October 12, 2012

Report: Netanyahu agreed to give entire Golan to Syria

Leave a Comment / Israel, Mobile, Mobile Sections, News / Jewish Journal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed in principle in 2010 to give back the Golan Heights to Syria, the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot reported.

The daily quotes unnamed American sources as saying that in 2010 “Netanyahu agreed to a full withdrawal from the Golan, to the shores of Lake Kinneret, in exchange for a peace agreement with Syria.” The initiative reportedly collapsed amid the outbreak of Syria's civil war.

In response to the report, the Prime Minister’s Office said the talk of withdrawal was “an American initiative, one of many discussed with Israel, which was not adopted at any stage,” the newspaper said.

According to the account in Yediot, Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, was supportive of the initiative. The Israelis “expected” a deal would mean the severing of ties between Iran and Syria, though this was not stated as an explicit demand, the report said.

The Americans quoted in the report said the talks about the proposed deal were at an advanced stage and that the American side was “surprised by the willingness shown by Netanyahu, who offered the Syrians more than his predecessors.”

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Fourteen Deaths Linked to Fungal Meningitis from Tainted Injections

Leave a Comment / Blogs / Albert Fuchs, M.D.

This week you’ll have to learn a little medical jargon, and I know that you love that. The meninges (men-IN-jees) are the membranes that line the brain and spinal cord. Meningitis is inflammation of those membranes, usually caused by an infection. Meningitis can lead to brain damage, deafness, and sometimes death. Meningitis is usually caused by viruses or bacteria. OK? That wasn’t so bad.

Recently an outbreak of meningitis has come under the attention of investigators. 170 patients in the last few months have been diagnosed with meningitis due to a fungus. This is strange because fungi are a very rare cause of meningitis. Investigators tracked the infection to contaminated vials of a steroid medication (methylprednisolone) prepared by New England Compounding Center (NECC), a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy.

The medication is used to administer epidural injections – injections into the spine intended to relieve back pain. This presumably introduced the contaminating fungus directly into the spinal fluid and resulted in meningitis.

Three lots of potentially contaminated medication have been recalled by NECC. Health officials have determined that about 14,000 people may have been injected with the medication since May 21. About 12,000 of the patients have already been contacted and informed. As of yesterday 14 have died of fungal meningitis. Two different fungus species have been isolated from sick patients, Exserohilum (pictured above) and Aspergillus.

Some of the medication was also used to inject painful joints, and one fungal ankle infection was found in a patient who earlier received an injection into that ankle.

There are four facilities in California which received medication from NECC that was later recalled: Cypress Surgery Center in Visalia, Encino Outpatient Surgicenter in Encino, Ukiah Valley Medical Center in Ukiah, and Universal Pain Management in Palmdale. (“>Fungal meningitis outbreak: Death toll hits 14; Idaho reports case (Los Angeles Times)
“>Meningitis Deaths Increase (Wall Street Journal)
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Biden, Ryan spar on Iran

Leave a Comment / Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News, United States / Jewish Journal

Vice President Joe Biden and Republican vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan clashed over Iran’s nuclear program during their televised debate.

Ryan assailed President Obama’s approach to the issue in Thursday night's vice presidential debate at Centre College in Danville, Ky. The Wisconsin congressman accused administration officials of sending “mixed signals” to Iran about U.S. resolve.

“They say the military option’s on the table, but it’s not being viewed as credible, and the key to do this peacefully is to make sure that we have credibility,” Ryan said. “Under a Romney administration, we will have credibility on this issue.”

Biden responded by noting the president's repeated public statements that the U.S. will not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran and touting the toughness of international sanctions that the administration has secured against the Islamic Republic. “These are the most crippling sanctions in the history of sanctions, period,” Biden said.

Biden asked Ryan: “You’re talking about doing more, are you going to war? Is that what you want to do now?” Ryan replied: “We want to prevent war.”

The Iranian nuclear issue was raised by the debate moderator, journalist Martha Raddatz, who said that “there’s really no bigger national security” issue facing the U.S. In their responses, the two candidates echoed the positions articulated by their respective running mates, with Ryan stressing that Iran must not be permitted a nuclear weapons “capability” and Biden emphasizing that Iran should be prevented from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Ryan said that Iran was “four years closer toward a nuclear weapons capability” and added that U.S. sanctions on Iran were only implemented by Congress “in spite of the administration.”

Regarding the possibility of U.S. military action, Biden said “we feel quite confident we could deal a serious blow to the Iranians.” But the vice president added that Iran is “a good way away” from getting a nuclear weapon, adding that “there is no difference” between the Israeli and American assessments on this point. Biden said that “both the Israelis and we will know if they start the process of building a weapon.”

Ryan also criticized Obama for not meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his recent U.S. visit, to which Biden responded that Obama has “spoken to Bibi Netanyahu as much as he’s spoken to anybody.”

Ryan, however, seemed to suggest that the timeline for Iran's push to a nuclear weapon was longer than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested.

After Raddatz asked about Netanyahu's suggestion that Iran needed to be stopped by spring, Ryan responded: “We can debate the timeline,whether it's that short a time or longer. I agree that it's probably longer.”

Biden also seemed to differ from Netanyahu's focus on enrichment, as opposed to weaponization.

Referring to the Iranian bomb illustration that Netanyahu presented at the U.N. General Assembly, Biden said: “We will not allow the Iranians to get a nuclear weapon. What Bibi held up there was: when they get to the point where they can enrich uranium enough to put into a weapon. They don’t have a weapon to put it into. Let’s all calm down a little bit here. Iran is more isolated today than when we took office.”

The vice president criticized “all this loose talk about ‘All they have to do is get to enrich uranium in a certain amount and they have a weapon.’ Not true.” He added that “if we ever have to take action, unlike when we took office, we will have the world behind us, and that matters.”

Asked by Raddatz which would be worse, war or a nuclear-armed Iran, Ryan answered that the more dangerous scenario would be “a nuclear-armed Iran which triggers a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. This is the world’s largest sponsor of terrorism. They’ve dedicated themselves to wiping an entire country off the map. They call us the Great Satan, and if they get nuclear weapons, other people in the neighborhood will pursue their nuclear weapons as well.”

Biden said that “war should always be the absolute last resort” and stressed that sanctions are crippling for Iran. Echoing Obama’s past statements on the issue of all options being on the table, Biden said: “We’ve made it clear: Big nations can’t bluff. This president doesn’t bluff.”

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Shalit reveals how he survived in first public interview since freedom

Leave a Comment / Israel, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News / Jewish Journal

One year after his release, Israeli Channel 10 News aired parts of an interview with former Hamas captive Gilad Shalit on Oct. 11, during which Shalit revealed details of how he survived his ordeal and spent his days in captivity.

“During the day, I played all kinds of games with them, like chess and dominos. I also played all kinds of odd games with myself, mainly games related to sports. I would form a ball out of socks or shirts and try to aim for the garbage bin. I would invent all kinds of activities and also write things at times. For example, I would play the geographical game known as ‘country-city,’” Shalit said.

Shalit said he didn’t maintain a consistent diary. “I wrote all kinds of random notes and followed sports events. I would draw a map of Israel, Mitzpe Hila [where he and his family reside] and all the homes there, just to remember the place and imagine it. I did that in the early days of captivity, so that I wouldn’t forget. Some [captors] didn’t like the fact that I was writing things down. They thought I was gathering information.”

Regarding the moment of his release, Shalit only remembers feeling tense. “During the ride (to Egypt), I felt very anxious. I didn’t know if something would happen, if they would try to hurt me, or something would go wrong at the last moment. When I got out of the vehicle and realized I was in Egypt, I felt relief. I saw dozens of people, hundreds of them, after being in contact with only a few people for all those years. There were so many people there. It was a strange feeling, a sense of shock. I also began to feel relieved.”

Read a translation of the full interview on the Israelife blog.

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One Israeli Creation for the Weekend

Leave a Comment / Blogs / Noga Gur-Arieh

Mashina is The Rolling Stones of Israel. They are considered Israel's most influential rock band, as they stand behind many of the music milestones in Israel. They have taken over the playlists in 1983, and have been making hits ever since (except of a break they took from 1995 to 2003). Their songs are all rock, moving on the scale from soft ballads to hard-rock, and I love almost every single one of their songs. The members of the band, which are considered very respectable musicians, are: Yuval Banai, Shlomi Bracha, Iggy Dayan, Avner Hodorov and Michael Benson.

