October 16, 2015

Ivanka Trump is her dad’s first lady

Leave a Comment / Culture, Election 2016 / Jewish Journal

Ivanka is to Donald Trump as Lisa is to Homer Simpson: brainy, composed and unflinchingly loyal to her outrageous and unpredictable father.

At least that’s the portrait painted in a Politico article published Thursday. The article explores the relationship between the Republican presidential frontrunner and the daughter who has managed to grow up gracefully under his glaring spotlight.

Last month, the article’s author, Michael D’Antonio, published the biography “Never Enough: Donald Trump and his Pursuit of Success.” Here, he draws from his interviews with Ivanka Trump, 33, to examine her affect on The Donald’s campaign.

When Fox News host Sean Hannity asked Donald Trump whom he counts on most, the real estate mogul first named Ivanka Trump. When entangled in yet another web of his own words, this time over questionably misogynistic remarks aimed at Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly in August, Donald Trump again invoked his daughter.

“So my daughter Ivanka, who is a terrific person, she came to me and she said, ‘You care so much about women, and you care so much about the whole thing with women’s health issues,’” he said in a profile in the Hollywood Reporter shortly after the controversy erupted. “She said, ‘You are really misunderstood, and you have to get the word out.’”

Privately, Ivanka Trump is said to try to shape her father’s opinions – or at least help him walk them back. New York magazine reported that she allegedly provided him with several statements to backtrack from his anti-immigrant comments, which he nevertheless rejected.

Publicly, however, she remains mum on his gaffes. She shrugged the Kelly incident off as “sensationalized,” saying it “didn’t interest me much.”

Her presence seems to have a humanizing effect on Donald Trump’s image, making his unsavory outbursts easier to swallow. Even those who write him off as a raving bigot would have a hard time denying that he managed to raise an intelligent, rational and compassionate young woman.

(Ivanka Trump’s ability to straddle both political parties in her private life adds to this sense of sensibility. D’Antonio points out that Trump has criticized President Barack Obama on Fox News but also fundraised for liberal Democratic New Jersey Senator Corey Booker, and is friends with Chelsea Clinton.)

Having grown up playing in her father’s office, Ivanka Trump now has her own one floor down. By 16 she had launched a modeling career but pivoted in her 20s toward business, demonstrating sharp judgment, insightful and direct criticism and a placid demeanor — all in evidence when she joined her father as a judge on his popular reality TV series “The Apprentice.”

She is currently an executive vice president of development and acquisitions at The Trump Organization (focusing on Trump hotels and fashion-related enterprises), where her brothers Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump are also officers.

In 2009, Ivanka Trump converted to Orthodox Judaism for her nuptials to real estate mogul Jared Kushner; the couple now has two children. She has spoken about her religious observance and the influence of Judaism on raising her family.

Familial loyalty is something she clearly learned in her own upbringing. Trump introduced her father when he announced his candidacy in June, a duty often assumed by a candidate’s spouse. If the campaign is any indication, she might serve as a de facto first lady in a Donald Trump White House. Trump’s current wife, Melena Knauss, has mostly taken a backseat on the campaign trail thus far.

Perhaps recognizing the scrutiny and obligations that a Trump presidency would inflict on her and her family, Ivanka Trump hedged on a question about whether she is happy about his run for the presidency. Speaking at the Fortune Most Powerful Women summit in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, she said, “As a citizen, I love what he’s doing. As a daughter, it’s obviously more complicated.”

Ivanka Trump is her dad’s first lady Read More »

The Violence in Israel — The Heart of the Matter

Leave a Comment / Judaism, Mobile / Rabbi Mordecai Finley

The Violence in Israel: The Heart of the Matter
Seeking the Good 15 October 2015

The tragic upsurge in violence in Israel sometimes causes people who do not really understand what is happening to say things like “they’re both crazy.” Here is the first thing we have to realize: both sides are sane.

These words are for those who would like to know more, the basics. Obviously, I have a bias. I am Jewish, a Zionist (I support Israel’s right to exist), the husband of an Israeli and the father of two children (and two grandchildren) who live in Israel. I am also, however, trained in ethics. A person train in ethics tries to understand what is at the heart of a moral issue. At the heart of the issue here is Zionism: the right of Israel to exist.

The Jews were exiled by the Romans from the land of Judea (which the Romans later called Palestine) in the years between about 70 and 135 CE (AD). An essential part of the Jewish religion, though, has emphasized the eventual return to Zion – a word that refers to a hill in the Jerusalem area, and also Jerusalem itself, and also to the land of Israel and then the State of Israel. Jews began to return finally during the time of the Turkish (Ottoman) Empire, from about the 1880’s to the early 1900’s. They bought land from landowners with the permission of the Turkish government. England took over the region that was called Palestine in 1917, after having defeated the Turks in the First World War. There was great Jewish immigration with the approval of England. Arab Palestinians largely resented the influx of Jews.

I think that this is the core issue – the influx of Jews, and resentment of Arab Palestinians (Jews who lived in Palestine at the time were also called Palestinians). The Arab/Muslim world, in general, does not think that Jews had the right to emigrate from the countries they were living in to live in Palestine. The Jews who moved to what they called Zion, of course, felt they had the every right to do so (especially after the Holocaust and after Arab countries expelled Jews once Israel was established). The governments of Turkey and England, who ruled the land, extended that right. In 1947, the newly formed United Nations affirmed that right when it partitioned the land called Palestine into two sections, Jewish Palestine (which came to be called Israel) and Arab Palestine.

The Arabs, of course, felt that the UN had no right to grant the part of the land where Jews were living to the Jews. Once the British pulled out and the State of Israel was established on May 14th, 1948, local Palestinian militias, as well as several Arab states (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia) declared war on Israel and invaded. Volunteers came in from across the Arab world to destroy the newly formed Jewish state. From the Arab/Muslim perspective, the Jews had no right to be there, and the State of Israel had no right to exist. They were going to destroy it. The UN proclaimed State of Israel was never recognized.

Israel won its War of Independence of 1948 in the sense that Israel was not destroyed. The cease-fire lines agreed on in January 1949 were never, however, considered international borders by the Arabs. For the Arabs, the war continued. It never ended. The Jews had no right to be there and the State of Israel has no right to exist. Interestingly and tragically, in the area of Palestine that remained under Arab control no Palestinian state was established. Jordan took over the West Bank and Egypt took over the Gaza strip. The golden opportunity to proclaim a Palestinian state was missed. Arab Palestine remained under Jordanian and Egyptian occupation until the Six Days War in 1967.

Back to the issue at hand: Even in nations that have peace treaties with Israel, such as Egypt and Jordan, a large percentage of the population does not believe that Israel should exist. Peace treaties are seen as temporary. Israel must be destroyed.

For those confused by the issue, the simple truth expressed here is essential. Whatever is grabbing the headlines, whatever the recent issue is, it comes down to this: does the State of Israel have the right to exist? If not, then, from the point of Hamas, for example, every Israeli Jew may/must be killed, if not every Jew. You can see this commitment to Israel’s destruction all over the Internet, including You Tube.

Even if a final border between Jewish Palestine (Israel) and Arab Palestine is worked out, and even if the problem of dividing up Jerusalem is solved, it will be considered by most of the Arab/Muslim world to be a defeat. Any treaty signed would be largely begrudged. For many Muslims/Arabs, signing any peace treaty with Israel under any circumstances will be considered the height of perfidy and treachery.

How does one decide who is right and who is wrong? Whether Jews have the right to be there, or whether the Arabs/Muslims have the right to destroy Israel cannot be decided by any objective criterion that I know of.

If you believe that Israel has the right to exist, then questions about the borders, the area of the Arab Palestinian state, the settlements, Jerusalem, the security of Israel, come next. If you do not believe that Israel has the right to exist and that the Jews there must leave or be killed, then nothing Israel does will be right.

Both sides are sane. The Palestinian Authority wants the State of Israel, as a Jewish state, gone. Short of that, they want Jerusalem and as large a Palestinian State as they can get. The recent upsurge in violence is war – a war for Jerusalem and a Palestinian state. The Palestinian Authority (just short of a state government), as well as Hamas (which rules the area of Palestine called the Gaza strip), is encouraging Palestinians to attack Israelis. This is the way a country without an army wages war: encourage civilians to attack. I imagine that the goal of all of this is to force Israel back to the bargaining table, and make Israel willing to give up the old city of Jerusalem, to pull back to the armistice lines of 1949, lines that will become the borders of a Palestinian state. Israel must also accept into its nation several million Palestinians descended from those who left what is now Israel 70 years ago.

These are not crazy demands: there are entirely sane from the viewpoint of many Palestinians and many if not most in the Arab/Muslim world.

Israel will not accede to these demands. Israel will not give up Jerusalem, will not move back to the virtually indefensible January 1949 armistice lines, and will not accept several million Palestinians into the state of Israel. I don’t think Israelis, right now, are much in favor of Palestinian state all. Israelis are sane, too, from their perspective.

