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Jewish Journal

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March 24, 2015

Arugula Matzo Lasagna

Leave a Comment / Holidays /

Ingredients

  • 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 small onion, chopped
  • 6 cloves garlic, 3 minced and 3 sliced thinly
  • 1 medium-size carrot, peeled and minced
  • 1 to 2 sprigs fresh oregano or thyme (optional but nice)
  • 1⁄4 cup red wine of choice (optional)
  • 1 (23- to 28-ounce) container tomato puree
  • 1⁄2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 bunches arugula, washed thoroughly, stemmed, and spun dry (about 8 cups), or equal amounts of spinach
  • 1⁄2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (add up to 1 teaspoon if you like heat)
  • 1⁄4 cup unsalted walnuts
  • 1⁄2 cup 2% or full-fat cottage cheese
  • 1⁄8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
  • 8 unsalted matzos (less than 1 box)
  • 1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
  • 10 to 12 ounces mozzarella cheese, sliced or shredded

tools: 12-inch skillet or wok, food processor, 9 by 13-inch baking dish

Make the marinara sauce: In a medium-size saucepan, heat 2 table- spoons of the olive oil over medium heat, then add the onion, the minced garlic, and the carrot, cooking until slightly softened, about 5 minutes. Add the herbs and wine, if using; cook until the wine is reduced by half. Stir occasionally to minimize sticking.

Add the tomato puree and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat, so the sauce can simmer over low heat. Cover the pot and cook for about 30 minutes; remove the herb sprigs and add salt and pepper to taste. Keep warm until ready to assemble the lasagna.

Meanwhile, make the arugula filling: Divide the arugula in half and place in two bowls. At first, it will seem like an excessive amount of greens, but it will all be put to use. 

Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a 12-inch skillet or wok over medium-high heat and add half of the arugula, and the 3 cloves of garlic sliced thinly. With tongs, turn the arugula to coat it with the oil; it will wilt (and shrink) rather quickly. Cook for about 2 minutes.

Transfer the cooked arugula mixture to the bowl of a food processor. Add the remaining uncooked arugula, red pepper flakes, and walnuts to the food processor, in batches if necessary. Whiz until the mixture becomes an emerald green puree. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil and whiz for another minute or so. Add the 1⁄2 teaspoon of salt and whiz for a few seconds. Taste, adjust the salt as needed, and add black pepper as you see fit.

Remove the blade from the food processor and measure out 1 cup of the puree. Transfer to a medium-size mixing bowl. (You will have about

3⁄4 cup of leftover puree; store in the fridge in an airtight container and use within 2 days as a sandwich spread, over rice, or devoured with an egg. It’s a wonderful cook’s treat.)

Rinse out and wipe dry the bowl of the food processor and place the cot- tage cheese in the bowl. Process until completely blended and smooth; it will look like sour cream. Transfer to the bowl with the arugula puree and stir together until completely integrated. Stir in the nutmeg.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. 

Before assembly, it’s a good idea to check how the matzos fit inside a 9 by 13-inch baking dish. (Two matzos should easily fit, side by side.) Grease the dish, then wet each matzo under a slow trickle of warm water to moisten. Stack the damp matzos and cover with a damp paper towel.

Spoon enough marinara sauce onto the bottom of the baking dish to cover its surface. Place a layer of matzos side by side, so that they’re snug, on top of the sauce. With a rubber spatula, spread half of the arugula filling on top of the matzo, covering the surface, and add one-fourth of the mozzarella and Parmigiano-Reggiano. 

Create a new layer of matzo, and this time, spoon in enough marinara sauce to cover the surface, followed by another one-fourth addition of each cheese. 

For the third matzo layer, spread the remaining arugula filling on top, followed by another one- fourth addition of each cheese.

For the top layer, place the remaining two matzos, followed by the remaining marinara sauce, spread evenly. Top the whole thing off with the remaining cheese.

Cover with foil and bake the lasagna until fork tender and bubby, about 50 minutes. Remove the foil and allow the cheese to brown for 10 minutes be- fore removing the baking pan from the oven. 

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Source: The Meat Lover’s Meatless Celebrations by Kim O’Donnel.  Excerpted by arrangement with Da Capo Lifelong, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Copyright (c) 2012. 

www.kimodonnel.com

Twitter.com/kimodonnel

Arugula Matzo Lasagna Read More »

My prayer for an incoming Knesset member

Leave a Comment / Opinion /

Mordechai Bar-Or, founder of KOLOT, wrote this on the election to the Knesset of his friend Roy Folkman, a member of the Kulanu party.

