Editorials & Actions

A Chanukah Prayer of Lights

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A Chanukah Prayer of Lights
by Rabbi Warren Stone
Source of Creation and Life of the Universe We gather together on Chanukah

As Jews of conscience
with a deep spiritual bond to the lights of freedom. We are grateful for the inner might of the Maccabees Who fought to reclaim a Jerusalem in despair

And rekindle the lights of human freedom. Freedom has many faces:
Freedom from war and conflict or threats of terror 

Freedom to have a secure home

Freedom from hunger, poverty and despair. Freedom is deeply personal as well:
Freedom to express one’s gender identity without fear Freedom to express one’s racial identity without fear Freedom to make choices about of life and deepest beliefs Freedom to live our faith in all of its beauty

without negating anyone else’s. Our Chanukah menorah with its eight branches and Kindling light

Remind us of the diversity on our Earth
Bound together with a branch of Oneness.

Editorials & Actions

New Poll on US Attitudes on Israel/Palestine

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Poll on US Attitudes on Israel/Palestine

 
Evangelical Republicans Favor Pro-Israel Policies At Odds With Majority of Americans, Including Non-Evangelical Republicans
 

 

A new poll shows that in dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict overall, an overwhelming 77% of Evangelical Republicans want the United States to lean toward Israel as compared to 29% to Americans overall and 36% of non-Evangelical Republicans.  In contrast 66% of all Americans and 60% of Non-Evangelical Republicans want the United States to lean toward neither side.  

 

 

 

This pattern holds on other aspects of US policy toward the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. If the UN Security Council considers endorsing the establishment of a Palestinian state, only 26% of all Americans and 38% of non-Evangelical Republicans favor the US voting against it.  However six in ten Evangelical Republicans say that the US should vote against it, thus vetoing the move.  

 

Evangelical Republicans also differ in that they pay far more attention to a candidate’s position on Israel.  When considering which candidate to vote for in Congress or for president just 26% of all Americans and 33% of non-Evangelical Republicans say they consider the candidates position on Israel a lot.  Among Evangelical Republicans 64% say they consider it a lot. 

 

Views of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also vary dramatically.   Among the general public just 32 percent have a favorable view of Netanyahu, as do 47 percent of non-Evangelical Republicans.   Favorable views rise to 66% among Evangelical Republicans.  

When asked, in an open-ended question, to name a national leader they most admire 22 percent of Republican Evangelicals chose Netanyahu, far more than any other leader.  Among Non-Evangelical Republicans 9 percent named Netanyahu and 6 percent for the public as a whole.

Editorials & Actions

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America’s Reckless War Against Evil 
Why It’s Self-Defeating and Has No End 
By Ira Chernus

Oh, no! Not another American war against evil! This time, it’s the Islamic State (IS). After the attacks in Paris, Barack Obama, spokesman-in-chief for the United States of America, called that crew “the face of evil.” Shades of George W. Bush. The “evildoers” are back.

Editorials & Actions

Emperor Weather: Turning Up the Heat on History

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Emperor Weather 
Turning Up the Heat on History 
By Tom Engelhardt

For six centuries or more, history was, above all, the story of the great game of empires. From the time the first wooden ships mounted with cannons left Europe’s shores, they began to compete for global power and control. Three, four, even five empires, rising and falling, on an increasingly commandeered and colonized planet. The story, as usually told, is a tale of concentration and of destruction until, in the wake of the second great bloodletting of the twentieth century, there were just two imperial powers left standing: the United States and the Soviet Union. Where the other empires, European and Japanese, had been, little remained but the dead, rubble, refugees, and scenes that today would be associated only with a place like Syria.

Editorials & Actions

Chanukah & Christmas: A Return to Hope in Troubling Times

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Honestly, do you know anyone who hasn’t been suffering from a case of acute despair, depression or cynicism about the world in the past few months? For some it might have started long, long ago, when three of the more hopeful public figures of the 20th century, President Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr were assassinated between 1963 and 1968. For others, it may have come when President Obama promised to fight to save the environment and then opened up a huge territory for drilling. Or when Donald Trump labeled Mexicans rapists and murderers without fellow Republicans challenging him and then the entire slate of Republican presidential hopefuls competed with each other in who could be the most racist or xenophobic. Or when people in Europe and the U.S. couldn’t understand what must have driven people to be terrorists willing to kill others, apparently these more advanced people unaware that their own countries had been engaged in wars that have killed tens of millions of people in the last sixty years.

Editorials & Actions

Over-Consumption–a key to California’s Water Crisis

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This Holiday Season Let’s Redefine Over-Consumption
By Rev. Brooks Berndt
            A common lament around this time of the year is the rampant consumerism of a culture that bombards us with messages to buy more and more. As the complaint often goes, holidays like Christmas and Chanukah lose their original meaning as we get lost in a marketplace of inflated wants and needs. All of this is certainly true, and I would add my voice to the chorus of holiday disgruntlement. At the same time, might there be a bigger picture that often gets missed in how we define and delineate the problem of over-consumption? My own thinking on this matter was recently challenged by Jennifer Kehl who directs the Center for Water Policy at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Editorials & Actions

Top Ten Differences Between White Terrorists and Others

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Juan Cole on the Top Ten Differences Between White Terrorists and Others

1.  White terrorists are called “gunmen.”  What does that even mean?  A person with a gun?  Wouldn’t that be, like, everyone in the US?  Other terrorists are called, like, “terrorists.”

2.  White terrorists are “troubled loners.”  Other terrorists are always suspected of being part of a global plot, even when they are obviously troubled loners. 3.  Doing a study on the danger of white terrorists at the Department of Homeland Security will get you sidelined by angry white Congressmen.  Doing studies on other kinds of terrorists is a guaranteed promotion. 4.  The family of a white terrorist is interviewed, weeping as they wonder where he went wrong. The families of other terrorists are almost never interviewed. Advertisement

5.  White terrorists are part of a “fringe.”  Other terrorists are apparently mainstream.

Editorials & Actions

Demonstrations for Environmental Sanity Around the World as Paris Talks Open

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November 30, 2015  Paris, France
Demonstrations for Environmental Sanity Around the World as Paris Talks Open
We did it! Despite losing our flagship Paris event, this weekend’s Global Climate March still broke records as the largest climate mobilisation in history! From São Paulo to Sydney, 785,000 of us shook the ground in over 2,300 events in 175 countries, united in one voice calling for a 100% clean energy future to save everything we love. It was front page media worldwide, and the impact is already being felt at the summit here in Paris. It’s nearly impossible to describe the powerful and diverse beauty of humanity that rose up yesterday, but these photos help:
London, UK
This is the movement our world has been waiting for. Many countries, from Bangladesh to Ireland, saw the largest climate marches in their history. In Australia, 120,000 people marched, in India, over 100,000. And in towns across the planet small groups of us joined together in beautiful local events.

Editorials & Actions

Bernie Sanders’ Immigration Plan

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Editor’s Note: Tikkun does not endorse any candidate or political party–we are not allowed to do so as a 501-c-3 nonprofit. But we do from time to time present alternative perspectives on candidates or parties and on the stances that they take on various pressing issues. The New York Times recently praised the immigration ideas of Bernie Sanders, a U.S. Senator seeking the Democratic Party nomination for President. So we went to his website to get the following version of that plan.–Rabbi Michael Lerner

A Fair and Humane Immigration Policy
BACKGROUND
We are a nation of immigrants. I am proud to be the son of an immigrant.

Editorials & Actions

Has the US Been Responsible for Millions of Deaths Since World War II ?

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Editor’s Note: In the article below, the author claims that the U.S. has been responsible for 20 millions deaths since World War II. I’m doubtful about this claim, but also believe that we all have a responsibility to do the research to find out what part of this claim is true and what part an unfair extension of U.S. responsibility. If the claim extends to giving the U.S. responsibility for every death caused by a country to which the U.S. gave arms and military support, there may be a stronger case than I’d care to believe. On the other hand, I do believe that we in the U.S., by allowing the almost unchecked spread of weapons inside the U.S., have some level of responsibility when a small percentage of our citizens use those arms against each other to wound or kill. Extending this principle internationally may extend the area of our responsibility.

Editorials & Actions

How Canadians are Dealing with the Refugee Crisis

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How Canada is Dealing with the Refugees
by John Trent

A little while ago, Rabbi Michael Lerner wrote to U.S. citizens  via Tikkum  to encourage them to:

“Please call your Senators to tell them you Welcome Syrian Refugees and urge them to vote “NO” if a bill comes to the Senate for a vote to make it more stringent to accept refugees from Syria and Iraq to the US.   Refugees coming to the US are already subject to lengthy, stringent clearance requirements.  In the busyness of preparing for the holidays, let us not forget these are people who have lost everything.  Imagine being bombed and having no place to go, and one after another country saying “we do not want you.”  It is winter, it is cold, and many are sleeping outside, waiting at the borders of several European countries …and we live in the wealthiest country in the world and can afford to take in a significant number of the homeless.  And “no,” these refugees do not present a danger to the general public–we already have careful policies in place to ensure that we would not be accepting people who are ISIS operatives intent on hurting us.”

So, for the sake of comparison, what is going on with the neighbours in Canada? During the past 10 years, the Conservative Government of Stephen Harper had gradually cut back the number of refugees accepted by Canada. In the past few years it accepted very few Syrian refugees. They seemed to have some reason for disliking them, because each year Canada takes in more than 200,000 immigrants and refugees.

Editorials & Actions

Fear, Doubt and the “the Muslims”– Jacob Returns and Encounters Esau: Torah reading Vayishlach

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Fear, doubt and “the Muslims” (Vayishlach 2015)
by:
Rabbi Zalman Kastel  National Director of the  Together for Humanity Foundation
Late one evening this week, I received yet another Facebook private message expressing hostility towards Muslims and Islam. This kind of hostility is often driven by fear, a combination of healthy self-preservation instincts given the terrible deeds of some, and misunderstanding due to an absence of meaningful contact with Muslim people. More generally, fear in peoples’ lives may be driven by self-doubt. In cultures that value confidence, feeling afraid can make one feel ashamed; hostility can serve as a more acceptable mask.  

As he travelled home to the land of his birth, the Biblical Jacob became afraid and distressed about his brother Esau coming toward him with 400 men.  His fear was of being killed in an attack but his distress is interpreted as relating to the prospect of him killing his attackers.[i] Yet that interpretation is questioned by other scholars who ask why Jacob should be distressed about killing assailants in self-defence? [ii] I find this second line of commentary disturbing.

Editorials & Actions

Johann Galtung Sets the Paris Violence in Historical Perspective

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Johan Galtung

Violence In and By Paris: Any Way Out? EDITORIAL, 23 November 2015- TRANSCEND Media Service
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
 

The atrocity in Paris seems to trigger the word “terrorism” with a higher frequency than ever, in the media, from the politicians. Doing so, they sign their intellectual capitulation: trust me, I am not going to try to understand anything. Watching politicians o­n 56 US TV channels in Georgia there was not a single word analyzing why?; like underlying conflicts and traumas. Nor conciliation and solution.