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Jewish Journal

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December 5, 2011

U.S. lawmakers call on Cuba to release Gross

Leave a Comment / News, Worldwide /

Nearly 100 U.S. lawmakers called on the government of Cuba to release imprisoned Jewish U.S. contractor Alan Gross.

Nineteen senators and 72 members of the House of Representatives sent letters to the government of Cuba at the urging of the Jewish Federations of North America and its members. Also, eight congressmen sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urging the State Department to demand the immediate release of Gross, who marked his second year in prison on Saturday.

“The release of Alan Gross is a humanitarian issue for all Americans,” said Michael Gelman, chair of the Executive Committee of the board of The Jewish Federations of North America. “Cuba should not hold captive this individual who belongs at home with his family in Maryland.”

The White House on Friday had called for the release of Gross, 62, who is serving a 15-year prison sentence in Cuba for “crimes against the state” for distributing laptop computers and connecting Cuban Jews to the Internet. He was arrested in 2009 as he was leaving Cuba.

In a statement released the same day, the Cuban Interests Section in Washington said that the Cuban government would be willing to find a humanitarian solution on a “reciprocal basis,” likely referring to several Cuban nationals held in U.S. prisons, the Associated Press reported.

The statement said that all Cuban synagogues had Internet access before Gross arrived and that he was arrested “while implementing a covert program financed by the U.S. government and aimed at disrupting the constitutional order in Cuba.” It said the activities Gross conducted would “constitute crimes in many countries of the world, including in the United States.”

Gross’ family and U.S. State Department officials say that Gross was in the country on a U.S. Agency for International Development contract to help the country’s 1,500 Jews communicate with other Jewish communities using the Internet. The main Jewish groups in Cuba have denied any contact with or knowledge of Gross or the program.

Gross’ wife, Judy, spoke last month at a protest on her husband’s behalf outside the Cuban Interests Section in Washington. Judy Gross said that when she last spoke with her husband, he sounded “hopeless and depressed.”

Alan Gross reportedly has lost 100 pounds while in prison and suffers from several ailments. His mother and his daughter are both currently battling cancer.

U.S. lawmakers call on Cuba to release Gross Read More »

Cain suspends campaign

Leave a Comment / Elections, Politics, United States /

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain suspended his campaign following allegations of sexual misconduct.

Cain, 65, announced Saturday that he would halt his drive toward the presidency, one month before the Iowa caucuses. He said he would revert to Plan B, a grass-roots effort to influence government.

In August, Cain visited Israel in an attempt to brush up his pro-Israel bona fides. He visited Christian holy sites as well as the Western Wall, and laid a wreath at Yad Vashem. Cain also rejected calls to reduce U.S. aid to Israel.

The former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza has never held elected office.

Cain suspends campaign Read More »

Will Israel attack Iran? 5 notes following Netanyhau’s Sde Boker address

Leave a Comment / Israel, Israel, Middle East, Rosners Domain-mobile /

“Great statesmen as well as friends of the Jews and of Zionism” warned Ben-Gurion that declaring a Jewish state in 1948 would bring about “grave and difficult battle… He understood full well that the decision carried a heavy price, but he believed not making that decision had a heavier price… We are all here today because Ben-Gurion made the right decision at the right moment”

Prime Minister of Israel Binyamin Netanyahu spoke yesterday at the annual memorial service for Israel’s founding premier David Ben Gurion. It is often an event in which prime ministers make important statements. In 2003, the Sde Boker address (the site of Ben Gurion’s grave) gave the first sign of the coming disengagement from Gaza. And yesterday seemed no different: Netanyahu’s tone, words and choice of topic all pointed at the same direction – a looming decision of historic proportions. For Ben Gurion it was the declaration of Israel as a State. For Netanyahu it is Iran.

Here are some of the things worthy of attention:

A.

When the prime minister says that “I would like to believe that we will always act with responsibility, courage and determination to make the right decisions, that will ensure our future and security” he is really telling Israelis: Don’t believe political rivals and former officials that are trying to push their agenda by claiming that I’m irresponsible. I am responsible, and I will act responsibly (which doesn’t mean that I will do what these former officials want me to do).

B.

“They all told him—the time is not right, not now.” When Netanyahu compares himself to Ben Gurion, when he tells Israelis that Ben Gurion was also under pressure not to declare independence, when he reminds Israelis that Ben Gurion was right to ignore such advice – what he really tells Israelis is this: With all due respect to officials and experts and officers and advisors, I was given your votes because you wanted me to make decisions. The real leader is not the man whose action is the sum of all advice he was getting.

C.

“Everyone told him: This is not the time, not now.” But Ben Gurion acted, and didn’t wait for conditions to be better or for other countries to take care of things.

D.

Ben-Gurion “clearly understood that there would be a high price for his decision, but he believed there would be an even heavier price to pay for not making the decision”. Namely, I know an attack on Iran would not be like walk in the park, I know it’s dangerous, I know it will be tough, I know this means war, maybe a long one. High price is only measured against the alternative price, and Netanyahu was reminding his listeners that the price of inaction can also be very high.

E.

“From within and outside, from inside the Yishuv and all over the world” Ben Gurion was pressured not to take the step of officially declaring Israel as a State, Netanyahu reminded in his speech. The “inside” is clear, it is Meir Dagan and all others campaigning against war with Iran. The “all over the world” is Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Netanyahu doesn’t much care about the “world” in general; he only cares about the response and position of Israel’s greatest ally the USA.

Will Israel attack Iran? 5 notes following Netanyhau’s Sde Boker address Read More »

Islamists seek to extend gains in Egypt run-off vote

Leave a Comment / Is Featured?, News, Worldwide /

The Muslim Brotherhood’s party will seek to extend a lead over hardline Islamists in run-offs in Egypt’s parliamentary vote Monday, with liberal parties struggling to hold their ground in a political landscape redrawn by the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.

The Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party is set to take most seats in Egypt’s first democratic parliament in six decades, strengthening their hand in a struggle for influence over the Arab world’s most populous country.

Banned from formal politics until a popular uprising ended Mubarak’s three-decade rule in February, the movement emerged as the main winner from last week’s first-round vote and called on its rivals to “accept the will of the people.”

The phased election runs over six weeks, ending in January.

Opponents accuse the Brotherhood’s slick campaign machine of flouting a ban on canvassing near polling stations and say it handed out food and medicine to secure votes, but monitors said polling seemed fair overall.

“You cannot have democracy and then amend or reject the results,” Amr Moussa, a front-runner for Egypt’s presidency, told Reuters, adding that the shape of parliament would not be clear until the voting was over.

The Brotherhood, Egypt’s best-organized political group and popular with the poor for its charity work, wants to shape a new constitution to be drawn up next year.

That could be the focus of a power struggle with the ruling military council, which wants to keep a presidential system, rather than the parliamentary one favored by the Brotherhood.

Egyptians return to the polls Monday for 52 run-off votes for individual candidates, who will occupy a third of the 498 elected seats in the lower house once two more rounds of the complicated voting process end in January.

ISRAELI CONCERN

The run-offs will pit 24 members of the ultra-conservative Islamist al-Nour party against Brotherhood candidates.

Two-thirds of the seats in the assembly are allocated proportionately to party lists.

Figures released by the election commission and published by state media show a list led by the Brotherhood’s FJP securing 36.6 percent of valid party-list votes, followed by the Salafi al-Nour Party with 24.4 percent, and the liberal Egyptian Bloc with 13.4 percent.

The result has unnerved Israel, concerned about the fate of its 1979 peace treaty with Egypt. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Egypt’s future rulers to preserve the deal.

“We hope any future government in Egypt will recognize the importance of keeping the peace treaty with Israel in its own right and as a basis for regional security and economic stability,” Netanyahu said Sunday.

The fate of the peace deal between Egypt and Israel is a concern for its sponsor, the United States, which has backed it with billions of dollars in military aid for both countries.

The rise of the Salafis has also sparked fear among many ordinary Egyptians because of the group’s uncompromising views.

Analysts say the Brotherhood, which topped the first-stage vote, has a pragmatic streak that makes it an unlikely ally for Salafis who only recently ventured from preaching into politics and whose strict ideology suggests little scope for compromise.

The leader of Salafi party al-Nour Emad Abdel Ghaffour made it clear he would not play second fiddle to the Brotherhood.

“We hate being followers,” Ghaffour told Reuters in an interview. “They always say we take positions according to the Brotherhood but we have our own vision… There might be a consensus but … we will remain independent.”

Additional reporting by Edmund Blair; writing by Tom Pfeiffer; editing Philippa Fletcher

Islamists seek to extend gains in Egypt run-off vote Read More »

Answers to a rabbi, part 2: Do Mormon politicians take orders from Utah?

Leave a Comment / News /

Part 1: ” title=”letter to the editor ” target=”_blank”>letter to the editor of The Jewish Week. He posed three questions about Mormonism in relation to Mitt Romney’s candidacy. My ” title=”official statement ” target=”_blank”>official statement last June calling for a “balanced” and “civil” approach to the issue. They also criticized state legislation (read “Arizona”) that only contains enforcement provisions for “fall[ing] short of the high moral standard of treating each other as children of God.” The church also declared its support for legalizing undocumented immigrants “without this necessarily leading to citizenship.” In spite of this statement, the chief sponsor of the Arizona immigration legislation was an LDS state senator, and Mitt Romney currently has one of the toughest anti-illegal immigrant positions in the Republican field (though he held different views during the 2008 campaign).

The LDS Church issues a letter prior to every national U.S. election that is read from the pulpits of every ward (congregation) in the country. The letter encourages members to vote, but emphasizes its political neutrality. The church’s ” title=”Mormon temples and Mitt: answer to a rabbi’s question” target=”_blank”>Mormon temples and Mitt: answer to a rabbi’s question

Answers to a rabbi, part 2: Do Mormon politicians take orders from Utah? Read More »

Eddie Long, troubled pastor, to stop preaching

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized /

Once the head of a vast media empire built on the gospel of wealth, Eddie Long’s fall from grace was quick. Last fall he was ” title=”worst pastor of 2010″ target=”_blank”>worst pastor of 2010 and some time ” title=”New York Times” target=”_blank”>New York Times reports that the move is to save his marriage, after his wife filed for divorce Thursday before recanting Friday.

Today Long told his dwindling congregation. From the NYT:

“Vanessa and I are working together in seeking God’s will in our current circumstances,” Bishop Long, 58, said in a statement issued by the church, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church.

During services on Sunday, he told congregants that he was still their senior pastor and would continue to provide spiritual direction, but that he needed time to take care of “some family business.” Members attending services pledged support and said they would stay until his return.

But that support does not include the many who have left New Birth Missionary, like Valencia Miller:

“The church needs a cleansing,” she said. “I’m real disappointed. He was a man we all looked up to.”

I’m not reveling in Long’s personal problems. But I can certainly understand, and share, Miller’s sentiment.

The reality, though, is that New Birth Missionary will never go back to the way it was. A lot of things lead religious congregations to split. Having the minister accused of sexual abuse has to be among the more difficult to reconcile because I’m sure that those who remained felt that those who left were disloyal to Long and New Birth Missionary.

Read the rest from the NYT Eddie Long, troubled pastor, to stop preaching Read More »

Benny Hinn: Let the Bodies Hit the Floor

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized /