Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, October 12, 2008

The Talmud, the financial crisis, and Time magazine bias

Time magazine has an interesting article on how traditional Judaism would respond to the current financial crisis.

A new article at the Journal of Law and Religion by Yeshiva University professor Aaron Levine (not yet online) discusses Jewish legal and ethical issues around the current problems. I would love to read the article, as Levine is a prolific author of books and articles on Jewish business ethics.

Rather than synopsize the article, however, Time chose to interview a different person. Rabbi Eliezer Diamond is Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at New York's Jewish Theological Seminary, a Conservative Jewish institution.

So rather than a dispassionate review, we are treated to questionable halachic analysis such as comparing purchasing items in a marketplace with knowing about a woman's blemishes before marriage. It appears that Diamond introduced this novel idea, not Levine.

Worse, Time uses this as a springboard for this paragraph:

Diamond belongs to a group called Rabbis for Obama, and says that in light of the financial crisis, its members have begun to discuss how the old wisdom could mediate the new mess. The question these days, he says, is not whether Jews can be induced to be more ethical than the market, but whether the market can be made more ethical. "I think classic rabbinic tradition is certainly pro-regulatory," he says.

Meanwhile, Yeshiva's Levine calls in his journal article for what he describes as "an incentive structure in the workplace that would dissuade people from wrongdoing." He gets quite specific, imagining a "carrot and stick" arrangement. One stick would be an expansion of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which mandated greater accountability for CEOs of publicly-owned companies, among other things.

Time has twisted the real business halacha expert's article to make it appear as if Obama's plans are more Talmudic than McCain's. Sarbanes-Oxley indeed demands transparency and accountability but it is not the kind of intrusive regulatory legislation that Obama seems to be advocating. It is possible that Levine does push for Democrat-style regulation; without seeing the actual article I cannot be sure, but the wording here seems deceptive as Time tries to make it look like Talmudic law is unquestioningly pro-regulation.

To see an example of Rabbi Levine's articles on Jewish business ethics that has not gone through the bias of the mainstream media, see here. A more scholarly and dry article on inflation can be found here.

Palestine Press Agency reports that the "Al Aqsa Foundation" is complaining about a new synagogue that is opening today "only meters from the Al-Aqsa Mosque." Ma'an adds that this move is a "provocation to hundreds of millions of Muslims" worldwide. It also says that this synagogue was being built "at the expense of" an historic Muslim steam bath.

As usual, taking facts out of context is very convenient to the bigots who want to rid Jerusalem of Jews.

In fact, a synagogue is being re-dedicated today in the Old City. The Ohel Yitzchak synagogue was built in 1917 on land purchased by Hungarian Jews in 1867.

Those multi-cultural Arabs who are so concerned about the sanctity of world religions drove the Jew of Jerusalem to abandon the structure in the 1936 riots, and they destroyed the synagogue altogether in 1948. The restoration has taken 15 years.

And the ancient steam bath? Well, the Israel Antiquities Authority found that Mameluke steam bath during the synagogue restoration, and preserved it, so this rebuilding of the synagogue didn't destroy this historic bath - it discovered it!

This is another object lesson in half-truths peddled by the Palestinian Arab media, the outright lies of the Al Aqsa Foundation and the complete hypocrisy of Muslims who want Jerusalem to be Judenrein today.

Honor/shame, Iran and Obama

Iran's media is reporting that their leaders are willing to meet with the US, with preconditions:

An Iranian presidential aide has proposed two conditions Washington would be required to fulfill before holding direct talks with Tehran.

"It is the United States that needs to have relations with Iran," said Mehdi Kalhor, the media consultant to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Saturday.

On Saturday, Kalhor said Tehran would accept 'repentance' on behalf of the US government toward the Iranian people.

"Negotiations would be rational if the US moves out of the Middle East and the US government gives up its widespread support for the Zionist regime," he said.

This is in contrast to the Democratic nominee for President:

The frontrunner for President of the United States looks as if he is begging to negotiate with Iran, and Iran appears to be considering granting that wish if only the lowly US works a little harder at its begging.

The Muslim world in general, and the Arab world in particular, is based on an honor/shame culture. People who are so convinced that a more conciliatory attitude from the US will make the Muslim world more pro-Western need to understand this dynamic.

Iran's leaders see the US presidential candidates arguing over whether and how they would engage with Iran. From an honor/shame perspective, this gives Iran immense power over the US.

