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Jewish Journal

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January 17, 2016

The Only Way Trump Can Lose the Primary Contest?

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Former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards joked, “The only way I can lose this election is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.”

Donald Trump may be in a similar position—though in this day-and-age the second part of Edwards’ either/or formulation might be forgiven.

Previously, I thought Ted Cruz—who’s played his political cards this year with dazzling brilliance like a race car driver navigating through the perils of the wreckage at an Indianapolis 500—would ultimately win, as he added the votes of a faltering Trump to Cruz’s own core outsider/conservative constituency—but I no longer think so for two reasons. First, Trump has cunningly played the “birther” card to raise doubts, especially among conservatives, about Cruz’s presidential eligibility. At the most recent GOP primary debate, Cruz tried his best to cauterize the wound, but it is still bleeding. Second, Trump, unexpectedly, is becoming a more-and-more accomplished candidate—or demagogue—you pick your preferred term.

The debate about the debate focuses on whether Trump or Cruz won. Possibly, both did given their different goals: Trump to solidify his crossover appeal to disaffected Democrats and independents, Cruz to cement his appeal to Evangelicals and hard-core conservatives. The Iowa caucus outcomes will be determined by the interplay of these forces. If Cruz wins, the contest will play out, perhaps through the Southern primaries in March. If Trump pulls off a victory, despite lack of a conventional ground game in Iowa, he will likely run the table, winning New Hampshire, South Carolina, perhaps Nevada, and the Southern primaries on the way to the nomination.

What to do about likely Candidate Trump? Part of the GOP, including some conservatives, will vote for Hillary. More will sit home. On the other hand, Trump has the potential to make up for these losses with Democratic crossovers (though there aren’t nearly as many of these as there were in the heyday of “Reagan Democrats”), plus independents and new voters he may mobilize as did the mavericks Jessie Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Soon, it may be time to think about the unthinkable: what to do about a Trump presidency?

I hate Hitler comparisons, but Germany’s conservative elites, under President Hindenburg, tried the neutralize-and-coopt strategy as Hitler ascended to the Chancellorship on his way to fuhrerdom. It was less than a success, need I say?

Let’s hope that the neutralize/coopt strategy might succeed in making a Trump presidency less bad for our exceptional country.

The Only Way Trump Can Lose the Primary Contest? Read More »

Sunday Reads: Treating Iran as an ally, Israel’s diplomatic shortcomings, On Heschel and King

Leave a Comment / Israel, Israel, Middle East, Rosner's Domain, Rosners Domain-mobile, Worldwide /

US

Elliott Abrams isn’t pleased with how the US is treating Iran like an ally:

Once upon a time, during the Clinton administration, the foreign visitor who was invited to the White House most often–13 times–was not Tony Blair or some other ally; it was Yasser Arafat. We know what Clinton got for all that courting: nothing, and the failure of his Camp David peace efforts.

Such treatment of enemies, by Clinton then or Kerry and Obama now, and such treatment of allies never ends well. When the United States appears unable to differentiate between enemies and allies, it gets fewer allies and its enemies grow stronger. Iran is an enemy of the United States, which has killed hundreds of Americans in terrorist attacks over the decades since 1979 and most recently in Iraq.

Lee Smith is also unimpressed by Iran’s recent gesture:

In short, the regime with which the White House has negotiated the future of American national security is still a regime that takes Americans hostage. Unless you believe that hijacking a U.S. Navy boat, humiliating its crew, photographing them with their hands above their heads, and broadcasting their apologies on state television is a demonstration of peaceful, moderate intentions.

Israel

Mazal Mualem believes that Israel’s latest spat with Sweden shows the country’s diplomatic shortcomings:

The problem is not with this reaction, but with the fact that Israel does not have an effective foreign policy vis-a-vis the diplomatic tsunami it is facing. It has, instead, domestic policy and political interests of this or that minister or, sometimes, of the prime minister himself. Therefore, when it responds to harsh comments by the Swedish foreign minister, Israel’s reaction is emotional and wrong.

