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The Phyllis Chesler Organization |
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An Open Letter to My Readers
by Phyllis Chesler
May 8, 2012
  Be the first of your
friends to like this.
I miss writing to you and I miss commenting
on the events of the day on a bi-weekly basis. Instead, I have generated more
than 50,000 words for my new book.
But believe me: I have "what to
say" as my grandmother and aunts might have put it.
But first, please read this analysis
of what Prime Minister Netanyahu has just accomplished, here characterized as
one of the "most significant political maneuvers in recent memory and
probably in the history of Israeli politics. Thank you Philip Trauring at
ZionSquare.
Now, here's my own roundup of the last few
weeks.
Women are having acid thrown in their faces
in Yemen if they refuse to veil or are not properly enough veiled.
The Egyptian brothers are preparing a law
that will allow girls to be married at fourteen. Oh yes, the brothers also
repealed the law against polygamy and woman's right to divorce.
At least 40% of Iraqi women in Kurdistan have
been genitally mutilated. According Rend al-Rahim, former Iraqi Ambassador to
America: "The retreat in women's rights has to do with the resurgence of
patriarchal narrowly conservative social mores….Sharia is a convenient peg
for the deeper instinct of male dominance in Iraq."
Does anyone out there still believe that the
Arab "Spring" is good for Muslim women or for Muslim
progressives and intellectuals—or, for that matter, good for Christians,
Israel, and America?
Well, Tom Friedman did and still does but
now, sometimes, he doesn't; grim progress of sorts. Even he has been dragged
into reason, against his will by reality; he even wrote that such a
"Spring" is more "complex" than he'd originally envisioned
and may take time to "evolve."
They are headed back to the 14th
century but yes, it may take them some time to get there.
Does anyone out there really believe that
Jewish Israel persecutes other religions, especially Christians?
Bob Simon of Sixty Minutes sure does.
He did an entire program on this very subject. The man is blind, deaf, and
obviously dumb (as in truly stupid). Simon does not see that churches are
being torched and Christians murdered by murderous Muslim mobs all over the
Islamic world—but, he has concluded that Christians are fleeing the Holy
Land, (not true, by the way), due to Israeli Jewish oppression. His program
was merely further propaganda for "Palestinians."
The man remains on board and has issued no
apology.
Liberal and Holocaust-survivor Jews continue
to fund the ADL, the organization that is always wrong and always behind the
times.
When I first read Abe Foxman's 2003 book on
anti-Semitism, I could not believe my eyes. How could someone who manages to
bilk the Jewish world of 50-70 million dollars each and every year not
understand that the most lethal anti-Semitism of our era is coming to us from
the Islamic world and that the Western intelligentsia, the "left,"
is conspiring with it? Nevertheless, Foxman continues to see right wing
Christian Nazis under every bed.
Now, the indefatigable Charles Jacobs, the
founder of the American Anti-Slavery Group and the President of Americans for
Peace and Tolerance, presented this truth in a devastatingly simple way.
Jacobs looked at the subject matter of ADL press releases and found that
37.8% concerned traditional anti-Semitism; 30.5% concerned social justice
issues; 24% concerned Israel and the Middle East; and 2.6% concerned
Islamic extremism and Arab anti-Semitism; 5% concerned terrorism.
In the shadow of Iranian genocidal
anti-Semitic threats and a rise in global anti-Semitism, this is not good
enough. In fact, it is dangerously suicidal.
Dr. Mordechai Kedar visited me when he was in
NYC. Refreshingly, he does not believe that Israel is Iran's "first
target" and that the Arab Sunni states are both more frightened of
Iran's aggressive designs on the region and less able to defend themselves
than Israel is. The entire world is Iran's first target, not Israel.
"Why should Israel have to do the heavy lifting and save the
world?"
Oh, have I got things to say about the
upcoming American election—but that will have to wait for a proper piece.
Oh yes—I saw two operas, both disappointing,
both featuring the most distinguished operatic divas. Both Manon with
Anna Netrebko and Traviata with Natalie Dessay were tarted up,
modernized, ripped from their historical centuries and rendered heartlessly
contemporary. The pornographic poses, which I have seen at the Met before,
(in Lola and Carmen for example), are heartbreaking and
unnecessary. I never thought I'd say this but here goes: Bring back the
Zeffirelli sets, I promise I will still keep coming to see the same old
wonderful sets.
I attended a book launch and lecture at
Brandeis House for a new book by my friend and colleague, Helene Aylon. The
book is titled: Whatever
is Contained Must Be Released and it is the Memoir of an Orthodox
Jewish girl who grows up to become a major feminist artist. I am so glad for
Helene's success. Her reading was utterly charming, whispered, magical,
whimsical and funny. Three pieces by Helene hang in my home and in my writing
studio. Go—Helene! And thank you, Shulamith Reinharz, for encouraging me to
come.
I will keep writing. I will post some
articles of course. I even plan to leave town for a mini-vacation very soon
since my wrist is quite beyond battered.
Next month, on June 11th, in the evening,
I will be speaking together with author Talia Carner, at the 92nd
Y, about "Women's
Self-Expression in Religious Society," and at a veteran feminist
event which will honor Kate Millett at the Judson Memorial Church on June 24th
in the afternoon. Both events are in New York City.
My third study on honor killing will be out
in Middle East Quarterly in June, in the summer issue.
I hope to begin a new study sometime soon.
See you soon, in my next article.
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