Posts
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Friday, 13 March 2009
DISPROPORTIONATE HYPOCRICY
A German firm which sold some industrial equipment to an Israeli factory is refusing to send the technicians to set it up, because it's in Kiryat Gat, and thus within range of Hamas rockets. Yes, those ineffectual tin-can homemade not-really-serious weapons Hamas has, which cannot be justification for Israeli attempts to make them go away.
So long as they're aimed at Israelis, that is. If you aim them at Germans the narrative changes.
But it's not only the Germans, it's the Americans, too. Powerline points out that Admiral Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence and thus an important and influential man, admits that although everyone agrees about the facts, the danger of Iranian nuclear weapons differs according to perspective: The Israelis take it seriously, the Americans not so seriously. Which is foolish of the Americans, because the single most salient fact about the world from an American perspective surely ought to be the aggravating propensity of the rest of the world not necessarily to behave as the Americans might like. If the Iranians and Israelis end up shooting at each other, it won't be helpful to the Americans that they were laid-back about the possibility earlier on.
taken from:Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)
AUSTRALIA THREATENS TO QUIT DURBAN 2
Australia threatens to quit Durban 2 anti-racism meet
By Reuters
Tags: Australia, U.S., Israel News
Australia threatened on Thursday to withdraw from a UN conference on racism next month unless the wording of a document it considers anti-Semitic is dropped or substantially altered.
Israel and Canada have already withdrawn from the April 20-24 World Conference Against Racism in Geneva amid fears Arab nations will use it to criticize Israel.
The United States has also said it will not attend the conference unless the wording of the final declaration is altered radically. Israel is calling for a boycott of the event.
"If we form the view that the text is going to lead to nothing more than an anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic harangue, an anti-Jewish propaganda exercise, Australia will not be in attendance," Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told parliament.
"If we form the view that the text is going to lead to nothing more than an anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic harangue, an anti-Jewish propaganda exercise, Australia will not be in attendance," Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told parliament.
Critics also object to final declaration sections they say could limit freedom of religion or speech.
The United States and Israel walked out of the first UN conference on racism in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, to protest against an attempted resolution comparing Zionism to racism.
SHOE HURLED AT AHMADINEJAD
Report: Shoe hurled at Ahmadinejad in Iranian city
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Israel News, Shoe
A shoe was recently hurled at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad while he was in the city of Urmia, an Iranian Web site has reported.
The incident in the Iranian city was an apparent imitation of a similar attack on former U.S. president George Bush in Iraq last year.
Urmia News, the Iranian site, reported that Ahmadinejad was in a car en route to an election rally when the shoe was thrown. Ahmadinejad was traveling to a local stadium where he was meant to deliver a speech ahead of upcoming presidential elections.
According to the report, a hat was also thrown at the Iranian president before his convoy sped away from the scene.
The incident was not reported by Iran's major news outlets. But it has been widely commented upon in the Islamic Republic's blogosphere, which is viewed as one of the most developed in the world. It is one of the key tools for disseminating information that contradicts the position of the regime. The government controls Iran's traditional media.
A number of pro-Ahmadinejad bloggers denied the report, claiming it was a rumor spread by "monarchists" and "anti-revolutionaries" - common terms for members of the Iranian opposition.
Urmia News said the incident occurred after riots erupted in the city in response to an incident in which an elderly pedestrian was harmed by Ahmadinejad's convoy. He had reportedly sought to hand the Iranian president a letter.
Urmia News did not say when the incident transpired, but it apparently took place at some point over the last few days.
In December last year, an Iraqi television news reporter threw his shoes at Bush and called him a "dog" in Arabic, during a press conference in Baghdad. The act triggered a spate of copycat shoe-hurling incidents across the world.
UNIVERSAL TORAH: KI TISA
UNIVERSAL TORAH: KI TISA
By Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum
Torah Reading: KI TISA Exodus 30:11-34:35
PROVIDING THE MEDICINE BEFORE THE ILLNESS
The lengthy first section of our parshah of KI TISA (the entire first Aliyah in the synagogue Torah reading, up to Ex. 31:18) starts with a number of commandments concluding the account of the Sanctuary, its vessels and the daily services of its ministering priests. Then, with a reiteration and amplification of the Fourth Commandment, the Sabbath, its seriousness (violation is punishable by death) and its holiness as an eternal sign between G-d and Israel, Moses' Forty Days on Mt. Sinai after the giving of the Ten Commandments come to an end. G-d gives him Two Tablets of Testimony, but as he readies to go down the mountain back to the people, G-d tells him that the worst had just happened: the people had already violated the Covenant by making a molten idol.
Even before the sin occurred, the commandments with which KI TISA opens provide precisely the remedy for the coming illness, which was rooted within the dark depths of selfish material lust and craving. The Sanctuary as a whole is a remedy for material craving and the lust for wealth. This is particularly true in the case of the mitzvah with which the parshah opens, the HALF SHEKEL which each Israelite was required to contribute to the Sanctuary and for the purchase of the daily sacrifices so as to put food on the "table" of G-d's House, the Altar. The HALF SHEKEL is symbolic of charity and the will to GIVE, as opposed to the selfish desire to acquire and consume. The HALF SHEKEL is the remedy for the appetite for material wealth in itself.
When G-d spoke to Moses, He "showed him a kind of coin of fire, the weight of a half shekel" and He said to him: "THIS shall all who pass through the count give -- a half shekel" (Ex. 30:13 and Rashi there). This fiery HALF SHEKEL COIN, which made every single citizen an equal partner in the Sanctuary and its upkeep, was the remedy for material lust and the appetite for wealth. Everyone was to join and be a partner in an enterprise that elevates material wealth -- the finest vessels of gold, silver and copper, the finest fabrics, choicest animals, flour, oil, wine and spices -- by incorporating them in the worship of the One G-d. This is where the display of wealth is truly fitting, a place where each may take a just pride in having a share. Having a joint share with everyone else in the national treasure, the Temple, keeping one's eyes focussed on its splendid golden vessels and their implicit messages -- these are the medicine for the selfish lust for wealth for its own sake.
Differences in wealth and assets were of no significance in this annual half shekel tax that made each citizen an equal partner in the Temple enterprise. The rich could not give more nor the poor less. Souls cannot be quantified and counted -- each soul has its own unique significance that would be violated by trying to quantify it or assign it a number. What counts is that each person adds his or her own SELF and WILL, and is willing to play his or her part by paying the "head tax" and "casting a vote". Numbers and wealth do not count in the eyes of G-d. What counts is each person's WILL to make a contribution -- to have an equal share with everyone else, without pride and without shame, in being part of the whole, feeding the Altar and bringing the fire of G-d's presence into the world.
An integral part of this remedy for the sin of worshipping material wealth and splendor is the keeping of the Sabbath, with which the account of the Sanctuary and its vessels concludes. Observance of the Sabbath is more important even than the work of building the Sanctuary, which must also cease for one day every week. The race to work, build, make and create wealth must stop for one day out of every seven in order to remember that it is not work and material wealth that guarantee security but only G-d's enduring Covenant. What is of prime importance is not our wealth but our soul. One day a week must be for the soul. "And on the seventh day, He rested, VAYNAFASH -- and became ENSOULED" (Ex. 31:17).
