Opposition to the Iran Treaty, Advice from Baltasar, Classical Music, a Column and a Letter Answering It

                                                 

More on the Nuclear Treaty with Iran

I offered my reasons for supporting the nuclear treaty with Iran in the blog’s preceding posting eight days ago, but let me now add these comments about those opposing it. 

While many have logical, well thought-out reasons for their opposition, there are three categories of naysayers whose opposition is worth very little. (1) Republicans who would oppose anything whatsoever that President Obama is for, (2) elected officials, mostly Democrats, who worry about losing voter support and possibly even facing a primary challenge and (3) supporters of the State of Israel who automatically consider the arguments of Benjamin Netanyahu to be superior to those of President Obama.

I note that most nuclear scientists in this country, from the most prestigious institutions, as well as my Congressman’s predecessor, Robert Wexler, now President of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace (and who doesn’t have to run for office as my present Representative does), all support President Obama’s position on the treaty. 

In personally discussing this with those who oppose it, I find their primary argument is that the removal of sanctions gives Iran greater resources with which to support terrorism, specifically such groups as Hamas and Hezbollah … and ignores the fact that without the treaty, Iran would be able to have nuclear weapons and the additional political leverage that would give them within just a few months, rather than at least ten years from now as the treaty would provide.

Opponents also believe the treaty leaves Iran with significant opportunity to cheat on its provisions, despite assurances from nuclear development scientists to the contrary and opposition to the treaty from "hard liners" within Iran because of the strength of those very provisions.

                                             

When I ask opponents for a suggested alternative to the treaty, all I hear from them is that we should have negotiated a “better deal.”   This reminds me of the prospective car buyer who walks out of a dealership when the salesman refuses to meet his offer and hopes that he will come running out the door chasing after him with a better price.  This might occasionally work when buying a car but it doesn’t with international diplomacy, where there isn’t a competing dealership to visit the next day.

Jack Lippman


                                               



Classical Music Returns (Sort of) to Radio
While we wait for a real public radio station, with both news/information and classical music programming to return to Palm Beach County, and I suspect that will happen in a year or two, classical music is now available to those who lost it when Classical South Florida stole off into the night without warning.  Miami's WLRN is now broadcasting classical music 24 hours a day on their HD-2 radio channel.  You may be able to get it in your car if it's equipped for HD reception and you will need to purchase an HD receiver to get it at home, but at least it's a start.  Here is the WLRN announcement.
JL 

WLRN Public Media Brings Classical Music  Back to South Florida  Classical music has come back to South Florida. Starting today, Monday, August 10th, WLRN's HD-2 radio channel switches from "Alternative News and Talk" to "Classical 24". This is our HD-2 Channel only not 91.3 FM/91.5 FM.  South Florida listeners can once again enjoy classical music 24 hours a day through HD-capable radios, live-stream on wlrn.org, as well as, WLRN's iPhone and Android apps. The decision to bring back "Classical 24" by the WLRN management team was due to the recent decision by American Public Media Group to sell its Classical South Florida radio network to Christian broadcaster Educational Media Foundation. "We understand the importance and impact that classical music has in this community," says John LaBonia, General Manger of WLRN.  "We provided it before Classical South Florida arrived in 2007 and we are happy to provide the service again." Listeners can locate the Classical 24 Playlist at wlrn.org.  To understand and learn more about the benefits of HD Radio visit http://hdradio.com/what-is-hd-radio.

A Column and a Letter

I am not a terribly religious person, but I do attend service at a Jewish Reform temple once or twice a month.  Recently I was offended by a column which appeared in my local paper written by Mona Charen, a right-wing pundit who used to work for President Reagan, and which touched on religious subjects to make a political point.  The only good thing that I ever have had to say for Ms. Charen was that her column’s taking the place of the column of another right-wing columnist, Cal Thomas, in the Palm Beach Post was an improvement.

Here is the column, which appeared locally on August 3, as well as the letter which I wrote to the Post and which was published on August 8.  (I have added, in brown, a few personal comments on what her column says.)

Ms. Charen's Column:

Will Jewish Democrats sink Iran deal?

By Mona Charen - Creators Syndicate 


Charen

“Seven Jewish Lawmakers Could Tilt the Scales on Iran Deal,” headlines The Times of Israel.  The members — Sen. Charles Schumer, Rep. Steven Israel, Rep. Eliot Engel, Rep. Adam Schiff, Rep. Nita Lowey, Sen. Ben Cardin and Rep. Ted Deutch — are all Democrats. They must choose between loyalty to their party’s president and concern about what the deal portends for Israeli and American security.

