Chesler Chronicles

May 26th, 2009 8:03 am

Jerusalem on the Upper East Side: Starbucks, Riverdale, and Me.

The Manhattan Starbucks Coffee Shop which was bombed yesterday, is only two and a half blocks away from where I live. As soon as I returned from my brief holiday and heard about this latest incident, I went over to see it. News trucks and police cars impressively surrounded the crime scene; indeed, the blown-out windows on East 92nd Street were already boarded up and the bench outside was, indeed, shattered. The FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the Joint Terrorism Task Force had been there and gone.

While there have been a number of “political” bombings in Manhattan between 2005-2008, (outside the Times Square military recruitment center, the British Consulate, and the Greek Consulate), all thought to have been committed by a “man on a bicycle,” and at a Starbucks in Providence, Rhode Island, this one, according to one eyewitness, may have been committed by two “blond teenagers.”

Please note: The media is telling us that no Arabs, no Muslims, no Afghans, no jihadists were involved in this attack, that this one was an all-American, all-Christian prank. Does that make you feel safer?

Remember when the entire eastern seaboard experienced a power failure in August of 2003 and how relieved we all were, despite sweltering without light, electricity, transportation, communication or refrigeration, when we discovered that it was “only” a massive grid failure, not another terrorist attack?

And, by the way, last week’s unexploded target synagogues in Riverdale in the Bronx are only twenty minutes away from where I live by car, as are/were the Twin Towers of the forever-missing World Trade Center.

I not only live in interesting times—I see that I also live in a very interesting neighborhood as well. I thought that Jerusalem was the center of the world. Perhaps it is, but Jerusalem, unprotected, has proliferated and gone global. Now, teenagers and prison-convert jihadists are blowing up coffee shops (or trying to), and synagogues, (or trying to); how long before they start blowing themselves up too? Both here as well as in the Middle East and all over the Islamic world?

Recently, I ran into a very annoying dinner guest who insisted that he—and only he–“knew it all;” of course, he then proceeded to demonstrate how little he really knew. When he got to the Middle East I almost dived under the table to avoid what was coming. Sure enough: This Know-it-All explained that if only Israel would pay more money to the Palestinians, built up an economy for them, that the Palestinians would finally have something they cared about that they would want to protect, not destroy.

Wearily, (why bother mentioning the Palestinian-destroyed greenhouses of Gaza), warily, I asked him if he had ever read Harry Potter or ever heard one of his children describe the fictional “death eaters” and/or “dementers” who “suck out people’s souls.” (Much thanks to my esteemed reader, Dr. McCosker, for reminding me of this distinction). Setting aside vulnerable, although brainwashed Palestinian civilians, I suggested that the Palestinian (and other Islamist) terrorist leaders are death eaters, not reasonable men and women. By definition, they live to kill, and they live to die, that is what they do and who they are. Thus, rewarding them with a flourishing economy may not work. Like so many liberal-radicals, he is incapable of contemplating the possibility that evil actually exists and that it might not yield to any rational, social-economic win-win, “feel good,” man-made program.

Meanwhile, I hope that my most local Starbucks fixes its windows and its little, welcoming bench and that all the dreamy skateboarders, rollerbladers, bicyclists, tricyclists, and those on scooters, walkers, and canes return, unharmed, to this peaceful corner café.

I plan to go over there later today to purchase a cappuccino, (decaf espresso, low fat milk, iced). And, this weekend, I will be visiting and dining with my dear, synagogue-going friends in Riverdale. Neither teenage pranksters nor jihadic bombers have a chance in hell of keeping me away.

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14 Comments

1. David Thomson:

There is admittedly a decent chance that the Starbucks bombing was carried out by spoiled, affluent, white brats on behalf of the anti-globalist movement. But the odds are significantly higher that radical Muslims are responsible. These bombers have learned to put together small explosives—and apparently this is relatively easy to do! One does not have to spend much money or possess a PH.D in the hard sciences. If my pessimistic theory is correct, we can expect many more bombings in the future.

