The root cause

To: Ambassador Gutman:

Recently you made remarks at a Brussels conference which included, "an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty will significantly diminish Muslim anti-Semitism."

Have you checked with this Saudi textbook or with this cleric to ascertain the veracity of your statement?

England through the ages

Click here to listen to the opinions of the Republican candidates about Israel in last night's debate.

The following is an excerpt from a fascinating article in the book review section of the Weekly Standard which discusses Jewish history in England.

Emancipation, however, took another century and was not without further ironies. Himmelfarb focuses on the debate in 1847 over a bill to lift the last barrier to political equality: the ban on Jews sitting as members of Parliament. Lionel de Rothschild, elected for the City of London but barred from taking his seat by his refusal to take a Christian oath, became the occasion for a bill that was fiercely contested by the most eminent Victorian statesmen of all: Gladstone and Disraeli. Both supported the bill, but for contrasting reasons. Gladstone, still on the journey that would take him from High Tory to Grand Old Man of Liberalism, conceded Jews a place in the Mother of Parliaments only because their exclusion would be an anomaly after other non-Anglicans were included. Disraeli outraged many by asking how a Christian assembly could exclude those “who are of the religion in the bosom of which my Lord and Saviour was born,” and that consequently “every gentleman here does profess the Jewish religion.”

Read full article: http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/friends-indeed_610921.html

As of that day

In an apparent reference to the verse "next year in Jerusalem" that Jews recite at the end of the Pesach Seder and at the end of the Yom Kippur service, the Wall Street Journal has an article titled "Newt Year in Jerusalem."

At the Republican Jewish Coalition debate the other day, Newt Gingrich declared: "So in a Gingrich administration, the opening day, there will be an executive order about two hours after the inaugural address; we will send the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as of that day."

The presence of the U.S. Embassy in Israel's largest city rather than its capital has long been a sore point for Americans who sympathize with the Jewish state. But Gingrich is far from the first presidential candidate to promise such a move, a history that leads the Associated Press to produce one of its "fact check" articles. The dispatch, by Anne Gearan, is titled "Fact Check: Israel Embassy Promise May Be Empty." It exemplifies what is wrong with the "fact check" genre, so much so that it shows the AP literally doesn't know the meaning of the word "fact."
Read full article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203501304577088432910124466.html

Making the case

An EJU conference of Jewish lawyers and legal experts held in Brussels on December 2nd led to a decision "to establish [a] pan-European legal task force to combat anti-Semitism."

As is often the case, the media focused on the one speaker whose remarks did not sit well with many of the participants. H/T memeorandum

In an article titled Obama Fundraiser and Ambassador Blames Israel for Anti-Semitism (Update), Daniel Halper has the following update.
UPDATE: Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich responds on Twitter: "Pres Obama should fire his ambassador to Brussels for being so wrong about anti-semitism."

William Jacobson writes Can Israel Survive A Second Obama Term? Part 2. The article contains an excerpt from an interview with Charles Krauthammer.

What is important to remember is the fact that dedicated professionals took time from their busy schedules to come together and draw attention to a problem that must be tackled immediately. Let's focus on the positive that can come out of such an initiative and let us take the words of the slogan of the European Jewish Union to heart. "We are one people."

The words of Psalms

A few days ago YNET published an interview with Ilan Grapel about his imprisonment in Egypt.

In the holding cell Grapel tried to keep himself busy by exercising and in order to make sure that he didn't lose his voice he says he "hummed the songs I had heard at the youth hostel." He added: "I also tried to make every meal last as long as possible. I washed my hands before eating bread, that's five minutes and the blessing on the bread is another five minutes.
Read full article: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4154554,00.html

Chadrei Charedim reports that one of the songs he sung was a song by Kobi Aflalo with lyrics from Psalms.
גם כי אלך בגיא צלמות
לא אירא רע כי אתה עמדי
שבטך ומשענתך המה ינחמני

Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no harm, for You are at my side. Your staff and Your rod comfort me. (Ps. 23)

I found a clip of Kobi Aflalo singing the song and have posted it below. If you look at the video on YouTube, you will see that someone posted a comment in Hebrew about a person who truly rose from the abyss. That man was forced to dig a hole in the ground along with other villagers. The Nazis then proceeded to shoot the people and the young boy fell under the bodies. Eventually, he made his way to America and relocated to Israel at an old age, having succeeded to establish a family and live with the belief, "I fear no harm, for You are at my side."

Anti-Semitism in the parsha and the news

Judaism: Laban is the First Antisemite


Jewish lawyers establish pan-European legal task force to combat anti-Semitism

Interfaith dialogue and dinner

Larry Luxner wrote about an interfaith dinner that took place in February of this year.

...some 125 Muslims, Christians and Jews gathered at a Virginia mosque last week to enjoy traditional Arab food and discuss how to bring peace to a Middle East in turmoil.
Held in recognition of World Interfaith Week, the event took place at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society mosque in Sterling. Also speaking were Rabbi Michael Holzman of NVHC;
http://washingtonjewishweek.com/m/Articles.aspx?ArticleID=14371

At a gathering on November 21 for a session on sharia and halacha, participants heard words from Imam Mohamed Magid and Rabbi Michael Holzman. The article details the words of the Imam.

He described how, linguistically, "sharia" means "source of water," and encompasses not only the practice of Islam, but belief in God and the Scriptures, etc. "To believe in the Torah is sharia," he said.

So, was the food served at the interfaith dinner that took place in February kosher?

And here's a Kuwaiti preacher sharing his views on Jews to his captive audience.

Exchanges

The following is an exchange between a journalist and the Deputy Spokesperson for the UN Secretary General made during the December 1st briefing.

Question: [inaudible] sent a letter to the Secretary-General informing them of the NATO deaths on Pakistani border’s force in which 25 soldiers, 24 soldiers were killed. Although I know the Secretary… the letter did not ask the Secretary-General for any action, but does he have a reaction to this attack?

Deputy Spokesperson: Well, all deaths are tragic, and I think that is something that we all agree on. However, he has no specific comment on this issue because it is a military issue.
http://www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/2011/db111201.doc.htm

And for those of you who have read my last post, an exchange of emails has resulted in the author of the article acknowledging, "Yes. The wording should have been more precise.
Thank you."

For shame

I wrote a post a few minutes ago about what I thought was an error in a Torah thought that I came across this evening. I didn't mention the name of the author but quoted the relevant pesukim in the Torah. I published the post, but, after a minute, I had misgivings. Perhaps, someone would recognize who I was talking about. And I did not want to embarrass the author of the article. After all, I heard a rebbetzin speak about this week's parsha and she described that Rachel realized what she would be giving up in terms of being the mother of all of the twelve tribes of Israel, if she taught the secret signs to her sister that she and Yaakov had agreed upon. However, in her mind, not wanting Leah to be embarrassed was paramount.
And so, I deleted the post and sent the author an email instead. Perhaps the author is right and I misinterpreted the words. I am looking forward to a reply.

Taking care

Chadrei Chadarim has an article about a Palestinian who was freed in the Shalit deal who ended up in Hadassah hospital after being wounded trying to escape during an IDF operation.
Two people complained about how his shouting was disturbing the peace of the other patents.
The response of the hospital included the following words.
"Hadassah is engaged in providing medical care to all who enter its gates."

And they call Israel an apartheid state?

Here's a video I caught at a Chabad site about "What do you think about when making a bracha?"