* * *
THE LOSS OF INNOCENCE
To get a faint grasp of how, forty days after hearing G-d speak from heaven at Sinai, the people could worship a golden calf, it is necessary to understand that the ERUV RAV -- the "mixed multitude" who went up with the Children of Israel out of Egypt -- were by no means a mere rabble of fellow-travelers who jumped on the wagon together with a band of runaway slaves. The Exodus was far more than a slave breakout. It was a religious revolution, in which the entire idolatry-based worldview of Egypt together with its hierarchy of king, priests and wizards was publicly overthrown and defeated. According to the Zohar (beginning of KI TISA), the shattering of the existing culture and its assumptions caused some of Pharaoh's leading magicians (the great scientists and philosophers of the time) to join Moses (who was "very great in the eyes of Pharaoh's servants", Ex. 11:3), on this new venture out into the wilderness in search of the One G-d. The Midrashim note that some of these magicians even brought their idols with them when they crossed the Red Sea.
Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, commenting on the two golden calves made later on by Jeraboam, first king of the Northern Kingdom, asks how it is conceivable that he could have deceived a great multitude with such nonsense as worshiping cows. "Certainly this matter contained very deep and profound reasoning. And if a single page of the philosophical writings on which it was based had survived, it would distance many people from G-d and it would be impossible to come close to Him at all. And for this reason, it is a great benefit to the world that the works justifying this idolatry have been lost." (Likutey Moharan II:32). [Likewise it is told in Sanhedrin 102b that the soul of King Menashe appeared to Rav Ashi, who asked him, "Since you were all so wise, why did you worship idols?" The king replied, "If you had been there, you would have picked up your robes and come running after us." See also Taanis 25b, where the angel of the rains is compared to EGLA, a "calf". The root EGLA is also related to IGUL, a circle or cycle, hinting at how the image of the golden calf was bound up with representing fundamental cosmic cycles.]
"They have turned aside quickly from the path that I commanded them, they have made for themselves a molten EGEL and they are prostrating to it and sacrificing to it and they said, These are your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt." (Ex. 32:8).
Whatever this EGEL was intended to represent, it was a deviation from the pathway of absolute monotheism taught at Sinai, which proscribed any kind of graven image. Unlike the path of Sinai, which was intended to lead to the holiness befitting a nation of priests, the festivities around the EGEL ended up in "play" (Ex. 32:6) -- the three cardinal sins of idolatry, sexual immorality and murder (see Rashi ad loc.). The molten image, with its sophisticated associated "theology", was at root a wizardly rationalization for material lust.
How it came about that Aaron, Moses' older brother, played a part, albeit unwillingly, in the manufacture of this calf is one of the profound mysteries of the Torah. The two previous parshahs dealt with the elevation of wealth through the incorporation of gold, silver and other symbols of wealth into the Temple service. In TETZAVEH we saw that at the very center of the Temple service is the High Priest, with his beautiful garments (expressing "splendor", HOD, kabbalistically the characteristic quality of Aaron). Yet suddenly we find that Aaron himself took the gold offered by those who wanted to make the calf, symbol of the ultimate degradation of wealth! This implies that there is a "fatal flaw" in HOD -- that splendor, even in the service of true religion, may lead to corruption.
[And thus it was that in the time of the Second Temple, the priesthood became corrupt. The "fatal flaw" in Hod corresponds to the sciatic nerve that "jumped" when the angel who struggled with Jacob touched his thigh.]
While Moses was "blotted out", as it were, from the previous parshah of TETZAVEH (as discussed in last week's commentary), he is the central figure in our present parshah of KI TISA. In the previous parshah we saw that the role of the Priest, as epitomized in Aaron, is to secure atonement. But how can atonement come when the priest himself is in need of atonement -- when the splendor of religious service itself has become corrupted because of the inherent "flaw" in this-worldly glory?
KI TISA teaches that ultimately, atonement can come only through from the Sage, as epitomized in Moses (whose characteristic quality is NETZACH, "Victory" -- as when he "argues" with G-d when pleading for forgiveness, see Likutey Moharan I:4). Moses alone "found favor" in G-d's eyes, eliciting the revelation of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy (Ex. 34:6): Both before the sin and after the sin, G-d does not change. He is always the same: "loving and gracious, patient, and abundant in mercy and truth." True atonement comes from practicing these same virtues: "And you shall go in His ways" (Deut. 28:9).
Repentance is not very glorious -- it is hard to admit that one did wrong, to have to accept the consequences, atone and struggle to change while living with shame and contrition. In order to escape the ignominy of sin, practitioners of religion are sometimes tempted to present an outer face of sanctimony and irreproachability to others and even to themselves, thereby blinding themselves to their own flaws.
This is not the path of religion and repentance taught by the Torah, which gives naked exposure to people's real flaws and shortcomings, including even the errors of an Aaron, a Moses or a David, none of whom were spared from criticism.
The Talmud states: "It was not really consistent with what David truly was that he should have sinned with Batsheva, and it was not really consistent with what the Children of Israel were that they sinned with the golden calf. Then why were they made to sin? It was a decree of the King in order to give penitents an excuse" (Avodah Zarah 4b and Rashi there). They were made to sin in order to teach others the ways of repentance ("I will teach sinners your ways", Psalms 51:15). If they could sin, and still bear the pain and repent, then so can others.
While the sanctimonious nations of the world never cease berating and criticizing the Jews and Israel for their supposed sins, the actual followers of the Torah continue with the inglorious work of Teshuvah, scrutinizing themselves for flaws and striving to correct them instead of denying and papering over them. "And He, being compassionate, will atone for sin".
* * *
MESHENICHNAS ADAR, MARBIN BESIMCHAH!!! "When Adar arrives, we maximize SIMCHAH!!!"
Shabbat Shalom!
Avraham Yehoshua Greenbaum
--AZAMRA INSTITUTE
PO Box 50037 Jerusalem 91500 Israel
Website: www.azamra.org
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Thursday, 12 March 2009
ISRAEL WARNS THAT IRAN IS CAPABLE OF MAKING NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Israel warns that Iran is capable of making nuclear weapons
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monday, March 9th 2009, 1:09 AM
JERUSALEM - Iran is capable of producing atom bombs, Israel's top military intelligence officer said Sunday, sounding the highest-level warning that Israel's archenemy has achieved independent nuclear capability.
At a cabinet meeting, the chief of military intel, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, did not say Iran already has the bomb, but he did insist that Iran has "crossed the threshold" and has the expertise and materials needed for one.
The participants spoke on condition of anonymity because the cabinet meeting was closed. They said Yadlin told them that Iran continues to accumulate uranium for enrichment and hopes to exploit the Obama administration's intention to open a dialogue as a cover for developing nuclear weapons.
Yadlin's comments follow a similar assessment by the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen. He said a week ago Iran has enough fissile material to build a bomb now.
Israeli officials have long identified a nuclear Iran as the most serious threat to the Jewish state.
Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel, and Iran has tested long-range missiles that could strike Israel.
Israel's long-held policy is that the world must cooperate to defuse the Iranian nuclear threat.
IRAN, MILITANT GROUPS SUPPORT SUDANESE PRESIDENT
Iran, militant groups support Sudanese president
(International Herald Tribune)
The Associated Press
Published: March 6, 2009
KHARTOUM, Sudan: Senior leaders of Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah offered international support Friday to Sudan's president after he was charged with war crimes in Darfur, a sign that the bid to prosecute him could sharply radicalize his regime
.
