nhboy
07-30-2012, 02:25 PM
Link to original source. (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/30/mitt-romney-misuses-judaism-to-support-israel-and-buttress-his-own-campaign.html)
"In Jerusalem, Romney used Talmudic references and Tisha B’Av to suggest the U.S. should never publicly disagree with Israel’s actions and to virtually deny Palestinian humanity. That may help him win Jewish votes, but it is bad Judaism, says Peter Beinart.
Mitt Romney should stick to Mormonism. Yesterday in Jerusalem, the GOP presumptive nominee offered some thoughts on Tisha B’Av, the fast day that commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples, and various other calamities, in Jewish history. Tisha B’Av, he declared, “calls forth clarity and resolve,” because as in the past, today “Israel faces enemies who deny past crimes against the Jewish people and seek to commit new ones.” He then went on to talk about, you guessed it, Iran.
Sorry, but that largely misses the point. Tisha B’Av is less about steeling Jewish resolve against our enemies than fostering self-reflection about the Jewish misdeeds that allowed those enemies to prevail. The Talmud says that God allowed the Babylonians to destroy the First Temple because the Jews committed idolatry, bloodshed, and sexual sins.
Similarly, the Romans are bit players in the Talmud’s intricate explanation of the chain of Jewish sins that led to the Second Temple being destroyed.
Among those sins—none of which easily lends itself to a GOP stump speech—are “baseless hatred” among Jews and a concern for ritual stringency so obsessive that it trumps concern for human life.
In his Jerusalem speech, Romney went on to insist that “we cannot stand silent as those who seek to undermine Israel voice their criticisms. And we certainly should not join in that criticism.”
But Tisha B’Av is all about the importance of criticizing Jewish behavior; that’s why, on the Sabbath before it, we read a portion of the Torah in which Moses rebukes the Jewish people before they enter the land of Israel.
Obviously, some criticism truly is destructive and unfair. But to use Tisha B’Av to suggest that the country that most clearly wishes Israel well—the United States—should never publicly disagree with Israel’s actions isn’t just bad foreign policy. It’s bad Judaism. ."
"In Jerusalem, Romney used Talmudic references and Tisha B’Av to suggest the U.S. should never publicly disagree with Israel’s actions and to virtually deny Palestinian humanity. That may help him win Jewish votes, but it is bad Judaism, says Peter Beinart.
Mitt Romney should stick to Mormonism. Yesterday in Jerusalem, the GOP presumptive nominee offered some thoughts on Tisha B’Av, the fast day that commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples, and various other calamities, in Jewish history. Tisha B’Av, he declared, “calls forth clarity and resolve,” because as in the past, today “Israel faces enemies who deny past crimes against the Jewish people and seek to commit new ones.” He then went on to talk about, you guessed it, Iran.
Sorry, but that largely misses the point. Tisha B’Av is less about steeling Jewish resolve against our enemies than fostering self-reflection about the Jewish misdeeds that allowed those enemies to prevail. The Talmud says that God allowed the Babylonians to destroy the First Temple because the Jews committed idolatry, bloodshed, and sexual sins.
Similarly, the Romans are bit players in the Talmud’s intricate explanation of the chain of Jewish sins that led to the Second Temple being destroyed.
Among those sins—none of which easily lends itself to a GOP stump speech—are “baseless hatred” among Jews and a concern for ritual stringency so obsessive that it trumps concern for human life.
In his Jerusalem speech, Romney went on to insist that “we cannot stand silent as those who seek to undermine Israel voice their criticisms. And we certainly should not join in that criticism.”
But Tisha B’Av is all about the importance of criticizing Jewish behavior; that’s why, on the Sabbath before it, we read a portion of the Torah in which Moses rebukes the Jewish people before they enter the land of Israel.
Obviously, some criticism truly is destructive and unfair. But to use Tisha B’Av to suggest that the country that most clearly wishes Israel well—the United States—should never publicly disagree with Israel’s actions isn’t just bad foreign policy. It’s bad Judaism. ."