This week in power: Israel issue, Turkey quake, Tunisia election, OWS anti-Semitism

A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:

Israel: Wedge issue?
The ADL-AJC’s initiative called the National Pledge for Unity on Israel encouraging people to put Israel ahead of politics as we ramp up to election season ” title=”http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/81445/is-israel-an-appropriate-political-issue/”>said Marc Tracy at Tablet. But some say that it conveys the wrong message. “We should welcome not only pledges of support for Israel from office seekers but accountability on the issue from those in power,” ” title=”http://biggovernment.com/jdunetz/2011/10/25/shame-on-the-adl-and-ajc-for-putting-progressive-politics-before-israel/”>said Jeff Dunetz at Big Government. “Jewish Americans, indeed all Americans are not as stupid as these groups think, they will see through the ADL and AJC attempts at stifling debate and putting their partisan progressive politics in front of the safety of Israel.”

Aiding Turkey
After initially turning down Israel’s offer of assistance after an earthquake rocked Turkey last weekend, Turkey ” title=”http://news.yahoo.com/israel-downplays-turkey-quake-aid-salve-ties-114342157.html”>said. It could be short-lived though, with another flotilla set to depart, ” title=”http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=243180″>called in a win despite failing to win a parliament seat during Tunisia’s elections this week. He achieved his goal of showing that non-Muslims can run in the country’s first democratic elections. What’s this mean for Tunisia’s Jews? “There isn’t an atmosphere between Jews and Muslims in Tunis,” ” title=”http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/22/nyregion/occupy-wall-street-criticized-for-flashes-of-anti-semitism.html”>anti-Semitism is rampant at Occupy Wall Street in downtown New York. These accusattions “produced alarm on the Internet, Jewish smoke signals alerting the ethnically twitchy to the presence of enemies and the demand that Obama, already suspected of harboring furious anti-Israel sentiments, do something,” ” title=”http://biggovernment.com/jdunetz/2011/10/21/the-anti-semitic-and-anti-israel-organizers-of-occupywallstreet/”>he said. No matter, ” title=”http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4099803,00.html”>a Ynet News article reported. “More than 100 of the 400 billionaires on Forbes’ list of the wealthiest people in America are Jews. Six of the 20 leading venture capital funds in the US belong to Jews, according to Forbes,” it stated, among other stats and details. But it may not last for long. Tablet’s Marc Tracy