For a third straight day, President Omar al-Bashir's supporters marched and vowed to defend him against what his government called a "colonial" conspiracy to overthrow him. Hundreds emerged from mosques after Friday prayers, chanting "jihad," or holy war, and shouting, "With our souls and blood, we will sacrifice ourselves for you, al-Bashir."
For a third straight day, President Omar al-Bashir's supporters marched and vowed to defend him against what his government called a "colonial" conspiracy to overthrow him. Hundreds emerged from mosques after Friday prayers, chanting "jihad," or holy war, and shouting, "With our souls and blood, we will sacrifice ourselves for you, al-Bashir."
After the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant Wednesday for al-Bashir, Sudan's government responded by expelling 13 of the largest aid organizations in Darfur.
The U.N. human rights office said in Geneva that it was examining whether the expulsion could itself constitute a war crime.
The order opened a giant hole in the safety net that has kept many Darfur civilians alive during six years of war in the vast, arid region of western Sudan. Without the groups, 1.1 million people will be without food, 1.5 million without health care, and more than 1 million without drinking water — and outbreaks of infectious disease are a greater danger, the U.N. said.
"To knowingly and deliberately deprive such a huge group of civilians of means to survive is a deplorable act," said its spokesman, Rupert Colville. "To punish civilians because of a decision by the ICC is a grievous dereliction of the government's duty to protect its own people."
U.S. State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid urged Khartoum to allow the workers back. "The forced departure of these organizations immediately and seriously threatens the lives and well-being of displaced populations," he said.
The quick show of support from Iran and Middle East militant groups underscores the political risk from the warrant: that al-Bashir could turn to a deeper alliance with the region's hard-line, anti-West bloc. If he does, he could become more resistant to any compromise with the West and take a harder line at home.
Jennifer Cooke, head of the Africa program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Western reaction "may drive al-Bashir further to the hard-line radicals."
"He is framing the ICC's decision as yet another Western attempt to undermine the sovereignty of a Muslim developing state," she said. "And realizing he can rally support, whether from the Arab League or more radical elements, and possibly the (African Union), it gives him less incentive to move back on his decisions."
Khartoum's government is dominated by Islamic fundamentalists, it provided a base for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, and it has long been close to Iran, Syria and Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas.
At the same time, however, al-Bashir has often shown a pragmatist's willingness to compromise when needed. Under international pressure, he made concessions in Darfur, such as letting in peacekeepers, and took the larger step of signing a 2005 peace deal with his biggest rivals — southern rebels that Khartoum battled for two decades. He has quietly cooperated with Washington on counterterrorism in recent years, even while under U.S. sanctions.
Those shows of flexibility could be shut off if al-Bashir digs in with a harder line. A more radical regime could heighten violence in Darfur and lead to a strain in ties with the southern Sudanese — or even to a collapse of the north-south peace deal.
The visiting delegation included Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani, Hamas' deputy leader Moussa Abu Marzouk, and a top official from Lebanon's Hezbollah, as well as Syria's parliament speaker and the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group. Before they met with al-Bashir, Larijani told reporters at the airport that the ICC's arrest warrant is an "insult directed at Muslims."
"This group today indicates a readiness, a will and unified position to support Sudan, its government and people," Larijani said later at a news conference. He said supporters of prosecution "miscalculated" by thinking they "can sit and issue orders to have others behave as they wish. This has changed. They have to play with a new chessboard."
Abu Marzouk accused Washington of double standards. "The leaders who should be tried and criminalized are those who killed the children and women in Gaza ... Iraq, Afghanistan," he said. Hamas supporters held a large march supporting Sudan in Hamas-run Gaza on Friday.
The Hague-based ICC accuses al-Bashir of leading a counterinsurgency against Darfur that involved rapes, killings and other atrocities against civilians. Khartoum has been accused of unleashing Arab militiamen to attack Darfur civilians to put down a revolt by ethnic Africans in the region. Up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million driven from their homes in the conflict since 2003, according to the U.N.
Al-Bashir rejects the charges and refuses to deal with the court. Arab and African nations are pressing the U.N. Security Council to defer any prosecution for at least a year, hoping to defuse the crisis.
Last month, al-Bashir's intelligence chief warned that Khartoum could respond to a warrant by turning to a more Islamic fundamentalist line. At Thursday's demonstrations, al-Bashir hinted at moving closer to the region's militants. He saluted Hezbollah and Hamas, then said, "We call for a new front to reject all forms of colonialism. ... We in Sudan will lead this front."
Meanwhile, most staff from the expelled aid agencies have left Darfur, either going to Khartoum or leaving Sudan altogether, aid workers said. The government also ordered the closure of SUDO, the largest Sudanese non-governmental aid organization in Darfur, which was providing food, drilling water wells and operating clinics, said Ibrahim Mudawi, SUDO's head.
Alun McDonald, a Kenya-based official for Oxfam, said its 25 foreign staffers were in Khartoum. He warned that water pumps maintained by Oxfam will run out of fuel in two weeks, affecting 400,000 people who depend on them.
World Health Organization spokeswoman Fadela Chaib warned of the spread of infectious disease without aid workers' monitoring. There is an outbreak of meningitis in Nyala, South Darfur, where one of the expelled groups, Medecins Sans Frontieres-Holland, was to begin vaccinations next week.
Sudanese Foreign Ministry official Mutrif Siddique said the Sudanese Humanitarian Affairs Ministry and other authorities "have made arrangements to avoid a food shortage or a medical crisis." He acknowledged that "there will be a partial effect, and they (authorities) will work to avoid any shortage."
Asked about U.N. comments that the expulsion order could be a war crime, he said only, "Their campaign against us continues."
___
Associated Press writer Frank Jordans in Geneva, Switzerland, contributed to this report.
SILENT EXODUS OF JEWISH REFUGEES
Silent Exodus of Jewish Refugees
In 1948 nearly one million Jews lived in Arab lands. But In barely twenty years, they have become forgotten fugitives, expelled from their native lands, forgotten by history and where the victims themselves have hidden their fate under a cloak of silence.
A people whom legend have always associated with "wandering" many of these Jews from Arab lands had lived there for thousands of years and accepted their fate, through good times and bad times.
But 1948, the beginning of their exodus, also saw the birth of the State of Israel.
And, while the Arab armies were preparing to invade the young refugee-country, the survivors of the Shoah were piling up in rickety boats. Meanwhile a few hundred thousand Arabs from Palestine were getting ready to flee their homes, convinced that they would return as winners and conquerors.
Soon - by a terrible twist of fate they, as well, began to fill up refugee camps and passed on their refugee status to new generations.
The Jews, however, did not receive refugee status.
They had just rediscovered the land of their birthright.
And if they came from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq or from Yemen, if they had lost everything, even their relatives and their cemeteries, they were ready to rebuild their lives in the West and for many - in Israel - and try to forget their past.
Without ever asking for compensation or the right of return, or even wishing that their story be told...
(My thanks to LatterDays for posting this in his blog)
THE VANISHING DIASPORA JEW
Since the destruction of the Second Temple until very recently, the masses of the Jewish people did not dwell in the Land of Israel. For 2000 years. the majority of Jews dwelled in the Diaspora, among non-Jews. Jews were dispersed in far flung places such as Poland, Morocco, Iran, Ethiopia and even China. They spoke different languages, like Yiddish, Ladino or the local tongue, and differed very much in customs, cuisine and clothing from other Jews in other exiles. Yet, despite intense persecution, massacres, pogroms, suffering and poverty, the Jewish nation survived intact, the many generation since Sinai until the today. Through the force of their dedication and commitment to Judaism, they were able to withstand the most brutal and horrible of circumstances.
