This week in power: Drone attack, Republican vote, OWS uproar, Gadhafi penpal

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

Drone attack
Israel ” title=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/the-new-york-times-doesnt-know-from-terrorists/2011/10/29/gIQA39CzSM_blog.html”>she said. But The Washington Post hasn’t been telling the whole story either, ” title=”http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/palestinian-prez-caught-recognize-a-jewish-state-israel-article-1.970427?localLinksEnabled=false”>declared that he will never recognize a “Jewish state,” America must tread carefully with how it proceeds as an advocate of Israel. “We believe that Israel’s substantial contributions to U.S. interests are an underappreciated aspect of this relationship and deserve equal billing to shared values and historical responsibility as rationales for American support of Israel,” ” title=”http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/opinion/israel-and-the-apartheid-slander.html?partner=rss&emc=rss”>continued to walk back from his controversial report.

GOP vote
“House Republicans are putting the economic interests of Arizona ahead of the defense of Israel,”” title=”http://www.momentmag.com/moment/issues/2011/12/Opinion-Roseneberg.html”>said Shmarya Rosenberg in Moment Magazine. “By voting for candidates who are conservative on social issues and hawkish on defense and Israel, Haredim believe they are doing God’s will, and this is how most will vote unless their leaders tell them otherwise.” ” title=”http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/11/02/barricades-removed-near-struggling-restaurant-at-occupy-wall-street-protests/”>opponent of Occupy Wall Street this week has been Marc Epstein, owner of Milk Street Cafe which lives on Wall Street. Epstein revealed that his business numbers are so far down in recent weeks that he was forced to lay off staff. With some people ” title=”http://spectator.org/archives/2011/10/31/organized-ignorance”>worried about anti-Semitism in Zuccotti Park, others are fretting over the movement’s impact. “The dangerous attempt to assimilate the Jewish religious tradition and the radically leftist goals of many OWS protestors appears to be a goal of Occupy Judaism.  The group, which has emerged as a movement of those who are dissatisfied with Jewish institutions and synagogues, hopes to change Jewish religious practice from within,” ” title=”http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/81805/occupy-paris/”>Jewish history is an indication, this movement could prove valuable, though.

Gadhafi’s Jewish pen pal
A retired Jewish florist from Brooklyn named Louis Schlamowitz, 81, was a secret pen pal of the Libyan dictator for decades, ” title=”http://www.thejournal.ie/another-surprising-fact-about-muammar-gaddafi-he-had-a-pen-pal-269853-Nov2011/”>new details about the fallen leader. But Schlamowitz decided to stop their correspondence in 1988 after Gadhafi was incriminated in the Lockerbie bombing. This past spring, though, he wrote Gaddafi again that “if you don’t take care of your people, your people will take care of you.” He got no reply.