Uncle Joe Lieberman Speaks, Then Plays Handel Erhlekh

Senator Lieberman has graced us with his presence in the Connecticut Post. http://www.connpost.com/localnews/ci_8265434

Lieberman says some waterboarding OK  
By PETER URBAN Article Last Updated: 02/15/2008 01:39:42 AM EST

Beyond the obvious amusements we have come to expect from Uncle Joe, we find this:   

"We are at war," Lieberman said. "I know enough from public statements made by Osama bin Laden and others as well as classified information I see to know the terrorists are actively planning, plotting to attack us again. I want our government to be able to gather information again within both the law and Geneva Convention." 

 We are at war with Osama bin Laden and his gang. Given the way we run this war and how Uncle Joe and his friends squander resources on Al Qa'ida, I would have hated to see a real conflict with something like the old Soviet Union.
We could have spent a trillion trillions of $ on a real opponent with a nation state and army and navy and all the fixin's !
We aren't in a war. We have been looking for a war.

We had a vendetta against Al Qa'ida which we came very close to being successful at, but we decided that was not what we wanted. We wanted the military version of the blue plate special...with all the above mentioned fixin's. Oh, well, the USA is the greatest country on earth and it is the strongest in history and it is blessed by God before all others...and the mantras go on and on, and they sound eerily like the voices of Raymond Shaw's platoon in The Manchurian Candidate ( 1962):  

Raymond Shaw is the best, finest, bravest soldier I have ever known in my life.

There is a game in the Hasidic areas of Brooklyn called Handel Erhlekh, the name meaning something like "wheeling and dealing...ethically!". It is based on the Monopoly board game and it is played the same way. It includes some cards which deal with ethical issues, thus creating a reward for good choices and a kiester kick for bad: “Yiddeshe Tokhter! Du host aroys gelakht ven mener hoben gehert! Zeyer a groyse pritzus! Shtel dokh in ‘mikhutz lamakhane’ un blayb aroys 3 gang.” (Jewish daughter! You laughed when men could hear you. Very immodest! You’re excommunicated! Lose three turns.)

Uncle Joe is known as being a uncritical backer of everything the Likud party does. We wonder how he would play Handel Erhlekh: “Geholfen di Tziyonistishe medinah! Fun a shaykhes tzu reshoim kumt keyn guts nisht aroys! Nor shoden! Tu teshuvah! Zitz in a yeshivah 2 geng, un tzol far di yeshiva vifel es kost far yededn aroys gebliben gan $50 far tzedokoh!”  
(You helped the Zionist country! No good can come out of an association with evil people, only bad! Repent! Sit in a yeshivah for two turns, and pay $50 tuition per day to charity).

The Hasidic opinion of Israel, di Tzionistishe medinah, may surprise you. Note that the Yiddish for the country is "medinah" which is the same word as Arabic for city "medina" and, of course, the foremost city, Al Medina. If we speak of similarities, then consider that a small contingent of ultra-Orthodox Jewish women in Rabat Beit Shemesh have taken to wearing a hijab.

I forget what I started this post about... for more on Handel Erhlekh, visit the site Jewschool
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