Profco http://www.jta.org/user/profile/4631 en-us zsilberman@washingtonjewishweek.com Copyright 2012 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 What is REALLY bad for the Jews is a lunatic like Orly Taitz being welcomed as a "rising star" in Israel, especially by the Channel 9 Russian racists. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 To paraphrase Martin Niemoller: "In Israel, they came first for the Arabs, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t an Arab; And then they came for the leftists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a leftist; And then they came for the secularists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a secularist; And then... they came for me... And by that time there was no one left to speak up." 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Fingerhut writes, "...for the first time in decades, a moderate GOP Jewish voice -- embodied over the years not only by Specter but also Rudy Boschwitz of Minnesota, Warren Rudman of New Hampshire and the late Jacob Javits of New York -- will be absent from the Senate." Two observations: 1) Moderate Republicans are an endangered species in and out of Congress, period. 2) Just because he is Jewish does not make Coleman a "moderate." (The same holds true for Eric Cantor.) Have a look at the articles and press releases on the website of the Republican Jewish Coalition, with which Coleman has already assumed a top leadership position: they're indisguishable from the worst trash broadcast by Fox News and by Rush Limbaugh. Then again, based on his apparent bias in nearly all of his articles for JTA, Eric Fingerhut is clearly more comfortable in the Republican camp as well. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 In 2006, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the plant $1,500 after a worker was crushed to death by a Caterpillar wheel-loader the previous year, according to federal records. Records from the most recent OSHA inspection, conducted earlier this year, show that the federal agency identified several serious violations at the plant, including violations concerning floor and wall openings and holes, industrial stairs, respiratory protection, medical services, and oxygen-fuel gas welding and cutting. The company was directed to pay thousands of dollars in penalties in connection with those violations. But if two of the three workers who perished hadn't been Israeli, JTA wouldn't even have noticed. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 According to Dept. of Homeland Security Sec. Janet Napolitano, the DHS issued a report in April warning of anti-Semitic violence by white supremacists. It was ridiculed and disparaged by the right-wingers with whom our Jewish organizations are making common cause. Where was the American Jewish Committee? Honoring Rupert Murdoch, owner and patron of hatemongering Fox News (Murdoch was presented with the AJC National Human Relations Award, March 4, 2009 in New York City) and villifying NY Times columnist Roger Cohen! The ADL? Campaigning for divestment from firms doing business with Iran, instead of focusing on the threat of domestic terrorism here in the US. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Reza Santorini--Iran was NOT "a Hitler supporter during World War II. " Reza Shah was staunchly anti-British, as was the Irgun in Palestine, and for good reason. Britain, with Russia, subverted the 1907 constitutional revolution in Iran and divided up the country between until Reza Kahn Pahlavi came along. He was therefore replaced by the Allies in 1940 with his son, Mohammed Reza. Iran spent the war under Allied occupation, and many Jews were able to make their way through Iran from Poland and Russia to Palestine, including the "Tehran children." Nor is it any part of the Iranian "belief system" to kill Jews. If you are getting this from Megillat Esther (which I doubt that you are well informed enough to do), the story is based on an incident of persecution of Babylonian worshippers of Bel by Xerxes, who was a staunch and uncompromising Zoroastrian monotheist. While Persian history includes some periods of Jewish persecution (the worst of which, incidentally, took place in the context of religiously reconfiguring the country from Sunni to Shiite in the 16th century), so do the histories of England, France, Spain, Russia and most of Europe. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Dinar Kraft neglected to mention that Eldar also said in his Haaretz article, "Like a spoiled child, Israel is in no rush to willingly surrender real estate it holds and has settled for decades. (A survey by Prof. Daniel Bar-Tal and Dr. Eran Halperin found that 53 percent of Israelis consider the West Bank liberated territory and only a minority sees it as occupied territory.) Even though the threat of Israel becoming a binational or apartheid state increases annually, such pressure is insufficient to make it pull out of the territories. Israeli decision makers have decided to give up the territories only if the price of the status quo, in foreign currency, is much higher than the price they will have to pay in local currency for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of settlers and the division of Jerusalem. " 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Sorry, above comment posted to the wrong story. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Three month ago Hadassah claimed to have lost $90 million to swindler Bernard Madoff ($40 million they invested with him and $50 million in nonexistent “profits"). If I were Carla Bruni-Sarkozy or anyone else wanting to fundraise for an organization that lost money with Madoff, I`d insist that any and all money raised--whether to fight AIDs or for pediatric oncology or for whatever worthy research I was trying to help--must be used for that purpose, rather than being amassed and handed over to a shyster to “build for the future.”. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Three month ago Hadassah claimed to have lost $90 million to swindler Bernard Madoff ($40 million they invested with him and $50 million in nonexistent "profits"). If I were Carla Bruni-Sarkozy or anyone else wanting to fundraise for an organization that lost money with Madoff, I`d insist that any and all money raised--whether to fight AIDs or for pediatric oncology or for whatever worthy research I was trying to help--must be used for that purpose, rather than being amassed and handed over to a shyster to "build for the future.". 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Now that we small donors know that our tax deductible contributions are amassed into multi-million dollars investments with shysters like Robert Madoff, rather than put to the uses for which we think we are giving them, do the philanthropists really think they are entitled to write off the huge" charitable" contributions that they give, or the foundations they establish, that are similarly invested? 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Certainly Bernard Madoff is as great or greater flight risk as Rubashkin. After authorities let Madoff be detained in his own luxury apt. (from where he was able to smuggle out cash and jewelry while under strict supervision), it became patently absurd to argue that Rubashkin would be any more likely to end up smuggled into Israel than that Madoff would. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Christianity and Islam are both universalistic religions (in their respective ideal worlds everyone would embrace their faith) of roughly the same size (about a billion adherents worldwide, although Christianity has a small numerical advantage at this time). Both have been depicted as engaged in a "civilizational clash" both prior to, but particlarly since, the events of Sept. 11, 2001. (Samuel Huntington's "clash of civilizations" essay didn't even mention Jews!) Jews and Hindus are relgious systems that don't look for converts, that are internally stratified with a hierarchy of purity with a hereditary priesthood at its pinnacle, into which converts don't readily or neatly fit it. For anyone who has studied religion or current events, the parallels were thoughtfully and very logically structured as well as conveying a poetic rhetorical rhythm. The criticism by the ZOA reeks of narcissistic paranoia. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Olmert is a fool who should keep his big mouth shut. First he embarrassed Condoleeza Rice in her last days as Secretary of State by crowing that he had intervened to change the US vote in the UN about the Gaza ceasefire. Now he is trying to create the impression the American president acts exclusively at Israel's behest. Hosni Mubarak, Mahmoud Abbas or King Abdullah of Jordan are not broadcasting the details their phone calls with the new President. If it's good for Israel, why does Olmert have to advertise it? A little discretion from Olmert not only would be refreshing but also in Israel's interest. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Talk about "lipstick on a chazir": Have a look at http://www.rjchq.org/Newsroom17374569 and see the kind of contribution "Our Mr. Brooks" made to civil political discourse. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00