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The Lost Cause of Alawite Zionism

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Very interesting article about Syria fron the New York Review of Books . Point of note, the sectarian ancestors of Syria's rulers (including Assad's father) defending Zionism! In 1936, six Alawi notables sent a memorandum to Leon Blum, head of France’s Popular Front government, expressing their loyalty to France and their concern at negotiations leading to independence in a parliamentary system dominated by the Sunni majority. The memorandum includes the following points: • We can sense today how the Muslim citizens of Damascus force the Jews who live among them to sign a document pledging that they will not send provisions to their ill-fated brethren in Palestine. The condition of the Jews in Palestine is the strongest and most explicit evidence of the militancy of the Islamic issue vis-à-vis those who do not belong to Islam. These good Jews contributed to the Arabs with civilization and peace, scattered gold, and established prosperity in Palestine without harming anyone or t...
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Heavenly Jerusalem on Earth

Haviva Pedaya writes on the heavenly Jerusalem in Eretz Acheret : A heavenly city as a system that moderates attitudes toward the earthly is perhaps an idea that was chiefly developed in apocalyptic literature and later in kabbalistic literature; however, the Torah itself contains aggressive legal systems aimed at moderating attitudes toward this world as the most important thing. For instance, there is the commandment to remember that we were strangers in the land of Egypt. Or, for instance, there are the laws governing shmita (sabbatical of the land, when it is lain fallow for an entire year) and yovel (the Jubilee year): “For unto me the children of Israel are servants” (Leviticus 25:55) and “The land shall not be sold for ever” (Lev. 25:23). In fact, it could even be said the heavenly Jerusalem is meant to remind all individuals that they are only temporary dwellers in this world: “I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me” (Psalms 119:19). The heavenly Jerus...
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Orthodox Heresy

Daniel Landes' review of Arthur Green's Radical Judaism: Rethinking God and Tradition reminds me of my own tension with Orthodoxy: Green admits, "(partly in sadness!) that it no longer suffices for me to limit my sense of spiritual fellowship to those who fall within the ethnic boundaries that history has given us." He is, indeed, prepared to say: "I have more in common with seekers and strugglers of other faiths than I do with either the narrowly and triumphally religious as the secular and materialistic elements within my own community." Thus Green calls for a broader "Israel," imagining "an extended faith-community of Israel, a large outer courtyard of our spiritual Temple." Although Green himself is a person who is clearly attached to the Jewish people, the logic of his position is disturbing. It leads him to privilege people possessing the proper spiritual consciousness, "my Israel," over the actual people of Israel. So G...
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