Last Friday, friends and relatives of Australian Jewish Philanthropist Richard Pratt gathered in Jaffa, to commemorate in words, music and dance, the life of a man who had touched so many. Pratt, who passed away last April, was Australia’s 4th wealthiest man. His Pratt Foundation helped support over 350 projects in Israel, from education to integration, from culture to health. You can read all about the event in this article in Haaretz.

Pratt first came to my attention a few years ago after his foundation decided to support my buddy and ROI alum Jeremy Hulsh’s Oleh Records, an organization dedicated to supporting Israeli artists gaining access to audiences abroad. Jeremy clued me into the awesome video above that is super cute and also allows one to see the width and breadth of the Pratt Foundation’s work in Israel. Mr. Pratt may be gone, but his legacy lives on and he won’t easily be forgotten.

Dura Reserve

HaYarkon Park

Herzliya

These three were taken by the exceptionally talented Tal Shavit and much of her beautiful work can be seen (in a larger size) on her account at Flickr. For those who want to see it, she also has a set she calls Palestine which includes images taken at checkpoints. It appears that sometimes even harsh politics can be depicted beautifully.

SHABBAT SHALOM!

One of the two key centers for Palestinian demonstrations against Israel, which have supposedly been non-violent, as long as stone throwing counts as non-violence, is Na’alin. Today some young Palestinians were able to knock over part of the Security Barrier.

With shouts of Allah Hu Akbar, they bring it down…

Add another crime against humanity to the rampage of Nazism. The November 2009 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute* reports that Jewish Holocaust survivors are at a higher risk for the incidence of cancer. Previous studies, in non-Jewish populations, investigating the relationship of cancer incidence rates to physical and psychological stress, such as famine and mental stress, reached inclusive results.

But Dr. Lital Keinan-Boker of the University of Haifa, and colleagues compared the cancer rates in a cohort of over 300,000 Israeli Jews who were born in Europe and immigrated to Israel before or during World War II (the non-exposed group) with cancer rates in a cohort of European-born Israeli Jews who immigrated from Europe AFTER World War II*. The strongest associations were with breast and colorectal cancer.

A companion study from the University of Texas—MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, discuss these results in European-born Israeli Jews and those of several past studies of calorie reduction and cancer risk. They say the data from this study add to the growing body of literature on the effects of severely restricted calorie intake and of unimaginable psychosocial and physical hardships on cancer risk. They wrote, “From this unique cohort we can learn lessons about adaptation to extreme hardships in early life, resilience during life, and cancer susceptibility later in life.”

* Note. The Journal of the NCI is not affiliated with the U.S. National Cancer Institute. It is published by Oxford University Press.
** Note 2. Exposure was based on immigration dates because no individual data were available on actual Holocaust exposure.
Note 3. I guess they should compare the results to Jewish post war immigrants to Australia and the US, and dare I say, Canada. and see what the results are, in order to correct for the Israeli diet and stressful environment versus the North American diet.

I received this note from Becca Neril, a very active member of Jewlicious during her tenure as an undergrad at the Claremont Colleges, and one of the Jewish leaders on campus. She brought nearly 50 students to the festival last year, thanks to her organizing. Becca is working in Chicago, with AVODAH. Needless to say – we are very inspired by Becca and her work.

Dear friends and family,

Two blocks away from my apartment, on the street where my grandfather attended high school, there are eight deciduous trees whose flaming red and golden yellow leaves rustle in the Chicago autumnal wind. I woke up on Saturday morning to bare ivy vines lining the outside of our apartment windows and to the last remaining leaves, now auburn and dusty brown, solitarily swaying on the now bare tree branches. O how I love the fall here!