Dear Roy,

How exciting and moving to know you have become a Member of the Knesset!  You've entered into a difficult and complex situation during complicated times. Yet I fully believe in you. You stand for a public seeking a different leadership. Allow me to congratulate you with a few words:

I must admit that the weeks leading to the elections were hard for me.  As a society we have committed the “sin of (wrongful) speech”, reaching the lowest levels we have yet known.

There has been virtually no ideological exchange.  We heard nothing regarding vision.  Media consultants squashed any possibility of serious and difficult dialogues in which one sees the face of the other even when basic disagreements exist between them.

The elections showed us, once again, that we are reinforcing the culture of two camps within us.  In the days of the First Temple they were called “Judah” and “Israel”.  These camps had very different narratives.  And we know all too well that it was not the 'Iranian' enemy that destroyed our home… 

I am not among the celebrators in the “Judah” camp.  And yet, I do not find myself cynical or pessimistic as many of “Israel” feel.  What concerns me is the lack of soul-searching within the Israeli society.  I view a social/political difficulty as an invitation to assemble together, to view the “other” as a mirror of myself, for everything that happens to us as individuals or as a society are opportunities for inner learning and Tikkun.

In the first lesson of our “Kolot” group we studied a segment from the Talmud's Tractate Makot 24. The primary issue there led to a process by which the 613 mitzvahs were reduced to principles and pillars, a few pillars containing so very much.  This complex and fascinating process ends with just one single, intense and charged principal: “And the righteous shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk ch. 2)

This verse is supposed to contain the entire Torah.  Many are acquainted with the story of Hillel the Elder who, when challenged to teach the entire Torah while standing on one foot, answered: “What is hateful unto you do not do to your friend”.  This was the very basis of the entire Torah, a clear and significant message.   But what is the meaning of “And the righteous shall live by his faith”?

We must understand the background of Habakkuk's book.  Habakkuk lived during the destruction of the Assyrian reign, some twenty three years before the destruction of the First Temple. Like all the Jews around him, Habakkuk hoped that they may enjoy a few years of tranquility following the terrible cruelties inflicted by the Assyrians.  However the Babylonian reign proved even harsher than its predecessor, leading Habakkuk to express his deep grievances.  In the first chapter he protests before and against God:  “How long, O Lord, shall I cry, and Thou wilt not hear? I cry out unto Thee of violence, and Thou wilt not save.  Why dost Thou show me iniquity, and beholdest mischief? And why are spoiling and violence before me, so that there is strife, and contention ariseth” (ch.1 v.2, 3).  The chapter continues with Habakkuk's harsh retorts to God about a historical event which seems unfair in the prophet's eyes.

So what do you do in times of deep frustration?  When political moves make no sense? What can we do with feelings of injustice?  The beginning of chapter 2 clarifies: “And the Lord answered me, and said: 'Write the vision, and make it plain… that a man may read it swiftly.   For the vision is yet for the appointed time… though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not delay…and the righteous shall live by his faith. ' ” (ch.2 verses 2-3)

It seems that for quite a long time the Israeli society has been moving along without a vision.  We have many leaders who believe they have solutions to our problems.  What we need are the Prophets; people who ask:  “for what purpose?  Why live, and even die, in Israel of 2015? In other words, in hours of hardship and moments of uncertainty our job is to write a vision.  A clear vision, so that anyone “may read It swiftly” and distinctly.  Our job is to give direction, a new compass of our reality.  Then, and only then, will we find purpose for our complex lives – and indeed live.  When an individual or society has no such purpose or mission each hardship brought on by destiny or by a bleak reality leads to despair. 

“This is what I have once called an endless ideal. And really I think that Zionism will not cease to be an ideal, even after we finally live in our land, the land of Israel. Because Zionism, as I understand it, incorporates not only the desire to acquire a safe country for our miserable nation, but also the desire for moral and spiritual improvement.” Herzl, “Our Hope”

We must write a vision for the next chapter of Zionism.  We can't satisfy ourselves with the ambiguous and unresolved slogan: a “Jewish – Democratic” state.  We must imagine the face of the State of Israel and start working in light of this vision.

Our Torah can lead us in appreciating that the mission of the Jewish society includes:

–      Understanding that the blessing of powerfulness after two thousand years of Diaspora encompasses an absolute moral duty towards the weak and the other, the Jew and the minorities within us.

–      Allowing for a culture of debate and argument. Viewing the face of my contender as a vital element.

