Monthly Archives: April 2023

A blueprint for the future of the North West Regional Hospital, the Mersey Community Hospital and the Burnie Parkside Precinct over the next 20 years has been released for public consultation.

The Masterplan outlines the Tasmanian Liberal Governments long term vision of new contemporary, state-of-the-art health precincts at the North West Regional Hospital and the expansion and modernisation of sub-acute care services at the Mersey Community Hospital, delivering a complete revitalisation of our hospitals on the North West.

The Masterplan ensures Government makes the best use of the land and buildings available, and maximises every opportunity to support safe, high-quality services at our hospitals in the North West now and into the future.

Some of the key features in the Masterplan include new developments such as a new Womens and Childrens Precinct, the completion of a new Mental Health Precinct, new staff and administration hubs, and a substantial increase in car parking.

Premier and Minister for Health, Jeremy Rockliff, said the release of the draft Masterplan for public consultation is a positive step forward as we shape the future of hospitals in the North West.

Our vision for health services in the North West will deliver world-class, state-of-the-art facilities to support our incredible health workers and ensure Tasmanians seeking health care can access the health care system they deserve, the Premier said.

The Tasmanian Liberal Government has a firm long-term commitment to health services in the North West, including the critical role that the Mersey Community Hospital plays in delivering hospital and health services for the region, and this Masterplan will mean this commitment becomes a reality.

The Masterplan we are releasing today is a framework that addresses not just our current infrastructure, and how we can improve that, but it also looks at what infrastructure the community requires to support health services over the next 20 years.

Works are already underway at the MCH with more than $41 million being poured into delivering a new outpatients clinic and additional theatre spaces. Additionally, we have already committed $60 million for Stage 1 of the redevelopment at the NWRH, with $40 million allocated to delivering a new Mental Health Precinct.

We are getting things done when it comes to building and upgrading critical health infrastructure with our Government committing more than $1.5 billion over the next decade.

I invite the community to come forward and have their say on this important plan, which will be vital to the delivery of health services in the region moving forward.

An online portal has launched, where people can find out more about the draft North West Hospitals Masterplan and have their say. Drop-in sessions for the community will also be held in Burnie and Latrobe on the 17-18 May 2023.

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North West Hospitals to undergo 20-year revitalisation plan - Mirage News

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis walks outside the Treasury during his visit in London, Britain April 28, 2023. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hoped his first international trade mission would generate lucrative business deals and boost his foreign policy resume ahead of an expected presidential run. Instead, he faced questions about losing ground to former President Donald Trump and being taken to court by Walt Disney World.

The trip reflected the intensifying pressure confronting DeSantis as some of his allies grow increasingly anxious about his White House prospects. Within a few short years, he rose from relatively a relatively obscure congressman to Trump's leading Republican rival by embracing the former president's cultural grievances without the constant tumult.

WATCH: Battle between Disney and DeSantis now playing out in court

But it turns out DeSantis isn't immune from drama. Facing questions this week about his standing within the GOP and his fight with Disney, he's sometimes appeared agitated, reinforcing concerns within corners of his own party about his readiness for the rigor of presidential politics. Some in the GOP said that rather than burnish his image as a fighter, the confrontation with Disney over an anti-LGBTQ law and the theme part's right to self-governor is becoming a distraction.

"My goal would be for this spat to end. They've been our longtime partner," said Republican state Sen. Joe Gruters, the immediate past chair of the state GOP and a Trump supporter. "We should be focused in a positive way on helping our job creators."

Speaking in Israel, DeSantis expressed confidence in his actions and is showing no sign of letting the Disney issue go.

"I don't think the suit has merit, I think it's political," said DeSantis, whose political team has used the Disney fight to raise money. "The days of putting one company on a pedestal with no accountability are over in the state of Florida."

The fight has been going on for more than a year. It began when Disney spoke out against legislation that would prevent discussion of sexual preference and gender identity in grades K-3. DeSantis responded by accusing Disney of being "woke" and calling lawmakers to Tallahassee to punish Disney by stripping it of a decades-old right to make development and expansion decisions on its own.

"There's a new sheriff in town," DeSantis said last year when he announced plans to get back at Disney. And in his new book, he boasted about outsmarting the company.

But some are questioning who is outsmarting who as Disney waited until the governor was out of the country before suing him, claiming that he's retaliating against the state's largest private employer for simply speaking an opinion.

Democratic state Sen. Linda Stewart, whose district is near Disney, said she understands that DeSantis made big headlines when he first stood up to Disney, and that it rallied his core supporters. But the longer the feud drags on, the more it could backfire.

"I'm betting on Disney. They probably have more money and lawyers than the state of Florida," Stewart said. "As he progresses on, people are getting mad at him. The citizens of Florida do not like him going after family-friendly, economic development for the community. People don't want government involved in business."

READ MORE: Florida's DeSantis says Disney lawsuit against him is politically motivated

Stewart says that DeSantis's anti-Disney comments are getting more petty. The governor this month pointed out that the Disney district the state took over controls a lot of undeveloped land. He told reporters that the land could go to a prison, a competing theme park or some other project.

"Really? A prison? A nuclear plant? A new theme park? I mean, what kind of rationale is he putting out there?" Stewart said. "It doesn't even make any sense."

DeSantis is eyeing a presidential campaign launch once the state legislature wraps up its session next month. As that moment nears, public familiarity with the governor is improving. Just 24% of U.S. adults say they don't know enough to rate him in the April AP-NORC poll, compared with 30% in October and 42% in July 2021.

Still, that increased familiarity has translated almost entirely to increased negative views toward DeSantis: 45% have an unfavorable view of him, up slightly from 40% in October and 30% in July 2021.

Overall favorable ratings for DeSantis have largely remained the same: 31% say that have an unfavorable opinion of him in the new poll. Unfavorable ratings, however, are concentrated among Democrats.

Among Republicans, 63% now say they have a favorable view of DeSantis, a tick up from 57% in October. The shift is concentrated among moderate and liberal Republicans, who have grown more familiar with him.

With that shift, favorable ratings of DeSantis (63%) and Trump (68%) are largely similar among Republicans. Trump's unfavorable ratings are slightly higher than DeSantis' (30% vs 20%), while more say they are unfamiliar with DeSantis than Trump. Overall, about half of Republicans say they have a favorable view of both men.

There's an open question of whether the continuation of the Disney fight will dent DeSantis' political standing. Now that it's in court, the lawsuit will keep popping up in headlines if DeSantis eventually enters the presidential race.

DeSantis' own U.S. senator and predecessor as governor, Republican Rick Scott, told Fox Business that he agrees with DeSantis on the law Disney spoke out against, but he said he hopes the feud will die down.

"What I hope is that cooler heads are going to prevail here," Scott said Wednesday. "We've got to figure out how to solve this problem, how to make sure Disney continues to grow in our state, how Disney continues to invest and add more jobs."

