Last Monday (8/30/10) I watched NBC Nightly News as they interviewed our President. The subject of the Ground Zero Mosque came up and our President did a fine job of defending the right of ANY faith to build a house of worship there. The President said that no American would dream of prohibiting the building of a church or synagogue there, so let's extend the same rights to Muslims.
If only he had left out the word "synagogue"! In that one word, our President reminded me that it was just a few short months ago (March 2010), his administration had the gall to tell me that Jews can't build homes in Jerusalem because we're Jewish. Apparently, American values of freedom and tolerance do not extend to Jews living in the Jewish State on our ancestral land.
One has to wonder the mindset of a President and a country that elects him, when there's "Two Rules for Two Peoples". I hope I do not need to elaborate further on the hypocrisy at work here.
5 comments:
Israel building illegally on Palestinian land, is not the same as Americans building on land that they bought and paid for. The fact that you think all of Jerusalem belongs to Israel, by divine right, means you're part of the problem.
Anonymous:
Either you support the right of people to build structures regardless of their religion or you don't. There is nothing illegal about Jews building homes in Jerusalem or ANYWHERE unless you hate Jews. If you start with "I hate Jews" and work backwards, it's easy to rationalize the act of a Jew building a home as "illegal". That you have one rule for Jews and another rule for Muslims tells me where you stand on the matter. But we already knew that. Didn't we!
The opponents of the Ground Zero Mosque rationalize that it too, is illegal since it resides next to a "war memorial". There are additional rationalizations, but one is sufficient. Many of them are also rationalizing backwards from their own hangups about Muslims.
I stand with our President who says that it is a fundamental American right and value to allow people to construct houses of worship without regard to their religion. I merely DEMAND that same right and value for Jews building homes.
It's not just the hypocrisy of supporting anti-Jewish apartheid in Eretz Yisrael (demanding the unallocated parts of the Palestine Mandate be made judenrein - something which actually goes well beyond apartheid!) while supporting the building of the Monster Mosque near Ground Zero. Many of those same people are maligning those pointing out how offensive is the placement of that mosque. (Obviously, if the proponents were really interesting in bringing people together and honestly hadn't understand how, obviously to any intelligent person, putting a Monster Mosque there would drive people apart, they would have changed their plans once the controversy erupted. Their insistence on going ahead, in the midst of the controversy, proves they are being deliberately misleading.)
But some people have gone even further - supporting the mosque while opposing the routine construction of synagogues.
A friend of mine, apparently unaware of the inherent hypocrisy, published two op-eds recently in a local newspaper. The first opposed the construction (actually just the expansion of an existing structure) in Litchfield, Connecticut to house a synagogue. The second blasted everyone opposing the construction of the Monster Mosque.
There are many in Mexico who think Texas and California belong to Mexico. "Ancestral homelands", if you will. So, according to you, because they believe this, any Mexican has the right to cross over and build a home in these states, and to deny them that right is discriminatory against Mexicans. You are arguing apples and oranges, to justify your own prejudices in favor of Israel. Quite disingenuous, if you aske me. The opponents of the ground zero community center "rationalize" that it is illegal, the same way you rationalize that jews building in Palestinian Jerusalem is legal. Both are wrong, and both are irrational. You're part of the problem.
Mathguy,
It's pretty obvious to observe two rules for two peoples. As you have demonstrated, the Ground Zero mosque has given us a lot of examples of this.
Thank you for your comment.
Shannah Tovah,
TINSC
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