This email has been in the works for the past…two months. I have only recently gotten around to finishing it, hence the delayed update on my post-college adventures. In late August, I moved to Chicago to be part of AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps, which is an intensive Jewish learning program that seeks to educate the Corps Members about how Judaism relates to social justice. I am working full time at a Jewish anti-poverty organization called The Ark, which provides vital human services to the Chicago Jewish community. The Ark has a free community medical clinic, dental clinic, pharmacy, kosher food pantry, job placement and legal services, transitional housing for the homeless, psychological services, and intensive day program for mentally ill patients. Let me just say that I LOVE my job. My boss is so so so wonderful and everyone is really friendly at work. Because I am the youngest person on staff, some of the staff consider me like their own daughter. One case manager, for example, has already tried to set me up with her friend’s son!

My days at work focus mainly around food and drugs. The Ark is home to the largest kosher food pantry in the Midwest and I get to spend two hours every day filling clients’ orders and unpacking and checking hechshers on donated food items. I also have my own caseload of clients who I help prepare for their visit to the food pantry. I often reflect on how for many of these clients, handing us their shopping list strips them of some of their dignity. They are not able to complete one of the most basic tasks-that of supplying food for their family-and have to submit to other people to pick out their food for them. Whenever possible, I ask clients if they want crunchy or creamy peanut butter or whole wheat or white pasta in an attempt to give them back some autonomy that I feel they have lost. I often mull over these ethical issues and would love to discuss them with you! In terms of drugs-I work to secure free medications for our clients by enrolling them in patient assistance programs. I don’t have too many juicy stories about the pharmaceutical companies.

In short-I LOVE my job and I LOVE being part of AVODAH. If you are ever in the Chicago area, please give me a call or email! Also, I would love to hear any updates on your life adventures, whatever they may be.

Warmly,

Becca

The use and abuse of the swastika for political purposes is no new thing: the left used it to characterize Bush, the right has used it at tea parties to characterize Obama (or at least his proposed policies). Comparisons to Hitler? The left did it, the right did it and probably once in a while the centre got caught up with an unfortunate analogy or two.

But, The clear abuse of photos of dead bodies from Dachau? Ugh. .

And one more offensive poster to boot:

Muffti really doesn’t know why people on the left or the right tolerate this kind of thing at rallies when it aids to their delegitimization – it’s awfully easy to ignore thousands of peoples’ legitimate concerns when you see an anti-semitic sign or someone comparing the attempt to cover more americans with concentration camp murder.

Click here to watch in High Definition (HD)

Today at 5:00 PM Brandeis University hosted Richard Goldstone and Dore Gold to discuss the Goldstone Report.

Well Dore Gold, Israel’s former ambassador to the UN and probably one of the primary intellectuals whose ideas influence Israel’s current government, bumped into a South African Jewish judge by the name of Richard Goldstone. The icy body language and the stern look on Gold’s face told half the story – there is a deep and profound anger among those who love and care deeply about Israel towards Goldstone and what he has, wittingly or unwittingly, wrought upon Israel.

There were a couple of things that stood out for me in the discussion. The first was that Goldstone’s report was indeed colored, tainted actually, by his palpable anger at Israel for not cooperating with him or letting him visit with his commission in an official capacity. It may even be pettiness, but he seemed to relish saying over and over that had Israel participated, then the report would likely have been different.

Along those lines, however, not only is it troubling that such a damaging report was written with some immature petulance at the key accused in the report, but it was even more troubling when Goldstone suggested that his report would have been different had the Israeli government supplied the same information that Gold provided in his presentation today.

This is exceptionally troubling because most of what Gold said was publicly available information. For example, he showed the clip from Colonel Kemp saying that Israel had fought a war that more than any other war in history sought safety for civilians. Kemp had made himself available to the commission which had no interest in hearing him. The speech he gave at the UNHRC hearing about the Goldstone Report, however, was first given three months ago and is available in full on the internet. So, for that matter, are the Hamas speeches shown by Gold. So are the maps by Israel of how the Palestinians organized their preparations for the upcoming war. Is Goldstone actually saying they couldn’t do some research on the internet?

Gold also spoke about how the scale of destruction that so affected Goldstone, which may have been misleading because about 20% of the houses in some neighborhoods had been booby-trapped by Hamas. In one stunning moment, he mentioned that the IDF has no record of attacking the mosque that according to Goldstone was attacked in daylight while worshippers were inside. The IDF says it has no record of this attack. If the IDF can prove this, that alone would undermine the credibility of this report permanently.

Also troubling was that Goldstone has clearly not thought through the implications of his report. When asked how Israel could fight wars where the enemy is embedded in civilian centers, he recommended commando raids. Great idea! Except for the possibility of capture by Palestinians that increases exponentially. Goldstone is familiar with what happens to Israeli captives and even took credit for bringing up Gilad Shalit. Does he think that a few more Israeli soldiers in Palestinian captivity for years without any Red Cross visits will help anybody? The short of it is that he doesn’t have a clue about how to fight a war like this with the limitations he has placed on Israel.

Dore Gold stressed that one of the key reasons this report is flawed is that it is the product of a UN full of bias toward Israel, which he called a minority state because it has no bloc to protect it. He acknowledged that the US helps Israel in the UN, but compared that to the automatic votes other countries can garner because of these blocs. He stressed the partiality of the UN Human Rights Commission and the absolute chutzpah of calling into question Israel’s abilities to investigate itself. Goldstone tried to rebuff by claiming the IDF should not be investigating itself and the absence of real convictions to date indicates their investigations are not meaningful. Gold bristled at this and twice spoke about how there are other bodies in Israel that also have authority to investigate Israeli conduct.

More than anything, this was a sad, sad event. Goldstone has put Israel in a difficult corner and those of us who see the many flaws with the report, flaws that undermine any objective reader’s assessment of this work, are outraged and deeply saddened by this report, its implications and its consequences.

Here are questions I’d like to ask Richard Goldstone:

- Why did you agree to work for a UN body that you acknowledge is anti-Israel?

- Why did you agree to do so when the country in question is Israel?

- Why did you not consider that your Zionism and Jewish faith made you an ideal candidate to ward off the criticism that a report from this tainted body would justifiably encounter?

- Why do you believe it’s fair to critique the validity of IDF investigations, but it’s reasonable for your committee to bring aboard people who accused Israel of war crimes before the commission ever met or had evidence presented?

- Why did you permit Israel’s refusal to collaborate with your mission, that was sent by this tainted UN body, to color your views as displayed in your constant complaints about this?

- Why did you accept testimonies from people that your own report acknowledges may have been intimidated?

- Why did you not research using readily available material such as videos, maps, images, speeches and even the Israeli government’s own materials, all of which are readily and easily available on the internet?

- Why have your comments about the report differed when addressing a Jewish audience and other audiences, as can be seen in your Forward interview? There you dicount the actual legal meaning of the report, which is very different than the claims made in the report or claims you have made since the report’s publication in other media outlets?

- Since you claim to have identified that Hamas was playing a “shrewd” game with their claim that the political body doesn’t have a connection with their military body, why did you trust anything that involved them or people who might be influenced or scared by them?

- Why do you provide leniency to Hamas and their crimes by using soft language and avoiding mention of them in lieu of using “armed groups” to deflect their responsibility?

- How is it conceivable that in a report such as this, where you claim the mandate was modified at your behest to investigate both sides, that you would deny or equivocate the accusations against Hamas that it used civilian areas and installations to conduct this war?

- How could you do so when there is available evidence in the public statements and speeches of Hamas leaders?

- Considering that you now know information you claim you didn’t have before, why have you not backtracked on any of your claims?

- When the UNHRC made a mockery of your report – and especially of your claim that the mandate of the commission had been changed – by planning to vote on a document about the report which charged Israel at length but did not mention the Palestinian crimes, why did you simply express your disappointment and agree to a neutral addition to the language which still did not mention the Palestinians or Hamas?

Very sad.

Tomorrow evening, just before sunset, Jerusalem will be the site of what may very well be a very momentous occasion – Rabbi Sharon Brous’ Los Angeles Ikar Congregation is opening a little annex here in Jerusalem. Sort of.

Rabbi Brous, who got her smichah from the Jewish Theological Seminary, was listed (what? 3 times?) in the Forward 50 as well as in Newsweek’s 50 most Influential Rabbis in the US list. Much of that buzz has to do with exuberant and meaningful nature of the traditional/egalitarian services that she runs at Ikar.

Anyhow, called B’nei Ikar, and run out of someone’s house with a potluck afterwards, I have no idea whether this thing, oh here’s the facebook link, is even official. But still. If this gets big (they have 14 confirmed guests so far) then maybe more of these folks will stay in Israel. People always complain about the role of Orthodox Judaism in Israeli political life, and how it shuts out other streams of Judaism, and my response is “get more people who think like you to move here and have babies.” Now there’s another reason for them to do so! Shabat Shalom Angelenos! Hope you’ll stay a while!

Wow. From whatever shithole bunker, buried deep in the ground, he’s hiding in, Hassan Nasrallah is not going to be happy today. Israel captured the Francop, an Antigua registered cargo ship on it’s way to Syria with a special cargo of 36 containers, weighing in at 500 tons, on it’s way to Hezballah in South Lebanon. Once inside the containers, the IDF found 106 mm rockets, 107 mm rockets, 122 mm rockets, mortar shells and hand grenades. These munitions, hidden in polyurethane, were surely destined to be used against civilians in Northern Israel and represent a violation of UN General Assembly Resolutions 1747 and 1701. Just to put it into context, remember the Karine-A? Another boat full of Iranian supplied weapons captured by the Israelis before terrorists could get their hands on it? That was a big deal back in 2002, right? The Francop had 10 times more weapons. In fact, the Israelis are still opening up the containers!

The crazy thing is, this is just one they caught. The IDF really has no way of knowing how many weapons have gotten through. Shit.

I know this story is like, two weeks old, but can you blame a girl who is trying to keep up with writing a novel during National Novel Writing Month of essentially a cartoon-like Sergey Brin AND the real Sergey Brin? No.

So, here’s the scoop.  Brin recently donated a hell of a lot of money (also known as $1 million)  to HIAS, the Hebrew Immigration Aid Society, which coincidentally also sponsored part of our trip over the United States.  Here’s the original New York Times story on the situation

Thirty years ago today, Sergey Brin, a 6-year-old Soviet boy facing an uncertain future, arrived in the United States with the help of the society.

Now Mr. Brin, the billionaire co-founder of Google, is giving $1 million to the society, widely known as HIAS, which helped his family escape anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union and establish itself here.

You know what?  HIAS helped us a lot, too.  But guess who needs help more than HIAS?  A certain struggling Russian Jewish novelist.   For $1 million, I will write you into my novel, Serezhenka.   Also, please divorce your wife and remarry me, leaving me privy to the riches of your new media empire.

Mazal tov, Rabbi Yonah. It’s official. You’re in the Top Five of the Jewish Community Heroes contest!

Rabbi Yonah is among the five finalists heading to Washington, DC, this weekend – where they all will be honored at the UJC/Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly. On Tuesday, November 10, one finalist will be named the Jewish Community Hero of the Year – and receive $25,000 towards his or her community service work.

Meet the five honorees here:

Once again, mazal tov, Rabbi Yonah! We’re rooting for ya. And of course we want you to walk away with the big moola. But cash prize or not, you’re always a winner at Jewlicious.

Want to get in shape physically and spiritually – but want to do it simultaneously? If you live around LA, I invite you to this series of two back-to-back Bibliyoga workshops with the witty, worldly and wise BibiYogi, educator and performer Marcus J Freed of London.

Bibliyoga is soulfood for the body that offers a physical-spiritual uplift through powerful yoga, Jewish wisdom and Kabbalah. Yoga for Ecstatic Living: Bibliyoga for the Body & Soul workshops are each one hour vinyasa flow sessions for all levels of yoga from beginner to advanced. Both workshops will be followed by a salon discussion at a nearby café.

WHEN: Two consecutive nights!
Tues., Nov 10, at 8:00 p.m. Part I – “Finding Joy, Peace and Healing”
Wed., Nov 11, at 8:00 p.m. Part II – “Becoming Strength, Light and Happiness”

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER TODAY FOR THESE CLASSES!

