This is the right week to have photos of Jerusalem, isn’t it?

These are from Antohinson’s Flickr pages.

This is a three part post.

1.

This was a hard week for Israel, but I think it came out of it okay. The relationship with Obama’s administration in the US and Israel’s administration under Netanyahu will continue to be challenging.

I have a strange feeling that the Americans were acting as they did because they were acting on psychological profiling of Netanyahu. He caved in to American demands and heavy pressure in 1998, signing the Wye Accords without getting much in return. It was 12 years ago and I recall that at the beginning of the trip, Netanyahu attempted to get Pollard freed. It didn’t happen and still hasn’t happened but Netanyahu gave in at Wye.

In fact, some Israeli MKs asked Biden before the Ramat Shlomo announcement fiasco to release Pollard in time for this year’s Passover. Fat chance of Pollard getting out now. Then again, it would probably regain for Obama a lot of the goodwill he has lost in the past week with many Israelis and supporters of Israel.

Anyway, I wonder whether the American profile of Netanyahu indicated that he would falter under severe pressure. He was an officer in one of Israel’s elite commando units, so one would think this profile would be wrong, but I can’t imagine what else they would have been thinking.

2.

One of our fine writers, Sarke, reminds us of the Sabbath Manifesto, which is a list of things people can do on the Sabbath to make that day special, um, like the sabbath. Once upon a time, we had one of our bigger debates here and I recall that I spoke about the Sabbath being a day of special time even if one treats that time without consideration for, say, keeping the car engine off. It looks to me as if the Sabbath Manifesto idea is exactly what I was talking about and it’s nice to see it make waves.

And then some Pharaoh’s Daughter makes everything go down smoother.

3.

I’m not done. The music brings up more questions.

We have become so consumed by the political fight, that it’s hard sometimes to remember that there is beauty in our traditions, in our heritage. The poetry has been stolen by this bitter fight over land that has lasted longer than virtually any of us have been alive. It’s important to fight this theft and to keep our ability to see beauty; to understand that while there is much evil out there, it is tempered with good.

The war has always been, to some degree, a war of semantics: terrorist; revolutionary; war; intifadah. Today, it’s apartheid; war crimes; settlements; theft. Words that steal beauty. Words that indicate the opposite.

It is odd to watch as Israel becomes the accused even as ample evidence exists to show the other side has no desire for peace or compromise. How many times has Abbas been described as a “moderate?” Is there a publication out there which does not refer to him as a moderate? And yet, Olmert offered him peace and was rejected outright. Olmert was not called a moderate because he offered peace. A war of words.

A Palestinian commemoration of a terrorist who murdered over 30 Israeli civilians is glossed over this week, just like most of their anti-Israel rhetoric, but the announcement – one which was an admitted mistake – of construction in a Jewish neighborhood in an area that will clearly remain inside Israel in any deal, is treated as a breach of faith and exhibit A in the supposed Israeli attempt to stall peace. This after a year of stating over and over that Israel is ready to talk and being rebuffed time after time.

How did they – let’s leave “they” vague – manage to take a democracy and depict it as a worse offender than the dictatorships surrounding it? Whose rhetorical trick is that? Meanwhile some of the very same critics fight wars in far-away lands, killing innocent civilians in the process, and hold another country accountable to standards they violate when that country has actually been attacked, unlike the critical countries.

How have good intentions, ethical intentions, such as, for example, waiting years before responding with war to thousands of rocket attacks, or dropping “door knocker” bombs on buildings prior to attacks in a time of war, providing warning to BOTH residents and fighters (who you generally try not to warn) to leave, considered affronts to the ethics of war?

And how is it that the world is allowing a mad regime to develop technology that can wipe out entire cities with one or two successful rocket attacks, even as that regime announces over and over again its intention to annihilate another country?

You don’t need to answer. The questions are rhetorical.

The reason is that the world is insane.

In an upside down world, taking a day of rest and small pleasures may be the most sane thing one can do.

Shabbat shalom.

Unplugging from the wired world sounds ideal, but impossible. We have never been more connected than we are now, and taking a break even for a nano-second can seem unconscionable. But now, fresh from creative minds at Reboot, and the feature of a popular NY Times article is the Sabbath Manifesto – a clarion call to those caught up in the face paced, hectic world, to observe the ancient call of the Day of Rest:

And the Children of Israel observed the Sabbath, to make the Sabbath for their generations an eternal covenant. Between Me and the Children of Israel it is a sign forever, that in six days did HASHEM make the heaven and the earth,and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’

Ok, that was not the Sabbath Manifesto, per say, it is a passage from the Torah, recited during prayers Friday Night and Saturday, and recited during the ritual blessing of the wine on Saturday afternoon.

The Reboot Manifesto is right now: 1. Avoid Technology, 2. Connect With Loved Ones, 3. Nurture Your Health 4. Get Outside 5. Avoid Commerce 6. Light Candles 7. Drink Wine 8. Eat Bread 9. Find Silence 10. Give Back

Reboot are far from being Luddites. These are hyper-connected folks. Rather they are advocating one day of keeping the Sabbath as a means to better our lives (and make Bubbe proud.)

Join us in fighting back against the tidal wave of technology taking over society and our lives. Are you sick of having conversations with people with their noses buried in an iPhone? Are you that person?

Put down the cell phone, stop the status updates on Facebook, shut down Twitter, sign out of e-mail and relax, as part of our National Day of Unplugging.

Amen.

With the huge success of the getting the word out about the Sabbath Manifesto – I really do hope that tens of millions of people join – I would like to recommend that Reboot take on some addition modern issues with ancient Jewish ideas.

To heal monotonous, romance-less marriages, create a project advocating marital abstinence one or two weeks a month to help rekindle that missing spark: MikvahManifesto.org

To feed the poor, protect the widow and orphan, cloth and shelter the homeless, create a project advocating tithing ten-percent of our net earnings for donations to the poor. See the tzedakahmanifesto.org

That is just for starters – we can do a lot to help improve our lives, and those around us, with some of that Torah stuff.

We will be making a L’Chaim to Reboot tonight. Shabbat Shalom!

Just in case you missed it on Twitter or Facebook, tomorrow (March 20^th) has been declared the National Day of Unplugging by Reboot, a “a growing network of thought-leaders and tastemakers who work toward a common goal: to “reboot” the culture, rituals, and traditions we’ve inherited and make them vital and resonant in our own lives.”

I can raise a glass to that. (Kiddush?)

Their Sabbath Manifesto project is geared towards slowing down and taking a human breath in a world that has grown increasingly synaptic, virtual and – while super-connected – somewhat removed from the actual essence of connection. That they chose to do so as a type of renewed Shabbat observance is, I think, a double blessing: It reinvigorates both the concept of Shabbat (for Do It Yourself first timers and lifelong by-the-Bookers alike) – as well as those observing it.

As a regular Shabbat observer, I often resent that fact that my week, particularly Thursday and Friday, often feels like a headlong rush into Sunset on Friday afternoon. However, I can not help but experience bliss every Saturday morning when I wake up and realize there is nothing I can write down, essay-ize, edit, record, send, receive, download, update, tweet….not to mention cook, bake, bleach, scrub, or create, other than perhaps a new kind of salad for lunch or the occasional poem I write in my head and commit to memory by muttering to myself like a lunatic.

Of course, this also carries with it the anxiety of forgetting everything that meanders through my mind those 24 hours. My list mania edges on the insane, but on Shabbat, even non clinical OCD must rest. (It does actually strengthen my quickly dying grey cells to have to stretch to capacity and retain information and ideas on the Seventh Day, rather than pissing everything out on paper / screen immediately. So…yay, God, I guess.)

Neophyte Unpluggers: Enjoy! As the Reboot people note on the Manifesto website, if you enjoy it, it’s happening again March 27^th. (Also April 3^rd, 10^th, 17^th…….)

Okay, for those who asked for more info on the upcoming Israel episode of The Simpsons, to be broadcast in North America just before erev Pesach. It is titled, “The Greatest Story Ever D’oh’D,” with a wink to the great Easter classic film. Ned Flanders is convinced to bring the Simpsons to Israel with his church sponsored Bible study group. Their Israeli tour guide, Jacob, is played by Sacha Baron Cohen. Jacob is an aggressive, or as Marge says, “pushy,” Israeli guide, who wants Marge to give him a good report card. Homer likes the hotel buffet more than the tour, but when he sees the Kotel and other sites, salvation, not salivation, may be close at hand. Homer falls ill to Jerusalem Syndrome and thinks he is a savory savior.

In other news of the week:

Jason Horowitz, writing in The Washington Post, profiles Senator Al Franken of Minnesota. The freshman Senator with the least seniority in the U.S. Senate came to DC and tried to be very serious and squelch his comedy. It backfired. He was seen as nasty and sarcastic, and this is no way to make friends and inflience people in the Congress. Now, six months later, he has learned from his errors, and has become more jocular. In the words of the late Gerald Boyd, you have to “bring your whole self to the job.”

In The New York Times, Israel’s Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, writes that this is NOT the lowest point in Israel US relations, and lays out Israel’s POV on the recent events.

Rory Fitzgerald, in the UK Jewish Chronicle, writes about Irish and Jewish solidarity, James Joyce, and Bloom, in time for Saint Patrick’s Day.

And speaking of James Joyce, Rabbi Michael J. Broyde and Rabbi Shlomo Brody, leaders in the American Orthodox Jewish community write in The Jewish Press about “Homosexuality And Halacha: Five Critical Points.” While too long to paraphrase it, they do end with, “…The Orthodox community currently faces two incredibly serious problems: heterosexual promiscuity and financial misconduct. We live, alas, in an era of scandals, an era in which chassidic rebbes go to jail for money-laundering and rabbis are arrested for selling organs, while blogs accuse rabbis who are running conversion courts of manipulations and sexual vices with candidates for conversion. These scandals reflect larger trends within our community of widespread betrayal and disloyalty: to the other gender, including spouses; to business associates; to the greater Orthodox community; and, ultimately, to Torah and mitzvot. Halacha condemns homosexual acts, but the phenomenon of “Orthodox homosexuals” does not represent a major threat to the integrity of our community. Ultimately, we are afraid that disproportionate condemnation of this phenomenon gives unproductive focus to a red herring, leading to inappropriate responses to individual struggles and distracting us from the central problems truly plaguing our community….”

Speaking of red herrings, the Jewish Museum in London has reopened this week in Camden Town after a major facelift and 10 million pound (4.2 million from lottery funds.) A fun visit if you are in town. Try the Yiddish karaoke.

In closing, last week, it was mentioned the there was a big party to rededicate one of Cairo’s synagogues, restored by Egypt’s government. This week, the ministry announced that the “inauguration” of the Ben Maimon synagogue has been canceled due to insulting behavior by Jews (there was toasting with alcohol at the earlier party on March 7), and because Israel provokes Muslims. Egypt’s Jewish community numbered 80,000 in the 1940s and numbers about three dozen, currently.

There are a lot of things lots of people do but hardly anyone admits to. Just for the fun of it, let’s compile a list (in no particular order):
- using Q-tips for your ears,
- looking at the bottom of your tongue in the mirror,
- wishing some plague of Biblical proportions onto somebody,
- picking your nose,
- reading advice columns,
- doing your own pedicure yourself,
- blogging,
- comparing yourself favourably to others,
- singing outside the shower,
- scooping some Nutella out of its jar using your finger,
- following the Eurovision Song Contest.

See, I know many Israelis, even sophisticated ones, love the Eurovision Song Contest just as much as many Germans do. Apart from a few exceptions like Israel’s contestant last year, the musicians and the music are really not all that great. The final results hardly are surprising, and Germany will always be placed in the finals because it’s among the big financial contributors. But what might appear like a lulling affair can actually be a highly entertaining event; it gives people a non-political, non-religious reason to party in a casual fashion plus the chance to admire one’s own singing abilities and argue about something as trivial as what contestant performed worst. I’ve spent Eurovision nights with siblings on the couch eating lasagne just as much as having people over for grilling (none of that girlish BBQing here) with the TV set moved outside or with a buffet (aye, buffet – savoury finger food and various desserts, even a chocolate truffle torte) in the living-room like last year. It’s always entertaining, and the music becomes secondary.

What about this year’s contestants? Well, Israel’s sending some guy without a shirt to Oslo. Germany’s contribution is a quirky, young girl.

If anybody had listened to me, Rotfront would be running in and would definitely have won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest:

So much Jewish news to catch up on today…

Haaretz reports that Menachem Begin was killed in Lod this week! You mean he didn’t die over a decade ago? No. They mean the other Begin. After the US-Egypt peace accord was signed, Ibrahim and Hitam Kidasa named their triplets for Sadat, Begin, and President James “Jimmy” Earl Carter. Sadly, the child, now an adult, named for Begin was murdered this week in Lod. Like his brother, the child named for Sadat also served time in jail, and is currently completing a term in jail for killing another prison while serving time.

While AIPAC prepares for its annual meeting in DC, where is Josh Block, AIPAC’s spokesmodel? He is naked on the front page of today’s Washington Post. ….Sort of.

The Washington Post writes about the sauna in the basement of the Finnish Embassy to the U.S. in Washington DC. It is perhaps the steamiest place in town. It is there that naked men (and others) meet, near DuPont Circle, and power schvitz their nights away. In the story, Block asks Kari Mokko (pictured above), the embassy’s press secretary and former anchor of “Silminnakija”, whether schvitz is a Finnish word. The author, Jason Horowitz, goes on to report that saunas make for strange connections.

In other news, MIT’s Hillel in Cambridge Mass, is getting a new crop of potential members on Pi Day. It was on Sunday, March 14 (3.14) and 1:59 PM (3.14 1 59) that applicants to MIT were able to find out, online, if they received offers of admission. 1,611 students were accepted, a record low admission rate of 9.70152648 percent. Did you know that Albert Einstein (the scientist, not the Albert Brooks comedian) was born on 3/14? Mazel Tov to all those accepted.

A group of American rabbis are tweeting Passover and the Exodus ( @TweetTheExodus ) for children and teens. Taking on the roles of Pharoah, young_Miriam, Moses, slaves, and others, each day they are tweeting real time as if they are in the heat of Goshen and the midst of slavery and the Exodus from that narrow place called Mitzrayim. (It’s not the heat in Goshen, it’s the humidty, and clay pots of garlic and cucumbers) (I hear Israelites are into bondage?)

What’s can we expect next? @TweetTheIntifada3 ? Tweet The Golden Calf ? Calling Edward G Robinson… Mister Edward G. Robinson? Can I play Korach and lead a rebellion?

On a more serious note, newspapers are reporting on three recent possible suicides on the campus of Cornell University and its gorge. The school is taking action, and Cornell’s Hillel and AEpi fraternity are also organizing interventions and events to open communications and reduce those things that can lead to depression and suicide. The fraternity also held a memorial for one of its members who passed awy. Cornell’s Hillel is seeking a new Executive Director, by the way.

And finally, in a kippah-nod to Palm Sunday and Passover, The Simpsons animated series will air a special new episode in the US, in which the Simpson family goes to Israel. Their tour guide is played by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. In the episode, Homer contracts Jerusalem Syndrome and thinks he is the messiah.

No, not Israel! Obama.

Look, Israel made a mistake. Heck, I wrote two posts about that idiotic mistake because it was so huge. Then, Israel apologized profusely for the mistake.

However, the Obama administration decided that this gave them a pretext for taking a very aggressive stance toward the Netanyahu government. Essentially, we saw a repeat of last year’s settlement freeze fiasco, multiplied by a factor of two or three. Suddenly Israeli officials were being lambasted by American politicians and officials, new demands were on the table, the press was being leaked “Obama furious stories,” and it became very clear that this US administration would indeed treat Israel differently than any other country in the world.

That isn’t the worst of it, however. This NY Times article shows the worst part of it.

But in discussions in recent days, some senior officials have amplified their argument that the American approach needs to change. They said that Israel’s announcement that it would build 1,600 new houses in a disputed area of Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, undermining a trip by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., further called into question the Netanyahu government’s commitment to seriously engaging in the peace talks.

Do you get that?

It’s Israel’s fault there are no peace talks.

At this point, in order to win this idiotic battle, that might only change the course of history, the Obama administration is rewriting history in order to explain its policy.

To remind the Obama folks, Israel WANTED peace talks. Netanyahu actually stood on a podium and accepted the premise of a two state solution. He backed off his demand that the Palestinians enter negotiations only after acknowledging that Israel is a Jewish state. He spoke often of having talks with Mahmoud Abbas. He even agreed to slow or freeze settlement construction.

What did the Palestinians do? They walked away from a peace offer in 2008, announced in the Washington Post that they now planned to wait because they thought that Obama-Netanyahu tensions were certain to follow as a result and within 2 years Netanyahu’s government would fall. They upped their demands of a settlement freeze to include a Jerusalem construction freeze. They continued to incite internationally and at home against Israel. And they did nothing about making peace.

It is so obvious that they would rather pursue a single state solution that I’ve had the pleasure of writing 4 posts about how they believe they are currently in their endgame (put “endgame” into our search box). They believe time is on their side, and Israel is reeling from numerous blows in recent years that have weakened its society and its motivation to continue the fight. However, their ace in the hole, the Palestinians believe, is Obama.

He is proving that they are right. The US could have been an honest broker here. The Year 2000 Clinton Parameters, for example, exhibit a great sensitivity and understanding regarding the needs and concerns of both the Israelis and Palestinians. Obama, however, has placed a great deal of pressure upon Israel, with very little on the Palestinians. This is now happening again, and he has made it so public, that whoever comes down from the tree first, will harbor great anger at the other side. That is to say, he has intentionally sown the seeds of a long-term conflicted relationship with the US that will be very hard to repair. He did this when peace talks are supposed to restart – peace talks that were proceeding despite the absence of a moratorium on east Jerusalem construction.

“There’s an issue of street credibility here,” said Aaron David Miller, a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, who was deeply involved in the Camp David talks during the Clinton administration.

Mr. Miller said that while the administration had “been thinking for months” about the advantages and risks of putting its own plan on the table, “they are worried about being accused of imposing their own solution.”

But such a plan could also, in the minds of some senior American officials, force Mr. Netanyahu to choose between the peace talks and the right-wing elements of his coalition, or to try to form a new coalition with the more centrist Kadima Party, led by Tzipi Livni, the former foreign minister.

