Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Where are the Orthodox "in-reach" programs?

I am still relatively new at the blogosphere stuff, and the purpose of this blog is more politics than religion, but I might as well break the rules occasionally.

As I have been surfing around the Jewish blogosphere I have been profoundly disturbed at the sheer number of blogs by those who are either formerly Orthodox, or, maybe worse, those who fake a frum lifestyle but don't believe anymore.

It is hard to extrapolate from these blogs how much of a problem this is in real life, after all, bloggers are a self-selected group and cannot be considered proportionally representative of the population as a whole. But it is clear that this is a problem, and a it is a failure of the frum community to deal with this.

As I see it, it appears to be a problem in the educational system. We have wonderful kiruv projects that are phenomenally successful, the Aishes and the Ohr Somayachs and the Gateways, that can talk about frumkeit on an intellectual level and that aren't afraid to answer the hard questions. A solid belief system is happy to defend itself.

But how many schools in the frum world are as open to basic questions as Aish is? How many employ decent school counselors that can be understanding and available for these sorts of issues? How many even acknowledge the problems in the frum community without marginalizing them or using glib answers like "if he did that, then he is not frum"?

The Orthodox community will always lose people just like we will always gain people. But it seems to me that there should be a priority placed on investing in our own. Otherwise we are just making ourselves and our children more vulnerable to becoming lost.

If a religious kid graduates from high school without the ability to articulately defend his beliefs and his practices, then we have failed him or her badly.

Hamas: Temporary Cease Fire if Israel Surrenders

OK, where have we heard this before...."pay our price and we won't hurt you"...sounds so familiar...Yes! That's it! It's what the Mafia says when they set up a protection racket!

Ending days of speculation about whether they had agreed to a cease-fire with Israel, Hamas and Islamic Jihad on Tuesday denied that they would halt terrorist attacks 'without making Israel pay a price.'

Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal, the Syria-based head of the movement's political bureau, said there would be no discussion of a truce before the Palestinians test Israel's intentions and receive assurances from the international community that Israel would halt its attacks on the Palestinians.

He described the recent talks between Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas as 'positive.'

'We agreed that the message that we should send to the international community is that the Palestinian resistance is not the problem, but it is Israel's aggression,' he said. 'We also agreed that our message to the Zionist enemy is that there would be no solution unless the occupation ends.'

Asked if the two sides had discussed ways of calming the situation, Mashaal told the London-based daily Al-Hayat: 'There is talk about calm, but a conditioned one. If the occupation meets our conditions, including ending the occupation and releasing all the prisoners, we will be prepared to consider a temporary truce.'

Belgian ambassador met Hizbollah leader

Let's see. There is a non-governmental organization operating out of Southern Lebanon with tons of weapons and millions of dollars, which bankrolls Palestinian terror cells, whose website says "Hezbollah's ideological ideals sees no legitimacy for the existence of 'Israel' ", which doesn't accept UN-defined borders between Israel and Lebanon, which has taught West Bank Palestinians the art of suicide bombing - and Belgium can't quite yet figure out that this is a terrorist organization.

The Foreign Ministry called in Belgium's ambassador Jean-Michel Veranneman de Watervliet on Monday to protest a meeting that his colleague, the Belgian ambassador to Lebanon, held last week with Hizbullah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.

The meeting with Nasrallah took place at a time when Israel is pressing the EU to place Hizbullah on its list of terrorist organizations.

De Watervliet was called to the Foreign Ministry for a meeting with Ran Curiel, the ministry's deputy director-general and head of its Western Europe department, and Jeremy Issacharoff, deputy directory-general and head of the Division for Strategic Affairs, which deals with antiterrorism issues.

"We expressed our displeasure," Issacharoff said. "We believe these meetings accord the organization – which kills innocent civilians – a legitimacy it doesn't deserve."