WHERE: L.A.’s premier dance studio – Mimoda Studio Theatre (www.mimodastudio.com)
5774 W. Pico Blvd (two blocks East of Fairfax) Los Angeles CA 90019
Entrance is on Ogden side, back of the building.

COST: The one hour classes are $15 each and are limited to 50 students each night

HOW: Pre-pay at www.JConnectLA.com/register-now

Wear loose clothes and bring a yoga mat or some will be available for purchase.

More about Yoga for Ecstatic Living Workshop Series on this Facebook Event.

ABOUT BIBLIYOGI MARCUS J FREED
Marcus J Freed followed a path toward becoming the Bibliyogi ….
(more…)

Well, it is getting colder and with Hanukkah coming up, you’re naturally wondering what to get the Rabbi on your list. You may want to consider the $135 Beard cap, pictured above, which comes in two sizes and apparently three colors. You can order these online at ScandinavianGrace.com, or visit their Brooklyn store and pick one up. Designed by Iceland’s own Vík Prjónsdóttir (I have no idea how to pronounce that) you can visit his (?) site and check out other products like the seal-pelt (I want one!) and the two-some blanket. The site also contains international locations that carry the line.

I hope this appeases all you complainers out there who always criticize Jewlicious for not having enough Icelandic content.

Enough of the doom and gloom. Here’s something a little nicer coming out of Israel.

Among the Jerusalem Post’s blog posts, there is one today by Ira Sharkansky, a Hebrew University Political Science professor, called “Why the Stalemate.” Sharkansky also posts at Shark Blog. To explain why a high ranking US official has said that the “peace process” appears to be “at an impasse,” Sharkansky suggests the following reasons:

There is no free lunch in international relations
You screw us; we’ll screw you
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” may be a spiritual ideal, but the more popular norm in international politics is the simpler one of “Do unto others.”
Israel can live well enough without solving the problem of Palestine.

The Palestinians may pride themselves in their willingness to die for their national cause, but they have committed national suicide. There will be no Palestinian state as long as key factions persist with the dreams of turning back the clock to 1967, to 1947, or to the mid-19th century before Jews began coming to this area.

Sharkansky goes on to suggest that Hamas, the Goldstone Report and Iran stand in the way of any further progress and therefore while “Israel can live well enough without solving the problem of Palestine,” the Palestinians will not gain a state any time soon.

This strikes me as the type of thinking I hear from many Israelis, both in the center and the right of the political spectrum. The consensus appears to be that Israel can continue to grow and thrive while the Palestinians continue to dither and miss opportunities to build their state.

In order to agree with this premise, one has to believe the Palestinians seek a two state solution and their own state.

They don’t.

No, the Palestinians are stalling because they believe they have entered the endgame. They believe they are closer than ever to winning the decades-old war against Israel and are launching what they believe to be a new battle in their war. They appear to believe this stage of the war will last several years, maybe a decade, but this final battle is supposed to culminate in a victory that has the international community imposing and establishing a single state from the river to the sea. That alone will create a serious challenge to the notion of a Jewish state, but the Palestinians most likely believe demographics will complete their task.

Right now, by the Palestinian count, there are around 4 million Palestinians in the Judea and Samaria/West Bank and Gaza (a count which is disputed by some, but the international community as well as many Israelis accept this number). Another 1.1 million Israeli Arabs who are not Beduin or Druze reside inside the Green Line and have Israeli citizenship. In contrast, there are about 6 million Jews living inside Israel. The Israeli birthrate stands at around 20 births/thousand while the Palestinian birthrate was at 39/1000 in 2006 but is said to have dropped to 27/1000 last year. Critically, the percentage of young Palestinians (under 18) is very high so that even if parity in population (from the sea to the river) does not occur within the next decade, the following couple of decades will probably give them a decided advantage, especially if they can vote as a bloc.