If that’s really what they’re thinking in the White House today, they fail to understand that the problem isn’t the Likud. The problem is the White House. Israel has already offered REASONABLE peace twice in the past decade and once less reasonably (though certainly not justified in launching the war the Palestinians launched in 2000). Everybody knows the approximate parameters of a final deal. Netanyahu even said that he accepts a two state solution and is willing to negotiate. His ambassador to the US has stated that Israel is willing to make tough compromises.

Now Obama thinks he can produce a deal that will be superior to Clinton’s? After he has attacked Israel and its leadership so publicly? He thinks he can bring down the coalition in Israel and usher in a new age with Likud and Kadima?

Perhaps Obama should be focusing on the crew that has rejected negotiations, rejected previous peace offers, publicly stated a reluctance to enter new negotiations, and is benefiting from US military training and Israeli opening of avenues that enable the robust growth of the Palestinian economy.

It seems like a no brainer.

Unless you have a different plan in mind.

Obama has a different plan: to force and compel Israel to give up things, while he asks nothing from the Palestinians except to show up. Obviously, any Israeli government entering negotiations with this handicap, will seek to avoid closing any deal at all. They’d be crazy not to sabotage the talks.

In the meantime, with all this time wasted, Obama has forbidden Israel to tackle Iran militarily. The joke here is on Israel, since Obama won’t have to deal with the danger of an Iranian rocket reaching US shores for some years. The joke is, of course, that he actually treats the Iranians better than he treats the Israelis.

It may be time for those Jews who vote to think carefully about which party deserves their vote in November.

We have been spilling digital ink about this for the last 6 years. Lo and behold there is an anti-Semitic group on the campus called the MSU! While the administration and the deans deny that there are any problems, it seems that in fact that is not the case.

Recently, the UCI student government passed a first reading of a resolution BACKING the MSU, and the anti-Semitic thugs trying again to shut up the Jews from speaking freely at UCI.

And the worst part is you didn’t even send over any Michal Negrin as an apology.

A little while back, I had the bitter pleasure of criticizing the J Street student division for having a challenging time describing themselves – and ultimately they rejected the description – as “pro-Israel.”

It turns out the J Street students were prescient. They were merely expressing publicly what J Street, the organization, would demonstrate a few months hence.

Today, J Street went on the offensive.

…The Obama administration’s reaction to the treatment of the Vice President last week and to the timing and substance of the Israeli government’s announcement was both understandable and appropriate.

As Vice President Biden said, “Sometimes only a friend can deliver the hardest truth.” That is what he, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod have done in recent days – and J Street, along with many friends of Israel, stands solidly behind them.

Um, false.

It’s true that only a friend can deliver the hardest truth. However, when the friend starts frothing at the mouth yelling at his junior friend and then after a year of obvious failure, falls right back into his previous pattern of undermining the possibility of negotiations by creating undue expectations that he will deliver the friend on a platter to his nemesis, then the friend’s behavior is neither understandable nor appropriate. In fact, it harms the peace process while undermining Israel and unfairly laying the blame for any failures at its feet.

Then J Street offers their recommendation for an agreement:

We urge the United States to take this opportunity to suggest parameters to the parties for resuming negotiations – basing borders on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed land swaps, with the Palestinian state demilitarized and on territory equivalent to 100% of the area encompassed by the pre-1967 Armistice lines.

Hmmmm, where have I heard that before?

Oh wait, I know!! First I heard Israel offer that to the Palestinians at Taba and then I heard Israel offer it to the Palestinians in 2008. The first time, it led to nothing but more violence, and the second time it led to nothing and a couple of months later we had Cast Lead.

The Obama administration will find vast support among American Jews and other friends of Israel for a bold new approach that aims to advance that interest and guarantees Israel a secure, democratic and Jewish future.

Yes it would.

Which is why most sane supporters of Israel realize that Obama has just stumbled again, just as he did when he first came to power and gave the Palestinians a reason to do nothing for an entire year, by demanding that the Israelis unilaterally stop all settlement construction and including east Jerusalem, part of Israel’s capital. They anticipated more pressure on Israel and did nothing while it was pending.

Now we are back to square one. It’s easy to blame it on Israel, especially if one rejects Netanyahu’s explanation that he had no idea that new construction in Ramat Shlomo would be announced on the eve of new talks with Biden visiting as a gesture of goodwill. However, even if this is true, and chances are it is NOT true, the last thing the US should have done is go on the warpath with Israel.

Ramat Shlomo is a Jewish neighborhood in a part of Jerusalem that will remain in Israeli hands. Building there is certainly part of the consensus of Israeli society both on the Left and the Right. If you’re offended about the timing of the announcement, that is fair. However, an apology was made at the highest levels and making a big stink over construction there is inappropriate, particularly since it plays into the hands of the Palestinians who are on the other side of these negotiations.

It also interferes, in a fundamental way, with Israel’s sovereignty. Contrary to the opinion of some commentaries out there, Israel is not a child and does not require hand-holding or scolding. The complexities of Israel’s existence are perhaps difficult to comprehend these days where the primary opponent has become the Palestinians, not so much other Arab states, and where the “settlements” have become the perceived stumbling block and not Palestinian refusal to compromise or negotiate. However, Israel is a sovereign state, and it has the right to govern itself.

In fact, as we watch Hillary berating Netanyahu like he’s a five year old dipping his hand into the cookie jar, and Oren being treated by the Administration as Israel treats the envoy of a country whose leader goes around the world accusing Israel of war crimes and intentional murder of Palestinian children, one wonders what the Americans expect to happen. Do they think the Palestinians will now negotiate in good faith? Or do they think the Palestinians will realize they’ve now bought another year or so? Do they think the Palestinians will offer any significant concession, or gain brazenness and complacency – as we’ve already seen with their subsequent commemoration of a square to a terrorist who murdered Israeli civilians? Do they think the Israeli public will trust the Americans to be honest brokers, or that they will come to view this administration with wariness and distrust, thus undermining any concessions Israel could have made that now will appear to be forced upon Israel and against its best interests?