There are long and short answers to the question: “Why are Jews liberal?” The long answer traces back to the Enlightenment in Europe, when parties of the right were monarchist and anti-Semitic, while parties of the left favored pluralism and religious freedom.  

(What does the question of why Jews are liberal have to do, if anything, with the preceding paragraph?)

Jewish liberals often explain that their views spring from Jewish tradition, which admonishes the Jewish people to engage in “tikkun olam” or “healing the world.” I’m skeptical. Tikkun olam is traditionally understood as adhering faithfully to the commandments — keeping kosher, visiting the sick and observing the Sabbath, for example — the better to prepare the world for the messianic age. Many of those who brandish the Hebrew phrase today have commandeered it to bolster support for same-sex marriage, government-run health care and the rest of the progressive agenda — an interpretation that would, to quote the immortal words of Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof,” “cross a rabbi’s eyes.”   

(Ms. Charen is entitled to her belief in the "traditional" meaning of "tikkun olam" but she crosses a line when she uses that belief for political ends.)

The short explanation of Jewish liberalism is straightforward. Jewish Americans tend to be disproportionately urban, secular and educated.

Jewish Americans are less likely than any other religious group in America to say they believe in God. A 2013 Pew poll found that 62 percent of Jews reported that their identity was rooted mainly in culture and ancestry rather than religion. Only 34 percent of Jews said they were certain God exists, compared with 69 percent of the general public.

While 62 percent of American Christians and 81 percent of Muslims report attending services at least monthly, only 23 percent of Jews do. (Fifty-eight percent of Jewish adults are college graduates, compared with 29 percent of the general population. About 20 percent of Americans live in rural areas. This is true of only 4 percent of American Jews.

Even without knowing anything else about Jews, the above statistics would predict what we see: that about 70 percent of American Jews lean Democrat, while 22 percent are Republicans.   

(Note how Ms. Charen attempts to document that Jews, whom she has already labelled as “liberals,” are not particularly religious, that statistical fact perhaps being an explanation for their “liberal” interpretation of “tikkun olam” and the basis for their having "commandeered” it for their own non-religious purposes.)

But here’s the kicker that Schumer, Cardin and others will want to bear in mind: The American Jewish world is changing very fast. The older, more secular doggedly liberal Jews are dying off, falling away from organized Jewish life and intermarrying — which means their children are no longer Jewish in most cases. Orthodox Jews, by contrast, are thriving, and they have large families; having 10 or more children is not uncommon.





(and Orthodox Jews don't buy into that broader, more social "liberal" meaning of "tikkun olam" which Ms. Charen implies might not even survive this demographic change, so liberal Jewish politicians had better watch their backs!)

They might forgive a vote for Obamacare. But a vote to provide billions of dollars to the paymasters of Hezbollah and Hamas; a vote to permit the Iranian regime to acquire missiles, stealth aircraft and more with which to kill Americans and Israelis; a vote that, in essence, accepts the eventual nuclearization of Iran without any corresponding concessions from the mullahs?

Do Democrats want to chance it?

My Letter to the Post

In her Monday column – Will Jewish Democrats sink pending Iran nuclear deal?”- Mona Charen, in opposing the treaty, characterizes the Jewish concept of “tikkun olam” (repairing the world) as having been commandeered by not particularly observant Jews who use it to bolster support for progressive social and political ends.  While the far more narrow definition of “tikkun olam” which Charen described might be acceptable to Orthodox Jews, I believe that Conservative and Reform Jews who constitute the majority of Jews in the United States generally believe otherwise. 

What is more tragic is that she has chosen to use this difference in religious views among the branches of Judaism as a tool in voicing her far right agenda and in opposing the nuclear treaty with Iran.  Presidential contender Mike Huckabee’s evoking of the Holocaust went down this same path. 

Jack Lippman


                                                
Advice from Baltasar Gracian

With a Presidential election fifteen months down the road, exposure to politicians and pundits cannot be avoided.  With that in mind, here’s a bit of advice from Baltasar Gracian, that early Seventeenth century Jesuit scholar whose pocket oracle, “The Art of Worldly Wisdom,” offers much good advice. What follows is something I have to try to learn to do, and certainly those seeking the Republican nomination should be reading thrice daily.

    
Gracian 
                       

 159 Know how to suffer fools.  The wise are the least tolerant, for learning has diminished their patience.  Wide knowledge is hard to please.  Epictetus tells us that the most important rule for living lies in knowing how to bear all things: to this he reduced half of wisdom.  To tolerate foolishness much patience is needed.  Sometimes we suffer most from those we most depend upon, and this helps us conquer ourselves.  Patience leads to an inestimable inner peace, which is bliss on earth.  And the person who does not know how to put up with others should retire into himself, if indeed he can suffer even himself.

JL

 

                                                

 

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