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 Letter from Jerusalem By Ira Sharkansky |
Rabbi Ovadia again embarrasses Israel
JERUSALEM—An embarrassment? A joke? Pathetic? A profound and disturbing split within the Jewish population?
All of the above.
Once again, 87 year old Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has us pondering those options. The Rabbi is spiritual leader of the Sephardi Ultra-Orthodox, with 12 Members of Knesset and membership in the governing coalition, as well as several hundred thousand followers. He is important enough to attract visits from virtually all leading politicians who don a skullcap and ask him to support them or their causes.
His latest comments are that Israeli soldiers died in last year's war because they did not keep the Sabbath, live according to the Torah, and failed to follow the appropriate rituals in saying their daily prayers.
This is the same rabbi who said that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment of the United States on account of President Bush's support for Israel's removal of Jewish settlements from Gaza. Because Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the removal of the settlements, he would die. African Americans suffered disproportionately from Katrina because they do not study Torah.
In 1991 the rabbi cursed the Arabs: " The Lord shall return the Arabs' deeds on their own heads, waste their seed and exterminate them. . . It is forbidden to be merciful to them. You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable."
This time as in the past, the rabbi's minders have responded to his critics. Their line is similar from one crisis to another: he was quoted out of context; his secular listeners do not understand his allusions; he did not mean what you think he meant. He loves Israeli soldiers for their sacrifices in behalf of the people.
As in the past, the clarifications lack something. The rabbi's sermons are recorded for transmitting to his followers, they find their way to radio and television news, and we have heard what he said. So far, we have heard his minders, but not him, clarify what he said, or what he meant to say.
Especially upset are the family members of religious soldiers who died in the war. They come from a different segment of observant Jews: religious nationalists, proud of Zionist accomplishments, mainstays of Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank, and disproportionate in volunteering for elite military units and their sacrifices in combat. The families cannot accept a rabbi's assertion that their sons did not study enough or prayed improperly.
Ovadia is not the only Sephardi ultra-Orthodox rabbi to link tragedy with ritual imperfection. One of his colleagues responded to a school bus tragedy in 1985 that killed 19 pupils and the driver by saying it was due to flawed mezuzot (amulets) affixed to the door posts of their school.
Sephardi Ultra-Orthodox are more likely than their Ashkenazi compatriots to make the headlines with their perceptions of God's punishments on account of ritual failings. The Ashkenazi induce their followers to riot in behalf of a shop that sells non-kosher meat, a road or store that stays open on the Sabbath, or demands that construction of a facility be halted when it uncovers bones perceived to be Jewish from a burial done two millennia ago.
Both Sephardi and Ashkenazi Ultra-Orthodox insist on the right to evade military service in order to study Torah full time in religious academies, without paying tuition, and receiving a government payment for their efforts. Many men avoid work in order to study at public expense all their lives. They claim to aid public welfare by evoking God's care for the Jewish people by their study and ritual observances. They also marry young, make a lot of children for whom they receive government support, who grow up to study Torah and make a lot of children . . . .
Providing housing for all those kids, and their kids' kids, is not easy. The Ultra-Orthodox prefer separate neighborhoods, where they can forbid travel on the Sabbath and religious holidays, patrol the streets for improper music and other flaws, and burn any shops that dare sell non-kosher meat. The rest of us also prefer that they live separately, and are likely to move elsewhere when too many of them begin encroaching on our neighborhoods.
Two of the largest and fastest growing Jewish settlements in the West Bank are for the Ultra-Orthodox. Israeli courts halted the construction of one project in response to claims that the contractor was building on land that he had not purchased from the Palestinian owners.
One can find in the history and the theology of Ultra-Orthodox Jews a willingness to live among non-Jews. They prefer God's laws to those of Israel, except for laws that assure Israeli government money for building their homes and supporting their families.
I am not optimistic that the Palestinian state, if it ever happens, will be happy to accept the Ultra-Orthodox communities and assume their support.
Science is little help in supporting the claims of the Ultra-Orthodox that they are aiding the Jewish people by their study and prayers. Skeptics cite the urgings of Ultra-Orthodox rabbis to their East European followers to rely on God rather than to flee in advance of the Germans, and the high incidence of Ultra-Orthodox among the victims of the Holocaust. For their part, Ultra-Orthodox rabbis blame the Holocaust on God's punishment of the Jewish people for the development of Reform Judaism in Germany.
Estimates are that the Ultra-Orthodox population is 10 percent of Israel's Jewish population, and perhaps 30 percent of the Jewish population in Jerusalem. We have an ultra-Orthodox mayor, and the Ultra-Orthodox parties are important enough in the Knesset (Ashkenazi Torah Judaism has 6 members and Sephardi SHAS 12) to assure themselves continued financial support, and to block whatever efforts are made to require the teaching of anything other than religious texts in their schools. Unless they make special efforts to learn one of the activities permitted by their religious constraints, the students of Ultra-Orthodox religious academies are not fit for much beyond studying religious texts and making more children.