One thing is certain. If Obama would apply to his Iranian problem the same vigor he applies to castigating Israel, insulting its leaders and undermining the prospect of bringing the parties to the negotiating table by weakening Israel’s position, Iran would have stopped or at least slowed its nuclear plans long ago.

I guess we have our own amateurs running the place.

Which is all to say that once again J Street is in the wrong and as a friend to Israel the best thing it could do is reject the US administration’s misplaced full-court press on Israel and try to bring the two countries back to the equilibrium which existed before Obama came to power. That will enhance the already remote prospects for peace faster than any other approach.

Sigh

The Internets have been fairly abuzz after publication of a letter by right-wing firebrand Baruch Marzel’ urging Israeli supermodel Bar Rafaeli not to marry her on again, off again, on again beau, actor Leonardo DiCaprio. In that letter, Marzel, writing on behalf of Lehava, an organization he runs to help Jewish women extricate themselves from relationships with non-Jewish men, urges Rafaeli not to marry DiCaprio. Marzel writes:

“It is not by chance that you were born Jewish,” wrote Baruch Marzel in a letter he sent Refaeli through her mother (and that promptly appeared in the press). “Your grandmother and her grandmother did not dream that one of their descendants would one day remove the family’s future generations from the Jewish people. Assimilation has forever been one of the enemies of the Jewish people.” … This isn’t personal, wrote Marzel, who was careful to open his letter stressing that he “has nothing against Mr. DiCaprio, who I have no doubt is a talented actor.” Still, he implores Refaeli: “Come to your senses, look forward and back too — and not only the present. Don’t marry Leonardo DiCaprio, don’t harm the future generations.”

Won’t someone think of the children bubbes? Oh the humanity! The problem here isn’t that a concerned individual has taken upon himself to urge a Jewish woman not to marry a non-Jew. People do that all the time. The problem is that this exhortation has received international attention. Ignoramuses the world over believe that Judaism is racist! Never mind that the desire to avoid mixed marriage has nothing to do with race, one can hardly find any place that this has been reported where there aren’t a significant number of comments deriding Marzel for his racism.

The other problem is that Marzel is in fact a racist! Lehava does not seem to be concerned with Jewish men bedding gentile women. Marzel himself claims to have been the right-hand man of Meir Kahane, acting as a spokesman for the American rabbi’s Kach organization for ten years until it was outlawed in Israel for being racist and branded in the US as a terrorist organization.

So yes, by all means if I could send out a personal message to Bar, please don’t marry Leonardo DiCaprio. Mixed marriages are fraught with complications and celebrity marriages are already complicated enough as it is (especially judging by how often you and Leonardo break up)! Of course your children, should you have any, will be fully Jewish, but Bar, will they even identify as Jews once they become adults? Never mind that Marzel nut job. Never mind your bubbes. Don’t marry Leonardo because it’s in your best interest not to.

Oh and also because Leonardo is reportedly gay. You really want to spend the rest of your life as Leo’s beard? Wow. What a waste of your uhm… assets that would be.

Thoughtful piece on how to direct our energies on Israel.

Engaging Israel: Beyond Advocacy By Donniel Hartman(09/03/2010)

Since Operation Cast Lead and the subsequent Goldstone Report, there has been an increasing sense that anti-Israeli opinion has moved beyond criticism of some of Israel’s actions and policies to the delegitimization of the Zionist project as a whole. ….

In Israel and throughout the Jewish world there has been a marshalling of forces to develop materials, programs, and new advocates to make the case for Israel. The aim of these programs is to combat distortions and present Israel’s side of the facts. However important and valuable these efforts are, they often fail to achieve their end. When the case for Israel is grounded only on a factual narrative it is often unconvincing to those who hold a counter factual perception. In general, positions are rarely formed purely around facts, but rather by ideological, moral, and psychological propensities which then construct factual narratives to reinforce the preexisting commitment. (more…)

DeScribe’s Harmony EP just hit stores today! Pick up the CD/Download or the signed limited edition, visit Shemspeed Direct, here! If you want to grab it from iTunes, click here. Either way, check out the Award Winning Harmony Music Video, above. Here is a little background on Shemspeed’s head quarters in Crown Heights. “It’s been almost 20 years since the Crown Heights riots showed the ugly face of racial tension that exists between the Black and the Jewish communities Shemspeed’s Brooklyn neighbourhood. Many efforts since then have been made to create multi-ethnic/cultural programming and social structures to work towards peace and mutual understanding between the two communities, but still today a lack of real communication remains, and most of all, the tension still remains. In a recent wave of violence and rising crime in Crown Heights it has become obvious that we must push for “raising an awareness of the need for racial harmony in Crown Heights and in the world.” DeScribe, in collaboration with a multi-racial group of Crown Heights and Brooklyn residents, is attempting to do just that through a powerful new Hip Hop music video which delivers a clear and conscious message of racial and religious HARMONY.”

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President Barak Obama, prior to being elected, stated, at the 2008 AIPAC Conference, “Jerusalem will remain the capitol of Israel, and it must remain undivided.” (Watch his full speech here. This statement occurs at 18:58). So, if Jerusalem is the undivided capitol of Israel, how is building in the eastern half of the city any different than building in the western half? Its all part of the same undivided capitol, is it not?. Yet, the Obama administration has been all in an uproar regarding Israel’s announcement of its approval of the building of 1,600 housing units in Ramat Shlomo, a neighborhood in east Jerusalem. Recent comments by the Obama administration have been called “especially troubling” by the ADL and “very worrying” by AIPAC. So what is it? Did Obama mean that Jerusalem is, and ought to be, the undivided capitol of Israel, or not? Or was he merely pandering for the “Jewish [and Zionist] vote?”

In that same speech (at 25:11), Obama, also, said, “I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon – everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Everything.” Did he mean that, as well? Or does be plan on “flip-flopping” on that as well? Only time will tell. But, let us hope that, on this, the Obama administration does not intend to have a change of heart.

It’s about time, no?

The Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, (the “Malam”), headed by Colonel (Res). Reuven Erlich, has released a 500 page report refuting the Goldstone Report. In a summary published in the Jerusalem Post, the report is described to mostly focus on Hamas’ activities during Operation Cast Lead, including its use of humanitarian and/or civilian structures, such as “mosques, hospitals, ambulances and schools,” as shields and launch sites. For example, over 100 mosques and hospitals were used as Kassam launch sites. A video, also, shows the use of children as human shields by Hamas.

