November 2025 – El’s View from the Crow’s Nest

I am a “Progressive Zionist”

I am a “Progressive Zionist.” What does that even mean?

Let’s start with “Progressive”:

The progressive agenda encompasses a range of political philosophies and policy goals that advocate for social reform and a more active, expanded government to address societal ills. While the historical Progressive Era (late 19th and early 20th centuries) focused on issues like trust-busting and women’s suffrage, the modern progressive agenda has evolved to include specific priorities in economic, social, and environmental justice.

Core Principles of Modern Progressivism
Modern progressive thought is generally rooted in the concept of social justice and the idea that unregulated capitalist markets create inherent inequalities that must be managed through government regulation and social protections. Key principles include

- Economic Justice: Advocating for policies that reduce income and wealth inequality.
- Environmental Protection: Emphasizing strong climate action and measures to eliminate pollution, noting the link between environmental harm and marginalized communities.
- Strong Democracy: Working to get money out of politics, eliminate corruption, and protect and expand access to voting rights.
- Global Peace and Diplomacy: Prioritizing diplomacy over military intervention, cutting the defense budget, and promoting a rights-based international order

Key Policy Proposals:
The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) has outlined a specific legislative agenda, often referred to as the “Progressive Promise” or the “Progressive Proposition Agenda,” that includes proposals such as

Healthcare: Realizing a universal, high-quality healthcare system (often “Medicare for All” or expanding Medicare) and lowering healthcare costs.
Wages and Labor: Securing a living wage (e.g., a federal minimum wage of $15/hour or more), protecting the right to organize unions and bargain collectively, and ensuring paid family leave.
- Tax Reform: Reforming the tax code to ensure the wealthy and large corporations pay their “fair share,” including measures like a billionaire minimum tax and increased taxes on corporations with large CEO-to-worker pay gaps.
- Climate Change: Taking urgent and transformative action on climate change, building on legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act and ending subsidies for the fossil fuel industry.
- Social Safety Net: Expanding Social Security benefits, investing in care for seniors and people with disabilities, and providing affordable childcare and debt-free college options.
- Criminal Justice and Immigration: Ending mass incarceration, advancing equal justice under the law, and establishing humane and fair immigration laws with a path to citizenship

These policies aim to deliver structural change that empowers working people and addresses systemic inequalities

What is a “Zionist?”

A Zionist is a person who supports the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. generally in the form of the State of Israel. What makes someone a Zionist is the belief that the Jewish people form a distinct nation and, like all other peoples, have a moral and historical right to a sovereign state and a safe haven in the Land of Israel.

Key Aspects of Zionism and Being a Zionist:

A Political and Nationalist Movement: Modern Zionism emerged in the late 19th century in Europe as a secular political movement, largely in response to widespread antisemitism and the rise of ethnic nationalism, which argued that Jews would only be safe in their own sovereign state.
Support for Israel’s Existence: Today, the term primarily refers to support for the continued existence and security of the State of Israel as a Jewish homeland.
Diverse Perspectives: Zionism is a broad, “big tent” movement that includes people with a wide range of political and religious views, including progressives, conservatives, secular individuals, and the religiously observant Zionists often disagree on specific Israeli government policies, such as the specifics of borders or the settlement movement.

In summary, a person becomes a Zionist by subscribing to the core belief in Jewish self-determination in the Land of Israel and supporting the existence and protection of the modern State of Israel as the embodiment of that right.

Some say that being a Progressive and being a Zionist are oxymoronic, but the fact of the matter is that there is nothing contradictory in the two positions and in fact they are complimentary.

The State of Israel as it exists today embodies and demonstrates everything within the Progressive agenda:

1) All citizens of Israel, Jew, Moslem, Arab, Druze, Christian, atheist or agnostic enjoy all of the rights outlined in the

United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

2) All citizens (and resident non-citizens)of Israel enjoy free universal, healthcare (something Progressives in the United States have fought for for decades).

3) FREE PUBLIC EDUCATION: Education from age 3 through age 18 is not only free but compulsory.
4) All citizens of Israel have the right to enter any profession they wish.
5) All citizens of Israel have the right to vote in all elections for representatives in the Knesset (Israel’s Parliament), as well as all elected offices such as local mayors.
6) All citizens of Israel have the right to marry or form domestic partnerships with whomever they may choose, and with anyone that chooses them.

