From Ian:
Caroline Glick: A sad Independence
Caroline Glick: A sad Independence
Israel is the most extraordinary collective achievement of the Jewish people in thousands of years. It is the embodiment of the dreams, faith, blood, sweat and tears of the Jewish people today and throughout time in both spiritual and physical terms.Imam Pushing to Sanitize 9/11 Museum Slurs Jews
Israel is something that every Jew should celebrate and be thankful not only on Yom Ha’atzma’ut, but every day of the year.
Israelis know this and that is why we are so content and optimistic.
It is J Street’s purpose to hide this truth from the American Jewish community. So it is the task of the American Jews to build on the decision of the Conference of Presidents and ensure through education, travel to Israel and aliya that J Street goes down in time as the great failure it deserves to be. Doing so will ensure that next year, instead of being reduced to the sad spectacle of “a bunch of kids eating cake,” Yom Ha’atzma’ut celebrations worldwide will be the unbridled expressions of joy that they are in Israel.
A Muslim religious leader who helped spearhead a push to get the National September 11 Memorial Museum to censor references to Islam in a short film about al-Qaeda has said Jews “killed the Prophets and Messengers” and are a “cancer … in every generation as they get in power.”Isi Leibler: J Street's false martyrdom
Mustafa Elazabawy, imam at Masjid Manhattan, made the remarks in a December 2008 khutbah, or sermon, called “Children of Israel.” A recording of the sermon remains on the mosque’s website.
Elazabawy wrote a letter to museum leadership last month, complaining that the 6-minute film about al-Qaeda’s rise “would greatly offend our local Muslim believers as well as any foreign Muslim visitor to the museum,” if it is not changed. “Unsophisticated visitors who do not understand the difference between Al Qaeda and Muslims may come away with a prejudiced view of Islam, leading to antagonism and even confrontation toward Muslim believers near the site.”
It is surely undeniable that J Street is in fact canvassing and promoting anti-Israeli initiatives while castigating and seeking to undermine the policies of the democratically elected government of Israel. The idea of accepting J Street's self-description as "pro-Israel" seems to be taken directly from the pages of "Alice in Wonderland."
Jacobs says that there should be "no litmus test of ideological orientation" applied to candidates for the Conference of Presidents. Under such terms, Jews for Jesus and Neturei Karta would presumably also qualify for membership.
Rather than sanctimoniously castigating the majority of organizations that voted to reject J Street, Jacobs and Schonfeld should consider reviewing their own educational programs, which seem to lead many of their rabbis towards supporting anti-Zionist leftists who demonize the Jewish state. They should concentrate on educating youngsters about the values and achievements of the Jewish state and its central role for the future of the Jewish people.






















