Absurdity 101: An Introduction

Before we begin, it's time for introductions.

This blog is about absurdity.   Well, maybe it's about insanity.  Really, it's about paradox, contradiction, and the existence in the world of complete opposites that shouldn't exist, and be believed, simultaneously.  

It is my contention, based on anecdotal evidence, that absurdity is not a mistake.  In fact, it is a fundamental aspect of the universe.

Before I start to ramble, let me get back to introductions.

I am a former High School Football Player, motorcyclist, construction worker, SCUBA diver, Botanist, Ornithologist, waiter Captain,  and computer programmer.  I am still a practicing Massage Therapist.  

I have lived in metropolitan New York, St. Thomas (US Virgin Islands), Virginia, Massachusetts, and Maryland.  I was employed by the US Government, first at the Smithsonian Institution (Natural History), and later at the Social Security Administration. Now, I have retired, and fulfilled my dream to return home to Israel from exile.

I consider myself an Orthodox Jew - a neo-chasid of a dati leumi bent.  You'll see me in my streimel and bekishe on Shabbat.  The rest of the week, plain old American stuff, and a black yarmulka.

So, the first absurdity I would like to deal with is one which is currently popular in the media and much of the public at large.  It is the oft repeated mantra that Israel is an "Apartheid State".  

The great absurdity about this is that, any one who has ever walked down a street in Yerushalayim, sees that Arabs walk the same streets, ride the same public transportation, shop in the same stores, picnic in the same parks, are treated at the same hospitals.  Arabs
have nothing to fear in Jewish neighborhoods. Quite the opposite for a Jew who accidentally wanders into an Arab neighborhood.

The Palestinian Authority makes it immaculately clear that they will tolerate no Jews in their territory.  In addition, since the first intifada, the PA has systematically evicted most of the Christians from, of all places, Bethlehem.  

Isn't that Apartheid?

To illustrate:  Here is what one would see at the entrance to my village, Efrat, in Judea:

The sign reads: "Welcome to Efrat".

This is what one sees at the entrance to such PA cities as Bethelem:

Basically, "abandon hope all ye who enter here".  Now, you tell me, where does the "Apartheid" state begin?

So, in all its absurdity, Israel is branded with the perjorative term - while practicing quite the opposite - whereas the PA, which openly calls for Apartheid, is considered the land of the free.

How can it be?  How can the "Apartheid State" be the one where there is freedom of religion, where people of all races live together?  Is anyone awake out there?  

It is clear to me that it is in the nature of the human condition to believe what we want - or are told - despite any evidence to the contrary.  In other words, to willingly accept the absurd.

Or is it just me?