Iran's leaders have already openly mocked the efforts by the West of using partial sanctions and endless negotiations over Iran's nuclear weapons program. Now they are placing themselves in a greater position of power - to other Muslim nations as well as other nations that subscribe to the honor/shame mindset. The world sees the the US bumbling over how to talk to Iran, and Iran answers from a position of strength - "if you want something from us you need to conform to our political program. We have no need to do anything you want, but you must do what we want because you need us more than we need you."

To even conceptualize that the potential next leader of the free world is already taking on this role as a subservient beggar to a terror state is beyond comprehension. Any tough words he mouths are drowned in the simple facts as they are viewed by the Muslim world.

The honor/shame culture does not reward those who act nice. It honors the winners, because there is nothing more honorable than winning and nothing more shameful than losing.

This doesn't mean that the West must play by those rules. But it does mean that the West must understand the rules and not assume that everyone thinks the way we do. And every time the West backs off in the face of real or perceived Iranian threats, it empowers and energizes Iran to up the ante the next day.

US textbooks treat Islam as the true religion

A couple of weeks ago, a book came out that detailed many cases of bias in US textbooks, which included such problematic passages as "“Christianity was started by a young Palestinian named Jesus?” (The World, Scott Foresman/Pearson). " A number of other troubling claims are made, although the brief description of the book doesn't give specific examples.

I just noticed that the report included a mind-blowing table that compares how Judaism, Christianity and Islam are described. In the examples below, the origins of Judaism and Christianity are consistently described as "claims" and "stories" but the claims of Islam are described factually:

Comparison of Language Used for Beliefs of the Three Major Religions in Selected Textbooks
Textbook	Judaism	Christianity	Islam
The World (Pearson/Scott Foresman)	Caption to a picture of a seder plate: "Foods on the seder plate are symbolic of an ancient Hebrew story."		"The pilgrimage, or hajj (haj), to Mecca is an essential part of Islam, the religion revealed to Muhammad . . . .
World History: Continuity and Change (Holt)	Glossary entry: “Ten Commandments: Moral laws Moses claimed to have received from the Hebrew God Yahweh on Mount Sinai.”		Glossary entry: “Qur’an Holy Book of Islam containing revelations received by Muhammad from God.”
World Civilizations: The Global Experience (Pearson)		Glossary entry: “Jesus of Nazareth” reads in part, “prophet and teacher among the Jews; believed by Christians to be the Messiah . . . .”	Glossary entry: "Muhammad Prophet of Islam . . .; received revelations from Allah in 610 C.E. and thereafter . . . .”
Modern World History: Patterns of Interaction.(McDougal Littell)		“According to the New Testament, Jesus of Nazareth was born around 6 to 4 B.C.” “According to Jesus’ followers, he rose from the dead. . . .”	“Muhammad’s teachings, which are the revealed word of God . . . , are found in the holy book called the Qur’an.”
World Cultures and Geography - Eastern Hemisphere (McDougal Littell)	“Judaism is a story of exile.”	“Christians believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah.”	"The Qur'an is the collection of God's revelations to Muhammad"

This isn't scholarship, this is indoctrination.

PalArabs lie about Jews cutting down olive trees

From Palestinian Arab propaganda outlet Ma'an:

Settlers from the illegal Israeli settlement of Yitzhar in the northern West Bank attacked a Palestinian family collecting olives on Saturday morning, a government official told Ma’an. Mayor Burin Ali Eid of the village of Burin, near Nablus, said a fight broke out when settlers “chopped down five olive trees” owned by the family. Local Palestinian sources said that settlers cut down 15 olive trees in other Nablus-area attacks on farmers.

Yitzhar is a religious Jewish village and the residents would not desecrate the Sabbath by chopping down any trees, so it is clear that these claims are lies. Sure enough, Arutz-7 reports something completely different:

Members of the security team in Yitzhar, in Samaria, spotted a group of Arab men entering an Arab olive grove near the Lehava neighborhood of the community Saturday morning. IDF soldiers were notified and arrived at the scene to question the men and ensure that they did not pose a danger to residents of Yitzhar. The soldiers were surprised to see that the group was busy cutting down olive trees. The men were cutting the trees in a "violent manner," soldiers said, explaining that they tried to show that there was damage to the trees instead of simply pruning them. They were apparently planning to accuse Jewish residents of Yitzhar of cutting down the Arab-owned trees, repeating accusations that have been made in recent years. The owner of the trees was not present and had not notified the army that he was planning to prune his grove, which Palestinian Authority farmers near Jewish towns are required to do.

The IDF did not quite confirm the Yitzhar residents' story:

Following Palestinian reports about clashes between settlers and Palestinian farmers near the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar, the IDF stated that the farmers arrived at the olive groves without the required permit. The statement said that after the farmers arrived in the area to pick olives, settlers began to crowd around them. IDF soldiers arrived on the scene, fired in the air and separated between the rival groups, restoring calm.

While it is hard to know exactly what happened, it is clear that the Palestinian Arab version is simply a lie, and if any olive trees were cut down on Saturday they were vandalized by Palestinian Arabs themselves.

The Guardian rips off the Elder

Wow, I'm getting ripped off by the big guys now!

An October 7th article in The Guardian is eerily similar to my October 5th posting about Lebanon wanting to sue Israel over hummus and other foods.

In general, I wouldn't think so - Israeli media picked up on the story on Monday - but the reporter, Jenny Percival, not only copies my research on the history of those dishes, but she even links to the same Firas Press article - autotranslated - that I did! I have never seen an MSM outlet link to a Google autotranslated article, something I do often.

So nice to know that my blog allows paid reporters to be lazy and, shall we say, acquisitive.

The good news

Ma'an News (Arabic) is reporting that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said that the current financial crisis is proof that God is punishing America for its support of Israel.

He might have his own economic problems sooner than he thinks, though.

According to an article in the Gulf Times last month, Iran needs the price of crude oil to be above $90 a barrel to avoid running the country at a deficit:

“Iran’s break-even price is $ 90 a barrel, and that is a big issue in Iran right now,” Khan said.

“If prices dip below $ 90 a barrel, and we have seen it touch $ 89 earlier this week, then they would have to tighten their public expenditure policy, and probably cut subsidies, which would be an issue for the government there – the public would not be content,” he said.

Iraq has the highest break-even price in the region, according to the IMF figures. The war-torn country needs prices above $ 110 a barrel to balance its books.

The price of crude traded at below $80 in London today.

Which means that Hamas' main source of income is in danger of drying up.

The BBC mentions:

"The direct impact of this financial crisis in the United States for the Iranian people, could actually be more than for the American people, because of the oil price, and our dependency on oil income," explained Saeed Leylaz, one of Iran's most outspoken and independent-minded economists

"If the oil price for Iranian oil will be $75 to $80 a barrel, we will lose $50bn US dollars (a year) and that means we are losing between $700 and $800 per head."

Not to mention that Iran's economy has been shaky to begin with. As a result of dropping oil revenues, Ahmadinejad tried to impose a 3% sales tax - and merchants responded by going on strike yesterday, causing him to back down. Inflation in Iran is at nearly a 30% rate officially, the unemployment rate of working-age Iranians is believed to be 20%, and Iran's economy has not grown per capita since the revolution in 1979.

So Haniyeh might want to think twice before gloating over the West's financial problems. He might have worse ones very soon.

Today's Jew-hatred in TPV

It's been a while since I mentioned The People's Voice, a ridiculous website that I wouldn't bother with except for the fact that Google still indexes it as a "news" site at news.google.com.

Today's anti-semitism at TPV is a slam dunk, because the author freely admits his feelings:

the Zionists had as much to do with making whatever actually did happen in the camps as any other force including the Hitler government. They declared war on Germany long before anything took place. Once there were Jews in the camps they used powerful strong arm tactics to keep them there and to deny aid organizations the opportunity to provide aid. They would not let them emigrate and afterwards Ben Gurion and others had much to say about what a great investment that turned out to be....

I’m going to have to say that Israel is an abomination and an evil empire. Since all of the things stated in the State Department’s lists of what defines an anti-Semite happen to be true, it’s no surprise that Israel and her supporters have the muscle to enforce their fascist will world wide. Israel is a nation of parasites that is bent on world domination. It has to be said because it is true and it can’t be refuted because the evidence is right in front of you. It’s in the control exerted over world leaders in what they are compelled to say and do. It’s found underneath many of the many troubles that are blamed on others. The players engaged in the political and financial manipulations are right there to be seen.