May 26, 2009 - 8:43 am 2. Vladtepesblog:

The irrational left and Islam are becoming rapidly if not rabidly indistinguishable, each using the other as it’s ‘Hayekian’ strongman. It makes no difference which it was. Both will achieve the same end even if each thinks it’s using the other to a separate purpose. As to Ms. Cheslers brainy dinner companion, he like so many I deal with on a day to day basis imagines his partial understanding of game theory makes his reason vastly superior to your Harry Potter analogy. What he fails to understand is, that simplified game theory analysis of the Islamic world fails to take in to account that many do NOT want the same things as we do, hence do NOT fit our version of rational. They, the Muslims, want the extinction of non Muslims in the middle east at first then the world to score points with god. This is historically not a rare position but the smug ‘know it all’s’ typically are incapable of imagining that some people may not desire, nor think, the same things as he.

May 26, 2009 - 9:32 am 3. Fern Sidman:

I, too have passed that very same Starbucks on many occasions while on my way to the U Cafe and it was beyond shocking to hear that a bomb exploded there in the middle of the night.

Praise to you, Dr. Chesler for not allowing the forces of darkness to prevent you from living your life, getting your cappucino and visiting Riverdale for the upcoming Shavuos holiday.

May G-d continue to protect you and may you once again receive your beloved Torah in peace and tranquility.

May 26, 2009 - 10:22 am 4. MiamaMan:

[A Starbucks coffee shop on Manhattan’s Upper East Side had it’s windows shattered this morning when a bomb was detonated in front of the store.

New York Police Department (NYPD) is trying to determine the cause of the blast, as well as those responsible.]

Wow, Phyllis, thanks. When I have to rely on Pajamas.com and you to know about this event, it means that we are living in such a large country. That the news I found writes “it’s”, inflection, instead of the possessive of it as “its”, it’s scary indeed.

Here in Miama things are as usual, rain is pouring down.

But that the blast may have been caused by a couple of “blond” beasts, it is really encouraging.

Yes, please, blond people please blow something. I am so tired of all these bombing being done by them Muslims dark folks. Let us regain a place under the sun. Yes, when it is time to blow stuff up, we won’t be left behind.

Hopefully the NYPD exists, not only on TV.

Yes, we are up to it too, ya know. For every bomb you entertain, we will give you two.

May 26, 2009 - 11:21 am 5. Dr S McCosker:

Dear Phyllis –

I like the analogy that you used to try to get through to Mr Know-It-All – that the ‘Palestinian’ Arab Muslims include many who may be described as real life ‘death eaters’. It had occurred to me also. (Slight correction: the ‘death eaters’ in the Potter books, are the human cult-followers of ‘Lord Voldemort’ – murderous supremacists resembling both Nazis and jihadists. The evil creatures that suck out the soul are ‘dementors’).

Have you seen the film version of ‘Order of the Phoenix’ – if you haven’t, do. Like ‘Goblet of Fire’ which preceded it, it is – whether its makers knew that or not – a ‘war movie’ for this undeclared unnamed war against that which may not be named. It is doing, at the level of the imagination and the unconscious, the deep psychological work that needs to be done, if people are to find the strength to resist the Jihad.

Once one sees this, the films gain a terrible poignancy from the fact that Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry, is the son of a Jewish mother.

Besides giving us the terms ‘death eaters’ and ‘dementors’, Rowlings has given us other words we can use. There are two groups in her epic that fight the Death Eaters…that fight on when their world has been subverted and taken over. There is Harry’s ‘Dumbledore’s Army’ – a group of students who meet secretly in the ‘room of requirement’ to practise their ‘defence against the dark arts’ (see ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’). And there is… The Order of the Phoenix.

I don’t think Rowlings knew that she had given us the perfect name for all who resist Jihad and Sharia. But there it is.

And my dear Phyllis: you and all Jews, all the House of Israel, the Jewish state of Israel: it is you who are the real-life equivalent of the Order of the Phoenix – fighting the Death Eaters, the Thanatos principle that is those who ’slay and are slain in the cause of allah’.

As are also all who join this Resistance. The unofficial Order of the Phoenix (the Phoenix being, as represented by Rowlings [drawing on medieval Christian poetry and heraldry] an embodiment of loyalty, of invincible life and Resurrection and self-giving love. That which though it may appear to die, cannot die, but rises again out of the fire (fusing, in that way, with the biblical image of the Burning Bush).

