In my weekly email to subscribers I sent a copy of an email I received that claimed to be an open letter to Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, by young Muslim fanatics, followers of Omar Bakri and Abu Hamza: Mr. Ken Livingstone: You seem to think that you, personally, are not to blame for the bombings in London or…
General Topics
Eyeless in Gaza
Anyone who expresses an opinion on Israeli politics is heading for disaster. But since when have I been afraid of getting into trouble? The current turmoil over the forced withdrawal from Gaza illustrates the polarities of Zionism, Judaism and Israeli society. In Israel orange ribbons festoon cars and homes as the color of those who object to withdrawal, the “Detachment”…
An Emotional Response to Dead and Mutilated Bodies in Natanya and London, and in Memory of Srebrenica.
In one way it must be very comforting to be a Christian who believes in Original Sin and holds it to be a matter of faith that all humans are born essentially evil. This can explain how humanoids can set off bombs in the midst of civilians going about their daily business, who have nothing to do with them, have…
Marrying Out
Marrying out of Judaism is such a major issue and I’ve received so many emails recently asking my opinion that I have to bite the bullet and address it. It is irrelevant to look back to Biblical Judaism and think that because King Solomon did it (some 700 non-Jewish wives and 300 concubines), therefore it can’t be a problem. Judaism…
Anglican Disinvestment
Isn’t it interesting that the Christians who are most sympathetic to Jews nowadays are either the Catholics or the Southern Baptist Fundamentalists on the Protestant side? You would have thought that the more liberal, open Protestant Churches such as the Anglicans would be more understanding. After all Martin Luther, the founder of Protestantism, started off very sympathetic to the Jews.…
Karl Marx
If you log on to the BBC Radio 4 you can vote for the greatest philosopher of all time! This is a by-product of a series of programs hosted by Melvyn Bragg on the History of Ideas. Now I guess most people are familiar with only a couple of names like Socrates, Aristotle, or Plato from Greece, perhaps Aquinas and…