August 12, 2013

The US

Headline: McCain: Obama’s ‘slouch’ comment dismissive of Putin

To Read: Hussein Ibish writes about the Arab perception of American omnipotence (which stands in stark contrast to America's own feeling of impotence)–

 The new US feeling of impotence, or at least risk-aversion, is just as exaggerated as are Arab delusions about US omnipotence. There is much the US can do to help its friends in the Arab world, if only it would. But there is a persistent, crippling reticence to support those who share American goals or values, particularly if they are not fully trusted by Israel.

Arab anti-Americanism rests on two pillars: disillusionment and perceived betrayal by an ideal, combined with a wild overestimation of US power. Arabs therefore oscillate between yearning for American leadership and resenting American clout.

Quote: “When you have 400 plus members in a body of 435, asserting support for Israel and its security, that sends a very powerful message of unity, particularly in a Congress that has difficulty achieving unity”, Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer visiting and discussing Israel.

Number: $100m, Mitch McConnell's reelection bid is projected to become the first Senate race in history to reach the $100m mark.

Israel

Headline: Ministers okay list of 26 Palestinian prisoners to be released

To Read: Khaled Abu Toameh points out that when the Egyptians block entrance to Gaza, no one reacts nearly as harshly as when Israel is involved-

 Until recently, the charge that the Gaza Strip has been turned into a “big prison” had been made only against Israel, capturing the attention of the mainstream media and human rights organizations around the world.

But now that the charge is being made against Egypt, most international journalists, human rights organizations and even “pro-Palestine” groups, especially at university campuses in the US, Canada and Australia, have chosen to look the other way.

Residents of the Gaza Strip are asking these days: Where are all the foreign solidarity missions that used to visit the Gaza Strip to show support for Hamas and the Palestinian population? Where are all the press, human rights groups, activists?

Quote:  'Don't visit Mount until Temple rebuilt', Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, rabbi of the Western Wall and holy sites, reminds us of the Chief Rabbinate's stand on visiting the Temple Mount.

Number: 50, the number of employees which Maariv, traditionally Israel's second largest daily newspaper, is laying off.

The Middle East

Headline: Pro-Morsi camps prepare for crackdown

To Read: James Traub thinks that the Egyptian coup was a disaster-

 Morsy's single greatest mistake, in retrospect, was failing to put those fears to rest by ruling with the forces he had politically defeated. He was a bad president, and an increasingly unpopular one. But nations with no historical experience of democracy do not usually get an effective or liberal-minded ruler the first time around. Elections give citizens a chance to try again. With a little bit of patience, the opposition could have defeated Morsy peacefully. Instead, by colluding in the banishment of the Brotherhood from political life, they are about to replace one tyranny of the majority with another. And since many Islamists, now profoundly embittered, will not accept that new rule, the new tyranny of the majority will have to be more brutally enforced than the old one.

Quote:  “Those who do these things are determined to undermine the peace negotiations, are determined to force people like us to leave the negotiating table”, Palestinian chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, is unpleased about Israel's decision to continue building in the settlements.

Number: 74, the number of people killed by the wave of attacks in Iraq, perpetrated by The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an al-Qaeda front group.

The Jewish World

Headline: Nazi war crimes suspect Csatary dies while awaiting trial in Hungary

To Read: The city of Odessa has long been the stuff of Jewish Myth (book review by Jeffrey Veidlinger)-

Odessa is one of those cities that somehow never fails to stimulate the imagination. The myth of the city combines some of Al Capone’s Chicago with Louis Armstrong’s New Orleans, perhaps with a touch of Hollywood tinsel and more than a dram of Detroit decline. In many ways, it is a gritty port city that, in its late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century heyday, served as a gateway across the Black Sea from one decaying empire to another. The Ukrainian wheat that fed much of central and western Europe fueled the city’s mid-nineteenth-century expansion, but the port was also famous for its black markets. It was often said that cheats learned their profession in Pera — on the Ottoman side of the sea — and practiced it in Odessa. At the same time, this city of dreams lured hundreds of thousands of visionaries, romantics, and wannabes — many of them Jewish —  from the surrounding countryside, who turned to Odessa in the hopes of making it for themselves. In turn, they remade Odessa and much of Jewish history.

Quote:  “As times go on, we have to constantly evaluate what is the best response. Given that it happens, what’s the best way for the community to approach it? The last thing we’d want that person to do is to throw everything away just because they’re intermarried”,  Rabbi Menachem Penner, acting dean at Yeshiva University’s rabbinical school, discussing intermarriage in this interesting little piece. 

Number: 2, the number of times Jewish singer Eydie Gorme- who passed away on Saturday- won a Grammy.