Insanity, Inanity and a Portent of Calamity (Nissan Ratzlav-Katz)

I've been too busy to blog much today, but that doesn't mean other people aren't writing great stuff.

From Israel Insider:

This week saw at least three events that stood out for their level of inanity, insanity and portending calamity.

Vatican City Must Abandon Its Christian Character
The first item that caught my eye this week -- and knocked me off my chair for its sheer ridiculousness -- was the statement by Roman Catholic Archbishop Michel Sabbah on Wednesday that a state defined as Jewish is unacceptable and should be reformed.

Leaving aside the fact that Sabbah never critiqued the self-defined Arab and Islamic states in this region for a moment, isn't Archbishop Sabbah an official representative of the sovereign state called "Vatican City," last formal remnant of the "Holy Roman Empire"?

I could be wrong, but I seem to recall that Vatican City does have some sort of official state religion. No?

Juden, Raus!
The next item that I can't resist commenting on I refer to as "insanity," but on a more serious level, it actually amounts to a disgrace.

It seems that Knesset Member Yoram Marciano (Labor) is in favor of another Disengagement. This time in Lod, the city adjacent to Ben-Gurion International Airport and well within the 1948 armistice lines (a.k.a., the Green Line). Yes, you read that right -- Marciano has publicly advocated expelling the Jews of Lod. Why? Well, because they are living in fear and find themselves under constant anti-Semitic attack by some of their Arab neighbors. Naturally. Isn't that pretty much national policy now?

[The same Marciano was also reported organizing a "smoker's lobby" in response to Israel's more stringent anti-smoking laws - editor]

It is eminently clear that someone who thinks that the proper response to anti-Semitic violence is that Jews be expelled from their homes cannot possibly be a Zionist or a Jewish patriot. Given that, I will point out an observation that should concern Marciano strictly as a non-sectarian Israeli leader.

Experience shows that expelling the victims does not end the violence perpetrated by thugs; it merely forces them to change targets. When the Christian Arabs in Lod come under attack, will Marciano propose "disengaging" them? And after that, when Sunnis turn on Shiites, will the Shiites have to go?

Allow me to assume that Marciano would answer my rhetorical questions thus: "Of course not! Don't be racist! We of the enlightened Left only ever propose expelling Jews."

Green. Peace?
The final bit of craziness for the week is the news that the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem are to be illuminated with green lights tonight. City Hall, under Mayor Uri Lupolianski, claims that the color was selected as a sign of Jerusalem's commitment to the environment, in conjunction with Greenpeace and the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel.

I am not in principle opposed to such gestures in honor of the environment, but I wonder if it escaped the notice of the Jerusalem honchos that green is the color of Islamic conquest and supremacy. Well, timing is everything.

You see, these are also the days of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha and the season of the Muslim Haj pilgrimage.

Either the event planners at City Hall are abysmally ignorant of the holidays of their Muslim neighbors, and this is a coincidence, or they are well aware of the significance to Muslims of lighting up Jerusalem in green on their holiday -- and that is precisely why they did it. If it is the former explanation, then I am shocked at the utter stupidity; if the latter, and City Hall simply wants to deceive non-Muslims as to the purpose of the green lights, then those lights portend far worse things to come.

I don't think I agree with the last item; just because Muslims like green doesn't mean that Jews should never be able to use the color, even if it is Eid al-Adha. Specifically avoiding the color gives more legitimacy to the Islamists than using it on a day that happens to be their holiday.