–      Appreciating that the gift of wealth is essentially a great commitment towards those without.  We cannot allow such gaps between the poor and the rich.  The lust for money, which has overtaken large segments of our society, also reveals cravings of the lowest nature.

–      Acknowledging that the power of speech is among the greatest assets of humans.  Evil speech and slander, gossip and cynicism as well as absolute submission to media consultants – all these are not truly essential, even in the 21st century.  Correct and authentic speech can create an entire world and can bring about a new face to our reality.

–      Accepting that there is room for forgiveness, for believing that personal Tikkun is the root of life and the greatest of freedoms.

–      Learning that Shmita is an invitation to recognize that every hold on the land depends on the ability to let it go.  And that this may give us an opening for a new form of discussion related to the land of contention, that which we call the Land of Israel.

–      Every leader must remember that s/he represents and stands for the public.  In every given moment.  And shall not gather around him “horses, women and gold”

So that we shall say clearly and simply: In this place –the land of Israel, there is an atmosphere of true sacredness.

The list can go on yet the dialogue must begin.  We must create a discourse on our purpose – now and here.

Two years ago I put my faith in the agreements between Lapid and Bennet, Piron and Shaked.  I thought there might be some potential for a new form of cooperation, between “Judah” and “Israel”/ It blew up in my face.  Today, following the last elections I understand that without a common vision, without a shared narrative we cannot establish a true covenant.  This requires a great deal of work.  We have no choice but to roll up our sleeves and begin.

“A generation that grew apart from Judaism lacks the [internal] unity in that it cannot rely on the past and cannot look forward to the future. So we will reconvene into Judaism and never allow ourselves again to be thrown out of this fortress … We too want to work to improve the conditions in the world, but we want to do this as Jews, not as people without a clear identity… In this way we shall get back our lost inner wholeness and, along with it, some character – a character of our own, not one that was forced upon us, borrowed by us, insincere – but a character of our own.” (Writings of Herzl, Volume VII, pp. 39-38)

We are living in extraordinary times in our people's history.  Never before could we choose, create, influence and thrive as we do today, as individuals and as a society.  

Roy, even with all the urgent matters which will come before you in the next Knesset, “write a vision“.  Lead a discussion on significance and purpose.  We will assist you and you have many friends and allies along the way.  With the tribalism of Israel which we see today we must do everything to be worthy of residing in the current Zion.  Between” Judah” and “Israel” lays a secret to be found, a story waiting to be told.  Let's begin deciphering it – within it is the source of life.

With wishes for success, a hug and great love,

Mordechai

Mordechair Bar Or is founder and director of Kolot.  Moti directed Mishna and Talmud studies at Pelech High School for Girls in Jerusalem and he directed Gesher seminars in Safed. He co-founded and directed Elul. Moti studied at the Alon-Shevut hesder yeshiva for seven years. He was born in the USA and is the father of four.

My prayer for an incoming Knesset member Read More »

Arab world disappointed with Netanyahu victory

Leave a Comment / Is Featured?, Israel, Live from the Arab Spring, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News /

This story originally appeared on themedialine.org.

Any hopes that the Israeli election would lead to a new initiative for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have been dashed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s election for a fourth term. The disappointment is especially acute among Israel’s neighbors, Egypt and Jordan, which remain the only two countries which have a peace treaty with Israel.

“This is Mr. Netanyahu’s fourth term, and if he was serious about a peace settlement he would have done it a lot earlier than this,” Marwan Muasher, a former Jordanian foreign minister and currently with the Carnegie Center for Middle East Peace told The Media Line. “I still remember when (former Israeli Prime Minister) Yitzhak Rabin came into office. It was clear from Day One that he was actively pursuing a peace settlement. Mr. Netanyahu has been dragged into negotiations every time.”

Rabin and then Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat signed the Oslo peace accords in 1993 – which laid out a framework for a comprehensive peace agreement. Rabin was assassinated in 1994 by an extremist Jew.

More than two-thirds of Jordan’s population are Palestinians, and hardliners in Israel have said that the Palestinian state should be created in Jordan, instead of in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“Netanyahu’s statements against a two-state solution set off alarm bells in Jordan,” Muasher said. “Jordan has long been concerned that if there are not two states, a solution could come at its expense.”

He said that despite the government’s frustration with Netanyahu, Israel and Jordan shared a fear of radical Islam growing and taking root, and would cooperate to stop that.

Palestinian experts say they were hoping that the Zionist Union, led by Yitzhak Herzog would win the election.