May 26, 2009 - 2:22 pm 6. Dr S McCosker:

My comment above may be a little unclear at the beginning of the final paragraph. ‘As are also all who join this resistance’. What I meant was – “all those who join the resistance to jihad and sharia are, like the Jews, members of a real-life ‘order of the phoenix’.”

May 26, 2009 - 2:25 pm 7. Norman Simms:

Phyllis

This “event” did not make it all the way down here, but it is disturbing even more just because it is not considered newsworthy by our antipodean media.

I worry about too many things. Just last week there was a ceremonial launching of the first translation of the Koran into Maori. A noble academic exercise, a gesture of inter-communal good faith… but I fear how it may be used in prisons to proslytize activists and the malcontents of all persuasions.

We do live in interesting times. That’s the problem.

Norman

May 26, 2009 - 3:14 pm 8. MiamaMan:

Shalom Norman!

I noticed you were born in New York, and wasn’t surprised to find out you live in New Zealand after the Maori comment. Yes indeed, that’s way down there. If the “event” did not make it to Miami, which is “almost” in the US, imagine.

I once had a couple of friends in the 90s from Bulgaria that moved there to do a PhD. Due to low income, they ended up renting in a Maori neighborhood. They said the partying was so loud that they could not take it and left the country. Whether they exaggerated I don’t know, but that was after I had watched that iconic NZ movie from 1994 “Once Were Warriors” with Rena Owen and Temuera Morrison. Some tattoos!

Anyhow, the Jihadis could use the Maori martial arts, and the scary facial gestures, as for the weapons, the Mere and the Wahaika are probably good additions to the scimitar for the beheadings. Problem with Islam and Maoris is the consumption of alcoholic beverages, but then there are the jails there for conversions too.

Yes, your picture shows you worry. As for worries, please allow to quote the Book of James: “Do not worry about anything, but on everything, let your requests be made known to God.”

Since you are a poet and critic, please allow me to copy a poem I wrote in 2001 to my Kriya Yoga Guru, for your perusal:

Gurudev

1 My old Gurudev, who look’d straight from his bed
2 And hardly moved, his age showing in his quiet face,
3 Having my visit gracefully again accept’d,
4 I smiled at him, and dismiss’d,
5 With a bow and his feet unkiss’d,
6 His teachings, learned, forgotten, and again sought.
7 Like St. Paul I know what needs to be done,
8 But do it not,
9 The will brightens not for long,
10 It flickers, grows, then turns to mud,
11 How frail this human lot!
12 And I, with tears,
13 Stood outside his house, subdued by fears;
14 For, what else to ask from you my God,
15 If my own good
16 Escapes me and is never to me dear?
17 The hunger I desire is of Thine spiritual food,
18 Thy guidance and comfort,
19 Thy solace and support,
20 A glance, an approval, a word or silence, a little of your skillful art,
21 To bring peace to my heart.
22 So when after meditation I pray’d
23 To Him, I promised, and said:
24 I will remember you through the shortest breath,
25 No separation by so-called death,
26 And please Thou rememberest this weak flesh of us,
27 That causes the loss
28 Of sight of the other worthy shore,
29 Misplacing the goal, Oh Lord,
30 Then, carry me along!
31 On your broad shoulders across the river I will take flight
32 To the other side.

May 26, 2009 - 4:21 pm 9. George Jochnowitz:

Perhaps a translation of the Koran into Maori will be used to convert prisoners. But having read it myself, I feel that knowing the Koran makes one understand how filled with anger it is. I would think that serializing the Koran in a newspaper or magazine would be a good eduactional experience. Knowledge is power. One should know one’s enemy

May 26, 2009 - 4:21 pm 10. Dave:

Dateline Hawaii, 8 December 1941: Yesterday
Pearl Harbor was bombed. Two blondes in
an airplane were observed. No Japanese involvement is suspected.

President Franklin Daihatsu Obama announced ]
talks without preconditions with Hidecki Tojo,
bowed profusely to Emperor Hirohito, embraced
Benito Mussolinni and assured Herr Schickelgruber that the blondes were peroxided Jews and not real Ayrans at all.