Generally, the second or third generation of immigrants assimilates quite fully into the host culture. The only reminder of their origins may be the occasional family cultural celebration, a grandparent with a heavy accent or maybe a trip back to their home country. It is incredible that Jews, dispersed and separated for 2000 years, did not assimilate but always maintained their own identity. Away from their land, with no country to go back to, Jews were able to survive.
Within the span of several generations, a new and frightening trend has emerged. All Jews, until a hundred or so years ago, were religiously observant, fully and wholly committed to Judaism. Because of this, Jews were able to survive the harsh Diaspora. However, today assimilation is taking a frightening toll on Jewish communities in the United States, Canada, Russia and Western Europe.
Consider the following statistics*:
Jewish identity is declining sharply.
Of 5.6 million Jews, 2 million American Jews live in households identified as non-Jewish
60% of Jews below 40 years of age live in households identified as non-Jewish
20% of Jews over 60 years of age live in households identified as non-Jewish
Intermarriage rates are increasing dramatically.
Before 1965, 10% of Jews who married, did so outside the faith.
Since 1985, 52% of Jews who married have done so outside the faith.
Children are being raised as non-Jews.
1 million, or 54% of all American Jewish children under the age of 18 are being raised as non-Jews or with no religion.
Fertility Rates are not high enough to replenish the religion.
The average fertility rate of American Jewish women is 1.4 children per household. The replacement level is 2.1 children.
Less emphasis is being placed on a Jewish education.
In 1962, 540,000 Jewish children were attending afternoon weekend schools, and 60,000 were enrolled in day schools. By 1990, fewer than 240,000 Jewish children attended afternoon /weekend schools and 140,000 attended day schools.
NET LOSS -- 220,000 Jewish children.
Traditional Shabbat observance is extremely low.
Only 36% of Jewish households light the Shabbat Candles.
Of the population that consists of people who were born Jewish and are Jewish by choice, only 11% attend synagogue weekly.
* All Statistics taken from Council of Jewish Federations' 1990 National Jewish Population Survey. This is the most comprehensive source of American Jewish data available
The Jewish population worldwide is sharply decreasing, ravaged by the scourges of intermarriage and assimilation. A census taken before Rosh HaShana 5769 found that the Jewish population worldwide increased by 70 000, only due to natural increase in Israel. A very shocking study found that within 3 generations, 97% of non-Orthodox Jewry in the United States will be extinct.
This is a tragedy of epic proportions. The nation that stood at Sinai and received G-d's Torah barely knows about Purim and Shavuot. The Chosen People eat cheeseburgers, not even knowing that they might be unkosher! Taught by the Jewish Establishment Organizers that "thou shalt melt", Jewish parents sent their kids to public schools, creating a generation of Jewish illiterates who know little more that Fiddler on the Roof, gefilte fish and a Yiddish expression or two. This is the most pressing threat facing the Jewish people today. The apathy of young Jews and their total disconnect and alienation from Judaism should frighten and worry every single Jews who is committed to the future of his people.
During Israel's recent operation in Gaza, Jewish leaders were extremely concerned over the alarming increase in anti-Israel around the world. Not to deny the seriousness of these anti-semitic attacks, the biggest danger threatening the Jewish today comes not from anti-semitism but from assimilation and intermarriage. There is a silent Holocaust going on in the Diaspora as young Jews marry outside of the faith, their Jewishness completely irrelevant to them, a mere accident of birth. Yet, the Jewish leaders are completely silent, doing nothing to try and reach out to our brothers and sisters who are slowly drowning in goyishkeit. If these current rates continue, the future does not bode well for Jewish continuity.
Raised in completely secular environments devoid of spirituality, young Jews look for meaning in other paths and belief systems. They travel to India and live in ashrams, or become Buddhists or Zen followers. These alienated Jews make easy prey for missionary groups like Jews for Jesus who thrive on Jewish illiteracy and ignorance. Most have only the faintest inklings of Jewish rituals, a quick show at "temple" on the high holidays, boring and irrelevant classes at Hebrew School, or a family seder. They have never been exposed to the incredible spirituality in Judaism and are often amazed when they discover that Judaism has a deep spiritual legacy. Intermarriage is only the last step in complete assimilation, finalizing the irrevocable break with the tradition and lineage that extends to Sinai and before, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For generations of Jews, the question of "why be Jewish?" is unimportant. They were sent to public schools, encouraged to interfaith and integrate with non-Jews and now their own Jewish identities are nil.
To any Jew who is reading this article, I beg them please to seriously consider their own Judaism. Their ancestors gave their lives in order that they should live as Jews. Imagine their great-great grandfathers in the shtetls of Ukraine or the juderias of Spain, and how much it would pain them to know that they overcame pogroms and Inquisitions, Crusades and Auschwitz, only for their children to willingly give up their Judaism. Please, I beg you to return home, to your roots and to your people.
May HaShem merit that all of His children should come home very soon
taken from : For Zion's Sake (http://masada1234.blogspot.com/)
MUSLIM ENTERS SYNAGOGUE AND STARTS PROCLAIMING JIHAD
March 10, 2009
Muslim enters synagogue and starts proclaiming jihad
Brooklyn. New York. The United States.
"Violent Intruders Attack Brooklyn Synagogues,"
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz for Israel National News,
March 10
For the second time in less than a week, a packed Brooklyn, New York, synagogue has been the target of threats of violence by intruders.
On Monday, according to Yeshiva World News, an Arab man in his mid-30s entered Boro Park's 'Sephardish Shul' and began making proclamations of jihad. Members of a Jewish volunteer security organization, the Shomrim, apprehended the threatening individual. They held him until police officers arrived at the scene, arresting the suspect. Detectives spoke with the "Middle Eastern man" at a station house near the synagogue....
Just two days earlier, a man wielding a butcher's knife burst into a Kerestir Chassidic synagogue in Williamsburg. He initially turned up unarmed and began throwing soda cans at the gathered worshipers, which hit one of them, and returned shortly thereafter with the bladed weapon.The attacker was prevented from using the butcher's knife on anyone by a young man, described as a "friend" of the knife-wielding intruder, who then fled together with him.
The recent attacks come just over a month after Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn was targeted in a series of English-language jihadist videos posted on the Internet. The videos and accompanying texts singled out "770," but also intimated that all Orthodox Jewish organizations were equally worthy of attack by Muslims. The threatening material included images of the 770 synagogue and study house, pictures of the police van out front, and indications of which parts of the building are crowded at what times.
The source of the thinly-veiled threats, a group called Revolution Muslim, is domestic to the United States.
taken from : B'NAI ELIM (http://bnaielim.blogspot.com/)
REMEMBER OUR BROTHER JONATHAN POLLARD
Posted by Mordechai Friedfertig
[from "Ma'ayanei Ha-Yeshua" – Parashat Tetzave 5769]
Our brother, Jonathan Pollard,
We are extremely distressed that we did not succeed in freeing you.
You are surely also extremely distressed. We are distressed for you.
We are distressed for the Nation of Israel. We are distressed for truth and justice.