Contrast that, with “Progressives” who today support the Palestinian cause:

From September 2005, Palestinians living in Gaza have for all intents and purposes enjoyed the rights and privileges of having their own country, and electing their own government. Since withdrawing all Jews from Gaza, Israel has, with a few exceptions, allowed Gaza to be free. Gazans elected the terrorist group, Hamas, to be their government on January 25, 2006. Since then womens rights within Gaza have been practically eliminated and women are coerced into wearing Hijab. In other countries under Islamic Sharia Law, women wear the head-to-toe Burqa. Educational opportunities for women have been severely restricted, and women my not leave their homes without a male chaperone.

One thing I noticed from watching news stories coming from hospitals in Gaza: no women work in hospitals, or at least I have not seen any.

In Gaza, LGBTQ rights have been eliminated, and the death penalty has been implemented against Gazans who are found out to be Gay or Lesbian.
Gazans have no right to vote. The last election held was the one on January 25, 2006.

In conclusion: it is obvious to me, as it should be to you, that support for the State of Israel is the only logical stand that true Progressive can take.

Programming my next incarnation

MY BIRTH DAY, DAY ONE:

It is sometime between November 15 2053, and November 15, 2073. A few hours ago I fell asleep. I have awoken to a dream, a bright light like at the end of a tunnel is opening up before me. I can hear the muffled sound of machines, and people voices and alarms coming from the light, which I now see is a portal. I am being swept along, closer and closer to the light.

As I am discharged from my mother’s womb, I have to close my eyes. The light is too bright. I feel the slight pain as my umbilical cord is clipped and I am totally separated from my mother. I am being passed around from person to person, and finally my mother takes me in her arms, “what a beautiful boy you are,” she says to me and kisses me. She is SO HUGE! Everyone and everything is huge! It finally dawns on me what has happened: a few hours, days, weeks, ago I was a retired journalist living with my wife in Eureka California. Now I am a new born infant. The last thing I remember from my old life was Ceridwen, my wife and soul mate of many lifetimes, kissing me and saying good night. I have no memories of anything between then and now.

My mother presents her teat to me, and I greedily suck down her nourishing milk. There is nothing much I can do at this point. I don’t seem to have any control over my eliminatory system, not can I walk. I realize that I need to recover, to grow and evolve. I can do that. But right now I need to sleep.

I awake a few hours later. I look around the room I am in, but the high walls of the bassinette I am in don’t let me see too much. The only way I have to communicate is to cry as loud as I can, so that’s what I do. Also, my butt and genitals are wet and kind of mushy, and I am hungry.

A man comes to me and takes me from the bassinette. I’m trying to get a good look at him. I know this is not my mother. He strips the diaper from me, cleans me up with some cloths and puts a fresh diaper no me. Then he carries me into another room, where my mother awaits in her bed. He hands me over to her, and she once again presents her breast to me. I hungrily take in as much of her milk as I can, and I fall asleep in the process.

I have roughly figured out that about six days have passed since my birth. I have ascertained that from what I can remember from past lives, when I raised children of my own. Days seem to be twenty four hours long. The first few days after my birth, the breast was presented to me about every hour. After a few days this was cut down to every two hours. Now it happens every three. In between feedings I sleep, but I am starting to take time to think about what is happening to me, and also to calculate the passage of time, and I am starting to take note of my surroundings.

The man who comes to me sometimes when I cry I think must be my father. He’s a big guy (well, everyone is big except me). He has hair on his face which I can reach for with my hands and pull. This makes him laugh. He is also wearing some metal object that covers his eyes. I grab at that too. He picks me up and holds my chest against his shoulder. I can see what is behind him. I notice he wears something on his head. I grab at that, but it is attached somehow. He has lots of hair on his head. I have no hair. Not anywhere. He hands me off to mother.

DAY EIGHT:

After I drink her milk. She looks at me and says, “It has been eight days since you came into my life. Your father and I have something special planned. We’re going to Temple now. We’re going to see the mohel!”

My mother has dressed me up. I can’t really see how I look, but from the way she is looking at me I must look pretty good. They bundle me up and place me in a special chair, sitting upright and I am in the car and facing the back of the seat. I can’t tell where we are going.