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Hoping to bolster foreign policy credentials, DeSantis overseas trip overshadowed by Disney fight - PBS NewsHour

As Maharashtra celebrates its 63rd Foundation Day, some politicians in the state are causing controversy over the location of a petroleum refinery at Barsu village in the Sindhudurga district. Nothing highlights the hypocrisy and doublespeak of the Shiv Sena, the principal opposition party in the state, more vividly than this. A forward-looking Maharashtra is being forced to close doors to development and take the path of negativism.

One wonders what happened to its much-touted legacy of progressivism. Maharashtra was once known for intellectual giants such as Lokmanya Tilak, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, and C D Deshmukh, social reformers like Mahatma Phule, builders of institutions that revolutionised popular thinking like Dr Hedgewar, Vinoba Bhave, Maharshi Karve and Vithal Ramji Shinde, freedom fighters like VD Savarkar, and politicians like YB Chavan. Recently, Maharashtra seems to be struggling to provide truly honest intellectual leadership.

The reasons for this decline are not far to seek. Firstly, the virus of hypocrisy has seriously afflicted the thinking circles in the state. Not a single politician or social leader who takes pride in Maharashtra's progressive legacy ever forgets to mention that this is the land of Phule, Shahu Maharaj, and Ambedkar. For many, merely mentioning these names has served as an umbrella to hide all their undemocratic, feudalistic, and even obscurantist acts.

It was the era of post-Mahatma Gandhi's assassination that saw the sowing of the seeds of hypocrisy in Maharashtra's politics. The riots and arson, plunder and loot that were witnessed in the state immediately after Gandhi's dastardly assassination met with only feeble condemnation. Selective amnesia and recognising only convenient facts were to become almost permanent ingredients of the approaches of most in the political class in Maharashtra, later!

Many from this so-called progressive cabal have closed their eyes when intellectual untouchability and thought-apartheid ruled the roost. Otherwise, known for tom-tomming about freedom of expression, they chose to look the other way when PB Bhave, a literary giant, was almost thrown out of the Marathi Sahitya Sammelan held immediately after the Emergency. All of a sudden, their liberal values vanished when Ramesh Patange, a senior RSS leader and author, was not allowed to speak at a seminar held by progressives where he was an invited speaker. They were tight-lipped when a needless controversy was manufactured on the subject of Maharashtra Bhushan to be given to historian Babasaheb Purandare. When it comes to politics of hurt emotions, these tsars and tsarinas of Marathi progressivism have always taken a religion-specific approach and silently watched the gagging of the likes of Taslima Nasrin. The duplicity of their approach came to the fore when they remained silent on the ban of the Satanic Verses and created a brouhaha over a complaint against the famous Ghashiram Kotwal, decades before, both cases of alleged hurting of emotions!

What is more appalling is the progressive cabal's willingness to crawl in front of the Thackerays when, in fact, they are asked to bend. Today, whatever remains of the so-called Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA), parties that had opposed the ban on Ambedkar's Riddles in Ramayana have joined hands with those who had advocated the same from the rooftop. Shiv Sena politics was always known as anti-democratic. Balasaheb Thackeray had defended the infamous Emergency of 1975. Besides the party's openly anti-South Indian or anti-Gujarati positions and the Robin Hood brand of politics, which is many times fuelled by protection money mechanisms, there are many aspects of Shiv Sena's style of functioning that no genuine progressive would ever accept. However, simply to cater to their own pathological hatred of RSS and BJP, progressives have been turning a blind eye to Shiv Sena's uncivil activism.

Throughout these years, Marathi progressives have developed a ghettoised mindset. With thought apartheid top of mind, most of them refuse to be seen in the company of a Sanghwala, deny recognition to any artist, litterateur, or journalist with an RSS background, and totally ignore the number of social work projects started by RSS persons. In the land of Phule-Shahu-Ambedkar, the progressives have promoted crass intellectual untouchability, and that too in the name of those who were true epitomes of all liberal values. All this puts a big question mark on Maharashtra's ability to provide thought leadership to the nation.

Thanks to the complete politicisation of the creative and intellectual spheres, dominant sections of the traditional thought leadership of Maharashtra pose a much more serious threat to those who do not subscribe to their brand of progressivism. From theatre to cinema, music to literature, and education to media, these pseudo-progressives try to corner every other recognition and call names when persons opposed to their brand of progressivism are decorated by some award. More often than not, this pseudo-progressive cabal seems to be thriving on a 'you-scratch-my-back; I-will-scratch-your-back' principle. While mutual obligation mechanisms have helped them sustain their grip, the loss of objectivity and non-partisan approach has cost the thinking circles heavily.

In contrast, the approach of RSS towards this needless ideological polarisation and untouchability deserves mention. Firstly, many in RSS recognise unhesitatingly that even beyond RSS, there are many honest and passionate social workers serving society. Secondly, RSS has always tried to build bridges across ideologies. Many, not subscribing to the RSS view in its entirety, have routinely graced the Vijaya Dashmi function as Chief Guests. No gatherings of the so-called progressives have ever seen an avowedly RSS person being invited to grace and given respect.

What is more deplorable is the fact that this thought apartheid has led to a near-total demise of authentic journalism. It has become fashionable to talk about what they call "Godi-Media" today. In reality, many media persons in Maharashtra seem to toe the line of Shiv Sena. Generally speaking, whether in power or opposition, Shiv Sena continues to influence not just the news but also the edit pages of key print-media publications. So much so that the popular impression of journalists indulging in a different kind of politics, including that of vocabulary, punctuation, headlines, and placement of news items, is gaining ground with every passing day.

Apart from being caught in the web of politics of fear and crass partisanship, Maharashtra also seems to be in the grip of the politics of patronage. Movie directors, theatre artists, and quite a few men of letters have been, although obliquely, given a clear message that to wear a badge of progressivism, you have to be anti-RSS and BJP. Not just that, those obliged by the progressive echo system are made to see no wrong in dynastic politics, open threats of violence given by some 'upcoming' leaders or denigration of Veer Savarkar. The silence of a powerful section of opinion makers on issues like sugar barons exploiting sugarcane growers, or diverting waters from particular dams to select areas in an unjust manner, speaks volumes.

With the spirit of accommodation now shrinking, the days of a genuine exchange of thoughts and ideas have become a thing of the past. The trio of Phule, Shahu, and Ambedkar must be cursing all those who swear by them and behave exactly opposite to their ideals.

Vinay Sahasrabuddhe is former MP, Rajya Sabha and columnist, besides being President of Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author.

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Opinion: The Hypocrisy Of Maharashtra's Progressives - NDTV

Published 8:42 am Sunday, April 30, 2023

By Hunter Cloud

The Daily Leader

BROOKHAVEN Lawrence County native Adam Butler serves as the turkey program coordinator for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks and recently made recommendations to change the turkey season frameworks and regulations. His recommendations came after years of work.