Those who would chide Israel for harming itself with the arithmetic of politics can ponder the support of tobacco growers by the European Union as well as the United States government, and American avoidance of environmental problems in behalf of all those suburbanites who prefer SUVs.
Like other democracies, we are stuck with ourselves.
Sharkansy is a professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University
________________________________________
By Shoshana Bryen
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)—David Ignatius
is a columnist for the liberal Washington Post, and so rarely gives the President credit for strategic thinking. When he wrote positively this week about the Administration's plan to contain Iran, it was worthy of note. Unfortunately, what he wrote was, "The cornerstone is a political-military alliance with the dominant Sunni Arab powers - especially Saudi Arabia. The hardware will be new arms sales to Israel, Egypt and the Saudis. The software will be a refurbished Israeli-Palestinian peace process." Approvingly he called it "back to the future." Sigh.Perhaps he didn't notice that Israel is not a Sunni Arab power.
Perhaps he didn't notice that a "refurbished Israeli-Palestinian peace process" would require that the Palestinians establish a modus vivendi among themselves in order to adopt a negotiating posture toward Israel.
Or perhaps he did. But never mind Israel for the moment, and the inappropriateness of demanding that Israel pay for Iran's containment in the currency of another useless and dangerous agreement with the Palestinians.
More important, this columnist appears not to have noticed that Saudi Arabia is heavily funding al Qaeda in Iraq as it kills American soldiers and is funding Wahhabi-Salafist jihad elsewhere including in the United States. It is those al Qaeda operatives in Iraq that the Sunni tribal leaders have been turning against in droves, providing some measure of hope for Iraq, but causing al Qaeda to denounce the Saudi move to re-establish relations with the Iraqi government.
It is Wahhabi-Salafist jihadis that the New York Police Department was concerned about in their report on homegrown American terror. Look for more instability in Saudi Arabia and more trouble from Saudi Arabia. Is this really where we want to put JDAMS or other cutting edge weapons expected to be included in the new arms sales packages?
Sunni jihad has arisen in Syria as well - funded by Saudi Arabia in an attempt to overthrow the Alawite (a Shiite sect) Assad minority regime that has been allied with the hated Persian Shiites? Not clear, but not impossible. Ditto long-range Saudi support for Fatah al Islam currently wrecking Lebanon - not clear, but not impossible.
Egypt is no bargain either. Although Mubarak has belatedly come to understand that chaos in Gaza is trouble for his regime and is talking seriously to Israel and the U.S. about controls on Hamas, the long term in repressed and repressive Egypt is troubling.
America, then, is resting its hopes of "containing" Iran on very weak reeds.
I
t seems too, that Ignatius is hoping that pressure on Israel will cause an alignment of Arab states to do what the America wants done in the region, regardless of the capabilities and interests of those same Arab states. That would be back to a future that never really existed. Reality dictates that the U.S. push Saudi Arabia to stop funding and supporting Sunni jihad as step one in the containment of Iran.(Return to top)
tells objections to CNN's 'God's Warriors'
By Rabbi Marvin Hier
LOS ANGELES—A day prior to the airing of Christiane Amanpour’s six-hour CNN documentary entitled God’s Warriors, I was one of four clergymen to be a guest on
Larry King Live to discuss the issue of fundamentalism in today’s world. The interview on Larry King was pre-recorded in mid-July and none of the participants had seen the six-hour documentary because it was still being edited. Now that I have seen it, I sent the following critique to the producers of God’s Warriors.1. MORAL EQUIVALENCY - There is no moral equivalency between some 200 Israeli fanatics prone to violence and tens of thousands of Palestinian terrorists whose acts are endorsed by the elected government and a significant portion of the population. The failure of the documentary to clearly make that distinction skews the facts and conveys the false impression allowing people all over the world to conclude that there IS a moral equivalency between the number of Palestinian terrorists and Jewish terrorists - this is a complete distortion. More importantly, the largest terrorist group responsible for much of the unrest in the Middle East, Hamas, got a free pass from CNN in
God’s Warriors and is not even mentioned in the documentary’s segment on Islam.2. JEWISH LOBBY - CNN spends much time describing the strength of the “Jewish Lobby” in Washington. But what do supporters of Israel active on the Hill have to do with a documentary focusing on the power of religion? Indeed, many of those defending Israel on Capital Hill are, in fact, secular Jews. Furthermore, if you are going to talk about powerful lobbies, why not give equal time to the enormous power of the Arab Oil lobby?
3. SECURITY FENCE (Hamas Wall) - The consultants of the documentary make a point of showing the security fence that now separates the Palestinians from the Israelis. Palestinians interviewed explain the hardships they face and call the fence an “apartheid” wall. Nowhere is there a mention of the wide consensus of support for the security fence amongst all Israelis, left and right, including Israel’s Supreme Court, which has sanctioned the fence because, without it, the suicide bombings would continue unabated, something NO society can tolerate. Indeed, the terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad are the real architects and designers of that fence.
4. FIGHTING TERRORISM -
God’s Warriors makes mention of the fact that the few Jewish terrorists described in the film were all arrested by the Israeli government and sent to jail for their crimes. Yet, they ignore the fact that Palestinian officials have never convicted Palestinian terrorists. Had they done so, there would be no need for a security fence.5. SIX DAY WAR - The documentary spends a lot of time on the Six Day War and emphasizes how Israel decided to attack the Old City during the War, which changed the status quo forever. But
God’s Warriors fails to explain how or why the Six Day War started. It hides from its audience the fact that Egypt blocked the Straits of Tiran (an international waterway), an act of war under international law, denying all shipping to Israel and that the Arab States, including Jordan, which controlled the Old City, brought their armies to the border. Had they not taken those actions, the Six Day War would have been averted. By ignoring all that and instead focusing on Israel’s attack on the Old City, God’s Warriors guides its audience to the conclusion that the purpose of the War was Israel’s intention to grab the Old City of Jerusalem.6. SHARON - The documentary is critical of Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount which enraged Muslims and started the Second Intifada. It also mentions his “responsibility” in allowing Lebanese Christians to massacre Muslims at Sabra and Shatila. Yet, it ignores his critical decision to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza in an attempt to jump start the peace process. Nor does it mention the Palestinian response to the withdrawal - the election of Hamas - a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of the State of Israel - as the new Palestinian government.
7. TEMPLE MOUNT - The documentary fails to emphasize that the Muslims, to whom Israel gave the authority to administer the Temple Mount, strongly discourage any Jew from coming there despite the fact that it is the holiest site in all of Judaism (whereas, the holiest sites in Islam are, in fact, Mecca and Medina). On the other hand, the Western Wall, which is under Israeli control, regularly welcomes visitors of all faiths.
8. RELIGIOUS LEADERS - CNN presents the senior Imam in charge of the Al-Aksa Mosque on the Temple Mount, who explains the site’s holiness to Muslims. But rather than interview the Chief Rabbi of Israel to describe the sacredness of the site for Jews, CNN contents itself with allowing an extremist layperson to explain the importance of the Temple Mount to Jews. Where is the fairness?
9. TWO STATE SOLUTION -
God’s Warriors ignores the origins of the Arab/Israeli conflict: the Arab refusal to accept the 1947 United Nations Partition of Palestine, which called for both a Jewish state and an Arab State. The Jews accepted the plan – the Arabs rejected it. Had the Arab world accepted the two-state solution then, much of the bloodshed would have been averted. There’s a lot of talk about settlements, but no talk at all of the consistent Arab policy from 1948 until 1978 to make no compromises with Israel.10. A HUMAN FACE ON TERROR -
God’s Warriors keeps mentioning the “despair” that many Arabs feel, as if that is a justification for the insane behavior of honoring people as martyrs because they murdered innocent civilians they never knew. Why patronize terrorists and even humanize them if we are going to allow the conversation to be dominated by their despair? The parents of these terrorists should be confronted with the simple truth that despair has existed throughout time – that billions of people throughout history have felt pain without reverting to mass murder. Following the defeat of Nazism, the Holocaust survivors were also in despair. They lost their families, but they didn’t resort to killing innocent civilians as a way of alleviating their pain. Neither did the 750,000 Jews expelled from Arab countries following the 1948 War – they too, did not become suicide bombers.The preceding story was provided by the Wiesenthal Center
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Cardin urges legislation to curb fraud and abuse in the spending of billions of U.S. dollars in Iraq
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)—Senator Benjamin Cardin (Democrat, Maryland) issued on Tuesday the following statement concerning fraud and abuse in America's spending in Iraq:
Since the beginning of the Iraq War, the
According to auditors, $1 out of every $6 spent in
USA Today recently reported that government auditors found that Kellogg, Brown & Root Inc. (KRB), a formerly wholly owned subsidiary of Halliburton, had proposed charging $110 million for services on bases that had been shut down and an additional $50 million for duplicated charges and math errors. Through October 2006, KBR has been paid more than $20 billion.
The American taxpayer is footing the bill for the War in
I have co-sponsored the Commission on Wartime Contracting Establishment Act, S. 1825, to put an end to the fraud and abuse that has plagued contracts in
It also would investigate the impact of the government’s growing reliance on civilian contractors to perform wartime functions. It will assess the extent of waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement of wartime contracts, and the extent to which those responsible have been held accountable.
The Commission will release an interim report within one year and a final report in two years regarding its findings. The final report will include recommendations regarding improvements to the contracting process, specifically contract development, award, management, oversight, accountability, appropriateness of tasks, and structure of DOD.
The SIGIR, in consultation with the Commission, will conduct audits of agency contracts to identify potential waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. Specifically, audits will examine development, award, terms and conditions, contractor cost controls, agency management, oversight, adequacy of contracting personnel, coordination with commanders, appropriateness of functions. SIGIR will refer appropriate cases to the Attorney General for prosecution.
We are spending millions of dollars a day in
The preceding story was provided by the office of U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin
