With all the ” title=”says Kirby’s classifications” target=”_blank”>says Kirby’s classifications are a lot more accurate than the maniac, moderate and modernist categories offered by Father Dwight Longenecker, priest of Our Lady of the Rosary parish in Greenville, S.C., in a column on The five kinds of Mormons Read More »
The ” title=”thousands-year-old question about who” target=”_blank”>thousands-year-old question about who can call himself a Member of the Tribe, it’s unconstitutional for government actors to make “religious decisions.”
The Most prisoners who get a kosher meal are not Jewish Read More »
Talk of Palestinian reconciliation turns boring
Writing in Al Arabiya, Hasan Abu Nimah takes issue with both sides of the Palestinian divide over their inability to resolve their differences.
The harsh reality is that under the current circumstances of both Hamas and Fateh, any possible reconciliation would be a deceiving gloss hiding underneath layers of faltering tactics, misguided policies and short-term calculations.
Explosive Dust-Up Over Iran Policy
A recent conference in New York exposed serious divisions within Israel over how best to deal with Iran’s nuclear ambitions and even at times turned quite nasty, writes J.J. Goldberg in the Forward.
The day’s most vituperative exchange, by most accounts, came during an afternoon discussion when [former Mossad chief Meir] Dagan called [Likud’s Environmental Affairs Minister Gilad] Erdan “a liar” and Erdan accused Dagan of sabotaging Israeli security. They had been asked to comment on a furor that erupted in Israel two days earlier, when Yuval Diskin, a former Shin Bet domestic security chief, scathingly attacked the policies and personal character of Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Dagan replied that Diskin is “a very serious man” who spoke from deep conviction and experience. Erdan countered that Diskin was acting out a personal grudge. That remark prompted the “liar”–“sabotage” exchange.
Arab Spring: now begins the education of Islamist politicians
The Islamist parties who have risen to power in the wake of the Arab Spring have to prove themselves capable of ruling or their ascent will be short-lived, writes Graham E. Fuller in Christian Science Monitor.
Islamists are being elected into office and will be assuming the daunting policy problems of their neglected societies. The voting public is excited at the change and will give them a grace period to start improving things. But that period will be limited. Islamists can’t go on winning elections on the basis of pious religious slogans or even anti-Westernism (assuming the West is no longer there with boots on the ground). Islamists, too, will eventually be chucked out of office if they can’t deliver the goods. And they know it. They will have to make hard policy decisions on complex issues – or they too will soon lose their hard-acquired luster.
Thomas Friedman of the New York Times visits students in the Arab world who are benefitting from American-funded educational programs.
If America wants to connect with the real aspirations of these revolutions, it will expand to other Arab awakening countries the $13.5 million U.S. Agency for International Development scholarship program begun in Lebanon… Iran is building dams and roads around Lebanon, decorated with “Thank You, Iran” signs. But no one is standing in line here to go to Tehran University. They still line up for American scholarships, though — one requirement of which is that winners have to do community service, so we are also helping to build better citizens.
Can Obama Run on His Foreign-Policy Record?
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Fouad Ajami takes Obama to task for his foreign policy decisions in an election year.
The American people demand more by way of a foreign policy than the killing of bin Laden and the hunting down of Somali pirates. But this administration has done its best to take the vital matter of America’s place and interest in the foreign world off the board. The strategic retreats, the concessions made to Iran and Syria, the lack of faith in liberty’s place in the order of nations have been hidden and brushed aside.
Israel’s military said it will take no legal actions against the commanders who ordered the attack on a compound that resulted in the deaths of 21 members of a Palestinian family.
In a letter Tuesday to the human rights group B’Tselem, which had filed a complaint against the killings, the Israel Defense Forces prosecution said the case was closed after its investigation concluded that the accidental killing during Operation Cast Lead was not done “in a manner that would indicate criminal responsibility.”
On Jan. 4, 2009, Israeli soldiers gathered about 100 members of the extended Samouni family into a house in Gaza City. The following morning another military unit, believing they were terrorists holed up in the house, shelled the building, causing it to collapse on the occupants. Nine children were among the dead.
Following the IDF’s decision, B’Tselem called for an independent body to look into the incident.
