Tikkun Olam

You have probably heard of the notorious New York Post headline on the story of the horrible death of Menahem Stark , "Who Didn't Want Him Dead," which angered the Jewish community at its total insensitivity and accusations (I can think of at least several people: his wife, and his children, for starters).  No matter what he did, what white-collar crimes he might have committed, nothing justifies kidnapping, possibly torturing and murdering someone-nothing! Here are a couple of perspectives on this tragedy. He is alleged to have been a slum landlord who didn't maintain his buildings nor care about his tenants. He also was a pillar of his Satmar Hassidic community, giving tzedakah (charity) freely and helping others.  Who was Menachem Stark? How should his death be viewed? How should his life...? I am ashamed of his behavior, if what is said about him is true. He was not living what a Jewish life is supposed to be, no matter what 'sect' he belonged to.  Bu...

Even after this horrific, barbaric murder of a British soldier in London, the fact that it was another jihadist atrocity was not emphasized. Even Tony Blair, who actually was forced to feebly state that there is a "problem within Islam ," tempered it with " Of course there are Christian extremists and Jewish, Buddhist and Hindu ones."  He's kidding, right? When was the last time a Christian,  Jew, Buddhist or Hindu viciously attacked someone, stabbed him to death and beheaded him in the name of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism or Buddhism? Leave it to Pat Condell to call a spade, a spade.  People, listen to him:  this is what it is, and if you don't speak out against it--then you're for it .  Simple as pie. (Seen first on Daled Amos ).

An alien landing somewhere on Earth and listening to the news blasting Israel would come to the conclusion that that country must be a huge land containing billions of people, which controls the world and is the cause of all evil in it. This is the way it comes across, to hear or read about the lambasting of Israel--while countries whose regimes are truly guilty of piracy or rape, or murder and even genocide are written about, but without a hue-and-cry for de-ligitimization as is done with Israel. Cases in point include Darfur in the western Sudan, Somalia , and Indonesia , where our illustrious President just visited and towards which he gushed U. S. friendship. Meanwhile, what are these failed regions and states doing to help humanity? Because Extremely-Evil-Israel-Which-Should-Not-Exist has just sent an aid shipment with a hundred thousand doses of medicine to Haiti to help alleviate the cholera epidemic which is ravaging that unfortunate country.  That tiny Jewish home...

A major who was a psychiatrist in the United States Army who treated soldiers with PTSD, went on a rampage today and gunned down now 13 people, injuring 31 or so more, at Ft. Hood, Texas. He was about to be deployed to Afghanistan. Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy Everyone is trying to figure out what his motives were for doing this horrific deed. The pundits are attributing possible political motives to his actions, as he had made statements that Muslims in Iraq should 'rise up against the Americans' and he spoke about 'suicide bombings' as an effective way to kill soldiers. Oh, by the way--his name is Major Malik Nadal Hassan, a Virginia-born Muslim who chose "Palestinian" as his nationality. (Did you expect anything different?) He signed up for medical school, joining the Army after high school and completing college. The Army paid for all of it--at least six years. He worked at Walter Reed (and got a poor wo...