I am taken into a building. There are lots of adults there, but also smaller versions of themselves, all milling around. I hear music for the first time in my life. I think I remember this first song from my past life: “Kol od balevav penimah…” I hear some men speaking, praying. Four men and my father now surround me. I am on my back looking up at them. I see my mothers face peering lovingly at me, from just behind my father, so I have no fear. The men all have beards (hair on their faces) and are all wearing the little hat like my father wears They are also wearing a kind of white and blue cape like thing. As the men pray they take my diaper off, and then …..OUCH! I cry. That really, really hurt! Then a mass celebration happens. There is singing and dancing and I am paraded about on my fathers shoulders, and I forget about the pain I have just endured. Then my mother comes and gets me, and presents her breast. I drink and fall asleep.

SIX MONTHS:

Mom withheld her breast today, at least at first. She gave something fruity and somewhat solid. It was pretty good. After that she gave me her breast and I then I fell asleep.

1 YEAR, 4 MONTHS:

Mom has been withholding her breast more and more, and feeding me other food from a spoon more and more. Today, after breakfast she took my diaper off, but she didn’t replace it. Instead she sat me on the toilet. It was big! And kinda scary. She told me to let her or dad know if I had to pee or poop. To not go in my pants.

I started speaking about five months ago, to wear I am now pretty proficient at telling my parents what I need. My dad has started to teach me how to read english, and my communication skills have vastly improved because of that.

1 YEAR, 6 MONTHS:

Today was the last day my mother breastfed me. I am pretty proficient at using a spoon and a sippy cup. I have not worn a diaper over night for the past three months and I rarely have an accident. Also, I have started to dress myself. I haven’t quite mastered tying my shoes yet. But I’m getting better.

2 YEARS:

My father has started to speak in another language to me, and has shown me some books in that language. It is called French. I am also learning a third language when we go to Temple on Saturday mornings. This one is harder. It has a whole different alphabet. But many of the songs and prayers I am learning are in this language so I am really putting a lot of effort into it.

My father is a Rabbi. My mother is a gynecologist. We live in the new city of Jerusalem in Israel. In addition to being a medical doctor my mother is also the department head of the gynecology dept at Hebrew University Medical School.

4 YEARS:

I start preschool this year. My parents have relocated to a Kibbutz that is mostly made up of people in the professions and the tech industries. I’ve been in pre-school for six weeks. My teachers don’t think I belong there. I am so much more advanced than the other kids. In January the decision was made to advance me to Second Grade, as my reading proficiency is far beyond what I’ve been exposed to in pre-school.

5 YEARS:

I’ve been reading books from our Kibbutiz library computer. The books I was given in Second Grade just weren’t challenging to me. I stated to read some classic Science Fiction, like Heinlein, Asimov and some fantasy like Tolkein.

5 YEARS 2 MONTHS:

When I arrived at school today I was ushered into the headmasters office. My test results came back, and it has been decided to advance me into the Eighth Grade.

The thing that has been happening, over and over again, is that when new material is presented to me I already know it. It’s like it’s been lying dormant in a corner of my mind, waiting to be coxed out. They tell me that my reading level is at Ninth Grade level, and my mathematics skills are bordering on calculous. History has been a breeze, since, as mentioned before, I know historical information before it is presented. It is almost as if I had learned all this stuff in a past life, and retained it all as memory.

7 YEARS, 6 MONTHS:

I have a baby sister! Her name is Ruth. I plan on teaching her all that I know. Just as soon as she quits using diapers.

12 YEARS, 6 MONTHS:

I graduated from High School today. Next week is my Junior College graduation. I’ve already started on my Junior Year at Hebrew University.

13 YEARS:

I was Bar Mitsvah today. My dad was the presiding Rabbi.

14 YEARS:

Received my Bachelors Degree in Applied Science from Hebrew University.

15 YEARS:

Received my Masters Degree in Astrophysics.

15 YEARS, 3 MONTHS:

Awarded a PHD in Astrophysics. At this rate I should get a Nobel Prize by the time I reach 21. Maybe.

Started my job at Hebrew University. I’ll be a teaching professor in Astronomy. In the meantime I am studying exoplanets in the Andromeda Galaxy. I’ve been granted access to the newly deployed Tyson (Named after the late Neil Degrasse Tyson) Space Telescope.

18 YEARS:

I’ve been dating a girl from our kibbutz for about a year now. Her mother is from Korea (and has converted to Judaism) and her father is a close friend of my mothers who is a neurosurgeon. Her name is Zelda and we have many of the same interests, including Science Fiction and roll playing games. She’s studying to be an astrophysicist too. She’s about two years older that I am, but that’s not something I am worried about.

