Metziza B'Peh:Therapeutic Touch or Hippocratic Vestige?
“I come to inform you that your letter regarding the permissibility of utilizing an instrument to perform mezizah arrived and I respond with amazement at the nature of this question. It is well-known to every Rabbi and discerning
person that the commandment of milah is comprised of cutting the foreskin and tearing the mucus membrane. As far as mezizah that is mentioned in the Mishnah, the Talmud and the Codes, it has no bearing or connection to the mitzva of milah that we have been commanded by the Torah, rather it is a matter of health and healing of the newborn. The entire matter of mezizah is only to remove the danger. It is not recorded any place in Hazal in what manner to perform mezizah, because it is known that therapeutic measures change from period to period and location to location.In the Talmud we find many therapeutic measures provided for many illnesses, but in our time we never heard that anyone should utilize these therapies recorded by Hazal. Rather, we follow the therapies selected by the contemporary physicians since the nature of people and therapies have changed from the time of Hazal. So in each generation the therapeutic measures change. So too with the therapy of meẓizah."
Conclusion:
I hope this excursion through the arcana of medical history has not obscured the basic message that paramount halakhic authorities, such as the Hatam Sofer and most of the Litvishe Gedolim, accepted at face value the nascent medical evidence that MBP poses a risk. Now that the process of person-to-person transmission of infection is so firmly established, can we really be cavalier about that risk? For example, the CDC Hepatitis C guidelines include the risk of transmission of this deadly disease via even occasional sharing of a toothbrush! Can we guarantee that no mohel performing MBP can transmit this illness, which can be latent for several decades? Can our community anticipate a nes nigleh each time MBP is performed?
READ ENTIRE HALACHIC ANALYSIS BY RABBI DR. SOLOMON SPRECHER MD Z"l.
Six babies are said to have been infected with infant herpes in New
York City since Mayor Bill de Blasio cut a deal with the Hasidic
community that continues to allow ritual circumcisers mouth-to-genital
contact.
The news emerged
Thursday after a newborn was rushed to the hospital two weeks after
undergoing the procedure, known as metzitzah b’peh, in which the mohel
sucks the blood out of the circumcision wound using his mouth.
The Health Department under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg cracked
down on the practice due to hygienic concerns, with his administration
requiring parents to sign a waiver before the procedure.
De Blasio, who derives a large base of support from the Hasidic
community, rolled back that policy, setting instead for a compromise in
which the community was supposed to help test circumcisers from herpes
and prevent those infect from oral-genital contact with infants. Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon
A national poll by Gallup shows that the president’s approval rating among Jews stands at 31%. That’s 11% below the national average.
On the negative side, Gallup suggests, are the lack of mention of
Jews in his statement for International Holocaust Remembrance day, his
slow and lackluster response to the wave of anti-Semitism in the first
two months of his tenure and the appointment of Steve Bannon as his
chief strategist. Bannon, the report comments, “has been accused of
making anti-Semitic comments.”
On the positive side, Trump did eventually denounce anti-Semitism,
has a Jewish daughter and son-in-law closely involved with his
administration, and he has mouthed strong support for Israel.
But, Gallup notes, Trump has sent mixed messages on Israel — where he
has now said to “hold off” on new settlements and the movement of the
Embassy to Jerusalem.
Mostly, the pollsters say, the low approval rating just reflects the
political affiliations of the Jewish population, which leans 64%
democratic.
Three Democratic senators are calling on the administration to
investigate whether President Trump’s counter-terrorism adviser
Sebastian Gorka broke the law by not disclosing to immigration
authorities that he was a member of a Hungarian Nazi-allied group.
Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois, Ben Cardin from Maryland and
Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal wrote a letter to the Department of
Homeland Security and the Justice Department, asking them to examine
Gorka’s immigration papers.
The senators based their letter on the Forward’s report
which found that Gorka swore loyalty to Vitezi Rend, an ultra
nationalist organization which according to the State Department, its
members are presumed to be inadmissible to the United States.
“We are deeply concerned by reports that Dr. Gorka concealed the
material fact of his membership in the Vitezi Rend, a far right
anti-Semitic Hungarian organization, when he applied for U.S.
citizenship,” the three senators wrote. Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com or on Twitter @nathanguttman
Donald Trump’s No. 1 critic is about to get an award from Trump’s No. 1 donor.
Mark Cuban, the Texas outspoken billionaire who had trolled Donald
Trump on Twitter and made a point of sitting in the front row during
presidential debates only to get under Trump’s skin, will be awarded
later this month the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson’s “In Pursuit of
Excellence Award” at a gala dinner the Adelson’s educational campus will
hold in Las Vegas.
Sheldon Adelson backed Trump financially throughout the campaign to
the tune of tens of millions of dollars and has become one of the
president’s closest allies, spending inauguration week with the Trump
family and sitting down for a private White House dinner with Trump last
month.
The Adelsons established the school a decade ago, building on the
already existing Hebrew Academy of Las Vegas and expanding it to include
pre-school to 12th grade Jewish education. Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com or on Twitter @nathanguttman
Decades after officials worried they might be sheltering the infamous
Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele, members of the Mennonite sect in Paraguay
are coming to terms with their historical ties with the Third Reich.
Mennonites are supposed to embrace non-violence and shun political
life. But that was not the case in Fernheim, the Paraguay settlement
where a group of Mennonites fleeing the Soviet Union put down roots
after the Russian Revolution. Founded in Germany, the Mennonite religion
has retained ties to the country, and the Fernheim community received
funding from Hitler’s government, which it celebrated.
Following the outbreak of war, Fernheim was severed from much of its
contact with the Third Reich, leading to disturbances as settlers argued
and eventually came to blows over how to best continue the National
Socialist legacy. The unrest became severe enough that American
diplomats and Paraguay’s military intervened.
Uwe Friesen, head of the colony’s historical association, spearheaded
the drive to talk about that history, sponsoring a conference titled
“The Racialist Movement and National Socialism among the Mennonites in
Paraguay.”
He told the Religious News Service that it was the right time to
re-examine the history, a process that he said was true to Mennonite
ways and could lead to healing.
“Making peace means living out and offering reconciliation,” he said at the conference. The effort in Fernheim follows larger initiatives among Mennonites to consider their religion’s ties to National Socialism. Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon
Following President Trump’s controversial budget
proposal boosting the military and slashing Meals on Wheels and other
safety net programs, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that his caucus is willing to shut down the government to defeat the White House’s blueprint.
“If they put those poison pill amendments in and try to shove them
down the American people’s throats, of course they might be responsible
for shutting the government down,” the New York senator said in a
Thursday press conference. According to him, proposals to slash domestic
spending, defund Planned Parenthood and allot monies to a border wall
are non-starters in budget negotiations.
Schumer’s Republican counterpart Mitch McConnell accused his fellow leader of hypocrisy, now that Democrats are in the minority.
“I’m amused by the Democrats apparently warming up to the idea that
threatening to shut down the government is a good idea. It seems to me
everybody’s got kind of memory loss on the other side,” he told
reporters. Republicans briefly shuttered the government four years ago after a budget disagreement with former President Obama.
The two sides have until late April to fund the government and avert a shutdown. Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [solomon@forward.com](mailto:solomon@forward.com] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon
SIX MORE NEW YORK BABIES GET HERPES AFTER UNDERGOING METZIZA B'PEH:
Six
babies are said to have been infected with infant herpes in New York
City since Mayor Bill de Blasio cut a deal with the Hasidic community
that continues to allow ritual circumcisers mouth-to-genital contact.
The news emerged
Thursday after a newborn was rushed to the hospital two weeks after
undergoing the procedure, known as metzitzah b’peh, in which the mohel
sucks the blood out of the circumcision wound using his mouth.
The Health Department under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg cracked
down on the practice due to hygienic concerns, with his administration
requiring parents to sign a waiver before the procedure.
De Blasio, who derives a large base of support from the Hasidic
community, rolled back that policy, setting instead for a compromise in
which the community was supposed to help test circumcisers from herpes
and prevent those infect from oral-genital contact with infants. Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon
It’s been a tough media weekend for Sebastian Gorka, the deputy assistant to the president who was the subject of an article in the Forward about his membership of a Nazi-allied group in Hungary.
The Chicago Tribune published a critical review
of Gorka’s scholarship by Dan Nexon, an associate professor in the
Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Nixon notes
that a scholar of Islam should be able to read Arabic (Gorka can’t),
that Gorka uses out-of-date statistics and uses them wrongly, and that
Gorka has published little but a dissertation that is no support for his
chosen position.
the dissertation is particularly thin on the central topics that Gorka trades on: Islam, terrorism, and Islamic terrorism.
The Huffington Post foreign affairs reporter
Jessica Schulberg drew out the relationship between Sebastian Gorka’s
mother and the infamous Holocaust denier David Irving. She was, she
asserts, one of the main Hungarian translators helping with his book
“Uprising!”
Irving asserts that the Hungarian revolution against the communist
government was ‘primarily an anti-Jewish uprising’ ― an assessment
disputed by mainstream historians.
CNN noted
that a Gorka statement to Breitbart News Daily Radio about Trump’s
Muslim policy is false. Gorka told the far-right opinion outlet, “There
is not one instance on the campaign trail or after the President took
office in which the travel suspension was mentioned without reference to
national security — it was never mentioned, ‘we’re doing this because
of a certain religious group.’” But six months after Trump declared his
candidacy, his campaign’s December 7, 2015, press release states clearly
Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of
Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives
can figure out what is going on.
Haaretz/Ariel DavidRemains of the second Arch of Titus in Rome.
Archaeologists in Rome have discovered the remains of a second Arch
of Titus commemorating the siege of Jerusalem by Roman emperor Titus in
the 1st century C.E.
Like the original Arch of Titus,
it was built around 82 C.E. by Domition, the younger brother and
successor to Titus as the leader of the Roman empire. The second arch
was located less than a mile away from the first one.
According to a Haaretz interview
with lead archaeologist Marialetizia Buonfiglio, it was rare for Roman
leaders to build two monuments to the same war. Domition may have built
the second arch as a way to boast of his power after Rome had just
weathered a devastating fire and the destructive eruption of Mount
Vesuvius.
The original arch of Titus is one of the most iconic depictions of
Jewish history in the world. Located on the Via Sacra in Rome, it
includes a detailed relief of the siege of Jerusalem.
A menorah on the arch was used as a model for the official symbol of Israel. Until the founding of Israel in 1948, rabbis prohibited Jews from walking under the arch. Contact Naomi Zeveloff at zeveloff@forward.com or on Twitter @naomizeveloff
Getty ImagesHis Debut: Yehuda Glick gives his maiden speech before the Knesset on May 25, after his surprise ascent to the lawmaking body.
A parliament member of Israel’s ruling Likud party who survived a 2014 assassination attempt
by a Palestinian is calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu to apologize for the death of three Palestinian sisters in one
of the most high profile incidents of Israel’s 2009 war with Gaza.
The father of the sisters, Izzeldin Abuelaish, a Gaza infertility doctor who now lives in Canada, sued Israel in 2010. He asked Israel to apologize, accept responsibility for the killings and for compensation.
Likud Knesset member Yehuda Glick wrote in a Facebook post on
Saturday evening that Abuelaish is an “amazing man” who is owed an
apology by Netanyahu on behalf of the country. Glick said he was
impressed by Abuelaish’s foundation, Daughters for Life, which provides
scholarships to young women, including Israelis, to study abroad.
Israel said it bore no responsibility for the deaths of Abuelaish’s
daughters because they happened during wartime. At a hearing in March,
Israel acknowledged that it fired on the building, but also claimed that
the deaths occurred because of a Palestinian weapons cache in the
building. Abuelaish has rejected this claim. Contact Naomi Zeveloff at zeveloff@forward.com or on Twitter @naomizeveloff
A national poll by Gallup shows that the president’s approval rating among Jews stands at 31%. That’s 11% below the national average.
On the negative side, Gallup suggests, are the lack of mention of
Jews in his statement for International Holocaust Remembrance day, his
slow and lackluster response to the wave of anti-Semitism in the first
two months of his tenure and the appointment of Steve Bannon as his
chief strategist. Bannon, the report comments, “has been accused of
making anti-Semitic comments.”
On the positive side, Trump did eventually denounce anti-Semitism,
has a Jewish daughter and son-in-law closely involved with his
administration, and he has mouthed strong support for Israel.
But, Gallup notes, Trump has sent mixed messages on Israel — where he
has now said to “hold off” on new settlements and the movement of the
Embassy to Jerusalem.
Mostly, the pollsters say, the low approval rating just reflects the
political affiliations of the Jewish population, which leans 64%
democratic.
Three Democratic senators are calling on the administration to
investigate whether President Trump’s counter-terrorism adviser
Sebastian Gorka broke the law by not disclosing to immigration
authorities that he was a member of a Hungarian Nazi-allied group.
Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois, Ben Cardin from Maryland and
Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal wrote a letter to the Department of
Homeland Security and the Justice Department, asking them to examine
Gorka’s immigration papers.
The senators based their letter on the Forward’s report
which found that Gorka swore loyalty to Vitezi Rend, an ultra
nationalist organization which according to the State Department, its
members are presumed to be inadmissible to the United States.
“We are deeply concerned by reports that Dr. Gorka concealed the
material fact of his membership in the Vitezi Rend, a far right
anti-Semitic Hungarian organization, when he applied for U.S.
citizenship,” the three senators wrote. Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com or on Twitter @nathanguttman
Six babies are said
to have been infected with infant herpes in New York City since Mayor
Bill de Blasio cut a deal with the Hasidic community that continues to
allow ritual circumcisers mouth-to-genital contact.
The news emerged
Thursday after a newborn was rushed to the hospital two weeks after
undergoing the procedure, known as metzitzah b’peh, in which the mohel
sucks the blood out of the circumcision wound using his mouth.
The Health Department under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg cracked
down on the practice due to hygienic concerns, with his administration
requiring parents to sign a waiver before the procedure.
De Blasio, who derives a large base of support from the Hasidic
community, rolled back that policy, setting instead for a compromise in
which the community was supposed to help test circumcisers from herpes
and prevent those infect from oral-genital contact with infants.
Read more: http://forward.com/fast-forward/365526/6-more-new-york-babies-get-herpes-after-undergoing-circumcision-rite/
Six babies are said
to have been infected with infant herpes in New York City since Mayor
Bill de Blasio cut a deal with the Hasidic community that continues to
allow ritual circumcisers mouth-to-genital contact.
The news emerged
Thursday after a newborn was rushed to the hospital two weeks after
undergoing the procedure, known as metzitzah b’peh, in which the mohel
sucks the blood out of the circumcision wound using his mouth.
The Health Department under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg cracked
down on the practice due to hygienic concerns, with his administration
requiring parents to sign a waiver before the procedure.
De Blasio, who derives a large base of support from the Hasidic
community, rolled back that policy, setting instead for a compromise in
which the community was supposed to help test circumcisers from herpes
and prevent those infect from oral-genital contact with infants.
Read more: http://forward.com/fast-forward/365526/6-more-new-york-babies-get-herpes-after-undergoing-circumcision-rite/
When I served on the Cape Beth
Din in South Africa, I had to join my colleagues in visiting the
slaughterhouses and checking up on the shochtim. The kosher
slaughterhouse in Cape Town was part of a general slaughterhouse complex
enabling me to view the process of killing animals in both places. What
I saw convinced me that while non-kosher slaughter was quicker and more
“aesthetic” than kosher slaughter, it failed in its claim to be more
compassionate in its methods.
In
the non-kosher slaughterhouse, cows and sheep were herded at a rapid
pace into the assembly line where electrodes hanging down from the
ceiling were punched against their heads by a worker. (This was
considered the most humane method of slaughter. Poleaxing is even more
commonplace.) However it was plainly evident that the pace at which the
animals were passing meant that the electrocution was only partially
successful before many animals were strung up and painfully killed. The
kosher slaughter was less rapid and the shochet gave “personal
attention” to each cow or sheep, ensuring that his knife severed the
trachea and esophagus with one swift gesture, making sure that the
animal died immediately. I have no doubt that kosher slaughter is
overwhelmingly more humane (even if less “aesthetic”) than the
non-kosher method of slaughter and when I was Chief Rabbi of Ireland and
responsible for all the kosher slaughter there, I became even more
convinced of this.
However these experiences also introduced me
to other factors involved in the livestock trade leading to slaughter;
and over the years I became more and more aware of their implications.
Modern factory farming involves not only
quantities of livestock that had previously been unimaginable, but also
conditions and treatment that in the past would have led religiously
observant Jews to consider the consumption of such creatures as
forbidden by Jewish law .
Some of the greatest halachic
authorities of modern times such as Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and Rabbi Haim
David Halevy, both of blessed memory, declared foie gras (goose liver
produced by force feeding geese) and veal (the anemic flesh of a calf,
denied light and movement) to be prohibited, as their production
egregiously transgresses the Jewish prohibition of za’ar baalei hayim, causing cruelty to animals that is not essential for human consumption.
Now let’s leave alone for the moment the
question of what is really necessary today for healthy living; these
rabbis were simply stating the well-known fundamental Jewish teaching
that prohibits the maltreatment of animals. However anyone familiar with
the contemporary livestock trade will know that such animal
maltreatment has become the norm.
Most cows for slaughter are kept and
transported in severely restricted confines and their horns are cut or
burnt off without any anesthetic to prevent them damaging one another in
such confined areas. They are pumped with hormones and antibiotics that
change their physiology and restrict their natural functioning.
One should also note that these hormones and
antibiotics are retained in the flesh consumed by humans, with many
negative consequences.
The situation is even worse for dairy cows. In
order to induce maximal lactation which produces litres of milk for
human consumption, calves are immediately taken away from their mothers
(in direct contravention of the Biblical prohibition, Leviticus 22:27);
and the hormones pumped into them enlarge their udders to such an extent
that dairy cows are often incapable of walking.
An analysis by an American Orthodox halachic authority of the internal organs of dairy cow carcasses showed major organ distortions that would have rendered them treif, i.e. prohibited for Jewish consumption. This also has halachic ramifications regarding the milk of such treif cows.
Chickens in today’s factory farms grow three
times as fast as they did fifty years ago as a result of selective
breeding programs and the use of antibiotics. This leads to crippling
bone disorders and spinal defects causing acute pain and difficulty in
moving.
And as far as eggs are concerned – organic or
otherwise – in order to guarantee maximal production, male chicks are
killed after birth, thrown alive into grinders or suffocated in bags.
Enough of the horror stories! It should be
evident to anyone with eyes in his or her head that virtually all animal
products on the market today are the result of practices that
categorically contravene Jewish law and ethics. And even if eating these
products is considered a halachic obligation (which is not the case), under these conditions it would be a mitzvah habaah baveirah, the product of illegitimate means which disqualifies the ends.
It should be clear that the rationales of
Rabbi Moshe Feinstein and Rabbi Hayim David Halevi are not just relevant
today to foie gras and veal, but apply across the livestock/animal food
production industries.
Kashrut involves more than just the way the animal‘s throat is cut and the checking of its vital organs. Kashrut involves the whole relationship between humans and the animal world. Indeed our sages say specifically in relation to shechitah that “the mitzvot were only given in order to refine people” (Genesis Rabbah, 34; Leviticus Rabbah, 13.)
If at point Z the animal’s throat was cut the
right way and its internal organs checked, but from A to Y all
injunctions and prohibitions have been ignored and desecrated, how can
that product really be called kosher?
Why is there virtually no official rabbinic dissent let alone opposition to such practices?
Some of it is due to ignorance, but most of
all these facts are uncomfortable and it is much easier to avoid or deny
them. But might it not also have to do with the fact that the kosher
food industry, and all the rabbinic supervision and authorization
inextricably bound up with it, constitutes an enormous industry relating
to the livelihoods, interests and power of myriads of people? One
wonders whether it is even possible to stop the train of this enormous
immoral enterprise where both legitimate and not so legitimate interests
are so inextricably intertwined.
Modern technology and innovation, which
currently compound the evil, may eventually offer us ways out of this
imbroglio. Nevertheless, in the meantime if not for longer, responsible
rabbinic leadership should be advocating a plant based diet as much as
possible, as the most kosher diet available for most people today.
It is perfectly feasible in our modern world
to obtain full nutrients for a healthy body without needing to be party
to such immorality. And all this is not to mention other ethical issues,
such as greater and more equitable distribution of food resources, and
the environmental damage done by the livestock trade (which is greater
than all the forms of transport in the world put together. See
“Livestock’s Dark Shadow” issued by the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization.)
Of course there were great rabbis such as
Rabbi Avraham HaCohen Kook and before him Rabbi Yosef Albo and others,
who envisioned a messianic age in which there is no killing of animals
(and which will even be reflected in the Temple service itself). But
even if you are not attracted to such visions, in today’s modern world
the more one’s diet is plant based the more one is truly keeping kosher.
—
Rabbi David Rosen served as the senior
rabbi of the largest Orthodox Jewish congregation in South Africa, and
as Chief Rabbi of Ireland. He is currently the American Jewish
Committees International Director of Interreligious Affairs, based in
Jerusalem.
16 Things Parents Should Know About Raising a Child Who Self-Harms
The discovery that your child — your baby — has been engaging in self-harm often comes with a flood of questions: “Why is this happening? Is this something I could have stopped? What did I do wrong? What can I do now?”
While
a good first step is to take a breath; a second step might be to learn
from people who’ve been there — people with a history of self-harm. To
get you started, we asked people in our mental health community to
share one thing they would tell parents with a child who self-harms.
There answers are important and insightful, and might help you moving
forward as you and your child tackle this journey together.
Editor’s note:This
piece is based on the experience of individuals and shouldn’t be taken
as medical advice. For more information, you can also check out this guide for parents and family from Self-Harm Outreach and Support.
Here’s what people in our community told us: 1.
“Making the child feel guilty or telling them they’ve hurt you, will
make it worse. I hurt myself because I wanted to punish myself. Being
told I was hurting other people made it worse.” 2.
“Self-harming does not always equate to wanting to die — it could be a
coping method. Instead of punishing them, offer an alternative such as
pens, elastic bands or ice cubes to be used instead. Try not to be too
harsh or judgmental — they’re probably hurting themselves enough
mentally and/or physically and need an ally.” 3.
“It’s not a phase. It’s not a cry for attention. It’s a release of
pain. Your child is in pain. Treat them like they’re in pain, not like
they’re ‘crazy’ or bad. And don’t pretend you didn’t see it or that it’s
not going to happen again because it might.” 4. “As a parent, take self-harm seriously. Don’t
shame, be supportive and firm in the child getting professional help.
The cutting is a way of communicating what the child cannot put in to
words. And the most important thing: take your child in your arms and
tell them a thousand times you will never, ever give up in them.” 5.
“It’s not just cutting; self-harm can be any self-abuse including
starvation and reckless behavior with the intent to cause injury. It’s
something to manifest pain and frustration into reality. Don’t talk them
out of it; talk with them to learn why and find better channels of
release.” 6.
“Getting angry at them will not help the situation. They are already
doing it because they dislike themselves or have some mental health
issues they don’t know how to cope with. Anger may only make them want
to do it more because they feel even more worthless, and now know they
cannot express their struggles to you.” 7. “Take
them to see a licensed professional as soon as possible. Your love and
support will help tremendously, but this is a sign that they need
professional help as well. If you chalk it up to ‘going through a
phase,’ the behavior (due to constant emotional pain) may persist or
worsen as it did for me as a child.” 8. “Don’t
mistake them for an ‘attention seeker!’ They are doing it because they
need help, because they want help, so help them. Don’t blame them, don’t
be angry when they don’t stop; just help them. If someone had helped
me, I may not be in the situation I’m in today. So please, it may not be
what you want to see or hear, but help them.” 9. “Don’t be afraid to talk to your child about
it, but accept it if they choose not to. The greatest thing my mom has
done is check in with me frequently. She’s supportive when I need to
talk and she respects my need for privacy when I don’t feel up to
talking. Create a supportive environment that welcomes conversations
about it; it’s not something to be ashamed about. Don’t create a stigma
at home — we get enough of that at school and from the media.” 10.
“Just listen. Don’t respond unless they ask for your opinion. Reassure
them you want to support them and you are there – without judgment.
Don’t push them into therapy if they aren’t ready. They need to have
control over it because they likely feel that they don’t have control
over anything else in their lives right now. Be there. Don’t judge. Be
empathetic. Love them.” 11. “Please do not use
telling the doctor or hospitalization as an ultimatum threat. That only
teaches your child to fear the help they need. Walk with them through
the pain. Give them a hug. Learn about their mental illness. Ask questions. Become your child’s advocate and ally.” 12.
“Treat your children like people. Yes, they might be young people, but
that doesn’t mean their emotions or illnesses aren’t real. Take it
seriously, but be compassionate. Help your child get the help they need,
and work with them, their therapists and their psychiatrists (if they
need medication) to help them through what they are going through.” 13.
“Don’t make them promise to stop because you’ll never know how
disappointed they will feel with themselves if they’ve broken that
promise. Don’t get angry or upset because they can’t explain why; more
often than not they don’t even know why. And finally, just be open and
understanding. Do not judge.” 14. “Your child is
still your child. While self-harm is serious and worrying, don’t fear
your child. Don’t pull away or get angry. But rather continue to be
there and try and show you care and you’re open for when they’re ready
to open up.” 15. “Just because we don’t tell you doesn’t mean we don’t trust you or are trying to shut you out. We might just be too ashamed.” 16.
“I never told my parents that I hurt myself. I hid it. I was ashamed of
it… I still am. I self-harm because I feel like I don’t know how to
express my feelings. I feel shame about feeling or not being able to
control my feelings. After a while, self-harm became something I needed,
just like a drug addict. To be able to stop self-harming, I need trust,
compassion, love and understanding. I need a safe space to be able to
talk, or cry… I’m going to beat myself up about it more than you are.
Please… just hear me, listen to me, hold me and let me know that it’s
OK, even if it’s not in that moment. I need hope.”
If you struggle with self-harm and you need support right now, call the crisis hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or text “START” to 741-741. For a list of ways to cope with self-harm urges, click here.
Jason Greenblatt meets Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
If he doesn’t get it
back soon, he will fail to make America great again or safe again in the
Middle East.
After holding out for a month, last week Trump indicated he is adopting his predecessors’ obsession with empowering the PLO.
This is a strategic error.
There are many actors and conflicts in the Middle East that challenge
and threaten US national interests and US national security. Iran’s rise
as a nuclear power and regional hegemon; the war in Syria; Turkey’s
abandonment of the West; and Russia’s regional power play all pose major
threats to US power, security and interests. The Muslim Brotherhood,
Islamic State, Hamas and other Sunni jihadist movements all threaten the
US, Europe and the US’s Sunni allies in the region in a manner that is
strategically significant to America.
None of these issues, none of these actors and none of these threats
are in any way related to or caused by the PLO and its interminable,
European-supported hybrid terror and political war against Israel. None
of these pressing concerns will be advanced by a US embrace of the PLO
or a renewed obsession with empowering the PLO and its mafia-terrorist
bosses.
To the contrary, all of these pressing concerns will be sidelined – and
so made more pressing and dangerous – by a US reengagement with the PLO
.
And yet, over the past week, Trump has indicated that the PLO is now his focus.
Last Friday, Trump spoke on the telephone with Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas is
head of the PLO and the unelected dictator of the corrupt,
terrorism-sponsoring, PLO -controlled Palestinian Authority in Judea and
Samaria.
According to media reports, Trump told Abbas – whose legal term in
office ended eight years ago – that he views him as a legitimate leader.
According to the official White House report of the conversation, Trump
also reportedly told Abbas that he supports reaching a deal between
Israel and the Palestinians. Such a deal, to the extent it is ever
reached, involves expanding PLO control over Judea and Samaria and parts
of Jerusalem at Israel’s expense.
Trump also invited Abbas for an official visit to Washington. And the
day after they spoke, the Trump administration moved $250 million in US
taxpayer dollars to Abbas’s police state where for the past 25 years,
Abbas and his cronies have enriched themselves while feeding a steady
diet of antisemitic, anti-American jihadist bile to their impoverished
subjects.
To build up his credibility with the PLO , Trump put his electoral
pledge to move the US embassy to Jerusalem on ice. The real estate mogul
ordered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deny Jews the right to
their property and their legal right to use state lands in Judea and
Samaria.
And swift on the heels of that conversation with Abbas, Trump’s chief
negotiator Jason Greenblatt was dispatched to Jerusalem to begin
empowering the PLO at Israel’s expense.
According to media reports, Greenblatt intended to use his meeting
Monday with Netanyahu was to reject Netanyahu’s commitment to build a
new Israeli town in Samaria. Greenblatt was also reportedly intending to
dictate the parameters for yet another round of negotiations with the
PLO.
After meeting with Netanyahu, Greenblatt continued on to Ramallah to embrace Abbas.
Also during his stay, Greenblatt is scheduled to meet with IDF generals
who are responsible for giving money and providing services to the PLO.
And Greenblatt doesn’t have the Palestinians to himself.
Following Trump’s conversation with Abbas, plans were suddenly afloat
for Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and Trump’s
daughter Ivanka Trump to visit Israel and spend an afternoon with Abbas
in Ramallah.
If things develop as reported, then Trump is serious about embracing
the PLO and intends to have his top advisers devote themselves to Abbas
and his henchmen. If that is the case, then Trump is setting himself,
his advisers, his daughter and the US up to fail and be humiliated.
The PLO is the Siren that drowns US administrations. It is to the PLO
that America’s top envoys have eagerly flown, gotten hooked on the
attention of the demented, anti-Israel press corps, and forgotten their
purpose: to advance US national interests.
If Trump is serious about repeating this practice, then rather than
repair the massive damage done to the US and the Middle East by his two
predecessors, the 45th president will repeat their mistakes. Like them,
he will leave office in a blaze of failure.
To understand why this is the case, three things must be clear.
First, the PLO will never make peace with Israel. There will never be a Palestinian state.
There will never be a peace or a Palestinian state because the PLO
wants neither. This is the lesson of the past 25 years. Both Abbas and
his predecessor Arafat rejected peace and statehood multiple times and
opted instead to expand their terrorist and political war against
Israel.
Why did they do that? Because they are interested in two things:
personal enrichment – which they achieve by stealing donor funds and
emptying the pockets of their own people; and weakening, with the goal
of destroying Israel – which they achieve through their hybrid war of
terrorism and political warfare.
The second thing that needs to be clear is that the Palestinians are
irrelevant to the rest of the problems – the real problems that impact
US interests – in the region. If anything, the Palestinians are pawns on
the larger chessboard. America’s enemies use them to distract the
Americans from the larger realities so that the US will not pay
attention to the real game.
Iran will not be appeased or defeated if Trump empowers the PLO in its
war against Israel and continues feeding PLO leaders’ insatiable
appetite for other people’s money.
The Sunni jihadists will not beat their swords into plowshares if the
US coerces Israel to cough up land to the PLO . To the contrary, they
will be emboldened.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not move his forces out of Syria
or stop giving nuclear technologies to Iran if the US turns the screws
on Israel. Putin will come to the conclusion that Trump is either weak
or stupid to damage Israel, the US’s most serious ally.
And of course, Israel will not be better off if Trump decides to push
it back onto the peace train which has caused it nothing but harm for
the past quarter century.
Trump’s election opened up the possibility, for the first time in
decades, that the US would end its destructive obsession with the PLO.
For three months, Israelis have been free for the first time to discuss
seriously the possibilities of applying Israeli law to all or parts of
Judea and Samaria. And a massive majority of Israelis support doing just
that.
On the Palestinian side as well, Trump’s election empowered the people
who have been living under the jackboot of Abbas and his cronies to
think about the possibility of living at peace with Israel in a post-PLO
era. Polling results indicate that they too are eager to move beyond
the Palestinian statehood chimera.
But now, it appears that Trump has been convinced to embrace the PLO
obsession. The same entrenched bureaucrats at the State Department and
the same foreign policy establishment in Washington that brought the US
nothing but failure in the Middle East for a generation appear to have
captivated Trump’s foreign policy. They have convinced him it is better
to devote his top advisers to repeating the mistakes of his predecessors
than to devote his energies and theirs to fixing the mess that Obama
and George W. Bush left him with. They have gotten him to believe that
it is better to empower the PLO than develop coherent strategies and
plans for dealing with the problems of the region that actually endanger
US interests and imperil the security and safety of the American
people.