Butler presented his recommendations in an educational session in February on the status of the turkey program. He proposed changes for the 2024 turkey season at the April meeting which the commission accepted into a 30 day public comment period, which is currently open until the next commission meeting.

In the same February meeting, he gave a report of Mississippi experiencing its best hatch of poults in a long time with 2.4 poults per hen after a series of poor hatches.

He said the department started looking at changing Mississippis turkey season in 2015 to 2016 with the publication of its Comprehensive Wild Turkey Management Plan. The first quote found in this plan comes from Aldo Leopolds report on a Game Survey of Mississippi in 1929.

On account of the high proportion of forest lands, and especially the wide dispersion of natural refuges in the form of swamps, no state has a more favorable chance than Mississippi to produce a large and stable crop of wild turkeys, Leopold wrote. In juxtaposition, the first paragraph of the plans technical copy states recent data suggests a decline in reproductive success, hunter success and total harvests of turkeys.

MDWFP set seven objectives in the comprehensive plan. First, provide the priority, capacity and support needed to manage the wild turkey resource, collect comprehensive data on wild turkey populations which scales accurately to inform policy decisions. The department has an objective to promote, facilitate and undertake practices that address limiting factors, provide turkey hunting opportunities which satisfy hunters and yield quality outdoor experiences. They wanted to acquire the best available science to guide wildlife management, minimize unlawful exploitation of Mississippis turkey resource and increase understanding of wild turkey ecology and management.

At the time, harvest per 100 hours hunted had dropped significantly to 2.9 in 2016 from a peak of 4.7 in 2004. Butler said Harvest rates peaked 30 years ago and have been in a decline since then and poult per hen numbers have indicated a similar decline. While populations fluctuate naturally, they are lower than they were in the 1980s, considered a gold standard of turkey hunting in Mississippi. Public concern and comments about population decline really helped initiate the process.

Turkeys have declined. There are a lot of reasons for it. The nature of the situation is it isnt as bad as people perceive it to be, Butler said. There is a legitimate reason to worry about turkeys. There isnt one single cause for a decline though. Public sentiment asked us to take a look at it and see what we could do to evaluate our approach to hunting.

Changing dates

The turkey program met with a focal group of several dozen people from hunting, wildlife and habitat management backgrounds. Butler said one of the things the groups agreed on was the season structure needed a change.

Focal group respondents suggested the current season framework, open March 15 to May 1, is too early and too liberal for the state. A suggestion uniform across the groups, Butler said. MDWFP determined it needed to evaluate what they were doing and Butler wanted to make changes based on data.

They first started with Game Check, a mandatory online reporting system for turkeys, to collect data on where, when and how many turkeys are harvested. MDWFP took different pairs of Wildlife Management Areas and set one as a control and closed the other for turkey season until April 1.

In addition, Mississippi State University provided a harvest model project to provide a forecasted look at how different changes would affect the turkey population over the long term. Butler said in the February meeting their changes in the spring season at the WMAs and in the forecast model had a limited impact on wild turkey numbers.

Forecast models and research conducted in other parts of the country documented the sensitivity of turkey populations to fall and winter hen survival. Mississippis fall season allows hens to be legally harvested. MSUs data illustrated a 2 percent increase in hen survival by eliminating a fall season thus increased populations by 2.5 times.

Eliminating the fall season would also protect gobblers for the upcoming spring season and protect jakes who by then could have grown eight inch beards and fit the bill of a Tom. Harvest of male birds in the fall is counter-intuitive to the management goals, Butler said.

He also made recommendations to shorten the spring season by about a week to line up with gobbling activity in order to help improve hunter success and close the fall season. March 23 is the day you are most likely to hear a turkey gobble according to gobbling activity data.

Mississippi is one of the final states to make a change to its spring season and one of the more conservative in approach. Tennessee for example opened its season on April 12 this year. Butler said he wanted to balance hunter success, keeping Mississippis early and long season while doing what is best for the resource.

Im proud we took a deep dive and looked at every aspect of the seasons frameworks. Ultimately, we came down to where we are at, Butler said. The really dramatic changes we struggle to see how it would make a difference. On the flip side, we have good data. Hunters were successful under the old frameworks even with controls for fluctuating habitat and bird populations. If we dont make more turkeys we can get more out of them. We believe we have heard the publics concern and feel the decisions are warranted but real dramatic changes are not.

Tennessee Turkey Program Coordinator Roger Shields said the turkey harvest early in the season was up quite a bit compared to previous seasons after changing opening dates. In the first 16 days of the season, hunters have bagged 21,888 turkeys, an increase from the 2022 season which opened on April 5. Hunters bagged 15,322 birds in the first 16 days of the 2022 season.

An increase in harvest could be due to the poult per hen figures being higher than the five year average. 2021 hatch data showed 2.22 pph and 2022 had a hatch of 2.19 pph above the five year average of 1.7 pph. 2020 hatch data shows Tennessee had 1.4 pph. Shields said hunter success early in Tennessee could be due to a few reasons.

In 2021 we had a good hatch and expected more mature birds. We had a good crop of two year old birds coming into the season and opening weekend was good weather wise as was the youth opener, Shields said. This past weekend was cool but was nice. The last three weekends have allowed hunters to get out and hunt. It could be birds have gobbled well and they seem to respond well to calls. They arent henned up due to starting two weeks later. We often tell folks though I hate to say too much in one year because there are so many variables.

Good weather and a good hatch could have helped Tennessee this year or it could be a result of the season moving back. Shields said he would like to see more years of data.

Tools for the department

One other crucial change that was recommended was adding a mandatory physical tagging system. Currently, law enforcement officers lack the tools to catch poachers and outlaws who kill over the bag limit. MDWFP surveys suggest that the most common turkey hunting violation is harvesting over the bag limit.

One of the most sensible things is to give our officers every tool possible to reign in illegal exploitation of the resource, Butler said. Having a physical tagging system makes it easier to work those cases. It is nearly impossible to make a bag limit case with a hunter currently. They have to catch them with four turkeys. In a tagging system, once you burn your third tag you can be cited for any more harvested turkeys.

Butler said early on they would do more education than enforcement on tagging if someone forgot a tag, something commissioner Leonard Bentz expressed concern over.

Physical tags will be a responsibility but the hunters who really care will be willing to shoulder the burden, he said. They know how delicate the resource is and to try and ensure we have it as good as we have it today.

Collectively, Mississippians can help restore turkeys through habitat improvement and restoration. Butler said 30 years ago Southwest Mississippi was a better landscape for turkeys than anywhere else in the state. Game Check harvest data shows the region is lagging behind already low numbers this season.

One thing that has changed in the Southwest region is timber type. Upland hardwoods and mixed timber stands have changed as landowners invested in Loblolly pine plantations. Cattle operations have also shrunk over the years. Pastureland provided great brood habitat but aforestation of fields into pine plantations has caused problems.

