The Jewish identity and Birthright angle of the Israel-Palestine conflict

"...the rabbi spoke of those who hate Israel and hate the Jews, but did not speak of the Israeli army, which is burning children alive; did not condemn the hate of Israelis for Palestinians. He spoke of peace, but he spoke of peace as a thing to force on the Gaza strip, not a thing for both sides to work toward... I think no one can possibly be reading the Torah anymore because this is not what we were told to do, this is not how we were told to act, and if you believe Israel is yours because God says so, how can you ignore the rest of what he said?"

http://www.salon.com/2014/07/26/israel_is_not_my_birthright/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

"After the 2006 Lebanon war, Brandeis researchers found that Birthright alumni were more likely than other young American Jews to view Israel’s military conduct as justified... Initially, [American youth turned fallen IDF soldier Max Steinberg] didn’t want to go on the Birthright trip, but once he did, it changed him... It turns out that it’s not that hard to persuade young people to see the world a certain way and that Birthright is very good at doing it."

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/07/max_steinberg_death_how_birthright_convinces_american_jews_to_embrace_israel.html

6 former Shin Bet (Israeli FBI) heads speak out about Israeli occupation

"[Shin Bet leaders] are practical. ...They have used all the measures — in order to suppress any kind of terrorist activity. These are the guys... that have conducted targeted assassinations, tortured people in order to get intelligence ... and at the end of the day when they look at the Israeli society and they are saying in a loud and clear voice, 'Enough of the occupation. We cannot win this battle. We have to try to compromise. If we try to eat the whole cake and not share it we will lose.' And this fact surprised me completely, because you don't think this is what a security official will think." - Filmmaker and former IDF soldier Dror Moreh

http://www.npr.org/2013/02/28/172706218/the-gatekeepers-offer-candid-assessment-of-israels-security

Shin Bet is Israel's anti-terror national security agency. Their retired leaders are not leftists, but probably center-right. They are proud of and have no problem with the tough tactics they practiced in the name of protecting Israel. But use them when necessary, and as part of a larger intelligent strategy. They criticize the out-of-touch right-wing leadership that is misusing the security services and not making Israel safer in the long run.

Since the 1970's, they have had to investigate Jewish terrorists too - usually settler religious fanatics who want war to fulfill scripture (so they fight the peace process and do things to provoke the Palestinians to violence, which would justify Jewish reprisals). This culminated in the assassination of Rabin, which opened the flood gates to much more illegal settlement activity by Israel's fringe right wing (great idea to allow the most radical, uncompromising Jews to live in occupied lands among angry Palestinians, huh?). Every time there is talk of abandoning settlements and such, these extremists rise up and even burn mosques and kill Palestinians. Shin Bet found it difficult to investigate and punish them though (and many were released due to political pressure from pro-settlement leaders). They stopped a plan to bomb the Dome of the Rock (one of Islam's holiest sites) which would have incited a global religious war, only to watch the smiling perpetrators get released to cheering crowds (that did not represent the Israeli mainstream).

Former PM Sharon was the "father" of the Israeli settlement program, but as the more centrist Likud leader, he saw that they were now a liability and hurting Israel's future. He pulled Israel out of Gaza and wanted to do the same in the W Bank (as part of a larger peace deal), but suffered a stroke and his leaderless party lost. Then right wing Bibi took power and peace was off the agenda. Sharon had the credibility to broker the deal because of his former hardline rep, but actually the extreme right in Israel was the biggest roadblock. There were plots to kill Sharon (and not by Hamas), maybe even more than those against Rabin.

One of the Shin Bet leaders, Avraham Shalom, grew up in pre-WWII Austria. He was almost beaten to death by his Austrian classmates for being Jewish. Now in old age, he compared the IDF occupation of Palestine with the German occupation of Europe (not the Holocaust, but the military occupation). "We have become cruel." That means a lot coming from a Jew who experienced the worst racism and occupation. 

Prohibition

Going back to Rotisserie Baseball, remember the co-founder from the 30for30 documentary, Dan Okrent? Apparently he's a pretty famous media dude too. He was an editor for the NYT and Time, and a Pulitzer nominee. His recent book is about the hidden history of prohibition, and the interview below is pretty interesting.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126613316

Some factoids:

- "Brand name" liquors started from prohibition. Before that, people just ordered "scotch" or "beer" at a saloon and didn't care who made it. But due to the spread of nasty improvised booze (in some cases, filtered from industrial alcohol in paint thinner), you had to buy brand name to feel more confident that you wouldn't sicken yourself from knock-off crap. But of course the spread of phony booze labels made it harder for the consumer. So China learned from us.

- Prohibition did more for woman's lib than we would imagine. Women's suffrage groups made deals with anti-booze groups, like "you vote for my cause and I'll vote for yours". Also before prohibition, "bars" were men-only saloons. Speak-easies were the first co-ed alcoholic social establishments, persisted after prohibition, and never again did hot chicks have to drink at home alone, or pay for a drink. 

- Due to the advent of federal income tax, Washington had less need to tax liquors, so the anti-booze conservatives had more clout. And the crash of 1929 was one of the big economic motivators to repeal prohibition and recoup liquor tax revenues.

- Turn-of-the-century America was getting more anti-immigrant, much like 100 years later. WWI created anti-German sentiment, and there was also the usual anti-Jew/Catholic bigotry. Those people happened to be big booze makers at the time, so the Midwest WASPs used prohibition to indirectly promote racism/xenophobia. Speaking of racism, I find it funny today, but part of prohibition was to keep booze out of black hands. I guess whites were fearful of drunk out-of-control blacks.

- Sacramental and medicinal alcohol were still permitted during prohibition. As you would expect, the number of prescriptions for alcohol and the number of rabbis authorized to distribute wine (as well as the size of Jewish/Catholic congregations) ballooned during prohibition. It was pretty similar to the "medicinal pot" fad now I guess. Drug stores were one of the "dispensaries" where one could obtain medicinal booze. Not surprisingly, the Chicago-based Walgreen's chain exploded from 20 to 525 stores during prohibition.