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Jewish Journal

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November 11, 2014

New exhibit brings to life 350 years of American Jews in the military

Leave a Comment / Culture /

Mementos of Jacob Goldstein slide across the 3-foot-by-4-foot horizontal screen like cards being dealt at a casino: his photograph, his name, an Operation Urgent Fury headline denoting the 1983 military campaign in Grenada, Goldstein’s explanatory text summarizing his role during the invasion.

Even more striking than the photograph showing the uniformed rabbi wrapping tefillin on the Grenada beach with his rifle resting atop a mound of sandbags is his recollection of going from Lubavitch disciple in Brooklyn, N.Y., to a U.S. Army officer and chaplain attaining the rank of colonel.

Goldstein is among the dozens of individual soldiers whose stories are told in an exhibition that opened Tuesday at the National Museum of American Jewish Military History.

Titled “Jews in the American Military,” the exhibit engagingly conveys the role of American Jews in defending their country, from Asser Levy’s being granted the right to bear arms in 1657 to help protect Manhattan, to the 55 Jewish men and women killed in this era in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The interactive digital table from whence Goldstein emerges is dubbed “Service Around the World.” Pull up a chair, select a decade since the Cold War began in 1945, tap any dot arising across the map and learn about the American military’s involvement in conflicts, events and humanitarian missions. Many items include individuals’ stories. Others, like the peacekeeping force that President Reagan dispatched to Lebanon, do not, but curators hope that Jewish veterans will write in with information that can be added.

Elsewhere, the exhibit presents compelling text, photographs and artifacts in chronologically ordered sections. Display cases present such Jewish gems as medals from the Civil War and the Spanish-American War; an 1899 prayer book; a captured German rifle from World War II; a Torah ark that a Chinese officer fashioned from teak as a gift to Morris Gordon, whom the officer had befriended after saving Gordon from drowning during World War II. (Gordon would use the ark while conducting services on the legendary Burma Road.)

Nearby, from Guam, is the coconut that Seymour Silverman mailed to his daughter Maurita – writing her name, their Portsmouth, Va., address, and a sketch of a palm tree on the fruit itself. Maurita Silverman would follow her father into the military, serving as a nurse in the Vietnam War, according to museum archivist Pamela Elbe.

“Jews in the American Military” is a permanent exhibition that took eight years to develop at a cost of $750,000. The funding was raised by Jewish War Veterans of America groups and from the national office of JWV, an affiliate of the museum, with which it shares its brick DuPont Circle building.

While the museum has mounted exhibitions on such themes as Korean War service and females serving in World War II, it has never presented a comprehensive look at the Jewish presence in the U.S. military from the start to present day, said museum coordinator Mike Rugel.

Drawing on figures supplied by the National Jewish Welfare Board, which tends to the needs of Jewish soldiers, JWV and museum officials estimated, for example, that some 10,000 Jews fought in the Civil War, 225,000 in World War I and 550,000 in World War II.

Contemporary membership numbers for JWV are modest, however, as older veterans are dying and the number of Jewish enlistees dropped once the compulsory draft was lifted following the Vietnam War. The organization now has 20,000 members, mostly World War II veterans, according to Norman Rosenshein, its treasurer.

To remain viable long term, JWV is recruiting returnees from Iraq and Afghanistan while offering free membership to the 20,000 Jewish soldiers now on active duty.

Poor outreach seems to stand in the way, however. JWV’s national chief of staff, Marsha Schjolberg, provided a telling example.

When Schjolberg’s daughter, who works at the nearby Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington, sought to publicize a talk on this Veterans Day by a Jewish author of a new book on military heroism in Iraq and Afghanistan, a local JWV post refused to help promote the event. Indeed, said Schjolberg, a San Diego-area resident who served in the Naval Reserves for 28 years, she didn’t learn of JWV’s existence until after she had retired.

Her late father, Harold Fuchs, a World War II veteran, lived just 10 blocks from a JWV post near Los Angeles and would eagerly have participated in the organization had he known about it, she said.

Schjolberg said she hopes the exhibit helps inform non-Jews of the notable contributions made by this one ethnic segment of America.