Butler said pine stands can be good habitat but required intentional management through the use of thinning and prescribed fire. MDWFP offers private land site visits, Fire on the 40 workshops and cost-share programs to aid landowners with habitat management.

We have to figure out how to get people more involved in actively managing habitat, Butler said. If we can get more landowners burning I think our turkey problems will go away. We recently landed a $5 million grant to help landowners implement burning. It takes the initiative from landowners to get it done.

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Proposed Spring turkey changes began a while ago thanks to public ... - L'Observateur

Having so many Canadian politicians invested in real estate is a problem.

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In the midst of an affordability crisis that has struck Canada harder than almost any other country, the public should be worried that an unusually high proportion of its politicians are landlords.

This column will look at whether MPs are in conflict of interest when they vote on laws affecting house and rent prices. It also digs into whether the House of Commons lacks cabinet ministers and MPs who represent the millions of Canadians struggling to enter the housing market or to just find a modest place to rent.

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Last year, 62 Liberal MPs received money from investment properties in some form or other, as did 54 Conservative MPs (including leader Pierre Poilievre); six Bloc Quebecois MPs; four NDP MPs (not including leader Jagmeet Singh); and Green party Leader Elizabeth May.

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Liberal Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray (Quadra) co-owns vacant land, a rental property and has shares in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS). Photo by RICHARD LAM /PNG

Virtually all politicians paint themselves as champions of affordable housing. But since Liberal cabinet ministers hold the seat of power, its most relevant to ask whether the many invested in real estate are in conflict of interest when they shape decisions that directly or indirectly impact housing costs and rents.

Michael McDonald, former head of the University of B.C.s Centre for Applied Ethics, says its more than valid to question the motivations of cabinet ministers and MPs who earn money through real estate, especially those with multiple properties.

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I see potentially serious conflict of interest issues that deserve publicity, and in more extreme cases (politicians) recusing themselves from influencing or making decisions that affect house prices and renting, said McDonald, who serves on the conflict of interest committee of B.C.s Provincial Health Services Authority.

That said, McDonald stresses it can be complicated to determine when a public-policy-maker is in a conflict of interest. While there should be especially intense onus on MPs for whom real estate is their main business to avoid conflicts, McDonald suggested guilt or innocence needs to be determined case-by-case.

The other fundamental question, McDonald said, centres on representation, on whether would-be homeowners and renters have enough people in Ottawa, in provincial capitals or at city halls to truly represent their interests.

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Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal (Surrey-Newton) is a developer involved in almost a dozen numbered real-estate companies. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /PNG

Just as disabled people, women and Indigenous citizens need to feel theyre not politically marginalized, so also do the unhoused and the marginally unhoused, said McDonald.

Do we have enough people who really understand what its like to be desperately trying to get a rental in Vancouver while competing with 10 others for the same place? In Vancouver and Burnaby, for instance, an average one-bedroom unit goes for a gut-churning $2,600 a month.

But most MPs, MLAs and mayors dont rent; they own their homes and often much more property. The applied ethicist supports shining the spotlight on politicians real estate, while urging them to support housing rules that could go against their financial self-interest.

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That would not only be a vote-getter, McDonald said, it would also be wise.

Maybe its a lot to ask, but they would do it for the benefit of the common good.

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Douglas Todd: Many Canadian politicians belong to the landlord class. We should question their motivations - Vancouver Sun

The recent election cycles demonstrate that the majority of Jewish Israelis want to live in a Jewish state. They voted repeatedly for parties that support traditional Judaism of one form or another. However, the demonstrations of the past months against proposed reforms that subjugate the judiciary to the legislature show that the majority of Jewish Israelis also want to live in a democratic state. They will not put their lives on the line for a dictator.

The problem is that the streams of Judaism that most Israelis recognize as legitimate, and for which they voted Mizrachi traditionalism, messianic Zionism, and ultra-Orthodoxy tend to be ambivalent about democracy at best, anti-democratic at worst.

How did we get to a place where the most extreme, often authoritarian, racist and xenophobic forms of Judaism are considered by the majority of Israelis to be the most authentic, and what if anything can we do about it?

Zionism resulted from two European revolutions Enlightenment and Emancipation. Enlightenment was a 17th-century intellectual movement that placed human reason at the heart of belief and practice. Emancipation was an 18th-century political movement that offered citizenship to all inhabitants of newly established nation-states, regardless of religious faith.

This challenged the two pillars of pre-modern Jewish identity, religion and politics. Throughout the Middle Ages, Jews lived in separate communities governed by rabbinic law, which paid homage to local rulers as a collective, not as individuals.

Enlightenment reason challenged Jewish religious belief and practice, and Emancipation politics enabled Jews to leave their small communities as individuals, whether or not they wished to be identified as Jews, to become citizens of the larger nations in which they lived.

There were three major responses to these revolutions.

The first response: Liberal Jewish religion, which accepted the terms of Emancipation so that Jews could become citizens of local nation-states. To this end, Reform, Conservative, and, to some extent, Modern Orthodox Judaism responded to the demands of Enlightenment reason with adjustments to Jewish belief and practice, each in its own way.

The second response: Ultra-Orthodoxy, which rejected the terms of both revolutions and sought to insulate Jews and Judaism from modern influences.

The third response: Zionism, which rejected the terms of Emancipation, believing that European and other Western societies would never fully accept the Jews. Secular Zionism also embraced the Enlightenment critique of religion, which it sought to replace with a new national Jewish culture grounded in humanism.

WITH THE destruction of European Jewry, those adhering to the first response ended up mostly in North America; those following the second and third responses primarily ended up in the newly established State of Israel. Whereas liberal, North American Jews interpreted Jewish life in keeping with the democratic values they found in the US and Canada, ultra-Orthodox and Zionist Jews, both secular and religious, have too often colluded to delegitimize their Diaspora counterparts by refusing them full recognition.

This is how Israel came to deny full religious freedom, a fundamental democratic right, to most members of the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, even as it sought their financial and political support.

The ultra-Orthodox and Zionists in Israel were eventually joined by Jews from North Africa and the Middle East whose Judaism had not been influenced by Enlightenment and Emancipation, which were European phenomena, and later by Jews from the former Soviet Union, who had lived under totalitarianism and knew little of the Jewish religion.

Neither of these large voting blocs has historic experience with, or strong commitment to, democratic values. The vast majority of those protesting the judicial reforms hail from the secular, cultural and humanistic segments of Israeli society.

They protest in the name of democratic values, even as they fail to uphold the fundamental democratic principle of religious pluralism for Jews. They do not protest in the name of Jewish values, however, because they have become increasingly inarticulate about how their Jewish secularism differs from their democratic liberalism.