Nachum Barnea gives his take on Netanyahu’s unopposed rule:

Readers may ask: If things are so comfortable, why doesn't Netanyahu relax, why does he go from event to event, photo-op to photo-op, condemnation to embrace – why does he keep cultivating his cult of personality and encouraging anti-democratic steps? The answer is that utopia doesn't necessarily erase paranoia, not with Netanyahu and not with other politicians.

Middle East

A Syrian writer living in Raqqa describes the appeal ISIS has for the city’s locals:

Not counting bonuses, a fighter starts out earning about $200 a month — more than a family needs to live (a civilian like Saeed struggles to make $150). He gets additional money for wives, children, slaves and provisions, raising his potential monthly income to more than $500. If he applies for a house, the Islamic State will hand him the keys within two months.

These young men want to be listened to when they speak, and feared. These motives — “respect,” cash and guns — are turning ordinary young people into murderers.

Maxim Sukhov describes Moscow’s plan for the Middle East:

Moscow’s actions have managed to shift some Western elites’ perception of Assad, especially when contrasted with the rapidly growing threat of the Islamic State. While the Paris atrocities and the shootings in California helped make ISIS the primary concern, Moscow’s military operations in Syria firmly positioned the Kremlin as a leader in the anti-ISIS campaign. It has become clear that including Russia is far more profitable, both politically and operationally, than marginalizing it.

Jewish World

Jonathan Tobin writes about the plight of the Jews of France, for whom wearing a kippah is becoming increasingly dangerous:

In September, I wrote about the bad advice French Jewry got from American pollster Stanley Greenberg, who told them they should stop mentioning their support for Zionism and brand themselves as “French citizens” rather than “French Jews.” I believe such a strategy is tantamount to surrendering to the forces of anti-Semitism. Yet when faced with the question of whether members of his community should bravely assert their Judaism even if means risking injury or death, can we really blame those who decide to swap their kippahs for a more anonymous baseball cap?

Sian Gibby discusses a new film that explores the relationship between Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Luther King:

The prophets we have today don’t speak in King’s mellifluous rhetoric or write in Heschel’s enchanting prose. Maybe we have murdered or hounded to death those with the capacity to make our hearts soar with their words of justice and compassion; we’ve gotten pretty cynical, maybe too cynical for those kinds of voices. Our prophets now will have to be more cool (though certainly not detached), more pointed, more nimble, less grand, less moving. But given the length and resilience of our Jewish tradition, it is not too much to hope that we can still hear, and respond to, the ancient message of justice coming down through the ages, rolling, as Amos said, like a mighty river.

Sunday Reads: Treating Iran as an ally, Israel’s diplomatic shortcomings, On Heschel and King Read More »

Hillary’s and Bill’s marriage is none of America’s business

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It is no one’s business how Hillary and Bill Clinton have worked through their marriage challenges.

As a congregational rabbi of 36 years, I have counseled many couples as infidelity tears marriages apart. In those rare instances when the partners’ love for one another is strong enough and they are forgiving enough and repentant enough, some couples can stay married successfully and happily.

Marriage and long-term relationship commitments are often difficult. Most married individuals, at one time or another, are seduced or almost seduced to violate their marriage bond and commitment. That there were violations in the Clinton marriage is, frankly, none of America’s business. Whatever indiscretions Bill committed, Hillary staying with him does not make Hillary an enabler, as Donald Trump self-righteously and cruelly barked last week, but rather, it suggests that Hillary is a strong, forgiving and loving wife.

In reading Carl Bernstein’s excellent un-authorized biography of Hillary Clinton A Woman in Charge (publ. 2007), I came away with the sense that the Clintons are honest with each other, that they know each other exceptionally well, have made peace with each other’s frailties, and that they have enough together that they want to stay married. If that reflects a deficiency of character, then perhaps I have learned nothing in my life as a Jew and a rabbi. To the contrary, I believe that their suffering, reconciliation and ability to move forward together is a sign of strong character and abiding love.

When Hillary Clinton was a Senator, my wife Barbara and I spent 10 minutes speaking with her privately at an LA fundraiser. She had just delivered a sermon on Yom Kippur at a congregation in Los Angeles on the theme of forgiveness. I asked her what she said as I had just spoken on the same theme in my synagogue, and she looked me in the eye and explained that she loves her husband and despite the humiliation she suffered following the Monica Lewinsky affair, as a Christian she found it in her heart to forgive him, that Bill never wanted to lose her as his wife, that he loved her and she loved him, and that they had built a life together far beyond politics that they cherished and did not want to lose.

Bernstein discussed this dynamic at some length in his book, and it became clear to me, as I have learned counseling couples over the years, that everyone, including Hillary and Bill, is different. Every couple is different and every marriage is different. Those that survive threats to their marriage  become stronger and more committed to each other as a consequence and are to be respected, not vilified.

So – let’s stick to the issues of this important presidential campaign and judge the capacity of the respective candidates on the basis of their philosophy of governing, their judgement, temperament, perspective, experience, and understanding of the nation and the world, and decide based on those metrics what this nation needs going forward and not allow ourselves to speculate on what happens inside anyone’s marriage. Frankly, we don’t have a clue and it’s none of our business.

Hillary’s and Bill’s marriage is none of America’s business Read More »

Q&A: Nikbakht on Iranian regime’s war on Christmas & Christians

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With news of the release of four Iranian Americans held in captivity by the Iranian regime, including one Iranian American Christian pastor, I had the chance to sit down and chat with Frank Nikabkht, an Iranian American Jewish activist on the status of Christians and other religious minorities still living in Iran. Nikabkht, who heads the L.A.-based Committee for Minority Rights in Iran, shed light on how the Iranian regime launched a successful campaign of severely restricting the celebration of Christmas last month and the regime has even recently confiscated a church in Tehran to repress Christian living in Iran. He also spoke about the status of the remaining shrinking Jewish community still living in Iran today. The following is a portion of my interview with him…

 

From the news released from Iranian state-run media, it seems as if the Iranian regime has recently launched an all-out war against Christmas being celebrated in Iran, can you give us some insights into the regime’s behavior against the holiday?

Ever since the 1979 Islamic revolution, the Iranian authorities have had a big problem with any open display of alternative religious beliefs. According to the Shariah laws incorporated within Iranian civil laws, even the sound of church bells is illegal. Now Christmas, being a happy and colorful event, has always attracted the attention of people, and in particular the youth and therefore extra measures have been necessary to prevent open displays of Christmas. This past year’s Christmas sanctions, are part of this ongoing trend. On or about December 8th 2015, the Trade Development Organization, a department under the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade in the Islamic Republic of Iran, issued a list of 227 banned items from the United States.  Among the items which range from food stuffs to cigarettes, one encounters “things for Christmas celebrations”, which we can assume, includes items such as Christmas tree ornaments, lights, Christian symbols, nativity displays, religious pictures and statues.

 

An Iranian-American pastor was arrested and imprisoned in 2014 in Iran for supposed apostasy and has recently released. It seems as if the Iranian regime has been seriously cracking down on Christians and those who are leaving Shiite Islam for Christianity in Iran, what have you heard about this situation for Christians in Iran? 

The Islamic Republic of Iran, has routinely confiscated and burned truckloads of Bibles sent to Iran by Christians abroad for years, calling it “contraband”. Christian churches in Iran are under close scrutiny while lists of church members are kept in order to pick out Muslims who go to churches, or who are inclined to convert. The penalty for conversion out of Islam– which is considered as apostasy– is death. Ever since the Islamic revolution, Christian converts have been assassinated, even though more recently, they are given death penalties, but are not actually executed. They keep them in jail for long periods, in order to keep the community in fear and to have hostages to exchange with their agents abroad. This Christmas, there were several Christians in Iran jailed for their beliefs. Building new churches, or major repairs to existing ones is technically illegal, and subject to special permits by the Islamic governments. This is particularly meant to make sure the Christian influence and population is kept in check by the Islamic authorities.

 

I understand the Assyrian representative at the Islamic Assembly in Iran, who is Christian, has publically protested takeover of a church property by Islamic groups in Iran. Can you shed some light on the situation facing Assyrian Christians in Iran?

The Assyrians are being ethnically cleansed in Iran, while a lot of Iranians living outside of Iran are silent about it. The Assyrian representative has also said that the infamous ex-intelligence minister in Iran, now assigned to the special “Presidential Council for the Religious Minorities”, has washed his hands off the issue of the church take over, saying there is nothing he can do. At the same time, the Farsi language American government radio based in Europe called “Farda Radio” recently pointed out that Iran’s current president Rouhani has not honored any of his promises to the religious minorities, as we had predicted in several interviews at the outset of his charm offensive for the West, a couple of years ago. There are currently at least two major church properties in Tehran, taken over by Islamic entities supported by the government. Such takeovers are not uncommon and in addition to their economic impact, are extremely humiliating traditions, helping push the minorities out of the country.

 

How have the Assyrian leadership in Iran today been trying to lead the way for greater protections and rights in the current Iranian regime?

The Assyrians, are the same people who back in the early 2000s, challenged the un-equal “Life Value” of Muslims and non-Muslims in Iran. Other religious minorities followed them and finally had the Iranian Assembly act upon it. Of course the Supreme Islamic Guardian Council in Iran, declared equality of Muslims and non-Muslims under the law, as “un-Islamic” and voided the law. Later, some Iranian regime officials decided to make Muslims and non-Muslims “equal”, only in traffic accidents, where the difference between the life value of Muslims and non-Muslims would be paid by the insurance companies! This was then falsely advertised as the “equality” of all Iranian citizens, partly thanks to pro-Iranian regime advocates in the West. The Assyrians are also the ones who are being thrown out of Iraq after thousands of years in their own territories, mostly occupied by Muslim Arabs.

 

I’ve interviewed many Iranian Christians, especially younger people, who had in recent years fled Iran after secretly converting to Christianity from Islam. How common is this conversion in Iran today and is this a reason why the regime has been cracking down on Christians in Iran?

The new generations not only are espousing softer forms of Islamic practice, such as modern Sufism which is itself being persecuted in Iran, because it is a more personal form of Islam and is considered as a rival to the institutionalized Islam represented in the government. In addition, there are relatively large numbers of young Iranians- perhaps in hundreds of thousands- escaping Islam as a whole, and embracing Christianity, Zoroastrianism and other religions. While this is happening both inside and outside Iran, the Islamist government in Iran is cracking down as hard as it can on Christian converts who are considered as a non-stoppable phenomenon, if unchecked at this stage.

 

The Iranian regime’s officials repeatedly claim that they give equal rights and protection to non-Muslims in Iran today. You are very familiar with the current regime’s official laws on religious minority status in Iran, are their claims accurate?

From the very start, the Islamic Republic of Iran implemented policies aimed at “cleansing” their newly acquired territory– the country of Iran, of all non-Muslims, by reducing their rights to second or third class citizens and even non-citizens with no rights, in the case of the “non- protected infidels”, such as the Baha’i’s.

Some new laws which tolerated advantages to non-Muslim minorities in case of their population increase, were scrapped from the Constitution. Finally, pressures were gradually increased, properties were confiscated and even legal freedoms were limited, succeeding in ousting over two thirds of non-Muslims from their country. Non-Muslims were them placed under close scrutiny by the Intelligence Ministry and other institutions, in order to make sure they did not increase numerically and they stayed submissive to Islamic laws and Muslims in their vicinity. However, with Islamic pressures affecting most of the Muslim population in many other ways, the new Muslim Iranian generation began to seek other ways to get out of the humiliating and tightly controlled religious spaces and limitations imposed on them.

