responses to my readers, including Locke and Greg

Here are some recent responses to my "Obama: The Audacity of Racism" piece. (the postings I am responding to are below what I am writing here). I promise that the next time I write it will be on another subject but want to pick up on some of this stuff.

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Locke wrote:
Anonymous said...
C'mon, guys, Wright is a non-issue; if we were judged on our clergy's pronouncements, none should 'scape whipping.

The concerns, as I see them, fall into a number of categories:

(1) "Is a black man smart enough to run this country" -- is possibly an issue far in the babushka land (either meaning of the word 'babushka' being aceptable), but not in the real world where we have all had persons of color operate on us, fix our cars, get us out of jail, etc. Johnny Cochrane, Colin Powell and Condi Rice are the most conspicuous examples of African-Americans who are clearly more competent than most of their white competitors.

(2) "Is he going to bring back affirmative action with a vengeance" (or skew immigration policies in favor of persons of color, or otherwise out-Johnson Johnson and out-Carter Carter) -- is a valid concern but we are told by knowledgeable Illini that he showed no evidence of having ever moved in that direction.

(3) "Is he going to shake hands with Chavez and Nasralla and Ahmadinejad?" -- I hope he does, as he tells them with that winsome smile of his just how far up their butts he will shove the bull we have been putting up with all these years.

(4) "Is he going to wreck the economy?" -- sorry, can't do that any better than the current administration;

(5) "Is he going to allow our allies to fall?" (again, out-Johnson Johnson and out-Carter Carter) -- tough call, I'm willing to trust him so far.

I really think Obama will do well in our community, especially if he bothers to speak to us -- not that he will need our vote to swing the state, New York is his unless tsunami wipes out all but Adirondacks...

Locke
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Locke, our enlightened capitalist is much more reasoned in his posting. As Locke poins out, Obama is constrained in many ways in terms of the changes he can make--not the least by the Republicans stripping all the money in the Federal Treasury for taxc cuts for the rich and the War in Iraq, and he will probably end up disappointing those of us thirsty for fundamental change. I was glad to hear Locke's opinion that Obama could end up doing relatively well in the Russian community and will urge his people to make an effort at outreach. Certain, there seems to be a dividing line between generations here--in the Russian community as well as elsewhere, and on the issue of how 'Americanized' members of the community have become. But take it from Locke, friends, Obama in the White House is not going to unleash the barbarians at the gate into the cozy confines of Brighton.

Walter
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Greg said...
Walter, Hi from the Jewish Russian Telegraph (http://www.jrtelegraph.com).
Here is what I posted in response to your post:
Our friend Walter Ruby, of Ruby's Jewsday is writing about Obama, Israel and Russian Jews. Walter is our true friend, please be polite if you decide to comment on his post. This said his writing is very typical of an American Jewish liberal who approaches world conflicts as a fight between the boys in a seventh grade of a public school in a good neighborhood. You see, Palestinians and Israelis are having problems. Probably because they did not receive proper sensitivity training. Now, this is not good! They have to make up right away! American diplomats have to play a role of a wise teacher -- walking into a room, stopping a fight and making bad boys to behave. His friends, Russian Jews, are warm, intelligent people but they are SOO entrenched in their antiquated cold war attitudes. Definitely not nuanced and sophisticated. Walter, mon ami! chaver sheli! amigo! These people want us DEAD! Don't take our word for it -- just pay attention to what they are saying themselves.
Nobody is planning to leave you to visit Maale Adumim. As a matter of fact, nobody is planning to leave you alone in NYC either. American Jews are such nice people. If only they could grow up beyond middle school.
Best regards!

-- Greg
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Greetings to my friend Greg, the editor of the Jewish Russian Telegraph in Boston. I wrote a piece a couple of years ago tweaking the Boston Jewish establishment for ignoring the opinions of Russian Jews, including Greg and others involved in the Jewish Russian Telegraph. I have long tradition of criticizing the American Jewish establishment for imposing its writ and will on Russian Jews going back to the 1980's when the heads of American Jewish establishment groups used to decide policy on Soviet Jewry in consultation with Washington and Jerusalem (and sometimes after negotiations in the Kremlin) without consulting the brave refuseniks and Prisoners of Zion whose asses were literally on the line. That same kind of arrogance and paternalism by both the government of Israel and the American Jewish establishment continued after hundreds of thousands of Russian Jews emigrated here, and over a million to Israel and has had the unfortunate but predictable impact of confirming many Russian Jews in hard line positions vis a vis Israeli-Palestinian peace and on domestic issues in this country.

Greg, who is a mensch of a human being and puts out Jewish Russian Telegraph as a labor of love, takes the usual tact that us American Jews live in dreamland and dont understand that "These people want us dead." Who are 'these people" Greg? All Arabs? All Muslims? And how many Arabs and Muslims do you know well enough to have come to a sweeping conclusion like that?

Last month I spent a week in Jordan at an interfaith conference including some prominent American and Israeli rabbis, Not only did nobody try to kill us, but they wined and dined us at fancy clubs where wine was discreetly present. Also, they are signing on to a new Israeli-Jordanian-American plan to get hearing aids to poor Jordanian children whose parents would not otherwise be able to afford them. Jordaina-Israeli trade blossoms and grows despite a not very good political situation.

In my other kippah, as Muslim-Jewish Relations Program Officer for the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding (www.ffeu.org), I am involved in the implementation of a "Weekend of Twinning of Mosques and Synagogues Across America on November 21-23. The subject that will be discussed in as many as 50 mosques and 50 synagogues across the U.S. and Canada that day will be "Confronting Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism Together." And I can say that in over 100 phone and face to face conversations I have had with American imams and mosque leaders over the past month in planning this event, I have not had one person reject this idea and tell me that he wants to kill me or that the Jew is the eternal enemy and the Muslims should have no contact with us. Na'abarot, on the contrary, I have received a very warm reception and over 20 mosques have already signed on to participate (many others are in the process of signing on). Sure there are small groups of radicals out there, but the vast majority of American Muslims are anxious to join the mainstream of American society and they see that mainstream Jews can be allies in this regard.

Aha, I hear Greg snorting, that is because you American are such "useful idiots" in Lenin's term. We Russian Jews are so much more aware of how hard the real workd really is. Except, Greg, with due respect, I know many many more Arabs and Muslims than you do and maybe some of that experience has some relevance to the question as to who better understands the Arabs and Muslim, you or I. I would submit that the world of the Jewish Russian Telegraph is NOT the real world, but some cartoon variant thereof, a black and white pastiche of good guys and bad guys based on outdated perceptions formed in Soviet times that have little relationship to the real world of the 21st Century.

In the real world, you cant beat 1.2 billion Muslims into submission; you have to reach out to the moderates who reject the medieval visions of Bin-Laden and his ilk, and who dont want to live under the morals police of Al-Queda, Hamas or Hazbollah. Israel is belatedly waking up to the reality that trying to destroy Hamas by sealing off Gaza and punishing its people has had exactly the opposite impact, just as the American project of colonizing Iraq created aradical upsurge in that country and across the Islamic world. But I doubt Greg and the Jewish Russian Telegraph team has woken up to these realities yet. For them, there can only be one policy; silnaya ruka, force and more force. The policy posiitons he is proposing represent an absolute dead end for Israel and the Jews.

Best,

Walter



6:17 PM