Issacharoff said the timing of this meeting with Nasrallah was particularly inopportune, inasmuch as Hizbullah is trying to scuttle attempt to calm down the situation in the territories by trying to carry out terrorist actions in Israel, and trying to ignite the northern border.

"We explained Hizbullah's activities in the territories, and how they are bankrolling terror cells and passing on expertise," Issacharoff said.

According to the Foreign Ministry, Hizbullah is currently running some 50 terrorist cells within the Palestinian Authority.

In 2004, according to the ministry, Hizbullah transferred some $9 million to these cells, which carried out 60 attacks and killed 24 Israelis.

De Watervliet told The Jerusalem Post that he has already passed on Israel's protests to the Belgian Foreign Ministry. He said that he was unaware, before he was called to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, that such a meeting with Nasrallah took place.

"The Belgian government has always condemned terrorism," the ambassador said, adding that the Belgian government does not have a firm stand on whether Hizbullah should be added to the EU's list of terrorist organizations.

Don't vote for me!

The Jewish and Israeli Blog Award voting is now in (almost) full swing. Alas, I am so far under the radar (in either visibility or quality) that this blog didn't rate being nominated, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't check out the many excellent blogs (most with actual readers!) that are nominated for one of the various awards.

Cat power (from HonestReporting)

A Palestinian bulldozer tears down a shop on Gaza City's beach road

Hey, are those Caterpillar bulldozers the Palestinian Authority is using to destroy buildings in Gaza?

Wonder what the 'Boycott Caterpillar' folks -- in the US and the Arab world -- have to say about this...

Color me cynical

The UN finally acknowledging the Holocaust? Israel's Foreign Minister making a heartfelt speech there? Kofi Annan admitting that Jews were the primary victims? An Israeli charity recognized as UN-ECOSOC Advisor?

Is the UN moving away from its traditional anti-Israel, anti-semitic stance?

Sorry, but I don't buy it for a minute.

All that is happening is that the UN, like always, is practicing self-preservation above its charter. Israel has wisely decided that the UN was irrelevant, and the US was headed in that direction. The UN wants desperately to be relevant or else it has no reason to exist.

The UN's historic anti-semitism, coddling of terrorists and rabid anti-Zionism was becoming too extreme even for the EU. The EU at least would pay some lip service to Israel's rights; the UN would do no such thing in its one-sided resolutions.

Finally, during the aborted roadmap plan, the UN realized that Israel has no incentive to treat the UN with any respect whatsoever. But how can the UN re-assert itself as the leader in peacemaking in the world without the cooperation of the one democracy in the region?

This is what is behind the UN's newfound acceptance of Israeli issues and institutions. The UN needs a fig-leaf to cover its anti-Israel agenda and to impose its perverted vision of "peace" on Israel. In the coming months, the next time a UN resolution comes down against Israel for defending herself, just wait: Kofi Annan will proudly point to the UN track record of evenhandedness in regards to Jews and Israel and use that as proof that when it asks Israel to allow millions of Palestinian Arabs to move into Israel and go back to the 1947 borders, that it has no anti-Israel agenda whatsoever.

In other words, the UN's one-sidedness was so absurd that even it couldn't deny it anymore, so it hopes by pretending to address the issues then it can once again renew its calls for Israel's ultimate destruction without fear of appearing biased.

UPDATE: Check out Israpundit's take on this.

Official anti-semitism re-appears in Russia

Another good example showing that democracy does not mean freedom and it does not mean enlightenment. This is particularly egregious, though, and quite shocking.

Russian Lawmakers Targets Jewish Groups

MOSCOW (AP) - A group of nationalist Russian lawmakers called Monday for a sweeping investigation aimed at outlawing all Jewish organizations and punishing officials who support them, accusing Jews of fomenting ethnic hatred and saying they provoke anti-Semitism.

In a letter dated Jan. 13, about 20 members of the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, asked Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov to investigate their claims and to launch proceedings 'on the prohibition in our country of all religious and ethnic Jewish organizations as extremist.'

The letter, faxed in part to The Associated Press by the office of lawmaker Alexander Krutov, said, 'The negative assessments by Russian patriots of the qualities and actions against non-Jews that are typical of Jews correspond to the truth ... The statements and publications against Jews that have incriminated patriots are self-defense, which is not always stylistically correct but is justified in essence.'

The stunning call to ban all Jewish groups raised concerns of persistent anti-Semitism in Russia.

Jewish leaders have praised President Vladimir Putin's government for encouraging religious tolerance, but rights groups accuse the authorities of failing to prosecute the perpetrators of anti-Semitic and racial violence.

Russia's chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, said lawmakers were looking for support 'by playing the anti-Semitic card.'

The prosecutor general's office could not immediately be reached for comment on the letter, which the Interfax news agency said was signed by lawmakers from the nationalist Rodina and Liberal Democratic parties as well as the Communist Party.

Krutov, a Rodina member, is deputy chief of the Duma's Committee on Information Policy.

With Putin planning to join events this week commemorating the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by Soviet troops, Russia's Holocaust Foundation head Alla Gerber said it was "horrible that as we're marking the 60th anniversary of this tragic and great day ... we can speak of the danger of fascism in the countries that defeated fascism."

While the Russian state itself is no longer anti-Semitic, there are "anti-Semitic campaigns that are led by all sorts of organizations," she said.

"The economic situation is ripe for this. An enemy is needed, and the enemy is well-known, traditional," Gerber said.

Echoing anti-Semitic tracts of the Czarist era, the letter's authors accuse Jews of working against the interests of the countries where they live and of monopolizing power worldwide. They say the United States "has become an instrument for achieving the global aims of Judaism."

"It is possible to say that the entire democratic world today is under the monetary and political control of international Judaism, which high-profile bankers are openly proud of," the letter says.

Along with outlawing Jewish organizations, the lawmakers call for the prosecution of "individuals responsible for providing these groups with state and municipal property, privileges and state financing."

Hamas in Gaza wants money to replace Hizbollah funds before ceasefire

(Hebrew-Maariv)

A senior IDF officer explained Sunday that the principal obstacle in cease-fire negotiations between Abu Mazen and the terror groups is the amount of money he is willing to pay them to replace the funds they currently receive from Hizballah to conduct attacks.
"There are thousands of activists who regularly receive funds from Hizballah which directs the attacks, and they don't want to find themselves unemployed," he said.
The officer emphasized that Hizballah, together with Iran and Syria, is acting to block Abu Mazen's attempts to achieve quiet, out of fear that the IDF will then be free to act in the north.

This shows again how important it is to stop the funding of terrorism, whether by lawsuits or by alternate fuels or by impounding assets. When the money disappears the ability to terrorize is severely limited.

BRITISH Muslims are to boycott this week’s commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz because they claim it is not racially inclusive and does not commemorate the victims of the Palestinian conflict.

Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, has written to Charles Clarke, the home secretary, saying the body will not attend the event unless it includes the “holocaust” of the Palestinian intifada.

This might be a good idea - the next time there is a rally demonizing Israel, other groups should mention the failed "Intifada" in Hama and the mass killings of Palestinians in Jordan and the expulsions of hundreds of thousands Palestinians from Kuwait.....

My letter to The Spectator

I am livid at this article, yet another that is written with the purpose of demonizing Jews and equating Israelis with Naziism. The fact that it is written by someone who is nominally Jewish (yet considers himself Anglican) just adds insult to injury.

It is nothing short of obscene to put the words "Jenin" in the same sentence as Nazi crematoria. For someone who brags about having read a couple of books on the Holocaust, it betrays not only profound ignorance but incredible offensiveness. To invoke Auschwitz as he sanctimoniously compares Israelis to those who were hell-bent on destroying Judaism itself is a breathtaking example of what real Jews would call chutzpah.

Mr. Lippman, you are no Jew except as an accident of birth. You know nothing about your religion, you know nothing about the feelings of those of your relatives who perished and you know nothing about modern Middle East history. This accident makes you no more qualified to lecture Israelis who are living in fear day after day than any other self-righteous European who uses fictional Israeli "crimes" like Jenin as a way to feel a little less guilty about the Holocaust.

I really am Jewish. My parents really are Holocaust survivors. Using your own peculiar circumstances where your parents denied their own heritage and you use that heritage for convenience to justify being able to write about your own hatred for Israel is an insult to real Jews, to real Holocaust survivors and to people who really care about their own heritage and religion.

Do us all a favor and don't try to invoke your own pretense of being "Jewish" as a reason to bash your co-religionists who want more than you can comprehend to live in peace and security. As it was, this little essay that was supposedly about hate showed far more hate than your Anglican mind can conceive. It was beneath contempt, and I am always amazed to see such drivel printed in major newspapers as if it means anything.

(Melanie Phillips' excellent reaction to the article can be found here. )

Cheney threatens Iran with Israel

Brinksmanship. -EoZ

WASHINGTON — In bluntly threatening terms on Inauguration Day, Vice President Dick Cheney removed any doubt that in its second term the Bush administration intended to directly confront the theocracy in Tehran.

Cheney, who often has delivered the Bush team's toughest warnings to foreign capitals, said Iran was "right at the top" of the administration's list of world trouble spots, and expressed concern that Israel "might well decide to act first" to destroy Iran's nuclear program. The Israelis would let the rest of the world "worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterward," he added in a radio interview with Don Imus that was also broadcast on MSNBC.

The tough talk was part of the administration's attempt to halt what Iran contends is a peaceful, civilian nuclear energy program but which Washington believes is a clandestine program to develop nuclear weapons.

Facing weak diplomatic and military options, the administration has issued increasingly stern warnings in hopes that threats of sanctions and international isolation will convince Iran to shun nuclear weapons. President Bush and other top administration officials also have spoken in menacing terms about Iran in recent days.

But Cheney's words marked the first time that a senior official has amplified the threat by suggesting that the United States could be unable to prevent military attack by its close allies in Jerusalem, analysts and diplomats said.

The startling reference to an Israeli attack was "the kind of strong language that will get their attention in Tehran," said one allied diplomat in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"There's a rhetorical escalation here: They've ratcheted up the threat level by bringing Israel in," said Henri J. Barkey, a former State Department official during the Clinton administration. "They're using the fact of the inauguration, and the uncertainty people have about where they're going in the next term, to say, 'Look, we're not going to let up on Iran.'

Jihad Watch: Inside information on the New Jersey murders

A close friend of the Coptic Christian brutally murdered in New Jersey along with his family, Hossam Armanious, is the source of this information, which comes to you exclusively from Jihad Watch:

The Armanious family had inspired several Muslims to convert to Christianity — or thought they had. These converts were actually practicing taqiyya, or religious deception, pretending to be friends of these Christians in order to strengthen themselves against them, as in Qur'an 3:28: "Let believers not make friends with infidels in preference to the faithful -- he that does this has nothing to hope for from Allah -- except in self-defense."

It was these "converts" who knocked on the door of the Armanious home. Of course, the family, not suspecting the deception, was happy to see the "converted" men and willingly let them in to their home. That's why there was no sign of forced entry. Then the "converted" Muslims did their grisly work.

Many Copts are regarding the murders as a warning to the Coptic community as a whole, related to the increasing strife between Copts and Muslims in Egypt and the Copts' energetic efforts in America to get the truth out about the differences between Middle Eastern Christians and Muslims -- differences that the Islamic lobby, with its disingenuous talk of "Arab Americans," routinely glosses over and hopes you don't notice. The Copts, to their immense credit, have been particularly outspoken among Middle Eastern Christians about Muslim oppression. And yes, many are active on Pal Talk debating Muslims.

The nature of the warning? The murders send a signal from the Muslims to the Copts: we are going to behave here the same way we behaved in Egypt, and the First Amendment and American law enforcement will not protect you. Don't expect America to keep you safe from us. The oppression and harassment you thought you had left behind in Egypt has now come to you.

This means, if Armanious's friend is correct, that this is indeed America's Theo van Gogh murder: indication that all Muslims in the nation do not, as we are supposed to believe, unanimously accept the parameters of American pluralism. That at least some are willing to enforce Sharia penalties right here, right now.

1967	16
1968	39
1969	32
1970	17
1971	27
1972	1
1973	3
1974	16
1975	26
1976	5
1977	41
1978	12
1979	14
1980	10
1981	5
1982	2
1983	6
1984	7
1985	14
1986	7
1987	5
1988	14
1989	32
1990	23
1991	26
1992	39
1993	64 (38 before Oslo, 26 after Oslo)
1994	73
1995	52
1996	87
1997	31
1998	13
1999	4
2000	47
2001	206
2002	452
2003	214
2004 (Thru August )	97

The number of people killed by Palestinian terrorists in the five years immediately after the Oslo accord (256) was greater than the number killed in the 15 years preceding the agreement (216). During the six years of the first uprising (Dec. 9, 1987 to Sep. 9, 1993), 172 people were murdered. More than 1,000 Israelis have been killed during the "al-Aqsa uprising" beginning in September 2000.

Note: Figures include Israeli civilians and security personnel, and foreigners killed in Palestinian terrorist attacks in Israel and the territories. They do not include Palestinians killed by other Palestinians on suspicion of cooperating with Israel. The date of September 9, 1993, is used to mark the beginning of the Oslo process since it was on that date that PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin exchanged letters in which Arafat renounced terrorism and recognized Israel. These letters were incorporated into the Oslo Accords, which were signed on the White House lawn four days later.

PA stopping sick Palestinians from going to Egypt

For the couple of people left who still think that the PA has the least interest in the welfare of the Palestinian Arabs:

The Palestinian Authority is blocking dozens of seriously ill Palestinians from going from Gaza to Egypt for medical treatment, a human rights group said Wednesday.

The Tel Aviv-based Physicians for Human Rights said the Palestinians were exploiting the sick for propaganda purposes. A Palestinian health official denied the charge.

The rights group petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court on behalf of six ill Palestinians, and an agreement was reached to allow the Palestinians to leave by an alternative route, said Shabtai Gold, a spokesman for PHR.

The same route was used recently to bus out thousands of Palestinians going on the Hajj Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.

But the Palestinian Authority refused to let them leave, Gold said.

The group was 'surprised and dismayed to discover that the Palestinian Authority is barring these patients from leaving the Gaza Strip for political reasons,' PHR said in a statement.

Among those the group petitioned for are a cancer patient, a man who needs a liver transplant and two people suffering gunshot wounds, Gold said.

However, there are dozens more sick Palestinians who also need to leave for treatment, Gold said.

PA crank-calls Israeli ambulances

Another example of the depravity of the enemy.

Luckily, so far no one has coordinated a crank call to a terror attack elsewhere.

The directors of Magen David Adom in the Lachish region held an unusual news conference this week - rather than trying to raise funds or persuade people to donate blood, they were announcing the development of a new telephone system designed to screen crank calls to the organization's Ashdod hotline.
According to the director of the Ashdod hotline, Yehuda Gabai, the new system, which has been under development for several months and will become operational within a few weeks, is needed to deal with the hundreds of crack calls the hotline receives every day.

Gabai says that most of the calls are placed by Palestinians from the northern Gaza Strip, who call the emergency 101 number, curse the operator and then hang up. More disturbingly, the crank callers will try to report a fictitious emergency, hoping that MDA will waste valuable time and resources until the truth comes to light.

The new system, however, will allow MDA to define a list of `problematic' telephone numbers - numbers from which crank calls have been placed - and automatically block the calls from reaching the call center.