I really love all of their songs, but here are my favorite two:

Ein Makom Acher (there's no other place)- Every time I listen to this song I start jumping around

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Just Imagine – Parashat B’reishit

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Israel, Mobile Sections, News / Rabbi John Rosove

One of the most important verses in all of Torah appears in this week’s Torah portion B’reishit: “And God said: Let us make the human being in our image, after our likeness” (Vayomer Elohim, naaseh Adam b’tzalmeinu kidmuteinu…” (Genesis 1:26).

Notice that God seems to be speaking to others, but who?

The Midrash imagines this conversation between God and the only other beings with whom the Divine could possibly be talking – the heavenly host, or angels:

“Rabbi Simon said: When the Holy One, blessed be God, came to create Adam, the ministering angels formed themselves into groups and parties, some of them saying, ‘Let the human be created,’ while others urged, Let the human not be created.’ Thus it is written, ‘Love (Chesed) and Truth (Emet) fought each other, ‘Righteousness’ (Tzedek) and ‘Peace’ (Shalom) combated each other’ (Ps. 85:11). Love said, ‘Let [Adam] be created, because he will dispense acts of love (g’milut chassadim)’; Truth said, ‘Let [Adam] not be created, because he is filled through and through with lies’ (sh'karim); ‘Righteousness’ said, ' Let [Adam] be created, because he will perform righteous deeds’ (tz’dakot); ‘Peace’ said, ‘Let [Adam] not be created, because he is full of strife (k’tatah)”’ … Rabbi Huna the Elder of Sepphoris, said: While the ministering angels were arguing … the Holy One, blessed be God, created [Adam]. Said God: ‘What can you do? The human has already been made!’” (B’reishit Rabbah 8:5)

To review – the angels of “Truth” and “Peace” were against the creation of the human being because they knew that we mortals would lie and fight each other in battles large and small.

The angels of “Love” and “Righteousness” favored our creation because they knew that we would perform deeds of loving-kindness (g’milut chassadim) and acts of righteousness (tzedek).

In the end, God sided with “Love” and “Righteousness” and Adam Harishon (i.e. the First Human) was created.

“Truth” and “Peace” were right, however, because we are prone to lying and fighting, to intolerance of the “other,” hard-heartedness, self-centeredness and small-mindedness. And “Love” and “Righteousness” were also right because we can be compassionate, empathic, generous, humble, and kind.

The story is told that once the Baal Shem Tov summoned Sammael, the Lord of demons, because of some important matter that he wished to command Sammael to do, but Sammael resisted. So the BESHT told his disciples to bare their foreheads to Sammael, and on every forehead, the Lord of demons saw inscribed the sign of the image in which God creates the human being – B’tzelem Elohim.

Sammael was disarmed, and then agreed to do the BESHT’s bidding, but asked humbly and beseechingly before departing, “Oh children of the living God, permit me to stay here just a little longer and gaze upon your foreheads.” (Tales of the Hasidim, Martin Buber, Book 1, p. 77).

I encounter people every day, some with open and kind hearts, and some self-centered and mean-spirited. This story and the verse upon which it is based (Genesis 1:26) remind us who we are and before Whom we stand. When those before me are kind, generous, inclusive, and loving, I see the words B’tzelem Elohim flowing from their every pore. When they are not, still I search for the sign of God on their foreheads, strive to treat them as if those sacred words are apparent, and I imagine what kind of world we would have if we looked for that sign in everyone we meet.

Shabbat shalom!

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Leave a Comment / Israel, Must Reads / Shmuel Rosner

In-depth

Don’t risk Israel’s security on Obama’s words

Sheldon Adelson lashes out at the president over his policies on Israel, in an opinion piece for JNS.org.

Think about Obama’s anti-Israel friends and mentors—radicals like Rashid Khalidi, Frank Marshall Davis, Jeremiah Wright, or the late Edward Said, the virulently anti-Israel professor under whom Obama studied. Has he made anti-Israel promises to them? Is Obama’s campaign rhetoric in support of Israel only creating “space” till after the election? These questions cause genuine worry in Israel.

Is the Glass Half Full for Syria’s Assad?

After more than 18 months, Bashar Assad is still in power, albeit over a decreasing percentage of his country, writes Tony Karon in Time.

Things are hardly looking good for Assad at this point. His prospects for defeating the rebellion and restoring control over all of Syria appear remote. He governs by naked force and fear of the alternative, and even then, over a shrinking domain. Still, he’s far from beaten, and if anything, the more immediate danger may be that Syria itself is breaking up into warring fiefdoms along the lines seen in neighboring Lebanon from the 1970s until 1992.

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