“It is unacceptable that no one is found responsible for an action of the army that led to the killing of 21 uninvolved civilians, inside the building they entered under soldiers’ orders, even if this was not done deliberately,” said Yael Stein, the director of research for B’Tselem. “The way the army has exempted itself of responsibility for this event, even if only to acknowledge its severity and clarify its circumstances, is intolerable,”
Israeli commanders won’t be charged in Cast Lead killings Read More »
Leaders of Muslim student groups at the University of California, San Diego, are upset after a photo of a student senator dressed in Muslim garb circulated on the Internet.
Student Senator Ashton Cohen took a photograph at a campus party dressed in a robe and head-covering, with three women whom a caption identified as his “three wives,” according to the UCSD Guardian. Now, leaders of the Muslim Student Union and Arab Student Union, and Students for Justice in Palestine are admonishing him for “Islamophobia.”
“I was offended and disgusted that someone would think that’s OK to wear to a party,” Students for Justice in Palestine and Arab Student Union President Noor El-Annan told the Guardian.
But Cohen said that the photo was not racist. He has not taken it off Facebook.
“I was surprised that they went through these sorts of extremes,” he told the Guardian.
According to the Guardian, El-Annan did not call for Cohen’s resignation, though he met with university administrators yesterday. Cohen was an opponent of a resolution calling for his school’s divestment from Israel this year, which did not pass the student Senate.
UC student senator’s Muslim costume causes controversy Read More »
Israel’s Air Force fired on a tunnel in the northern Gaza Strip that the military said is used for terrorist purposes.
A direct hit on the tunnel was confirmed early on Wednesday morning, the Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement.
The strike was in retaliation for a Kassam rocket fired from Israel on northern Israel Tuesday evening, according to the IDF. No injuries or damage was reported from the rocket.
Since the beginning of 2012 more than 265 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip have hit southern Israel, according to the IDF.
In a separate incident on Tuesday, shots were fired at IDF soldiers performing what the military spokesman said was “routine operational activities” near the security fence in central Gaza.
No injuries were reported, but two armored vehicles sustained light damage during the incident. The IDF said that Israel Air Force aircraft and armored forces opened fire at “suspicious targets” in response.
Israel’s Air Force strikes tunnel in northern Gaza Read More »
Sam Gejdenson, a former congressman who is the child of Holocaust survivors, was named to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
The U.S. Congress appointed Gejdenson to the panel this week.
Gejdenson, 63 and a Democrat, represented Connecticut in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 to 2000. He was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany, and during his years in Congress helped pass legislation targeting human trafficking.
“He will make significant contributions to our work on behalf of the cherished right of freedom of religion or belief and its fuller integration into U.S. foreign policy and national security,” Leonard Leo, the USCIRF chairman, said in a statement issued Tuesday.
Gejdenson has been active with the American Jewish World Service, a relief body in the Jewish community.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent body, has members appointed by leadership in both houses of Congress.
Gejdenson was named by Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the House minority leader.
In recent years, the commission has been plagued by allegations that its conservative majority targets mainly Muslim nations and China, and pays little attention to abuses in a number of other countries.
Ex-congressman Sam Gejdenson tapped for U.S. religions commission Read More »
A now-defunct Muslim charity was removed from a U.S. government list of suspected terrorist organizations following a legal battle of more than four years.
KindHearts for Charitable Humanitarian Development Inc., reached a settlement with the Treasury Department on Tuesday that would delete the Ohio-based group from the list and allow it to distribute nearly $1 million in funds raised for humanitarian causes, the Toledo Blade reported. KindHearts must remain dissolved, though its leaders can form a new organization.
The Toledo-based charity, which officially disbanded in February, essentially was shut down by federal agents in 2006 when the government froze its assets because of accusations that it funneled charitable money to terrorist groups, including the Hamas-affiliated Holy Land Foundation and the al-Qaida-affiliated Global Relief Foundation.
KindHearts filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Toledo in 2008 that challenged its inclusion on the list and asked that its assets be unfrozen.
The money raised by the group was collected originally for earthquake relief for Pakistan. Now it will be used to purchase food, school supplies and medicine for the needy in Pakistan, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, a charity leader told the newspaper.
Ohio charity removed from terrorist list Read More »
R’ Yehoshua ben Chananyah said: Once I was walking down the road and I saw a little boy sitting by a fork in the road, and I asked him, “Which is the road we take to the town?” He answered me, “This road is short and long, and this one is long and short.” (Eruvin 53b)
Two days ago, I was pretty stressed out. Professionally, I’m in the final and most difficult stretch of the biggest project of my life. So much depends on it, for me, for my team, for my family. It demands more hours and energy than I have. It is thrilling to be sure, but the stakes sometimes weigh me down.