Israelis look at the one place where Palestinians have self-rule, the Gaza strip, as the example of what will happen if/when a Palestinian state is established. It will be become a state devoted to hatred of Israel and hatred of Jews. A Palestinian state on the West and in Jerusalem might be taken over by Hamas or Islamic State. Then what?

Israelis are sane. They want to live and they want to have their country. They are in no hurry to see a Palestinian state established, a state that would likely be devoted to destroying Israel – rightly so, according to some large number of Arabs/Muslims.

Arabs attacking Jewish Israelis is sane, in terms of their end plan. They want to force Israel to move back to indefensible borders, take over east Jerusalem, and have millions of Palestinians move into the state of Israel. They have gone to war to achieve those ends. Murdering Israelis is how they are conducting this war.

Of course, Israelis defending themselves is sane, from their perspective, as well as their wanting to limit the size and power of any Palestinian state.

The situation is tragic.

My opinion: Israel will eventually tamp down this violence, and/or the Arab Palestinians will eventually accept temporary defeat. The aftermath will be a lot worse for Arab Palestinians and Israeli Arabs. Things will get worse no matter what.

Between now and then, as Arabs attack and Israelis defend, a lot of people will die, to no purpose, other than the one being preached from many mosques in the region: the simple goal of killing as many Jews as possible, because hatred of Jews, and as a way, futile, to get Israel to buckle.

The Violence in Israel — The Heart of the Matter Read More »

Remember the Refugees

Leave a Comment / Blogs / Rabbi Robin Podolsky

Update: The great new doc I reviewed last time, “>Pico-Union Project founded by Craig Taubman. (Please find a reason to check it out. The Project, housed in Sinai Temple’s first home at Valencia and 11th Street, an amazing building with a huge pipe organ built into the wall, is home to a Jewish congregation, Women’s Mosque America and two Christian communities, and it regularly hosts and produces concerts, classes and other events that showcase the simmering cultural stew that is Los Angeles.)

On Sunday, the Project hosted“>The Markaz, a center for expressing the multiplicity of Middle Eastern cultural heritage in L.A. which aims to, “champion[s] a greater understanding of the Middle East and North Africa by presenting artistic and educational programs that bridge political and religious divides.” Soup for Syria offered scrumptious food and a most excellent concert featuring music from Northern Africa, South Asia and the Middle East, our enjoyment of which benefited the Remember the Refugees Read More »

Hundreds of Israeli Jews and Arabs form ‘human chain’ in call for peace

Leave a Comment / Israel / Jewish Journal

Approximately 300 Jews and Arabs held hands in a chain in the central Galilee to call for reconciliation amidst the violence in Israel over the past few weeks.

The symbolic gathering on Friday afternoon was organized by Givat Haviva, an educational organization that promotes Arab-Jewish coexistence.

The group of Arabs and Jews assembled and held hands on both sides of the highway Road 65, near the Megiddo Junction in Wadi Ara, an area in the Galilee with a large Arab population.

Organizers called the event “a symbol of coexistence and shared life, specifically at this tense period,” according to the Times of Israel.

After the event, entitled “Choosing to Engage,” Givat Haviva held a small ceremony with discussions.

Givat Haviva issued a declaration before the event titled “Call for a Secure and Shared Life in Israel” that condemned “any attack on body, soul or property, as well as any expression of physical or verbal abuse.”

“We appeal to the leaders of both peoples to refrain from incitement and the ferment of emotions,” the statement read. “Our task at this time is to inspire calm and ensure public safety.”

The declaration was signed by seven mayors of Jewish and Arab municipalities in the Wadi Ara area.

Hundreds of Israeli Jews and Arabs form ‘human chain’ in call for peace Read More »

U.S. confirms Iran tested nuclear-capable ballistic missile

Leave a Comment / Iran Deal, Is Featured?, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, Worldwide / Jewish Journal

The United States has confirmed that Iran tested a medium-range missile capable of delivering a nuclear weapon, in “clear violation” of a United Nations Security Council ban on ballistic missile tests, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.

“The United States is deeply concerned about Iran's recent ballistic missile launch,” the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said in a statement.

“After reviewing the available information, we can confirm that Iran launched on Oct. 10 a medium-range ballistic missile inherently capable of delivering a nuclear weapon,” she said. “This was a clear violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1929.”

The United States is preparing a report on the incident for the Security Council's Iran Sanctions Committee and will raise the matter directly with Security Council members “in the coming days,” Power said.

Council diplomats have told Reuters it was possible to sanction additional Iranian individuals or entities by adding them to an existing U.N. blacklist. However, they noted that Russia and China, which have opposed the sanctions on Iran's missile program, might block any such moves.

“The Security Council prohibition on Iran's ballistic missile activities, as well as the arms embargo, remain in place,” Power said. “We will continue to press the Security Council for an appropriate response to Iran's disregard for its international obligations.”

Ballistic missile tests by Iran are banned under Security Council resolution 1929, which was adopted in 2010 and remains valid until a nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers goes into effect. Under that deal, reached on July 14, most sanctions on Iran will be lifted in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.

The missile test is not a violation of the nuclear deal, which focuses on Iran's atomic program, U.S. officials have said. Speaking to reporters in Washington, President Barack Obama acknowledged that the nuclear deal does not fully resolve all areas of dispute with Tehran.

“So we are going to have to continue to put pressure on them through the international community,” he said.

Once the deal takes effect, Iran will still be “called upon” to refrain from undertaking any work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons for a period of up to eight years, according to a Security Council resolution adopted in July.

Countries would be allowed to transfer missile technology and heavy weapons to Iran on a case-by-case basis with council approval.

However, in July a U.S. official called this provision meaningless and said the United States would veto any suggested transfer of ballistic missile technology to Iran.

On Sunday, the United States, the European Union and Iran are expected to announce a series of measures to comply with the nuclear deal that will take effect once the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency confirms Iranian compliance with terms of the agreement.

U.S. confirms Iran tested nuclear-capable ballistic missile Read More »

Vicious cycle of terrorism is madness

Leave a Comment / Opinion / Jewish Journal

As I sit in my home in Jerusalem, venturing out only when necessary, shivering with each ping of the cellphone that alerts me to some new horror, I wonder how this place survives and how we come out of it on the other side of despair. I don’t have answers, I have questions.

How do children pick up weapons and strike innocent people on the street, at a bus stop, on their bicycles? Just kids, with ideas not fully formed, bred on despondency and humiliation; desperate acts caused by desperation. It’s hard to remember this when hour after hour there is another report on yet another stabbing, shooting, car ramming — not only in Jerusalem and other seam-line cities, but in the heart of Israel, in Raanana, Holon, Tel Aviv. It comes rushing back as in the past, the fear, the anxiety, a mother’s dread until her children return safely home each day. And the suspicion — everyone you pass a suspect.

How to maintain humanity alongside the desire for revenge? How quickly we become animals, kicking the terrorist who has been “neutralized,” lying on the ground amid shouts of “Kill him! Shoot him in the head, not the leg.” It matters not that the terrorist is a 13-year-old boy, and although he had just attacked another 13-year-old boy on a bicycle, he is still a child. What have we — what have they — become? What have our leaders offered in moral clarity and vision, denouncing and calling for moderation? What we do have is more power to suppress the powerless, more hatred to put down the humiliated. And yet, Israeli citizens must be protected: A 78-year-old man must be able to ride the bus with his wife without fear that two young men from the neighboring village will get on the same bus and shoot him dead. A child must be able to ride his bike without fear of landing in the hospital with critical wounds that threaten his life. Commuters must be able to ride the light rail to get to work or school without fear of being run over by a homicidal driver. This is legitimate, basic and essential to all citizens of a functioning society.

And what is this neutral term “neutralizing” about? That is what we call here the taking out of a terrorist. But neutral suggests without an opinion, not on either side, without judgment. The neutralizing of the attackers, of course, is anything but. They are dead, and their neutral state is flashed across TV screens and social media posts across the territories and the region. They hold funerals where more and more young people rise up to cry for jihad and revenge.

How can this interminable conflict be so misunderstood by both sides? How can we all cling so faithfully to our own narrative, not just regarding historical claims but in the retelling of events now occurring? Reality has flown out of the window and some weird parallel universe has arisen whereby Mahmoud Abbas is seen by the Israeli government as the primary instigator, directing the terror at all times; never mind the declarations by Israeli security officials who say that Abbas is in fact trying to quell the terror in spite of inciteful public rhetoric. Or the Palestinian contention that the women and young men who attack Israelis with knives are innocents who were merely holding a cellphone or candy in their outstretched hands; never mind the videos taken in real time that graphically show bloody knives raised against unsuspecting targets. This vicious cycle of murder and lies only serves to deepen the black hole of hopelessness, creating an abyss so deep that no one can pass.

