As former Nazi-guard John Demjanjuk is standing trial for his [alleged] role in the killing of almost 28,000 Jews at the Sobibor death camp, there are public voices – besides his court-appointed lawyer’s – asking important questions.

1. Should a man this age (89 in Demjanjuk’s case) still stand trial?
2. Can justice be done if the sentence cannot be by far as severe as the crimes committed?
3. Can Nazi colloraborators be held responsible for committing crimes if doing so supposedly spared their lives?
4. Should German prosecution not rather go after German Nazi criminals? Does the trial against John Demjanjuk not mean double-standards?
5. Should people not “just get over” the past?

The following are my answers to the above questions. They are personal, without a doubt biased, and influenced by the values I was raised with, the people I’ve met and the experiences I’ve made in those 30 years of my life. They are not aiming to be an ultimate conclusion or solution of any kind. Feel free to add your views, but please remain civil. Not all topics are made for ego-parades.

1. Yes, I think he should. He was an adult when he [allegedly] committed the crimes. From what I could find, he shows no remorse. Several physicians determined Demjanjuk to be fit for trial. There is no statute of limitations for murder in German law. Differently put, from a technical and legal point-of-view, there’s no reason why Demjanjuk shouldn’t stand trial.
2. What is justice? “An eye for an eye”? Letting criminals get away with their crimes, hoping for some kind of eschatological justice at the end of days? To paraphrase Reich-Ranicki, justice in such cases is not taking revenge but for the world to understand that incredible atrocities happened there.
3. Yes, they can. From many conversations with former Nazi- as well as non-Nazi Wehrmacht members and resistance fighters within and outside the Wehrmacht I know that at the very least soldiers were well-aware that they would not suffer consequences if they refused to partake in the killing of Jews. So far, I’ve seen no compelling evidence that civilians would have been treated differently. Yet, there undeniably were bonuses for those that complied. Maybe there was a subjective fear of that something might happen, but is that enough to forego all human decency? I’m familiar with the Stanford Prison Experiment, but can people really convincingly claim the norms and values of society failed them when there was a considerable number of those that stood up and said “No,”?
4. I think they should go after German Nazi criminals as well. The trial against John Demjanjuk, hopefully, does not represent double-standards but the one, universal standard that crimes against humanity will never again be condoned on European soil and that those involved in such crimes will have to suffer the consequences, no matter what their nationality, age, sex, social standing, educational background, ethnicity, religious adherence etc. might be. And yes, I’d love to see German Nazi criminals stand trial for what they did. Alas, the Allied denazification attempts ended too early and not all trials came to their conclusion. So particularly higher-rank criminals were let get away with their crimes.
5. No, they should not. The loss of health – physical and mental -, family, friends, careers, property, and human dignity for years on end became an integral part of the lives of those that survived. The survivors have got a right to be heard as long as they want to be heard. For many, sharing their story has become a way of coping with something none of us are fully able to imagine. But that, also, mandates that the memories and the message of warning they serve us as must not be abused, neither by pop-culturists nor by fundraisers.

It is a matter of decency.

Move over Ivanka Trump, another celebutante couple is tying the knot. They have confirmed via text message that they are engaged. They did not meet on Birthright Israel; they met in DC, where both were born unto political families. Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton, is engaged to longtime BFF, Ed (Marc) Mezvinsky, the son of two former MOC’s (Members of Congress): Ed Mezvinsky (Iowa) and Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky (PA).

Mezvinsky, 31, worked at Goldman Sachs and is now at 3G Capital Management (i think it stands for good price, good mgt, and good looks); and Clinton, 29, is studying public health at Columbia.

Note: Many years ago, I was a volunteer on a Mezvinsky political campaign. That was way before he got indicted and served 7 lean yrs of prison time for defrauding people of millions of dollars. It has no influence on my posting this Shidduch.