18 YEARS, 7 MONTHS:

Zelda just informed me that she is pregnant. We will meet with all four of our parents at Shabbat dinner tonight. This does not promise to be a very pleasant evening.

19 YEARS, 10 MONTHS:

Zelda and I were married today. The wedding was held in the Kibbutz park, and the entire community attended, as well as most of the staff from Hebrew University. My father presided, my best friend Jacob, was best man, and my sister Ruth was the flower girl.

19 YEARS, 11 MONTHS:

My sister Ruth had her Bat-Mitzvah today. She did really well reading the Torah portion.

20 YEARS, 3 MONTHS:

Zelda gave birth to twins. I am a dad.

21 YEARS:

On a lark Zelda and I took a night off from the kids and drove into Sefad, the Kabbalistic “capital” of Israel. We visited a psychic medium named Deva who told Zelda some things that I immediately concurred with. In her immediate past life, Zelda’s name was Ceridwen. We were married at that time, and in fact have spent many, many lifetimes together. In our immediate past life, she had grown up in Upper Michigan and I in Chicago. We met each other at age 46 in California, circa 1998. Zelda and Ceridwen apparently had more in common than just, well, me: Both were fascinated by the ancient Celts and specifically Wales and Scotland. Both were enamoured of Highland “coos.” Both of them were astrologers.

Now I know what “on the nose” means.

“Uhm El: When did you become so Jewy anyway?

I was born that way. As stated elsewhere, my mother was Jewish and my father a Roman Catholic. We attended shul in Chicago at Congregation Agudas Achim. I was Bar Mitzvah there on November 19, 1966. I grew up in Kankakee IL, and there was a synagogue there (just a few blocks from my parents home actually), but my mom’s parents had a phobia about being Jewish that to this day I do not fully understand, but Jewish practice was always on the downlow. When mom died I was going through the dumpster (where my dad had tossed all of her memorabilia) and I found lots of her stuff, including: my brother Dan’s bris certificate, my bris certificate, my bar mitzvah certificate, a newspaper clipping of a celebration for my grand parents 50th anniversary. What was funny (interesting? frightening? dumbfounding?) was that a year of so ago I had compiled a family tree mostly form notes my aunts Vernette and Rita had gathered but I mostly used ancestry.com. I made up a packet for my sons, Joshua, Jordan and Jesse, and included the ancestry.com tree and the original long from one my aunts had provided (upgraded to include my sons and their children). I also included copies of aforementioned bris and bar mitzvah certificates, and a copy of the 50th anniversary newspaper article about my grandparents 50th.

Jordan and Jesse are video-journalists. Especially Jordan (and he has won a boat load of Emmy Awards for his television work in Chicago). Jordan, for whatever reason, took that clipping and researched it at the original publishers (The Daily Journal, then The Kankakee Daily Journal). In the microfiche records he found the original published clipping, It did not match my clipping. Except for the picture of my grandparents, it was almost completely different. Instead of showing that they had been married at Congregation Agudas Achim by a Rabbi, it said they were married at the 1st Baptist Church by a Reverend. This contradiction was what I meant above when I said (interesting? frightening? dumbfounding?). But I think I know how this happened. The Stewarts were very secretive about their Jewishness. They didn’t want people in Kankakee to know what they were. It probably has something to do with the events of WW2 and the Holocaust. I am guessing that the article posted in the local Kankakee paper was the one folks in Kankakee were intended to see, and the copy I had was the one distributed to the synagogue in Chicago.

Personally, I have never been all that demonstrative about being a Jew. It was never an issue, and in fact after my Bar Mitzvah I pretty much forgot about it all. Then I spent some time in Israel (1974) and I reconnected with my Jewish side. Well kinda. For awhile. I started wearing my Mogan David while in Israel. I also started wearing a beard, and I purchased a mezuzah in Jerusalem and attached it to the doorframe of every house that the boys mother and I lived in. But other than that, and the Jewish elements that happened at our wedding, there wasn’t much Jewy stuff in my life at all.

