Opinion piece in the AJC by Shmuel Ben-Shmuel.
Amen.
My co-worker, Andy, who teaches Judaics, said the Israelites would be happy if only they could be “tolerated” as a presence in the Middle East. Interesting thought. Forget about embraced. Forget about being allies. Just tolerate us. Just ignore us and promise not to attack us, and we’ll be happy with that. That would be enough.
It makes me sad.
On a semi-unrelated note, how could I not have realized before how omnipresent Christmas is? I got a Coke out of the machine at my school — a Jewish high school. It had Santa Claus on it. File that under things that make you go hmmmm…
I had this realization about Christmas about a month ago. It's a really bad sign when you just assume the person you're speaking to celebrates Christmas, and unfortunately, I was the one assuming! Although, this person did admit to celebrating with the presents and the decorations, despite the religious connection. Still. Capitalism shows no boundaries. Luckily, they're not printing baby Jesus on Coke cans.