 

Can you please discuss how the rights of religious minorities living in the Iranian regime today such as Christians, Jews or Zoroastrians are unequal to those of Muslims?

As the law stands today, the value of life of a Muslim, also called “Blood Value” is much higher than others. This is the compensation due the victim or his “owners” in case of loss of life and limb. BY the way, even in the case of Muslim women, their life value is officially half of a Muslim man’s life. The penalty for murdering non-Muslims by Muslims is also much less, and can simply be bought by financial compensation, whereas the other way around, carries a possible death penalty. Traditionally, except for the brief historical period of the Pahlavi Dynasty, inheritance rights had been an important opportunity to gain Muslim converts. Such inhumane Shariah laws have now been revived in Iran. For example, the Iranian regime’s “Civil Code 881” states that an ‘infidel, or non-Muslim cannot inherit from a Muslim'. This is part of an age old Shariah legal code, which says that as soon as a non- Muslim, even a submissive Dhimmi Infidel—meaning if Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians convert to Islam, he or she will inherit all of the assets of the deceased parent. It has even been interpreted that the same applies to the larger family as well, like when inheriting a grandfather's assets. This ongoing problem, is a nasty source of family devastation during inheritance fights which is not uncommon, and is in fact imposed and implemented precisely for that reason: the devastation of non-Muslim families, and the conversion of the greediest ones and their descendants into Islam.

 

And what about the rights of Baha’is in Iran?

The Baha’is in Iran do not have even Dhimmi rights–  or some limited personal and civil rights for “recognized” religious minorities such as Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians under Islamic law. This means the Baha’is have no right to life and property in Iran, which is why their killers have been set free in the past, because legally, they have murdered people who had no right to life and property in an “Islamic land” in the first place.

 

What is the situation and status of Jews living in Iran today? The Iranian president Rouhani and Foreign Minister come to Western TV programs and claimed the lives of Jews in Iran are supposedly rosy. They even allowed a Jewish journalist from the Jewish “Forward” newspaper a visa to visit Iran and write about the situation of the Jews in the country?

Well, as they used to say during the Cold War– “refugees vote with their feet”. Ninety percent of the Iranian Jews, have left their country of 2,700 years and have settled in the United States, Israel, and some European countries. No bought off journalist, or duped self-deluding ideologue, can cover this up! When they mention the brutal but common pro-Iranian regime propaganda expression that “Iran has still the biggest number of Jews among all Middle Eastern countries”, they are knowingly hiding the fact that 90% of the Jews are gone, the rest are still in the process of leaving and that until the number of Jews has dwindled to perhaps 12 individuals, Iran will still be considered as the one with the “BIGGEST” number of Jews!

 

Do some Jews convert to Islam in Iran today to escape the persecution?

An important fact that the Iranian regime’s officials are hiding is that many Iranian Jews in Iran have had to convert to Islam in order to either secure their businesses, or to be able to marry Muslim women they loved, without the danger of being arrested and possibly killed for “adultery” – the legal definition of the act of marriage between a non-Muslim man and a Muslim woman, but not the other way around- a small detail about which no sell out journalist ever asks their Jewish subjects when they are in Iran. This is besides the fact that even the Islamist Turkey already surpasses Iran in Jewish numbers, which are sadly, also decreasing there.

In any case, the Jewish minority is under the constant threat of losing everything, due to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which is the closest emotional issue in Iran, and is often affecting Iranian Jews even in court rooms. In particular, during military conflicts between Israel and the Palestinians or the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah – which has more rights and privileges, than Jewish citizens – Iranian Jews are in serious danger until the conflict subsides.

Over all, the Iranian government uses the remaining Jews in Iran both as propaganda subjects – like when Goebbels filmed Jewish Theresienstadt concentration camp inmates to show how well the Jews were treated in the Reich – and hostages, reminding Israel that the “biggest number of Jews in the Middle East” can be harmed in a second, if the Iranian regime decides to do it. In fact, this Jewish vulnerability has been openly mentioned to Iranian Jewish representatives outside Iran, over and over by the Islamic Republic representatives who were trying to shut up the Jewish voice abroad and forcing them to be silent on anti-Semitic events in Iran.

 

The Western news media outlets larger claim Rouhani is a “moderate”, but since his supposed election to the presidency in Iran, has the situation for religious minorities in Iran today improved or gotten worse in your estimation?

Rouhani has not changes anything in Iran, much less in Minority Rights. What he promised to do during his candidacy and his “Western charm” offensive a couple of years ago, was against the Constitution as well as the Shariah, and he knew it too, because he is an Islamic jurist as well as a lawyer in Iran.

Q&A: Nikbakht on Iranian regime’s war on Christmas & Christians Read More »

Comedian Judy Gold talks family, stand-up, writing material, and more

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“>Part 1 of my Q&A with comedian Judy Gold, family has played a major role in her long-term success as a comic. Beyond her steady work as a headliner in stand-up clubs and theaters, Judy has hosted shows on HBO and Nickelodeon while also the star and writer behind a number of award-winning off-Broadway productions. She has been the recipient of two Emmys, one GLAAD Award and one CableACE Award, yet keeps plowing ahead with new projects, including her “>New York City's Carolines On Broadway, January 22 at Philadelphia's Prince Theater, the Caribbean Escape Cruise leaving out of Fort Lauderdale on January 30, and February 12-14 at “>www.judygold.com.

At what point in your life did you realize that it was beneficial for your career to have the relationship that you did with your mother?

Judy Gold: My very first jokes were about my mother. I never thought about our relationship in that way. My act was about what I know and my life and my mother was a huge part of that. She did often remind me that I would have no act without her and constantly asked me when she would receive her residuals.

Did being so honest in your stand-up and theatrical shows ever impact your family relationships?

J: Absolutely. My son Henry doesn't enjoy any mentions in my show, but the best was my Aunt Sylvia. She was my father's sister and not the nicest. When her husband, my Uncle Dave, died, she turned one of his belt buckles into a necklace. She showed it to me at my father's shiva. I wrote a joke about how after she showed me the necklace she said, “And these round ball earrings…” and I replied, “I don't want to know!” She heard the joke late at night on A&E and had a conniption. She called my mother screaming that one of the people in her development might see it and how insulting and embarrassing it was. She died a couple of years later. She had no kids. My brother, sister, myself and our four cousins were her next of kin. Our cousins split her $4,000,000 estate. We were written out of the will a few weeks after she saw me on TV. My brother and sister called it the “four million dollar joke” — and it wasn't even a great joke!

For someone looking to become a stand-up comic these days, what do you think is the most important part or quality for them to make any sort of living? 

J: The key to being a successful comic is to get as much stage time as possible. There is something you get from being on stage that you cannot get any other way. Do the work. Get out there every single night — it doesn't matter where or how many people are in the audience. All that matter is that you do it. That you write, perform and develop your point of view. It's a marathon, not a sprint. It takes at least 10, 15 years to know what you're doing up there. And don't ever compare yourself or your success to another comedian. 

Was there a mentor or someone who took you under your wing in the early days of your career? 

J: There were a bunch of people who were really good to me. Susie Essman, Joy Behar, “>The Amazing Jonathan, Margaret Cho, and of course, Rosie O'Donnell. I must say that Joan Rivers had a huge influence on me and still does. She was the kindest, smartest, warmest, classiest and funniest person I knew. I miss her — especially now with characters like [Donald] Trump and Caitlyn [Jenner].

At what point in your career did you realize that you were successful? 

J: That's a great question, and it's different for everyone. I certainly have not achieved all of my goals — not even close. But I do remind myself everyday that I have made a living and I continue to raise my sons doing what I always dreamed of doing. I have good years and bad years, but I am very grateful.