But nothing has changed. We continue to fight for you.
The United States did not reject the request. It is still open.
Nothing has changed, it is just more difficult.
But this is our obligation, our eternal ethical obligation,
Our eternal national obligation and our eternal communal obligation.
Pollard is not just a person. He is also a banner and an ideal,
And we will struggle until we are victorious.
All of our efforts were not for naught.
We are grateful for all of the toil, all of the prayers and all of the phone calls.
The senior American officials support a pardon based on humanitarian reasons.
If so, why didn't we succeed? It has been clarified that we lacked one thing:
The support of the Israeli Government, a request from the Israeli Government.
The President therefore did not see why he should free him.
We are now working on various fronts:
We continue to pray for our brother who is in distress and captivity.
We talk about Jonathan at every opportunity to galvanize the Nation and the Government will follow the Nation. We demand that the Government definitively and clearly work for his release: by including his name among those in captivity and making an official request to the US that he is an Israeli citizen and was an Israeli spy.
The current Government contains many high-ranking officials who support his release.
Please turn to the Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
His fax in the Knesset: 02-649-6659. His office in the Likud: 03-538-7165.
Please write to Jonathan with encouragement, support and love.
It is physically and emotionally difficult for him after he saw his freedom before his eyes.
Our letters give him oxygen.
When he sees that the Nation is with him, this is what gives him strength to hold fast.
Yes, we the Nation of Israel has not forgotten him.
THE JEWS CONTROL THE WORLD
This post will have no links because I've only got a few moments.
The other day I went on record for not caring about this Chas Freeman character, one way or the other. In the meantime he has been forced not to take the job in the intelligence community he was hoping to have. Predictably, this is sending his fans ballistic (go look at Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Sullivan for starters). Their thesis is that the case proves (once again, I might add) that public discussion of Israel is censored in the United States, with large swathes of discourse being forbidden by the awesomely powerful Israelis and their stooges.
There is of course nothing new to this claim; it's been around for centuries (well, the power of the Jews. The United States as a target, that's newer). I admit to being puzzled by their line of reasoning, because for the life of me I can't imagine what might be verboten (Greenwald's word) to say? That Israel's policies are all wrong? That Israel commits war crimes and worse? That Israel is forcing the Palestinians into slavery? That Israel's behaviour is the source of the Islamic ire at America? That Israel muzzles free discussion and thought? That Israel shouldn't exist?
All of these ideas are broadcast widely and continuously not only in Arab World, nor in the Guardian, but also in the American public arena. If Israel were so good at blocking discussion, how come it's so bad at it? Andrew, Glenn, Juan and many others say these things with regularity, and no-one blocks them? True, the Freeman fellow, after being onthe Saudi payroll, was deemed unsuitable for that job, but that hardly proves the point. The entire case proves the opposite, it seems to me.
taken from:Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
BELIEF AND RESPONSABILITY
On Purim we read the Book of Esther. There's a program to kill all the Jews of the Persian Empire, backed by the emperor himself. Mordechai is trying to thwart the plan with a counter plan of his own, based on the position of his cousin and adopted daughter, Esther, the queen. Esther hesitates, given the mortal danger she'll need to put herself into. To which Mordechai responds (Chapter 4, 13-14):
13 And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
It's an interesting statement. The world's greatest power has decided to murder the Jews, but Mordechai is supremely confident they won't be destroyed; this confidence, however, doesn't prevent him from taking any measure to thwart the program, no matter how high the personal danger.
taken from:Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations ( http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)
A PURIM CONTEMPLATION
once upon a time in a shtetl in russia there were no eligible men, and 2 women who had reached marrying age. after much deliberation, the rabbi decided to write to his brother who was a rabbi in a distant village, described the situation and asked for his help. and luckily, in the brother's village there were 2 young men with no potential wives, and the solution was obvious.
the 2 young men set off and the young spinsters' village was all agog with excitement. unfortunately the road was long, the winter was cold and one of the young men died on the way. so after some months, it was only one young man who walked into the village, to be welcomed by 2 mothers of prospective wives.
needless to say, the 2 mothers started arguing, each claiming that the young man was destined for her daughter. no one knew how to deal with this dilemma, and the rabbi, who had made the match, was called in to mediate. he listened to the argument for a while and then declared: the young man must be cut up, a half for each bride.
'no no' said one mother 'let the other one have him! he is such a nice boy, it will be a crime to cut him up!'
said the other 'are you crazy? of course he must be cut up, half each! we were both promised a son in law, its both or neither!'and they carried on along this vein.
'that settles it' said the rabbi 'now i know'.
the entire village stood in silence, waiting for his verdict. what will the rabbi say? how will he decide?
very quietly he pointed and said 'that one, who wants to cut him up, she wins. without any doubt, she is the real mother in law....'
and a happy purim to all
taken from:Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
Sultan Knish-HOW ISLAMIC IMMIGRATION REVERSES CIVIL RIGHTS IN THE WEST
Sultan Knish - How Islamic Immigration Reverses Civil Rights in the West
BBC DIGS ANOTHER HOLE
BBC Digs Another Hole
In July 2008, we caught the BBC's shocking first response to a Palestinian bulldozer attack in Jerusalem. Offering a glimpse into the BBC's warped journalism, the initial headline read "Israel bulldozer driver shot dead".
While the BBC later amended its headline, this example offered evidence of the BBC's mindset - the initial instinct to portray Israel as an aggressor and a Palestinian as a victim even if that Palestinian was actively involved in a terrorist attack against innocent civilians.
Less than three weeks later, another Palestinian bulldozer attack took place. This time, in a virtual repetition of the first incident, the BBC's initial response the second time was a headline questioning whether an attack had taken place at all. The headlines on the BBC's web page went from "New Vehicle 'Attack' in Jerusalem" to "New Digger 'Attack' in Jerusalem," then finally settled on "Israel Hit By New Digger Attack."
Fast forward to March 5, 2009 - yet another bulldozer terror attack took place as a Jerusalem Arab rammed a bulldozer into a police car in the capital, wounding two officers before being shot dead. How would the BBC report this?
True to form, as the news broke, the BBC's initial headline read: "Tractor driver shot in Jerusalem". We watched as the headline evolved over the course of the next few hours. Bizarrely, in a semantic change, the next update read "Digger driver shot in Jerusalem".
A short time later, the BBC finally acknowledged that an actual attack had taken place as the headline was amended to "'New digger rampage' in Jerusalem" before finally settling on "'New digger attack' in Jerusalem". But why the quotation marks?
Evidently, somebody was sitting behind a computer giving some thought to the headlines and how to update the breaking news story. But once again, the BBC has demonstrated a clear trend that reflects negatively against Israel even when Israelis are the victims of a terror attack.
Headlines are important because they set the basis for the whole story, are the first thing the reader sees and the last message left in the reader's mind.
Typical BBC headlines we found in HonestReporting's past analysis of the BBC were: "Israelis kill militants in Gaza" (The "militants" had been firing rockets into Israel), "Children killed in Israeli strike" (the children were playing next to a rocket launcher), and "Israeli strike kills four in Gaza."
On the other hand, in actions carried out by Palestinians, the headlines took the responsibility for the attacks away from those who instigated them. Rockets, explosions,and clashes became the culprits in typical headlines such as: "Rocket injures dozens in Israel," "Gaza explosion kills two children", "Two killed in clash in Gaza Strip," and "West Bank clash leaves three dead."