“Herzog and (former Justice Minister Tzippi) Livni really want to see a two-state solution and Netanyahu doesn’t,” Ghassan Khatib, a former Palestinian government spokesman told The Media Line. “I think that is the fundamental difference between them.”

Netanyahu caused waves throughout the Arab world when he backed away from a previous acceptance of an independent Palestinian state in the days leading up to the Israeli election. That zig-zag sparked harsh American criticism of Netanyahu and a promise to “re-evaluate” the US position. There is concern in Israel that will mean a decision not to back Israeli in international organizations like the United Nations. There has been speculation that the US will not veto a Security Council resolution that calls for a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders with land swaps.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told the liberal lobby group J Street that Palestinians will turn to international organizations like the UN because Netanyahu has shown that he is not interested in helping create an independent state.

“Netanyahu is not a two-stater,” Erekat said. “That is why we thought to ourselves, “what do we do to save the two-state solution?” and so we went to the United Nations.”

Israel has long said that it prefers a bilateral solution through direct negotiations and not to go through the UN, which it sees as biased against Israel.

Tensions between the US and Israel deepened further over a Wall Street Journal report that Israel had spied on closed-door conversations between the US and the international community over the Iranian nuclear program, a report the Israeli Defense Minister vehemently denied.

In the Gulf, analysts said they share a concern with Israel that Iran will become a nuclear power. There had been speculation that Saudi Arabia, along with Bahrain, Kuwait, and the UAE would support an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program if Israel decided to do so. However, it seems that the opportunity for an Israeli military strike has passed, given that Iran is now in negotiations with the US on a deal to curtail its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions being lifted.

Egypt, too, does not want Iran to become a nuclear power, fearing it could spark a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Egyptian and Israeli ties remain close, with intense security cooperation. Yet journalist and analyst Hisham Kassem says that the continuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict means that the Egyptian army must remain on high alert, and cannot refocus to fight the growing extremist Islamist terrorist threat in the Sinai Peninsula. Dozens of Egyptian soldiers and police have been killed recently.

“The army really needs to turn into a counter-terrorism force and it can’t do that as long as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues,” Kassem told The Media Line. “With all of the cooperation between Israel and Egypt, a war could still break out.”

Kassem said he was surprised when President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he frequently speaks with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. At the same time, he said, he does not believe that Sisi has called the Prime Minister since the Israeli election.

Arab world disappointed with Netanyahu victory Read More »

Steve King joins long line of conservatives who attack Jewish Democrats

Leave a Comment / Opinion /

This piece originally appeared on Right Wing Watch.

Rep. Steve King turned heads over the weekend when he scolded Jewish Democrats for not being sufficiently supportive of Israel. In comments first reported on BuzzFeed, the Iowa congressman said he does not “understand how Jews in America can be Democrats first and Jewish second and support Israel along the line of just following their president.” He later added that “everyone in the discussion knows I’m right.”

King’s suggestion that the vast majority of Jews in America are somehow bad Jews by voting Democratic is a regular talking point among Christian Right speakers.

Here is a look at other right-wing leaders who have denounced American Jews for daring to vote against the GOP:

1) Bachmann: Jews ‘Sold Out Israel’

Before leaving Congress, Michele Bachmann denounced Jewish voters for having supposedly “sold out Israel” by showing support for President Obama.

She told Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council that she found it “shocking” that many Jews “support the political priority and the political ambitions of the president over the best interests of Israel.”

2) Family Research Council Angry With Jewish Money

Like Bachmann, FRC’s Perkins has said that it’s “ironic” that while “the Democratic Party works against the benefit of Israel in many ways,” many Democratic members of Congress are “mostly aligned with a lot of the Jewish lobby” and “enjoy the money coming from the Jewish community.” He also criticized “liberal Jewish folk” for supporting marriage equality, which he alleged will somehow harm Israel.

Jerry Boykin, the group’s executive vice president, criticized American Jews for believing that Adolf Hitler was a leader of Germany’s far-right.

3) American Jews Are Simply ‘Confused’

Like Boykin, Sandy Rios of the American Family Association thinks that American Jews are simply ignorant or “confused.”

“The Jewish vote in this country is so confused,” Rios said in 2012. “So many of the Jews in this country are atheist and their hearts are with this president, at least their political concerns are with this president. They are with him on all the issues, you know abortion, all the things you might list.” She went on to say that while “most of the Jews in this country are far left, unfortunately,” even more dangerous are “Jewish atheists” who “sometimes turn out to be the worst enemies of the country.”

Rios has also claimed that “Jewish leftists in this country are eager to embrace Islam” and warned that “powerful Jewish forces” are out to suppress freedom.