Word from Israel is that the death of Shtreimel Envy has been postponed for the time being. Since this Summer, there has been a Knesset bill that would restrict the importation to Israel of fur products from dogs, cats and rabbits that were raised and “harvested” in not so pleasant ways, especially in Asia. This bill has caused a furor among some “religious based” political parties in Israel, since it would interfere with the importation of rabbit fur shtreimels that are worn by some Jewish citizens on the Sabbath and holidays. In the words of.. well.. nobody in particular, I am just making the quote up, “I like my beef, chicken and lamb kosher, and slaughtered by a shochet, but those pesky wabbits that are used to make the hats which I wear to honor of Sabbath, well you can just electrocute the hell out of them.”

Last week, a vote on the bill in committee, which was proposed by Ronit Tirosh (MK, Kadima party) was postponed, due to opposition by other MK’s and the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture. Tirosh was named a Person of the Year in Education in 2000 in Israel and was tagged by Forbes as one of the 50 Strongest Women. That and a few shekels can get you a falafel, but not the passage of a bill. In the interim we can focus on bigger issues, like who will pay to replace Tiger Woods’ fire hydrant.

It’s a steep number but would it ever be great to get him back, after three years. From Cnn.

Israel could release 980 Palestinian prisoners in a possible deal to win the freedom of an Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas for three years, prosecutors disclosed Sunday.
The number from Israel’s State Prosecutor’s Office is the first official estimate of how many Palestinians could be freed in exchange for Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was captured in a 2006 Hamas raid near the Israel-Gaza border.
Prosecutors disclosed the number in response to demands, made by the families of Israelis killed by Palestinians, that the government disclose the terms of a potential deal with Hamas.
In papers filed with Israel’s high court, the prosecutor’s office said the government is considering an initial release of 450 prisoners in the first phase of a deal, with another 530 prisoners slated to be freed in a second phase. No prisoner names were released with the numbers.
Relatives of Israelis slain by Palestinians have petitioned the court to force the government to release more information about the details of a possible exchange. Many of them have been vocal opponents of plans to release prisoners they believe may commit acts of violence again.
Israel and Hamas have been negotiating Shalit’s release through third-party mediators from Egypt and Germany, but talks have started and stalled numerous times. Shalit’s freedom has become a condition for the Israelis to consider ending a blockade that has economically wounded the Palestinian territory of Gaza.
Speculation about a possible deal emerged last week after Israeli President Shimon Peres met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, Egypt, and hinted that the talks could be at a critical juncture. But Israel’s government is obligated to publicly announce the list of any prisoners to be released and allow 48 hours for objections before a deal can take place.
Shalit was 19 when he was captured on June 25, 2006, by Palestinian militants from Gaza, including those from Hamas, the Palestinian faction that controls the territory. Israel immediately launched a military incursion into Gaza to rescue Shalit, but failed.
In October, Hamas gave Israel a minute-long “proof of life” tape of the captured soldier in return for the release of 20 female prisoners. The video showed Shalit sitting in a chair, reading a newspaper dated September 14, 2009, and saying he was in good health.

Awesome adventures!

Well today was an interesting day! I have these dear friends, two sisters called Sarah and Leia, whose uncle aunt and cousin came to visit from Fresno. I had Shabbat meals with all of them and they were so cute that I decided to spend Sunday with them walking through the old city. Because it was the Feast of Eid Al Adha, the temple Mount was closed so I got the Fresno boys to don teffilin at the Kotel instead. We went to the roof of the Austrian Hospice to snap some scenic pics and then we walked by the Muslim Quarter where a young burqa wearing woman practically passed out in my arms. We put her on a chair and got her some water – must have been all the excitement. I was glad she was going to be ok and that no one stabbed me for laying my hands on a Muslim maiden. Afterward we headed off to the Jewish Quarter again for lunch and the stunning view from the Quarter Café. There we met Mark and his family from Los Angeles. Mark runs a consultancy and his assistant Weronicka is a dear friend. Mark was there with his wife, 8-year old daughter and his Mother in Law Nadine.

Nadine, an Upper East Side New Yorker, had fought with the Hagana in 1948 and hadn’t been back to Israel since 1949. She was a bit stunned at how much the country had changed, noting “I cannot believe this was the country I fought in.” She regaled us with her war stories as we pitied Mark – Imagine having a mother in law capable of assembling, disassembling and firing a Sten gun? We introduced her to Kevin, Sara and Leia’s cousin, who recently made Aliyah and was set to be drafted into the IDF in late December. Kevin is always a hoot and Nadine was a doll and lunch ended up being great fun – see them smiling in the photo above? Granted it was a very touristy day – but walla! This is why we live here. Nice people, great stories, beautiful views. Y’all come back here more often please!

Dani Klein from Yeahthatskosher.com checks out kosher restaurants for Jewish Travel TV.

This is the only Kosher McDonalds in the world outside of Israel. Buenos Aires is known for it’s meat and the McDonald’s does not disappoint. Totally different flavors than what we’re used to in the U.S., but the kosher McDonalds is definitely worth the visit.

What’s crazy about this place is that the Abasto Mall is open super late just for the restaurants. The kosher McDonalds is open until 2am. I love it.

Check out http://youtube.com/JewishTravelTV for more restaurant videos and Jewish Travel episodes.

With the recent revelation that Barack does not do his own Twitters, I was wondering who are the top followed folks in Twitterland. Notice that Twitter itself doesn’t have top position. No Jews in the Top Ten. Could this even happen? This list is as of today – you can see all 100 top Twitters Found them here:

1	aplusk	4,025,573
2	britneyspears	3,847,812
3	TheEllenShow	3,802,272
4	cnnbrk	2,809,719
5	BarackObama	2,734,246
6	twitter	2,685,070
7	Oprah	2,667,284
8	johncmayer	2,665,558
9	RyanSeacrest	2,644,465
10	KimKardashian	2,630,590

Last in the Top 100
100 NickCannon 1,383,278

Black Friday / Thanksgiving Outrage?

Best Buy pissed off a whole lot of people with the above Black Friday flier that announced Thanksgiving Day sales and wished it’s Muslim customers a “Happy Eid al-Adha.” This year, Thanksgiving Day coincides with the Muslim holiday also known as the Festival of Sacrifice. This holiday commemorates, amongst other things, Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God. Uhm. His son Ishmael that is. In Saudi Arabia.

That had to have been a hell of a walk given that Abraham lived in Canaan at the time…

The Festival is celebrated by the wearing of one’s best clothes, the distribution of gifts and the sacrifice of domestic animals, commonly goats. Last night I was in a cab driven by a guy from East Jerusalem. We were discussing price and he started telling me about his Eid al-Adha preparations. He purchased a goat for his Mother and Father, his wife and child and for himself. He told me how each person would eat from their sacrificed goat and then distribute what was left to the poor. His father had passed away, so that entire goat was going to go to the less fortunate.

Back in America, folks inundated the Best Buy Message board and various blogs with howls of outrage, wondering why Eid al-Adha was mentioned by name while Best Buy has a policy against wishing customers a Merry Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza or Yule instead opting for the neutral “Happy Holidays.” Others took umbrage with the perceived bloodthirstiness of the Muslim Festival, ignoring completely the fact that Christmas celebrates the birth of this dude destined to be sacrificed in a horrible and bloody way (NOT by the Jews!) and that Eid al-Adha is really mostly about gift giving and charity. This has also inspired the inevitable calls for boycotts against Best Buy and marks the official beginning of this year’s war against Christmas. Apparently.

Me? I gave in and gave the cab driver the disputed 5 shekels. Do you have any idea how expensive goats are??? Happy Thanksgiving Day and Eid Al-Adha Mubrak America!

Happy Turkey Day!

What can I say, I’m not a big fan.

I used to be a bigger fan of this Turkey:

Then they started with the latest round of anti-Israel attacks and now I’m not a fan of that Turkey either.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Not with me, obviously, but with football (”soccer” for all of those that cannot pronounce “aluminium” and therefore say “aluminum”).

Tonight, it’s Bayern Munich vs Maccabi Haifa (kick-off is at 8:45pm CET). Bayern needs to win this match pretty badly to stay in the Champions League (and get backed by Bordeaux in Girdondins Bordeaux vs Juventus Turin). Eh, I don’t like Bayern Munich. So, go Maccabi!

And here’s to Jewlicious’ own Raphi, whose birthday it was last week:

When Christians promote tznius…

The end results may still be completely ridiculous. Witness the following video that promotes the “Christian Side Hug” an attempt to offer physical warmth and compassion while also avoiding an inadvertent crotch graze:

Now you may not know this, but according to these guys, “Jesus never hugged nobody like that!” and so an alternative to the traditional hug was necessary. Hence the wigger gangsta posturing, sounds of gunfire and sirens, complete with dropped bullet casings and one of the most ridiculous videos I have ever seen – the only video in fact that ever inspired me to exclaim “What the fucking fuck was that???” It made me think of George Orwell’s 1984 and the Junior Anti-Sex League where kids would snitch on their parents. And what am I supposed to make of that opening refrain “I’m a rough rider, filled up with Christ’s love.” I mean depending on the definition you choose, a “rough rider” could mean “a condom covered with spikes enhancing sexual experience for the female, sometimes pain” or “A person who excels in sex” or someone who enjoys rough anal sex. I mean damn, if you’re going to co-opt urban culture to such an extreme, please at least use the appropriate terminology. And I do love the wholesome dancing girls playing the role of hoodie wearin’ hos. Awesome. I guess the worst part of all this, is when you fuck up on such a colossal scale, you make all religious people look completely retarded. I don’t know about the Christian Side Hug, but I do know a couple of Christian wiggers to whom I’d love to administer a Jewish Side Kick to the ass.

I wonder if they’ll turn the other cheek?

Well they did say they were Rough Riders!

Hat tip to Erez at Shemspeed

Hat tip to David Kelsey who keeps us informed:

The Wall Street Journal reviews “Start-Up Nation” by Dan Senor and Saul Singer, a book that reviews Israel’s incredible success with innovative technologies and their related industries.

‘There are more new innovative ideas . . . coming out of Israel than there are out in [Silicon] Valley right now. And it doesn’t slow during economic downturns.” The authors of “Start-Up Nation,” Dan Senor and Saul Singer, are quoting an executive at British Telecom, but they could just as easily be quoting an executive at Intel, which last year opened a $3.5 billion factory in Kiryat Gat, an hour south of Tel Aviv, to make sophisticated 45-nanometer chips; or Warren Buffett, who in 2006 paid $4 billion for four-fifths of an Israeli firm that makes high-tech cutting tools for cars and planes; or John Chambers, Cisco’s chief executive, who has bought nine Israeli start-ups; or Steve Ballmer, who calls Microsoft “as much an Israeli company as an American company” because of the importance of its Israeli technologists. “Google, Cisco, Microsoft, Intel, eBay . . . ,” says one of eBay’s executives. “The best-kept secret is that we all live and die by the work of our Israeli teams.”

Israel is the world’s techno-nation. Civilian research-and-development expenditures run 4.5% of the gross domestic product—half-again the level of the U.S., Germany or South Korea—and venture-capital investment per capita is 2½ times that of the U.S. and six times that of the United Kingdom. Even in absolute terms, Israel has only the U.S.—with more than 40 times the population—as a challenger.

As Messrs. Senor and Singer write: “Israel—a country of just 7.1 million people—attracted close to $2 billion in venture capital [in 2008], as much as flowed to the U.K.’s 61 million citizens or the 145 million people living in Germany and France combined.” At the start of 2009, some 63 Israeli companies were listed on the Nasdaq, more than those of any other foreign country. Among the Israeli firms: Teva Pharmaceuticals, the world’s largest generic drug maker, with a market cap of $48 billion; and Check Point Software Technologies, with a market cap of $7 billion.

Such economic dynamism has occurred in the face of war, internal strife and rising animosity from other nations. During the six years following the bursting of the tech bubble in 2000, Israel suffered one of its worst periods of terrorist attacks and fought a second Lebanese war; and yet, as the authors note, its “share of the global venture capital market did not drop—it doubled, from 15 percent to 31 percent.”

The review goes on to note that the authors of Start Up Nation do not attribute this success to the predominance of Jews in Israel. Instead, they claim that Israel’s military culture fosters the type of skills, innovation, entrepreneurial spirit and individualism that enable people to develop products and companies.

Interesting idea. It’s always hard to say that it’s Jewish intellect that is driving this extraordinary success because let’s face it, we all know some fairly stupid Jewish people, not to mention average ones. Then again, I’m sure I’m no exception in knowing a large number of extraordinarily smart Jews.