Once again, in this latest bulldozer attack, the culprit is not the Palestinian who carried it out but the vehicle itself. While "Israel" or "Israelis" regularly feature in BBC headlines, the same cannot be said for "Palestinians" or "Arabs" who carry out terror attacks.
HonestReporting (http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/new/BBC_Digs_Another_Hole.asp)
GREEWALD: AD HOMINEM AS THE METHOD
There's this story going on about Chas Freeman, who has been appointed to some highfalutin advisory position somewhere within the Obama Administration. Lot's of people are cheering, others are groaning and kvetching. I haven't been following it too closely. My understanding is that it's not an executive position, nor is it top-tier. If here and there in the Administration there are people with nutty viewpoints, the United States of America is a big enough place to contain them. If the fellow challenges any potential groupthink, that can't be bad, either.
One of the advantages in being deeply and fundamentally right is that you can afford to be questioned by skeptics, contrarians, fools and snakes, all. So long as the the decision makers themselves are rational, there isn't much to be fearful of. In the long run, the skeptics may make some legitimate criticisms here and there, but they won't be able to cast serious doubt on a position that's fundamentally correct.
So far so good. Now you might want to cast a glance at Glenn Greeenwald's thoughts on the matter. They're long and wordy: Greenwald's like that. My understanding is that the central objective problem with Freeman is that he has been in the pay of the Saudis, who have a record of knowing why they pay nice sums to former American diplomats. In spite of everything Greenwald and others will imply, the vocal friends of Israel in Washington haven't been on Israel's payroll. They've made up their minds for whatever nefarious reasons, but being paid for them wasn't one. Greenwald, however, has this revealing comment to make:
There is, by design, definitely a chilling effect to these smear campaigns. Freeman is being dragged through the mud by the standard cast of accusatory Israel-centric neocons (Marty Peretz, Jon Chait, Jeffrey Goldberg, Commentary, The Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb, etc. etc., etc.), subjected to every standard, baseless smear, as a warning to others who think about challenging U.S. policy towards Israel in a similar way...
Ultimately, the greatest weapon to defeat these campaigns is to highlight the identity and behavior of their perpetrators. Just consider who is behind the attack on Freeman; how ugly and discredited are their tactics and ideology; and, most importantly, how absurd it is, given their disgraceful history, that they -- of all people -- would parade around as arbiters of "ideological extremism" and, more audaciously still, as credible judges of intelligence assessment.
The argument, in other words, must be resolved by "highlighting the identity" of the discussants saying things we don't like. Not "let's refute their claims", but "let's paint them in garish colors".
PS. And no, I hope I don't do the same. Follow the tags and you'll see that when the Guardian or Juan Cole (rarely) say thoughtful or valuable things, I've taken note. They don't do it often, true, but it can happen. What's wrong with them is how they use their cognitive facilities, not the fact that they are who they are.
taken from:Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)
SPEAK SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG STICK
Roger Cohen, a columnist at the New York Times, has a political agenda. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with that, of course. I've got a political agenda; most people who care about the unfolding story of humanity do. Being open about it is important, of course; holding up your positions and sources to scrutiny is even better.
Recently, Cohen visited some Jews in Iran, and deduced all sorts of far-reaching things from his visit. Jeffery Goldberg facilitated a visit for him with a community of Jews from Iran, now in Los Angeles; one assumes the narrative he'll hear in LA will be mildly different than the one he heard in Teheran, and we hope Cohen will tell us about this in a reasonable manner. You can follow this story as it unfolds either at the New York Times or at Goldberg's place, whichever.
Yesterday, Cohen published what he called a "reality check" about things in the Mideast.
The United States should follow the British example. It should initiate diplomatic contacts with the political wing of Hezbollah. The Obama administration should also look carefully at how to reach moderate Hamas elements and engineer a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation.
A rapprochement between the two wings of the Palestinian movement was briefly achieved at Mecca in 2007. The best form of payback from America’s expensive and authoritarian allies — Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan — would be help in reconciling Gaza Palestinians loyal to Hamas with West Bank Palestinians loyal to the more moderate Fatah of Mahmoud Abbas.
Now, I'm going to surprise some of you, or perhaps not, by being in favor of talks with Hamas. I don't think enemies need to pretend they aren't there, and if they can find anything to talk about: by all means, why not. Perhaps they'll stop being enemies, which would be great. If not, there's always the possibility one can wrangle some practical benefit from talking. The Zionists wrung some interesting concessions from the Nazis in the mid-1930s Haavara agreement; in 1944 and 1945 there were some marginal things that could have been achieved from talking to the SS, and even were achieved in April 1945.
No talking to the Nazis, however, would have prevented the Shoah. The Nazis murdered millions of Jews because they wanted to, not because the Jews weren't talking to them or weren't being nice.
I've got some arguments with Cohen about his facts, but my real argument with him is about this:
Israel, from the time of Ben Gurion, built its state by creating facts on the ground, not through semantics. Many of its leaders, including Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni, have been on wondrous political odysseys from absolutist rejection of division of the land to acceptance of a two-state solution. Yet they try to paint Hamas as irrevocably absolutist. Why should Arabs be any less pragmatic than Jews? (my italics)
Why indeed? That's the fundemental question, indeed, one of the most important questions facing mankind in the early 21st century. Cohen believes the answer is that Arabs aren't any different from Jews (or Americans, or Brits, or even Chinese far that matter). Since they're just like us, yet some of them behave so nastily, it must be because we're doing things to them that make them nasty; since we're responsible, we need to be better.
I, on the other hand, am stuck with the question. Why is it, indeed, that Arabs (or at any rate, many of them, and many of their regimes), are less pragmatic than Jews (or Americans, or Brits, or even Chinese, for that matter)?
So, while I'm in favor of talking to whomever is willing to talk to us, I insist on keeping the big stick within easy reach. Some of the people we'll be willing to talk to, after all, won't be willing to talk back. With others, there's nothing we can talk about. What could the Cambodians with eyeglasses have talked about with their Khmer Rouge murderers? (Yes, wearing eyeglasses was a capital offense). What could the Armenians have talked about with their Turk murderers 90 years ago? What could millions of Ukrainians have talked about with their Soviet murderers 8 decades ago?
Speak softly, but carry a big stick, as Teddy said.
taken from:Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)
VATICAN ARCHIVES
Yad Vashem, my erstwhile employer, is hosting a meeting of Vatican and Israeli historians. I'm not at Yad Vashem anymore, and I neither know the details nor am I asking. If anything good comes of the meeting, great. In the meantime, however, I'm holding back on gushing good feelings:
Israel has encouraged the Vatican to open its wartime archives to allow researchers to look for concrete examples of Pius' actions. But the Vatican has denied access to major parts of its archives, including wartime papers.
Shalev said Sunday he was pleased to learn that Benedict instructed the archive to speed up the process of cataloging the material and hoped it could now be completed in three to four years.
Yad Vashem said Shalev was informed of the development by Vatican archive officials and people who were in direct contact with the pope.
I've been in archives before, and know a thing or two about how they think. Blocking access to documents until the cataloging is completed is the archival corollary of a government setting up a committee. It could lead to something someday. Hypothetically. Maybe. Perhaps.
An archives that wants people to know what in its collections can always find plausible ways around the lack of a catalog.
taken from:Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)
DIVINE JUSTICE !
