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They're here, they're queer - be proud of Israel
By Bradley Burston

JERUSALEM - I'm proud of the State of Israel. It may have more faults per capita than any nation in the world, faults which are duly broadcast, rerun, critiqued, and condemned as nowhere else. It may have more critics per capita than anywhere else in the world, in particular among its majority population of restive, instinctively kvetching, eternally disappointed Jews.

I know every criticism by heart. I'll see your every damning denunciation, and raise you 10. But I am proud of this country, and the gay pride parade in Jerusalem goes a long way toward explaining why.

I am proud of a country which - under the burden of a 24/7 threat of Islamic Jihad terrorism, under a daily Hamas barrage of Qassam missiles on a small town in the Negev, under an explicit Iranian threat of erasure in the future and client militia brushfire wars in the near present - deploys 8,000 police, nearly half of its entire active-duty force, to protect a parade in Jerusalem by a minority group that is routinely denigrated by many members of two of the holy city's largest and most vocal communities: the ultra-Orthodox and the Palestinians.

I am proud of the gay community, which made strenuous efforts to assure that the parade would be held in areas far from the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods and other areas where the march would serve to offend residents.

I am proud of the police for standing up to yeshiva students who, screaming "Nazis! Nazis! Nazis!" at the officers, pelted them with rocks, bottles, angle iron and Molotov cocktails, all the while breaking windows, smashing streetlights, and setting fire to tires and garbage dumpsters.

I am proud of ultra-Orthodox rabbis and yeshiva masters, who, though appalled by the parade and what they see as the abomination of homosexuality, publicly and unequivocally forbade their students from taking part in violent demonstrations.

I am proud of a country that scorns the slimy Meir Kahane disciple Itamar Ben-Gvir when he screams at gay celebrants in a Tel Aviv parade "the Nazis should have finished you off."

I am proud of the policeman on King David Street who, when asked by a passing pre-schooler about the flag with the rainbow colors, replied, "There are boys who love boys, and girls who love girls."

I am proud of a country in which the army's influential radio station airs the views of the daughter of the prime minister when she states that the right of gays and lesbians to march in their capital city is as inherent as their right to vote.

Just as I am proud of Israel's last Eurovision song contest winner, an acclaimed diva who began life as a man, who told a television interviewer why she believed that in the interest of respect for the holy city, the parade should not be held there.

And I am proud, as well, of the fact that Israel Television gave air time to a rabbi to explain his strong opposition to the march, and to the woman anchor who, asked by the rabbi what she would do if her son told her she was gay, said that she would hold him and be grateful for his openness.

There are many who argue that a Jewish country cannot countenance a public celebration of homosexuality. It is time for them to take the advice of leading rabbis, who placed this announcement in the Lithuanian Haredi newspaper, as quoted by the Jerusalem Post:

"Demonstrating should be done by each person in his place [by feeling outrage in the soul, by praying and beseeching (God) against the loathsome blasphemy]."

All of us who live here have our personal list of obscenities, perversions and abominations, as committed by our fellow Jewish residents of Israel. We may find their actions politically abhorrent, culturally unbearable, spiritually bankrupt, personally offensive.

They are a big part of the price of living in this country, riven along fault lines dividing and enraging left and right, secular and religious, Mizrachi and Ashkenazi, sabra and immigrant.

It may be the built-in flaw of a Jewish homeland, this infighting among the Jews it has brought home.

But as the gay pride parade proves, the most profound strength of a Jewish country are those Jews who strive to learn to live with the Jews with whom they so profoundly differ.

We're here. By definition, we are all of us, each in our own ways, queer. We should, all of us for our own reasons, be proud.

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Recent blogs:

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__________________



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  1.   We may all be queer, but... 21:36  |  Ben Azai 21/06/07
  2.   i13 million dollars worth of intolerance 21:54  |  tziporah heller 21/06/07
  3.   Why Be Proud? 22:00  |  Bandar Michaels 21/06/07
  4.   well said 22:03  |  ben 21/06/07
  5.   Well said BB a good tour de force 22:04  |  Don Camillo 21/06/07
  6.   There is no choice 22:29  |  C McCoy 21/06/07
  7.   13 million spent 22:34  |  John 21/06/07
  8.   Ode to B 22:58  |  Joyce 21/06/07
  9.   Not a day to be proud of Israel 23:33  |  JewishHeart (Sean) 21/06/07
  10.   Bradley-From a Messianic Jew 23:37  |  JewishHeart 21/06/07
  11.   "proud" or humble, which places others ahead of ourselves? 23:40  |  Virginia 21/06/07
  12.   Yashar Kocheca to the author 01:37  |  David Hoffman 22/06/07
  13.   I like this article. 01:47  |  Carl 22/06/07
  14.   Kol hakavod 02:27  |  Zvi 22/06/07
  15.   Just A Feeling 02:56  |  Tony Anthony 22/06/07
  16.   I am proud of Israel 05:46  |  Nathan 22/06/07
  17.   Thank you 06:24  |  Sarah Klein 22/06/07
  18.   And I`m proud of Bradley Burston for writing this article 06:46  |  Smadar 22/06/07
  19.   What FOX likes about the Left 10:05  |  FOX 22/06/07
  20.   ALL JEWS HERE ARE `ODDBALLS` 10:15  |  Richard E Sherwin 22/06/07
  21.   Okay Bradley! Yeah, But Why... 10:20  |  Yosemite 22/06/07
  22.   # 1 ben...i think bradley`s point went right over your head... 10:40  |  eric 22/06/07
  23.   I did not hate them before but I hate them now 10:43  |  Efox 22/06/07
  24.   With plenty of armed guards 10:43  |  Efox 22/06/07
  25.   Why not march in Mecca? 10:45  |  Efox 22/06/07
  26.   Gay ,,,Queer....Jarusalem 10:52  |  Zoe 22/06/07
  27.   # 18 oh yes indeed fox; you are right on money! 11:01  |  eric 22/06/07
  28.   Acceptance of Multiple Viewpoints is a Jewish Value 11:09  |  michal 22/06/07
  29.   John, not only police... 11:18  |  Karl 22/06/07
  30.   They`re here, they`re queer.. shed a tear 11:19  |  dan 22/06/07
  31.   # 25 attaboy efox, you seem hellbent... 11:23  |  eric 22/06/07
  32.   proud of Israel 11:30  |  Ralph 22/06/07
  33.   why be proud? 11:55  |  Frederico 22/06/07
  34.   #5 WHO THE HELL TOLD YOU THAT CAMILLO 12:11  |  paul harris 22/06/07
  35.   Right on 12:12  |  Natallie Durson 22/06/07
  36.   we`re all proud of our own country... nothing wrong with that 12:22  |  ravi 22/06/07
  37.   They should not flaunt it in our faces 12:33  |  Beni 22/06/07
  38.   Bradley, Gays, God, our Holy City....... 12:53  |  Miriam 22/06/07
  39.   Thanks Eric #28, Thanks for the poetries 12:56  |  FOX 22/06/07
  40.   Ben Gurion 13:05  |  JewishHeart 22/06/07
  41.   To #2: re: $13million spent.... 13:34  |  Miri 22/06/07
  42.   Bradley Burston 13:36  |  Galit 22/06/07
  43.   Bradley Burston 13:38  |  Galit 22/06/07
  44.   Because the whole country isn`t homophobic? 13:58  |  Gay to the core. 22/06/07
  45.   DEMOCRACY LOSES WHEN THE MAJORITY ISN`T ALLOWED TO RULE. 14:01  |  Mitch Iginer 22/06/07
  46.   choosing violence over democracy 14:12  |  Josh Goldman 22/06/07
  47.   How can `Left` who support gay rights support recognizing Hamas 14:15  |  Ben 22/06/07
  48.   Israel is for all people.Not just the lunatic fringe 14:15  |  Ky 22/06/07
  49.   A carnage averted, bomb plot thwarted 14:17  |  Lars Hansen 22/06/07
  50.   Good one Burnstein 14:29  |  tooshav chozer 22/06/07
  51.   Zionism without Judaism 14:31  |  observer 22/06/07
  52.   eric #27: very nice! 2nd try. 14:33  |  S 22/06/07
  53.   Messianic Jew: A God that is weeping is not worth 14:39  |  KA 22/06/07
  54.   To Parade or Not To Parade 14:39  |  Keith 22/06/07
  55.   No.2 $13 million 14:53  |  Mitch Cohen 22/06/07
  56.   You`re doing well, Bradley, but don`t get too self complacent 14:57  |  Ben Alofs 22/06/07
  57.   Bradley, agree up to... 15:08  |  Buzaglow 22/06/07
  58.   # 22 If You Aren`t Proud of Gays, You Aren`t Proud of Israel??? 15:14  |  Tony Anthony 22/06/07
  59.   true democracy... 15:15  |  Tess 22/06/07
  60.   To #38: KARMA 15:16  |  Keith 22/06/07
  61.   To KA no.43 15:19  |  Dean Kornberg 22/06/07
  62.   BRADLEY IS IT WORTH ATALKBACK ? 15:19  |  paul harris 22/06/07
  63.   No Judaism, so why are you there then??? 15:24  |  Aisha al`bakri 22/06/07
  64.   Efox in Socorro 15:29  |  Chaval 22/06/07
  65.   Burston`s elation 15:32  |  Esther 22/06/07
  66.   To Lars in Denmark no.49 15:37  |  Michael Ohana 22/06/07
  67.   Paul HARRIS and conspiracy theories 15:40  |  Josh Goldman 22/06/07
  68.   The "Moral" Left? 16:00  |  JewishHeart 22/06/07
  69.   Embarrassed about Israel 16:04  |  Baruch 22/06/07
  70.   YOU ARE PROUDLY DESTROYING ISRAEL !