4) ‘Self-Hating Jews’ Run Obama Administration

Conservative legal activist Larry Klayman marked Independence Day last year by blasting the “self-hating” Jews in the Obama administration who “lose no opportunity to distance themselves from their Judeo-Christian heritage in the style of Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky and indeed the evil Fuhrer Adolf Hitler himself, who many historians have concluded had Jewish roots on his father's side of the family.”

“These types of Jews, some of whom are present in the Obama White House to give Obama cover for his anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli acts and practices, are among the greatest enemies of the Jewish people,” he said, claiming that they help those “who are dedicated to [Israel’s] destruction.”

In another column, he went even further in criticizing the supposed “leftist Jewish influence” behind “anti-family institutions like gay marriage” and the “outright criminal behavior of the Obama administration,” writing: “I am more than embarrassed and appalled as a Jew to see my own people at the forefront of a number of scandals now perpetrated by the Muslim-in-Chief, Barack Hussein Obama, and his leftist Jewish government comrades and partners in crime. It is time for the great majority of Jews, who are honest law-abiding citizens, to speak up and play a role in helping to put these felonious liberal Jews in a place where the sun don't shine – meaning prison.”

He said that while the Jews who oppose such liberals are the “true Jews” who “police their own house and [do] not allow criminal behavior to go unaddressed, no matter what the source,” those who do not fight Obama are “more akin to ‘Hitler’s Jews.’”

5) Tom DeLay’s Message To The Jewish Community

Since leaving the House, Tom DeLay has refashioned himself as a Religious Right crusader, and has a message for the “liberal Jews, Democrat Jews in America”: ditch Obama.

He said that such Jews should “never forget that this president, in everything that he has done, he has tried to undermine Israel” and push Marxism on America.

Steve King joins long line of conservatives who attack Jewish Democrats Read More »

Why J Street loves Jim Baker

Leave a Comment / United States /

J Street’s youthful activists delivered a big chunk of conference time to James Baker, an octogenarian known for cursing out their parents.

Baker, who as George H.W. Bush’s secretary of state back in 1991 is reported to have said “F— the Jews” since they don’t vote for Republicans anyway, delivered a well-received speech to the conference Monday night that was interrupted repeatedly by applause.

A third of the 3,000 people attending the conference this week are students, born after Baker left government and with no living memory of Baker’s leaked riposte to a fellow Cabinet official who worried how Jews would react to a long forgotten piece of diplomacy.

But it would be facile to chalk up the admiration for Baker to short political memories, or to mere pranksterism — a tweaking of the Jewish establishment by inviting its bugbear, a supposed icon of heartland American hostility to the Jews, to be a keynote speaker. There are, in fact, two substantive reasons for J Street to cultivate Jim Baker: One readily on display Monday evening, and one that didn’t get mentioned.

First, what was not said: Baker, 84, is back in the news because he is a lead foreign policy adviser to his old boss’s son, Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor now angling for the presidency.

J Street longs to be associated with the word “bipartisan” the way white wants to join with bread in Baker’s home state of Texas, and yet the lobby remains overwhelmingly Democratic. Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) — he of Freedom Fries fame — a southern Republican whose eccentric conspiracy thinking seem drawn from all-caps newsletters, was one of only two Republicans J Street’s PAC endorsed last year, a match made for buffs of political exotica — the excitable embracing the eccentric.

Baker and the younger Bush represent a different universe entirely — the GOP establishment defined. An alliance with the Bush campaign would go some distance to erasing J Street founder Jeremy Ben-Ami’s famous quote in 2009 about being President Barack Obama’s “blocking back” in Congress, a comment that still haunts the group like a bad date who fell asleep on the couch.

The more obvious reason Baker got the room for an hour was his style: He and Bush stood up to Israel and the pro-Israel lobby and were proud of it.

As secretary of state, Baker embodied a robust diplomacy that unapologetically expressed American power — power not, incidentally, exercised solely against the government of Israel. Baker recalled at the outset of his J Street talk that his administration saw the first major defeat of Saddam Hussein, in Kuwait, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the liberation of eastern Europe.

And a week after Netanyahu appeared to have trashed the two-state solution, a month after he defied President Barack Obama with a speech to Congress, it was Baker’s standing up to Israel that excited this crowd. In his genteel homestate drawl, Baker described the crisis over the 1991 $10 billion in loan guarantees Israel wanted to help absorb a flood of Soviet Jews, and how it was resolved.