It’s a difficult subject to address, especially for those of us who don’t often wade into the messy idea of a Jewish ethnicity, but the question here is dangling tantalizingly and it is a fair one to ask: is it Judaism or is it simply the way Israeli culture has evolved that has led to this unusual situation?

Also, if it is Judaism, is it ethnicity or is it a cultural aspect of Judaism that has brought about this unusual success?

One clue is that a very large proportion of Nobel Prize winners, Wolf Prize winners and chess grandmasters are Jewish, not to mention a disproportionate number of the Forbes 400 and of the biggest individual contributors to charity in North America. Although 9 of the Nobel Prize winners come from Israel, the vast majority of other Jewish winners and businesspeople come from other countries including the USA. This is a strong clue.

I think, however, that a better clue might be that Jews are also disproportionately represented among lawyers, doctors and academics. This leads me to believe that perhaps the issue isn’t ethnicity after all and maybe it’s also not military training. How about the reason being education as an emphasis in Jewish families and culture?

Education.

That might explain why today at Barnes and Noble I was looking at the Humor section and the only group that had joke books dedicated to them were Jews. There were three large Jewish joke volumes spread out among the multitudes of adult joke books, silly joke books, toilet joke books, etc. I asked myself why there would be a large enough audience for publishers to put out these books (two were hardcovers) dedicated to Jewish jokes. The answer is that there are enough customers, and there are enough customers because Jews buy books. I know this because Israel publishes and sells more books per capita than any nation on earth. It boils down to education, I think. A culture that promotes education, encourages learning and maybe even promotes “outside the box” thinking because we are usually a minority wherever we live.

Another Ideal Chanukah Gift Idea!

The Gods Of Fire’s Chanukah album, Hanukkah Gone Metal is not some cheesy exploitation thing. It is a sincere homage to both Chanukah (however the hell it’s spelled in English) and classic 70’s Heavy Metal.

Seth Diamond of Gods Of Fire, wrote of this album in a recent piece in Jewcy:

The initial ideas flowed quickly. It would be eight songs, one for each night. We would keep our versions of “Oh Hanukkah” and “Havenu Shalom Aleichem,” and write six songs of our own. Each song would represent a significant part of the holiday. Then the hard part started. How do you stay true to your Metal roots while writing about gelt or frying up latkes? Also what should the record sound like? I wasn’t comfortable staying exclusively in the realm of traditional Metal. I knew we needed to do something special. We were making a holiday record for *our* people and *our* culture. And then I started humming some melodies I remembered from Shul. I picked up the guitar and cranked up the distortion. The sounds of the synagogue were PERFECT for Heavy Metal. Then I made some calls. I can get a clarinet player, and a trumpet player too! Not only could I have a Klezmer feel on a few songs, but I can have the sounds as well! Suddenly the vision and the sound came together quickly. We were truly going to make a JEWISH METAL album. One foot in each culture, co-existing peacefully. Admittedly some of the songs are very American and conventional, but I hope the more Judaic songs could serve as a bridge to help someone else connect with their history, and learn more about Hanukkah or Klezmer. I don’t know if Gods of Fire will make another religious album, but the sounds and the melodies of our faith are here to stay.

Some might take umbrage with this project, but as Diamond mentioned, this is not a Jewish Stryper. This is the real thing. You can purchase the CD on Amazon OR you can send an email to heavymetal@jewlicious.com. On the 6th night of Hanukah we’ll select 3 lucky random winners to receive a free CD! This is in keeping with our traditional super easy contest policy. But don’t be a cheap bastard! Buy the CD – or we’ll uh… bite off the head of a chicken and stick it in a latke!

Jewish students kicked at middle school in Florida.

There are disturbing accusations of anti-Semitism at a Collier County school. Ten students are serving suspensions for their roles in what was called “Kick a Jew Day” at North Naples Middle.

We talked to one student Monday who said this was happening all over school. We also talked to several parents who are flat-out furious….

According to the Collier County School District, 10 students were suspended for their roles in “Kick a Jew Day” last week….

The 10 students involved received one-day in-school suspension and the school had conferences with their parents….

Until further notice, the school will take the first 20 minutes of the day and focus on character traits instead of the usual reading and tutoring time

Reminds me of the Running of the Jews in Borat.

It only took over seventy years, but Gretel finally is getting her due. Gretel Bergmann (now Margaret Lambert), now 95, moved to NYC in 1937, having escaped from Nazi Germany. Over 73 years ago, in June 1936, she matched the German high jump record, but as a Jew, she was kicked off the German Olympic team and banned from the Olympic Games. Germany, which would not even allow her into the main stadium to practice, had let her tryout for the team merely as a ruse, using her as a pawn, in order to convince the American olympic committee that the Nazis would allow Jews to compete. She was replaced on the team by a shy athlete who years later was discovered to be a male. The Olympic gold medalist ended up being a Hungarian Jewish woman.

Maybe it was in response to a new film about her story, “Berlin 36,” which premiered last month, but in an symbolic act of belated justice, Germany’s track and field association restored her 1936 record this week.

In a ridiculous bid to gain more readers, Tablet Magazine did just that.

If you read it, don’t be surprised if your penis leaves you and goes into hiding. As for female readers, DON’T GET ANY IDEAS! Then again, Tablet missed a terrific opportunity to make some bucks by selling high end Israeli sex toys.

Why did Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organization dedicated to bringing Jews to Israel on Aliyah and organizing bloggers conferences, organize a Flash Mob in downtown (as it were) Jerusalem last Friday? Was it in celebration of Hanukah? Must be because the mob danced to frequent Jewlicious Festival participant Smooth E’s Hanukkah Hey Ya. Others noted that perhaps Nefesh B’Nefesh was in fact making a political statement what with the mixed egalitarian dancing and all. Whatever. It was fun. Get over yourselves.

Love Israeli innovation

With the rapid approach of Hanukah and its fabled 8 days of gift giving, one is often forced to look beyond the obvious Judaica items for thoughtful presents. One way to go is to perhaps look at some of the innovative products coming out of Israel, and in that vein, I’d like to offer for your consideration the Calla Lilly line of uhm… adult personal massage products. The Everest, the Sahara and the Amazon were inspired by the Calla Lilly, as sensuous a flower as has ever existed. The team that put together this world class sex toy is made up of a team with combined expertise in industrial design, high-end medical product manufacturing, Mechanics, Electronics integration, Optics, User Interface and just plain old good loving.

I remember when Israel Military Industries came out with the Galil Assault Rifle. The designers noted that soldiers often broke their assault rifles when they used the ammunition feed to pop open beer bottles. So they integrated a bottle opener into the Galil, along with a tripod and a wire cutter. Smart right? In the same spirit, the Calla Lilly line of sex toys are not just beautifully designed, they are also rugged, wireless, water proof and built to the exacting standards one expects from high-end medical products. No more flimsy Rabbits that break after 2 weeks!

But that’s not all! The beautifully designed petal-shaped charging stand also acts as a night light that glows with an incandescent light, creating a sensual radiance and atmosphere in the room. Ready to use at a moment’s notice, these vibrators will make your personal massage sessions less furtive and bothersome, allowing you instead to focus on the task at hand. So to speak. Flexible, innovative, multi-functional, ready to go… makes you think of the IDF huh?

The Calla Lilly product line is available toy-thinkingofyou.com. Take my advice and I’m pretty sure some of our readers will have a very happy Hanukah indeed.

Mosh Ben Ari and Shotei HaNevua

What is happening in America? Over $20 million in one day ticket sales for the New Moon of Kislev?

Umm no. Sorry. I was misinformed. It turns out the hype and revenue are not for Kislev’s New Moon and the coming of Hanukah, but for the second installment of a teen vampire love story film called “New Moon.”

I have learned that not everything is Jewish. Yes, of course, the screenwriter, Melissa Rosenberg, is Jewish (basing the shooting script on the book, New Moon, by Stephanie Meyer of the Mormon Meyer’s, not the Jewish ones.). And yes, the main werewolf character is named Jacob Black, but this is one Wolf who is not Jewish, nor is he retiring to Miami Beach. Yes, there are coffins, but they aren’t plain or pine. Yes, these vampires avoid the blood of people, but as I have learned from a rabbi, vampires (although in classic films they have Carpathian accents) are not Jewish in any way whatsoever, and are contrary to Jewish philosophy.

