Parents Fight To Ban Anti-Semitic School Text Book in Tennessee

In the era of Redemption, good and evil will separate out and good will be seen more clearly as will evil. The evil here is a textbook in Tennessee schools that slurs the right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel, and insinuates that terrorists are justified in their heinous crimes. The good is those parents who want this textbook banned. They do not want their children exposed to twisted thinking. It is good when people of conviction stand up for what they believe and want to strike down evil when they see it. (suggested by S. L.)

www.Opposing Views.com

POLITICS

Tennessee Parents Upset Over 'Pro-Palestinian' High School Text Book

By Sarah Rae Fruchtnicht, Sat, April 27, 2013

Some parents in Williamson County, Tenn., are calling for the removal of a high school text book they believe is biased against Israel.

The text book is taught in a college-level elective course called Human Geography and available to students in Williamson County public schools, which also offer an elective course on the Bible.

Parents are against the kinds of questions it encourages teenagers to ask. In “The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography,” author James Rubenstein writes, "…if a Palestinian suicide bomber kills several dozen Israeli teenagers in a Jerusalem restaurant, is that an act of terrorism or wartime retaliation against Israeli government policies and army actions?"

Julie West, mother of a 15-year-old at Franklin High School in Franklin, Tenn., said the question is pro-Palestinian.

"We're living in a time where people are saying, 'How could anyone put a bomb outside a restaurant or on a street intending to kill innocent people?'" West said. "And we ask ourselves that, when at the same time our children are being taught from a curriculum that says that might be okay, or at least it might be okay if those kids are Jewish."

Rubenstein said that the question was taken out of context, and that the rest of the introduction discusses both Israeli and Palestinian views of the issue.

In an email to Fox News, Rebenstein explained why such questions are important to understanding terrorism.

"For example, we want to know why the Tsarnaev brothers bombed the Boston Marathon," Rubenstein writes in the email. "Understanding why they did it doesn't mean we are justifying what they did. It's the same thing with other world conflicts and terrorist acts."

Laurie Cardoza-Moore, head of the pro-Israel group Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, says the book is anti-Semitic. She this passage from the book: "If a Palestinian suicide bomber kills several dozen Israeli teenagers in a Jerusalem restaurant, is that an act of terrorism or wartime retaliation against Israeli government policies and army actions?"

Cardoza-Moore says the book aims to delegitimize the right of the Jewish people to the Holy Land.

Tim Gaddis, assistant county school superintendent, argued that the text is not biased. He says the college-level book gives equal weight to competing argument and does not take any position.

The Williamson county school system has a formal process in which parents can write to request a formal review of a text book by a committee of representing parents, administrators, teachers, and curriculum experts. School officials have not received any formal request yet on this particular book.

"I think it's a slippery slope to go down if we start banning books because people take opposing views," said county school superintendent Mike Looney. "I think the critical question to answer is: Does the book create an opportunity for students to engage in deep dialogue about important issues in the world? And I think that it does that in the context of geography."

Sources: Fox News, UPI

Boston: Goodness & Kindness Amidst the Carnage

People offered their homes near the hospital for sleeping. Restaurants in the area gave free meals. People posted free car rides. The Red Cross had to turn blood donors away. Goodness and kindness is alive in Boston.

The Telegraph (UK)

Boston Marathon heroes: Kindness and humanity amid the carnage

Out of the horror of the Boston marathon bombings, there emerged uplifting examples of human kindness as the city's residents did all they could to help those caught up in the attack.

A police officer carries a child to safety after the
Boston Marathon bombings Photo: Kylie Atwood/CBS News

By Harriet Alexander

11:29AM BST 16 Apr 2013

One of the most shared messages on Twitter was a quote from American television host and Presbyterian minister Fred Rogers: "Look for the helpers. You'll always find people who are helping."

And it proved to be true.

So many of the runners continued to run across the finishing line and onwards to the Massachusetts General Hospital, in a rush to give blood, that they had to be turned away.

"Due to the generosity of our donors we don't need blood at this time," wrote the Red Cross for Eastern Massachusetts on Twitter.

But the volunteers kept on coming, leading the organisation to tweet an hour later: "We do *NOT* need blood at this time. Please schedule a future donation."

So great was the wish to help that the Red Cross was forced to set up a diary to arrange appointments for all those queuing up to give blood.

Others provided more immediate assistance. One man was caught on camera rushing straight to site where the bomb had detonated, where bloodied people were lying dazed on the pavement. He ripped off his belt to make a tourniquet and stem the bleeding, before turning to assist other seriously-injured victims.

Luke Russert reported on Twitter that he watched as a white-shirted volunteer in his red official baseball cap wheeled a woman out of the danger zone before rushing immediately back to the scene.

(Bill Greene/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Other people opened their homes to those who were stranded, or offered lifts to people without transport. A Google document was set up with offers of help, such as: "Located across the street from Mass General Hospital. I have a couch and an inflatable twin mattress for anyone who needs to stay."

Kristin Corona who lives in central Boston wrote: "I have a couch to offer and two beautiful chihuahuas to love you. My apartment is open to anyone in need."

Restaurants in the area offered free meals and shelter to those caught up in the tragedy, allowing people to pay only if they were able to.

"Open wifi, place to charge your phone, cold drinks, or just don't want to be alone," tweeted the owner of El Pelon, a Mexican restaurant in the area.

"My coworkers and staff deserve a lot of credit: not one blinked when asked, not one went home when they could, those not working came in."

"Israel's Democracy Should Disappear, Make Way for Judaism," Says Israeli Leader.

Ultimately, Israel's destiny is not to be a nation-state like any other, but to be ruled by the Sanhedrin, a body of sages who will establish the law of the land according to the Torah. It is significant, that already, this concept is being aired in the public arena. 

“I think that Israeli democracy, under its current structure, is in constant conflict with its Jewish identity….” – Benny Katzover

From the New Yorker Magazine, January 21, 2013

“Early last year, Benny Katzover, a leader in the settlement of Elon Moreh, told a Chabad paper, Beit Moshiach (House of the Messiah), ‘I would say that today Israeli democracy has one central mission, and that is to disappear. Israeli democracy has finished its historical role, and it must be dismantled and bow before Judaism."

H A A R E T Z

Dismantle Israeli democracy and replace it with Jewish law, says settler leader

Benny Katzover tells Chabad journal:

Israeli democracy has finished its role, and it must disassemble and give way to

Judaism.

BennyKatzover

By Chaim Levinson | Jan.08, 2012 

Israeli democracy must be dismantled and in its place a halakhic state, based on Jewish law, should be established, says settler leader Benny Katzover in an interview to a a messianic journal of Chabad.

In an interview with Beit Mashiach, the journal of the messianic faction of the Chabad Movement with ties to settlers, Katzover says that "the main role of Israeli democracy now is to disappear. Israeli democracy has finished its role, and it must disassemble and give way to Judaism. All leads toward recognition that there is no other way but to place Judaism at the center, above all else, and this is the answer to every situation."

Earlier in the interview Katzover commented on the campaign against the exclusion of women, saying that his group had information of the pending campaign.

"Our activists are linked to all the networks of the left, and we knew they were planning an incitement campaign. This is just another wave of incitement, targeting the hilltop youth and the Haredi community. The leftist activists prepare well-timed campaigns against anything which smells of holiness, and their aim is twofold: political, to undermine the government and score points among the public, and to strike at all the fundamentals of Jewish faith.

"In Jewish faith, the Land of Israel is central... The media campaigns over insignificant issues in order to undermine Jewish identity. I think there can be cooperation between the Haredim and the religious [national] communities. Incitement against us stems from the same anti-Jewish root which seeks to uproot everything," Katzover said in the interview.

Since 2008 Katzover has headed the Committee of Samaria Settlers, an NGO which has fought against the freeze of settlement construction and the razing of outposts. Katzover believes that Jews should stay in the territories even after they are evacuated. He is well respected among the hilltop youth because of his views. His ideological line has been gaining popularity among settlers since the evacuation of Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip.

Katzover was one of the first leaders of the settler movement, joining Gush Emunim, and then the nucleus of Elon Moreh, which was established in Samaria in 1979.

"I think that Israeli democracy, under its current structure, is in constant conflict with its Jewish identity, and in recent years, every time it bends its Jewish identity backwards. This structure of democracy has only one mission: to dismantle," he told Haaretz.