We asked for assurances from Israel that the loan guarantees would not be used in any way to promote settlement policies with which we disagree

I was told personally by Prime Minister Shamir that Israel’s friends in Washington had told him Israel could get the money from Congress, and as a result they would not agree to postpone their request for the loan guarantees.

After a battle royal on Capitol Hill, Congress ended up voting down a bill that would have granted Israel the loan guarantees over President Bush’s objection.

Translation: I stood up to a right-wing prime minister who was getting bad advice from AIPAC, and we won.

What’s for J Street not to like?

Why J Street loves Jim Baker Read More »

Israelis warned to steer clear of more than 40 countries

Leave a Comment / Worldwide /

Israel’s Counter Terrorism Bureau in its spring travel warnings called on Israelis to stay away from more than 40 countries.

Recent terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists in Belgium, Canada, Australia, France and Denmark raise concerns over additional attacks against Western targets, including Israeli and Jewish targets, by veterans of the fighting in Syria and Iraq who are affiliated with Global Jihad, including Islamic State, and by local elements inspired by the terrorist organizations, the bureau said in a statement.

The bureau warned Israelis to avoid visits to Syria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Yemen and Saudi Arabia — it is illegal for Israelis to travel to those countries — as well as Afghanistan, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Burkina-Faso, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritania, Pakistan and Togo, due to concrete threats. Any Israelis in those countries now were advised to leave immediately.

“The global terrorist campaign by Iran and Hezbollah continues to threaten Israeli and Jewish targets around the world, especially tourists and Jewish symbols (rabbis, community leaders, Chabad houses),” the bureau said.

The bureau also said there are high concrete threats regarding travel to Algeria, Djibouti, Mauritania and Tunisia, and basic concrete threats regarding travel to Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. There are continuing potential threats regarding travel to Azerbaijan, Turkey, Morocco, Oman, Kenya and Nigeria, according to the bureau, which recommends that the Israeli public avoid non-essential visits to these countries.

There are very high concrete threats regarding travel to southern Thailand, the southern Philippines island of Mindanao, Chechnya, the northern India state of Jammu and Kashmir, the Sinai Peninsula and northern Nigeria. A severe travel warning remains in effect for the Sinai Peninsula, according to the bureau.

The bureau said there also is a high concrete threat regarding travel to eastern Senegal.

The warnings were issued ahead of the spring holidays in Israel, including Passover and Independence Days, when many Israelis travel abroad. The warnings are based on “solid and reliable information, which reflect tangible threats, and which are based on the intelligence picture for the given period,” the bureau said.

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Pentagon notifying 100 U.S. troops threatened by Islamic State

Leave a Comment / United States /

The Pentagon said on Monday it was notifying 100 U.S. troops that a group claiming ties to Islamic State militants had posted their names, addresses and photos on the Internet and was calling for American sympathizers to kill them.

Asked about the kill list, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the Pentagon took “the safety of our people very seriously” and that the posting of the list on social media was the sort of “vile” behavior that caused the United States to be determined to defeat Islamic State militants in the first place.

Carter, speaking at Camp David after a meeting with Afghan leaders, rejected claims that the group, which identified itself as the Islamic State Hacking Division, had stolen the information by breaking into U.S. military servers, databases and emails.

“The information that was posted by ISIL was information taken from social websites and publicly available. It wasn’t stolen from any DoD (Defense Department) websites or any confidential databases,” Carter said, referring to the group by an acronym.

Navy Commander William Urban, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines had begun notifying the 100 named service members that their personal information and photos had been posted online.

“The safety of our service members is always a primary concern. We take all threats against service members seriously,” Urban said, adding that the notifications would take place according to procedures specific to each service.

Urban said the FBI was assessing the credibility of the threat to the service personnel.

The Pentagon would not publicly identify any of the troops on the list or where they were stationed.

The list first appeared on social media last week. The New York Times quoted officials as saying the list appeared to have been drawn from personnel mentioned in news articles about air strikes on Islamic State.

The group's forces control parts of Syria and Iraq and have been targeted in U.S.-led air strikes.

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Islamic State recruits 400 children since January: Syria monitor

Leave a Comment / Worldwide /

Islamic State has recruited at least 400 children in Syria in the past three months and given these so-called “Cubs of the Caliphate” military training and hardline indoctrination, a monitoring group said on Tuesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the children, all aged under 18, were recruited near schools, mosques and in public areas where Islamic State carries out killings and brutal punishments on local people.

One such young boy appeared in a video early this month shooting dead an Israeli Arab accused by Islamic State of being as spy. A French police source said the boy might be the half-brother of Mohamed Merah, who killed three soldiers, a rabbi and three Jewish children in Toulouse in 2012.

“They use children because it is easy to brainwash them. They can build these children into what they want, they stop them from going to school and send them to IS schools instead,” said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the British-based Observatory.

Islamic State declared a caliphate last year in territory it controls in Syria and Iraq and is being targeted by U.S.-led air strikes in both countries.

It has beheaded or shot dead Syrian civilians, combatants, foreign aid workers and journalists and has released videos appearing to show children witnessing or participating in some of the killings. The group persecutes people across sects and ethnicities who do not adhere to its ultra-hardline doctrine.

The group may be resorting to children because it has been having difficulties recruiting adults since the start of the year, with only 120 joining its ranks, Abdulrahman said.

This was partly due to tighter controls on the Turkish border, where foreign fighters tend to enter, he added.

Islamic State has encouraged parents to send children to training camps or has recruited them without their parents' consent, often luring them with money, said the Observatory, which tracks the conflict using sources on the ground.

At the training camps, the children learn to fire live ammunition, fight in battles and to drive, it said. Islamic State also recruits children as informants and as guards for its headquarters as well as welcoming children with birth defects into its ranks, the Observatory added.

Islamic State recruits 400 children since January: Syria monitor Read More »

Germanwings Airbus crashes in French Alps, 150 dead

Leave a Comment / Worldwide /

An Airbus operated by Lufthansa's Germanwings budget airline crashed in a remote snowy area of the French Alps on Tuesday, killing all 150 on board including 16 schoolchildren.

Germanwings confirmed its flight 4U 9525 from Barcelona to Duesseldorf crashed with 144 passengers and six crew on board.

The airline believed there were 67 Germans on the flight. Spain's deputy prime minister said 45 passengers had Spanish names.

Among the victims were 16 children and two teachers from the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium high school in the town of Haltern am See in northwest Germany, a spokeswoman said.

French police at the crash site said no one survived and it would take days to recover the bodies due to difficult terrain.

“It is going to take days to recover the victims, then the debris,” senior police officer Jean-Paul Bloy told Reuters.

In Paris, Prime Minister Manuel Valls told parliament: “A helicopter managed to land (by the crash site) and has confirmed that unfortunately there were no survivors.”

It was the first crash of a large passenger jet on French soil since the Concorde disaster just outside Paris nearly 15 years ago. The A320 is a workhorse of worldwide aviation fleets. They are the world’s most used passenger jets and have a good though not unblemished safety record.

Germanwings said the plane started descending one minute after reaching its cruising height and continued losing altitude for eight minutes.

“The aircraft's contact with French radar, French air traffic controllers ended at 10.53 am at an altitude of about 6,000 feet. The plane then crashed,” Germanwings' Managing Director Thomas Winkelmann told a news conference.

Winkelmann also said that routine maintenance of the aircraft was performed by Lufthansa on Monday.

France's DGAC aviation authority said air traffic controllers initiated distress procedures after they lost contact with the Airbus, which did not issue a distress call.

The accident happened in an alpine region known for skiing, hiking and rafting, but which is hard for rescue services to reach.

The search and rescue effort based itself in a gymnasium in the village of Seyne-les-Alpes, which has a small private aerodrome nearby.

Transport Minister Alain Vidalies told local media: “This is a zone covered in snow, inaccessible to vehicles but which helicopters will be able to fly over.”

But as helicopters and emergency vehicles assembled, the weather was reported to be closing in.

“There will be a lot of cloud cover this afternoon, with local storms, snow above 1,800 meters and relatively low clouds. That will not help the helicopters in their work,” an official from the local weather center told Reuters.

“DARK DAY”

Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr, who planned to go to the crash site, spoke of a “dark day for Lufthansa”.

“My deepest sympathy goes to the families and friends of our passengers and crew,” Lufthansa said on Twitter, citing Spohr.

French aviation authorities said the airliner crashed near the town of Barcelonnette about 100 km (65 miles) north of the French Riviera city of Nice, not far from the Italian border.

French and German accident investigators were heading for the crash site in Meolans-Revel, a remote and sparsely inhabited commune.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would travel there on Wednesday.

Family members arrived at Barcelona’s El Prat airport, many crying and with arms around each others’ shoulders, accompanied by police and airport staff.

Airbus confirmed that the plane was 24 years old, having first been delivered to Germanwings parent Lufthansa in 1991.

It was powered by engines made by CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric and France's Safran.