So, I was disappointed. There was no Jewish there there, and what I thought was TeamJacob and TeamEsau turned out to be TeamJacob and Team Edward. But do not be sad. I am buying shares of El Al Airlines stock. Sarah Palin, a former governor of Alaska and a former candidate for the U.S. Vice Presidency appeared on “Oprah” and with Barbara Walters to pitch her book, “Going Rogue.” When Walters asked her about her thoughts on the Obama administration’s comments on Israel’s West Bank of the Jordan settlements, Palin replied that, “I disagree with the Obama administration on that; I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon, because that population of Israel is, is going to grow. More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead. And I don’t think that the Obama administration has any right to tell Israel that the Jewish settlements cannot expand.”

Can this be? Is there a big Aliyah movement about to happen? Or are the “rapture” and Messianic times at hand? I don’t know about you, but I think I will invest in a suitcase company too, cuz Palin might be on to something, and Jewish people might be about to migrate and flock like geese to Israel.

Click here to watch in High Definition (HD)

Hello America!

Spotted in Wheat Ridge, Colorado: The billboard above, insinuating that President Obama is in some way tied to Jihadists and the Fort Hood shootings. The manager of Wolf Interstate Leasing defended the billboard displayed on their premises by claiming that the words “We are a christian nation” appear in the constitution.

So yeah. Keep in mind then that if you believe any of those batshit Obama conspiracy theories, this is who your ideological partners are. Nice. Speaking of batshit, down in Oxford, Mississipi, the local Klansmen are not so happy. They marched today in protest of the University of Mississipi’s decision to eliminate the song “From Dixie with Love” from the school’s band lineup. Performed before at home football games, fans would respond to the song by chanting “The South will Rise Again!” In defense of the students at Ole Miss, when the Klan rallied, they were confronted by an angry crowd of students that sent the Mississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan packing after 15 minutes. But still. Someone was chanting that shit at football games.

Just another fun filled weekend in America.

Both beautiful images by PninaN. Check out her photostream.

Well, this has not been a good week for yours truly, so let’s hope that the Sabbath brings some reprieve and next week will be better.

I read Caroline Glick’s weekly editorial with interest. Agree or disagree, she is one sharp analyst. Her article mentioned the Berkeley Hillel:

Take UC Berkeley’s Hillel center, for example. Since Ken Kramarz, Hillel’s regional director for Northern California, started his job in June 2007, Berkeley’s Hillel has adopted a hostile view towards Judaism and Israel. As pro-Israel community activist Natan Nestel notes, in the past year alone, Hillel held a dance party on Yom Hashoah, and it held a Cinco de Mayo barbecue on Remembrance Day for Fallen IDF Soldiers. It has also failed to hold community Seders for the past two years. Instead, last year, its members hung signs in the Hillel building declaring, “Matza sucks.”

Beyond its derogatory treatment of Jewish and Israeli holidays, Berkeley’s Hillel has allowed an extremist group called Students for Justice for Palestine to participate in its organizational meetings.

SJP calls for Israel’s destruction through unlimited Arab immigration. It also advocates for UC Berkeley to divest from Israel. Edgar Bronfman, Hillel’s International Chairman, has characterized SJP umbrella organization as “anti-Israel… anti-Semitic [and] alarming…”

No doubt owing in part to Berkeley Hillel’s decision to permit SJP members to spread their propaganda at its organizational meetings, Hillel’s student leaders and members participated in SJP’s Israel Apartheid Week this past March.

The student meeting that SJP participated in at Berkeley’s Hillel was sponsored by a group called “Kesher Enoshi.”

This group describes itself as “a progressive Jewish community that engages directly with Israeli civil society. We do this by educating ourselves and others about the day-to-day struggles of people in Israel by making direct connections with human rights/social change organizations in Israel, linking their struggles with those on campus and in the wider community, and building a community of active participants in social change in Israel.”

