It comes as only a slight surprise to Vleeptron that a major agency of the Israeli government believes only Israeli Jews have worth and value, and Jews who are nationals of the USA are -- well, not real Jews, not kosher people.
God may have warm and fuzzy feelings for American Jews -- but the only Jews the Hebrew God truly loves and divinely connects with are Israelis.
Us Diaspora Jews, we're just low-rent, less holy Jews.
And we should know that and acknowledge that.
We should certainly stop trying to violate and contaminate Israelis of child-bearing age, and drag them to unholy Diaspora realms, and force the kids to live our pagan, unholy Christmukkah ways.
Probably Diaspora Jews who have chosen not to move to Israel and become Israeli citizens aren't REAL Jews at all. (Quite a few big orthodox rabbis in Israel preach that and try to enforce it in Israeli citizenship and marriage/divorce/custody law.)
I think somebody dropped this Israeli government agency on its head when it was a baby.
Okay, to reference a little theology ...
Yes, once upon a time, a long long time ago, the central rituals and sacrifices of Judaism were performed exclusively in Jerusalem, by two specific tribes of priests.
Jews who had strayed (or been abducted) far from Jerusalem could not receive the full extent of God's blessings and protections.
But the State of Israel / Eretz Yisrael, founded in 1948, no longer has central theological significance for Jewish worship. Geographical and political Israel is no longer central to the relationship between a Jew and God.
Ain't no priesthood anymore. Ain't no Temple anymore.
A Jew is equal in the eyes of God (if you believe in that kind of judgmental, personally responsive God) if he or she worships in Israel, Sheboygan Wisconsin, Sydney Australia, Salzburg Austria, Antarctica, or Low Earth Orbit.
Doubtless these lovely television ads were broadcast in Hebrew/Ivrit, and have been widely posted on YouTube by now, even though the Israeli government has withdrawn them.
This news story from the Israeli English-language daily newspaper Ha-aretz (The Land) contains the controversial government television advertisements.
Which Einstein came up with the plan guaranteed to make Jews all over the world hate and despise Israeli Jews? Was this the scheme of some future Prime Minister of Israel?
================
Agence France-Presse
newswire founded 1835
Earth's oldest news agency
Friday 2 December 2011
Israel pulls
'Don't Marry a USA Jew'
TV advertisements
The Israeli government has withdrawn an ad campaign after a rare backlash from major USA Jewish groups for appearing to urge [Israeli] expatriates not to marry American Jews or raise children in the United States.
The ads struck a nerve in a community that has long debated the nature of the Jewish identity and struggled with issues of assimilation, intermarriage and tensions between religious and secular Jews.
The first ad showed a young Israeli woman wincing after her American boyfriend mistakes candles and music marking Israel's solemn memorial day for a romantic night in.
A narrator intoned: "They will always remain Israelis. Their partners won't always understand what that means. Help them return to Israel."
A second ad showed shock flashing across the faces of a pair of Israeli grandparents when their granddaughter shouted "Christmas" in English when asked what holiday she was celebrating during a video chat.
This time the narrator said: "They will always remain Israelis. Their children won't."
The ad campaign -- which also included billboards in Hebrew urging Israelis to come home before their children started calling them "Daddy" instead of the Hebrew term "Abba" -- rippled through social media sites and was picked up by the Jewish Channel and a number of influential blogs.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the ads be pulled "immediately" and a statement released by the Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, said the premier "deeply values the American Jewish community."
Ambassador Oren issued an apology for "any offense" caused by the ads, noting that while the campaign had the "laudable" aim of encouraging Israelis to return home, it "did not take into account American Jewish sensibilities."
It was also conducted "without the knowledge or approval of the prime minister's office or of the Israeli embassy in Washington," he said after the ads triggered outrage.
"I don't think I have ever seen a demonstration of Israeli contempt for American Jews as obvious as these ads," wrote Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic magazine.
Gal Beckerman in the Jewish Daily Forward [New York City] said: "The worst part about this campaign is that it points to something deeply defective in the Israeli psyche: the notion that fear is the only motivating factor that anyone can come up with for selling the country."
The Jewish Federations of North America sent a letter of protest to the Israeli Ministry of Immigrant Absorption calling the campaign's "messages that American Jews do not understand Israel deeply insulting and simply outrageous."
"We fear this campaign will only backfire, and rather than simply bringing Israelis back, will alienate and divide Diaspora Jews from Israel," wrote the umbrella group which represents 157 Jewish federations and over 300 network communities.
The campaign also drew the ire of the Anti-Defamation League, another prominent Jewish organisation.
"We find these videos heavy-handed, and even demeaning," national director Abraham Foxman said in a statement.
"While we appreciate the rationale behind the Israeli government's appeal to its citizens living in the US to return to Israel, we are concerned that some may be offended by what the video implies about American Jewry."
The ministry initially defended the decision to launch a campaign "touching the fine nerves of Israelis and their identity."
In a statement issued to AFP late Thursday, it said that the campaign was not directed at the Jewish community in the United States or any other diaspora. It did not, however, directly address the implied insult.
"The recent claims, according to which the Israeli government is attempting to intervene in the personal choices of US Jews or to discount their lifestyle, has no connection to reality," the ministry said.
"The Immigration Absorption Ministry cherishes and values the Jewish community in the US, and acknowledges its strong bond with Israel. The ministry respects the right of each individual to their personal choices, and does not consider them its business."
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