Israeli Jewish secularists have tended to forfeit Judaism to the Orthodox. However, as messianic Zionism and ultra-Orthodoxy have overtaken Israeli Jewish religion, while collaborating with extreme ultra-nationalists who promote racism and xenophobia, Center-Left Jewish secularists say to themselves, If that is authentic Judaism, I want no part of it.

Those who support the judicial reforms, on the other hand, come from those segments of Israeli society that either oppose Enlightenment altogether, along with the democratic values that it spawned, or whose interpretations of Judaism never fully engaged Enlightenment ideas.

In contrast, Reform, Conservative, and to some extent Modern Orthodox, Jews in North America, together with a small contingent in Israel, have rigorously engaged Judaism with democratic values for nearly two centuries. Yet, by virtue of their perceived inauthenticity, the conversation about democracy and Judaism in Israel tends to exclude them.

Sadly, this rejectionism has not been a one-way street. North American Reform, Conservative, and to a lesser extent Modern Orthodox Jews have been historically ambivalent about Zionism, conceived as the political self-determination of the Jewish people in its ancestral homeland. They prefer the belief that the United States and Canada will embrace Jews in ways that Enlightened and Emancipated Europe ultimately did not.

These communities are very often as disdainful of Israeli Jewish secularists as the latter are of Reform and Conservative Judaism, and have not encouraged their youth to take up the challenges of building a Jewish society in the land of Israel. Instead, they have tended to teach an idealized version of Israel, which too often leaves young people disappointed when confronted with Israels harsh complexities.

Combine this with a lack of exposure to the Palestinian narrative or to academic arguments about Zionism as a form of settler-colonialism, and we can understand why many of these young people feel alienated from the very idea of Israel as a Jewish or democratic state.

Although the North American liberal Jewish denominations may be more articulate than Israeli secularism about how Jewish sources express democratic values, they appear to be less effective in transmitting these interpretations of Judaism across the generations. This may be due, at least in part, to their doubts about the very political framework that has the capacity to nurture and maintain those interpretations through publicly funded educational and cultural institutions the State of Israel.

In short, those interpretations of Judaism that celebrate modernity and seek to promote democratic values as expressions of, not antithetical to, Jewish life need one another now more than ever. These include the broad ideological mainstream of Jewish life, as opposed to the extremes secular Israeli cultural humanism, Reform and Conservative Judaism, and the liberal wings of modern Orthodoxy and religious Zionism.

As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of Israels independence, the time has come to abandon old rivalries in order to offer interpretations of Judaism consistent with democracy, so that the next time Israeli voters go to the polls, they can vote for a Jewish and democratic state, rather than facing a false choice of one or the other.

The writer is a professor of philosophy of education at the University of Haifa and the 2021-2023 Koret visiting professor of Israel studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

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Judaism and democracy - enemies or friends? - opinion - The Jerusalem Post

As members of the Emory University faculty body, we join in solidarity with all those who seek to protect the land of the South River Forest in DeKalb County, Georgia. We oppose the plan to construct a massive, militarized police training facility, known colloquially as Cop City there.

On Monday, April 24 through early Tuesday, April 25, Emory students staged a nonviolent demonstration on Emorys Atlanta campus Quadrangle to protest Cop City. During the course of the demonstration, the students were met by both Emory and Atlanta Police Department officers with threats of arrest. We condemn the presence of Atlanta police on our campus in response to our students nonviolent direct action.

One of the largest undeveloped tracts within the area currently known as Atlanta, the South River Forest, also known as Weelaunee forest, is part of the Muscogee homelands. The Muscogee (Creek) lived as stewards and in relationship to this land for more than 13,000 years, until they were violently driven out in the 1820s and 1830s. This forest is also situated in a predominantly Black and underserved neighborhood. Many members of Atlantas Black community oppose the construction of this police training center. There are legitimate fears about the further militarization of the Atlanta police, the trauma of an increased police presence and the environmental impacts of the forest destruction. We have already seen arrests with domestic terrorism charges, as well as the use of chemical irritants, rubber bullets and live ammunition. The latter resulted in the murder of Manuel Esteban Paez Tern, the Venezuelan non-binary eco-activist known as Tortuguita.

As University of California, Santa Cruz Distinguished Professor Emerita Angela Davis recently noted in a statement condemning the building of Cop City, this movement is at the crucial intersection between movements to abolish police and prisons and those Indigenous-led movements to save our forests, and indeed our planet. She argues that a new collective consciousness regarding the structural forms of racism is taking shape, stating many of us recognize the insistence on old forms of policing as an attempt at further entrenchment of racial capitalism, promoting authoritarianism, political repression and fear-mongering.

Like Professor Davis, we stand in solidarity with all those who seek to protect the forest. We stand with all those who condemn the building of the massive, militarized police training facility in the Atlanta Forest. We stand with the Emory students who voice their opposition to the construction of Cop City. We stand with those who condemn the violence that is exemplified by the current police and state responses to Cop City protestors.

Thus, we join faculty members, students, staff and alumni from Emory and other prominent colleges and universities in Atlanta who have voiced their opposition to the construction of Cop City. These include Spelman College, Morehouse College and Georgia State. We also draw attention to two letters (June 2022 and January 2023) written by Emory physicians critical of the Cop City project, which highlight the negative and violent impact the expansion of policing has on public health. A third letter by more than 200 healthcare workers and students in the Atlanta metro area demanded Emory faculty to resign from the Atlanta Police Foundation board.

We cannot remain silent in light of this continuation of systemic racial and environmental injustice on public land in our city, Atlanta. We hereby demand

1) that the leaders of both Emory University and Emory Healthcare two leading institutions in the City of Atlanta publicly and officially denounce the planned police training facility;

and we further demand

2) that the leaders of Emory University and Emory Healthcare support the rights of its students, staff and faculty to free assembly in protest of this dangerous, unjust and unwise project, especially in light of the long history of civil disobedience in our city and country;

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with the stipulation

3) that the leaders of Emory University and Emory Healthcare urgently act on these demands in the near future, before its too late.

These demands are in line with Emory Universitys strong commitment to social and racial justice. These commitments are exemplified in such projects as the Taskforce on Untold Stories and Disenfranchised Populations, which includes plans for Twin Memorials for the purpose of honoring and memorializing the untold experiences, stories, and contributions of enslaved individuals and their descendants who lived and worked on the Universitys original campus in Oxford, Georgia, and the Universitys main campus in Atlanta, and the Indigenous Language Path to honor the Muscogee and other Indigenous peoples whose lands now support Emorys two campuses and the entire city of Atlanta. They also include the Arts and Humanistic Inquiry Initiative announced by Provost Ravi Bellamkonda, which highlights the importance of climate research, racial justice and equality and the arts and social justice; and the demands are in accord with plans to advance Racial and Social Justice at Emory and beyond, as endorsed by University President Gregory L. Fenves.