The exhibition abounds in examples. Col. Teddy Roosevelt, the exhibit text states, held his Jewish soldiers in high regard and became a member of the Hebrew Veterans of the War with Spain, a precursor to JWV. A photograph shows Murray Blum, killed on Dec. 3, 1943, after rescuing a Merchant Marine shipmate when a German U-boat torpedoed their vessel.

Then there’s Col. Gerald Fink, a Korean War fighter pilot shown in his plane, “Big G” chalked on its door. The plane was shot down in 1951, and Fink was tortured as a prisoner of war. He passed his time woodworking and, using shattered glass and an improvised knife, sculpted a 3-foot crucifix memorializing Father Emil Kapaun, a Catholic chaplain and fellow American POW.

“Surely, the crucifix made by a Jew for a deceased priest in a Communist prison camp is unique,” the exhibition’s text states. “It was a point of pride for Col. Fink until his death in 1987.”

(The National Museum of American Jewish Military History, at 1811 R Street, N.W., in Washington, is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, and by appointment on Sundays. It is closed on Jewish and federal holidays.)

 

New exhibit brings to life 350 years of American Jews in the military Read More »

Israeli forces kill Palestinian as clashes flare in West Bank

Leave a Comment / Israel /

Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian during clashes on Tuesday in the West Bank, a day after Palestinian assailants fatally stabbed an Israeli soldier and a woman in attacks that raised fears of a new uprising.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would seek to crush the spiraling violence by meting out stiffer punishments, deploying more forces and destroying assailants' homes.

“We have defeated terrorism until now and shall do so again,” Netanyahu said in nationally televised remarks after consulting with security chiefs.

The military said soldiers killed a 21-year-old Palestinian man at a refugee camp after coming under attack by a crowd hurling petrol bombs and stones. Residents said he was on his roof, away from the clashes when he was shot.

Confrontations also erupted in at least two other West Bank areas, where the army said soldiers shot and wounded two Palestinians.

Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said “it's clear there is an escalation”, but that the violence was not organised and it was not clear if it would lead to an Intifada, like the last Palestinian revolt that began in 2001 and died down in 2005.

“We're not seeing masses pouring into the street. We're seeing, in certain places, young people using grassroots terrorism and lone attackers,” Yaalon told reporters.

With the rise in violence, Israelis wondered if they would again have to worry about security in their daily lives.

“This is the same soundtrack we all remember from the days of the Intifada: you haven’t had time to come to terms with the morning’s terror attack and you’re already wallowing in the next one,” military affairs analyst Alex Fishman wrote in the Yedioth Ahronot daily.

The last Palestinian uprising brought a surge in suicide bombings in Israel and crushing military operations in Palestinian cities.

The new bloodshed has been fuelled by tension over Israeli-controlled access to Jerusalem's holiest site, revered by Muslims as Noble Sanctuary, where al-Aqsa mosque stands, and by Jews as the mount where Biblical Temples once stood.

“We ask you (Israel) to keep settlers and extremists far away from al-Aqsa mosque and our holy places,” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday, following recent visits to the site by far-right legislators. “Keep them away from us and we'll stay away from them.”

Last week, a Palestinian rammed his car into pedestrians in central Jerusalem, the second such incident at a light railway station in as many weeks.

Israeli forces kill Palestinian as clashes flare in West Bank Read More »

Reliving the horror: sparks of a third Intifada bring back memories from almost a decade ago

Leave a Comment / Blogs /

Growing up in a (relatively) small central town in Israel, hopping on a bus to Tel-Aviv with your friends is a must-do when you’re a teenager looking for a way to express your recently acclaimed adulthood. During the holidays (and sometimes in school days,) it is considered “cool” to spend the day in the “big city,” shopping and eating out. I only got to enjoy those “road trips” when I turned 16. Until then, I was not allowed to ride the bus, for the fear that it would blow up.

Between ages 10 and 15, I lived under the shadow of the second Intifada. I only left the house when it was necessary, and my parents avoided dining outside. During that time, there wasn’t a day gone by without a suicide attack, leaving children orphan, spouses widowed and parents bereaved.

