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October 9, 2012

October 9, 2012

Leave a Comment / Israel, Must Reads /

In-depth

Arab Spring and the Israeli enemy

Writing for Arab News, Abdullatif Almulhim bemoans the lives and resources the Arab world has wasted fighting Israel, to its own detriment. 

The Arab world has many enemies and Israel should have been at the bottom of the list. The real enemies of the Arab world are corruption, lack of good education, lack of good health care, lack of freedom, lack of respect for the human lives and finally, the Arab world had many dictators who used the Arab-Israeli conflict to suppress their own people. These dictators’ atrocities against their own people are far worse than all the full-scale Arab-Israeli wars.

 

'Assad Poses No Threat to the Middle East'

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi talks to Der Spiegel about his country's nuclear program, prospects of an Israeli attack, and  the Syrian conflict.

If the Israelis had wanted to attack us, and if they could have done so, they would have done so long ago. In 1981, they destroyed an Iraqi reactor without warning. But they have been threatening us for years, on every occasion and publicly. They know what would happen if they attacked. We don't want war, but we will defend ourselves. Aggressors will pay a high price.

 

Wanted: A Truly Credible Military Threat to Iran

Israel and the U.S. seem to be nearing agreement on a surgical military action that would thwart Iran's nuclear aspirations – and Romney's attacks on Obama, writes David Rothkopf in Foreign Policy. 

The strike might take only “a couple of hours” in the best case and only would involve a “day or two” overall, the source said, and would be conducted by air, using primarily bombers and drone support. Advocates for this approach argue that not only is it likely to be more politically palatable in the United States but, were it to be successful — meaning knocking out enrichment facilities, setting the Iranian nuclear program back many years, and doing so without civilian casualties — it would have regionwide benefits.

 

“Nones” on the Rise

A new poll by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that one in five Americans have no religious affiliation. 

The growth in the number of religiously unaffiliated Americans – sometimes called the rise of the “nones” – is largely driven by generational replacement, the gradual supplanting of older generations by newer ones.4 A third of adults under 30 have no religious affiliation (32%), compared with just one-in-ten who are 65 and older (9%). And young adults today are much more likely to be unaffiliated than previous generations were at a similar stage in their lives.

 

Daily Digest

October 9, 2012 Read More »

Romney decries Obama Middle East policy in foreign policy speech

Leave a Comment / Is Featured?, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News, United States /

President Obama has led “from behind” on the Middle East, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney charged in a foreign policy speech.

Romney, in a speech Monday at the Virginia Military Institute, said the attacks last month in Libya that left four American diplomats dead “were the deliberate work of terrorists who use violence to impose their dark ideology on others, especially women and girls; who are fighting to control much of the Middle East today; and who seek to wage perpetual war on the West.”

“They are expressions of a larger struggle that is playing out across the broader Middle East – a region that is now in the midst of the most profound upheaval in a century.”
Romney called out Obama for failing “to use America’s great power to shape history – not to lead from behind, leaving our destiny at the mercy of events.”

Romney called the strain on the relationship between the president of the United States and the Prime Minister of Israel “a dangerous situation that has set back the hope of peace in the Middle East and emboldened our mutual adversaries, especially Iran.”

“The President explicitly stated that his goal was to put 'daylight' between the United States and Israel.  And he has succeeded,” Romney said.

Romney also discussed Iran and its nuclear weapons program. “Iran today has never been closer to a nuclear weapons capability. It has never posed a greater danger to our friends, our allies, and to us,” he said.

Romney also discussed the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, and the uncontrolled violence by the Assad regime in Syria, concluding that “it is clear that the risk of conflict in the region is higher now than when the President took office.”

“We cannot support our friends and defeat our enemies in the Middle East when our words are not backed up by deeds, when our defense spending is being arbitrarily and deeply cut, when we have no trade agenda to speak of, and the perception of our strategy is not one of partnership, but of passivity,” Romney said.

Romney pledged to impose new sanctions on Iran, and to increase military assistance and coordination with Israel.

“I will reaffirm our historic ties to Israel and our abiding commitment to its security—the world must never see any daylight between our two nations,” he added.

In a press call on behalf of Obama following the speech, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told reporters that “I know from my own conversations with Israelis, that they basically are very satisfied with President Obama’s policies towards Israel.”

“But the bottom line from my conversations with Israelis is that they believe the relationship between the United States and Israel is as good as ever. I mean as good as it gets, very good, excellent, on the same wave length,” Albright said.

Albright referred to Romney's visit last summer to Israel. during which he said that Israel's economic success was borne out of the power of culture, one that he implied Palestinians lack, as an example of his lack of Middle East experience.

Ben LaBolt, national press secretary with Obama for America, also said that Obama has spent more time talking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that any other world leader.

The speech came on the same day that the Pew Research Center released the results of its latest poll, showing that registered voters are evenly split between Obama and Romney at 46 percent each.

Romney decries Obama Middle East policy in foreign policy speech Read More »

Israel must stop squatting Bedouin, lawmaker says

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Israel must find a way to halt the illegal squatting of Israeli Bedouin, in order to help the Bedouin and to assert Israel's claim to the land, lawmaker Yuli Edelstein told a special forum.

The non-profit research institute Regavim conducted two events last week focusing on the sharp rise of squatting and illegal settling of vast tracts of land in the country’s Negev region.

Edelstein, minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, was the keynote speaker for an emergency public forum, called “Which Way for the Negev?,” at Jerusalem’s Menachem Begin Heritage Center. Its panel of experts included Prof. Rafi Yisraeli and Dr. Seth Frantzman. The special presentation concentrated on spiraling illegal building by the Negev’s Bedouin inhabitants and challenges to Israeli rule of law as well as solutions to counter the mounting crisis.

“Regavim deals with very complicated issues of land rights, which have become increasingly urgent.  To reclaim the land and assert Israel’s sovereign control, the organization engages in ongoing research and legal action to succeed in this mission,” said Minister Edelstein. “We must break the merry-go-round cycle of lawful eviction of illegal settlements followed by the immediate return of illegal squatting if we truly care about ensuring Government plans for Israeli Bedouins, which will benefit the entire population of the Negev.”

The second part of the Regavim fact-finding event was a tour to the sites of illegal activities for over 150 participants in three full buses of English-speaking Israelis and tourists, each led by experts. One site visited was the village of Al-Zarnog which is built on private land and is currently the subject of a court case in which Regavim is assisting its legal landowners.

“Our intention is to conduct more of these events to educate the public about the true facts on the ground and to increase pressure on the government to effectively enforce Israel’s sovereignty in the country’s national lands, including the Negev,” said Briggs. “There has been much attention focused on settlements deemed ‘illegal’ in the West Bank, including forced evacuations. Far less in the public eye have been shocking illegal land grabs on this side of the Green Line, in the Negev.”

Israel must stop squatting Bedouin, lawmaker says Read More »

French Jew, American researcher share Nobel Prize in Physics

Leave a Comment / Worldwide /

Serge Haroche, a French-Jewish physicist, has won the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with David Wineland from the United States.

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2012 went to the scientists “for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems,” the website of the Nobel Prize said.
 
According to the BBC, the pair developed solutions to pick, manipulate and measure photons and ions individually, allowing an insight into a microscopic world that was once just the province of scientific theory.
 
Haroche, who was born 68 years ago in Casablanca, Morocco, told Le Figaro that he “had a hard time understanding” the news when a representative of the Nobel Prize committee called him on his cellular phone to say he had won what is considered the highest form of recognition of scientific excellence.
 
Haroche, of Collège de France and Ecole Normale Supérieure, will share a $1.2 million grant from the Nobel Prize Committee with Wineland, a researcher at the Maryland-based National Institute of Standards and Technology and at the University of Colorado.
 
Le Figaro quotes Haroche as saying he was walking with his wife down the street when he received the call from Sweden. He said he had to sit down on a bench before passing on the news to family.
 
Richard Prasquier, the president of CRIF, the umbrella organization of France's Jewish communities, told JTA: “The achievement belongs to the scientists, but a small part of me is also proud today.” Mutual friends described Haroche to Prasquier as “a truly brilliant thinker, known for his creativity,” Prasquier said.
 
Prasquier noted that Haroche had worked closely with Claude Cohen-Tannoudji – also a French Jew of North African descent – who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1997.
 
The Algeria-born Cohen-Tannoudji, 79, is still an active researcher at Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris.

French Jew, American researcher share Nobel Prize in Physics Read More »

Barrage of rockets fired from Gaza strike Israel

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More than 30 rockets and mortars were fired from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel.

The rockets fired Monday damaged an apartment building and killed several animals in a petting zoo. Some Israeli media put the number of rockets and mortars at more than 50.

The barrage of rockets came a day after the Israel Air Force targeted a motorcycle carrying two Palestinians that the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement had been planning an attack against Israel on the Sinai border. One was killed and the other seriously injured. Eleven others were wounded in the attack, including five children, according to the Palestinian Ma'an news service.

Residents of three communities in southern Israel on Monday were instructed to remain within 15 seconds of a safe room or shelter. Children were not in school due to the Simchat Torah holiday.

Hamas claimed responsibility for Monday's rocket attacks, saying it was in response for Israel's strike.

Israel responded Monday to the Hamas rocket attacks, targeting with tanks and planes what the IDF called “Hamas terror activity sites and terrorist squads responsible for the rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.”

During 2012 more than 470 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel.

