*Kate Bigam of the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center rounds up reaction to Brit Hume’s advice to Tiger Woods — i.e., accept Jesus, and rebuild your family. Here’s what the Fox News anchor said about Woods’ Buddhism:
"I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith." He went on to say, "Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world."
A great example to the world, but perhaps not the world’s greatest golfer; years ago Slate religions writer Robert Wright suggested that Tiger got game because he got Buddha:
This paradox—that utter present-mindedness involves a kind of willful mindlessness—is of course quite Eastern. In Zen meditation, one object of the game is to empty your mind of thought. Personally (as I’ve suggested before in these pages), I think it’s no coincidence that the greatest golfer in the history of the universe has a Buddhist mother. "I believe in Buddhism," Woods has said. "Not every aspect, but most of it. So I take bits and pieces. I don’t believe that human beings can achieve ultimate enlightenment, because humans have flaws."
*Richard Silverstein ably translates a skit from the Israeli satirical sketch show, Eretz Nehederet, that has caused a firestorm in Israel. In it, a pair of settlers kidnap a soldier and list their demands — only to realize that their demands have effectively been met. Eretz Nehederet is broadcast on a government run channel, which meant a Knesset committee was convened, and there were the requisite accusations of "anti-Semtism" (which, like Burger Ranch’s burgers, seems to taste a little fishier in Israel).
Here’s the sketch:
And here’s the scene from the Knesset committee room:
One thing Richard’s translation missed was this threat from MK Yaakov "Ketzeleh" Katz, the National Union party leader who is parodied in the sketch as one of the kidnappers. In fairness, Katz is a wounded war vet, and the notion of him kidnapping soldiers must have cut profound — but still:
“When the day comes, and we will be in power, there will be retroactive laws against all those who were anti-Semitic against settlers and against the people of Israel and against the army, they will face trial.”
*Lara Friedman and Danny Seidemann at Americans for Peace Now object, as one might expect, to what they call the recent settlement blitz in Jerusalem — but they also object to the blitz about the blitz, noting that a lot of the supposed building starts aren’t all that:
This blitz is part real and part hype. The motivation behind the blitz is clear: fear that the peace process will take root. The goal of the blitz is also clear: to prevent this from happening.
The good news here is that the nature of this blitz – consisting of a combination of relatively obscure, small projects and projects that are unlikely to actually be implemented – demonstrates how few cards the settlers and their supporters have to play in Jerusalem.
The bad news is that every report of new provocative plans in Jerusalem – even reports that are mostly hot air – represents a very real and tangible blow to the effort to re-launch the peace effort. As such, the Obama Administration and the international community cannot let the Israeli government off the hook in Jerusalem – even as the Israeli government will try to disclaim responsibility, assert that it has no authority, and will try to downplay the importance of these Jerusalem provocations. Jerusalem is the first and best test of how serious the Netanyahu government and the international community are about peace.
*At Coteret, Didi Remez analyzes the much ballyhooed — and firmly denied on all sides — story about Rahm Emanuel threatening an American pullback from the peace process. The second-day story, Remez suggests, is that President Obama is reportedly planning a 2010 visit to Israel.
*And, hey Michael Calderone at Politico — Matt Berger‘s best work was done (and greatest notoriety was earned) here at JTA. So there.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