Repeatedly, we have experienced that feeling of uncertainty, fear and shock. That moment we’ve got to know too well, when you sit at home, or at school or at work, and suddenly feel that something has happened. At first, you notice a strange look of shock on people's faces, as they face their laptop or Smartphone. Then, you hear the whispering around you, saying “Something's happened.”  No need to add more words to that sentence to understand exactly what this “something” is. The next step is to figure out where and what. You just sit in front of the screen and refresh the page until the news website you're at will upload more details. At that moment, you don't speak, hardly breath, and just sit nervous on your chair, bouncing your feet and looking sideways to see if someone knows something.

Then, you see it: “A bus exploded in Tel-Aviv,” and then, the scariest part begins. It is when you try to call everyone you know to make sure they are alive and well. You start with people you know live close by to the “event's” location. Then, you zoom out, because maybe someone you know and love and have a car, decided to take a bus that day for god knows why. You don't seek for logic, you just want to know everyone's okay. Then, in the middle of the calling list, the phone lines fall, because everyone else in the country is also making the very same type of calls.  It happens almost every time, and you know it's coming, but when it does, and you can't reach someone, you can never be sure if it is because of the lines that just fell or because he or she was there.

It's scary. These two or three minutes that last forever. It's scary even in the 20th time it happens, because the fear of losing someone you love to terror is something you can never get used to. Nonetheless, as the years passed by, we stood on our feet and learned to live again. We decided we won’t let terror win, hopped on the bus, ate outside and learned to put fear aside. Security guards stationed at the entrance of every public place helped us feel even safer.

A few years of relative silence made us a little bit too calm. The security guards laid down their guard, and we stopped looking for suspicious packages in public places and transportation. Those of us who were lucky enough to not to lose a loved one during the Intifada had the privilege to almost forget that scary time. The past two weeks brought everything back, as signs of a third Intifada sparked.

This time around, they don’t use bombs or suicide vests, but vehicles and knives. They are smarter than that, and fully aware of the way the media works in the age of social networks and instant information. They know that the media can’t afford to spend time on waiting for the full information, so they just post the initial information, and let the story roll. The vehicular terror attacks are being framed as “car accidents,” and the stabbing attacks are being framed as “acts of despair” by the “oppressed” Palestinian population.”

Sadly for us, we live in the real world, not the fabricated one being brought to the audience by the international media. We are now forced back into this horrifying reality of the moments after a terror attack. We now relive this familiar yet always shocking experience of uncertainty, of fear from the possibility of a next time, of worrying, which threatens to stop your heart from beating.

Ideology, despair, boredom- the reason doesn't matter. All that matters is the result: the anxiety and the pain that never lets go. Terror must be stopped.

Reliving the horror: sparks of a third Intifada bring back memories from almost a decade ago Read More »

Terminally ill Simpsons co-creator Sam Simon to donate his $100 million fortune to charity

Leave a Comment / Entertainment, Hollywood, Is Featured?, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News /

Back in 2012, Sam Simon — best known as one of the creators of The Simpsons — was told he had terminal colon cancer and only three to six months to live. Since then, he’s been preparing to give away his entire fortune to the causes that matter most to him.

In a recent interview with NBC News, Simon explained that most of these causes directly involve animals. He as worked closely, for example, with PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk.

“I think that my passion for the animals and against animal abuse is based on the knowledge that these creatures who feel and think can’t speak for themselves and they’re dependent on us for that,” he told interviewer Maria Shriver. “And so I feel it’s my responsibility to speak for those that can’t speak for themselves.”

Read the full story at TIME.com.

Terminally ill Simpsons co-creator Sam Simon to donate his $100 million fortune to charity Read More »

The Berlin Wall isn’t the only wall

Leave a Comment / Opinion /

The end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989—25 years ago this week—led to the long-awaited development of a “global village” characterized by the free movement of goods, people, and information. But the last few decades have also seen global fragmentation, the symbol of which has been the silent multiplication of dividing walls throughout the world.

The erection of walls is certainly not a new phenomenon. For the most part, the oldest walls were defensive in nature, built with a military perspective. Alexander the Great built a wall in the Far East between the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea in the 4th century B.C. Construction of the Great Wall of China began in the 3rd century B.C., and of Hadrian’s Wall in Northern England in 122 A.D. During World War II, Nazi Germany built the Atlantic Wall along the western coast of Europe and Scandinavia. The Green Line in Cyprus, the Berm in Western Sahara, the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, and the electrified fence separating the Indian- from the Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir are examples of walls built in the second half of the 20th century.

The novelty of today’s walls is that they are built on recognized borders in response to the new challenges and fears related to globalization—and issues like terrorism, poverty, organized crime, and migration movements. Walls give the impression that a nation can recover control over its territory. In a fast-moving world where traditional values and milestones are questioned, walls can seem to provide an easy and concrete answer. Indeed, walls offer a reassuring response to complex issues. They become the dividing line between “them” and “us,” between the good and the evil, the rich and the poor, the risky and the safe worlds.

The temptation to build a barrier has become a reality on the borders of countries such as the United States/Mexico, India/Bangladesh, Botswana/Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia/Iraq/Yemen, and the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in Northern Morocco.

But what do walls really accomplish? In the short run, walls can sometimes serve their function—keeping things and people either out or in—and give the impression that government is “doing something.” In Western Sahara, the Berm divides the region’s Moroccan-controlled areas from those controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic led by the Polisario Front, a national liberation movement that has settled in the Algerian town of Tindouf. The wall has forced the Polisario Front to put on hold its hit-and-run actions against urban centers under Moroccan rule. The reinforcement of the barriers in the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla temporarily stopped illegal sub-Saharan immigration. In the case of frozen conflicts, like in Northern Ireland or Cyprus, walls can also be seen as a way to ease the tensions by keeping communities apart and allow the peace process to develop. As Robert Frost said: “Good fences make good neighbors.” Walls allowed the communities in Northern Ireland and on both sides of the Green Line in Cyprus to live a “normal life” again—to the point that now nobody wishes to see those walls demolished.

But in the long run, walls do not address the origin of tension or conflict. They are a black and white answer to very complex situations. Walls tend to create the illusion of a safe solution for the powerful people on the “good side.” Meanwhile, people living on the “wrong side” of the wall are often focused on inventing and planning (dangerous) ways of getting around it, through tunnels or the desert, or across the seas. By alienating people who are on the “wrong side,” walls contribute to the frustration and anger and can thus further increase tension and deepen misunderstanding.

A wall creates a generation of “those who are without”: papers, status, or rights—people who are trapped on the other side. The weak often end up becoming stronger because, being on the abandoned side, they have much less to lose. In Berlin as elsewhere, concrete walls cannot kill the desire for freedom.

A wall can only maintain the status quo for a few years or decades. Like empires, all walls are doomed to fail and become obsolete sooner or later. Ultimately, in the long term, the movement of people is always more powerful than the construction of walls. This is as true today as it was in the past. A wall ends its life as a tourist attraction, like the Great Wall of China, Hadrian’s Wall, or the Berlin Wall. But knowing that walls are destined to fall one day is small consolation to those whose everyday life is constrained by them.

Alexandra Novosseloff is a research-associate in the Centre Thucydide of the University of Panthéon-Assas (Paris II). She is co-author with Frank Neisse of the illustrated book, Walls Dividing Peoples, published in Paris in 2007 (La Documentation française) and in Bogota and Tijuana in 2011 (Red Alma Mater / El Colegio de la Frontera Norte).

This piece originally appeared on Zocalo Public Square

The Berlin Wall isn’t the only wall Read More »

Katsuji Tanabe, Mexi-Kosher maven, competes on ‘Top Chef’

Leave a Comment / Culture /

“I’m a Mexican-Japanese who owns a kosher restaurant.”

Welcome to L.A.

Katsuji Tanabi is our neighborhood chef, founder of the ‘lil Mexican Kosher joint, aptly named Mexi-Kosher, located in the Pico-Robertson area. He’s won Food Network’s “Chopped” and now he’s competing in Bravo’s “Top Chef.” Don’t have time to watch the hour-long episodes? Follow his gastronomical journey here, in recaps!

EPISODE 1: Sudden Death

Guest Judge: Richard Blais, Top Chef Season 8 All Stars Winner

“Hi, my name is Katsuji Tanabe and I sell tacos in Beverly Hills.”

QUICKFIRE CHALLENGE: Timed Techniques

Katsuji’s Technique: Shucking oysters

It’s day one and it’s not pretty. After brief introductions, host Padma Lakshmi gets down to business and, bam!, announces a sudden death quickfire. Contestants are divided into four teams of four.

It’s a timed mission and Katsuji’s team is in the lead. Until it’s his turn to perform. Each person is designated a different task. His, you ask? Shucking oysters.

As you might imagine, the kosher chef can’t shuck. Banging the oysters against the table, Katsuji realizes oysters aren’t his forte.

Still, in the nick of time, he eventually shucks enough and, though not first, his team doesn’t finish last. Saved from elimination!

ELIMINATION CHALLENGE: Cook a spin-off of the first dish you ever made.

Katsuji’s Dish: “Petroleum” shrimp, saffron couscous, serrano aioli and squid ink fondue

Katsuji incorporated way too many elements. A basic “shrimp quesadilla” manifested into a squid-ink-gruyere-cheese-chicharron-hard-boiled-egg overload. Because of his boldness, he’s among three contestants on the chopping block. But he prevails and doesn’t go home!

EPISODE 2: Boston’s Bravest and Finest

Guest Judge: Todd English, Boston Restaurateur

QUICKFIRE CHALLENGE: Surf and Turf

Katsuji’s Dish: Poached sweetbreads, sunny side up quail egg, uni and caviar with hot pepper jelly

There’s no elimination in this quickfire, but the winner gets $5,000.

“I’m not even thinking about $5,000. I just want to prove to the other chefs that I have good days and I have bad days. But right now is the most amazing day,” says Katsuji.

Although the day starts with some mishaps, Katie the klutz, a fellow contestant and culinary instructor, collides with Katsuji when he’s holding a blender’s worth of boiling liquid. The scalding sauce burns him and F-bombs go flying. After that blunder, Katsuji resumes his game-face and serves up a pretty impressive dish.

A contender to win the $5,000, he loses by a hair.

ELIMINATION CHALLENGE: Cook for the commissioners of Boston’s fire and police departments

Group Dish: Pea coconut puree with sauteed halibut, pickled rhubarb and grilled fennel slaw

Through random selection, Katsuji ends up in a group with klutzy Katie (of course) and haughty Mei, sous chef at Michael Voltaggio’s “ink” (LA’s “it” restaurant), who won the elimination challenge last episode.

High and mighty, Mei doesn’t trust any input that isn’t her own. She’s a culinary back-seat driver. When Katsuji says he’ll make the puree sauce, Mei holds up a fight. End of the challenge, Katsuji serves up a beautiful sauce made from peas and avocado. Mei apologizes…sort of.

Although top contenders, his group didn’t win the challenge.

EPISODE 3: The Curse of the Bambino

Guest Judge: Ming Tsai, celebrity chef of fusion cuisine

QUICKFIRE CHALLENGE: Boston Tea Party challenge

Katsuji’s Dish: Toasted brown rice tea broth with brown rice crusted tuna

The contestants have to fuse tea into a dish, so Katsuji selects a toasted brown rice tea blend and, celebrating his roots, concocts a Japanese-inspired dish. Although it receives acclaim from the judges, ultimately, it doesn’t win the challenge.

ELIMINATION CHALLENGE: Fenway Park Concession Food

Katsuji’s Dish: Bread pudding with mushrooms, bacon and deep fried pork belly

Inspired by baseball stadium grub, contestants are expected to take typical Fenway snacks and transform them into fine dining dishes. Katsuji decides to take a swing (get it??) with fried bread. He’s the only contestant to select that gutsy ingredient (the majority of contestants opt for popcorn or pretzels).

The pudding doesn’t go down well with the judges.

While waiting for results, the chefs wait in the kitchen. And that’s when things heat up. Aaron is this season’s putz. Aaron says to Katsuji, “Bread pudding is what five year olds cook, you’re a Top Chef.” Yadda yadda yadda, things heat up in the kitchen, Katsuji says, “You ever talk to me like that again…” and Aaron, unphased says he wants to shove bread pudding in Katsuji’s mouth.