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Passing Over from Division to Cohesion after the Elections

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Shimon Shiffer of Ynet, Israel’s biggest newspaper, wrote that ” target=”_blank”>.” It is no secret that “Our nation is divided into tribes,” Shiffer wrote, and added that it is not the voters’ fault. I agree with him, and I would add that it is no one’s fault that we’re divided! But at the same time, it’s everyone’s responsibility to patch up the rift.

One of the readers of Shiffer’s column wrote that when push comes to shove, Jews unite. We’ve all seen how with each military campaign we somehow muster the strength to overcome our differences and face the common danger as one. At the same time, we should also note that our unity even in the face of tribulations is eroding. In last summer’s campaign, Protective Edge, the nation was not fully united behind the effort to protect Israel’s citizens more or less until the ground campaign began, weeks after the hostilities had started.

Now, less than a year after the (initially) contested military campaign, Israel and Jews worldwide are reeling from a polarizing and venomous elections campaign that looked more like an all out verbal war than a celebration of democracy. I think that urgent and serious introspection is required in order to reestablish ourselves as a sustainable nation. In view of the growing worldwide anti-Semitism, and the emergent anti-Israel campaign being touted by governments, academic institutions, and international organizations, I think we cannot afford to waste time arguing; we must unite our ranks, but especially our hearts.

This coming Passover is a great opportunity to begin to reinstate our unity. We normally associate Passover with family gatherings and a special seder (order) that we follow, reciting the Haggadah and eating the traditional Passover food. Somehow, we tend to forget that the Passover Haggadah also details an imperative element in the forging of our nation—the process of our unification that ultimately gave us our peoplehood.

We were declared a nation after we stood at the foot of Mt. Sinai “as one man with one heart” (as the 11th century commentator, RASHI, writes). But had we not been prepared for unity through the ordeals in Egypt, we would not have been able to unite right there, and our fates would have been very different. It is with good reason that the Talmud describes the offer we were given at the foot of Mt. Sinai as an “offer we could not refuse”: “The Lord had forced the mountain over Israel like a vault.” If we keep in mind that the name Sinai comes from the word, Sinaah (hatred), it becomes clear that Israel’s only way out of the vault was to unite through love.

Indeed, we had to unite “as one man with one heart.” But once we did, we were declared a nation, and were given the task to be “a light for the nations,” to spread the light of unity that had saved us at the bottom of the Mount.

Many days have past since then. The nation of Israel has dispersed throughout the world, and the task has been all but forgotten. But deep down, numerous non-Jews feel that the Jews are causing all the troubles everywhere, even where there are hardly any Jews. They express it toward the state of Israel, “the collective Jew among the nations,” as late historian Léon Poliakov said about the new form of Jew-hatred, but also toward Jews in general, as demonstrated by this ” target=”_blank”>Israel singled out at UN for women’s right violations.” The resolution was adopted by a vote of 27-2 with 13 abstentions, and Israel’s UN Ambassador Ron Prosor slammed the resolution saying it was further proof of the UN’s bias against Israel, as it was the only country singled out by the commission. “If anyone has ever doubted that the UN is biased against Israel, today we got further proof,” he said.

“Of the 193 member states in this institution,” he added, “dozens slaughter innocent civilians and impose discriminatory laws that marginalize women and yet they all get a free pass. The Commission on the Status of Women itself includes some of the worst violators of human rights, as Iran and Sudan.”

So this Passover, we must make it a point to pass over from division to cohesion, from hostility to unity. We are the nation that invented mutual responsibility, and we are now required to muster all of it, and show it to the world. Just as they now sense that we are spreading strife and disunity, they will sense that we are spreading the opposite as soon as we begin to unite.

If we unite not in order to save ourselves (although it is bound to be one of the outcomes), but to show the world how to unite above differences, how to climb a mountain of hatred, then we will truly be a light for the nations. The nations have no regard for any scientific or cultural achievements. The 2001 film, The Believer, expressed what more and more people feel today:

“Just take a look at the greatest Jewish minds ever. Marx, Freud, Einstein. What have they given us? Communism, infantile sexuality, and the atom bomb.”

The world needs something more now—it needs to find a way to unite because human society is falling apart. Since we, Jews, had once sustained such a society, and since we were once charged with the task of passing the knowledge of sustaining it to the rest of the world, the nations feel it is our duty to do just that. So this year, let’s really pass over from division to cohesion, not for the sake of remembering what the Egyptians did to us back then, but to redeem ourselves and the world from the shackles of egoism and liberate ourselves and the world in the festival of freedom from division and strife.


Happy Passover

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