Rather than tell you all about it, and give you my opinion on it (since I don’t really have time to read and fully analyze it at present), you can find the English version of the document here.  Below is the table of contents:

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Main Findings I

2. Part One: An examination of how the Goldstone Report relates to Hamas and the terrorist threat to Israel from the Gaza Strip before Operation Cast Lead 1

Section I –The historical-security context of Operation Cast Lead 10

Section II – The nature of Hamas and the other terrorist organizations operating in and from the Gaza Strip 13

Section III – Hamas-governmental support for terrorism: the de facto Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip 32

Section IV – The Hamas-led military buildup in the Gaza Strip 45

Section V – The increase in terrorism from the Gaza Strip and the events leading to Operation Cast Lead 56

Section VI – Rocket and mortar shell fire during and after Operation Cast Lead 95

Section VII– External support for terrorism: Iran and Syria support the buildup of the military infrastructures 103

3. Part Two: The Use of Civilians in the Gaza Strip as Human Shields during Operation Cast Lead 108

Main Findings 110

Section I – Hamas’ combat doctrine for urban areas and its implementation in Operation Cast Lead 117

Section II – Hamas’ military use of public and administrative institutions and facilities during Operation Cast Lead 143

Section III – Hamas’ combat tactics of fighting in densely-populated areas during Operation Cast Lead 195

4. Part Three: Integrating the Hamas police and internal security services in military-terrorist activity both routinely and during Operation Cast Lead 262

Main Findings 265

Section I – Integrating the police and other internal security services into the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades 268

Section II – Cooperation between the police, other internal security services and the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades during Operation Cast Lead 288

Section III – Police and other internal security operatives with double identities killed during and after Operation Cast Lead 297

Section IV – Sayid Siyyam as a case study: Portrait of the interior and national security minister of the de facto Hamas administration, killed by the IDF in Operation Cast Lead, an example of the double identities of senior security figures 309

5. Appendix I: Analysis of the Ratio between the Military Operative and Civilian Casualties

during Operation Cast Lead 312

Section I: Main findings of a statistical study carried out by the Israeli defense establishment compared with data from Hamas and Palestinian NGOs in the Gaza Strip 315

Section II: Reasons for the statistical divergences 317

Section III: Operation Cast Lead vs. Other Areas of Asymmetric Warfare 323

6. Appendix II: A selection of Intelligence and 325

Terrorism Information Center Bulletins Issued in recent years on issues relevant to the

Goldstone Report Overview 325

Links to Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center Bulletins on key issues 326

The Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip and its significance 326

Hamas’ essential nature and its military buildup 327

The Gaza Strip as focal point for anti-Israeli terrorist activity 327

The lull in the fighting and its unilateral termination by Hamas and subsequent deliberate escalation (June –December, 2008) 330

Using the civilian population as a human shields 331

The military use of administrative and public buildings 332

The police and other internal security services integrated with Hamas’ military terrorist wing 333

Palestinian Casualties during Operation Cast Lead 334

Documents Containing Basic Relevant Information 334

Serial publications 335

This is not an easy post to write.

As our readers know, I am a dedicated Zionist and strong supporter of Israel. It is with a heavy heart, then, that I must report a development today that will probably make the life of one Palestinian a truly living hell.

Earlier today, Israeli forces in Ramallah captured a Hamas terrorist by the name of Maher Ouda. Ouda is in his mid-forties and accused of being involved in the murder of at least 10 Israelis and possibly as many as 70 Israelis.

Well, tough luck for Ouda because now he’s really going to suffer. In an Israeli prison.

How do I know this?

Because today, Marwan Barghouti, the Fatah terrorist leader widely held to be the “Nelson Mandela” of the Palestinians who will apparently merely need to be released in order to bring them to some sort of, uh, holy land, showed the world what it means to be incarcerated in an Israeli jail for the murder of four Israeli civilians and the attempted murder of one.

Yes indeed. Today, Marwan Barghouti completed his doctorate.

He has finished his thesis and other obligations!! He is going to be considered by a faculty committee at an Egyptian university as to whether he has completed all of his obligations towards a Ph.D.

Now at this point, you’re thinking, “Those horrid, vicious Israelis must have broken his thumbs so that he had to type with eight fingers.” Nope, it doesn’t say that in the story.

Maybe you’re thinking, “Surely some NGOs financed by Naomi Chazan’s New Israel Fund are planning to sue the Israel prison system for “shaking” Barghouti until all his knowledge spilled out.” Nope, as far as I know, the NGOs are busy undermining Israel with important accusations.

Your mind is telling you, “Well, hell, of course he had time to finish a doctorate, what else is he going to do?” Well, Israeli prisons permit conjugal visits, just ask Samir Kontar, the Lebanese terrorist and murderer who killed a little girl after murdering her dad in front of her and forcing her to watch. Yup, Samir got married and had conjugal visits during his horrendous stay in an Israeli prison.

Now you’re thinking, “Get outta here!”

Nope. It’s all true and I’m staying.

How did Barghouti get his degree?

Barghouti, 50, is one of several hundred Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons who enroll in studies at universities around the world, including in Israel.
…
Barghouti was able to complete his thesis with the help of hundreds of books and documents that Israeli authorities allow inmates to bring into prison.

Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are currently enrolled as students with the Open University of Israel, which facilitates their studies by allowing them to sit exams in jail.

You’re thinking, “Sure, only ‘hundreds’ of prisoners are enrolled in university studies, but there are thousands of Palestinian prisoners. Ha!”

Maybe so, but some are still completing their high school studies. They’ll have opportunities in future arrests, especially if murder is involved.

That’s right, all you need to do is murder or plan to murder some Israelis and then you get to study for a number of years, generally uninterrupted except for the pesky conjugal visits or management duties for your in-prison political machinery that influences Palestinians outside prison.

And you don’t really need to worry about the 4 life sentences imposed upon you by the dastardly Israelis because at some point a live or dead Israeli soldier will be traded for your release and that of a thousand or so others. It’s not a question of “if” but “when?”