Naturally, it was at just this period that I became the Accidental Talmudist, and now bear the added responsibility/privilege of sharing what I have learned during my voyage through Talmud – a voyage that still has three months to go. I still have my daily page to read, and I have only just caught up to the ” target=”_blank” title=”Lubavitcher Rebbe”>Lubavitcher Rebbe z”l, connects this Talmudic story about two roads to the ” target=”_blank” title=”Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi”>Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi. Rabbi Zalman, also known as the Alter Rebbe, begins his book:
For this thing is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. (Deut 30:14)
The Torah is full of laws. It takes a year to read, and we reread it every year. The Talmud explores, specifies, amplifies, illustrates, and illuminates those laws in 72 thick volumes. It takes seven and a half years to read. That is a whole lot of information. Who can understand all of it, let alone observe it?
” target=”_blank” title=”Yetzer Hara”>Yetzer Hara, i.e. the evil inclination. And eventually, we will dedicate ourselves entirely to doing G-d’s will, and thereby unite with the Holy One. Such a person is entirely a blessing to his or her family, community, tribe, and indeed, the whole world.
Few get there. Yet all benefit themselves and their loved ones by trying. It is a long journey, with a true reward. This is the longer shorter way.
Sounds great. But isn’t it enough to be a good person, make an honest living, and follow the rules everyone else follows, without necessarily understanding all the deep meanings? Especially when you’re mortally busy?
No, says the Rebbe, that is the shorter longer way. Like R’ Yehoshua’s first inclination to to take the path straight to the town, it is misleadingly simple and doomed to frustration, anger and misery. We all have souls that recognize the difference between purpose and purposelessness. If one simply marches along without seeking meaning, he may win battle after battle, but the war will be lost.
I turned back and I said to the boy, “My son, did you not tell me that this road is short?” He said to me, “And did I not also tell you that it is long?” I kissed him on the head, and I said to him, “Praiseworthy are you O Israel, for all of you are very wise, from your old to your young!” (Eruvin 53b con’t)
The ” target=”_blank” title=”Sefirot”>Sefirot, or the emanations of G-d through which He interacts with His creation. For a good primer, click “>facebook.com/accidentaltalmudist. More pieces like this at Accidental Talmudist: Day 271 – The Longer Shorter Way Read More »
An Argentine soccer club lost points after a penalty was leveled due to anti-Semitic chants made by its fans.
The Argentine Football Association Disciplinary Court meted out the penalty to the Chacarita Juniors soccer club after anti-Semitic chants were made by Chacarita´s fans during a March game against Atlanta, a Jewish-backed soccer club.
“Chaca is coming along the road, killing the Jews to make soap” Chacarita´s fans repeatedly sang during an official match at the Premier B League, on March 11.
The match ended in a 1-1 draw. The day after the incident the Simon Wiesenthal Center sent a letter of complaint to Argentine Football Association President Julio Grondona and the head of its Disciplinary Court, Fernando Mitjans.
In February, 2000 Chacarita fans greeted the Atlanta team with Nazi flags, and threw soap on the field while singing “with the Jews we make soap.” The poor behavior then led to the national football association establishing rules requiring the referee to end or suspend a match due to racist expressions.
In an unprecedented decision, the Disciplinary Court ruled two weeks ago that Chacarita Juniors would lose the points it had obtained in the match.
At the new table of positions revealed on Sunday Chacarita has 2 wins and 13 draws, totaling 19 points. But the club lost one point and is down to 18 points due to the unparalleled punishment.
“This is a positive step in showing a red flag to hatred, and a precedent for other countries,” stated Dr. Shimon Samuels, Simon Wiesenthal Center Director for International Relations.
Founded in 1904, Atlanta is associated with the Jewish community due to the historical support of Jewish fans. In 1963 it became the first Argentine team to visit Israel, where it played and won against the Israel national team. It was the first Argentinean soccer club performance in the Jewish state and also Atlanta’s first meeting against a foreign national team.
The Atlanta playing field once hosted the annual celebrations for Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel Independence Day, in Argentina until the terrorist attack against the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires in July 1994. The open space then was banned to the crowded celebrations for security reasons.
“We expect that this decision will prevent such racist abuses in the future and are ready to cooperate with the AFA in tolerance-building programs for soccer,” added Sergio Widder, Simon Wiesenthal Center Director for Latin America.
Argentine soccer club loses points due to anti-Semitic fans Read More »