Having numeric equality or superiority is useless if the election does not include one’s population. Achieving the right to vote in Israeli elections appears to be one of the goals set out by the Palestinians. As we learned in the recently held Sixth Congress held by Fatah, the party behind the Palestinian Authority, they intend to wage an international campaign against Israel that resembles the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. That struggle ended with a white minority giving equal civic rights to their black population after the world essentially boycotted South Africa to the point where it gave up.

Unlike whites in South Africa, Jewish Israelis are the majority and the Palestinians are the minority. Also, historic ties to Israel place the Jews there well before the Palestinians arrived. These facts don’t seem to matter, the Palestinians have already begun their apartheid-style anti-Israel campaign. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement has received some major press coverage in recent months, including our coverage of one of the movement’s leaders, Omar Barghouti, who advocates for a boycott while studying at Tel Aviv University. One key success was the attack on the Toronto Film Festival (addressed on Jewlicious here), which may have failed to dissuade movie-goers from seeing the Israeli films being shown, but it managed to get coverage around the world for several days. The amount of publicity the BDS movement received was astounding, and most of that publicity involved equating Israel and its policies with apartheid South Africa. This is not an accident, it is a measured and well thought out strategy.

It is also not an accident that most of the signatories on the original letter to the Toronto Film Festival were either Jewish or gay with no Arabs among them. This is reminiscent of the OIC (Organiztion of Islamic Conference – the Islamic countries’ 57 nation coalition at the UN) guided UNHRC to appointing a Jewish rapporteur to report on Israel’s actions against the Palestinians, Richard Falk, and a Jewish judge to head the commission investigating Cast Lead, Goldstone. Recently Mustafa Barghouti, an eloquent Palestinian politician and former PA leadership candidate, was joined by a Jewish woman on a visit to the Daily Show. Barghouti did not need her, but her role is obvious. On campuses, one sees the same developments. The Muslim Student Association on many campuses leads the attacks against Israel and its supporters, but it’s not unusual to see Jews in visible roles within the protests. At York University in Toronto, for example, a Jesse Zimmerman was allegedly a leader in the action taken against the students hiding in the Hillel office. On the internet, some of the leading anti-Israel sites are run by Jews – Mondoweiss, JVP, Muzzlewatch, etc.

The Palestinians, however, are not only counting on the fight for establishing an international boycott of Israeli products and culture. Simultaneously, they are maintaining severe international pressure on the diplomatic front. The Goldstone Commission could not have happened without diplomatic support. In fact, the Secretary General of the OIC has bragged to Al Jazeera that they were responsible for having the Goldstone Commission appointed. Many countries in the EU are placing their relationships with the Arab world far ahead of their relationship with Israel, and both Russia and China are also keeping their toes moist in the Muslim/Arab oil wells. Similarly, on the legal front, the Palestinians continue to try to trip Israel in Europe by attempting to have Israeli officers and leading politicians arrested. It is only a matter of time before an Israeli leader gets arrested on such a visit, opening the door to a media storm, especially if he loses the case.

Demography, apartheid, diplomatic aggression, campus activism and international law are the ingredients, and time is the sauce. Time enables the Palestinians to grow in number, achieve successes on the BDS front, score diplomatic victories, put Israel in the dock, put Israeli leaders on trial, establish the idea of Israeli “apartheid” in the public’s mind and plan for the future.

The last is a key clue to what the Palestinians are doing. Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian PM, has established a two year plan for creating the infrastructure of a Palestinian state. This has been described by the Palestinians as a proactive measure intended to lay the groundwork for peace. However, they have also made it clear that if no “peace” is forthcoming, then they will take their preparations and declare a state unilaterally. While it’s doubtful they would do so, the point of the exercise is to be ready and to function like a proper government in the view of the world’s western nations. It is also, of course to place pressure on Israel because Israel would end up losing a great deal of negotiating leverage if the world accepts a new Palestinian state. Also, becoming a high contracting party gives the Palestinians some advantages they do not currently enjoy on the diplomatic and other fronts.

Along the same lines, is it no accident that Palestinian violence has diminished greatly in the West Bank and is on hold in Gaza. Certainly, Israel’s security measures have achieved success, and Cast Lead hit Hamas hard. However, it seems the Palestinians are satisfied playing the nonviolence game for a while. They consider their efforts at Bilin to be successful – sufficiently large to make a media impact and to tarnish Israel’s image, but not so large that they have to convince a large number of Palestinians to make this effort. In fact, while dozens of activists show up at Bilin, thousands of Palestinians are being trained by the Americans to fight like a proper army. Twenty five thousand Palestinian soldiers, so far. Of course, once those are trained, they will train others. Weapons are being provided by Israel and the US to help the cause.

In the meantime, Iran is arming and preparing the other Palestinians…Hamas… for future rounds against both Fatah and Israel. They are also preparing Hizbullah for a future war. Both armies have rockets that can hit Israeli civilian centers and have now tested and proven that their fighting tactics may not win the battle on the ground, but certainly win the war once the world watches the news. Obviously, arming and preparation requires time. This seems to contradict what Fatah, in the guise of the PA, is trying to do to Israel as I describe above, but it actually plays right into their goals. Both the US and Israel are so concerned about Iran’s influence and Hamas conquering the West Bank, that they fully back the training, arming and diplomatic support that Fatah receives in abundance. The more time passes, the more resources the PA gains in terms of soldiering and arms.

Time matters. Time IS the strategy and buying it is the most critical issue for the Palestinians. They know full well that there is a peace agreement on the table, first put there by Barak and then by Olmert. Their job, as they see it, is to acknowledge it, criticize it as insufficient and wait. Now they are blaming settlements, but last year when Olmert offered everything that was offered at Taba plus an international Jerusalem, they were talking to Israel while settlements were being built. Then they said “no.” Why did they refuse a very generous offer that would have established the first ever Palestinian state? According to Abbas, the “gaps were too wide,” but considering that Olmert offered over the limit of what Israel will ever offer again, this was just an excuse. The “gaps” weren’t the problem. The problem was that a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria/West Bank and Gaza is not the Palestinians’ endgame. To the same ends, we now have friction at the Temple Mount. This is not accidental and it is certainly not happening because of Israel. From the Palestinians’ point of view, some tension that pits the Israeli army against Palestinian civilians is good for publicity and for finding excuses not to discuss peace.

All this is in the hope that their other endeavors will coalesce over the next few years as Israel is pushed up against the ropes, eventually to be forced by external forces and circumstances to yield to a one state solution.

And that’s why they are stalling.

(Dear readers, the comments below include some interesting criticisms of this post and even many choice insults directed at yours truly. I think my responses expand on this thesis so please read on…)

According to CNN, Al-Shabab has issued a threat against Israel. Al-Shabab is the terrorist group which controls much of Somalia. It has known links to Al-Qaeda and many of its affiliate terrorist groups. Al-Shabab leaders have stated, “We will transfer and expand our fighting in the Middle East so we can defend Al Aqsa mosque from the Israelis.” The group claims that Israel is attempting to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque (and compound?). The group, which is, also, known for its piracy activities, has claimed to have established a new unit, the “Al-Aqsa Holy Warriors” to act against Israel.

It is this author’s opinion that this group’s threats ought not be taken idly. Somalia sits strategically on the Gulf of Aden, across from Yemen. With Yemen believed to become the new Al-Qaeda headquarters, following a retreat from Afghanistan, Somalia’s position is likely to become more important, and more infused with terrorists. As such, they would be in a prime position to close down the Gulf of Aden, or more importantly, the Red Sea to Israeli shipping. Even without direct attacks on Israel’s soil, this is a most strategic threat. Moreover, given that Al-Qaeda is already known to exist in the Gaza Strip, more links cannot mean anything but trouble for Israel.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton participated in a press briefing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem October 31, 2009, and discussed the .. fish she caught in the Dead Sea?

Click here to watch in High Definition (HD)

This is one of those “you’ve gotta see it to believe it” speeches. In front of roughly 50 philanthropists, Jewish professionals and members of the media, Michael Steinhardt spoke in deeply critical terms about the rest of Jewish leadership.

This video is a Web bonus feature for this week’s newscast (if you’d rather watch it on TV, it’s also running in full after the credits of the full broadcast version of this week’s newscast on The Jewish Channel).

Click here to watch in High Definition (HD)

Fail.

Yet more evidence that CNN is rather behind the curve…when you basically open up with a paragraph like this, one has to wonder if you are a real news organization or, more like, um, Jewlicious. Let’s see what light investigative reporting has shed:

A blogger writes about how one of Judaism’s holiest days ended, for her, in a strip club, while elsewhere a guy strolls into a tattoo parlor requesting a Star of David. Two women exchange wedding vows in a Jewish ceremony, and hipsters toss back bottles of HE’BREW, The Chosen Beer. A full-time software developer prepares to lead a group in Jewish prayer, as a PhD candidate in Jewish thought pens a letter criticizing Israel’s policies.

I’m shocked and amazed. If you want to find out about a magazine called ‘Heeb‘ that sometimes puts provocative pictures and messages on their cover, go check out CNN on New Jews.

How else to explain his recent interview with Anna Baltzer and Mustafa Barghouti? Clearly Stewart wanted in on the whole peace, love and understanding thing going on over at the J Street conference, so he invited the very telegenic Anna Baltzer, author of the book Witness in Palestine: journal of a Jewish American woman in the occupied territories and the granddaughter of Holocaust refugees. Which of course gives her a greater insight into the truth. But I digress. Mustafa Barghouti was a candidate for the Presidency of the Palestine Authority in 2005, finishing second to Mahmoud Abbas, with 19.8% of the vote. Barghouti was also Minister of Information in the short-lived Palestinian unity government of March-June 2007 where his greatest accomplishment was effectively killing off Farfour the Mouse, ahead of legal action by the Disney Corporation. He is currently the General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, a political party that seeks to further political reform, eliminate corruption while supporting peace with Israel based on two states with a Palestinian state in all territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, a capital in Arab East Jerusalem and rights for refugees.

What’s noteworthy is that Baltzer is more anti-Israel than Barghouti, who does not come off as anti-Israel at all. While voicing strong support for non-violent resistance and the BDS movement, she could not, after being repeatedly asked by Stewart, say that she supported the right of the State of Israel to exist. Barghouti on the other hand, had no problem stating his recognition of this right, although his relatively moderate views haven’t helped him much with the electorate and while he is respected, he’s basically nobody. In fact, so is Baltzer. Her book is 3 years old and she makes a living because certain audiences can’t get enough of Jews with Holocaust survivor parents or grandparents talking about what a shitty country Israel is. Baltzer, who is a graduate of Columbia University and a Fulbright Scholar, is basically a “hot babe” version of failed academic Norman Finkelstein. Much, much easier on the eyes, but just as one sided, intellectually dishonest, fundamentally flawed and kind of demented. Barghouti seems like a very nice, sincere man but like Baltzer, he exists on the fringes, with little or no support amongst his constituents.

So why invite these two to The Daily Show? Because of the J Street zeitgeist and because it might lead to a partnership that could result in “a hilarious buddy cop movie.” Sigh. The extended segments from the Daily Show can be viewed after the bump. That means click on the “more” link dummy.

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The talented Nehemia Gershuni who usually focuses on military subjects in his photos captured this image. More of his stuff can be seen on Flickr.

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BW Ruth’s beautiful eye captured this images of the Jordan River in the Upper Galilee.

Shabbat shalom!

We just were supersized.

Our new shabbat tent at Phish Fest! Check it out! In the Lamb on Broadway site next to camping headquarters! Corner of Carpet Crawlers and Gabriel Eno streets.

Thank you camping staff!

After we had to move – fire Marshall orders- they felt bad and gave us this. I joked that this is what happened to our ancestors in Europe. But in Anatevka try didnt get such nice digs.

So sweet and so kind. Shabbat Shalom Y’all from the desert.