Justice Richard Goldstone skips son's bar mitzvah..

Goldstone skipping his grandson's bar mitzvah seems like a non-story to me. Calling it a "personal tragedy" seems a bit much on the author's part, but maybe I'm not grasping the significance a Jewish kid hitting puberty.

This was the part that caught my attention:

[rquoter]
Aipac has recently demanded that Obama stop ordering Israel on the settlement issue, while other pro-Israel supports such as Ron Lauder, the leader of the World Jewish Congress, last week publicly questioned Obama’s commitment to Israel’s security.

Such comments may be intended to warn the administration that it risks losing Jewish support if it maintains its pressure on Israel over settlements.
[/rquoter]

Can someone please explain how calling for a stop to illegal settlement building is hurting Israeli security?

 

Going would've ruined his grandson's bar mitzvah. Standing up for one's convictions can be painful, especially when extremists makes it personal.

 

This really strikes a chord with me. I am Jewish, so I identify with the importance of being with family on the occasion of a Bar Mitzvah. At the same time, I can't help but think of all the Palestinian families that have been broken up or destroyed, often violently, in this conflict. The extremists on both sides have created such a climate of fear to serve their own political interests that they have actually become responsible for the realization of those fears. Ethnocentrism is a self-fulfilling prophecy: When you treat a people like animals for so long, eventually it will begin to act the part.