REAL...OR PURIM SPIEL?

Testing your Purim Spiel knowledge. Which of the following are real and which are no more than Purim Spiel?

1. The JEDI Inaugural Cohort– Jewish Federations’ JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) Initiative supports the Jewish communal ecosystem in ensuring that people of diverse backgrounds are celebrated and valued as equal members of our community regardless of their abilities, whom they love, faith-experience, or the color of their skin.  In addition to the JEDI meetings and conversations with professional and lay members of our communities over the past 6 months, JEDI is launching its inaugural Community Cohort. 

2. Jews are indigenous to this land. We are called Jews because we are from Judea. Arabs are not indigenous to this land. Most hail from Arabia and North Africa. There was never a Palestinian state here. This is the land where the first Jews Abraham and Sarah lived, King David was anointed and ruled, Jacob slept and dreamt, Joseph is buried, the Maccabees established their base, and Jewish kingdoms existed for hundreds of years.

3. We denounce the baseless accusations leveled at the government of Israel regarding the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines that have regrettably been given credence by media reports and even by a few members of Congress. Despite the Palestinian Authority, not Israel, being responsible for the healthcare of Palestinians under the terms of the 1993 Oslo Accords, and the fact that the Palestinian Authority has insisted that it would independently source its vaccine supply from Russia and the World Health Organization, the Israeli government has taken numerous steps to improve the health and wellbeing of Palestinians during this pandemic.

4. With our absolutely brilliant Abraham Accords, personally negotiated by me, among Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, we now have peace in the Mioddle East just as I predicted we would Some nattering nabobs of negativism will claim that I, with the assistance of Jared Kushner, bought this peace with a promise of arms and F-35 jets. That's not true and anyone who believes that is a liar.

5. It is deeply troubling that a Biden administration seems poised to ignore Israel’s life-or-death concerns about Iran and to instead precipitously re-enter the disastrous Iran deal, lift sanctions and exclude Israel from Iran deal negotiations. 

Chag Sameach.

My own decision -- Spiel or Fact -- will be published as an Addendum to this Post on February 28. 

Rwexler