Again on the chopping block for his traif pork belly and bread pudding, the judges tell Kastuji he needs to be a better editor.

EPISODE 4: Chefs Walk Into a Bar…

QUICKFIRE CHALLENGE: Upscale Bar Food

Katsuji’s Dish:Mahi mahi and tuna ceviche tostada with roasted tomato and jalapeno salsa

In yo’ face! Katsuji won. The challenge takes place at the Boston bar Cheers and actor George Wendt (Norm!) guest judges. Katsuji earns immunity from elimination.

ELIMINATION CHALLENGE: Three Course Italian Meal

Katsuji’s Dish: Spring pea and goat cheese ravioli with pecorino, green chili and mint

Teams have to write and create a three-course menu. Katsuji’s in a team with Aaron (the bread pudding shover) and Gregory, Season 12’s star child (who practically wins every competition). As to be expected, Aaron and Katsuji butt heads, but they keep it to a minimum.

While cooking his ravioli dish, Katsuji gets a special gluten-free request. A deer in headlights, he deconstructs his ravioli rather than substituting the pasta for a gluten-free option. Turns out, the celiac is actress Emmy Rossum. Judges are unhappy with his ravioli, but who cares! Katsuji has immunity.

Katsuji Tanabe, Mexi-Kosher maven, competes on ‘Top Chef’ Read More »

Australia Foreign Minister Bob Carr’s protocols of Zion paranoia

Leave a Comment / Worldwide /

As an American who is married to an Australian, whose children are Australian citizens, and who visits this beautiful country annually, I care deeply when the decency of Australia is maligned by the likes of Bob Carr, Australia’s former Minister for Foreign Affairs.  His vicious assault on Israel demands a response.

In April of this year Carr made his bid for continued relevance by signing on to a version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in a bizarre claim that Melbourne’s Jewish lobby controls Australia’s Middle East foreign policy. To be sure, a distressed former political figure scapegoating the Jews with claims of Jewish control of governments to get into the news is nothing new. And it usually works. Carr’s book, Diary of a Foreign Minister which, like himself, would have been relegated to obscurity, sold a couple more copies through the press coverage he received with his claims of a Jewish conspiracy. Still, it’s sad to see a once-influential man reduced to crude anti-Semitism to remain relevant.
 
But not content to impugn the Jews of Melbourne with the scandalous charge of dual loyalty, Carr has just come out with his newest allegation. Israel is an apartheid state committed to disenfranchising the Palestinians, as evidenced by their expansion of settlements. It is for this reason, Carr claims, that he is turning on Israel and becoming a supporter of Palestine instead.
 
In this too Carr is wholly unoriginal. If you’re going to savage the Jewish state surely you can do so by saying something novel? But is this all we get, the over-roasted chestnut of Israel as pre-Mandela South Africa?
 
But in his obsession with Jewish world domination there are things that Carr omits.
 
He omits the fact that the land ceded by Israel to the Palestinians in peace deals has been transformed every time into terrorist enclaves. He omits the fact that Hamas is a genocidal organization committed in its charter to Israel’s destruction and the murder of Jews worldwide. He omits the fact that the Palestinian Authority is now a dictatorship run by Mahmoud Abbas who has not gone to elections in more than a decade. He omits the fact that Abbas runs a kleptocracy enriching his sons Tarik and Yasser who illegally control the construction and cigarette trade, among other lucrative industries. He omits the fact that Nelson Mandela was a true apostle of peace who languished in jail for 27 years while Yasser Arafat is the father of international terrorism who made his name by blowing up children. He omits the fact that Arab citizens of Israel enjoy more rights than Arabs anywhere in the Middle East. In his charges of Jewish racism he omits the fact that Arabs serve at the highest levels of Israeli officialdom, including the Supreme Court, something unthinkable in an apartheid regime. He omits the fact that Israeli hospitals treated Abbas’ wife and the daughter of the current Hamas leader. He omits the fact that the single greatest threat to world civilization today is not the Jews and the puny State of Israel but radical Islamic terrorism which is producing monsters like ISIS, Hamas, and Boko Haram.
 
Oh, were it so, Bob, that Australia’s biggest worry was Melbourne’s Jews, a community famous for its philanthropy, civic responsibilities, and patriotism.
 
All this Carr omits as he assails the Jews as apartheid racists. And in so doing Carr not only shows his cards but offends the brave black population of South Africa who are models of reconciliation and forgiveness.
 
Sorry, Mr. Carr, but the Jews are the indigenous people of Israel. It is not I who says it but your own Christian Bible. Read the New Testament and try and find mention of a single Arab resident of ancient Israel. The Jews were the land’s inhabitants and they were displaced by a European colonial occupier named Rome. They were forcibly removed from their land and displaced for 2000 years, while a small remnant always remained. The Jews prayed thrice daily to return to their land. And when finally granted the political opportunity, they came and drained the swamps, irrigated the sands and made the land so much more inhabitable for Arab brethren that had migrated in the interim.
 
The Jews were happy to share the land but it was a sentiment that was sadly rejected by the Arabs. They rejected the 1936 Peel Commission Partition. The rejected the 1947 UN partition plan. They rejected Israel’s offers to return all conquered 1967 lands with their famous three “No’s” in Khartoum: No peace, No recognition, No negotiation. And they turned the Oslo peace accords – which granted Arafat political autonomy over 95% of the Palestinian population – into a murder-fest by launching a never-ending terror war against Israel’s buses, schools, and cafes.
 
Rather than Western statesmen like Carr demanding from the Palestinians to stop the never-ending incitement against the Jews and the promises to push them into the sea, rather than calling out Mahmoud Abbas for his monstrous lies about an Israeli genocide in Gaza, rather than objecting to the rampant assassination of Palestinian gay men by Hamas and the honor killings of innocent women, Carr would defend this barbarity by pointing the finger at the Middle East’s only democracy.
 
Indeed, Mr. Carr should be forced to publicly defend his allegations against Israel and if there were a sincere conviction in his body he would accept my challenge to debate the issue before an audience of peers at a reasonable time and place of his choosing.
 
Australians are some of the warmest, tolerant, and peace-loving people on earth. Australia is a model of social harmony and ethnic integration. Australia took in scores of holocaust survivors who fled Hitler’s ovens after World War II. Australians love and support Israel. I know that they will reject pathetic attempts at Jewish character assassination leveled by desperate former politicos like Bob Carr.

 

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, “America’s Rabbi,” is the international best-selling author of 30 books, winner of The London Times Preacher of the Year Competition, and recipient of the American Jewish Press Association’s Highest Award for Excellence in Commentary. He has just published Kosher Lust: Love is Not the Answer. Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.

Australia Foreign Minister Bob Carr’s protocols of Zion paranoia Read More »

Where are the bodies, MH17 families ask

Leave a Comment / Worldwide /

Daisy Oehlers and Bryce Fredriksz, a Dutch couple in their early 20s, were sitting near the left wing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 on their way to a holiday in Bali, when “high energy objects” – as officials later called them – struck the plane over eastern Ukraine.

Their bodies were torn apart and scattered across miles of the conflict zone below.

Three months later, Daisy's cousin Robby checked into a cheap hotel in Donetsk to start searching the area for any trace of his relatives. “There was a crater from a rocket impact just next to the nose part of the aeroplane,” he said. “I found a blue suitcase. It wasn't hers.”

Oehlers, a singer, and the relatives of as many as 50 other victims are growing increasingly frustrated by the fact that the authorities have not helped them trace loved ones lost on July 17, when the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot out of the sky.

All 298 passengers and crew – two-thirds of them Dutch – were killed. The Dutch government, a leading Russian trading partner, still hesitates to call it an attack.

Attempts to recover parts of the aircraft and human remains have repeatedly been called off due to fighting on the ground. Families also say the Dutch government is not giving them enough information. One law firm has said it is preparing to sue the government for negligence over its handling of the case.

Bryce and Daisy's relatives have Bryce's foot and part of a bone for Daisy, but no more. Relatives of nine people on board the Boeing 777 have no remains at all. Some families are waiting for enough body parts to hold funerals.

“How much do you need?” asked Oehlers. “30 percent? 40 percent?”