The sweetest part of the story is that it’s obvious that Israel wants to help the international community support the Palestinians as much as possible. Sure, the Palestinians get billions of dollars in aid from UNWRA and other bodies, but they don’t need to waste that money on things like education. After all, the Israelis will take care of any gaps. You didn’t believe me about the high school studies, but now you will:

Barghouti, who is also a Fatah member on the Palestinian Legislative Council, completed his high school exams while in Israeli prison in 1980.

See? I told you this was a painful post to write. I can only imagine the pain Maher Ouda is going through right now as he decides whether to apply for an MA degree. Poli Sci or Sociology? If only the Zionist occupiers would stop with the newspapers, television and radio available in Arabic, Hebrew and English and start offering cooking and yoga classes!

And yet…

“Dr. Marwan Barghouti.”

It has a nice ring to it.

Dr. Marwan Barghouti Thanks His Jailers for Their Kind Offer to Subsidize His Education

Tel Aviv Storm

Both photos taken by the talented Tommy Junger from his Tel Aviv-Jaffa collection.

Sunset * Tel Aviv

A rough week diplomatically for Israel. Fortunately, it remains a beautiful and vibrant place, despite setbacks.

Shabbat shalom!!

Two weeks ago Los Angeles was rocked by a Purim party of Olympic proportions. JConnectLA, the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, and Atid – the young professional group of Sinai Temple and took over the entire Rodeo Collection on Rodeo drive. Music was provided by Moshav, Ram2, DJ Miles, and one of LA’s top DJ’s DJ Felli Fel.

When the party hit about 1000 people, the Beverly Hills Fire Marshall said enough. Purimpalooza party goers filled Purim baskets that were delivered to the Jewish elderly, and a local bone marrow registry swabbed party goers for bone marrow matches.

Purimpalooza in LA was started by Cheston Mizel, when he began the organization that became JConnectLA. The first event drew about 50-75 people. Purimpalooza has grown from year to year, changing venues and designs.

I just want to give a huge mazal tov to all the organizers, and the participants, for making the dream blossom that started seven years ago – an event to draw together Jews from all backgrounds – to help unify, inspire, and connect young Jewish people in Los Angeles. Shabbat Shalom!

Co-Sponsors: Valley Alliance, LEV Foundation, Jewlicious Festivals, Chai Center
Partners: Jews for Judaism, JAMS (of USC), Sephardic Mizrahi Young Leadership (SMYL), LA Jewish Chamber of Commerce, Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters
Media Sponsor: www.LosAngelesBlueprint.com

So I called the Israeli government amateurish and blamed them for recent debacles relating to Israel, especially the announcement of 1600 new units in Ramat Shlomo, Jerusalem, on the eve of new peace talks with the Palestinians while US VP Biden was on a “let’s get everybody on the same page” tour of the Holy Land.

One of the points I made in the ensuing debates is that Israel snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. After a year of stalling by the Palestinians, the Israelis with a right wing government in place managed to enlighten the world that there were no peace talks because of the Palestinians, not the Israelis. The world believed and pushed the Palestinians back to the table.

Needless to say, the new construction announcement has given them a perfect excuse to avoid talks again, and allows them to put the blame on Israel. Not only can they blame Israel for the breakdown in talks, but they can retroactively claim that their previously-expressed reservations about going into talks with Israel were justified, as were their demands to halt all “settlement” construction not only in Judea and Samaria/West Bank but also in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem Post tells us:

…On Friday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he and Tunisia’s leader, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, have begun to discuss how the Arab League should respond to an Israeli plan for new construction in Ramat Shlomo.

Speaking during a visit to Tunisia, Abbas said Israel’s move “got in the way of” plans to begin US-mediated indirect talks with Israel.

And the Americans are laying it on thick, trying to reclaim the supposedly deteriorated confidence of the Arabs,

In a bid to salvage those negotiations, Mitchell and the top US diplomat for the Middle East, Jeffrey Feltman, called Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Arab League chief Amr Moussa and the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates over the past two days, Crowley said.

“We have reached out … to a range of leaders,” he said. “We jointly remain committed to this process, acknowledging that, obviously, it is a difficult environment, given the Israeli statement.”

Boo hoo and sob! Amr Moussa’s poor old feelings must be shattered. He deserves a massage and champagne, preferably provided by an attractive US State Department employee.

Of course, one US government female employee isn’t available to provide this service to Mr. Moussa and his cronies. She’s busy yelling at Netanyahu.

The US State Department said Clinton spoke to Netanyahu by phone for 43 minutes to vent US frustration with Tuesday’s announcement that cast a pall over a visit to Israel by US Vice President Joe Biden and endangered the indirect peace talks with the Palestinians that the Obama administration had announced just a day earlier.

Clinton called “to make clear that the United States considered the announcement to be a deeply negative signal about Israel’s approach to the bilateral relationship and counter to the spirit of the vice president’s trip,” department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters.

“The secretary said she could not understand how this happened, particularly in light of the United States’ strong commitment to Israel’s security and she made clear that the Israeli government needed to demonstrate not just through words but through specific actions that they are committed to this relationship and to the peace process,” he said.

43 minutes!!! Clinton yelled at him for 43 minutes! You’d think he was given oral sex by Monica Lewinsky.

Well, actually, this is worse. Nobody in Israel can claim to have enjoyed blissful physical pleasure by announcing the construction on that particular day. I mean, Bill Clinton can at least explain what happened by alluding to the loneliness of being President, the need to have his ego massaged, the type of mid-life crisis many men go through at that age and the fact that except in some authors’ or screenwriters’ active imaginations, it really is unusual to have a woman agree to provide oral sex under the desk like a good little servant while the man is on the phone doing business.

Forty three minutes of yelling would seem fair under those circumstances. Netanyahu, of course, must be pretty pissed off since he got the 43 minutes of yelling, but received no reward. In fact, he must be pretty afraid at this point that the Americans will force another Wye Accords-type agreement down this throat, just as they did in 1998 when he agreed to remove Israeli forces from key areas of Judea and Samaria/West Bank.

Hmmmm…how to repay Netanyahu for all of the pressure and yelling coming at him from the Americans?

Hey, I know! Let’s get Eli Yishai, the minister whose ministry announced the construction right in the middle of Biden’s visit, to repay him somehow. Repay with something that’s worth 43 minutes of berating by Hillary.

In this week’s issue of The Jewish Press, Rabbi Steven Pruzansky wrote, in his “The Rise of Orthopraxy”, that

while Orthodoxy literally means “correct belief” but in actuality encompasses an entire range of thought and behavior that is regulated by Torah, Orthopraxy (”correct action”) is much more limited in scope, requiring only the adherence to certain behavioral norms without any semblance of philosophical commitment to the system from which such behavioral norms emerged.

And further describes them as

an informal, incognito group of unknown size and scope who, for the most part, practice halachic norms but do not really believe in God (or that He chose us as the nation that would carry His moral message to mankind) or understand what they are doing. They might not even believe in the divine origin of the Torah, but identify themselves with the Orthodox community for social, ethnic, cultural or even aesthetic reasons.

In the course of his article, he argues against Orthoprax’ outward practices but otherwise empty inner spiritual life. What Rabbi Pruzansky engages is a polemic against such an modus operandi and further describes Orthopraxy as something that “transcends all the traditional (and artificial) divisions in Orthodox life. It compasses right wing and left wing, modern, centrist and yeshivish, haredi and non-haredi alike.” Rabbi Pruzansky aims to prod the Orthoprax in the world towards better standards of behavior as well as thought. However, it could also come as detrimental to pushing those who are within the Orthoprax camp to feeling bad about their observance. Granted, there are plenty of places in North America where having Jews be Orthoprax is a higher level of observance than they would otherwise have been. Moreover, there is also a danger of תפסת מרובה לא תפסת תפסת מועט תפסת* – that is, some Orthoprax that may feel that it’s not for them, and not try to also develop inner Jewish beliefs, etc. (more…)

From Seth Cohen at Boundless Drama of Creation Blog – a discussion about a school in North Carolina that is 40k short and will close. The parents created the school from scratch in 2006.

There are nineteen Jewish children in Asheville, North Carolina, far from the Jewish centers of life in New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Atlanta. These children are getting a daily dose of Jewish education, culture and language, and they are sharing experiences that will help cement their identities for years to come. They may go elsewhere in life, far from Asheville – perhaps even to our own communities. We know this.

So with all we know, let me ask this – will we, the Jewish people, let this school fail? And if we do, what does it mean about what we say?

Please read the whole story if you have a chance. This issue is huge – there are many facets. Perhaps they are better off in a public school with a really good after-school program?

From a halachic perspective it is fairly clear that these children’s education comes before even paying the mortgage on a shul, or any other program, except giving out food and money to the poor – it is that important.

Today I’m reposting my Jewish Week story for this week, because it is perhaps one of the craziest stories I have ever written. Enjoy, and feel free to leave comments below.

The Curse That Rocked Great Neck

Rabbi Mordechai Aderet: Party crasher frightens guests.

Like biblical plagues raining down on them from an angry God, the white-bearded, black-hatted rabbi laid a string of curses upon the unsuspecting suburban partygoers. Banging a siddur on a table and screaming “Shema Yisrael,” the rabbi, accompanied by a four-man entourage — all of whom had burst into a Great Neck home — lit into those gathered for an evening of celebration, mixed dancing and traditional Iranian fare in honor of a little girl’s first birthday.

After “shrieking Hebrew oaths,” the “uninvited” rabbi launched into a “lengthy diatribe” during which he told those who chose to remain at the party that they would be cursed with “illness, bankruptcy and tragedy for eternity,” according to a petition signed by some of those in attendance.

“They just came right in like a storm, inside the middle of the party,” said a woman who attended the December party but, like many others contacted by The Jewish Week, asked to remain anonymous because she fears for her safety. “They started to curse everybody, saying — ‘You’re going to have tragedies, everyone who stays here.’”

Guests and their children were allegedly so frightened by the rabbi’s intrusion that many left, while others stood shaking and crying, according to those in attendance.

After the rabbi left, rumors began circulating around the community about the presence of naked women at the party. Those in attendance suspect the rabbi and his men of spreading the reports.

The actions of Rabbi Mordechai Aderet — and the sheer incongruity of medieval-like curses being hurled at well-off Persian Jews in Great Neck, of all places — have sent shockwaves through the local Jewish community.

Other rabbis in the community seem stunned by Rabbi Aderet’s alleged behavior. Those at the party drafted an emotional memo to a Great Neck bet din detailing their “deep distress, sadness and anger” over the rabbi’s actions. It urged the rabbis making up the religious court to “use your influence to prevail upon your colleague to cease and desist from his unauthorized, illegal and unethical harassment of members of our community.”

And the bet din, run by Rabbi Eliyahu Ben-Haim, in turn circulated a letter among Great Neck rabbis that referenced the incident, but without mentioning Rabbi Aderet’s name, according to those who saw it. Only one rabbi is believed to have signed the letter.

“No one else wanted to even get near it,” said the one signatory, Rabbi Yamin Levy, who is vice president of yeshiva affairs at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School and serves as a part-time rabbi at a Great Neck congregation, Beth Hadassah. “Rabbis don’t want to go on record as appearing like they’re against a colleague.”

Reached by phone, Rabbi Ben-Haim said he would not comment on Rabbi Aderet, then hung up. Rabbi Aderet refused to speak with The Jewish Week himself but asked that the paper call one of his main supporters who would speak on the rabbi’s behalf.

In an indication of how controversial Rabbi Aderet has become in Great Neck, the congregant tapped to speak for him would not agree to use his name, saying that his business might suffer from the association.

“They [the partygoers] exaggerated the event in order to take revenge against Rabbi Aderet and the Orthodox Jewish community because they don’t want Great Neck to become Orthodox,” Rabbi Aderet’s supporter said. “They don’t want another Five Towns.”

The supporter, who accompanied Rabbi Aderet to the party, claims he was invited, though he could not produce an invitation. Partygoers say Rabbi Aderet was not invited and that invitations were sent out to all of those on the guest list.

Rabbi Aderet’s supporter suggested The Jewish Week call Rabbi Avraham Cohen of Torah Va Danesh, an Orthodox synagogue in Great Neck, for comment. When reached, the rabbi said through a secretary that he “doesn’t want to get involved.” Continue reading…