The Unmentionable
Foe. With Malice Toward Goyum,
Etherzone, November 8, 2002
"Former Judge Roy Moore now Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme
Court whose refusal to remove the Ten Commandments from his courtroom
created lawsuits and much furor, has now had a two ton granite monument
placed in the rotunda of the state Judicial Building inscribed with the
same Godly Statutes which created the first furor ... The furor is supported
by small groups of God haters and an inordinate number of Jews. Montgomery
attorney Stephen Glassroth is the Plaintiff. He is represented
by Attorney Morris Seligman Dees, Jr. Attorney Dees is head of the Southern
Poverty Law Center (SPLC) which he formed with a New York Jewish Attorney
named Joseph J. Levin, Jr. SPLC is the Nation’s wealthiest civil
rights organization with $68 million in assets. Dees was raised a Baptist
on an Alabama cotton farm and has apparently reverted to Jewish roots.
Attorney Dees has been joined in the prosecution by Americans United for
the Separation of Church and State (AUSC) and its president, peripatetic
spokesman Rev. Barry Lynn. SPLC has been involved in prosecuting
various white supremacy groups and in promoting Tolerance. Both are Jewish
agendas. Jews have been major backers of racial strife between blacks
and whites and are solidly behind tolerance and diversity which includes
open borders, gays and lesbians, religious minorities, pornography, etc.
As events of this sort unfold it is ironic that Christians and Christian
organizations fail to notice that the adversary is often Jewish. D. James
Kennedy has lambasted the ACLU for years. He has mentioned that the roots
are Communistic but has failed to mention that they are also Jewish."
WARMONGERS,
LEFT AND RIGHT TEAMING UP AGAINST THE ANTIWAR MOVEMENT, by Justin
Raimondo
Etherzone, November 6, 2002
"The resounding success of the recent antiwar demonstrations called
by the International A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition has the pro-war forces in
a panic, and this has given rise to an unlikely alliance between the limousine
liberals over at Salon.com, the born-again wacko 'Christian Zionists'
of WorldNutDaily, and frothing-at-the-mouth ex-Commie –turned-rightwing-nutball
David Horowitz. We might call it the pinko-brown alliance – two
colors that, when combined, produce a shade of dirty beige almost exactly
the color of cow-dung. The strange tone of Michelle Goldberg’s
Salon piece – 'A day for peace – and fury' [warning: link for pay]
– leaps right out at the reader in the opening sentence: 'Kaffiyehs, the
checked Palestinian head scarves, were selling for $15 each at the massive
antiwar rally in Washington on Saturday, and they were selling well.'
Not that there’s anything wrong with that – but clearly Ms. Goldberg found
it disturbing, along with those 'indie-rock cheerleaders jumping around
crying, ‘Liberate! Smash the state!’' This is an ideological cue to sober
liberals of the 'It Takes a Village" variety – who, after all, make up
a significant chunk of Salon Premium subscribers – that these are
not necessarily the good guys. After all, the Clintonian Left loves the
State, and any attempt to smash it – even metaphorically – sounds just
Gingrichian enough to cause them some real discomfort."
Sharon
eyes 'Samson option' against Iraq,
The Scotsman (Scotland), November 3, 2002
"In Biblical times, the Israelites relied on God to triumph over
their enemies. These days the Israeli government puts its faith in the
godlike power of its formidable arsenal of nuclear weapons to annihilate
its foes. The alarming prospect of Israel unleashing its weapons of mass
destruction is high on the list of concerns of strategic planners and
analysts as the United States prepares to attack Iraq as part of its ‘War
on Terror’. According to experts, a retaliatory nuclear strike against
Baghdad in the event of a chemical or biological weapons attack against
Israel has never been more likely - particularly with Ariel Sharon
in power ... Many believe Sharon would be prepared to use his deadly
arsenal. As Israel’s most respected military affairs commentator, Ze’ev
Schiff, put it: 'If Iraq strikes at Israel with non-conventional warheads,
causing massive casualties among the civil population, Israel could respond
with a nuclear retaliation that would eradicate Iraq as a country.'"
Pigs,
Jews & War,
by Jonah Goldberg, National Review,
November 1, 2002
"I am fascinated by this idea of wrapping dead terrorists in pigskin
and lard. This is what the Russians — who understand far better than Americans
how to deter Muslim terrorists — are doing with Chechen terrorists. The
idea is that some Muslims believe they cannot enter heaven if they're
wrapped in pork, which may be the other white meat here but is the unclean
meat over there. Which is just another example of the growing rift between
our two civilizations, as many Americans consider being swaddled in pork
products to be heaven itself. Eternity in bacon… mmmmm ... First of all,
Hamas is in the murder business and they pay very little in terms of cash
wages. Their only compensation for (literally) self-sacrificing employees
is a promissory note redeemable for, among other things, free nookie and
booze in the afterlife. (Muslims aren't allowed to drink in this life
but are promised great wine in the next, which always struck me as odd.
Why should something be sinful in this life but okay in the next?) Obviously,
if, all of a sudden, Jews could invalidate Hamas's bottomless bowl of
nookie coupons by simply tacking a piece of bacon to the corpse of a murderer
— sorry, 'martyr' — then Hamas would either have to up its wages considerably
or get into a totally different line of work. .... Hell, let's just glide
past the whole Islam-means-peace thing (unless you think, in the light
of those 72 virgins, that "peace" should be spelled 'piece')."
Trust No One,
Sidney Riley: The Man, Undated
"The Man Who Knew Everything...' 'The Man Who Never Made a Mistake'...
'An International Crook of the Highest Order...' The man best known as
Sidney George Reilly [born Salomon Rosenblum] -- although
he used many names-- spent his life in the shadows of international intrigue
and counted among his legion of allies, accomplices and victims the likes
of Winston Churchill, the mysterious Basil Zaharoff and Boris Savinkov.
Usually portrayed as a master spy, Reilly's real exploits exceeded anything
credited to Fleming's fictional Bond. The son of a Polish Jewish family
in Imperial Russia, he early embarked on an amazing, daring and often
bewildering career which led him to assume the personas of an Anglo-Irish
gentleman, an international arms-merchant and a Bolshevik commissar among
many others. He was a slightly different person to every man who knew
him and every woman who loved him. But Reilly was as much a cunning master
criminal as secret agent, amassing a fortune by the ruthless bartering
of influence and information. He was used and feared by capitalists and
commissars alike. Was he a dedicated anti-communist, the Soviet's first
'mole,' or simply a bold and unscrupulous con man?"
Man Testifies Paid by Rabbi to Kill Email this story Printer friendly
format Top Stories Lawyers Seek Files on Alleged Scheme Convicted Killer
Faces Death Penalty Judge Denies Access to Malvo Hearing Sharpton Seeks
Migrants' Release Poultry Co. Recalls Chicken, Turkey By TOM BELL Associated
Press Writer November 1, 2002, 8:35 PM EST FREEHOLD, N.J. -- A man who
confessed to killing a rabbi's wife told jurors Friday that he bashed
her head with a lead pipe and then took her purse at the rabbi's instruction
to make it look like a robbery. "I heard her say, 'Why? Why?' Like why
was I doing this," Len Jenoff testified on the 8th anniversary of Carol
Neulander's death. Rabbi Fred Neulander is accused of arranging the murder
so he could continue an affair with a Philadelphia radio host. Neulander's
first trial ended in a mistrial last year after a jury could not reach
a verdict. Jenoff said Neulander promised him $30,000 and a job in the
Israeli intelligence agency Mossad if he killed Carol Neulander. The rabbi
gave him a $7,500 downpayment a month before the murder, he said.
Critics of Mideast
coverage put heat on local papers,
Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, November
1, 2002
"[Pete Hebert] led a weeklong June boycott of The Washington
Post that pro-Israel activists claim led to 1,000 subscription cancellations
... EyeonthePost.org already links to such onetime boycott efforts
as http://geocities.com/ truthmasters/ jointheboycott.htm -- aimed
at the Los Angeles Times. David Frankenthal, the Los Angeles attorney
and teacher behind that Web site, said 'thousands' of people boycotted
the Times for one day in April. 'There are so many sites commenting
on the media that have identified this problem. It's a crowded field,'
he said ... [T]he JCRC [Jewish Community Relations Council] undertook
a study that organizers say demonstrates an anti-Israel leaning within
the [San Francisco] Chronicle, and facilitated a meeting between the paper's
editors and Jewish community leaders in May ... Like [Rabbi Doug]
Kahn, Frankenthal is troubled by the 'moral equivalence'
that newspapers purportedly draw between Palestinian terror attacks and
Israeli counter-terror operations ... In Philadelphia, for example, the
Zionist Organization of America, which led a boycott fight against the
Philadelphia Inquirer that culminated in a July rally at the newspaper's
headquarters, maintains the Inquirer is guilty of 'bad journalism' when
it comes to reporting on Israel, said Steve Feldman, executive
director of the Greater Philadelphia district of the ZOA ... In Chicago,
Kotzin said Jewish officials continue to meet with Chicago Tribune
officials and journalists to foster good relations and voice Jewish
concerns about Mideast coverage. Meanwhile, Ed Lasky, a stock trader
who is active in a group called Citizens Against Terror, which has been
critical of the Tribune's Israel coverage, said that in coming
weeks the group will launch a Web site called The Tribune Watch to track
the Tribune's reporting ... One group that claims success with
its media campaign is Minnesotans Against Terrorism, which says it convinced
the Minneapolis Star Tribune to alter its editorial policy on Mideast
stories. Mark Rotenberg, a general counsel for the University of
Minnesota and a leader of the group, said the Star Tribune has
begun reversing that trend, owning up to mistakes in columns and running
'dozens of references' to anti-Israel terrorism. The paper's reader representative,
Lew Gelfand, could not be reached for comment."
The Secret History
of Television Corporate power, patent law, and lone inventors,
Reason, November 2002
"Here’s a story for you. Inspiration strikes a Mormon farmboy, the
improbably named Philo T. Farnsworth, as he plows a potato field in Idaho.
Armed with his new insight, he moves to L.A., finds investors and assistants,
and on a shoestring invents television. A corporate giant tries to steal
his creation, and a long, expensive legal fight ensues. Farnsworth wins
the battle but loses the war, successfully defending his claim to the
patent but nonetheless watching most of the credit -- and most of the
profits -- accrue to the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and its self-aggrandizing
chief, [Jewish mogul of RCA and NBC] David Sarnoff. Farnsworth
spends his last years chasing the dream of nuclear fusion, then dies poor,
depressed, and virtually forgotten. It’s not a bad tale. Drain out the
melodrama and sprinkle in some nuance, and you’ll find it’s actually true.
The saga of Philo Farnsworth may have a special resonance in the dot-bust
era, as battles rage over intellectual property and corporate turpitude
dominates the headlines. Or perhaps it’s just a coincidence that two books
about Farnsworth have been published this year: Evan Schwartz’s The
Last Lone Inventor: A Tale of Genius, Deceit, and the Birth of Television
(HarperCollins) and Daniel Stashower’s The Boy Genius and the Mogul:
The Untold Story of Television (Broadway)."
No War
with Iraq,
The Nation, November 4, 2002 issue
[Compilation of links to articles and web sites against a war with Iraq]
Lawyers for
Jewish Defense League Leader Want FBI Files on Alleged Scheme to Extort
Rap Stars,
TBO (Tampa Bay, FL), November 3, 2002
" In a bizarre twist to the case of a right-wing Jewish leader accused
of trying to blow up Muslim-related sites, defense attorneys have requested
records of an FBI probe into whether the suspect's group tried to shake
down rap stars Tupac Shakur and Eazy-E. Jewish Defense League leader Irv
Rubin is being held without bail along with group member Earl Krugel
on charges of plotting to blow up a mosque and the office of an Arab American
congressman. They have pleaded innocent. In papers filed this week in
U.S. District Court, Rubin's lawyers asked a judge to order prosecutors
to hand over records of the FBI probe, claiming it provides evidence of
government bias against the league. An informant outlined the alleged
extortion scheme during FBI interviews in 1996 about the murder of a figure
in the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Los Angeles
Times reported Saturday. The informant said the JDL planned to make
death threats against Shakur and Eazy-E, then offer them protection for
a fee, the Times said, citing documents obtained under the Freedom of
Information Act."
Police
investigate new Israeli Defence Minister over war crimes,
Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), November
2, 2002
"Lieutenant-General Shaul Mofaz, named as Israeli Defence
Minister by the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, is under investigation
by British police for alleged war crimes in the occupied territories.
The appointment of General Mofaz, a former army chief of staff,
to such a key post has confirmed suspicions that Mr Sharon would
lurch further to the right after the Labour Party walked out of the coalition
government on Wednesday. The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, described
the appointment as a further blow to hopes for peace and warned it would
lead to an Israeli military escalation."
Restitution
Exec Was Probed on Spending Sher Resigned After Inquiry,
[Jewish] Forward, November 1, 2002
"The top American professional of an international Holocaust restitution
commission was investigated for allegedly misappropriating commission
funds for personal use before resigning last summer, according to sources
and an internal document written by the commission's chairman. Neal
Sher, former chief of staff in the Washington office of the International
Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims, was investigated by the
commission after admitting 'unauthorized reimbursements of his ICHEIC
travel expenses,' the internal commission document states. The document
was written by the chairman of the Holocaust commission, former secretary
of state Lawrence Eagleburger. Following the investigation, which was
subjected to a 'review' by a former FBI chief, Judge William Webster,
Sher resigned in June and paid 'full and immediate restitution,' the document
states. A source with direct knowledge of the situation, as well as other
sources close to the commission, verified the existence and content of
the document. Although these allegations were made, the Forward has
not established that they are true. Sher is widely admired for
his groundbreaking work as the federal government's chief Nazi hunter
during 11 years as director of the Office of Special Investigations of
the U.S. Department of Justice. During that time he oversaw the denaturalization
and deportation of dozens of onetime Nazi war criminals."
Asper's
charges of media bias 'bizarre,'
Globe and Mail (Toronto),by Doug Saunders,
November 1, 2002
"After a long, angry speech by Winnipeg media mogul Izzy Asper,
which accused most of the world's media of being insufficiently pro-Israeli
and implied that reporters are anti-Semitic, bewildered journalists yesterday
struggled to respond. Mr. Asper's Wednesday night speech, which
was reprinted prominently in his city papers and the National Post,
effectively positioned Mr. Asper and his newspapers to the far right of
most of the world's major media. As with speeches he delivered last month
with former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it repeated
the Israeli Likud party's conservative and aggressively anti-Arab views.
This time, though, he named names, accusing the CBC, The New York Times,
The Washington Post, the Associated Press and Reuters wire services, ABC,
CBS, NBC, CNN, BBC, the British Guardian, Independent, Evening Standard
and Daily Mirror newspapers, as well as ITV and Sky News networks, and
other outlets of being 'lazy, or sloppy, or stupid . . . [or] plain and
simple, biased or anti-Semitic.' He singled out the CBC and its former
Middle East reporter Neil MacDonald, accusing them of providing 'the most
slanted and biased information' and of routinely practising 'dishonest
reporting.' In particular, he demanded that reporters in the Mideast,
such as Mr. Macdonald, refer to all Palestinian militants as 'terrorists.'
Tony Burman, head of the CBC-TV news division, said yesterday that he
considered Mr. Asper's opinions 'bizarre,' and that he would be demanding
space to respond to the accusations in the Asper-owned papers. 'To suggest
that most of the world's media are involved in a conspiracy against Israel,
it's just a totally extreme conception on Asper's part.' ... 'There is
something profoundly ironic about being told off about media bias by someone
like Izzy Asper,' said Mr. Burman, apparently referring to Mr. Asper's
former practice of forcing his city papers to print company-written editorials
that expressed the owner's views."
Mexican
film of priest in love affair prompts an anti-Semitic response,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 1, 2002
"The American distributor of a Mexican film denounced by Catholic
groups has been flooded with protest letters, many with a distinctly anti-Semitic
tone. 'The Crime of Father Amaro' is based on a 19th-century Portuguese
novel, but the film is set in contemporary Mexico. Its protagonist is
an ambitious young priest who starts an illicit affair with a young woman,
which ends in tragedy. Also shown are issues confronting modern Mexican
priests, such as donations received from drug dealers and aid sent to
guerilla activities in poor rural areas. Catholic groups say the film
depicts the church in an unfair, negative light. A huge success in Mexico,
where it was released last summer, 'Father Amaro' is being distributed
in the United States by Samuel Goldwyn Films. The company’s president,
Meyer Gottlieb, told the Los Angeles Times that he is alarmed by
the anti-Semitism in many of the protest letters and postcards the company
has received ... .Among the objectionable scenes are one in which the
priest and the young woman make love under the mantel of Our Lady of Guadalupe,
and another in which a cat eats a communion host. Carlos Carrera, the
film’s director, defended it as 'fictional,' but also told the Times that
'all of this behavior seen in the film has happened in reality. None of
this is a lie or a part of our imagination.' 'Father Amaro' became the
highest grossing movie produced in Mexico, despite pressure from Mexican
bishops to have the movie banned."
A Hawk
Who Earned His Feathers Under Clinton,
[Jewish] Forward, November 1, 2002
"Kenneth Pollack is the ultimate guy behind the guy... behind
the guy. Pollack, 36, has spent the last 12 years in the upper
echelons of government and intelligence work. In his capacity as a CIA
analyst, director of Gulf affairs for the National Security Council and
director of research for the liberal Brookings Institution's Saban Center
for Middle East Policy, he has conferred with kings, presidents and prime
ministers — nearly always in the capacity of aide-de-camp. But the behind-the-scenes
expert is now making his voice heard on the main stage. With the publication
of 'The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq' (Random House),
Pollack has become a leading figure among the punditocracy supporting
a pre-emptive American strike on Baghdad. So far he's made his case on
CNN, NPR, Fox News, CSPAN and Charlie Rose's and Oprah Winfrey's
television shows; Senator Joseph Lieberman quoted from the book
on the floor of the Senate during the debate on Iraq last month. Pollack,
who was once called by one of his colleagues 'the most hawkish man in
the Clinton administration,' does not consider himself a hawk in the mold
of Richard Perle, Douglas Feith or Paul Wolfowitz,
the Bush administration neoconservatives who have been at the forefront
of the call to arms against Iraq." [Pollack, Perle,
Feith, and Wolfowitz are all Jewish]
Berliners protest move
to put 'Jewish' back into street name,
Drudge Report, November 1, 2002
" Crowds of angry residents in Berlin Friday protested attempts to
return a road to its pre-Nazi-era name of Jewish Street, with several
shouting, 'The Jews have made us suffer enough.' The protest began peacefully
enough Friday afternoon when about 40 people turned out to protest the
changing of Kinkel Strasse to Jueden Strasse, which had been approved
by the Berlin city council. Local residents, particularly several retailers,
said they had not been adequately informed about the name change and they
resented the inconvenience of changing business cards and advertisements.
The protest turned ugly, however, when representatives of Berlin's Jewish
community arrived for the formal name-changing ceremonies. Then there
were chants of 'You Jews have had enough say' and 'The Jews have made
us suffer enough.' Jewish Community Chairman Alexander Brenner attempted
to fend off the attacks as TV camera crews filmed the scene, but as the
vehemence rose, he responded, 'You people are siding yourselves with the
Nazis with such remarks,' and turned and left."
Man
Testifies Paid by Rabbi to Kill,
Newsday, November 1, 2002
" A man who confessed to killing a rabbi's wife told jurors Friday
that he bashed her head with a lead pipe and then took her purse at the
rabbi's instruction to make it look like a robbery. 'I heard her say,
'Why? Why?' Like why was I doing this,' Len Jenoff testified on
the 8th anniversary of Carol Neulander's death. Rabbi Fred Neulander
is accused of arranging the murder so he could continue an affair
with a Philadelphia radio host. Neulander's first trial ended in
a mistrial last year after a jury could not reach a verdict. Jenoff said
Neulander promised him $30,000 and a job in the Israeli intelligence agency
Mossad if he killed Carol Neulander. The rabbi gave him a $7,500
downpayment a month before the murder, he said."
The Strategic
Function of U.S. Aid to Israel,
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs,
by Stephen Zunes, October 31, 2002
"Since 1992, the U.S. has offered Israel an additional $2 billion
annually in loan guarantees. Congressional researchers have disclosed
that between 1974 and 1989, $16.4 billion in U.S. military loans were
converted to grants and that this was the understanding from the beginning.
Indeed, all past U.S. loans to Israel have eventually been forgiven by
Congress, which has undoubtedly helped Israel's often-touted claim that
they have never defaulted on a U.S. government loan. U.S. policy since
1984 has been that economic assistance to Israel must equal or exceed
Israel's annual debt repayment to the United States. Unlike other countries,
which receive aid in quarterly installments, aid to Israel since 1982
has been given in a lump sum at the beginning of the fiscal year, leaving
the U.S. government to borrow from future revenues. Israel even lends
some of this money back through U.S. treasury bills and collects the additional
interest. In addition, there is the more than $1.5 billion in private
U.S. funds that go to Israel annually in the form of $1 billion in private
tax-deductible donations and $500 million in Israeli bonds. The ability
of Americans to make what amounts to tax-deductible contributions to a
foreign government, made possible through a number of Jewish charities,
does not exist with any other country." [U.S Financial Aid To Israel:
Figures, Facts, and Impact Summary Benefits to Israel of U.S. Aid Since
1949 (As of November 1, 1997): "Foreign Aid Grants and Loans $74,157,600,000.
Other U.S. Aid (12.2% of Foreign Aid) $9,047,227,200. Interest to Israel
from Advanced Payments $1,650,000,000. Grand Total $84,854,827,200. Total
Benefits per Israeli $14,630"]
Press Release:
ADL Survey of Five European Countries Finds One in Five Hold Strong Anti-Semitic
Sentiments; Majority Believes Canard of Jewish Disloyalty,
Anti-Defamation League, October 31, 2002
"An opinion survey of adults in five European countries found that
21% harbor strong anti-Semitic views, and 56% believe that Jews are more
loyal to Israel than their own country, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
reported today. European Attitudes Toward Jews: A Five Country Survey
of 2,500 -- 500 each in Austria, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain and
Switzerland -- was conducted by telephone in the native language of each
of the countries September 9-29, 2002 by First International Resources
for ADL ... The Findings: ... Of those surveyed: 21% harbor strong anti-Semitic
views. 34% in Spain, 23% in Italy, 22% in Switzerland, 19% in Austria,
7% in the Netherlands. 56% believe Jews are more loyal to Israel than
their own country. 72% in Spain, 58% in Italy, 54% in Austria, 49% in
Switzerland, 48% The Netherlands. 40% believe that Jews have too much
power in international financial markets. 71% in Spain. 29% say Jews don't
care about anyone but their own kind. Spain and Switzerland 34%. 25% say
Jews are more willing than others to use shady practices to get what they
want. Spain 33%, Austria 28%, Italy and Switzerland 27%. 49% believe Jews
still talk too much about the Holocaust. Spain 57%, Austria 56%, Switzerland
52%, Italy 43%, The Netherlands 35%."
`Now
we have only hostility in our hearts.' Jenin residents tell the story
of Operation Defensive Shield,
By Goel Pinto, Ha'aretz (Israel), October
31, 2002
"'In memory of Iyad Samoudi, producer in charge of `Jenin, Jenin,' who
was killed by IDF bullets, after the completion of filming on 23.6.02,
in the village of Al Yamoun.' This is the opening caption of Mohammed
Bakri's documentary film, 'Jenin, Jenin.' The film, to be screened tonight
at the Jerusalem Cinematheque and tomorrow night at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque,
portrays Jenin residents' perspective on Operation Defensive Shield. This
week, right-wing politicians called for the cancellation of the screenings.
MK Yuri Stern of the National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu faction argued
that the film amounted to incitement. The Likud faction representative
in the Tel Aviv city council, Yeshayahu Drori, contacted Mayor
Ron Huldai and asked him to reprimand Alon Garbouz, the
director of the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, or remove him from his job. These
requests are surprising, given the fact that Stern and Drori
did not see the film and based their remarks solely on rumors. Had
they bothered to ask the director for a copy of the 50-minute film, they
would not have made fools of themselves. 'Jenin, Jenin' is not a shocking
film and the testimony heard in it is familiar to anyone who has ever
watched foreign television reports about events in Jenin. Nevertheless,
it is a sad film that shows Israel, as a democratic and enlightened state,
in a miserable light. Even those who explain the horrors of war as stemming
from an existential need, cannot silence its victims ... Israeli television
viewers will also not see this film. Only a few will have the chance to
see it at the Cinematheques. But those who see it will not forget the
words of one witness: 'Children can be given birth to, houses can be built
and even a wife can be replaced, but our feelings cannot be changed. Now
we have only hostility in our hearts. How will they bring back the days
when we were calm and agreed to live with them?'"
Storm
over 'Elders of Zion' Anti-Semitic series on Egypt TV stirs outrage,
San Francisco Chronicle, October 31, 2002
"Muhammed Sobhi seems genuinely puzzled by all the fuss being made
about his latest project -- a 'historical' series about a Jewish plot
to rule the world due to start airing during the television-intensive
holy month of Ramadan. 'The whole issue doesn't deserve five minutes on
the headline news,' said the popular Egyptian actor-playwright. 'The bigger
issues we should talk about are the events in Palestine and the decision
to attack Iraq.' Nevertheless, Sobhi, the Egyptian government and the
country's media and entertainment structure find themselves in the center
of a gathering storm. The reason: Sobhi's series appears to take much
of its inspiration from the infamous 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion,'
the alleged blueprint for Jewish global domination almost universally
regarded in the West as an anti-Semitic fraud first perpetrated by czarist
secret police in 19th century Russia ... The series, funded with private
money, is scheduled to begin airing on Egyptian state television early
next month, during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, when television
ratings and ad prices traditionally are at their peak. The fact that the
Egyptian government -- the world's second-largest recipient of U.S. aid
-- is not only sanctioning but profiting from the series could become
a major diplomatic issue ... The U.S. official in Cairo worried that neither
Sobhi nor his potential television audience recognize the depth of negative
feeling in the West regarding the 'Protocols.' 'There's a line between
talking about a Zionist conspiracy, which I know a lot of people out here
do believe, and actually talking about the 'Protocols' as an authentic
document,' he said."
Israeli
branch of British university in fake degree affair,
Ha'aretz (Israel), October 31, 2002
"The Israeli branch of the University of Humberside and Lincolnshire
is suspected of handing out fake degrees, the third such case in Israel.
The University was operating in Israel for about five years, with lecturers
sent over from Britain. It ceased teaching around three years ago, and
is now suspected of granting fake degrees in education. The police have
begun investigating the case. Local branches of Burlington College of
Vermont and the University of Latvia have also been involved in similar
scandals ... [The government decision not recognize Israeli University
of Latvia degrees] applies to many hundreds of security forces personnel,
policemen, jail wardens and civil servants."
Feds
Throw The Book At Fastow,
Forbes, October 31, 2002
"U.S. federal prosecutors have indicted Andrew Fastow [who
is Jewish], former Enron chief financial officer, on charges that he set
up and manipulated a group of off-the-books partnerships to hide the bankrupt
company's debt and line his own pockets with millions of dollars in ill-gotten
gains. The move was expected, as prosecutors had filed a complaint against
Fastow on Oct. 2 and were required by federal law to bring an indictment
within 30 days. The charges included 78 counts of securities, wire and
mail fraud, money laundering and conspiring to inflate Enron's profits
and enrich himself at the company's expense. Fastow is the first former
top executives at Enron to be indicted. Investigators say Fastow made
at least $30 million on the partnerships during his tenure as CFO from
1999 until October 2001. Massive losses from various Enron partnerships
hid billions in debt, inflated profits and were directly responsible for
the company's eventual bankruptcy filing in December 2001."
Holocaust
uproar student apologises,
New Zealand Herald, October 31, 2002
"A German student at the centre of a controversial Holocaust denial
case at Waikato University has apologised to the Jewish community and
university staff. Hans-Joachim Kupka, who is in his early 50s, offered
his apology from his home in Germany after reading about a report on the
case released this month after a two-year investigation. Mr Kupka, who
was a New Zealand citizen, left Waikato in June 2000 after allegations
that he denied the Holocaust during internet chatroom debates. The chatroom
comments were unrelated to Mr Kupka's doctoral thesis on the use of German
in New Zealand, but academics feared he would contact Jewish migrants
who survived the Holocaust - the systematic killing of Jews in the 1940s.
The Jewish community considered this a clear breach of university cultural
safety protocols."
Holocaust
memorial plan in Italy prompts an anti-Semitic diatribe,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, October 29, 2002
"Officials in northern Italy have condemned a far-right political
party for protesting a drive to erect a Holocaust memorial in the city
of Bolzano. In cooperation with the local Jewish community, local newspapers
in the province of Alto Adige launched an effort last Friday to build
a monument in Bolzano’s Jewish cemetery to honor Jews killed in a Nazi
transit camp in the town. Alto Adige, also known as the South Tyrol, is
a largely German-speaking province on the border with Austria. Thousands
of South Tyroleans were enrolled in the German Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS or
Nazi police units. The local Freiheitliche, or Freedom, Party, which is
closely allied with Austrian right-wing extremist Jorg Haider, attacked
the monument initiative in terms that mixed classic anti-Semitism with
pro-Palestinian rhetoric. 'South Tyroleans have more important problems
than continually listening to Jews,' party secretary Ulli Mair said over
the weekend in a statement. 'One must stop attributing to new generations
the sins of the past, in which always and only the Jews are represented
as victims,' the statement said. 'Jews everywhere have positions of power,
above all in the United States,' it added. 'But have they at least learned
something from history? Or is it always others who must learn? It’s enough
to see what’s happening in Palestine. For this, we are against South Tyroleans
giving their money for a Jewish monument.'”
The
Wages of Hate. Anti-semitism and the war,
Andrew Sullivan, October 2002
"A student-written article in the Yale Daily News last week,
the paper for the elite American university, was typical fare. It was
a piece by a precocious first-year student criticizing what he regards
as the anti-Semitism tolerated at the U.N. The response, however, was
far from typical. He'd touched a nerve. In the comments section, posted
online next to the article, a torrent of anger was unleashed. Here's one
respondent's comments: 'I recently attended a forum focusing on the Israeli/Palestinian
issue. Both sides made very valid points but there was a moment of heated
exchange when the pro-Israel side initiated the "anti-semite"
slur and completely ended it for me. I am sick and tired of Jewish people
always smearing those that merely disagree with their views as 'evil'.
I never thought I'd say this but a lot of what the so-called "white
supremacists" are saying are proving to be more accurate than I feel
comfortable admitting.' Sympathy for the arguments of 'so-called white
supremacists'? At Yale? The comment was not anonymous. Now there's always
scope for nut-cases venting on the web. But the tenor of the discussion
on a Yale website was certainly something new."
No
Respite for West Bank Locals,
National Geographic, October 2002
"The latest news from the West Bank, occupied by Israel since June
1967, differs from earlier reports only in that the situation for the
vast majority of inhabitants has grown even worse. Take, for example,
one of the most fundamental human requirements: water. The drought that
has been ravaging the entire Middle East for several years hit Israel
hard, and Palestinians, according to the Israeli human rights organization
B’Tselem, have been undergoing 'a severe water shortage.' Two hundred
thousand Palestinians on the West Bank found themselves without any access
to a water pipeline network and therefore had to rely in part on supplies
brought in by tanker, which cost them three to five times as much as piped
water. However, the tankers often come from areas that are under Israeli
curfew (meaning that all outside movement is forbidden.) They therefore
have to wait until the curfew is lifted before filling up and setting
off to make deliveries. The roughly 8,500 people living in the town of
Bayt Furik, for example, totally depend in water brought in from the city
of Nablus, which has been frequently under curfew for most of the day
since May. The Israeli military authorities allow tankers to enter Bayt
Furik only between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. In consequence, each of the 13 tankers
serving the town can make only one delivery a day, as opposed to the four
or five daily deliveries that they usually made before the present disturbances,
known as the Al Aqsa intifada, began in September 2000. The effect of
this severe reduction in summer water supply on the town’s beef and chicken
industry has been predictably severe, just one more reason why some 70
percent of the inhabitants of the occupied territories are living on $2
a day or less."
On
Eve Of Merger, Comcast Says It Can Play,
Forbes, October 29, 2002
"Comcast stands out as a port of sanity in a sea of mad overbuilding
and overreaching. Yesterday, on the eve of closing its massive $46 billion
acquisition of AT&T Broadband from AT&T, the company reported
a quarterly profit of $75.6 million, or eight cents a share ... The QVC
home shopping network, the least glamorous side of Comcast's business,
posted a 13% increase in revenue, to $1.01 billion. Beyond QVC,
Comcast owns E! Networks, Comcast-Spectacor, the
Golf Channel and other channels. Advertising revenue increased
nearly 12% to $93.2 million, reflecting in part a stronger local ad market.
'As we prepare to complete the merger with AT&T Broadband in the fourth
quarter, we are building from a position of strength. Each of our businesses
are financially and operationally strong and we have a solid balance sheet
and liquidity position to support our growth,' [Jewish mogul] Brian
Roberts, Comcast president, said in a prepared statement. As
of today, Comcast is the third-largest U.S. cable company. After
it merges with AT&T Broadband, which has seen its subscriber rate
declining, it will be the largest.
America's
Richest Politicians,
Forbes, October 29, 2002
"For too long, politics has been the playground of the legal class.
Indeed, there are more attorneys keeping seats warm in the three branches
of the federal government than any other profession. Recently, though,
business leaders--who are responsible for society's most dynamic and important
improvements--have started to crash the political party. [Richest: Michael
Bloomberg, Mayor of New York. Net Worth: 4.8 billion dollars, four
times richer than the next wealthiest politician]
Before
Jewish fascism takes over,
by Yossi Sarid, Ha'aretz (Israel), October
29, 2002
"They're putting the historical cart before the horses, to drag the
horses after them down the slippery slope until we once again crash, for
the third time; they are enlisting history into the cause to make sure
the zealots of our day can once again bring us to destruction ... Gush
Emunim's path to their heaven and our hell is paved with violence and
brutal expressions of refusal and rebellion, always supported by Ariel
Sharon (all the quotes are in the archives), who to this day, now
as prime minister, is playing a double game together with his good friend,
the most important man in the territories, that one from the Jewish Underground,
Ze'ev Hever, also known as Zambish. Together, Sharon and
Zambish are zambushing Fuad Ben-Eliezer and Shimon Peres.
And the Yesha Council leaders will continue denying their paternity over
the 'hilltop youth,' while the sanctimonious, self-righteous politicians
who prepared the groundwork for the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
will continue using their saccharine rhetoric about 'the unity of the
nation' warning about 'civil wars' and 'baseless hatred.' If today's zealots
continue on the path of their ancestors, I'm not sure the opposing camp
will continue the tradition of surrender and panic exhibited by the moderates
of the Second Commonwealth. We have the right of self-defense from the
likes of Effi Eitam, his rabbis and pupils, before they bring down
the horrors upon us, before Jewish fascism runs over us all."
Arab
legislators aren't equal,
International Herald Tribune, October 29,
2002
"Israel calls itself the only democracy in the Middle East, a description
readily accepted in the West. Only critics in the Arab world and a handful
of radical Israeli academics have challenged this orthodoxy, observing
that the country is really a democracy only if you are a Jew. Azmi Bishara,
a former philosophy professor and now an Arab member of the Knesset, calls
Israel a 'tribal democracy.' Not included in the tribe, he says, are the
country's million Arab citizens, a fifth of the population. Although they
have the vote, they have long complained that they are excluded from participation
in the government. Since the mid-1990s they have campaigned for the Jewish
state to become a state of all its citizens. The Jewish Israeli public
and political establishment angrily oppose such reforms, claiming that
they would destroy Israel as a Jewish democratic state. However, a new
report, 'Silencing Dissent,' commissioned by Israel's Arab Association
for Human Rights, challenges the view that Israel can extol its virtues
as a democracy while defining itself as a state for Jews. Our research
throws up disturbing facts about the operation of Israel's parliamentary
democracy that are little appreciated outside Israel ... The special treatment
meted out to the Arab legislators has every appearance of being designed
to intimidate and silence them. In fact, new pieces of legislation passed
by the Knesset this past summer will do just that. Israel's election committee
will now be able to ban any party from running which implicitly denies
that Israel is a Jewish and democratic state."
Lieberman:
We Don't Need U.N.,
New York Post, October 28, 2002
"A leading Democrat yesterday urged President Bush to get tough with
the United Nations, saying that the United States should go it alone on
Iraq if France and other countries drag their feet ... Al Gore's running
mate in 2000 and a potential 2004 candidate, [Senator Joseph] Lieberman
has consistently taken a tough line with Iraq. His criticism of Bush yesterday
put Lieberman into a small group of lawmakers willing to see the United
States ignore the United Nations completely."
Jeffrey
Epstein: International Moneyman of Mystery,
New York Magazine, October 28, 2002 issue
"He's pals with a passel of Nobel Prize–winning scientists, CEOs
like [fellow Jew] Leslie Wexner of the Limited, socialite Ghislaine
Maxwell, even Donald Trump. But it wasn't until he flew Bill Clinton,
Kevin Spacey, and Chris Tucker to Africa on his private Boeing 727 that
the world began to wonder who he is. He comes with cash to burn, a fleet
of airplanes, and a keen eye for the ladies -- to say nothing of a relentless
brain that challenges Nobel Prize–winning scientists across the country
-- and for financial markets around the world. Ever since the Post's 'Page
Six' ran an item about the president's late-September visit to Africa
with Kevin Spacey and Chris Tucker -- on his new benefactor's customized
Boeing 727 -- the question of the day has been: Who in the world is Jeffrey
Epstein? It's a life full of question marks. Epstein is said
to run $15 billion for wealthy clients, yet aside from Limited founder
Leslie Wexner, his client list is a closely held secret. A former
Dalton math teacher, he maintains a peripatetic salon of brilliant scientists
yet possesses no bachelor's degree. For more than ten years, he's been
linked to Manhattan-London society figure Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter
of the mysteriously deceased [Jewish/Zionist] media titan Robert Maxwell,
yet he lives the life of a bachelor, logging 600 hours a year in his various
planes as he scours the world for investment opportunities. He owns what
is said to be Manhattan's largest private house yet runs his business
from a 100-acre private island in St. Thomas. Power on Wall Street has
generally accrued to those who have made their open bids for it. Soros.
Wasserstein. Kravis. Weill. [All Jewish moguls] The
Sturm und Drang of their successes and failures has been played out in
public. Epstein breaks the mold. Most everyone on the Street has
heard of him, but nobody seems to know what the hell he is up to. Which
is just the way he likes it."
Smearing the
Antiwar Movement. Neocon Thought Police on the Prowl,
by Justin Raimondo, Etherzone, October 28,
2002 issue
"As if to confirm what some opponents of this war have been saying
– but not too loudly – about this being a war for Israel, the Bush administration
is now 'weighing an Israeli proposal for a joint operation in Iraq's western
desert to disarm Iraqi missiles before they could be launched against
Israel.' That this war has always been about Israel is a matter of simple
geography. For all the President's palavering about the 'threat to Americans'
posed by Iraq, those 'weapons of mass destruction' Saddam supposedly has
couldn't even reach Europe, let alone the U.S. But Tel Aviv is well within
range. Indeed, the prospect of Iraqi missiles raining down on Israel has
been one of the chief deterrents against a move by Israel's far-right
Likud government to ethnically cleanse Palestine of Arabs – a plan that
is increasingly popular among Israelis – and/or move the IDF back into
Lebanon. The U.S. occupation of Iraq will eliminate that deterrent – and
set up Israel to deal with Hizbollah the Syria in the regional conflagration
to follow. The oddly showy attempts by U.S. government officials to downplay
the extent of U.S.-Israeli collaboration have never been too convincing
– if they were, you see, the Israeli lobby in the U.S. would be outraged,
and that would be the end of that. But who's kidding whom? The coming
war in the Middle East will be a joint operation between Washington and
Tel Aviv in every sense, not only militarily but also on the political
and diplomatic fronts. In the blockbuster second issue of The American
Conservative, Paul W. Schroeder, professor emeritus of history at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, disdained the Oedipal explanation
for the origins of the President's war plans, writing: 'Much more plausible
is the suggestion that this plan is being promoted in the interests of
Israel. Certainly it is being pushed very hard by a number of influential
supporters of Israel of the hawkish neoconservative stripe in and outside
the administration (Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, William
Kristol, and others) and one could easily make the case that a successful
preventive war on Iraq would promote particular Israeli security interests
more than general American ones.'"
Best of the Web Today:
Oh, Those Presidents All Look Alike,
Opinion Journal (Wall Street Journal), October
28, 2002
"Slate, the online magazine that gave us 'monkeyfishing,'
has also created a tiresome feature called the 'Bushism of the Day.' Jacob
Weisberg, who succeeded Michael Kinsley [both are Jewish] as
editor, scours the president's statements and takes short quotes out of
context, attempting to make Bush look stupid by putting into writing his
spoken quotes. This is a cheap gimmick; few people speak in polished sentences
and paragraphs, and you could make almost anyone look dumb by employing
the Weisberg method. Still, today's 'Bushism of the day' breaks new ground.
Here it is: 'I would like to express my deep condolences for the loss
of the Senate.'--Commenting on Sen. Paul Wellstone's death, Crawford,
Texas, Oct. 25, 2002. Now, let's go to the transcript, which is of a joint
appearance with Bush and China's President Jiang Zemin. It begins with
Bush speaking: 'Thank you for coming, President Jiang.' PRESIDENT JIANG:
'Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen. I just learned that one plane crashed.
I would like to express my deep condolences for the loss of the Senate.
And also I would like to express my condolences to the bereaved family.'
Did Weisberg deliberately present Jiang's words as Bush's in a
dishonest attempt to make Bush look bad? It's hard to imagine he did,
and we certainly know of no reason to question the Slate editor's
integrity. More likely, Weisberg was just being sloppy. Even so,
this is pretty stunningly slipshod. Someone who demands perfect syntax
in spoken expression ought to be more careful in his own writing."
Winona Jury Shocker,
Slate, October 28, 2002
"A Jury of Her Peers: How dumb were prosecutors to let Peter Guber,
former head of Sony Pictures, on to the Winona Ryder [both Guber
and Ryder, originally Horowitz, are Jewish] shoplifting
jury? They must not have read Nancy Griffin and Kim Masters' Hit and
Run: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for a Ride in Hollywood.
If the lawyers in the D.A.'s office do get hold of a copy, they perhaps
should pay special attention to the pages cited in the index entry: 'Guber/Peters
... and greed, 9, 108, 109, 119, 142, 148.' Can the prosecutors seriously
think Guber is someone who's about to get all moralistic over a
few missing hats and hair bands? ... "
No,
they don't rest in peace. Improper construction, neglect and vandalism
have turned Ashkelon's Christian cemetery into an eyesore,
Ha'aretz (Israel), October 27, 2002
"'Whenever Jewish gravestones in overseas cemeteries are sprayed with
hate messages, there is a huge hue and cry: `Anti-Semitism!' However,
when Christian gravestones are uprooted in Israeli cemeteries, are any
protests heard?' This is what Romy Nudelman recently wrote in protest
over the desecration of the grave of her Catholic mother in the Christian
cemetery in Ashkelon. 'Is it not a divine decree that the stranger living
in your midst should be treated with dignity? And is respect for the dead
merely a cliche?' she continued in her letter to the President of the
State of Israel, to the ministers of religious affairs and the interior,
and to the mayor of Ashkelon. For more than seven years, she has protested
the vandalism that has been carried out in Ashkelon's Christian cemetery.
Various government agencies have admitted that the situation in that cemetery
is 'serious and shocking'; however, no substantive measures have yet been
taken to amend it."
Why
The Rise In Anti-Semitism In Europe?,
by Alfred M. Lilienthal, Palestine Chronicle,
October 27 2002
"Any time that we hear that Jews are 'suddenly' being persecuted,
we have to ask what is really going on. Are their opponents attacking
them only because they are Jews? An op-ed piece by Abraham Foxman, head
of the Anti-Defamation League, entitled 'Europe's Anti-Israel Excuse'
appeared in the Washington Post on June 26, 2002. Foxman claims
to believe that the growing criticism in Europe of Israeli misconduct
somehow equals a resurgence of anti-Semitism similar to the dark Hitler
era. For that matter, he makes an even far wider claim that this supposed
new rise in the old anti-Semitism is somehow central to all human experience:
Throughout history a constant barometer for judging the level of hate
and exclusion vs. the level of freedom and democracy in any society has
been anti-Semitism -- how a country treats its Jewish citizens. Jews have
been persecuted and delegitimized throughout history because of their
perceived differences. Any society that can understand and accept Jews
is typically more democratic, more open and accepting of 'the other.'
This predictor has held true throughout the ages.' Here in Foxman’s own
words, we have a prime example of the kind of egocentric and grandiose
preoccupation with his Jewishness that tends to give other Jews a bad
name. What hogwash that throughout all of human history and throughout
all the societies that have ever existed, the world has somehow revolved
around the status of 'The Jews!' This claim of unique Jewish specialness
is preposterous and offensive. If the Irish, the Chinese, the Arabs, the
Catholics, the Buddhists, or any other ethnic or religious group made
such a ridiculous universal claim about themselves, we would likely find
it both disgusting and laughable. Foxman makes this absurd statement,
but if we dare to say it is absurd, immediately he would counter that
we are anti-Semitic to say so."
Who Has
Hijacked Google?
[Commentary, and links, about the Jewish dimensions of the Google World
Wide web search engine]
Focal Point, October 28, 2002
Ad
says Cleland silent on anti-Semitism,
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 26,
2002
"More than 100 Jewish Georgians have signed an advertisement scolding
U.S. Max Cleland (D-Ga.) for not condemning [African-Americans] U.S. Rep.
Cynthia McKinney and state Rep. Billy McKinney's 'anti-Semitic and anti-Israel
statements' during their re-election campaigns last summer. The full-page
ad in Friday's edition of the weekly Atlanta Jewish Times, which
has a circulation of 25,000, endorses Cleland challenger Republican Saxby
Chambliss. The ad includes a picture of the Israeli flag at the top next
to the headline: 'The Jewish Community Supports Saxby Chambliss for U.S.
Senate.' Jewish business leaders, local entertainment figures and politicians
signed the ad, including Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus, who could
not be reached for comment Friday."
High
Stakes on ‘Down Ballot’,
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, October
25, 2002
"They may be 'down ballot,'or low profile, races for state offices,
but the contests for insurance commissioner and controller in the Nov.
5 election could have important international effects on the Jewish community.
California’s next insurance commissioner will have an important voice
in the settlement and distribution of Holocaust-related funds. The responsibilities
of the state controller include seats on public pension fund boards, where
the battles over divestment of investments related to Israel may be fought.
Nearly a quarter of all U.S. claims made to the International Commission
on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC) have come from California.
The California insurance commissioner, along with the commissioners of
several other states, European insurance regulators and Israeli and Jewish
organization officials form the ICHEIC board ... In 1999, California passed
the Holocaust Victim Insurance Relief Act, which requires insurance companies
that do business in the state to provide information regarding any policies
sold by the companies or their affiliates in Europe between 1920-1945.
The insurance commissioner has the power to revoke the business license
of any company that does not comply with the law ... [Candidate Gary]
Mendoza, a former state corporations commissioner and Los Angeles deputy
mayor under Richard Riordan, was also state chairman of the Bush for President
2000 campaign. . ... 'I’ve been an outspoken supporter of Israel for years,'
Mendoza said. 'Israel is fighting our fight right now. Statewide officeholders
have an opportunity to speak out and support our allies. I’d like to see
a declaration of independence from Arab oil.'"
Academic
accused of promoting anti-semitism,
Guardian (UK), October 25, 2002
"A row has broken out between a Birmingham University lecturer and
Jewish groups over a personal website which the Jewish groups say promotes
anti-semitism. The Board of Deputies of British Jews, has written to the
university demanding that they remove links between Ms Blackwell's official
university website and her personal pages. They say links from the site
take you to images glorifying suicide bombing and comparing Israel with
Nazi Germany. Sue Blackwell, an English lecturer, today defended her site
saying: 'I would not link to a terrorist organisation - there is no link
to a Hamas website. If I've inadvertently linked to something that glorifies
suicide bombers I would remove it immediately. Nobody has yet told me
which one leads to these images. I think these allegations are groundless
and malicious.' A spokesperson for the Board of Deputies said: 'Over the
past year, Jewish students have felt increasingly threatened by anti-Israel
and anti-semitic propaganda on campus which has directly resulted in an
increase in campus anti-semitism. As an academic, Ms Blackwell has a responsibility
to the truth and it is sad that she has allowed herself to become a mouthpiece
for recognised anti-Israel groups.'" [Here is Susan
Blackwell's web site]
Is This
a Joke? Jewish Humor Fails To Make List of Funniest Jests,
[Jewish] Forward, October 25, 2002
"Rabbi Moshe Waldoks recently left an angry message on the
Forward's voicemail service. 'I'm curious to hear what someone has the
nerve to call 'the funniest joke,'" growled the disgusted co-author of
'The Big Book of Jewish Humor.' 'What chutzpah!' The wise men of Chelm
would be turning in their graves if they knew of the results of a study
published earlier this month that named the most widely praised jokes
throughout Europe and North America. While, according to Waldoks,
60% to 70% of people in the humor industry (writers, comedians, etc.)
are Jews, there is not a single joke involving Jews in the survey's top
tier. LaughLab, created by the University of Hertfordshire in England
and the British Association for the Advancement of Science, conducted
a yearlong survey via the Internet, in which more than 2 million people
passed judgment on 40,000 jokes. 'There aren't 40,000 gentile jokes,"
huffed Alan King, the comic's comic and author of the brand-new
'Alan King's Great Jewish Joke Book' (Crown). 'If there are, they've been
changed.' The British, King told the Forward, are 'carriers
of bad humor. India wasn't funny, South Africa wasn't funny, so what do
they know?' ... Waldoks says that he doubts that the absence of
Jewish jokes indicates any overt antisemitism on behalf of the world at-large.
'I think it's an ignorance,' Waldoks said, not any lack of material.".
Court:
Jewish community can mark symbolic district,
CNN, October 24, 2002
"Officials in a New Jersey borough discriminated against an Orthodox
Jewish community when they refused to allow it to place plastic strips
on utility poles to mark the boundaries of a symbolic religious district,
a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals rejected the borough of Tenafly's argument that allowing the unobtrusive
strips constituted an improper government endorsement of religion. The
strips mark an eruv, a symbolic district within which Orthodox Jews are
allowed to perform physical tasks otherwise banned on the Sabbath, such
as pushing baby carriages or helping elders who use wheelchairs visit
friends. Most major American cities contain eruvs, although many residents
may not realize it because they often are marked with easily overlooked
strands of wire."
What Happened
to The Angry White Male? The media's "racial profile" of the sniper turned
out to be dead wrong,
by Jonah Goldberg, Opinion Journal (Wall
Street Journal), October 25, 2002
"'This person is kind of a wallpaper white male, a disenfranchised, disrespected
man who's getting back at society.' So explained Brian Levin, a
criminologist and director of the Center for Hate and Extremism in San
Bernardino, Calif., to the Christian Science Monitor on Oct. 9.
'That's one of the reasons he's kept his distance from inner D.C., where
he might lose his cover.' Don't hold your breath waiting for Mr. Levin's
Gilda Radner-esque 'never mind,' as the image of two handsome black men--who'd
need no cover in inner-city Washington--fills every television in America.
He has too much company to be singled out for mockery."
Canadian
Jews are incensed as Quebec union calls to boycott Israel,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Oct. 25, 2002
"Members of a Quebec labor union who recently visited the West Bank
and Gaza Strip have denounced Israel as an 'apartheid regime' and called
for a boycott of Israeli products. The Centrale des syndicats du Quebec,
a major union representing teachers, healthcare and social service workers
and other labor groups, sent 10 members on a 12-day fact-finding mission
to Palestinian areas. The group did not meet with any Israeli government
representatives or Israeli colleagues from the Histadrut trade union federation.
The delegation prepared a blistering report on Israel’s treatment of Palestinians,
outlining a litany of Palestinian suffering that they blamed on Israel’s
military presence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip ... Incensed, Montreal’s
Jewish leadership is striking back. At a press conference Thursday, representatives
of Canadian Jewish Congress’s Quebec region, the Canada-Israel Committee’s
Quebec region, the Communaute Sepharade du Quebec and Federation CJA condemned
the union’s report."
From
Israeli nukes to 'silly strategists',
Ha'aretz (Israel), October 25, 2002
"The last time strategic analyst Anthony Cordesman topped the Israeli
news was when his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
yielded the headline: 'Israel will retaliate with nuclear weapons in case
of heavy casualties from an Iraqi missile attack' (by Ze'ev Schiff, on
August 15). Cordesman's updated opinion, disseminated this week by the
online Gulf Wire news agency, deals among other things with expected Israeli
reactions to an Iraqi missile attack. But the Israeli reader will find
much more interesting reading in other parts of the document written by
the person now considered one of Washington's leading strategic thinkers
on the Middle East. In the article, which deals with 'the gap between
strategic theory and operational reality in the Middle East,' Cordesman
writes that 'conventional missile attacks on Israel, and even token and
ineffective Iraqi use of weapons of mass destruction, could trigger Israeli
conventional attacks on Iraq. The U.S. can quietly discourage this by
its traditional means.' Cordesman bluntly identifies these as 'bribes
in the form of more aid to Israel' ... Hinting broadly about the advice
President George Bush is getting from two key [Jewish] policy advisors,
Richard Perle and Douglas Feith, Cordesman writes: 'The
U.S. also needs to make it clear to the region that it does not endorse
neo-conservative and Israeli fantasies about going on to region-wide conflicts
or triggering broader overthrows of regimes. The U.S., however, can make
it clear that its commitment to Israel does not involve a commitment to
its sillier armchair strategists and more vocally irresponsible hardliners.'"
Maxwell Killed
by Mossad: New Book,
New York Post, October 25, 2002
."'Robert Maxwell, Israel's Superspy,'" to be published in December
by Carroll and Graf, claims Mossad decided to get rid of Maxwell because
he was threatening to expose his knowledge of Israeli secrets unless he
received Israeli help in propping up his failing businesses. Maxwell's
sudden death at sea in November 1991 off the Canary Islands brought about
the collapse of his worldwide publishing empire and triggered theories
ranging from suicide, murder or accident. Maxwell - who owned the Daily
News at the time - disappeared overboard just as the complex web of
financial deals keeping his businesses afloat was beginning to unravel
and a few weeks after U.S. investigative journalist Seymour Hersh
published a book claiming Maxwell had close ties with the Israeli secret
services. The new book, by British thriller writer Gordon Thomas and Irish
journalist Martin Dillon, is based on interviews with former Mossad agents
and chiefs."
Oil
and Israel. Two unspoken reasons why Bush wants to wage war against Iraq,
by Michael Kinsley, MSNBC (Slate magazine),
October 24, 2002
"So, why exactly is Iraq different from North Korea? Both are founding
members of President Bush’s 'axis of evil,' and both deserve that honor.
North Korea has now admitted to a nuclear weapons development program
on about the same timeline as what we only suspect about Iraq. So, why
are we barely complaining in one case and off to war in the other? ...
The lack of public discussion about the role of Israel in the thinking
of 'President Bush' is easier to understand, but weird nevertheless. It
is the proverbial elephant in the room: Everybody sees it, no one mentions
it. The reason is obvious and admirable: Neither supporters nor opponents
of a war against Iraq wish to evoke the classic anti-Semitic image of
the king’s Jewish advisers whispering poison into his ear and betraying
the country to foreign interests. But the consequence of this massive
'Shhhhhhhhh!' is to make a perfectly valid American concern for a democratic
ally in a region of nutty theocracies, rotting monarchies, and worse seem
furtive and suspicious." [Kinsley is Jewish]
Google
excludes sites from French, German listings,
ITworld, October 24, 2002
"Internet search engine company Google Inc. has been discreetly removing
over 100 controversial sites from some search result listings on its German
and French Web sites, according to a study from Harvard University's Berkman
Center. The study found that listings for 113 Web sites that are anti-Semitic,
pro-Nazi, or related to white supremacy have been either partially or
fully removed from Google.fr and Google.de, though they are available
on the U.S. site, Google.com, according to the report posted Tuesday on
Harvard University's Berkman Center Web site. Google, in Mountain View,
California, could not immediately be reach for comment. The Harvard study,
conducted by assistant professor Jonathan Zittrain and law student Benjamin
Edelman, used automated testing, conducted between Oct. 4 and Oct.
21, of Google's 2.5 billion page index to compare the results returned
by different foreign-language versions. The study found that among the
banned sites are a 'white pride' site, Stormfront.org, and a fundamentalist
Christian site opposing abortion, Jesus-is-lord.com. Testing revealed
that 65 sites removed from German google.de were also removed from French
google.fr results with an additional 48 sites removed only from google.fr
results. Zittrain and Edelman point out that German and French Internet
users can still circumvent such bans by simply conducting searches on
Google.com. German law forbids material that is considered to incite racial
and ethnic hatred, including the publication of Holocaust denials. Similar
laws exist in France. Both countries have been involved in high profile
cases in an attempt to get Internet providers to block access to offending
U.S. Web sites."
Doers
and doings in business, entertainment and technology: Michael Eisner says
there's no broader strategy with Microsoft,
Forbes, October 24, 2002
"[Jewish mogul] Michael Eisner's Walt Disney and Microsoft's
MSN [Microsoft is headed today by Jewish mogul Steve Ballmer] announced
they are banding together to launch a family-friendly Internet service
in a bid to challenge embattled industry leader America Online, a unit
of AOL Time Warner. The new service will offer items such as parental
controls and new start-up pages for kids that are filled with Disney characters
like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, as well as a separate start page for
adults, the companies said in a statement."
World press
freedom ranked,
BBC (UK), October 23, 2002
"This is the first time press freedom has been ranked The international
journalism pressure group Reporters Without Borders has published
a list judging 139 countries on their respect for press freedom. At the
top of the list are Finland, Iceland, Norway and the Netherlands. North
Korea, China and Burma are at the other end of the scale. There are some
surprises for Western governments - the United States ranks below Costa
Rica and Italy scores lower than Benin ... The US' 17th place was lowered
because of the number of journalists arrested for refusing to reveal their
sources, the report says ... Elsewhere, the organisation places the Palestinian
Authority (82) higher than Israel (92) in terms of press freedom. Israel's
ranking was hurt by what the pressure group claims are 'a large number
of violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights'
in the West Bank and Gaza." [Iraq is listed at the bottom, at 130]
Israeli
embassy told to move,
Aftenposten, (Norway), October 24, 2002
"Closed streets, barricaded sidewalks and heavily armed guards just
behind Norway's royal palace have taken their toll on Oslo officials'
patience. After years of neighbor complaints over security measures at
the Israeli embassy, city authorities now agree the embassy must move
within four years. The Israeli embassy on Parkveien in Oslo has been a
security nightmare for local officials. Fears of terrorist attack have
led to security demands from the Israeli embassy that city and state politicians
have tried to meet. The city has paid for round-the-clock police patrols
at the embassy, agreed to block off the street it sits on (earlier one
of busiest in the city) and allowed the embassy to violate building codes
by erecting such things as a steel fence around the gracious old rented
mansion that the embassy leases. Now city officials agree that the very
threat of terrorist attack means the embassy must be re-located. They
now think its current site, across the street from the palace where both
King Harald and Queen Sonja live, is a threat to the entire area."
Setting the Stan-dard.
How one man transformed a basement tutoring service into an American dream
machine known as the test prep industry,
Moment, October 2002
"Stanley H. Kaplan is a nice Jewish boy who was never able
to become a doctor—and that might have been the best thing that ever happened
to him. Convinced that anti-Semitism and his lack of an upper-crust academic
pedigree kept him out of medical school, Kaplan pursued his first love:
teaching. In the process, he became so successful that today, his name
is a household word among aspiring collegians. Yes, that Stanley H.
Kaplan, whose moniker has become synonymous with college test preparations,
a burgeoning industry he singlehandedly created ... Apparently Kaplan,
who was first exposed to big-time standardized testing 56 years ago when
a high school student from his hometown of Brooklyn approached him and
asked him for help on an exam he'd never heard of. That exam—the Scholastic
Aptitude Test—became his meal ticket ... Over the years, his tutoring
operation grew into Kaplan, Inc., the nation's largest test preparation
company. It has helped more than 3 million students—200,000 last year
alone—prepare for not only the SAT, but dozens of other standardized tests
... Despite Kaplan's belief that standardized testing enables students
'to show off their skills on a level playing field,' it has been accused
of being both elitist and trivial. Likewise, Kaplan's own test prep program
has come under fire. Critics have called it elitist, charging that its
high cost (about $800 to $900 for a 30-hour-plus seminar) effectively
discriminates against poor and middle class students—the very population
Kaplan had sought to serve."
Settlers
defying Israeli law Actions spark fear in the region,
Boston Globe, October 23, 2002
"Jewish settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories have suddenly
broken into open defiance of the government of Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon on multiple fronts, threatening the stability of the ruling
coalition and creating an environment that some Israelis compare to that
which led to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Across the rocky, rolling hills of the northern West Bank, which the settlers
call by the biblical name Samaria, settlers are attacking Palestinians
attempting to harvest their olives - a major ritual of Palestinian society
and an important source of income for the impoverished rural population.
Olive harvesters have been beaten, shot at, wounded, and, in one case,
killed... In the past week alone, a Palestinian was found crawling through
the groves near an Itamar outpost after allegedly being beaten severely
by residents, Palestinian villagers fled their homes after a settler rampage,
and numerous olive harvesters were threatened. The injured man had three
broken fingers, and was burned and bruised all over his body, according
to the doctor in Nablus who treated him. A relative who took him to the
hospital said the man told him settlers hung him upside down in a tree,
with his hands tied behind his back, while beating him. In other Samarian
settlements, Israeli police said, armed, masked settlers torched seven
cars owned by Palestinians after the Palestinians refused to leave their
olive groves."
Rights
groups: Israel is waging a campaign to silence Arab MKs,
Ha'aretz (Israel), October 23, 2002
"Israel is carrying out at a 'campaign for silencing Arab members
of Knesset [the Israeli Parliament],' and has adopted a 'strategy aimed
at denying the [Arab] minority its voting rights, contrary to its international
obligation,' organizations representing Arab minority rights said in two
ground-breaking reports presented to the Knesset yesterday. According
to reports prepared by the Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA) and
the Mussawa Center, Israel's nine Arab MKs have been targets of a concerted
policy of physical attack by security forces and their freedom of movement
has been restricted. There are also a number of legal and legislative
processes in the works aimed at neutralizing their political activity,
the reports note. Since the current Knesset was convened in May 1999,
eight of the Knesset Arab MKs have been physically hurt in 11 attacks
carried out by military police, according to the rights organizations;
most of the MKs were attacked more than once, and in seven cases medical
treatment was required. 'In most of the cases, security forces knew who
they were attacking,' the HRA report claims. According to both reports,
no proceedings were taken against the attackers, despite complaints filed
by the MKs."
The
Usefulness of Daniel Goldhagen. His new book attacking Pope Pius XII is
filled with factual errors, providing an opportunity for other anti-Catholic
writers to claim the middle ground,
by J. Bottum, Weekly Standard, October 23,
2002
"If you haven't been able to read all the writing about Pius XII,
the Catholic Church, and the Holocaust, you needn't feel too bad. Not
even scholars in the field have been able to keep up. By my count, there
have been at least fourteen books on the subject in the last three years,
with the threat of more to come ...Into this flood of (mostly Catholic)
works for and against Pius XII, there will shortly splash Daniel Goldhagen's
new book, 'A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust
and its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair' ... As I say, no one is going to have
trouble finding Goldhagen's mistakes. And that's exactly the problem.
By writing such an error-filled, anti-Catholic diatribe as 'A Moral Reckoning,'
Goldhagen makes what used to be the extreme of public discourse look like
middle ground--the middle ground that, on any historical question, most
of diffident, well-mannered America wants to inhabit."
Backpackers
warned about strict foreign drug laws,
Ha'aretz (Israel), October 23, 2002
"The War on Drugs Authority is putting a warning booklet on sale
cheaply at travel agents outlining the drug laws in 39 countries popular
with young Israeli travelers. With examples ranging from India and Thailand
to Ecuador and Brazil, the booklet tells in a dry tone what happens to
someone caught with drugs in these countries. With drugs ranging from
marijuana to cocaine and heroin, there are vast differences between countries
in the punishments they mete out for having drugs for personal use and
for dealing. Authority chairman Haim Messing says 'on average the
Foreign Ministry gets requests to help Israelis in trouble abroad over
drugs - we're talking about hundreds of cases a year. We thought it would
be appropriate to bring the information about international drug laws
to public attention.'"
Weill
Says He Stands With Citigroup,
Forbes, October 23, 2002
"At this point in the Wall Street story, a conflict of interests
has emerged between the conflict of interests. The Wall Street Journal
reported early today that the New York attorney general's office is
'stepping up pressure' on Citigroup by seeking to question Chairman and
Chief Executive Sanford Weill 'after gathering new evidence in
its broad investigation' into research activities at the financial services
giant. In a memo to his senior management also published as a press release,
Weill denied the story within hours of it being posted on the Journal's
Web site and said, in effect, he will stand with the bank he loves and
noted that his retaining a lawyer should imply nothing to the contrary.
After all, the lawyer he retained, Martin Lipton, is a corporate
lawyer, not a divorce lawyer nor a criminal lawyer. Besides which, Sandy
and Marty are good friends ... [I]f anyone has a conflict of interest,
it could well be Lipton, who is advising the chairman and the bank.
It isn't clear what 'new evidence' the attorney general has uncovered
about Weill, but the Journal's report suggests that it may
have something to do with Weill's membership on the board of AT&T
... Weill's memo quotes Lipton's 'strong response' to the
idea that there may be a conflict between the bank and its chairman: 'The
notion that there could be any charge against Sandy Weill is inconceivable.
There is no divergence between the interests of Sandy and Citigroup,'
Lipton said. As it happens, Lipton's firm, Wachtell Lipton
Rosen & Katz, also represents AT&T. Is this another conflict? Or have
we heard a little too much about conflicts."
Pro-Israel
lobby flexes muscles, making some legislators uneasy,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Oct. 22, 2002
"Pro-Israel lawmakers, including some Jewish members of the U.S.
House of Representatives, are complaining about the influence of Jewish
lobbying groups on Middle East issues. According to congressional staffers
and lobbyists, several pro-Israel congressmen are agitated by the type
of influence that Jewish organizations are exerting, specifically their
calls to support the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Following the defeat this year of several incumbents deemed anti-Israel
— defeats attributed in part to the influence of Jewish money — congressmen
who normally would speak out on the Middle East are finding it better
to stay quiet. Most of the focus is on the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee, the influential pro-Israel lobbying organization. The organization
stresses that its mandate is to support the policies of the current Israeli
government, but lawmakers say AIPAC has little tolerance for more dovish
stances, such as calls for restraint during Israeli military incursions
into the West Bank and Gaza Strip ... In two highly publicized congressional
primaries this year, incumbents who were considered anti-Israel lost to
challengers who received large amounts of Jewish money. Both Reps. Earl
Hilliard (D-Ala.) and Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) were targeted by Jewish
groups because of their perceived anti-Israel stances. “It was designed
to send the message, ‘Shut up,’ and that message was heard,” one longtime
Jewish community activist said. 'It will have a chilling effect on the
Middle East debate' ... While there have been cases in the past of Jewish
money helping to defeat powerful legislators, the McKinney and Hilliard
races showed that Jewish activists will target even lawmakers without
a great deal of influence. That has forced some lawmakers to cast votes
against their better judgment, sources said. “For the first time they
are going after people who are obscure and insignificant,” the community
activist said. 'It sends a message that you can be from Podunk, Miss.
and we’ll go after you.' Officials at other Jewish organizations say they
are being told by lawmakers and staffers that they feel more pressure
than usual, and are fearful that any vote could come back to haunt them.
'Since Sharon became prime minister they hold their nose and do
what they’re told by AIPAC,' the community activist said. 'What members
say privately is totally at a variance with what they say publicly.'”
Home
PM plans to ask U.S. for aid that could top $10 billion,
Ha'aretz (Israel), October 22, 2002
"An inter-ministerial team headed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
bureau chief, Dov Weisglass, is working on a proposal requesting
American economic assistance that could top $10 billion. The team includes
representatives from the treasury, the Foreign Ministry and the Defense
Ministry. A government source said the reason for the aid request stems
from the United States' expected campaign against Iraq coupled with the
American desire that Israel not interfere with Washington's plans or use
IDF troops against Iraq. Sources at the Prime Minister's Office said yesterday
that American readiness to provide economic assistance has not been made
in concrete terms. However, a number of ideas have cropped up in Jerusalem
over the type of aid Israel could use: cash, guarantees for low-interest
bank loans from American banks, direct state-to-state loans from the U.S.
treasury, and the conversion of some American defense aid into shekels.
Currently, Washington provides Israel $2.1 billion a year that must be
spent in the United States on defense supplies. One proposal is for $2
billion to be converted to shekels and used to purchase defense equipment
from Israeli manufacturers in the hope that it would invigorate the Israeli
economy."
Commander
charged with torturing Palestinian boy,
Guardian (UK), October 22, 2002
"An Israeli army commander has been relieved of his post after being
charged with torturing a young Palestinian boy in Bethlehem while interrogating
him as to the whereabouts of his father. Lieutenant Colonel Geva Saguy
is awaiting a court martial on several charges, including ordering the
boy to strip naked, holding a burning paper under his testicles, threatening
to ram a bottle into his anus and threatening to shoot him. The boy's
name and age have not been revealed. A military court was told that Lt
Col Saguy was trying to obtain information about the boy's father
- described as a 'wanted Palestinian' - during the army's invasion of
Bethlehem in April. Lt Col Saguy was charged with extortion, behaviour
unbecoming an officer and exceeding his authority to the point of endangering
human life. He was relieved of his post on the orders of the military
court after it turned down a request for the charges to be thrown out.
The army had resisted the move for several months. A sergeant is accused
of translating Lt Col Saguy's threats into Arabic and of beating
the youth."
Ryder
shoplift trial to begin Defense says star's arrest was setup,
San Francisco Chronicle, October 22, 2002
"Actress Winona Ryder's arrest led to jokes on late-night
television about her allegedly sticky fingers, triggered the production
of 'Free Winona' T- shirts and inspired a comic play about her plight.
Now, 10 months later, the Oscar-nominated actress, who was raised in Petaluma,
is starring as criminal defendant in a real-life drama featuring a varied
cast: hawk-eyed Saks security guards, employees from other high-end department
stores and Beverly Hills police officers who handcuffed America's most
famous shoplifting suspect ... Ryder, born Winona Laura Horowitz,
grew up in Petaluma. Her parents were friends of poet Allen Ginsberg,
and her godfather was Timothy Leary."
How
to shut up your critics with a single word,
by Robert Fisk, The Independent (UK), October
21, 2002
"Thank God, I often say, for the Israeli press. For where else will
you find the sort of courageous condemnation of Israel's cruel and brutal
treatment of the Palestinians? Where else can we read that Moshe Ya'alon,
Ariel Sharon's new chief of staff, described the 'Palestinian threat'
as 'like a cancer – there are all sorts of solutions to cancerous manifestations.
For the time being, I am applying chemotherapy.' Where else can we read
that the Israeli Herut Party chairman, Michael Kleiner, said that
'for every victim of ours there must be 1,000 dead Palestinians'. Where
else can we read that Eitan Ben Eliahu, the former Israeli Air
Force commander, said that 'eventually we will have to thin out the number
of Palestinians living in the territories'. Where else can we read that
the new head of Mossad, General Meir Dagan – a close personal friend
of Mr Sharon – believes in 'liquidation units', that other Mossad
men regard him as a threat because 'if Dagan brings his morality
to the Mossad, Israel could become a country in which no normal Jew would
want to live'. You will have to read all this in Ma'ariv, Ha'aretz
or Yediot Ahronot because in much of the Western world, a vicious
campaign of slander is being waged against any journalist or activist
who dares to criticise Israeli policies or those that shape them. The
all-purpose slander of 'anti-Semitism' is now used with ever-increasing
promiscuity against anyone – people who condemn the wickedness of Palestinian
suicide bombings every bit as much as they do the cruelty of Israel's
repeated killing of children – in an attempt to shut them up. [Jewish
academics] Daniel Pipes and Martin Kramer of the Middle
East Forum now run a website in the United States to denounce academics
who are deemed to have shown 'hatred of Israel'. One of the eight professors
already on this contemptible McCarthyite list – it is grotesquely called
'Campus Watch' – committed the unpardonable sin of signing a petition
in support of the Palestinian scholar Edward Said. Pipes wants
students to inform on professors who are guilty of 'campus anti-Semitism'.
The University of North Carolina is being targeted – apparently because
freshmen were required to read passages from the Koran – along with Harvard
where, like students in many other US universities, undergraduates are
demanding that their colleges disinvest in companies that sell weapons
to Israel. In some cases, American universities – which happily disinvested
in tobacco companies – have now taken the step of blocking all student
access to their records of investment."
Palestinian
Enemies Of the United States,
by David Horowitz, Front Page, October
21, 2002
"In the Gulf War, Palestinians sided with Iraq against the United
States. A recent Palestinian poll (see today's Sidebars) shows that 80%
of the Palestinians will side with Iraq in the next Iraq-US War as well.
It’s time for the United States to recognize a mortal enemy when it sees
one, and stop understanding the 'root causes' of Palestinian malevolence
and hatred. It’s time to end the delusion of a Palestinian state on the
West Bank. Such a state would immediately form terrorist alliances with
Iraq and Iran and become part of the general Islamicist jihad against
America. Until the complete occupation and denazification of the West
Bank is undertaken and achieved, it should be obvious that no decent state
can emerge from a culture that has been poisoned by its own leaders. There
is little or no chance of such denazification taking place in the foreseeable
future."
The Bible as 'hate literature'? Canadians advance bill that chills speech
about homosexuality, World Net Daily,
October 21, 2002
"A prison sentence for quoting the Bible in Canada? Holy Scriptures
treated as 'hate literature'? That could happen if a proposed bill is
passed by Parliament, according to opponents who believe it would criminalize
public expression against homosexual behavior. A self-described homosexual
member of the House of Commons, Svend Robinson, is expected this week
to reintroduce bill C-415, which would add sexual orientation as a protected
category in Canada's genocide and hate crimes legislation ... But opponents
point out that the law addressed by Robinson's amendment spells out three
different types of actions or speech considered criminal, and only one
can be excused by a religious defense. And even that one, opponents maintain,
has not always held up in court, because its vagueness leaves wide discretion
to judges. The most dangerous aspect of this amendment is that 'hate'
and 'hate propaganda' are not defined, says Brian Rushfeldt, executive
director of the Canada Family Action Coalition in Calgary, Alberta. ...
No religious defense is contained in section 318 of the current law, which
has a sentence of up to five years in prison for advocating 'genocide,'
nor in section 319(1), prohibiting public incitement of 'hatred' against
an identifiable group that is 'likely to lead to a breach of the peace.'
Section 319(2), which prohibits a public statement that 'willfully promotes
hatred' against a protected group, does have an article that excuses statements
expressed in 'good faith,' including religious expression."
Street-Level
Smut. The book shops of Times Square,
by Jay Gertzman, The Position, October 21,
2002
"By the end of World War II, Times Square was a general entertainment
area in which tourists, young people on dates, gamblers, con men, street
preachers, taxi dancers, frequenters of bars, prostitutes, panhandlers,
readers of smut and fans of movie sex and violence all mingled ... In
the late 40s, Allan Wilson and his partner, Aaron Moses
("Mo") Shapiro, founded the Jack Woodford Press, as an imprint
of the Citadel Press, which featured socialist analysis of American
politics. A prolific writer of soft-core erotica with a deft sense of
plot construction and scene setting, Woodford wrote of free-spirited and
well travelled young men, with jobs and ambitions similar to the heros
of popular films, who bedded adventurous and spirited women. Both parties
were raring to go on page one. Shapiro and Wilson's books, many by Woodford
himself and others by Clement Wood, his wife Gloria Goddard, the glamorous
Fan Nichols or 'Gorilla' Joe Weiss, sold especially well in drug
stores and near army bases, as well as in general shops in Times Square
and other cities .... The largest orders in New York for Jack Woodford
Press titles came from [Louis] Finkelstein [at Time Square
Book Bazaar], whom other booksellers regarded as a pioneer exploiter of
the smut-hungry reader when he opened in 1940 as the first Times Square
location which focused on erotica, mostly the varied girlie and nudist
magazines of the era ... During the 1950s and early 60s, the most notorious
pornographer on the Deuce was Eddie Mishkin. He owned several stores:
Harmony, Midget, the Little Book Exchange, Kingsley Book Shop, Esther,
and Main Stem ... . Sadomasochistic and fetish books, photos and magazines
were a facet of erotica which Times Square democratized. Before World
War II, the material was available in booksellers' back rooms, and of
course to the wealthy, trusted customers of Manhattan's high hat dealers.
The Mishkins, the Browns, the Shapiros and the Finkelsteins
made it available to the hoi polloi' ... The Kefauver subcommittee investigating
the effects of obscenity on juvenile delinquency subpoenaed Mishkin
in 1955, as they did Irving Klaw, whose fetish photos included
many of those of the era's supermodel, Bettie Page. Both men's photo sets
and booklet- sized illustrated stories, with their themes of flagellation,
bondage, transvestism, and passive men forced into women's clothing, were
thought to 'get into the hands of small limited minds, and they . . .
[get] worked up to a fever pitch, and some poor soul is the victim ...Al
Goldstein readily admitted that the mob distributed Screw Magazine;
he could get no one else to dare do so nationally, or even in New York
City itself .... A final example of organized crime involvement in Times
Square by the late 60s is the smuggling conviction of Lenny Burtman,
an important publisher of sadomasochistic books and magazines with offices
on W. 46th Street. Times Square bookstores carried his fetish booklets
and magazines extensively, and his distribution system was more far- reaching
than those of Mishkin, Klaw, or Brown."
Q&A.
Party of God [Hezbollah],
by Jeffrey Goldberg, New Yorker, October
21/28, 2002
"This week in the magazine, in the second part of a two-part piece,
Jeffrey Goldberg continues his examination of the world's most successful,
and perhaps most dangerous, terrorist organization, Hezbollah, or Party
of God ... [Interviewer]: One interesting question you explore is where,
in the rhetoric and ideology of Hezbollah, hatred of Israel ends and frank
anti-Semitism begins. Can you discuss this distinction? How unusual is
Hezbollah in this respect? And how dangerous is it? [Goldberg:]
To most Israelis, and, indeed, to most Jews, the belief that Israel should
be destroyed is itself a kind of anti-Semitism. In other words, the argument
approaches anti-Semitism when it goes beyond, say, the rights and wrongs
of Israeli policy with regard to the West Bank and Gaza, and becomes a
question of whether the Jews constitute a nation that deserves a state
at all. That said, something new is happening in the Arab world—namely,
the melding of Arab nationalist-based anti-Zionism, anti-Jewish rhetoric
from the Koran, and, most disturbingly, the antique anti-Semitic beliefs
and conspiracy theories of European Fascism. Add Holocaust denial, which
is also becoming popular in the Arab world, and you have a dangerous new
ideology, an ideology that Hezbollah, despite its assertions that it has
nothing against Jews as Jews, propounds quite vigorously."
Burial
Artifact May Be the Oldest Evidence of Christ,
ABC News, October 21, 2002
"An inscription on a burial artifact that was recently discovered
in Israel appears to provide the oldest archaeological evidence of Jesus
Christ, according to an expert who dates it to three decades after the
crucifixion. Writing in Biblical Archaeology Review, Andre Lemaire,
a specialist in ancient inscriptions at France's Practical School of Higher
Studies, says it is very probable the find is an authentic reference to
Jesus of Nazareth. The archaeology magazine planned to announce the discovery
at a news conference today. That Jesus existed is not doubted by scholars,
but what the world knows about him comes almost entirely from the New
Testament. No physical artifact from the first century related to Jesus
has been discovered and verified. Lemaire believes that has changed, though
questions remain, such as where the piece with the inscription has been
for more than 19 centuries. The inscription, in the Aramaic language,
appears on an empty ossuary, or limestone burial box for bones. It reads:
'James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.' Lemaire dates the object to
63 A.D. ... James is depicted as Jesus' brother in the Gospels and head
of the Jerusalem church in the Book of Acts and Paul's epistles. The first
century Jewish historian Josephus recorded that 'the brother of Jesus
the so-called Christ, James by name,' was stoned to death as a Jewish
heretic in A.D. 62. If his bones were placed in an ossuary that would
have occurred the following year, dating the inscription around A.D. 63."
UN
concerned about poverty among children in Israel,
Ha'aretz (Israel),
October 21, 2002
"The commission responsible for the UN Convention on the Rights of
the Child (CRC), the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history,
has expressed its concern over 'the very high percentage of children living
in poverty, particularly those living in large families, in single-parent
families and Arab families,' in Israel and in the territories. 'The committee
is concerned that discrimination persists in [Israel] and that non-discrimination
is not expressly guaranteed constitutionally. In particular the committee
is concerned about discrimination against girls and women, especially
in the context of religious laws; inequalities in the enjoyment of economic,
social and cultural rights of Israeli Arabs, Bedouin, Ethiopians, children
with disabilities and children of foreign workers.' The commission 'encourages
the state party to take all possible measures to reconcile the interpretation
between religious laws with fundamental human rights.' The panel expressed
its 'deep concern' about 'inhuman and degrading practices' and 'torture
and ill-treatment of Palestinian children by police officers... [and]
encourages the state party to take all possible measures to reconcile
the interpretation between religious laws with fundamental human rights.'"
Officer
charged with threatening to rape Ze'evi murder suspect,
Ha'aretz (Israel), October 21, 2002
"Military prosecution filed an indictment at the central command
military court Sunday charging a military police officer with threatening
to rape a detainee suspected of involvement in the assassination of former
Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi unless he undressed for a body
search. The officer is also charged with threatening inmates, behavior
unbecoming for a military officer, and for violating the limits of his
authority. The indictment was submitted to the court as a result of a
complaint filed about five months ago by the Public Committee Against
Torture at the offices of Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein as
well as with the head of the military police investigation unit, Brigadier
General Yoram Tzahor. The detainee, Assad Haimuna, told attorney
Allegra Pachko from the Public Committee Against Torture that on April
28 this year, after being brought to the Ofer detention center pending
trial at the Beit El military court in the West Bank, he asked his accompanying
officer for permission to use the bathroom. he said that he was then taken
behind the medical clinic at the Ofer center, where the officer beat him,
fracturing his arm."
Evangelicals
Mix Church and Jewish State Prominent American Christian conservatives
lead a nationwide prayer campaign in support of Israel. The push could
help GOP at the polls,
Los Angeles Times, October 21, 2002
"Along with the soaring hymns and shouted hosannas, Sunday services
at Mount Paran Church of God carried a sobering whiff of geopolitics.
The 700 or so parishioners attending morning services at the church on
the outskirts of Atlanta were asked to pray for Israel -- part of a nationwide
effort among an estimated 16,000 churches to signal Christian backing
for the violence-plagued Jewish state. 'The past two years of conflict
unfortunately have reminded us that not only is there not peace in Jerusalem,
but the very existence of Israel is being threatened by its adversaries,'
Shmuel Ben-Shmuel, Israel's consul general in Atlanta, told the congregation.
Israeli diplomats also were scheduled to appear at church services in
San Antonio and Bakersfield, where an afternoon rally involving 16 churches
was planned. The one-day prayer campaign was the latest in a series of
high-profile events by evangelical Christians in support of Israel in
recent months -- a show of solidarity that has gratified many American
Jews but left others uneasy with what they see as an unlikely marriage
of convenience ... [T]he visible expressions of support by Christians
may help the GOP make inroads with Jewish voters, who as a group tend
to tilt heavily Democratic ... Citing a recent survey, Stand for Israel
said that U.S. Jews were warming to President Bush due to his handling
of the war on terrorism -- 81% of respondents viewed him as a strong backer
of Israel. Such a trend 'could have an impact' on the next two election
cycles, the group said, although Democratic activists give Republicans
little chance of prying away Jewish votes. 'That's not why we're doing
what we're doing," [Ralph] Reed said. "We're doing what we're doing because
Israel is in real crisis right now.'"
Utah
to pursue Goldman despite 'global' deal,
Financial Times, October 20 2002
"Utah securities regulators are vowing to press their investigation
of Goldman Sachs over alleged conflicts of interest even if the
bank takes part in a so-called 'global' settlement being negotiated by
securities regulators and Wall Street. Anthony Taggart, director of the
securities department at the Utah Department of Commerce, said he was
committed to unearthing any instances where Goldman's stock research
might have been tainted by investment banking considerations. The strategy
reflects securities regulators' desire to reform Wall Street research
practices to protect future investors while seeking restitution for those
who may have already lost money. It is also a reminder that one of the
biggest threats facing investment banks in the current regulatory campaign
is not simply new rules or fines but also a slew of potential investor
lawsuits. 'We would like to help investors in some manner,' Mr Taggart
said. 'One thing we can do is find evidence of wrongdoing so we can help
investors in lawsuits and arbitration." A group of Goldman stock
analysts had already been interviewed by officials from the New York Stock
Exchange, which is helping Utah examine Goldman as part of the
wider probe into the securities industry, Mr Taggart said."
At
Canadian campus rally, speakers assail anti-Semitism,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Oct. 20, 2002
"One month after pro-Palestinian demonstrators prevented [former
right-wing Israel prime minister] Benjamin Netanyahu from speaking
at Montreal’s Concordia University, more than 500 people assembled on
another Canadian campus for a forum about the Concordia riot. The rally
came as Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal asked Concordia to reinvite
the former Israeli prime minister to speak at the school. Bob Rae, a former
premier of Ontario, was the headline speaker at the rally, which was organized
by an interfaith group called Canadians Against Anti-Semitism and filled
the largest auditorium at the University of Toronto. Like the speakers
who followed him, Rae linked the Concordia disturbances of Sept. 9 to
a growing international climate of hate against Jews and Israel — expressed
in union resolutions, divestment campaigns, boycotts of Israeli intellectuals,
and pamphlets, posters and pronouncements that appear to meet every definition
of hate speech."
'Let's talk about anything
but our movie.'An intimate conversation about spirituality and Judaism
with Hollywood heavyweights David Levien and Brian Koppelman,
Jewsweek, October 2002
"From the moment the door closes behind me, I know this interview
is going to be different. Film director Brian Koppelman, sporting
a 'Hoops is religion' t-shirt, escorts me into his suite at the swank
Ritz Carlton hotel in midtown Atlanta. Seated at the table, relaxed and
drinking a cup of coffee, is his writing/directing partner David Levien.
We all sit down and this is the first thing Koppelman says: 'Jewsweek
-- now that's a cool name.' The two Hollywood heavyweights, both Jewish,
are in town to promote their new film, Knockaround Guys, but it
seems like that's the last thing they want to talk about. 'Is there a
large Jewish population here?' Levien asks, genuinely interested.
A short game of Jewish geography ensues. 'Are you married? Did you grow
up religious?' Koppelman asks me. And here I thought I was interviewing
them. It seems they've spent the last 24 hours discussing their film,
a mob comedy starring A-list stars Dennis Hooper, John Malkovich, and
Vin Diesel, cast as perhaps the strongest looking man ever to sport a
Star of David tattoo. When a fellow Jew walks into the room, it seems,
the last thing they want to do is self-promotion. Koppelman and
Levien are proving a point that becomes clear over the next hour:
They have their priorities in order. While making movies is how they make
a living, it's being Jewish that dictates their life. 'It's a real part
of our lives,' Levien says, leaning back in his chair. 'It shapes
who you are' ... I tell them about a recent Time magazine article
that said that 'show business is a homophobic, anti-Semitic industry dominated
by homosexuals and Jews.' I ask if they encounter a lot of self-hating
Jews in their business. 'Being a Jew in Hollywood, you're not looked at
as scant in any way,' Levien says. 'It's not a handicap. Maybe it's even
a help in some ways.'"
Paint It Black,
by Max Hastings, Toronto Globe and Mail,
October 19, 2002
Focus, p. F3
"For nine years as editor of the [British] Daily Telegraph,
Max Hastings had to navigate the politics and personal passions of the
paper's Canadian-born proprietor. In this exclusive excerpt from his compelling
new book [An Inside Story, by Max Hastings (Macmillan, 2002), he offers
an inside look at how [non-Jewish media mogul] Conrad Black does business
...As the years went by, [Black] also developed increasingly strong views
on the Middle East question, and thus on our coverage of it. Especially
after his purchase of the Jerusalem Post, Conrad showed himself
an energetic supporter of the Israeli cause against that of the Palestinians.
Conrad and I had several sharp exchanges, after pieces appeared in the
Telegraph which he deemed anti-Israel or even anti-Semitic. One
of Conrad's favourite terms of approbation was to describe a friend or
colleague as 'giving me a high comfort level.' Conversely, when one of
our writers erred in his eyes, I knew it was time to hoist storm signals
when the chairman declared - with only a nod toward irony or conscious
extravagance - that 'this snivelling product of some pinko journalism
school administered by the John Pilger/Christopher Hitchens Trust for
the propagation of liberal mendacity does not give me a high comfort level,
Max.' It was ironic, therefore, when one of the major rows of our time
together descended on Conrad because he was accused of publishing anti-Semitic
material in one of his own organs. In November, 1994, a Los Angeles 'stringer'
for the Telegraph, William Cash, wrote a piece for The Spectator
- which the Telegraph had purchased from Algy Cluff in 1991 - suggesting
that Hollywood was a Jewish town. In the wake of its publication, the
roof fell in. A long roll-call of Hollywood luminaries headed by Tom Cruise,
Steven Spielberg, Barbra Streisand and Kevin Costner wrote letters to
Conrad and an open letter to The Spectator, and delivered diatribes
to anyone who would listen, denouncing the Cash piece as a disgraceful
piece of journalism. 'We have seen it all before, from the Inquisition
in 13th-century Spain to the Holocaust of 20th-century Germany,' ran one
of the less hyperbolic passages of their Spectator letter. 'When, to the
editors of magazines like the Spectator, racist cant becomes indistinguishable
from thoughtful commentary, it should sound a loud warning that we have
not progessed so far after all.' I was sitting in Conrad's office while
he took a call from an enraged Jack Valenti, speaking on behalf of the
Hollywood Motion Picture Association, about the piece. They were demanding
space not only in the Spectator, but also in the Daily Telegraph,
to denounce the author. It was one of the few moments in my time with
Conrad when I saw him look seriously rattled. I did not think the Cash
piece represented memorable - perhaps not even tasteful - journalism,
but nor did I believe that it deserved the ludicrous overreaction of the
Hollywood community. Their demands, especially for space in the Telegraph,
seemed absurd. I urged that they should be given a right of reply in The
Spectator, but otherwise told to take a running jump.' Conrad said:
'You don't understand, Max. My entire interests in the United States and
internationally could be seriously damaged by this.' The complaints eventually
subsided. So too did the row, as I was growing to understand that all
rows eventually do. [Note: the assertions by William Cash in The Spectator
are, of course, true -- see here for more about
the Cash incident, and a long, documented investigation about Jewish hegemony
in Hollywood]
Israel, Iraq and
the US,
by Edward Said, Counterpunch, October 19,
2002
"[Ariel] Sharon is now Israel's prime minister, his
armies and propaganda machine once again surrounding and dehumanising
Arafat and the Palestinians as 'terrorists'. It is worth recalling that
the word 'terrorist' began to be employed systematically by Israel to
describe any Palestinian act of resistance beginning in the mid-1970s.
That has been the rule ever since, especially during the first Intifada
of 1987-93, eliminating the distinction between resistance and pure terror
and effectively depoliticising the reasons for armed struggle. During
the 1950s and 60s Ariel Sharon earned his spurs, so to speak, by
heading the infamous Unit 101, which killed Arab civilians and razed their
houses with the approval of Ben-Gurion ... The main difference
between 1982 and 2002 is that the Palestinians now being victimised and
besieged are in Palestinian territories that were occupied in 1967 and
where they have remained despite the ravages of the occupation, the destruction
of the economy, and of the whole civilian infrastructure of collective
life. The main similarity is of course the disproportional means used
to do it, eg, the hundreds of tanks and bulldozers used to enter towns
and villages like Jenin or refugee camps like Jenin's and Deheisheh, to
kill, vandalise, prevent ambulances and first-aid workers from helping,
cutting off water and electricity, etc. All with the support of the US
whose president actually went as far as calling Sharon a man of
peace during the worst rampages of March and April 2002. It is significant
of how Sharon's intention went far beyond 'rooting out terror'
that his soldiers destroyed every computer and then carried off the files
and hard drives from the Central Bureau of Statistics, the Ministry of
Education, of Finance, of Health, cultural centres, vandalising officers
and libraries, all as a way of reducing Palestinian collective life to
a pre- modern level."
Settlers
attack Palestinian olive pickers in West Bank,
Ha'aretz (Israel), October 18, 2002,
"Dozens of [Jewish] settlers prevented the residents of the West
Bank villages of Akrabeh, Inabus near Nablus from picking olives Saturday,
firing in the air and demanding that the Palestinians leave the area ...
Six Palestinian families set out Friday from the village of the West Bank
village of Hirbat Yanun, leaving it completely abandoned. Once home to
25 families, members of the Sobih clan said they were fleeing after four
years of worsening attacks by settlers who have set up illegal outposts
on nearby hilltops. The attacks have become increasingly frequent in recent
months, they said. Groups of masked settlers have charged into the village,
coming at night with dogs and horses, stealing sheep, hurling stones through
windows and beating the men with fists and rifle butts, Palestinian residents
told the Associated Press. An electricity generator has been scorched
by fire, knocking out power to the village. Three large water tanks were
tipped over and emptied, the residents said. Palestinians complain bitterly
of land lost over the past decades of Middle East conflict. Yanun is believed
to the first time in recent years that Palestinians have abandoned an
entire village due to the conflict ... An IDF spokesman, who did not want
his name used, said soldiers try to prevent conflict between settlers
and Palestinians, but that forces are primarily in the area to protect
Israelis from attacks by Palestinian militants."
U.S.
considers Israeli plan for joint operation to neutralize Iraqi missiles,
nj.com, (The Associated Press), October 18,
2002
"The Bush administration is considering an Israeli proposal to send
U.S. special forces into Iraq's western desert to knock out Iraqi missile
sites in the event of war, a U.S. official said Friday. In a joint operation,
Israel would furnish the United States with intelligence about the sites
and how to disarm them early in the conflict, the official said, speaking
on condition of anonymity. Israel's aim is to sharply reduce the risk
of an Iraqi missile attack. Israel presented the proposal during Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's talks this week in Washington with President
Bush and senior White House, Pentagon and State Department officials."
8
Palestinians killed, including 3 children,
Ha'aretz (Israel), October 18, 2002
"IDF tank shelling killed eight Palestinians, including three children,
and wounded some 40 others in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza
Strip on Thursday, Palestinian sources said. Rafah residents said that
five tanks shells hit several houses. Dr. Ali Mussa of al-Najar hospital
in Rafah said the dead included a 70-year-old woman and at least three
children aged 13, 12 and nine. About ten of the injured were in serious
condition, he said."
Israeli sympathizers’
arrogance knows no bounds,
By Raff Ellis, Arab News, October 2002
"While channel surfing a couple of weeks ago, I landed on the 'Anna
Nicole Smith Show,' quite by accident I assure you. In the scene I happened
upon, the irrepressible Anna Nicole was riding in the back of a limousine
with her lawyer, Howard K. Stern, on their way to some celebrity
bash. 'I think it would be good if you said something in support of Israel,'
Howard offered, out of the blue. I was somewhat shocked that this
solicitation, completely out of context with the proceedings, would come
while the camera was rolling. Nicole demurred, not that it would have
made much difference in the greater scheme of things, that is. The incident
set me thinking of how invidious and ubiquitous the pro-Israeli sympathizers
are. It isn’t enough that our administration, Congress, and media find
little if any fault with the State of Israel. It isn’t enough that Israel
receives massive amounts of military and economic aid, courtesy of US
taxpayers. It isn’t enough that our diplomats fight Israel’s battles in
the international arena. No, they have to answer every critic, cultivate
every personality, and promote its agenda in every forum lest it suffer
a percentile drop in its overwhelming support."
Jewish
Legislators Back Iraq Resolution,
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, October
18, 2002
"Stop Saddam Hussein now, before it’s too late. That is the message
elected officials, ranging from local members of Congress to President
George W. Bush, worked to get across to the Americans these past few weeks.
'We have to confront him sooner or later," Rep. Howard Berman (D-Mission
Hills) told The Journal. 'Even though it is risky and we are worried
about all the things that could go wrong, it is less risky, less costly
and less dangerous to do it now than it would be later, both for our military
and for the Iraqi people.' It is a position shared by many in Congress.
Despite fierce debate in the House and the Senate, both houses last week
passed a joint resolution giving Bush the authority to use military force,
if necessary, to compel Iraq to destroy its biological and chemical weapons
and disband its nuclear weapons program. Support for the measure was mixed
among California representatives and senators, but strong among the state’s
Jewish elected officials."
As good as gold Elon Gold
breaks down barriers by being a Sabbath-observant Jew and starring in
a hit sitcom,
Jewsweek, October 2002
"For Elon Gold, life really is a sitcom. The Bronx-born actor,
stand-up comedian and producer turned his real-life living situation into
TV fodder, particularly his relationship with an intimidating father-in-law
à la the Ben Stiller-Robert DeNiro dynamic in 'Meet the Parents.' Gold
plays Matt Landis, a struggling would-be chef who moves with his new wife
Alex (Bonnie Somerville) into her parents' home, which doesn't thrill
Dad (Dennis Farina) ... Gold doesn't want his TV alter ego to follow
him into fatherhood right away, but he does have a scheme to thicken the
family plot. "I'd like to write an episode where we find out my wife's
mom was raised Catholic but is really Jewish, so her dad becomes the outsider,'
he outlines. 'I like portraying the Jewish guy, especially in a positive
light,' says the 29-year-old Gold ... But, said Gold, 'The
only negative thing about my character is that he marries a shiksa
[pejorative Yiddish term for a non-Jewish woman]. I don't condone it,
I don't recommend it. I am playing a character. But it's a reality and
it makes for great comedy."
Breyer
refuses to help endangered minnow,
UPI, October 18, 2002
"[Jewish Supreme Court] Justice Stephen Breyer Friday refused
an environmental coalition's request to help save the endangered silvery
minnow. The group told the Supreme Court of the United States in an emergency
application the minnow will die off this weekend or next week unless authorities
stop releasing water from the Rio Grande in New Mexico. Breyer
oversees the 10th U.S. Circuit, which includes New Mexico, so the coalition's
request was automatically routed to him. The justice could have referred
the matter to the full court for a vote, but denied the request on his
own without comment."
Judge
Labels U.S. 'Irrational' In Fearing Int'l Crimes Court,
[Jewish] Forward, October 18, 2002
"The first chief prosecutor at the tribunal set up to adjudicate
claims of war crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia is saying that
American 'fear' of the International Criminal Court 'is completely unjustified,'
and 'borders almost on the irrational.' In a visit to the Forward offices,
South African Justice Richard Goldstone said that the court 'has
been seriously weakened in attempts to get the United States on board.'
Goldstone said that unlike the United States, 'Israel has good
cause to be suspicious of international organizations' including the United
Nations — although he believes it is in Israel's best interest to join
the International Criminal Court. 'I think Israel is being treated partially
by the United Nations,' said Goldstone, who sits on South Africa's
Constitutional Court and is president of World ORT Union, a Jewish-led
international technical and technology-training organization. 'While a
lot of criticism of Israel at the United Nations has been in my view justified,
it's been absolutely partial and many countries have done far worse things
and nothing's said' ... The court, which sits in the Dutch city of The
Hague, will have jurisdiction over war crimes, genocide and other 'crimes
against humanity' committed after July 1, 2002. The United States and
Israel are among the 138 countries that signed the treaty creating the
court but both have declined to ratify it; the United States withdrew
its signature in May ... According to Goldstone, Israel doesn't
'seem to be following the United States in taking any active action against
the ICC; they're not likely to because, I guess, politically they don't
want to antagonize more than necessary the rest of the world.' Goldstone
noted that the 'United States and Israel are the only democracies not
to have ratified the criminal court treaty.' 'I would have thought that
Israel would have wanted to be part of a movement to put a stop to impunity
for war criminals,' he said, citing the prosecution of Nazi war criminals
in the Nuremburg tribunals. 'As I said, they are obviously scared and
backing off because they don't want the court to be used against them.'"
'Bartlett's'
gets more familiar, contemporary,
USA TODAY, October 17, 2002
"Bill Clinton, Jerry Seinfeld and Rudy Giuliani are in. Ralph
Waldo Emerson and Alexander Pope aren't out, but they're fading. That's
the current state of popular culture, says Justin Kaplan, editor
of the 17th edition of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Little,
Brown, $50), which goes on sale Tuesday. Kaplan, the savior of
after-dinner speakers and students everywhere, spent the past decade combing
through thousands of citations, relegating some to oblivion and preserving
others for speeches and term papers. Among the new entries: 'It depends
on what the meaning of the word 'is' is.' — Clinton. 'Everybody lies about
sex. People lie during sex. If it weren't for lies, there'd be no sex.'
— Seinfeld. 'Our hearts are broken, but they continue to beat, and the
spirit of our city has never been stronger.' — New York Mayor Giuliani
after Sept. 11, 2001." [Interview
with Kaplan by USA TODAY: Do you feel any pressure at being
what amounts to a cultural arbiter, relegating some quotations to oblivion
while raising some other up into popular lexicon? It's basically an
anthology. An anthology reflects a particular taste and a particular editor.
You can't claim a book like this is definitive. There's definitely
your mark on the book — Twain is allotted 3 ½ full pages. Is that a conscious
decision? Did you shy away from an editorial voice, or did you embrace
it? Only implicitly. There's a statement by Henry Burrows that no
matter what you read in a book, it's always the author talking. You can't
help it. It's always personal."]
N.J.
Poet Strikes Back at Critics,
By Michael Weissenstein, Newsday, October
17, 2002
"Stung by accusations of anti-Semitism, New Jersey poet laureate
[and African-American] Amiri Baraka struck back at critics from the stage
of a downtown poetry cafe, saying he wanted to know 'why the Anti-Defamation
League is not registered as an agent of a foreign power.' The Jewish civil
rights organization and the governor of New Jersey have called for Baraka's
resignation over his poem, 'Somebody Blew Up America,' which implies that
Israel had prior knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks. In a nearly hour-long
monologue and question-and-answer session Thursday at the Bowery Poetry
Club, Baraka criticized Israeli and Jewish groups' involvement in U.S.
politics and reiterated that he would not give up his post ... New Jersey
Gov. James E. McGreevey has sought Baraka's resignation as official state
poet. A pending bill in the state legislature would give the state Council
for the Humanities authority to remove the laureate. The title cannot
currently be rescinded. Baraka also blasted McGreevey for appointing Golan
Cipel, an Israeli national, as his unpaid liaison to New Jersey Jews.
'In New Jersey, there is an Israeli national shaping the opinion of the
state's Jewish community,' Baraka said."
It’s Jew vs. Jew in Minnesota, in close race for U.S. Senate seat,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Oct. 17, 2002
"Minnesota voters are poised once again to elect a Jew to the U.S.
Senate — though it’s not clear if it will be Democratic incumbent Paul
Wellstone or his Republican challenger, Norm Coleman. Both
candidates have strong backers in the state’s 45,000-strong Jewish community.
With Democrats struggling to maintain their narrow control of the Senate,
every race is under heightened scrutiny. The Minnesota race has been deemed
'neck and neck' for weeks now. Wellstone’s seat is seen as vulnerable,
leading Republican Jews to open their pocketbooks to Coleman. Fundraisers
in St. Louis, Dallas and Los Angeles have raised $300,000 for Coleman,
according to Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish
Coalition. On the other side of the aisle, the National Jewish Democratic
Council PAC sent a mailing to supporters highlighting the Wellstone race
and encouraging contributions to the senator’s campaign. Also, the Joint
Action Committee for Political Affairs, a Jewish group that advocates
abortion rights and a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, lists Wellstone
on its 'most endangered incumbents' list and encourages contributions
to support him. JACPAC has given $6,000 to Wellstone’s campaign since
last year. Unlike some other high-profile races that have galvanized Jewish
attention this year, Jewish voters in Minnesota don’t have to mobilize
against an anti-Israel candidate or focus on a single overarching issue
where a candidate’s position could determine their vote."
Web
hate sites on rise after terror attacks,
CTV (Canadian Television), October 17, 2002,
"The Web site, which Smith stumbled upon accidentally, is one of
a growing number of hate sites that are sneaking into legitimate Internet
domains to peddle their inflammatory messages. It's a problem experts
say has worsened noticeably in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks
in New York and Washington, with a marked increase in the volume of hate-inspired
sites that are trying to attract new members. The Simon Wiesenthal
Center has been tracking hate sites for the last several years,
and recently put out a CD-ROM of 200 of the worst of an estimated 3,000
sites it deems 'problematic' ... 'These sites are spewing out hate and
they're getting more and more sophisticated,' says Leo Adler of
the Wiesenthal Center, a worldwide organization that promotes peace
and education about the Holocaust ... Theories about the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks have also flourished on the Internet in the last year, with a
recent survey showing that a growing percentage of people believe it was
a joint Jewish, FBI plot ... Adler said most of the sites operate
out of the United States, but it is nearly impossible to get locations
for them. His group is trying to encourage countries to create an international
convention governing the Internet. The centre is working with the Justice
Department in Ottawa to draft controls for the Internet."
Survey:
10% favor pardoning Yigal Amir,
Jerusalem Post, October 17, 2002
"Seven years after the murder of [Israeli] prime minister Yitzhak
Rabin, a survey has revealed that one in every 10 Israelis is in favor
of a pardon for his [far-right wing Jewish] assassin, Yigal Amir.
The findings of the poll, conducted on behalf of Israel Radio's daily
morning program 'Inyan Aher' (another matter) and broadcast on Thursday,
brought a scathing response from Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit.
'It is truly shocking. I don't understand how people have, apparently,
not learned anything... Obviously, I oppose this strongly,' he said. 'I
want to calm feelings and make clear that something like this cannot happen,
and I have no doubt that Yigal Amir will serve the life sentence.' Foreign
Minister Shimon Peres warned that incitement is again rife in the
country, as it was in the days prior to Rabin's assassination.
'There was a short period in which people expressed regret, and now there
is the same phenomenon of wild incitement. And there are those people
who call themselves rabbis who are the among the greatest inciters of
the nation,' he said. He maintained that if Rabin had not been
assassinated, the Oslo Accords would have led to peace between Israel
and the Palestinians."
Freak Factory,
Israel Shamir, October 17, 2002
"The Jews of old, on the other hand, were defiantly proud of the
deed of their ancestors, and the ‘Gospel according to the Jews’, Toledot
Yeshu, (it could be called 'How we killed Christ') is the most frequently
copied (non-Biblical) Jewish manuscript of Middle Ages. Adepts of Judaism
kept fighting Christ and Christians. Soldiers of the last Jewish king
Bar Kochba massacred Christians in 135. In Yemen, a Jewish ruler Yusuf
Zu Nawas burned churches and killed thousands of Christians in 519. Palestinian
Christians were slaughtered in 529 and 614. Afterwards, the warfare switched
to ideology. The Middle Ages are full of rather crude Jewish anti-Christian
propaganda. Its examples could be found in Jesus through Jewish Eyes,
a recently published compendium of Jewish writings about Jesus, and they
include infamous Toledot Yeshu and Nestor Hakomer, written
in Arabic in 9th century. Even today, leaflets in Jerusalem describe Judas
as ‘the Redeemer of Israel’. That is why, as a short-hand, the Jews were
described as ‘enemies of Christ’. Christians fought back, and slaughtered
quite a lot of Jews as well. It is a peculiarity of modern convoluted
discourse, that Christian persecutions of Jews are well known, while persecutions
of Christians by Jews are consigned to oblivion. There is ‘post-Auschwitz
Christian theology’, but there is no ‘post-Mamilla Pool, or post-Deir
Yassin Judaism’. This distortion of history is used by the Jewish leadership
in order to induce Christians with destructive guilt feeling. That is
why it is important to explain that the relations of Jews and Christians
weren’t as one-sided as depicted by the Jewish apologists. II The millennia-old
ideological warfare against Christ became the most important element of
Jewishness, and it is still with us. ‘T’is better to serve Hitler than
Christ”, - words to such effect said a well known Israeli Rabbi. Acceptance
of Christ is the worst possible crime for a Jew, and it is felt by vast
majority of the community. Jews aren’t just ‘non-Christians’, like we
are ‘non-Buddhist’, they are anti-Christian. Even now, when majority of
Jews ceased to practice the rules of faith, this anti-Christian streak
is not gone. For instance, a baptised Jew is banned from receiving Israeli
citizenship by the Law of Return. Recently, a few good Jews in America
wrote to the State of Israel renouncing their right of return. There is
just one way to do it: accept Christ and you would lose this right."
Sharon
Has To Read Between The American Lines,
Israel National News, October 2002
"Arutz-7's Haggai Segal asked Yoram Ettinger, Israel's
former liaison to the U.S. Congress and an expert on Israeli-U.S. relations,
if it is true that Bush is the best American president for Israel. Ettinger:
'There is no doubt that at present this is true. I emphasize 'at present'
because this window of opportunity may become smaller or even close altogether
after the war with Iraq. A-7: 'What happened? You usually sound much more
optimistic!' Ettinger: 'I am always optimistic, as long as we make
the right choices… I still say that essentially and from a strategic standpoint,
Bush is the most positive president for Israel. His Vice President and
his Defense Minister are extremely pro-Israel… A-7: "But Bush has been
urging Sharon to employ self-restraint during this pre-war period?" Ettinger:
"Bush says different things at different times, because he must maneuver
himself politically… But he has hinted many times that Israel has a right
to self-defense... He is probably wondering why we interpret his 'green
light' as a yellow or even a red light. His talk of a Palestinian state
is based on the influence of the State Department and of top Israeli leaders
themselves who say that such a state is inevitable. But Bush himself expects
that we should act against terror and against those who don't fulfill
agreements, the same way the US does."
Mideast 'Bias'
Stink at SUNY,
New York Post, October 17, 2002
"For the first time in 15 years, an upstate university has denied
funding for a popular women's studies conference, deeming it too unbalanced
in its portrayal of the Middle East. Some students and professors at SUNY-New
Paltz have criticized the decision, saying the program should not be overlooked
because of a controversial topic. The women's studies department requested
$4,000 for Saturday's conference titled 'Women and War, Peace and Revolution.'
Gerald Benjamin, dean of liberal arts and sciences, recommended
to Provost David Lavallee, who officially decides who receives funding,
that the conference be denied because it was not balanced. A speaker will
be talking about human-rights abuses of Palestinians, while no one is
speaking on behalf of Israel."
Ira
Einhorn Found Guilty of Murder. '70s Hippie Guru, Longtime Fugitive Ira
Einhorn Found Guilty in 1977 Slaying,
ABC News, Oct. 17, 2002
"Former hippie guru Ira Einhorn, who hid out in Europe for
nearly 17 years after being charged with killing his girlfriend, was found
guilty Thursday of murdering her and stuffing her mummified corpse in
his closet. Einhorn, 62, faces an automatic sentence of life in prison
without parole. Einhorn was a 1970s counterculture superstar who
held 'be-in' events and counted yippie Jerry Rubin and rock star
Peter Gabriel among his acquaintances. He insisted he was innocent and
said he last saw 30-year-old Holly Maddux as she left to make a phone
call. He said he had no idea how her body turned up in a steamer trunk
in his closet. The guilty verdict capped a stunning fall for a gadfly
who lived the life of a country gentleman during his time in France. He
appeared on television shows after his arrest five years ago to discuss
his plight and posed naked in his garden for Esquire magazine.
Prosecutors said Einhorn was a loutish womanizer who turned violent whenever
a woman wanted to leave him. They had him read to jurors from his poems
and diary entries, in which he wrote 'to kill what you love when you can't
have it seems so natural' and 'violence always marks the end of a relationship.'"
Global
creditors may go after Winnick's money-report Reuters,
Forbes, October 17, 2002
"A Global Crossing Ltd. creditors' group asked longtime
Chairman Gary Winnick on Wednesday to resign from the telecommunications
company he founded and said it may try to tap the billionaire philanthropist's
personal fortune to recoup corporate funds, The Los Angeles Times
said. The request, made by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court committee of unsecured
creditors, marks the first time that anyone has formally sought the ousting
of Winnick from Global Crossing, which filed for bankruptcy protection
in January after incurring billions of dollars of debt while building
a worldwide fibre-optic network ... Winnick has been criticised for encouraging
lavish executive pay packages and perks, The Times said."
Dell
trumps HP for top PC spot,
Earthlink (from Associated Press), October
17, 2002,
"Dell Computer [founded and headed by Jewish mogul Michael
Dell] has surpassed Hewlett-Packard to take the lead position
in the global PC market, according to a new survey by research firm IDC.
Based on unit shipments during the third quarter, the direct PC seller
just topped its rival with 16 percent of the global market, compared with
HP's 15.5 percent, according to IDC analyst Roger Kay."
Christian
generosity becomes a rabbinical nightmare,
Ha'aretz (Israel), October 17, 2002
"Debate has raged among American Jews about their new alliance with
evangelical Christians, who in the past two years have shown themselves
to be Israel's most vocifeous supporters in the United States (maybe in
the world). The issue has recently reached the Chief Rabbinate Council
in Israel. Two weeks ago, the council decided to form a special committee
of four members - Rabbi Simha Hacohen Kook, Moshe Rauchberger,
Shmuel Eliyahu and Yehuda Deri - to look into the Jerusalem
Friendship Fund. This fund distributes large amounts of money contributed
by evangelical Christians the help Jews immigrate to Israel, as well as
for their absorption and for welfare organizations - $15 million in the
past year alone - and for Jewish communities in the Diaspora (especially
in the former Soviet Union and Argentina) ... Kook maintains that
from the material that has been brought to his attention, there is a clear
missionary intention behind the fund ... He says that even if direct missionary
work by the fund is not involved, accepting evangelical money is wrong
because it comes from people who believe, according to their Messianic
vision, that Israel will ultimately disappear with one-third of world
Jews converting to Christianity and the other two-thirds being destroyed
...Rabbi Yehiel Eckstein of Chicago has been active in fundraising
efforts among evangelical and other Christians since 1983. About seven
years ago, he established the Friendship Fund, which raises funds
for immigration, absorption, and welfare projects in Israel. So far, the
fund has contributed about $65 million. Eckstein moved to Israel two years
ago and established the Israeli branch of the fund, which coordinates
the fund's activities in Israel. Thanks to its generous contributions,
Eckstein has become a very well known figure in the Jewish establishment."
Success
of "Jewish Leadership" in Likud party raises concerns,
Israel Insider, October 17, 2002
Security officials and political analysts are carefully following successful
efforts by a new right-wing political organization to enter the ranks
of the Likud Party in significant numbers, Yediot Aharonot reported. The
Jewish Leadership faction (Manhigut Yehudit) within the Likud, headed
by former Zo Artzeinu ('This is Our Land') civil disobedience group
chairman Moshe Feiglin, managed to elect about 100 of its members
onto the Likud's central committee, consisting of 3000-plus party members
selected in nationwide balloting this week ... The faction also calls
for strong measures to free Jonathan Pollard, convicted by the
U.S. for passing classified documents to Israel ... The Jewish Leadership
bloc... will affect decisions on such things as the makeup of the Likud
Knesset list and will directly influence governmental decisions,' Yediot
Aharonot reported. Some of the new members elected this week to the
Likud's central committee are former members of the 'Jewish underground'
or have connections to the outlawed Kahane Hai organization. Jewish
Leadership candidates in Jerusalem included Old City resident Shaul
Nir, convicted during the 1980s of being part of the Jewish underground
group that orchestrated attacks on Arabs, including shooting and throwing
grenades at students at Hebron's Islamic College in 1983. Nir served seven
years in prison before receiving a presidential pardon. Another candidate
for Likud committee membership was Baruch Kahane, son of assassinated
Kach leader Rabbi Meir Kahane and brother of Binyamin Zeev Kahane,
who was shot and killed with his wife in a terrorist shooting attack south
of Ofra on December 31, 2000. Unnamed security officials told Yediot
Aharonot they believed the activists were attempting to circumvent
the prohibition of right-wing extremist groups such as Kahane Hai.
'These are not real Likud people,' an unnamed veteran party member told
Yediot Aharonot. 'They have entirely different beliefs. If they
manage to get their representatives into the Knesset, they will, sooner
or later, break off into a splinter political party. This would be the
first extremist right-wing party since Kahane's movement.'"
Police
investigate Creedmoor bias crime,
Times Ledger [New York], October 17, 2002
"GLEN OAKS — Anti-Semitic remarks were found last Thursday morning
written on a wall inside Creedmoor Psychiatric Center at 84-45 Winchester
Blvd., police said. The incident was being investigated as a possible
bias crime."
"Israel
Should Be Attacked,"
Jerusalem Post, October 16, 2002
"Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told a news conference
yesterday in Kuala Lumpur that Israel should be attacked for seeking to
acquire nuclear weapons, the Malaysian National News Agency reported.
Referring to the issue of nuclear non-proliferation and the likelihood
of an American attack on Iraq, Mohamad said, 'One of the things that I
do know is that there is no pressure on Israel to do away with their nuclear
weapons, but there is so much pressure on other countries'. Alleging that
Iraq was the target of 'unilateral actions' based solely on 'the possibility'
that it was seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, Mohamad added, 'If you
attack a country because of possibilities, then every country is going
to be attacked. They should attack Israel,' he said."
Bush, Sharon
Discuss Protection of Israel,
Fox News, October 16, 2002
"President Bush said that he would expect Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon to defend his nation if it were attacked by Iraq in
the near future ... Earlier, Bush had asked Israel to refrain from retaliating
against Iraq if it attacks the Jewish nation in response to a U.S. offensive
against it. After the meeting, White House officials stressed that the
United States still wants restraint from Israel if the U.S. does engage
in military action against Iraq ... During his stay, Sharon also
met with Secretary of State Colin Powell and was scheduled for talks with
Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and congressional
leaders before heading for home on Thursday. At the White House, he praised
Bush for his commitment to Israel. 'We never had such cooperation in everything
as we have with the current administration,' Sharon said ... The
president also said that he is happy to hear that Sharon is willing to
return some of the Palestinian taxes collected to the Palestinian people,
something that had been in doubt prior to the meeting. 'I appreciate so
very much the fact that the prime minister ... cares about the human condition
of the Palestinians ...," Bush said."
B'tselem
report:80% of Palestinians killed in curfew violations are children,
Jerusalem Post, October 16, 2002
"Israeli human rights group B'tselem on Wednesday accused
the IDF [Israeli Defense Force] of frequently using gunfire to enforce
curfews in Palestinian cities in the West Bank, and said 12 of at least
15 Palestinians killed for apparent curfew violations in the past four
months were under the age of 16. 'Curfew is no longer a tool to meet specific
security needs, but a sweeping means of collective punishment,' according
to the report, 'Lethal Curfew,' issued Wednesday by B'Tselem. 'The
prolonged curfew has made Palestinian life in the West Bank intolerable.'
The report said that at least 15 Palestinians had been killed and many
more wounded for being out of their houses during curfews since mid-June,
when Israel occupied seven West Bank towns in response to a series of
deadly suicide bombings. Twelve of those killed were under the age of
16, constituting 80 percent of those killed."
Lions of Judah ponder the power of the purse,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, October 16, 2002
"Women plus wealth equals potential to better the Jewish world. This
equation underlay much of the International Lion of Judah Conference held
this week in Washington. Themed as 'Power Philanthropy: Dare to Dream,'
the biennial gathering drew some 1,000 'Lions,' donors of $5,000 or more
to the United Jewish Communities National Women’s Constituency, from as
far as Israel and Argentina and as near as the District itself. 'What
do the stubs in your checkbook say about you?' Carole Solomon of
New York, UJC Financial Resource Development Pillar chair, asked audience
members at a Monday morning plenary on Israel, paraphrasing feminist Gloria
Steinem. 'Do they reflect the values and issues you care about?' Summing
up the conference, Greater Washington Lion of Judah chair Jocelyn Krifcher
cited the Jewish state as a central concern for many. 'Foremost on our
minds is to demonstrate the power of women’s philanthropy and to demonstrate
our undivided and unified support for Israel,' said the Potomac resident
... . A keynote address on Sunday evening by Canadian parliamentian, professor
and human rights lawyer Irwin Cotler brought a standing ovation.
In a wide-ranging address on the state of world Jewry, Cotler warned of
a 'new, virulent, globalizing, even lethal anti-Jewishness without parallel
since the Second World War.'”
Madonna
music video stirs unease among Jews,
Jerusalem Post, October 16, 2002
"A new music video by pop star Madonna is generating controversy
among American Jews because of its use of religious Jewish symbols, New
York's Newsday reports. The video features the blond singer with
Hebrew letters tattooed on her arm, wearing leather straps strikingly
similar to tefillin (phylacteries), and getting electrocuted in a chair
covered with Hebrew writing ... Liz Rosenberg, Madonna's spokesman,
said, 'Madonna doesn't like to explain her videos in great detail, but
I think there are many messages there and her intention in making this
video was honorable.'"
The
Vermin On Our College Campuses,
Jewish Press, October 16, 2002
"America`s constitutionally guaranteed 'Freedom of Speech' is not
a license to lie. It`s not a hall-pass to misrepresent. It`s not a green
light to commit civil disobedience. Or is it? ... I`m referring to professors
like Rutie Adler of Berkeley, Joel Beinin of Stanford, and student-teacher
Snehal Shingavi, also from Berkeley, who have no business teaching at
our universities. If you think I`m engaging in McCarthyism, you`re right.
But it happens to be Charlie McCarthyism: students` heads are being worked
and filled with false information. Adler has been at the forefront of
the anti-Israel economic divestment petition drive ... Adler says she
is not anti-Semitic. What would you call someone who selectively ignores
the unspeakable cruelty of certain nations and goes out of her way to
concoct lies about the world`s only Jewish state? Yes, there are many
more epithets that can be added to a description of Adler, but there`s
no reason not to include 'anti-Semite,' in this observer`s humble opinion
... Last spring, the media reported that Snehal Shingavi would be teaching
a UC Berkeley class this fall called 'The Politics and Poetics of Palestinian
Resistance.'"
Selman
v. Cobb County: court battle over creationism,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, October 16, 2002
"Jeffrey Selman, who is suing the Cobb County School District,
says the county’s school board is kowtowing to a 'vocal, myopic, sectarian
minority' by allowing educators to teach creationism in science classes.
On Sept. 26, the seven-member Cobb County School Board unanimously approved
a resolution on teaching the origin of earth’s species that will allow
teachers to discuss both creationism and the theory of evolution. That
vote followed an August decision by the school board to place stickers
in science textbooks stating that evolution is a scientific theory, not
a fact. (The American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU] has challenged the
stickers as a 'fundamentalist Christian expression' that violates separation
of church and state.) Selman, 56, filed his case after the disclaimer
was approved, and may expand the suit to include the school board’s decision
on teaching creationism."
Benizri
quizzed by police,
Ha'aretz (Israel), October 16, 2002
"[Israeli] Labor and Social Affairs Minister Shlomo Benizri (Shas)
was questioned yesterday for eight hours by officers from the National
Fraud Squad in Bat Yam, over allegations that he received bribes from
Jerusalem-based contractor Moshe Sela and his wife Edna.
The Selas were questioned in February over allegations that they afforded
Benizri personal favors and transferred money to his patron, Rabbi
Reuven Elbaz, in exchange for classified information from the Employment
Service that enabled Sela to get licenses for foreign workers. According
to police, Sela used this inside information to bring a greater number
of foreign workers into Israel than is permitted by law. Sela, a construction
contractor, provides foreign laborers to construction companies on a commission
basis." |
Jewish
Group Claims Its Database Helps FBI Combat Terrorism,
Cybercast News Service, October 15, 2002
"In the year after the terrorist attacks on America, the Anti-Defamation
League (ADL) says it has played a vital role protecting the homeland by
providing law enforcement officials with valuable information about suspected
terrorists. The ADL's mission of tracking international and domestic terrorists
is not new, but the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon sparked greater interest in the ADL's efforts, said David
Friedman, director of the organization's Washington office. Friedman
spoke about the ADL's relationship with police officers and FBI agents
at the group's national meeting in Houston last week and echoed those
sentiments in an interview with CNS News.com ... However, the close interaction
between police and the ADL worries the Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR). Spokesman Ibrahim Hooper questioned the relationship, noting that
the ADL's pro-Jewish agenda concerned him, especially when it comes to
the rights of Muslims living in the United States. 'The pro-Israel lobby
generally has an agenda that works counter to the political participation
of American Muslims,' he said. 'They do whatever they can to marginalize
and disenfranchise American Muslims. If that requires smears that American
Muslims somehow support terrorism, that's what they do.' He said the ADL's
work with law enforcement officials was particularly troublesome. 'It
concerns me that they're behind the scenes whispering in the ear of law
enforcement,' Hooper said."
Mitchell
slates music industry,
BBC News, October 15, 2002
"Veteran singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell has hit out at the music
industry, saying she is 'ashamed' to be part of it. The 58-year-old folk
rock artist, who releases her new album Travelogue next month, told American
magazine Rolling Stone that she may stop recording altogether.
'I just think it's a cesspool,' Mitchell said of the music business ...
'It's tragic what MTV has done to the world,' Mitchell said ... The musician,
once described by her friend David Crosby as being 'about as humble as
Mussolini,' has also attacked David Geffen, the head of her former
label Geffen Records. She accused him of never paying her any royalties."
[Who runs the "music industry," and
always has? Do a "Find" search of "Kenneth Kanter"
at this link-page; this name starts the music section]
Waksal Pleads Guilty to Six Charges,
ABC News, October 15, 2002
"ImClone Systems founder Sam Waksal pleaded guilty Tuesday
to bank fraud and conspiracy in an insider trading scandal that threatens
Martha Stewart and her home decorating empire. In an unusual move, prosecutors
also said they are investigating a previously undisclosed sale of $30
million in ImClone stock by a Waksal associate that may result
in new insider trading charges. The admission from Waksal, 55,
is the second guilty plea in the investigation. An assistant to Stewart's
stockbroker pleaded guilty this month to a misdemeanor charge and agreed
to testify against people charged in the case."
UK
envoy `proud' of critical comments made against Israel,
Ha'aretz (Israel), October 15, 2002
"The British ambassador to Israel, Sherard Cowper-Coles, says he
is 'proud' of his comments that were published Monday and in which he
described the West Bank and Gaza Strip as 'the biggest detention camp
in the world.' In the report, Cowper-Coles is attributed with accusing
Israel of contravening the Geneva Convention and the Israel Defense Forces
of displaying a 'lack of professionalism,' during a leaked conversation
last week with IDF Major General Amos Gilad, coordinator of government
activities in the territories. Cowper-Coles told Ha'aretz Monday
that the comments, reported in the Yedioth Ahronot daily, were
'exaggerated, but broadly true.' The ambassador also criticized Israel
for continuing to build settlements, for 'the unnecessary humiliation
and harassment' of the local civilian population at checkpoints, unnecessarily
uprooting trees and making life difficult for the international welfare
organizations, according to the report. Cowper-Coles says he did not regret
his comments, which were made 'in the spirit of friendship.' He said he
was 'very shocked' by what he has seen in the territories, 'as anyone
else who visited there would be.'"
Proposed
rehanging of Ten Commandments sparks criticism,
Penn Live, October 14, 2002
"A plaque displaying the Ten Commandments no longer hangs in Altoona's
municipal building, and some council members who want to put it back on
display are running into opposition. Critics, including the Jewish family
that donated a Ten Commandments plaque 76 years ago, are opposed to the
city's plans to rehang the brass marker, which was taken down during renovations
last year ... Altoona, a working-class city of 50,000 tucked in the Appalachian
Mountains, traces its heritage to German, Irish, and Scotch immigrants
and was once a popular train stop between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
The debate began about two months ago when the City Council discussed
retrieving the plaque from the Blair County Historical Society's museum
even though it was quietly removed last year at the request of Joe
Silverman, whose family donated the plaque in 1926. Silverman
said, through his rabbi, that he believes the plaque is inappropriate
as the city grows diverse, with Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and atheists
using City Hall. 'I felt he had made the right choice,' Rabbi Burt Schuman
said. 'I had been concerned about the misuse of a clearly sacred and very
particularistic text in a universal way.'"
Embalmed Tramp Found in Artist's Studio,
Reuters, October 14, 2002
"A British artist kept the preserved body of a tramp at his studio
for nearly 20 years, The Times newspaper said Saturday. The embalmed
body of Edwin McKenzie was discovered in the workshop of his former close
friend Plymouth artist Robert Lenkiewicz who [was Jewish
and] himself died this summer. McKenzie had been preserved and hidden
in 1984 ... Lenkiewicz often used vagrants as models for his paintings,
which often carried an anti-establishment message." [ALSO,
at robertlenkiewcz.com: "In 1983 Lenkiewicz exhibited
Project 16. This project attempted to survey as wide a range as possible
of human activities relating to sexual behaviour. He attempted to do this
seriously without attention to the law ... Heterosexual behaviour, homosexual
behaviour, auto-erotic behaviour, bestiality, even necrophilia are commonplace
in our society and most societies, and characterise more than 50% of all
human entertainments. It is interesting that when the authorities visited
the Exhibition to consider closure, the paedophilia section went entirely
unnoticed ... The project attempted to demonstrate that there was no end
to human creativity, that loneliness combined with human passion could
animate a hoover to far more gratifying potentials than one's wife. The
project seemed to indicate that all sexual behaviour was auto-erotic;
from marriage partners to strangers' underwear."]
IU's
Jewish Center Denies Magazine's Pig's Head Report Director Said Pig's
Head Never Left At Door,
The Indy Channel, October 14, 2002
"The director of a Jewish center at Indiana University said a U.S.
News & World Report columnist's account of a pig's head being left
at its door is inaccurate. The column by John Leo in the magazine's Oct.
14 issue and syndicated to newspapers across the country cited as his
first example of anti-Semitism on campus 'a pig's head left at the door
of the Hillel building at Indiana University.' Rabbi Sue
Shifron, who has been at the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center
for 13 years, said: 'I've had tons of calls from people. ... I can definitely,
without a doubt, say it did not happen here.' In the column, Leo ponders
whether the anti-Jewish sentiments are growing on American campuses. Leo
told The Indianapolis Star, which published the column on Monday,
that his information came from a story published in August by The Jerusalem
Post. 'All I know is it was in The Jerusalem Post,' he said.
'If that's what you got, that's what you got. We'll certainly try to check
it ourselves.'"
Baltimoreans
May Join To Buy Israel Land,
Baltimore Jewish News, October 14, 2002
"More and more, American Jews feel that Israel is the place they want
to be," said Mr. [Paysi] Golomb, who lives with his family
in Park Heights. 'But because their lives and jobs are tied to the American
economy, they don't think it is a possibility. What we're trying to do
is to show people that if they go in together and buy an apartment building,
there would be made available to them low interest rates and the economic
power of buying as a group.' At least 60 local families have shown interest
already, he said, with a smaller group also interested from Chicago. Many
of the people that Mr. Golomb has spoken to want to move to Israel
but are concerned about finding experienced, trustworthy people to help
them. Tehilla, the Union For Religious Aliyah, which has been in existence
for 20 years and has helped settle thousands of Americans, including many
from Baltimore, is lending advice to Mr. Golomb, an art framer
and trumpet instructor who has no financial stake in the aliyah project.
'There are opportunities to buy now, and I think people are excited about
that,' said Mr. Golomb. "It doesn't have to be a situation where a family
is set to make aliyah [a move to Israel]. We have people who are
interested in buying now and renting for a couple of years to someone.
We have people who are interested in buying for a retirement home."
Two
women seek Hawaii's top job. Female governor to be state's first; GOP
holds lead,
Boston Globe, October 14, 2002
"The race for governor in Hawaii is a battle for firsts: the Democrat
hopes to become the first Japanese-born American to win a US governorship;
her opponent is vying to win the seat for Republicans for the first time
in four decades. And regardless of who wins, Hawaii voters will elect
their first woman governor ever. The Republican, Linda Lingle,
a 49-year-old former journalist and two-term mayor of Maui, has held a
lead in public polls over Lieutenant Governor Mazie K. Hirono, 54 ...
Lingle enjoys a 3-to-1 fund-raising lead over Hirono and the unified
backing of her party ... In recent weeks, Lingle has been targeted
by mailings that make crude and derogatory remarks about, among other
things, her Jewish background. Postal inspectors were said to be investigating,
and both camps denounced the smear campaign. ''We will not tolerate any
action that uses derogatory racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual remarks,''
Hirono said. The candidates share similar views on some hot-button issues:
Hirono backs same-sex marriage, while Lingle backs domestic partnerships.
Hirono and her running mate, Matt Matsunaga, are both abortion-rights
advocates; Lingle is also an abortion proponent." ALSO:
Ad
targets contributions, West Hawaii Today,
October 7, 2002. "A new state Democratic Party television commercial
focusing on mainland contributions to Linda Lingle has raised the ire
of the GOP gubernatorial candidate and the state Republican Party. The
commercial features a woman who says: 'Linda Lingle has received
over a million dollars from mainland Republicans, businesses and special
interests. What do all these outsiders want from Hawaii? And who would
Linda Lingle really represent? Sorry, Miss Lingle. Hawaii is not
for sale' ... Micah Kane, chairman of the Hawaii Republican Party, called
the commercial deceitful and hypocritical. 'It also shows their desperate
fear of losing the grip on power that they have held for the past 40 years,'
Kane said."
The Culture of
Critique Enhanced Entropy,
Etherzone, October 2002
“The Culture of Critique” (C of C) is a well researched and thoroughly
documented book on the evolution of the Jewish race. There is a bit of
prolixity, some psychological speculation, a dab of repetitive over teach,
and a most shocking and cogent explanation for America’s social decline.
The Author, Kevin MacDonald is a professor in the Psychology Department
at Cal State in Long Beach ... MacDonald traces the collectivist nature
of Jewish society. The pressure to marry within the tribe. The persistent
attempts to dominate and to be accepted as members of the societies in
which they live while at the same time considering themselves superior,
lamenting anti-Semitism, and seeking revenge for real or imagined ill
treatment. He traces the disastrous societal deterioration which results
from the Jewish notion that secular diversity is advantageous to Jews,
and how it has been promoted and fostered in America. Though Jews, themselves,
do not necessarily believe in gay rights, they promote it, believing acceptance
of gays will encourage acceptance of Jews. There is a Communist thread
that pervades Jewishness. MacDonald attributes this to the Jewish belief
that a classless International Socialist Society would end anti-Semitism
and be good for Jews ... Communist Parties in Russia, Poland, Hungary,
America, and several other nations have been dominated by Jews. Connections
to Russia have been common and attempts to paint Russian Communism as
compatible with Jews and a superior governmental form have been persistent
and frequent. The brutality of Russian Jewish supremacy during the 1920s
and 30s has been suppressed. Slave labor camps were developed by Jewish
leaders, Matvei Berman and Naftali Frenkel."
New
woman in the rabbi's life? Friends of Victoria "Miss Vicki" Lombardi link
her to Neulander,
Philadelphia Inquirer, October 13, 2002
"He is Rabbi Fred J. Neulander, accused murderer and former
leader of Cherry Hill's Congregation M'kor Shalom. Jailed for the last
two years, he goes on trial again next week for the 1994 murder of his
wife, Carol. She is Victoria Lombardi, formerly Victoria Budinger, also
known as 'Miss Vicki,' who gained national attention back in 1969 when,
at 17, she married kitschy pop star Tiny Tim on Johnny Carson's Tonight
Show. An estimated 45 million viewers were watching that night when the
shy Haddonfield teenager tied the knot with the ukulele-strumming falsetto,
20 years her senior. Eight years later, she was divorced and back in South
Jersey, where she flitted in and out of the celebrity spotlight as a dancer,
a model, and the owner of a 'new age' gift shop. Now she's around the
edges of the media glare again. Folks have been talking about the Miss
Vicki-and-The Rabbi connection in Cherry Hill for more than a year. There
are several different versions of how and when the two met. Some say it
was at a cocktail party. Others say it was one of her family members who
made the introduction. They flirted. He sent her flowers. They dated.
They developed a relationship, said the friend. It began sometime in 1998
and continued even after his bail was revoked and he was jailed in May
2000. Friends said she is currently driving a car owned by the rabbi,
and that his mail is forwarded to her Haddonfield apartment. The car,
a dark green Toyota Camry sedan, is the same car his wife, Carol, used
to drive, they say."
Tom
Lantos: Hawk in the midst of Doveland,
San Francisco Chronicle, October 13, 2002
"[Tom] Lantos has emerged as one of the most vocal
Democratic backers of the Congressional resolution authorizing the Bush
administration to launch a military strike against Iraq, if diplomatic
efforts to disarm that country fail. He helped deliver a solid bipartisan
vote of the International Relations Committee in favor of the resolution,
setting the stage for Thursday's historic vote of the full House, which
passed the bill 296-133. Along the way, he beat back an alternative resolution
sponsored by Rep. Barbara Lee, D- Oakland, that would have blocked the
United States from attacking Iraq without approval of the U.N. Security
Council ... Lantos is the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to Congress
... An ardent supporter of the state of Israel, Lantos often praises that
country's preemptive strike against Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981,
which seriously reduced Iraq's ability to launch a nuclear weapons program."
Preface to the First
Paperback Edition of The Culture of Critique: An Evolutionary Analysis
of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political
Movements, by professor Kevin MacDonald
"The profound idealization, the missionary zeal, and the moral fervor
that surround the veneration of figures like Celan, Kafka, Adorno, and
Freud characterize all of the Jewish intellectual movements discussed
in CofC (see Ch. 6 for a summary). That these figures are now avidly embraced
by the vast majority of non-Jewish intellectuals as well shows that the
Western intellectual world has become Judaized—that Jewish attitudes and
interests, Jewish likes and dislikes, now constitute the culture of the
West, internalized by Jews and non-Jews alike. The Judaization of the
West is nowhere more obvious than in the veneration of the Holocaust as
the central moral icon of the entire civilization. These developments
constitute a profound transformation from the tradition of critical and
scientific individualism that had formed the Western tradition since the
Enlightenment. More importantly, because of the deep-seated Jewish hostility
toward traditional Western culture, the Judaization of the West means
that the peoples who created the culture and traditions of the West have
been made to feel deeply ashamed of their own history—surely the prelude
to their demise as a culture and as a people. The present Judaized cultural
imperium in the West is maintained by a pervasive thought control propagated
by the mass media and extending to self-censorship by academics, politicians,
and others well aware of the dire personal and professional consequences
of crossing the boundaries of acceptable thought and speech about Jews
and Jewish issues. It is maintained by zealously promulgated, self-serving,
and essentially false theories of the nature and history of Judaism and
the nature and causes of anti-Semitism."
The hijacking
of America,
Toronto Sun, October 13, 2002
"The United States Congress has spoken. Not with a roar, but with
a whimper, handing President George W. Bush a blank cheque to go to war
against Iraq because of the 'imminent threat' it supposedly poses to America.
One is reminded of the revolting spectacle of Roman senators groveling
at the feet of emperor Tiberius. The notion of Iraq, a demolished nation
of 22.3 million posing an 'imminent threat' to the United States, a nation
of 281 million, is ludicrous. In fact, anti-Saddam Kurds and southern
Shia Muslims comprise 17.7 million, or 79%, of Iraq's population, leaving
only 4.6 million Sunnis who more or less support the regime. That's about
the population of Hong Kong. But a steady drumbeat of bellicose propaganda,
pressure from powerful special interests thirsting to destroy Iraq, and
election year politics have combined to stampede Congress and many Americans
into believing this grotesque, Orwellian fiction ... Last week, CIA Director
George Tenet took the courageous step of publicly refuting Bush's claim
that Iraq was an imminent threat. Tenet's unprecedented rebuke was a warning
to America, but it also signalled the deep resentment felt in the U.S.
intelligence community over the way Israel's intelligence service, Mossad,
and its American helpers, have become the White House's primary source
of decision-making information on Iraq, Palestine, Iran and Afghanistan
... Tenet was immediately attacked and denounced by pro-Israel commentators,
though a number of senior Israeli officers have echoed Tenet's assertions
that there was no immediate risk from Iraq unless it is invaded."
Terrorist Financing,
Council on Foreign Relations, October (?)
2002
[We note this article simply for the following extraordinary
Jewish influence in the committee that created this report. Anomaly? See
Jewish influence in the U.S. government.]
MAURICE GREENBERG (Jewish); Chair.
WILLIAM WECHSLER (Jewish?) and LEE S. WOLOSKY (Jewish?) Project
Co-Directors.
MEMBERS OF THE TASK FORCE:
THOMAS J. BIERSTEKER, Henry R. Luce Professor and Director, Watson Institute,
Brown University
DAVID COHEN (Jewish), Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence, New York
City Police Department; former Deputy Director for Operations, Central
Intelligence Agency W. BOWMAN CUTTER, Managing Director, Warburg Pincus;
former Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Affairs
STUART E. EIZENSTAT (Jewish), Partner, Covington & Burling; former
Deputy Secretary of the Treasury
MICHAEL R. FENZEL (Jewish?) Chairman, Council for Emerging National
Security Affairs (CENSA); former Director for Transnational Threats, National
Security Council
MAURICE R. GREENBERG (Jewish) (chairman), Chairman and CEO, American
International Group
RICK SMALL, Director for Global Anti-Money Laundering, Citigroup; former
Deputy Associate Director, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
MAURICE SONNENBERG (Jewish), Senior International Adviser, Bear,
Stearns & Co.; Senior International Adviser, Manatt Phelps & Phillips,
LLP; former Vice Chairman, National Commission on Terrorism
JOAN E. SPERO (Jewish?), President, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation;
former Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs TODD D. STERN, Partner,
Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering; former Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury
and Staff Secretary, the White House
WILLIAM H. WEBSTER, Senior Partner, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy; former
Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Director, Central Intelligence
Agency
WILLIAM F. WECHSLER (Jewish?) (co-director), Vice President, Greenwich
Associates; former Director for Transnational Threats, National Security
Council, and Special Adviser to the Secretary of the Treasury; former
chair of the interagency group charged with disrupting al-Qaeda's financial
network
JONATHAN WINER (Jewish), Counsel, Alston & Bird; former Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State for International Law Enforcement Affairs
LEE S. WOLOSKY (Jewish?) (co-director), Head of the International
Corporate Practice Group, Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, and Adjunct Fellow,
Center for Strategic and International Studies; former Director for Transnational
Threats, National Security Council
Reliable Columnists,
American Zionist Information Network, October
2002
The following are noted as"Reliable Columnists" at the home
page of the American Zionist Information Network: Charles Krauthammer,
George F. Will, Jonah Goldberg, Victor Davis Hanson, William
Safire, Daniel Pipes, Steven Plaut, Nissan Ratzlav-Katz,
Mortimer Zuckerman, Michael Kelly, Cal Thomas, John Podhoretz,
Joseph Farah, Zev Chafets, Linda Chavez, Mona Charen, Naomi Ragen,
Mark Steyn, David Horowitz, Andrew Sullivan, Martin Kramer.
Europe
Top historian attacks Hollywood over Nazis Films that glamorise the Third
Reich distort children's view of the past,
Independent (UK), October 13, 2002
"Antony Beevor, the distinguished military historian and best-selling
author of Stalingrad, has warned that Hollywood war movies are so historically
inaccurate they could create a new generation of Nazi sympathisers. He
believes that 'true story' war films such as U-571 and Enemy at the Gate
have made the Third Reich dangerously appealing. Alienated young men could
even sympathise with the concentration camp commandant in an openly anti-Nazi
film like Schindler's List ... Fellow historians David Starkey from Fitzwilliam
College, Cambridge and Niall Ferguson from Jesus College, Oxford told
the conference which took place behind closed doors at Dartington Hall
in Devon ñ that school history is in now in 'crisis'. According to Professor
Ferguson, sixth-formers applying to university know little of the past
aside from Hitler and Stalin, thanks to the dominance of the Second World
War in the national curriculum, GCSE and A-level courses - which he said
should be scrapped. But his suggestion that the Holocaust was too complex
an issue to be studied in detail by teenagers met with a hostile reaction
from the Board of Deputies of British Jews. 'The lessons of the Holocaust
are easily absorbed by children of 13,' said the Board's senior vice president
Henry Grunwald QC. 'There is still
too much intolerance, bigotry and prejudice in our society to allow the
industrialised murder of millions of people to be glossed over.'"
Bloody
Takeover Vandalises Holiest City,
U.N. Observer and International Report, October
13, 2002
"Brandishing machine-guns, Israeli settlers are invading Hebron,
locking Palestinians out of their homes and city amid riots of retaliation.
When the Sharawi family left their house in September they only intended
to be away for a few weeks. They planned to stay in a village near their
farmland for the harvest season before returning to their home in Hebron
in October. Now they are homeless. Last week their house, as well as their
neighbour's, was taken over by Israeli settlers. The locks have been changed,
the doors bolted, and a refurbishment job is under way. It's a common
occurrence in Hebron, a city in the southern West Bank, where 400 armed,
extremist settlers have moved into the centre of town, establishing five
tiny settlement blocks amid the 100,000 Palestinians residents with the
aim of taking over the city. The Sharawi family, along with the other
30,000 Palestinians living in the old part of town - the 900-year-old
Kasbah where the settlements are located - are the worst off. In late
July, two houses belonging to the Sharabati family, which adjoin the Avraham
Avinu settlement, were targeted. One 21-room house belonging to Izzedine
Sharabati, which doubled as a museum of Palestinian art and folklore,
was completely vandalised by settlers within three days. Every single
object and piece of furniture - including a library containing 1000-year-old
books - was destroyed. The settlers went so far as to rip every limb off
the children's dolls' ... 'It's like the Ku Klux Klan moving into an African-American
city,' says Mark Frey from the Christian Peacemaker team, a group of eight
volunteers who live in and patrol the area, monitoring, reporting and,
if possible, intervening to calm situations. 'People ask us, 'Why don't
you try and do reconciliation work?' But the settlers don't want reconciliation.
Their presence here is a hostile act, a very hostile takeover.'"
Diamonds
are a Jew's best friend,
Jewsweek, October 12, 2002
"Next to DeBeers, Lev Leviev is the second largest diamond
merchant in the world. Could this Soviet Jew with humble beginnings be
set to take down the DeBeers diamond giant? ... The [Chabad Lubavitcher]
Rebbe blessed him and his ideas [about this business in Russia], adding
that he should use the money he would earn and the power he would gain
to build the Jewish community in general and Lubavitch in particular,
in Russia and in the world ... Leviev was then a 36-year-old Israeli
... Leviev is single-handedly taking on the great DeBeers diamond
cartel that has dominated the diamond industry for generations -– and
by almost anyone's account, he's actually gaining ground on them. Leviev
has parlayed his riches into political power and charitable contributions,
touching the lives of countless Jews. The Lubavitcher Rebbe blessed Leviev
for success in the diamond business, and he asked him to use the resulting
power and wealth to build Judaism. Leviev has done exactly that.
Diamonds have always been a Jewish business. One might even say that Jews
created the industry ... Amsterdam is no longer the world diamond center
it once was. That center is now a little less than two hours away by train
in Antwerp, Belgium. The diamond business here is also heavily Jewish.
Most of the dealers and workers are from the local Chassidic community,
who live nearby and worship in the dozens of synagogues that dot the area
... Antwerp's diamond community established the Israeli diamond industry,
which has the second-biggest center of diamonds in the world, located
in a complex of buildings in a Tel Aviv suburb ... The diamond industry
has been dominated by the DeBeers cartel since it was founded in 1888.
The family that established it and in whose possession it remains today,
the Oppenheimers, were German Jews living in London in the 19th
century. Most diamonds mined and sold during the last century have passed
through the cartel's hands."
Holocaust survivors sue US government for heirlooms spirited out of Hungary
on 'Gold Train',
Jerusalem Post, October 12, 2002
"Today, [Holocaust survivor Irene Mermelstein] wants to know
what happened to the relics of her family's past. For the answer, she
and a group of Hungarian Holocaust survivors are suing an unlikely defendant:
the US government ... Ronald Zweig, who teaches history at Tel
Aviv University, disputes the lawsuit's claims in his book, 'The Gold
Train: The Destruction of the Jews and the Looting of Hungary.' 'I think
they're suing the wrong government,' Zweig said. According to Zweig, the
real treasure stolen from the Hungarian Jews was gold jewelry melted down
and sent in trucks to Austria, where it was buried by Hungarian soldiers
and discovered by French troops. Zweig, whose research influenced the
commission, said it was eventually returned to the Hungarian government,
by then Communist."
Campus Collision on Israel Campaign for Divestiture of Investments Stirs
Debate on Bias, Academic Freedom,
The Washington Post, Oct 12, 2002
"Students and faculty at a growing number of universities are joining
a fledgling movement to pressure schools into selling their holdings in
companies that do business in Israel, prompting a counter-campaign among
Jewish groups that consider the effort part of a creeping tide of anti-Semitism
on campus. The divestiture drive is designed as a way to protest Israeli
treatment of Palestinians, but Jews and others say that by adopting tactics
used to oppose apartheid in the 1970s and 1980s, the movement not so subtly
paints the Israeli government as racist and oppressive. 'What this movement
does is compare Israel to South Africa. That is hideous,' said Abraham
H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. 'There
is a greater tolerance on the college campus than elsewhere for expressions
of anti-Semitism' ... 'This charge of anti-Semitism is utter nonsense.
It is really a form of paranoia to deflect attention away from Israeli
human rights abuses and war crimes,' said Edward Said, a Columbia University
English professor who helped launch a divestiture campaign at the school.
'Israel has been in occupation of Palestinian territory for 35 years.
. . Arab American activists said that incidents of taunting and other
harassment of Jews pale in comparison to the wave of anti-Muslim incidents
-- and suspicion -- that has swept campuses since last year's terrorist
attacks in the United States. Moreover, they say, criticism of Israel,
particularly amid the free flow of ideas that is characteristic of most
college campuses, does not equate to anti-Semitism."
Klan leader may be Jewish,
Montgomery Advertiser (Alabama), October
12, 2002
"The leader of a Mississippi branch of the Ku Klux Klan that has
planned December recruitment drives in Autauga and Elmore counties was
deposed from his leadership position in another Klan chapter for being
Jewish. Jordan N. Gollub of the Royal Confederate Knights of the
KKK, which is based in Leake County, Miss., denies he is Jewish but acknowledged
Friday he was deposed in 1989 from a leadership role with the Christian
Knights of the KKK, another Mississippi-based chapter. Jews are among
the groups of people sometimes opposed by the Klan ... Mark Potok of the
Southern Poverty Law Center says Gollub is indeed Jewish. The SPLC keeps
tabs on organizations it has labeled hate groups and provides educational
materials about tolerance. Potok is editor of the group's Intelligence
Report, a quarterly magazine that tracks the activities of hate groups."
* (Jewish-born) David Ignatiev's web site,
http:///wwww.racetraitor.org is getting some sympathetic news attention.
His posted philosophy includes these gems:
"Treason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity."
"RACE TRAITOR [his web site] aims to serve as an intellectual center
for those seeking to abolish the white race."
[Ignatiev, of course, has an "intellectual" explanation
for his call to genocide, whether it's literal, figurative, social, or
political. We wonder though. What would public opinion be if the word
"white" in these sentences was replaced with the word "Jewish,"
i.e., "Treason to Jewishness is loyalty to humanity" (a rather
reasonable renouncement of the "Chosen People" centerpiece of
Jewish identity?) and "RACE TRAITOR aims to serve as an intellectual
center for those seeking to abolish the Jewish race." Such an anti-Jewish
web site would of course be condemned as an expression of fascism, whatever
his explanations, and vehemently denounced from every quarter.]
Judge
denies hearing in suit brought against conference,
Michigan Daily, October 11, 2002
"The legal fight to stop the University from allowing speakers to
attend a controversial conference this weekend appears to have been defeated,
plaintiffs and defendants agreed yesterday. Washtenaw County Circuit Court
Judge Melinda Morris denied a request yesterday for a temporary restraining
order to stop the conference. Deborah Schlussel, attorney for the
plaintiffs, LSA sophomore Richard Dorfman and LSA senior Adi
Neuman [all Jewish], made the request. Barring an appeal - which Schlussel
said would be unlikely to succeed - the Second National Student Conference
on the Palestine Solidarity Movement will likely go on as scheduled, tomorrow
through Monday ... The judge's action reflects a victory for the right
to free speech, University spokeswoman Julie Peterson said. 'The judge
applied the law as we expected and made the right decision,' she said.
'I'm not concerned that the Court of Appeals will change the decision.'"
THIS WEEK'S JEWISH NEWS:
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