President Donald Trump invited
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to the White House. A date has not
been set yet. In the meantime, Trump envoy Jason Greenblatt is visiting
Israel and the Palestinian Authority for talks. The Palestinians seem
pleased with these developments. Israeli right-wingers, who for some
reason believed a Trump presidency means they get free reign, seem a
little worried. Trump has a packed agenda, and has had a chaotic start
to his term, and yet he still found time to spend on the
Israel-Palestine negotiations. That is not a good sign for those betting
on presidential neglect.
Why is Trump doing this? During the campaign he gave an honest
answer: it is a challenge that all his predecessors failed at, and it
would be nice to show the world his competency by succeeding where
others have failed. What is Trump’s plan for success? That is still a
mystery. If the president indeed told Abbas
what the White House statement says it did – “a peace agreement must be
negotiated directly between the two parties, and that the United States
will work closely with Palestinian and Israeli leadership to make
progress toward that goal. The President noted that the United States
cannot impose a solution on the Israelis and Palestinians, nor can one
side impose an agreement on the other” – a rocky path awaits him.
If
direct negotiations resume, they are likely to produce nothing. What
then?
Then he will have to make a decision: He could drop the ball and move
to solve other world problems (Turkey-Netherland relations seem to have
potential). He could set limited goals – instead of a comprehensive
peace – and try to achieve these goals by helping Israel and the
Palestinians slightly better the current situation. Or he could repeat
the mistake of all his predecessors and go for the jugular. Cold
calculation would advise against such a move. But Trump doesn’t always
follow what other people consider to be cold calculation.
Trump follows
his gut, his ego, his big dreams.
In the long and nuanced review
of the round of talks conducted under the leadership of former
Secretary of State John Kerry, Israeli negotiator Michael Herzog wrote,
among other things, that Kerry appeared at times “more eager” than the
two parties to reach a deal. He “pushed them beyond their limits, set
unrealistic goals and timeframes, and shouldered some burdens better
left alone or to the parties – in the belief that his own powers of
personal persuasion could overcome any obstacle.”
What was true for Kerry is also true for Trump. His eagerness is
worrisome. His possibly unrealistic goals could prove problematic. His
tendency to believe in his own “powers of personal persuasion” might
take him down the Kerry path. What happened in the Kerry path is well
documented by Herzog. His account of Palestinian expectations is
telling:
So why did Abu Mazen shut down? … the main reason lies in his
unmet expectations that the U.S. side would deliver him an acceptable
deal by pressuring Israel. Abbas entered the process with low
expectations of Netanyahu, yet he expected or was led to believe that
the U.S. side would produce a well-designed process, including
significant Israeli flexibility… He was increasingly disappointed…”
There it is: If Trump wants to get to a yes from the Palestinian
side, he’ll have to “deliver” Israel. And what delivering Israel means
is no secret. Trump will have to demand Israeli concessions on
settlements, security, Jerusalem, and other thorny items. If he does,
Israel is going to cave on some issues, but at some point, it will have
to resist.
For example: Israel is not going to agree to an arrangement that
leaves the Jordan Valley open to infiltration from other countries after
only a short period of transition. But that is currently what the
Palestinians demand (according to Herzog, Abbas “offered five years as
the period after which foreign forces might be deployed indefinitely in
the area… Netanyahu thought in terms of decades”). The US can adopt one
of four positions on this issue:
It can tell the Palestinians that Israel’s demand is reasonable – and see them “shut down” as they did with Kerry.
It can tell Israel that its demand is unreasonable – and see Netanyahu maneuver against the US position as he did with Kerry.
It can search for a middle ground – as Americans in general, and
American businessmen in particular, tend to do – and discover that some
things don’t work quite the same in the Middle East.
It can say that the parties have to solve this issue by direct
negotiations – and watch them get stuck, one issue after the other,
because the differences are just too big to bridge at this point in
time.
What will Trump’s choice be? The fact that he spoke to Abbas and
invited him to Washington tells us something about his stance – the
Israel-Palestine issue is more a priority for him than some of us
believed.
The reports about Abbas being pleased with the conversation
tell us some more – Trump did not let him feel that there is no reason
for him to engage with this administration. Greenblatt’s visiting Israel
and the PA tells us some more – the administration is not all talk, it
is moving to action. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s decision to
join Prime Minister Netanyahu in warning against settlement construction tells us some more – what they hear from Washington calls for caution.
All signs show that the games are about to begin. The teams know that
they will ultimately have to score. The referee has entered the field,
whistle in hand.
But he still needs to tell us the name of the game.