May 26, 2009 - 4:45 pm 11. john peter maher:

“…them Muslim dark folks”… Said in jest, but this reveals the innocence of Americans about Bosnia’s Muslims. In summer 1990 I stood in Mostar (Herzegovina) at the old Turkish bridge, which was destroyed two years later by the Catholic Croats, though the Vienna press kept blaming the Serbs. School kids on a field trip were getting a lecture about the ancient bridge. A pair of identical twin girls, identically dressed, caught my eye: pigtailed, blonde as any Baltic child. They were Muslim. How do I know? It was a very warm day; they were wearing woolen stockings. A couple days earlier I had gotten of the trrain from Slovenia in Sarajevo. By the shrine of the Muslim saints “The Seven Brothers” I noticed a lovely girl wearing blue jeans and with her blonde hair in a pony tail. She was praying in the Muslim fashion, palms upraised. — This is why Osama bin Laden got a Bosnian passport (in the Saudi embassy) in Vienna. He was there to recruit blue-eyed jihadis. And he did. Bill Clinton brought into Bosnia and Kosovo thousands of Mujahedeen to kill Christian Serbs. Mearsheimer and Wald squawk about the Jewish lobby. If Jews didn’t lobby, they’d be stupid. But let’s hear them sound off about the Oil lobby… And when will Jews in America wake up and recognize they stupidly supported clero-fascist Croatia and Islamist Bosnia against the Christian Serbs? The USA has created two more Muslim staes in Europe, besides Austria’s creation, Albania. Blond Muslims were involved in the Madrid train bombing and more. –One blond Muslim, Fikret Abdic, languishes in a Sarajevo Muslim prison: his crime? His army fought the Islamists side by side with the Serbs. “You don’t look Muslim.” He is as blond as the young Yehudi Menuhin.

May 26, 2009 - 5:36 pm 12. MiamaMan:

11. john peter maher:

Thanks, very interesting.

We have touched this issues before, but as a person who has traveled extensively in the Balkans, is married to a Bulgarian girl, whose children are half that and speak the language fluently, I am passionate about this.

Why many Muslim Bosnians can be blond, blue-eyed, or not different from any other Serb? Because they are of the same race. These are descendants of converts to Islam under Turkish rule. At that time, when a rich Serb had to dismount and bow to a Muslim, conversion brought many benefits and gains. Still, they were, and still are, despised as traitors to their own race and Orthodox Christian religion. Add to that that these converts were the main recruiters for that nasty Turkish militia called the Bashi Bozouk, that engaged in orgies of murder and rape while drunk against their own people, and you have a formula for distrust and hate for centuries to come.

Balkans, World War II, number one culprits by far: the Catholic-fascist Croats. The Poglavnik (Fuhrer in Serbo-Croat) Ante Pavelic, who once told Hitler in the Berghof that the Croats were nor Slavs, but a lost Germanic tribe, engaged in Ethnic cleansing of Serbs and Jews. The Ustasha militia was able to murder all of their Jews (about 48,000) and between 200,000 to 300,000 Serbs. Mind you, no gas here, clubs and good old throat slitting, the famous Ustasha way. Entire Serbs villages were razed to the ground. In the Jasenovac concentration camp, probably the cruelest in Europe, several Catholic Franciscan monks engaged in hands on killing. That great Pope Pius XII, who knew everything, was mute about the deeds of his faithful Croats who were now adding souls to heaven through forced conversion of Serbs and Jews (Muslims were left alone).

Great POTUS Slick Willy, who probably could not locate any of these Balkan countries on a map of Europe, but could surely locate his affair on a little map of Little Rock, set back centuries of European history together with the Battle of Poitiers and the Siege of Vienna, in the most dirty and shameful little war the US has ever engaged in.

May 27, 2009 - 4:38 am 13. BettyBlue:

Until they actually have the perpetrators in hand, we can’t know exactly what they were: Christian, American, whatever.

May 27, 2009 - 7:20 am 14. Robert Simmons:

I agree that there are death-eater types, people with whom we can neither negotiate nor accommodate. And it’s clear that your dinner companion does not understand economics in general, and development economics in particular. However, isn’t the interesting and important issue why those evil types have gained positions of importance? Don’t you think the shitty way Palestinians have been treated feeds into their continuing power and influence?

May 30, 2009 - 7:09 pm