I am not going to discuss the war in this particular forum. One of the reasons I come here is for respite. It is a haven I can retreat to when being called a Zio and a baby killer is starting to get to me. I'm only going to make some highly general remarks, and then I'm going to exit the discussion. If you are the sort that needs to have the last word, that's fine.
1. I work hard to keep religion out of political discussions. It's not that religion isn't important--it is usually our religious upbringing that helped shape our consciences. But when I discuss the ethics of ANYTHING going on in the world, I want my arguments to have universal appeal. If I make an argument that only makes sense to the people within my religion, it is going to defeat my objective of influencing those who disagree.
2. I never judge people by their beliefs or religious practices. I judge people according to what they DO. I'll take a moral atheist over an asshole Jew any day of the week.
3. Don't assume that I get my information only from the media. I have spent hours texting with a friend in Tel Aviv as he sat in his bomb shelter, listening to the Iranian missiles explode all around him. I watch as the fear causes this 50 year old man regress to his teenage years. I correspond regularly with my Palestinian friend in Lebanon (Yeah, it's unusual. What can I say? We both love Matisyahu.) I HURT when she tells me about family she has lost. When I hear from my friends who are THERE, in the middle of it all, I can see it through their eyes, and its a VERY different experience than reading stupid newspapers or even stupider YouTube bloggers that are more interested in virtue signaling than genuinely caring about what is actually happening.
4.1. It is wrong to misuse words. Words have given definitions. When one takes a word that comes with tremendous emotional impact and misapplies it, one is cheating. It almost always means that the actual arguments have little substance, since one is depending on emotional manipulation to influence others.
4.2 In the same vein of thinking, exaggeration is a form of lying. You can be correct that someone is doing something wrong, but when you exaggerate it in order to demonize them, it's evil.
5. The number of people who agree or disagree with a point has absolutely NO bearing on whether the position is correct or incorrect. Zero. Zip. Zilch.
6. A double standard ALWAYS indicates bigotry. If doing X makes country A uniquely evil, but doing X is not a concern if country B does it, that is sheer, ordinary, ugly, irrational, evil hatred.
7. Beware of projection. It is insidious how human beings cast off their own feelings of guilt by accusing their victims of the exact things they themselves are guilty of. We've all seen cases where incredibly homophobe pastors get caught with gay porn on their computers. Projection is a COMMON way to avoid facing the evil in one's own back yard. I scan for it in myself ALL THE TIME. You can never be too careful about this.
8. Genetics proves beyond a doubt that Jews all around the world are
indigenous to the Levant. And archeology proves beyond a doubt that Jews have lived in the land consistently for thousands of years. The idea that all Jews left Judea after the Bar Kochba rebellion is factually incorrect.
9. Do you not find it insanely and stupidly irrational that when being a white man was a good thing Jews weren't white, but now that being a white man is considered a bad thing Jews are now white?
10. Dividing the world into "Oppressors" and "Oppressed" is a childish and psychologically dysfunctional way to think. Anyone who has ever had their depression or anxiety helped by Cognitive Behavior Therapy can spot a number of cognitive distortions in it, beginning with black-and-white, all-or-nothing thought.
11. It seems to be human nature to deny impending trouble. Do you think Jews are different than anyone else? The US before 9-11 didn't want to listen to the indicators that we were vulnerable to an impending attack. I know Jews in Toronto who can no longer take a Lyft or Uber because the danger of being attacked is so high but when I suggest getting out before it's too late they say the rise in antisemitism is exaggerated. I can't tell you the number of times I've tried to warn people and institutions that trouble is brewing because of this or that, and I get written off as making a mountain out of a molehill. The curse of Cassandra is that no one will believe her.
12. It is impossible to make peace when the other party doesn't want peace--it only wants your destruction.
Did you just do the "The Jews brought it on themselves" justification for the holocaust? REALLY????? Jews were rich so naturally people were jealous--it's only to be expected that people would want to wipe us off the face of the earth?
Let me give you a wake up call. If the holocaust was due to jealousy over wealth, explain to me why rich Germans weren't sent to Auschwitz but poor Jews were.
Don't worry. I'm not expecting you to REALLY change. I realize that antisemitism can't be fixed. It comes from an irrational part of the mind, and reason and evidence can't touch it.
This is why I tell my fellow Jews to stop wasting our money, our time, and our hard work on education. EDUCATION DOESN'T WORK. Neither does extraordinary altruism--hospitals have Jewish names plastered all over the walls, and yet you have nurses and doctors who think Jews are stingy and cheap. The most painful truth is that interfaith work doesn't stop antisemitism either. The group that is our friend today can turn on a dime.
Antisemitism CANNOT be fixed. I will use MY money and MY time and MY effort to build up the Jewish People so that we will not only survive this new wave of hate, but thrive despite it. If another holocaust happens, it will certainly not be because *I* stood idly by. And although we don't know anything that can fix antisemitism, we certainly know what stops it. There is a reason no Jews died during the Temple Israel attack. Thank God for the second amendment.
But enough of this. It is enough for me that I now know exactly the sort of person you are. Let's return the discussion.
Being a maid is honorable work, and maids deserve to be paid more. You don't want to clean the shit out of your own toilet? That makes a maid worth a LOT. The first few years I was married, I ran my own business cleaning mobile homes, and I was proud of doing it well. Funny enough, that same obsession with standards shows up online too. With
https://tropical-casino.com/ Tropical Casino, the useful stuff is whether the slots are easy to sort, the promo terms are clear, and the cashier is not buried under five menus. Flashy bonuses are one thing, but clean organisation matters more. My nit-picky perfectionism had plenty of room to shine.
And you know what? Working class people can't afford maids. It's a scrape even for middle class families and that's why they try to stretch it out unreasonably. If it weren't for well to do families, a LOT of jobs would dry up. I always felt very lucky that some people were too lazy to do the icky necessities and had money to blow for someone like me.
You made it clear you thought Jennifer didn't have a relationship with God. The very fact that God answered her prayer (and you and I literally READ God's answer to her prayer) illustrates the connection between God and Jennifer. Everything you wrote dismissed that. And why? For no other reason than she doesn't share your Christian beliefs.
God didn't dismiss Jennifer. So what makes you think it is okay for you to do so?
I'm sorry, but missing the point of the story is the least of your concerns.
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