Barrage of rockets fired from Gaza strike Israel Read More »

Slovenia, Estonia announce new shechitah restrictions

Leave a Comment / Judaism, Worldwide /

Slovenia’s National Assembly is set to vote on a proposed ban on all ritual slaughter, which the European Union member country’s government recently submitted for approval.

Estonia, meanwhile, has reportedly imposed new restrictions on its already stringent slaughter policy.

Dr. Igor Vojtic, a member of the executive board of Slovenia's Jewish community, told JTA that the proposed ban came in animal welfare amendments which the government adopted last month.

Vojtic said it was not certain that the amendments would pass the national assembly vote, which is expected to take place within six weeks to eight weeks.

The amendments state that animals may not undergo slaughter unless they are previously stunned. Both Islamic and Jewish law require animals to be conscious when their necks are cut.

The Slovenian Ministry of Agriculture has not replied to a letter from the Brussels-based European Jewish Parliament, which called the amendments a danger to freedom of worship in Slovenia, Vojtic said.

According to the Slovenian news site 24ur, the Association of Islamic communities of Slovenia also has protested against the proposed amendment.

Slovenia, which entered the European Union in 2004, has a Jewish population of 400, according to the European Jewish Congress. According to the CIA World Factbook, 2.5 percent of Slovenia’s population of two million people is Muslim.

In Estonia, the Ministry of Agriculture has reportedly limited all ritual slaughter to licensed slaughterhouses, in a package of amendments to the Estonian Animal Welfare Act, according to the country’s public broadcasting company, ERR.

Even before the amendments, Estonia's policy on ritual slaughter was among the European Union’s strictest. Authorities must be notified 10 work days ahead of each planned slaughter and a government inspector oversees each procedure. The animals are stunned after their throats are cut — a procedure known as post-cut stunning, which not all rabbis permit.

In August, the Conference of European Rabbis said that kosher slaughter could come under further attack this year in Europe.

CER President Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt explained that E.U. member countries are required to replace domestic laws on religious slaughter by January 2013 with European Regulation 1099, a set of new regulations meant to ensure animals do not experience “unnecessary suffering” at or near the time of the slaughter.

While the regulations allow exception for religious slaughter, they also allow “a certain level of subsidiarity,” or discretion, to each member state.

In 2011, the Dutch parliament voted in favor of a total ban on the slaughter of animals without stunning, but the Dutch Senate scrapped the ban in May 2012.

Slovenia, Estonia announce new shechitah restrictions Read More »

Bill O’Reilly recommends double date for Obama, Bibi in debate with Jon Stewart

Leave a Comment / Culture, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News /

Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, faced off against conservative pundit Bill O’Reilly, in a political debate.

The debate, “Rumble In The Air-Conditioned Auditorium,” was held Oct. 6 at George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Topics discussed at the debate ranged from health care to the Middle East.

O'Reilly, host of the political commentary program “The O'Reilly Factor” on the Fox News Channel, suggested that Obama get closer to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in order to send a stronger message to Iran on the need to halt its nuclear weapons program.

All Barack Obama has to do is go on a double date with Bibi, with Netanyahu,” O’Reilly said. “Just double date with him, go anywhere with him, that sends a little message to Tehran: They might be making up some stuff.”

The double date, O'Reilly said, would send shivers up the spines of Iran’s ruling mullahs.

The debate was broadcast on the internet by live-stream for $4.95. Half the proceeds were to be donated to charity.

Bill O’Reilly recommends double date for Obama, Bibi in debate with Jon Stewart Read More »

Syrian clashes intensify near Turkey border

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NATO said on Tuesday it had drawn up plans to defend Turkey if necessary against any further spillover of violence from Syria's border areas where rebels and government forces are fighting for control.

Rebel suicide bombers struck at President Bashar Assad's heartland, attacking an Air Force Intelligence compound on the edge of Damascus, insurgents said. Activists living nearby said the bombing caused at least 100 casualties among security personnel, based on the ambulances that rushed to the scene.

“Assad…is only able to stand up with crutches,” Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, once a close ally of Assad, told a meeting of his ruling AK Party.

“He will be finished when the crutches fall away.”

Erdogan, reacting to six consecutive days where shells fired from Syrian soil have landed on Turkish territory, has warned Ankara will not shrink from war if forced to act. But Ankara has also made clear it would be reluctant to mount any major operation on Syrian soil, and then only with international support.

Syrian forces and rebels have clashed at several sites close to the Turkish border in the last week. There has been no sign of any major breakthrough by either side, though activists said rebels killed at least 40 soldiers on Saturday in a 12-hour battle to take the village of Khirbet al-Joz.

It was not clear whether the shells landing on the Turkish side were aimed at Turkey or simply the result of government troops overshooting as they attacked rebels to their north.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in Brussels the 28-member military alliance hoped a way could be found to stop tensions escalating on the border.

“We have all necessary plans in place to protect and defend Turkey if necessary,” he said.