He spent three days searching the site between Donetsk and Luhansk, the rebel-held eastern Ukrainian towns that have been flashpoints in the conflict, and took a TV crew to draw attention to his family's mounting anger. He said he saw signs of bombardment on the field, where stray dogs wandered. Winter is approaching. As fighting persists, the families' hopes diminish.

“You just wonder; what are they doing?” he said of the authorities. “If it was another country, they'd just grab their stuff and head out there. I don't know what the spirit of Dutch politics is, but I think they are too soft.”

HELD TO ACCOUNT

The Dutch are conducting two parallel investigations: one into the cause of the crash, and a criminal inquiry – the single largest in Dutch history. There are now 100 Dutch law enforcement officials involved in that case, including 10 prosecutors, said spokesman Wim de Bruin.

But no forensic investigators have made it to the crash site. That makes the recovery of evidence nearly impossible.

Washington says it has intelligence that overwhelmingly backs the theory that the plane was shot down by a missile fired by pro-Russian separatists. Russia denies any involvement.

Many Dutch also believe the plane was downed by rebels using missiles provided by Moscow. But their leaders, mindful of the country's heavy reliance on Russian energy, have never assigned blame. Prime Minister Mark Rutte has called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to assert his influence over the rebels.

Pieter Omtzigt, legislator with the opposition Christian Democratic Appeal party and a member of the foreign affairs committee, says the government is not being open enough.

He submitted a list of 43 questions about the disaster, of which he said 29 went unanswered, including one about Russian and Ukrainian cooperation and whether crash investigators had access to key U.S. intelligence.

“On all these questions, we haven't had an answer,” he told Reuters in an interview. “I want to see full proof – if you kill 298 people you have to be held accountable.”

“COME GET ME!”

The challenges facing the Dutch investigators are extreme.

The closest comparison is the bombing of Pan Am flight 103, over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, which killed 254 people. The investigation, conducted in peacetime Scotland, took three years, during which 4 million pieces of evidence were recovered from a crash site spanning 770 sq miles. It took a decade to go to trial.

“We searched rivers, lochs and reservoirs and recovered many personal effects, pieces of aircraft and debris, as well as other much more difficult 'recoveries' I'd rather not go into here,” said one police diver involved in the search.

Even then, the trial of two Libyan intelligence agents, at a specially constituted Scottish court in a disused Dutch military base, secured only one conviction. To this day, many relatives are convinced that the man eventually convicted was innocent.

In the Netherlands, Rutte is under growing pressure: his popularity has dropped since the MH17 crash.

Silene Fredriksz, Bryce's 51-year-old mother, said she is having difficulty sleeping. “It is simply taking too long,” she said. “I hear him call: 'come get me!'”

Edited by Sara Ledwith

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Russia, Iran sign nuclear construction deal

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Russia will build two new nuclear power plant units in Iran under an agreement signed in Moscow on Tuesday between subsidiaries of the two countries' state atomic agencies.

The agreement precedes a Nov. 24 deadline for a deal at talks between Iran and world powers that would curb Tehran's nuclear program, which the West says may be aimed at building atomic weapons but Iran says is for peaceful purposes.

Russia, which is involved in those talks, will also cooperate with Tehran on developing more nuclear power units in Iran, and consider producing nuclear fuel components there, according to a memorandum signed by the heads of the state atomic bodies, Sergey Kirienko of Russia's Rosatom and Ali Akbar Salehi of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI).

Iran already runs one Russian-built reactor in its Bushehr power plant.

Reporting by Andrei Kuzmin, Writing by Gabriela Baczynska, editing by Timothy Heritage

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White House recognizes “Everybody Dance” arts program

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The White House honored the L.A. based arts program “Everybody Dance” yesterday with the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, the nation's highest honor in that category. First Lady Michelle Obama presented the award to “Everybody Dance” founder Liza Bercovici, who created the inner-city youth program as part of the Gabriella Axelrad Education Foundation, an organization she founded in memory of her 13-year-old daughter who was tragically killed in a biking accident while vacationing with her family in 1999. 

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http://www.jewishjournal.com/the_mensch_list/article/from_grief_a_dream_realized_20101222 

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