The Council has spoken

The Watchers Council has held its weekly conclave. This week the meeting occured at the Council's retreat in the Swiss Alps. The winning Council post was "Evolution" ="Growth" by Soccer Dad. Here is a sample:

One of the thing conservatives like me marvel at is the way the supposedly objective media will describe a conservative politician who adopts liberal positions as having "grown" in office. It doesn't really mean that the politician became more flexible, because a politician moving in the other direction would be described as "having become more conservative." What "grown" means is "he's become more like us."

That's how to approach the Washington Post's U.S. Jews' Relationship With Israel Evolves. "Evolves" in this case means the same thing as "grown" in the context mentioned above.

Growing up at Congregation Olam Tikvah, Michelle Pearlstein remembers how Israel was taught at religious school: "Black and white -- you can't trust anyone, and it was a united front in support of Israel." Today, Pearlstein, 35, is the Israel specialist at the Fairfax synagogue, where she teaches what is now the mainstream approach: "We call it 'Israel, warts and all.' "

The change in curriculum is but one manifestation of the changing relationship between American Jews and the Jewish state, even as the country celebrates its 60th birthday this week.

Multiple new polls show that younger American Jews feel less of a connection to Israel than older Jews. And while there is heated debate about some of the polls' methodologies and conclusions, most Jewish leaders are very concerned about the data. The leaders see them as a long-term byproduct of intermarriage, assimilation and controversial Israeli policies, including settlement expansion in the occupied
territories.

I'd put that last bit differently, "... growing ambivalence, reflecting attitudes seen in the media, towards such non-controversial Israeli policies as defending itself against terrorist organizations." But of course emphasizing "settlements" as "controversial" underscores the reporter's belief that American Jews are becoming more like her.

Go read the rest.

The winning non-Council post was Numb by Kaboom: A Soldier's War Journal. Here is a sample:

My girlfriend thinks I need my mid-tour leave. My family thinks I want it. My soldiers think I’m dreading it. They’re all right, of course, but all wrong, too. It kind of depends on what mood I’m in. And whether I have the energy at the time to even care or spawn a mood in the first place.

I think I’ve figured out why soldiers have trouble telling their war stories back home – these are the real soldiers, by the way, the ones with war stories not only worth telling but worth listening to. It’s because they know the words that come out of their mouths, no matter how eloquent or clear or fair, will do a disservice to what actually occurred. How can you explain absolute madness to people who have only known order? None of this makes.

(Insert interpretation here.)

If you really want to know what happens over here, or happened before in other foreign lands in other Sucks to older soldiers, you have to disappear. Find a big group of recovering warriors, get them drunk so their relearned civilities fade, and just listen. I’m new to this whole veteran gig, but I gotta think, that’s the only way. That’s only if you really want to know, though. Know about the fears, the panics, the epical failures, the late night bullshit sessions that always end in “I don’t know, man. Fuck it.” None of the parade stuff, the Red the White and the Emo. I’m not sure there are too many individuals who want to know about it all on that level, not that I blame them. An abyss of confusion is best reserved for those who sought it out willingly.

Again, go read the rest.

The full results can be seen here.