Just outside Hacipasa, a village nestled among olive groves in Turkey's Hatay border province, the sound of mortar fire could be heard every 10-15 minutes from around the Syrian town of Azmarin. A Syrian helicopter flew high over the border.

Villagers used ropes and small metal boats to ferry the injured across a river no more than 10 meters wide into Turkey. On the Syrian side, men wearing surgical masks and gloves tended to the wounded on mats laid on the ground.

“They are burning houses in the town,” said Musana Barakat, 46, an Azmarin resident who makes frequent trips between the two countries, pointing at plumes of thick smoke in the distance.

“There are rebels hiding in and around the town and they are going to make a push tonight to drive Assad's forces out,” he said, a Syrian passport sticking out of his shirt pocket.

A crowd gathered around a saloon car, the blood-stained body of a man who had been pulled wounded from the fighting slumped across its back seat. Those with him said he had been rescued alive but died after being brought over the border.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on Monday the “worst-case scenarios” were now playing out in Syria and Turkey would do everything necessary to protect itself.

Gul and Erdogan, in seeking Western and Arab support, have repeatedly warned of the dangers of fighting in Syria spilling over into a sectarian war engulfing the entire region.

Turkey's chief of general staff General Necdet Ozel flew by helicopter to several bases in Hatay province on Tuesday, part of Turkey's 900-km (560-mile) border with Syria.

U.N. special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi will go to Syria soon to try to persuade President Bashar al-Assad's government to call an immediate ceasefire.

SUICIDE BOMBERS

The militant Islamist group al-Nusra Front said it had mounted the suicide attack on the air force intelligence building in Damascus because it was used a centre for torture and repression in the crackdown on the revolt against Assad.

“Big shockwaves shattered windows and destroyed shop facades. It felt as if a bomb exploded inside every house in the area,” said one resident of the suburb of Harasta, where the compound was located.

But much of the fighting in the 18-month-old uprising has concentrated around the border area.

The shelling of the Turkish town of Akcakale last Wednesday, which killed five civilians, marked a sharp escalation.

Turkey has been responding in kind since then to gunfire or mortar bombs flying over the border and has bolstered its military presence along the frontier.

“We are living in constant fear. The mortar sounds have really picked up since this morning. The children are really frightened,” said Hali Nacioglu, 43, a farmer from the village of Yolazikoy near Hacipasa.

A mortar bomb landed in farmland near Hacipasa on Monday.

Unlike the flat terrain around Akcakale, the border area in Hatay is marked by rolling hills with heavy vegetation. Syrian towns and villages, including Azmarin, are clearly visible just a few kilometers away.

“It's only right that Turkey should respond if it gets fired on but we really don't want war to break out. We want this to finish as soon as possible,” said Abidin Tunc, 49, a tobacco farmer also from Yolazikoy.

NATO member Turkey was once an ally of Assad's but turned against him after his violent response to the uprising, in which activists say 30,000 people have died.

Turkey has nearly 100,000 Syrian refugees in camps on its territory, has given sanctuary to rebel leaders and has led calls for Assad to quit.

Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Adrian Croft in Brussels, John Irish in Paris; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Daren Butler and Ralph Boulton

Syrian clashes intensify near Turkey border Read More »

House Projection Updates….

Leave a Comment / House Projection SUB, Israel, United States, Worldwide /

A.

Our projection changes from -6 to -7 – namely, seven Jewish legislators less in the 2013 House than in the 2011 House. Here are updates on some races that are worthy of frequent traction.

B.

David Cicilline (RI) rebounds, now leads Doherty by 6 points.

C.

The NJ Jewish News reports that Rabbi Shmuly Boteach's race is considered “competitive” by “some”, but provides evidence to the contrary:

…the newly drawn Ninth District, where eight-term Rep. Bill Pascrell is facing a financially well-endowed challenger, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. In August, casino operator Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam — top fund-raisers for Republicans — gave Boteach’s campaign $500,000. The rabbi “has obviously been able to raise enough money to make noise,” Dworkin told NJJN. “Without the money, Boteach wouldn’t have a chance at all,” said Weingart. “But two years ago, when everything was tilted toward Republicans, I would think he would have had more of a chance than he does now.” Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, agreed. “Bergen County is your original suburb if there ever was one, and the chances of buying an election there by bombarding people with ads are, if not zero, damn close to it,” he said.

D.

Brad Schneider is still in a toss-up state, with no polls to report. This is probably going to be the most competitive Jewish race to watch.

E.

RCP still has the Bishop-Altschuler NY-01 race in the “leans Democratic” column. But the Altschuler camp says that recent financial support made the race more competitive:

“They’ve made it more competitive,” said Diana Weir, Mr. Altschuler’s campaign manager. “And I think as the race gets more competitive and they see a tighter race, everyone’s going to want to come in.”

House Projection Updates…. Read More »