There are no answers; there are only tears. We are paralyzed by fear, existing in a fog of despair, unable to see how this ends well for anyone. As we approach 20 years since the death of Yitzhak Rabin, the only thing clear is that the assassin Yigal Amir murdered both the man and the vision for a peaceful resolution to this tragic conflict. For those living here now, and for the next generation of Israelis and Palestinians, this terrible cycle of hatred and murder threatens any hope for coexistence of any kind. Without another leader like Rabin willing to stand up in these horrendous days and state loudly the need for a political process, for an “intifada” of ideas and proposals rather than an intifada of rocks and knives, we will see more acts of terror; we will build more concrete obstacles to block off Palestinian villages; we will call upon more Israeli civilians to arm themselves whenever they leave their homes; we will watch more children on both sides become both victims and martyrs — and for what? This is not the Zionist dream.

Roberta Fahn Schoffman is Israel Policy Forum’s representative in Israel.

Vicious cycle of terrorism is madness Read More »

Palestinians set fire to Jewish shrine; Israeli soldier stabbed

Leave a Comment / Is Featured?, Israel, Lead Story, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News / Jewish Journal

Palestinians set fire to a Jewish shrine in the West Bank, and an attacker disguised as a journalist stabbed an Israeli soldier on Friday as tensions ran high after more than two weeks of violence.

Shortly after the arson attack on the tomb of biblical patriarch Joseph, Palestinian protesters threw stones over the border of the Gaza Strip at Israeli forces who fired back, killing two and wounding scores of others in the crowd, Palestinian medical officials said.

The worst outbreak in bloodshed in months has killed at least 37 Palestinians, including attackers and children in assaults and confrontations, and seven Israelis in stabbings and other attacks on buses and in the streets.

The latest round of violence has been partly fueled by Palestinian anger at what they see as increased Jewish encroachment on the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, holy to both Muslims and Jews.

Many Israelis fear it is building into a full Palestinian intifada or uprising while Palestinian leaders have said a Israeli security crackdown amounts to collective punishment that will provoke more violence.

Israel's military said about 100 people converged on Joseph's tomb in the Palestinian city of Nablus and set parts of it ablaze before Palestinian security forces arrived and pushed them back.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack on the shrine, venerated for centuries by Jews, Samaritans, Christians and Muslims, and ordered repairs and an investigation.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is ready to meet Abbas to help restore calm.

GLOBAL CONCERN

Underlining international concern, the U.N. Security Council said it would hold a special meeting to discuss the situation and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was due to meet Netanyahu in Germany next week, the Israeli ambassador to Washington said.

Hours after the shrine attack, a Palestinian posing as a journalist wounded an Israeli soldier with a knife before being shot dead near the West Bank town of Hebron, the Israeli military said.

Reuters television footage showed the Palestinian rolling on the ground and surrounded by Israeli troops after the attack. He was holding a knife and wearing a fluorescent yellow vest over a t-shirt marked “PRESS”.

The foreign press association in Israel and the Palestinian territories said it deplored the attack and called on Palestinian media organizations to verify all staff credentials.

The Palestinian journalists union said the knife attacker had no links to any media outlets and urged Israel not to use the event as an excuse to attack its press members.

In Gaza, the Israeli military said hundreds of people gathered along the border, some hurling rocks and burning tyres at the fence. A military spokeswoman said troops “are operating to prevent further escalation of violence using riot dispersal means and firing towards main instigators.”

Hamas, the militant Palestinian group which controls the Gaza Strip, had called for “rallies of anger and confrontations” on Friday in all West Bank cities.

“Our decision is to pursue the intifada (uprising) and continue the resistance against the Israeli occupation,” said Ismail Haniyeh, the group's leader in Gaza.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state, together with Gaza and the West Bank. Israel sees all of Jerusalem as its undivided capital.

The last attempt at negotiations stalled in 2014.

Palestinians set fire to Jewish shrine; Israeli soldier stabbed Read More »

[Video] Biased Coverage of Israel Exposed (Again)

Leave a Comment / Blogs / Noga Gur-Arieh

It’s well known by now that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is being misrepresented by the international media.

“>This, of course, reveals a very severe case of double standards, as similar acts of terror in other countries are being referred to as “terror attacks,” and acts done by other armies similar to actions done by the IDF are suddenly considered “necessary.”

“> Israeli media released footage of Manasra, who was reportedly “brutally murdered,” in an Israeli hospital, receiving medical care after being wounded while trying to commit a terror attack. “> and the images of the young boy in an Israeli hospital, to expose the double standards ruling some of the biggest media outlets, and demand a more balanced coverage.

GET HOME DELIVERY! CLICK HERE »

Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.