Football (soccer) fans in Israeli stadiums famously have a vocabulary of five (Hebrew) words: The Umpire's a SOB, when things are going bad, and God Exists, when their team is winning.
Well, here's the proof that God exists.
Though it does make one wonder. Israeli sports folk are pretty crappy. Could it be that antisemitism is God's way of improving them?
taken from:Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)
Monday, 9 March 2009
WILL OBAMA ALLOW THE ISLAMIFICATION OF AMERICA ?
Will Obama Allow the Islamification of America?
Manchurian Candidate, Simply Overwhelmed, or Asleep at the Wheel?
According to Frank Gaffney, President Obama has allegedly slighted British Prime Minister Gordon Brown—and yet, in truth, Obama seems to be following in Britain’s very European pro-Arab and pro-Islamist footsteps.
According to the office of Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, Obama’s first call to a foreign head of (a non-existent) state was to him. The White House did not deny that this was so. Obama’s first interview in the foreign media was with Al-Arabiya. According to Daniel Pipes, (who is far from “shocked” by Obama’s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s various changes of mind vis a vis Israel), Clinton has insisted, (some say: “suggested”), that Israel speed up the release of funds for Gaza.
The Obama administration is also on record as committed to funding terrorist groups–Hamas–in Gaza, (all good intentions aside, that is what happens to the money that the international community pours into Gaza), and proudly on record as willing to conduct European-style “diplomacy” with states which sponsor terrorism both against Israel and against the West. Yes, I know, the hope is that evil ideologues may hesitate to bomb the countries of leaders who are making eye contact with them, who are employing reason, charm—maybe even music– in an effort to soothe the savage beast.
But Britain has still been at this longer and so far, is more Islamified and pro-Sharia than America. Indeed, Britain is about to hold a conference on March 25th, at the University of London’s School of Economics, in which known terrorists will be speaking about “political Islam.” Senior British civil servants and police officers will pony up at hefty fee (nearly two thousand pounds) to attend the event which is meant to “improve” their “understanding of radicalism.”
However, all is not lost. Heroes are increasingly standing up, heroes who are resisting the Islamification of the West, who are not rolling over and playing dead.
For example, there are Rachel Ehrenfeld, Philippe Karsenty, Geert Wilders: Heroes all, about whom I have previously written.
The indefatigable Ehrenfeld has been fighting for the rights of American authors to tell the truth—yes, even about Islam, without being sued into silence as has happened to many an author in London, which is known as the “libel tourist” capital of the world.
Karsenty stood up to the biggest blood libel of the Intifada of 2000, that concerning the alleged Israeli murder of Mohammed al-Dura in the arms of his father; after many years of a lonely struggle, Karsenty prevailed against France’s Channel Two in Paris.
Geert Wilders is now the most popular politician in Holland for his bold, sane exposure of Islamist violence, both in Holland and in the world today. As we know, he was also, and shamefully, recently deported from the UK because he came to show his film Fitna at the request of a member of the House of Lords. The film was seen as “hate speech” or as a film which would “incite hatred.”
Now, Douglas Murray, Director of the Center for Social Cohesion, joins their fabled ranks. The same country that deported a sitting member of the Dutch Parliament received, with open arms, Binyam Mohammed, lately of the Guantanamo Bay facilities. Britain has hosted many a sheik and mullah who, in their sermons and teachings, have incited enormous hatred and violence against Jews, Israel, and America and right on into the streets of Great Britain.
Now, the UK has invited Dr. Ibrahim Moussawi who is to speak at the London School of Economics. Dr Moussawi is a spokesman for the Lebanese-based militant group Hizbollah, whose military arm has been banned in Britain as a terrorist organization. Moussawi is no stranger to hate speech or to inciting hatred. He has allegedly called Jews “a lesion on the forehead of history” and said of Israel: “Pain is the only language that the enemy understands.”
Mr. Murray said that the Home Office would be “beyond hypocrisy” if it allowed Dr Ibrahim Moussawi into Britain just weeks after barring Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician, because of his alleged anti-Muslim views. Murray has written to Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, and informed her that he will have lawyers “seek an arrest warrant for Dr. Moussawi if he is allowed into the country.”
Mr Murray said: “This is the deepest hypocrisy, in fact, it is worse than hypocrisy on behalf of the British government… Britain is still a place where terrorists and terrorist supporters can come to incite and recruit.”
I hope that President Obama’s administration does not launch a drive to grant a visa to Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and very much his intellectual heir, who is nicely perched at…where else?
Oxford University.
from:Chester Chronicles-Pajamas Media (http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/2009/03/09/will-obama-allow-the-islamification-of-america/)
IRAN HAS CROSSED "TECHNOLOGICAL THRESHOLD" IN QUEST FOR NUKES
MI chief: Iran has crossed 'technological threshold' in quest for nukes
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent and Reuters
Tags: Israel News, Iran
Military Intellience chief Amos Yadlin said Sunday at the weekly cabinet meeting that "Iran has crossed the technological threshold" in its quest for nuclear arms.
"Arrival at military nuclear capability is a matter of strategy," Yadlin said. "Iran is accumulating hundreds of kilograms of enriched uranium at a low level and hopes to utilize the dialogue with the West in order to gain time, which is required in order to achieve the capability to manufacture a nuclear bomb."
Yadlin stressed that the American government's new approach of dialogue with Iran is being treated with caution in the Middle East.
"The moderate Arab states think this will come at their cost and will be used for negative purposes by Iran and Syria, who are dragging out time with the appearance of talks but are continuing to arm themselves and to support terrorism," Yadlin said. "The extremist axis hopes the U.S. will change its stance, but they suspect that it is a step that will only advance the formulation of a more efficient coalition against them."
"The moderate Arab states think this will come at their cost and will be used for negative purposes by Iran and Syria, who are dragging out time with the appearance of talks but are continuing to arm themselves and to support terrorism," Yadlin said. "The extremist axis hopes the U.S. will change its stance, but they suspect that it is a step that will only advance the formulation of a more efficient coalition against them."
Meanwhile, Iranian media reported on Sunday that Iran has test-fired a new air-to-surface missile, in the Islamic Republic's latest display of its military capability.
The missile test was carried out despite the offer by the administration of new U.S. President Barack Obama to engage Iran in direct talks if it "unclenches its fist".
Iran's Fars News Agency said the domestically produced missile had a range of 110 km (70 miles) and was designed for use by military aircraft against naval targets.
"Now these jet fighters have acquired a new capability in confronting threats," the semi-official news agency said. Iran's Press TV initially said a long-range missile had been tested, but later also used Fars' way of describing it.
Iran often stages war games or tests weapons to show its determination to counter any attack by foes including Israel and the United States, which accuse the Islamic Republic of seeking to develop nuclear bombs. Tehran denies the charge.
The U.S. State Department declined to comment on the Iranian press reports.
A top Iranian military commander last week said that Iranian missiles could now reach Israeli nuclear sites. Iran has often said it has missiles able to reach Israel but had not previously mentioned such specific targets.
Related articles:
Iran military chief: Our missiles can hit Israeli nuclear sites
Report: Iran seeking Russian missiles to repel Israeli assault
Iran test fires missiles said to be capable of hitting Israel
RANDOM ANTISEMITISM ROUNDUP
I once had a discussion with a fellow from the Guardian (this must have been, oh, six or seven years ago at least), in which I pointed out that one way of knowing if the Guardian was being antisemitic or not would be to wait a few decades or a century, and then see if the books being written in 2080 about antisemitism in 2000 would dedicate chapters to the Guardian. The problem with this method, of course, being that one must defer the satisfaction of being proven right by a rather long time.
My interlocutor, of course, was of the opinion that I was over-reacting to criticism of Israel, and there was no antisemitism involved. What would you expect him to think?
Unfortunately we didn't need to wait three generations; we didn't even have to wait until the end of that very decade. Here's a totally random roundup of antisemitism culled from the online reports on this Sunday, March 8th, 2009, in about 10 minutes of online rambling: I didn't even go googling.
Israeli tennis player Andy Ram responding to the violent demonstrations against an Israeli tennis team in Sweden.
Students at Oxford (Britains' top university) throwing anti-Jewish parties. I'm not really into worrying too much about sophomoric students and their drunken antics, but when their drunken antics reflect the Zeitgeist it's time to take notice. Also, my youngest son is their age, and is actually quite able to take life-and-death responsibilities upon himself as these kids never will have to - as did his older siblings at the same age. Being 20 does not inevitably mean being asinine.
Israel Apartheid Week, in New York. In which context look at this recent quote from Prof Cole:
you are a little unlikely to be denied a high government post in the US because you once criticized Milosevic or Bashir. But if we leave aside the question of how many people, exactly, they have killed, and just examine the mindset and the shape of the policy they advocate, Binyamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman are also ultra-nationalists.
See that one? Some people are mass murderers, other merely talk nasty (assuming they really do, which is moot), but essentially they're all the same if we don't like them.
Guy Bechor comes back from Europe to report. I can attest to having the same experiences.
taken from : Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations (http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/)
BIBI'S HEBRON CONUNDRUM
Bibi's Hebron conundrum
David Wilder 8 במרץ 2009
On September 7, 1995 Binyamin Netanyahu, candidate for Prime Minister, while visiting Hebron, issued the following statement:
The Jewish settlement will remain in Hebron permanently. If someone tries to take it away, my friends and I will be here, and they will have to take us away as well. It will be a fatal mistake to bring hundreds of armed Palestinian policemen here, and there will be a small area where the Jews can pass and where the police and IDF can operate. If there will be a conflict, the IDF will not be able to function and will quickly collide with the Palestinian forces. This is a prescription for tragedy. There is one body responsible, and that has to be the IDF".
On May 13, 1996 he declared "redeployment should be put off until the final settlement. Hebron is a very complicated problem. It is the oldest Jewish settlement in the world, and the Jewish community there is in great danger. We all remember what happened in 1929. It is preferable that such a complex matter be carefully considered at the final status talks."
Yet, in early 1997, during a press conference dealing with the Hebron Accords, Netanyahu proclaimed: "the ideological concepts he grew up believing are "not all within reach anymore," necessitating "hard decisions and generating a "meeting ground between vision and reality. This is leadership."
On January 14, 1997, Prime Minister Netanyahu, together with Yassar Arafat, signed the Hebron Accords, which were implemented six days later. Those accords divided Hebron into two sections, leaving over 80% of the city under the security control of the Palestinian Authority. Amongst the land abandoned were the Abu-Sneneh Hills, overlooking Hebron's Jewish community to the south, and Harat a-Shech, to the north. It was from these hills that Arafat's gunman terrorized Hebron for over two and a half years, shooting day and night, into people's apartments, cars and walking on the street. Abu Sneneh became infamous following the murder of ten month old Shalhevet Pass, exactly eight years ago.
The Jewish Community of Hebron continues to come under attack on numerous fronts. Only a few months ago outgoing Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the forced expulsion of families from Beit HaShalom, despite letters signed by some 50 Knesset members, both to him and to Attorney General Mazuz, demanding postponement of the eviction pending the elections and examination of new evidence.
The Israeli Supreme Court continues to allow extreme left-wing organizations, such as Shovrim Shtika (Breaking the Silence) and Bnei Avraham to incite Hebron's Arabs against the Jewish community under the guise of 'guided tours.' This, at tremendous cost to the state. In the words of attorney Sherman, representing the state, such 'tours' demand apportioning of large numbers of police and army forces to provide security during the 'tours.' However, he refrained from pointing out to the court that the police themselves define these events as blatant provocations which have led to an increase in unrest and violence in Hebron.
These 'tours' are conducted at the cost of Hebron residents' civil liberties. Police routinely close streets in Hebron to Jewish traffic because of the left-wing visits to the city. A Hebron resident was stopped by police and not allowed to reach his Tel Rumeida home because of the extremist's visiting an Arab family in the neighborhood.
Concurrently, ninety seven percent of Hebron is closed to Jews, and Jewish groups are prevented by the police from similar visits in cities such as Um-el-Fachem.
Arab violence in Hebron is on the rise. Almost daily rocks are hurled at Israeli automobiles driving between Hebron and Kiryat Arba, injuring drivers and passangers and causing damage to the cars. Two months ago two Jewish girls were physically attacked by Arabs on this road. Additionally, Arab terrorists armed with knives are apprehended weekly near the Tomb of the Patriarchs. During questioning they admit that their goal was to stab and kill Israelis. A few months ago a woman terrorist nearly killed a high-ranking police officer near Ma'arat HaMachpela.
At the same time, Hebron and Kiryat Arba leaders have been informed by the IDF central command that 'Tzir Tzion,' the Zion Road, beginning about a kilometer north of the entrance to Kiryat Arba, and continuing into Hebron, will soon be opened to Arab vehicular traffic. The last time the roadblocks on this road were removed and Arab traffic allowed free travel on it, two Israelis were killed in the space of 12 hours: Contractor David Cohen and Kiryat Arba Councilman Hezzy Mualem. This is the only road bridging Hebron to Kiryat Arba and is used hundreds of times a day by Jews traveling from Hebron to Kiryat Arba and from there to Jerusalem, and vice-versa. Unfortunately, Israel has, in the past year, witnessed a new type of terror, utilizing moving vehicles. Reopening this road is a sure recipe for continued terror aimed at Hebron-Kiryat Arba residents and the hundreds of thousands of visitors who tour the city annually.
How will incoming Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu react to these threats? What will be his attitude towards the Jewish Community of Hebron?
The cabinet decision approving the Hebron Accords in 1997 included the following statement: "The Government will act to maintain all the conditions and requirements necessary for the existence, security and consolidation of the Jewish community in Hebron." Will Netanyahu keep his promise? Will he provide full security for Hebron? Will he approve permits allowing Jews to build on Jewish property? Will he issue permits allowing Jews to legally purchase property from Arabs desiring to sell?
Not too long ago President Shimon Peres, speaking about the destruction of Gush Katif, told visiting American Jewish leaders: "I was for leaving Gaza.
I feel myself as one of the persons mistaken…Whatever will happen in the future, we shall not repeat the mistakes we made in leaving Gaza."What could be more appropriate than Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu standing on the stairs leading to Ma'arat HaMachpela, conceding that the Hebron Accords, dividing Hebron, were an error on his part, guaranteeing never again to enact policies endangering the existence of Hebron's Jewish community, while promising concrete measures fulfilling his past government's commitment to provide maximum security and strengthen the first Jewish city in the land of Israel!
TAKEN FRM : B'NAI ELIM (
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