By the time I left the boys Mom, I was for all intents and purposes, an atheist (a pantheistic one, but nonetheless..). Qadisha, who was wife number two, was a Wiccan. I played around with that for a few years. Then I met my true sole mate, Ceridwen and we founded the Reformed Druids of Gaia (RDG) It’s an international organization. At one time, we had almost 5,000 members in 17 countries an almost all of the states of the USA. Covid 19 sucker punched us, and people stopped practicing. We never really recovered, although we still hang on. Due to Ceridwen and I attending Kirtan sessions in Arcata monthly since 2019, we’ve introduced some Hindu philosophical an practical elements into the RDG. We continue to evolve.

On October 7th 2023. I awoke to the news that the terrorist group, Hamas, had invaded southern Israel. and committed genocidal atrocities on Kibbutzim, private homes, villages and a music festival. In total, 1,195 people were killed by the attacks: 736 Israeli civilians (including 38 children) 79 foreign nationals, and 379 members of the security forces. While attending the Nova music festival, 364 civilians were killed and many more wounded. About 250 Israeli and non-Israeli civilians and soldiers were taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip. Dozens of cases of rape and sexual assault reportedly occurred.

In the aftermath of that I started reading reports from various sources on the Internet, and Facebook and Progressive Facebook Groups. What really shocked me was the lies. I’ve written about and debunked these elsewhere on this blog, so I wont go into more here, but I found myself defending Israel on these pages, and getting my ass reamed out, but I have stood my ground.

Because of 10/07/2023 I am more Jewish now then I have ever been in my 72 years of life on this planet. I was born a Jew, and I will more than likely die a Jew, and I will defend Israel, at least with the pen, for the rest of my life.

And if you don’t like it you can’t have any!

The best part? Ceridwen supports me and she will continue to do so no matter what. That’s what love is all about.

The history of “palestine” and the “palestinians”

Arab self-identification as “palestinians” has been a thing only since around 1968. Prior to 1948, “palestinian” was an identifier used only by Jewish citizens of Mandatory Palestine. Arabs used the term to disparage Jews. In May 1948, with the establishment of Israel, palestinian Jews became Israelis. The term was mostly retired after that until Yasser Arafat established the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Arabs thus became “palestinians” and they “needed to be liberated.”

Actually, the history of Palestine is a fascinating study in and of itself. The designation was first used by the Romans. After the Bar Kochba revolt (132-136 ce), the Romans renamed Judea “Syria Palestina” in order to dislodge Jewish identification with the region (Judea means “of the Jews”). Over the next century or so, the name was discarded while the region came under control of several imperial regimes, culminating with it being part of the Ottoman Empire. (You might want to read Mark Twains travelogue, The Innocents Abroad, where he describes the conditions of the Holy Land circa 1869.)

Following the desolation of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, the League of Nations gave the UK control over what it named the Mandate for Palestine. This would be the first time the name was used for a governmental body in that region since before the crusades.

Do “palestinians” have the right to self-determination and a right to land of their own? Yes. The fact is, the land of Palestine exists today and has existed since May 25, 1946.
The British Mandate for Palestine consisted of the entire territory of what we today call Israel and Jordan. That entire territory was promised by the UK (via the Balfour Declaration) to be a “homeland for the Jews.” But in May 1946, the Brits, in order to reward Arab armies for helping out elsewhere, hived the area East of the Jordan River (agriculturally the more productive of the entire mandate) off to the Arabs to form Jordan.

JORDAN

PALESTINE

There is your two-state- solution. Even the official flags of Jordan and Palestine give it away: they are near identical. But that has never been good enough for the Arabs, so time and time again they have been offered other solutions and have rejected every one of them, often starting a little mini-war in the wake. For over 80 years the Arabs have wanted one and only one thing: for the Jews to to vacate “from the river to the sea.”

That’s never going to happen.

In 2005 Israel decided to force a Palestinian state, and withdrew every one and every thing from Gaza. From then until now, Gaza has continuously fired rockets at cities and towns throughout southern Israel, culminating on October 7th 2023 with an actual real genocidal act. And Israel retaliated.

Honestly, Israel is the single most powerful nation in the Middle East. They have the best trained military on Earth and some of the most sophisticated and lethal hardware. The charge of genocide is contingent upon intent. I guarantee you, if Israel’s intent was genocide the war which started 10/7/2023 would have been over by Samhain 2023. That’s a fact.

“Books,” as Ringo Star stated in A Hard Days Night “are Good.”
I recommend this book for any one who wants to learn the truth about “palestine.” In fact, it should be mandatory reading for every college student in the country: