Israel, Gaza and Hamas, oh what a disaster! February 5, 2009

By Lily Jasper, Grade 10

Think about the following question: On September 10th of 2001, if America could have killed Bin-Laden and his hijackers, but at the expense of killing five innocent families, should the USA have done it? This is Israel’s dilemma.

A group by the name of Hamas is a terrorist organization, funded by Iran. However, Hamas doesn’t only do terrorism. Hamas also sponsors after school clubs and schools. It’s a smart move for Hamas because in the schools, they train terrorists and train people to hate Israel. They also hide bombs and weapons in the schools.

Gaza is a strip of land in Southwest Israel that borders Egypt to the South and the Mediterranean to the West that is controlled by the Palestinian Authority. In the 1967 war, Israel wanted to give BACK Gaza to Egypt but Egypt didn’t want Gaza due to the problems Gaza has, for example, machine gun violence and gangs. Unfortunately, Hamas staged a coup (violently took over the government) in June 2007. Due to this coup, there are weapons hiding in schools and mosques. As a result, Israel is in Gaza because Hamas is gathering weapons on Israel’s border and Israel doesn’t want that because of it’s safety is at risk. Hamas has been shooting missiles at towns in south Israel.

Israel is paying for the education, building roads and buildings for Gaza and the West Bank refugees. Some Israelis are upset because they pay high taxes which are spent on people who hate them.

It is very easy to not understand what is going on in Israel. The main problem is that Israel doesn’t know what to do because of the rocket attacks. They were unsure if they should take action but if they didn’t, bad things would happen. So Israel decided to take action. Therefore, Israel is killing terrorist leaders but is also having to kill innocent people, mainly children because the Hamas leadership is grabbing the victims (children) off the street and putting them where Israel is going to bomb, which is mainly the schools or Mosque buildings. The reason why Israel is looking bad is because Israel is killing children and the people get mad at them for killing children. Before Israel started to bomb schools, Israel had a team of fluent Arab speakers to call out where they will bomb and warn the Palestines of the West Bank to evacuate but Hamas would listen on the calls, then would grab the people and put them where Israel would bomb. Hamas did this on purpose. My opinion is that they think that if they put innocent people where Israel is going to bomb it would make Israel look bad, which is succeeding.

What is there to do? Israel will keep fighting just as the United States would if we were attacked. However, Israel cannot destroy the weapons of Hamas without killing innocent people. Now ask, what should Israel do or what should be done if Hamas plants explosives in mosques or schools? Should Israel bomb at the risk of killing innocent people?

Israel stands on three things. Torah, Peace and Work. And there is a 4th thing they stand on. That is Tikvah, which is hope. Even in terrible times, we must hope for peace.

Vayetze December 5, 2008

By Steve Rubinstein

Two of my favorite songs are Hey Jude and Sympathy for the Devil, kind of representing the loftier and baser poles of aural experience. Yet, I am going to discuss Jacob’s Ladder, not by way of Stairway to Heaven but by referring to another favorite piece of music, Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians. During this almost 1-hour composition, Reich introduces themes and slowly phases them. To the first-time listener, it might appear that there isn’t any forward motion. However, the more I have heard it, formerly subtle shifts become more apparent. I end up in a very different place than I started.

This week’s Torah Portion, Vayetze, recounts Jacob’s vision of a ladder spanning from Earth to Heaven and then tells of his 20 years of labor for love as he unwittingly marries Leah before he can marry his true love, Rachel.

Jacob persevered for love. He waited for 7 years to marry Rachel, only to be told that he must marry Leah first, as was the custom (perhaps conceived on the spot) for an older daughter wed before a younger sister. During those 7 years, he was climbing closer to his goal. He didn’t realize that this was an extension ladder with slippery rungs.

Tonight’s meeting is my fifth Board meeting. And as I contemplated how to relate Vayetze to my nascent experience with this Board, I wonder if we are moving forward. Are we providing the necessary nourishment? Are we enabling this Temple’s rich heritage to be strengthened and further cultivated by the next generations, so beautifully illustrated in Vayetze through Jacob’s progeny – the future of Israel?

We live in austere times. Our fiscal budget is in need of monetary nourishment, but that is not enough and is only part of the picture. Some of you might say that money is the requisite fuel for the mission (in health care, the familiar saying is “no margin, no mission”). Chicken or egg? Are we endangering our collective spiritual climb by not viewing the entire picture? Angels ascend the Ladder; they emanate from within to disencumber us from our physical states to bring us closer to spiritual ones.

We are all angels.

Darfur and Human Rights October 30, 2008

By Lily Jasper, Grade 10

I want to examine some of the reasons the U.S. is committing our people and money to Iraq and Afghanistan instead of Darfur. Our lives and our country were forever changed by the events of September 11th, 2001. both Iraq and Afghanistan are in crisis, but so is Darfur. Here is a look at some of the differences.

The U.S. government might have a hidden agenda. On October 7th, 2001, the U.S. army invaded Afghanistan in response to the attack of 9/11 by a terrorist organization known as Al-Qaeda, led by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden. It is composed of Muslim extremists and a literal version of Islam Wahhabi Sunni, called Tafkin, literally meaning, “one who discovers or destroys infidels.” The U.S. army invaded Iraq because the government thought Saddam Hussein had WMD (weapons of mass destruction). In 2002, Colin L. Powell presented evidence to the United nations that Saddam Hussein’s government possessed WMDs and was prepared to use them against the U.S. and our Allies. The U.S. did offer Saddam an ultimatum, which he didn’t accept so we invaded Iraq in March 2003. Another reason we invaded Iraq was because of the safe-haven Saddam provided for the terrorist groups Suedas Ansar-Al-Islam and Al-Qaeda. To sum it all up, we have spent a lot of money and resources on this problem.

On the other hand, Darfur is a southwestern region in Sudan. Currently, there is a civil war. There are two different sides. One side is the government of Sudan; the other side is the rebels. The reason both sides are in conflict is because the government wants land. Now the government had enlisted janjaweed. The janjaweed are bandits hired by the government to attack innocent civilians in Darfur and scare off people who might be in contact with the rebels. They will use methods such as rape and murder. This is categorized as genocide. Genocide is the deliberate killing of a large group of people, specifically those of a particular ethnic group or nation. The government is out to get the rebels and is ready to attack anyone connected to them. One of the major reasons this is going on in Darfur is because the Chinese purchase oil from Sudan and the Sudanese then use the money they receive from China to purchase weapons from Russia.

Now why are we in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting a war instead of saving people in Darfur, Sudan? The reason we are in Iraq and Afghanistan is because like the Chinese, we too need oil. Our population demands it. We are not in Sudan because if we try to stop the genocide, we won’t get anything out of it except the good feeling. We don’t get oil or money. To put it bluntly, there is no profit in saving Darfur. When George W. Bush found out that there were no WMDs in Iraq or Afghanistan, he decided out of money-minded reasons, that Iraq had more to offer to the United States than Darfur. If we tried to invade Sudan and take their oil, we might wind up in a war with China because we would be taking oil from Sudan that China pays for.