Jews are two percent of the American population and a much, much smaller percentage of the world’s population yet… some unfortunate number of them causes- or enable more problems than any other group of people on Earth. They do control the media and exert enormous influence over the financial world and governments around the globe. Lest it be thought that I am opposed to Jews period, I would state that I am a friend of the Neturei Karta, all True Torah Jews and the distressingly small number of Jews who protest the Ashke-Nazi actions of their psychopathic fellows.

It seems that the Zionists intended for and assisted in their holocaust for the purpose of blackmailing the world. They’ve realized more profit from this event than the victims of every other holocaust on Earth since presently recorded history began. There now seem to be more holocaust survivors than there were when the war ended. This holocaust is the greatest publicity stunt in the history of the world. They’re gotten their money’s worth and now it’s time for the truth to be told and for these murderous scoundrels to be exposed and rendered powerless by whatever means are necessary. My personal expectation is that something is going to happen in this regard but I’m not going to get into predicting what that is.

Doesn't look "anti-Zionist" to me!

You can inform Google about this article here. The URL is www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2008/10/10/the_holocaust_blackmail_game_boy_1 and the title of the article is "The Holocaust Blackmail Game-Boy".

They might remove the article itself from their index, but, as usual, they'll leave The People's Voice as a seemingly legitimate "news" source, because that's what they have done for years even though this is hardly the first rabid, foaming at the mouth Jew-hating article published there.

A couple more PalArab deaths, plus other news

At least two dead in a new tunnel explosion.

And a victim of another "clan clash" near Qalqilya.

In other news, Hamas is not only building tunnels in Gaza. The PA discovered tunnels where Hamas was storing explosives and they found an explosives factory, apparently anticipating expanding their war to the West Bank.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count climbs to 198.

Latest Zionist crime: forcing prisoners to wear orange uniforms

Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades is up in arms over the latest Zionist crime. From their English website:

Palestinian captives in the Zionist Hadarim prison asserted that they won't wear the orange uniform, which the Zionist prison authority tries to impose on them, urging Palestinian masses to support them in this regard.

Lawyer Buthaina Dakmak of the Mandela foundation that caters from Palestinian captives in Zionist jails met Palestinian MP Ahmad Sa'adat, the secretary-general of the PFLP, and Tawfeek Abu Na'im, one of Hamas's political leaders in the Hadarem jail, adding that both Palestinian leaders highlighted the importance of the Palestinian popular support in this regard.

She also quoted the two leaders as asserting that four of the Palestinian detainees were sent by the IPA to the isolation cells for rejecting to wear the orange uniform. She said that the four prisoners were denied their simplest human rights and that they were completely isolated.

The two Palestinian leaders, according to Dakmak, accused the IPA of attempting to deceive the captives by bringing new captives to the said jail, and then convincing them to wear the orange uniform in a bid to persuade other captives to accept it.

Palestinian captives were determined not to bow to the IPA pressures to wear the orange uniform, underlining that the orange uniform was fit for criminals, underscoring that they aren’t criminals but rather they are, as the entire world know, political prisoners and freedom fighters.

The captives also confirmed that the orange uniform bears reflectors that could turn them into a target for the Zionist soldiers, even in the darkness.

Somehow, I think if Israeli soldiers wanted to shoot them in prison, they could manage quite nicely without the help of reflective orange clothing.

Friday morning links

Sultan Knish finds a 13th century Selicha which describes Arab and Muslim subjugation of the Jews at that time, plus an interesting apparent halachic implication.

My Right Word dissects the events at Akko (Acre) on Yom Kippur.

The Augean Stables notes some Good News About Israel's Arabs - more are joining the IDF.

Israellycool takes on Practical Jihad for Dummies.

16 weeks in a row

For sixteen consecutive weeks, Palestinian Arabs have managed to kill more of each other than the evil IDF.

The PCHR combined their report for the last two weeks, and they still claim that settlers killed a shepherd in late September, something that clearly didn't happen. So for the week starting September 25 the score was 1-0, and for the week of October 2 the score was 3-0.

From the beginning of September, the score is about 39-3.

And in other peaceful PalArab news....

Israel's "peace partners" in Ramallah celebrated the perception that Israel lost the Yom Kippur war on this 35th anniversary of that war - by the Hebrew calendar.

A PalArab was shot and killed in Rafah it what appears to be a clan clash.

Another Gaza rocket.

Hamas arrested four members of Islamic Jihad in Gaza.

Egypt arrested 30 tunnel smugglers in the largest operation of its kind.

The 2008 PalArab self-death count is now at 195.

Today's lies from the PalArab press

It seems that some Jews decided to visit the holiest place on the planet on the holiest day of the year. There is no evidence that they brought weapons, or threatened anyone, or did anything provocative. Except, of course, wanting to be on sacred Jewish land that Muslims also claim.

Ma'an is screaming an "extremist gang attacks Al-Aqsa Mosque":

An Islamic charity is outraged that a "massive" group of Israeli settlers, rabbis and politicians attempted to break into the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem early Thursday morning.

The Al-Aqsa Foundation for Islamic Waqf and Heritage claimed that Israeli extremists "carried out several failed attempts to break into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound" on Thursday.

Extremists shouted anti-Muslim slogans while others performed religious rituals in the mosque's outside yard, Israeli police looking on and reportedly refusing to act.

Witnesses told members of the Palestinian press that rioters numbered "at least 100" and that among them was a member of the Israeli Knesset.

PNN's coverage is even less credible:

The Waqf has closed several sections of Al Aqsa Mosque since Wednesday in an attempt to shield the holy site from an onslaught of Jewish groups, including rabbis and Israeli politicians.
The Al Aqsa Foundation for the Preservation of Islamic Heritage issued a warning after receiving information that fundamentalists intended to descend on the Muslim holy site as is the yearly case during Yom Kippur.

Mass marches of Jews incurred into the grounds of Al-Haram Ash-Sharif under heavy guard in what some referred to as a “pilgrimage” while others said it was a “mission to stop the Al Aqsa Foundation.”

If religious Jews wanted to go to the Temple Mount on Yom Kippur, chances are they wouldn't say the reason was to "stop the Al Aqsa Foundation," This sounds like a completely made-up story by that group.

Not to mention that, unlike Muslims, religious Jews do not spend their holiest day trying to attack or incite others - they have more important things to worry about.

Note also that this story says that the Arabs began making moves on Wednesday, not Yom Kippur, which means that they were looking for something - anything - to happen that they could spin into an attack before it even happened.

And the lies become even more transparent:

Reports of incursions began coming in yesterday morning and the Waqf and Al Aqsa Foundation called for an increased presence inside the Mosque during Yom Kippur in order to protect the holy site from fundamentalists. This is historically the most difficult of Jewish holidays for Palestinians as racist attacks normally hit a yearly high.
A crew from the Al Aqsa Foundation took a place inside the Mosque beginning yesterday morning and has been monitoring the situation since. Beginning at 7:00 am Wednesday the first group of Jewish fundamentalists stormed Al Aqsa Mosque shouting they had come to “stop the Al Aqsa Foundation” while several began to perform Jewish religious rites. A group of 100 came with Rabbi and Israeli politician Uri Ariel. They attempted to storm the Mosque from Bab Al Maghrarbeh (Moroccans Gate) and engaged in a stand-off while shouting against the Foundation, reports from inside indicate.
In an interview with the Director of the Waqf in Jerusalem the Sheikh said, “We categorically reject the Israeli practices and those of the extremists who take it as their right to raid the holy mosque of Al Aqsa. We have submitted a strong protest to what has happened.”

Now they are saying that these "attacks" began on Wednesday morning!

Needless to say, there are no photographs of this "storming" even though it supposedly started on Wednesday, nothing from the MSM which would have swarmed all over to take pictures of these Jewish extremists, not a peep from Ha'aretz.

In other words, the only people who claim that this event happened in anything but the most peaceful manner are the people who consistently agitate and lie about Jewish plots to demolish the mosque and and build the Thurd Temple - in other words, persistent liars that reliably get quoted in the Arab press.

G'mar chatima tovah 5769 - גמר חתימה טובה

Since many of my readers are a number of hours ahead of me, I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a G'mar Chatima Tovah - may you be sealed in the Book of Life.

For those who are reaching this page by Googling it and looking for the translation, here it is:

Literally: A good final sealing
Idiomatically: May you be inscribed (in the Book of Life) for Good

I wish all of my Jewish readers an easy fast and a meaningful Yom Kippur. I unconditionally forgive anyone who may have wronged me during this year, and I ask forgiveness for anyone I may have wronged as well.

May this be a year of peace, prosperity, unity and wisdom.