European countries, too.
From the Australian Jewish News’s Kron cartoonist.
I can’t imagine this positive attitude being possible on Fox News five years ago. Change is in the air.
Only a few hours ago, the church published a statement saying just that.
Jan Myrdal, son of late Nobel laureate Gunnar Myrdal, has once again given proof of his complete lack of respect for human life, democracy, and the country that has paid for his lavish lifestyle as a state-funded leftist “intellectual”. From The Local:
Swedish author and anti-war activist Jan Myrdal, 82, has sparked outrage following a public lecture in which he appeared to welcome the killing of Swedish, US and other soldiers.“My anger is so strong that I can feel the taste of blood in my mouth when I see TV pictures of US marines, Swedish mercenaries or Nato soldiers in Afghanistan, “ he told an audience at St Xavier’s College in Mumbai, India.
“And my deepest personal feeling then is that the only good foreign soldier on Afghan soil is a dead one.”
The comments were made on Saturday, a day before two Swedish soldiers were shot dead by an as yet unidentified attacker when they were patrolling in northern Afghanistan.
I spent most of December with my face in the Torah and books about Judaism and Zionism. Due to bad planning and a timetable too optimistic, I spent far too much time reading, which gave me too little time for the actual writing. I feared that the result would spoil my chance of getting my bachelor’s degree before the new semester began, i.e., in late January. But luckily, I was wrong. My professor gave my essay on Jewish nationalism a pass and I now have everything I need to get my Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies with specialization in Philosophy of Religion.
In 2004, when I returned to Sweden after nearly five years in the Netherlands, one of my goals was to acquire an academic degree. I have always had an interest in philosophy and religion, but in my twenties I was too restless for university studies. So when most people of my generation went to university, I did freelance work, lobbied for gay rights, and started a magazine. I don’t regret a single thing I did back then, but it nagged me that so many less knowledgeable (stupid) people had nice diplomas and got well-paid jobs.
I began my academic studies when I was 34 years old. I was among the most mature of all the mature students at the Department of Philosophy at Lund University. Things got better when I transferred to the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies; religion often becomes important to people when they get older, so the centre always host a few men and women who decided to learn more late in life.
I’m 37 now, and soon I, too, will have a diploma to frame. But I will wait a while longer before I start looking a full-time job. My next academic goal is to do my master’s degree. Until I have achieved that, I will continue to split my time between the university and my four part-time jobs. And I will keep on blogging when there is time.
No, I don’t like the idea of translating Malmö into English.
Alexander Pope is perfect for white nights. More on the quoted poem here.
Here we go again, a homophobe linking homosexuality to paedophilia:
Oliver North, the retired colonel turned Fox News contributor, told the Hannity’s America audience last night that if gays are allowed to serve openly in the military, it opens the door for allowing pedophiles to serve openly.
Personally, I think Fox News’s decision to hire convicted arms smugglers will eventually result in serial killers taking over American news channels. It’s a slippery slope.
Khaled Abu Toameh on the good old days before the peace process began in the Middle East.
BBC News reports that the suggested new Ugandan law—which would send gay people to life in prison and proposes death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”—might be softened. When I first read it, I thought it was good news. And it is. But it also shows how wickedly homophobic the whole debated has become when someone like me thinks it’s good news that gay Ugandans might not be sentenced to death for making love.
The first trailer of the new Wall Street film with Michael Douglas. I know a few middle-aged libertarians who will be first in line to see the film when it premières.
By the way, greed is good. Don’t let the Left or the Catholic Church tell you any different.
I love both Spotify and iTunes. That is how I listen to music these days. So naturally, I think this is interesting.
The Guardian writes about the plans for a new American missile shield.
I think it is only a matter of time before Iran will have its own nuclear weapon. I fear this new shield will not be enough to curb Iran’s long-time goal to eradicate Israel from the map. A new Cold War is looming. The best thing would be to act on Iran before it is capable to start a nuclear war. One peaceful way to achieve that is to aid the democracy movement within Iran to overthrow the Islamist regime.
