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Shulamit S. Magnus
Jewish historian

What This Country Needs Is Sane Governance

What this country needs is sane governance.

We have a clear choice, between those offering us more, indeed, endless, instability because that serves their interests, though clearly, not ours;

those offering us the false, the lies, that if only more, unrestrained, aggressive, force is used against– you name the targets, and they are multiple, not least, any who oppose them– that will fix things; indeed, that there is any simple, just-do-this fix– an utter, manipulative, lie;

those offering a celebration of force, of violence;

those offering only hate, division, endless strife, because a divided, fearful society means an invitation to demagogues—them– to rule, to impose “order,” after the chaos, including endless elections, which they foment, for that purpose;

those offering any version of theocracy, with them, or their chosen ayatollahs, at the head;

those offering misogyny and homophobia enacted as public policy, because, you know, Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, offer such tantalizing models;

A choice between any or all of the above, and sane governance.

If you want the latter, there are multiple choices.

Lapid.

Gantz and his crew.

Liberman.

Labor.

Meretz.

Raam.

Find nothing perfect?

Grow up.

Tuesday is critical.

Vote, and bring others. I am taking my dear, nitsol shoah friend, who is blind and wheelchair bound. He may not vote as I do but he will surely vote for sanity and against lies and cheap manipulation, incitement to hate, and demagoguery. He speaks often of that alternative and what it wrought. And will always bring; always has, to any society that has gone there, and always will.

U’vahartem ba’hayyim.

This is up to us.

We will surely, absolutely surely, not get our ideal anything. But we can get better, the best we can, under the circumstances.

Vote.

For sane governance.

About the Author
Shulamit S. Magnus Professor Emerita of Jewish Studies and History at Oberlin College. She is the author of four published books and numerous articles on Jewish modernity and the history of Jewish women, and winner of a National Jewish Book award and other prizes. Her new book is the first history of agunot and iggun from medieval times to the present, across the Jewish map. It also assesses and critiques current policy on Jewish marital capitivity in the US and Israel and makes proposals to end this abuse. Entitled, "Jewish Marital Captivity: The Past, Present, and End of a Historic Abuse," it is in press with New York University Press. She is a founder of women's group prayer at the Kotel and first-named plaintiff on a case before the Supreme Court of Israel asking enforcement of Jewish women's already-recognized right to read Torah at the Kotel. Her opinions have been published in the Forward, Tablet, EJewish Philanthropy, Moment, the Times of Israel, and the Jerusalem Post.
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