Not Smart
We're quite sure that God did not send Hurricane Katrina to wipe out New Orleans because He's pissed off about disengagement. This puts us on the opposite side of the argument as Stan Goodenough, Rabbi Lazer Brody, and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
Of course, the two rabbis were mercilessly ridiculed by the Jewish and Israeli public and press, while Goodenough was flamed so thoroughly that he had to promptly apologize:
Seldom has something I have written provoked so furious and resentful a response as the piece that went up on Jerusalem Newswire last Monday morning Israel time, hours before Hurricane Katrina began to devour the Gulf Coast of the United States... Some appear to think that I am gloating, rejoicing, in the words of one man, "that God has taken vengeance upon the gentiles in New Orleans."
Nothing could be further from the truth... I understand the pain, because I share it - an onlooker’s overwhelming, compassionate pain... This week I have wept, repeatedly. And there will be more tears, I know, as I watch the terrible suffering of the people of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Only the fact that they were so roundly lambasted distinguishes these geniuses from high-ranking Kuwaiti official Muhammad Yousef Al-Mlaifi, who published an article to much public consonance claiming that Allah sent Katrina to punish the US. Not that public mockery makes their statements about disengagement any less stupid, but at least it's something.
Of course, the two rabbis were mercilessly ridiculed by the Jewish and Israeli public and press, while Goodenough was flamed so thoroughly that he had to promptly apologize:
Seldom has something I have written provoked so furious and resentful a response as the piece that went up on Jerusalem Newswire last Monday morning Israel time, hours before Hurricane Katrina began to devour the Gulf Coast of the United States... Some appear to think that I am gloating, rejoicing, in the words of one man, "that God has taken vengeance upon the gentiles in New Orleans."
Nothing could be further from the truth... I understand the pain, because I share it - an onlooker’s overwhelming, compassionate pain... This week I have wept, repeatedly. And there will be more tears, I know, as I watch the terrible suffering of the people of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Only the fact that they were so roundly lambasted distinguishes these geniuses from high-ranking Kuwaiti official Muhammad Yousef Al-Mlaifi, who published an article to much public consonance claiming that Allah sent Katrina to punish the US. Not that public mockery makes their statements about disengagement any less stupid, but at least it's something.