This mission statement, which says nothing about Zionism, sounds an awful lot like the goal of the New Israel Fund. This month, three Arab “civil society” groups supported to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars by the NIF published a poster depicting an IDF soldier touching the breast of an Arab woman with the caption, “Her husband needs a permit to touch her, the occupation penetrates her life every day.”

The poster was issued to publicize a conference in Haifa called “My Land, Space, Body and Sexuality: Palestinians in the Shadow of the Wall,” whose purpose was to demonize Israel using post-modern jargon.

The unending attacks, now sometimes supported by American Jewry, on Israel and Israeli society are disturbing, to say the least. The dishonesty and reprehensibly unfair expectations the Jewish Left has from a society that has experienced so many wars, so much bloodshed, such ongoing strife and pressure are shameful. That in some corners these attacks have become fashionable is probably the saddest part about all of this.

Then again, Hillel is not a leftist organization. To see a Hillel join in the Apartheid Week activities indicates a severe failure on the part of the people educating these young men and women.

Perhaps there is one thing sadder than these misguided students from the Left: for the third time in the past couple of weeks, a small group of Israeli combat soldiers, who obviously lean to the political right, have hung signs declaring their opposition to removing settler outposts.

This is nothing less than insurrection by IDF soldiers. They are informing their superiors and the Israeli government that they will refuse orders. As I consider the implications, it occurs to me that even having Jewish campus groups support Arab-Israeli NGOs that attack Israel is far preferable to the politicization of the IDF.

The IDF has always been a people’s army. Israel’s sons and daughters come together in that melting pot and their service is important in shaping them and the country’s future no less than in protecting Israel. It’s not a great thing that Israeli society is influenced by this militarism, one can certainly find fault with it, but it has also been a positive aspect of building out this society. The IDF could be counted upon to be the center where both right and left could meet, which is why chiefs of staff who enter politics can be found in both left- and right-wing parties.

Having the IDF politicized will undermine its effectiveness and could potentially undermine Israeli democracy. Today, these soldiers are holding up banners proudly, tomorrow they could be holding guns up against Israeli leaders with whom they disagree. They are throwing a challenge to Israeli society that they will not obey orders, that they will refuse to abide by government – hence majority – rule, and they will do so loudly and openly.

This is the other side of the coin of the leftist youth that avoids the draft, sometimes publicly, and then uses the media to promote their views. The difference is that in this case, the people protesting are trained combat soldiers with guns and combat expertise.

I haven’t seen any evidence to support my supposition that they are Hesder soldiers (Hesder is a program for religious men who combine their services with breaks where they attend yeshiva for torah study), but there are strong indications these soldiers are from the settlements themselves and most likely are Hesder soldiers. There are many combat soldiers coming from settlements and Hesder yeshivas. If some of them begin to undermine the authority of the government and the army leadership, it is not going to be long before the real worry becomes whether they believe that they should use force to compel Israel to do what they want.

Any soldier holding up such a banner should be jailed for a couple of years and then compelled to serve out their entire 3 additional years of military service cleaning latrines without any cleaning supplies. The IDF needs to begin shifting some Hesder students (I assume that not all Hesder soldiers agree with what their peers are doing) into non-combat roles like intelligence so they don’t dominate combat units.

Radicalism on either side, the Left or the Right, helps nobody except for Israel’s enemies. All it does is kill the prospects for peace.

Shabbat shalom!!

This week, Sy Syms, a tenacious NYC based retailer passed away. Known for selling name brand business apparel at deeply discount prices, and his tag line, that “An Educated Consumer is our Best Customer,” he brought discount retailing to Manhattan, took his chain public, and just recently purchased the Filene’s Basement chain. He even once sued U.S. Steel in a real estate dispute. Syms, 83, was born Seymour Merinsky, but the mishpacha changed their name to Merns, and Sy, after a legal dispute with his own brother, changed his name to Syms. So… why do I mention him on Jewlicious? Cuz he was an equal opportunity giver. He gave to the local Catholic archidiocese, he was a member of and giver to Temple Emanu-el, the largest Reform movement congregation in the area, and he endowed the Sy Syms School of Business at that bastion of Morethodoxy, Yeshiva University.