Given Emory Universitys commitment to racial and social justice, to protecting the land, to honoring the Indigenous and enslaved persons whose unpaid labor helped to create our institutions and to developing and sustaining a moral conscience alongside the acquisition of knowledge, we encourage everyone to educate themselves about these important issues and we support our students efforts to engage in direct action.

Emory faculty who wish to add their names to this open letter may do so using this form.

Sincerely,

Dilek Huseyinzadegan, PhD, Department of Philosophy, ECAS and LGS

Sara McClintock, PhD, Department of Religion, ECAS and Graduate Division of Religion, LGS

Michel Khoury, MD, Department of Neurology, ESOM

Gautham Reddy, PhD, Emory Libraries

Adriane Ivey, PhD, Department of English, OCEU

Walter C. Rucker, PhD, Department of African American Studies, ECAS and LGS

Rose Deighton-Mohammed, PhD, Institute for Liberal Arts, ECAS

Nimmi Natarajan, MD, Department of Emergency Medicine, ESOM

Janeria Easley, PhD, Department of African American Studies, ECAS

Uriel Kitron, PhD, Department of Environmental Sciences, ECAS

Thomas Rogers, PhD, Department of History, ECAS and LGS

Jeremy R. Bell, PhD, Department of Philosophy, ECAS

Mark Risjord, PhD, Institute for Liberal Arts and Department of Philosophy, ECAS

Amy Zeidan, MD, Department of Emergency Medicine, ESOM

Nolle McAfee, PhD, Departments of Philosophy and Psychiatry, ECAS, LGS, ESOM

Henry Kahn, MD, Family and Preventive Medicine, ESOM (Emeritus)

Jessica Lynn Stewart, PhD, Department of African American Studies, ECAS

Daniel Reynolds, PhD, Department of Film and Media, ECAS

Dabney Evans, PhD, MPH, Rollins School of Public Health

Elizabeth M. Bounds, PhD, Candler School of Theology and Graduate Division of Religion, LGS

Chad Crdova, PhD, Department of French and Italian, ECAS and LGS

Kristin D. Phillips, PhD, Department of Anthropology, ECAS and LGS

Marta Jimenez, PhD, Department of Philosophy, ECAS and LGS

Aisha Finch, PhD, Womens, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, ECAS and LGS

Michael Kramer, PhD, Department of Epidemiology, RSPH and LGS

Eric Bulakites, PhD, Department of French and Italian, ECAS

Pablo Palomino, PhD, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, OCEU

Saed Atshan, PhD, Department of Anthropology, ECAS and LGS

George Yancy, PhD, Department of Philosophy, ECAS and LGS

Valrie Loichot, PhD, Department of French and Italian, ECAS and LGS

Neil Lava, MD, Department of Neurology, ESOM

Malinda Maynor Lowery, PhD, Department of History, ECAS and LGS

Katherine Young, DMA, Department of Music, ECAS

Eri Saikawa, PhD, Department of Environmental Sciences, ECAS and LGS

Pamela Scully, PhD, Womens, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, ECAS and LGS

Kylie Smith, PhD, SON and LGS

Clifton Crais, PhD, Department of History, ECAS and LGS

Stu Marvel, PhD, Womens, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, ECAS and LGS

Joel Rust, PhD, Department of Music, ECAS

Falguni Sheth, Professor, Womens, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, ECAS

Mariana P. Candido, Department of History, ECAS and LGS

Daniel LaChance, Department of History, ECAS and LGS

Aaron Anderson, MD, Department of Neurology, ESOM

Mitchell Damian Murtagh, PhD, Womens, Gender and Sexuality Studies, ECAS

Tehila Sasson, PhD, Department of History, ECAS and LGS

Tara Doyle, PhD, Department of Religion (Emerita) and CST

Yanna Yannakakis, PhD, Department of History, ECAS and LGS

Julio Medina, MFA, Department of Theater and Dance, ECAS

Debra Vidali, PhD, Department of Anthropology, ECAS and LGS

Peter D. Little, PhD, Department of Anthropology, ECAS and LGS

Lynne Huffer, PhD, Department of Philosophy, ECAS and LGS

Harshita Mruthinti Kamath, PhD, Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies, ECAS, LGS

Wesley Longhofer, PhD, Organization & Management, GBS and LGS

Judith A. Miller, PhD, Department of History, ECAS and LGS

Ellen Gough, PhD, Department of Religion, ECAS and Graduate Division of Religion, LGS

Chandra Ford, PhD, MPH, Behavioral, Social & Health Education Sciences, RSPH, and African American Studies, ECAS

Joshua Mousie, PhD, Department of Philosophy, OCEU

Lisa Dillman, Professor of Practice, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, ECAS

David Nugent, PhD, Department of Anthropology, ECAS and LGS

Kwok Pui Lan, ThD, CST and Graduate Division of Religion, LGS

Jason Morgan Ward, PhD, Department of History, ECAS and LGS

Anna Grimshaw, PhD, Department of Anthropology, ECAS

Karen Stolley PhD, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, ECAS and LGS

John Wegner, PhD, Department of Environmental Sciences, ECAS and LGS

Devaka Premawardhana, PhD, Department of Religion, ECAS and Graduate Division of Religion, LGS

Tanine Allison, PhD, Department of Film and Media, ECAS

Arri Eisen, PhD, Department of Biology, Institute for Liberal Arts and ECAS

David Lynn, HHMI Professor, Departments of Chemistry and Biology, ECAS and LGS

Maria Franca Sibau, PhD, Department of Russian and East Asian Languages, ECAS

Sean Meighoo, PhD, Department of Comparative Literature, ECAS and LGS

Marjorie Pak, PhD, Program in Linguistics, ECAS

Bethany Caruso, PhD, MPH, Hubert Department of Global Health, RSPH

Peter Wakefield, PhD, Institute for Liberal Arts, ECAS

Hiram Maxim, PhD, Professor of German Studies and Linguistics, ECAS

Matthew Payne, PhD, Department of History, ECAS and LGS

Angela Porcarelli, PhD, Department of French and Italian, ECAS

Roxani Eleni Margariti, PhD, Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies, ECAS and LGS

Michelangelo Grigni PhD, Departments of Computer Science and Mathematics, ECAS and LGS

Myra Woodworth-Hobbs, PhD, Center for the Study of Human Health, ECAS

Deanna M. Kaplan, PhD, Department of Preventive Medicine, ESOM

Roman Palitsky, PhD, Emory Woodruff Health Sciences Center

Christine Ristaino, PhD, Department of French and Italian, ECAS

Andrew J. Mitchell, PhD, Department of Philosophy, ECAS and LGS

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We must defend the Atlanta Forest: An open letter to President ... - The Emory Wheel

The royal couple will be anointed, appointed, invested, oiled, crowned, and then throned. Buckingham Palace

But sadly, they will not see the most important bit the spiritual centre of the ceremony, which the palace has decided must be censored. This is the divine appointment itself. Suddenly, in a Pythonesque moment, into the abbey will rush a team of Knights of the Garter carrying a large tent, which they will erect to cover the King and Queen, the Queens hairdresser, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Inside, unseen by the public, the King will change into a white shirt and be anointed with holy oil on his head, his breast, and his hands ladled from the coronation spoon. The holy oil has already been mixed in Jerusalem, with the traditional ambergris eliminated reportedly because the King supports save the whales.

The Queen is then anointed on her head, and the royal hairdresser steps forward to clean her up. The King quick-changes back into his purple robes, and the divinely appointed monarchs step out of the canopy and back into view for Charles to swear the coronation oath, to maintain the Protestant Reformed religion and preserve inviolably the settlement of the Church of England. The King is at last allowed to sit on his throne (its only built for one) holding his orb and sceptre, to receive homage from the audience. It is uncertain whether Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will manage to swear to be your liegeman of life and limb and of earthly worship, to live and die against all manner of folks, so help me God.

Artists Sophie Greenaway, second left and Claire Parkes add the finishing touches to a new Camilla, Queen Consort wax figure at Madame Tussauds in London, ahead of the coronation of King Charles III on May 6. AP

The royal couple, having been anointed, appointed, invested, oiled, crowned, and then throned, are then led to their golden coach by four sword-bearers the Sword of State (the British State), the Sword of Spiritual Justice, the Sword of Temporal Justice, and the Sword of Mercy the only sword that is kept blunt. Then its off in the golden coach to party at the palace.

It is all very quaint and picturesque, and the King does promise at the beginning to govern his realm of Australia and the diminishing number of other realms that retain him as their Head of State. Quite why he should think that he governs them today is an accident of history dating back to the Act of Settlement of 1700 when to avoid a Catholic ever coming to the throne, the right was bestowed only on the descendants of a German princess Sophia of Hanover, who is by inference embodied now in the Australian Constitution. Until we change it, her heirs (and only her heirs) can become an Australian Head of State. Some of these heirs have been decent enough. Others have been ... well ..

Victoria Arbiter talks us through the incredible royal jewels and regalia that will be a centrepiece of King Charles' coronation.

So, Australias Head of State must be of German descent the royal family changed its name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor during World War I to pretend that they were not related to the enemy. Thanks to the coronation, the monarch must be a practising Anglican Charles would have to be dethroned should he become a Methodist or a Muslim, let alone an atheist. So Australia, for the next 90 years, will be reigned over by a white, Anglo-German Protestant male Charles III, William V, and George VII.

It may be that the utter silliness of the coronation ritual will spur on our republic cause. Although I have no doubt that Charles III unlike Charles I (who was executed) and Charles II (who deserved to be) will be a very good king for the UK. But before we start spending public money on adorning state and federal government offices with pictures of the newly crowned King and Queen of Australia, some thought might be given to more appropriate national symbols of our true sovereignty.

Faith Bandler (right) prepares to cast her vote in the 1967 referendum. The Aboriginal activist would be a more appropriate national symbol of our true sovereignty. George Lipman

There is, for example, , and the Treasury has not decided on her replacement. My vote would go to the most inspirational person I met when a university student in Sydney. She was an island woman, , daughter of a slave kidnapped by blackbirding from Vanuatu. Bandler was mentored by Jessie Street and became a remarkable activist the moving spirit of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.

She led the last successful referendum campaign in 1967 to remove the racist clause (Section 127) in the Constitution that prohibited First Nations people from being counted as Australians in the national census and gave the federal government the power to provide land rights. Bandler was conscious of the need for all parties support, epitomised in the photo (which should now shame Peter Dutton) of her standing together with Labors Gordon Bryant and the dapper but decent Liberal prime minister Harold Holt, foreshadowing their 91 per cent victory.

I once went canvassing with Bandler in Redfern, where a few of her people were saying, bugger the referendum we want homes, and we want the cops to stop beating us. She would fix them with her earnest face and reply: Our dignity depends on changing the Constitution. That is the reply I am sure she would give today to those who are minded to think otherwise.

The Opinion newsletter is a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own.

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In a land far, far away, a silly ritual will hand us our new king and queen - Sydney Morning Herald

Last August, I published Theodor Herzl: Zionist Writings, three volumes of Herzls books, articles, diaries, and speeches. I wrote an introduction to Herzls life and introductions to each of the 11 years Herzl was a Zionist activist. Since then, people keep asking WWHT: What would Herzl think?

Sadly, they often snort the question, as doomers-and-gloomers assume he would detest the primitive gang of Neanderthals currently destroying his dream. Although I have criticized this government, as we celebrate Herzl Day, Iyar the 10th, May 1, this year 163 years after Herzls birth I beg to differ.

Herzl would probably say, Yes! The con worked I fooled them. Herzl the lawyer knew that he and his people were playing a weak hand. But Herzl the playwright, the showman, knew how to wow them convincing czars and sultans, kings and prime ministers, that he was King of the Jews and that Zionism was as central a movement then, as it actually is now, thanks to him and his fellow dreamers.

Founders are funny phenomena. They can be caricatured into meaninglessness, hijacked left and right, or used as battering rams to say, you see, how we disappoint them. And, yes, Theodor Herzl is often better remembered today for his look, not his books. And its striking: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls him our modern Moses, while Tel Aviv hipsters grow Herzlian beards and some protesters, these days, wield iconic photos of him with a tear streaming down his cheek.

But at this critical moment, Herzl and Zionisms other founders remind us what most of us felt this Remembrance Day and Independence Day theres much more uniting us than dividing us, and it goes way beyond our vicious enemies. Headlines emphasize the few disruptors at the military cemeteries I was moved by the shared quiet and pain that enveloped the country on Monday night followed instantly by Wednesdays joy and barbecuing during Israels still-whiplash-inducing double holiday.

Headlines highlight the most mulish ministers and protest-leaders I keep hearing about progress in the President Herzog-supervised negotiations and the 74% of Israelis craving judicial compromise. Headlines revel in Israels flashpoints I loved watching downtown Jerusalem turn into one, big, blue-and-white flash mob on Tuesday night.

In 1897, this 37-year-old, Budapest-born, Viennese-trained, lawyer, playwright and journalist convened a Zionist Congress in Basel to solve the Jewish Question in a humane and modern way. Europeans wondered why so many people hated the Jews while Jews wondered why they were so hated. The Enlightenment promised to mainstream Jews into Europe, but it misfired. Reeling from this increased ancient hostility, some Jews immigrated, fleeing their tormentors; others assimilated, fleeing their Jewishness.

Eventually, Herzl decided the only answer was to transform the Jewish Question into a Zion Question. Were not just a religion, he realized, We are a people, with a particular history, heritage, and homeland, Zion, meaning the land of Israel. Knowing that a national political renewal requires a strong cultural foundation, Herzl deemed the Jewish national liberation movement, Zionism, a return to Jewishness even before there is a return to the Jewish land.

Unfortunately, especially when examining Eastern Europes Jewish masses, this proud Westernized Jew, with his piercing dark eyes and impressive black beard, saw a paralyzed people demoralized by poverty and persecution. He wanted his Zionist Congress to reawaken the Jewish people. Sensitive to optics, he insisted that the 197 delegates including 13 women and some non-Jews too attend the Congress in formal eveningwear, reflecting the Jewish peoples dignity.

This frustrated playwright valued the script more than the costumes. As a peoplehood-person, Herzl appreciated the past; but, as a dreamer, a social-experimenter, and a liberal-democratic nation-builder, he was future-oriented too. Our hearts cling to the old, it is true; we love the glorious past of our people, so full of struggle and suffering, he warned, but we do not want to revert to any narrowness of spirit.

Appreciating a good prop, Herzl insisted that a flag was not just a stick with a rag on it. With a flag, one can lead men wherever one wants to, even into the Promised Land. The flag carried a peoples imponderables, their dreams, songs, fantasies, because visions alone grip the souls of men. While charmed by the spread of individualism, industrialism, and capitalism, he nevertheless believed that individuals cannot help themselves politically nor economically as effectively as a community can help itself.

In 1899, reflecting the 19th century faith in humanitys redemptive capacity, Herzl defined the chief tenet of my life: Whoever wishes to change men must change the conditions under which they live. Preempting any impulses toward narrow-minded illiberal nationalism, he challenged Zionists: Make your State in such a way that the stranger will feel comfortable among you.

He labeled this Jewish state-to-be Altneuland old-new land, envisioning what is now this 75-year-old State in the ancient Land of Israel. In emphasizing Jewish rootedness, the term itself proved that Zionism isnt European colonialism.

Every day, when 9.7 million Israelis, Jewish and non-Jewish, wake up in their beds, at home in their homeland, most know that every crane that builds, every start-up that starts, and every new investment through the Abraham Accords that appreciates, helps explain why they are safer, freer, and more prosperous than their great-grandparents would have dared imagine. And thats why Herzl would also think, it worked! Its really true if you will it, is no dream!

The writer is an American historian, the author of The Zionist Ideas and the editor of the three-volume set, Theodor Herzl: Zionist Writings, the inaugural publication of The Library of the Jewish People, just published marking the 125th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress (www.theljp.org).

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'If you will it, is no dream!': What would Herzl think of Israel today? - The Jerusalem Post

(Clockwise from top left) Kathryn Brown, Sam Cosgrove, Paul Leonard and Harry Trueman.No picture was provided for Andrew Bex.

With council elections just around the corner, were shining the spotlight on Sunderlands candidates in the run-up to polling day.

Voters are due to head to polling stations on Thursday, May 4 to either re-elect or replace holders of around a third of seats on Sunderland City Council.

All candidates have been given the opportunity to tell readers why theyre standing and why you should vote for them.

Heres what candidates in the Washington West ward have to say:

*Candidates are listed in the order they appeared on Sunderland City Councils list of candidates at the close of nominations.*

Andrew Bex (Liberal Democrat)

Wearside Liberal Democrats are providing a positive alternative to decades of the same party being in charge of Sunderland Council.

Liberal Democrat councillors are a strong opposition voice on the council fighting for a fair deal for Washington and Springwell village which has been neglected by council bosses for too long.

Successful campaigns by local Lib Dems have seen free pest control services introduced and the 25 replacement wheelie bin fee axed.

Lib Dems believe instead of wasteful spending on councillor allowances or renting new council offices costing 2.5 million a year, council bosses need to improve and invest in basic services like street cleaning, tackling litter and flytipping, clamping down on anti- social behaviour and repairing our crumbling roads and pavements.

Local Lib Dems are also campaigning to get the council to listen to local people on issues like saving the National Glass Centre and bringing back Sunderland Airshow.

Kathryn Brown (Reform UK)

If elected I pledge to put the people of Washington West first and ensure our public money is spent more efficiently in our area.

I have lived in Washington all my life and I have seen the steady decline in Washington over the years, regardless of the government in Westminster it is the current failing council who are responsible for the decline.

I truly believe I can make a difference and be a voice for the people who cant be heard in the area.

I support the Reform UK plans to give Washington its own town council, and Reform UK will deliver a referendum on this issue.

This would devolve local decision-making to the area, and a town council will see local democracy working for the people of Washington.

Samantha Cosgrove (Conservative Party)

As your local candidate for Washington West, Im working hard for our community which I believe deserves someone to give residents a voice and restore pride in Washington.

Every community needs someone who lives here, as I do, to be aware of local issues and local services available.

I volunteer for the local community hub and help run the communitys social media page. Im also involved in other community pages within the west ward.

Since I began as a candidate last year, I have reported over 50 issues including: fly-tipping, replacement street signage, potholes, securing developers taking ownership and of maintenance of land.

Ive worked alongside Gentoo in facilitating the use of a community room where myself and other volunteers hosted an amazing jubilee celebration for the local senior residents and we have some amazing community family days planned for the future.

Vote Sam Cosgrove on 4th May.

Paul Leonard (Green Party)

I am a family man with three children and have lived in Sunderland or Washington all my life.

I work in the renewable energy industry as an offshore engineer. Renewable energy is very close to my heart. I believe it can help us tackle climate breakdown and pollution on an international level while providing good quality employment.

I also believe it is part of the answer to the cost-of-living crisis.

As a councillor, I would campaign for the council to stop investing in fossil fuels and instead invest in community owned renewable energy sources.

These could provide cheaper energy to residents and businesses and attract new investment to the area.

More money in peoples pockets would provide a boost to the local economy.

It would give me great pride to represent our community and be involved in such positive changes. Vote Green for a brighter, more sustainable future.

Harry Trueman (Labour Party)

Ive lived in Sunderland all my life, working at Pyrex glass company for 13 years, then at BT for 25 years until retirement.

Ive been honoured to represent Washington West, and with your support wish to continue to work and support the residents of the ward.

I have been a governor on special need schools for more than 20 years and have experience of every workings of the council.

With my ward colleagues I will continue to support our community organisations, who do a great job, and our great volunteers who litter pick and support those in need.

We are all facing rising heating and fuel costs, some are struggling to put food on the table and sadly food banks are growing in number. I will continue to support our food banks.

I care passionately about our residents health and wellbeing and ask for your support in the local elections.

Caption: Collage image (Clockwise from top left) Kathryn Brown, Sam Cosgrove, Paul Leonard and Harry Trueman. No picture was provided for Andrew Bex.

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Sunderland City Council elections 2023: Meet the candidates for ... - Sunderland Echo