Toronto Rabbis called out for shameful betrayal
To: Toronto Board of Rabbis
(416) 849-1004
(416) 849-1004
Hillel said: If I am not for myself, who is for me?
And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?
Ethics of the Fathers
And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?
Ethics of the Fathers
These are the opening words of your homepage and it is appropriate at this time to ask you why these words do not apply to Pamela Geller’s campaign to defend the Jewish people (and all people) from sharia and jihad and protect Muslims from their own barbarous acts against their own people, especially young women whose plight Ms. Geller has highlighted (she has actually helped many young women in distress). (Read more…)
Asia is Becoming Israel’s New Frontier
When we think of Israel, we usually think of the Middle East (its neighborhood), North America (its close ally the United States) and Europe (the long history of Ashkenazi Jews). Rarely do we think about Israel and Asia, even less about Asia as Israel’s new frontier. We don’t think of Asia as playing any significant role in Israel’s evolution given the tiny Asian Jewish population, the lack of significant Jewish history in Asia, and minimal relations between Israel and most Asian countries for the first 40 years (1948-1988) of Israel’s existence.
Yet, last year Israel called 2012 “the year of Asia in Israel.” The Israeli government sponsored an Asian Science Camp attracting over 220 Asian students to join nearly 40 Israeli students for a week long program of lectures by world class Israeli researchers
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Exclusive: Kerry’s Secret Plan for Peace In the Middle East
By: Shlomi Eldar for Al-Monitor Israel Pulse
Palestinians and Israelis alike were asked to maintain confidentiality around the “diplomatic secret,” which, it was hoped, would finally lead to productive negotiations between the two parties. Nevertheless, after a meeting of Fatah’s Central Committee in Ramallah on May 11, the details of the proposal were revealed. During his last visit to the Middle East in early April, Secretary of State John Kerry apparently suggested a compromise that would bridge the deep divide between both parties, and put an end to the long-lasting disconnect between them.
Palestinians and Israelis alike were asked to maintain confidentiality around the “diplomatic secret,” which, it was hoped, would finally lead to productive negotiations between the two parties. Nevertheless, after a meeting of Fatah’s Central Committee in Ramallah on May 11, the details of the proposal were revealed. During his last visit to the Middle East in early April, Secretary of State John Kerry apparently suggested a compromise that would bridge the deep divide between both parties, and put an end to the long-lasting disconnect between them.
According to this new proposal, negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians would commence in June, after Israel makes a commitment to halt construction in those areas of the West Bank that lie outside of the major settlement blocks. In other words, it would freeze construction in the central mountain range of the West Bank and effectively “dry up” the illegal settlements and outposts. For their part, the Palestinians would stop all their diplomatic efforts to win support in the General Assembly of the United Nations and withdraw their demand that Israeli officers be tried in international courts of law.
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The Lesser of Syria’s Evils
Top Israeli military and intelligence analysts are divided over which side to back in Syria’s civil war
The civil war in Syria has led to a keen debate among the professional echelon tasked with advising policymakers in Israel. This debate has been reflected in a more subdued public conversation and occasionally in spectacular events—like the bombing of Syrian military sites around Damascus. So, what are the dividing lines in this Israeli debate? Does Israel back any side in the war in Syria? And what would be an optimal outcome from the Israeli point of view?
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Who’s afraid of the bi-national state?
Bibi is, for one, but what he is afraid of is, not what we are, but may become if we acquire more Arab citizens. Arens wants better integration and more aliya because we are already a bi-national state. We are a bi-national state because two nations live here where each nation’s language is an official language and each nation can set up their own schools. But both nations are not equal in how the state views them. Israel has Jewish symbols only and a Jewish national anthem. Only Jews have a right of return. There are many other issues when the Jewish nationalists want preferences. Can Israel be equally Jewish and democratic or must being a Jewish state trump being a democratic state in order for Israel to be a Jewish state. Arens doesn’t deal with these issues. Ted Belman
Israel is already a bi-national state – a state in which two nationalities reside, Jews and Arabs. The government’s best bet is to encourage aliyah from the Diaspora and to better integrate Arab citizens into Israeli society.
Fear of the emergence of a bi-national state in the Land of Israel seems to be the driving force, on the right and on the left of the political spectrum, behind the many proposals for abandoning the hills of Samaria and Judea, the biblical Land of Israel, to powers as yet unknown and unpredictable. But the fact of the matter is that the State of Israel is already a bi-national state – a state in which two nationalities reside, Jews and Arabs. The advocates of the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria simply oppose the addition of any more Arabs to the existing Arab population of the State of Israel. Lurking behind their pious slogan “two states for two peoples” is their real, politically incorrect slogan: “Not one more Arab!”
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Islam vs. Islamism
What motives were behind last month’s Boston Marathon bombings and the would-be attack on a VIA Rail Canada train?
Leftists and establishmentarians variously offer imprecise and tired replies such as “violent extremism” or anger at Western imperialism, which are unworthy of serious discussion. Conservatives, in contrast, engage in a lively and serious debate among themselves: Some say Islam itself provides motives, others say only a modern extremist variant of the religion, known as radical Islam or Islamism, does.
As a participant in the latter debate, here’s my argument for focusing on Islamism.
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Deja vu: Peace in our time?
By Isi Liebler
In 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain proclaimed there would be “peace in our time” in defense of his disastrous Munich Agreement with Hitler. History testifies that his policy of appeasement and failure to confront the aggressive Nazi barbarians virtually made World War II inevitable.
In August 1993, just 20 years ago, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, strongly pressured by then Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, embarked on what he described as a “gamble for peace” and consummated the Oslo Accords with the Palestine Liberation Organization, an act which bitterly divided the nation.
Passionate debates ensued, but in our desperate yearning for peace, until recently many of us deluded ourselves that we were engaged in an “irreversible” peace process. Some of us even mesmerized ourselves into believing that Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and his successor, Mahmoud Abbas, were genuine peace partners, despite clear evidence from their own statements that in referring to peace, they did so with forked tongues and their real objective was to end Jewish sovereignty.
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Russian Israeli skater is world class
Elina Kuritsky looks and skates like American Sasha Cohen, only with more confidence.
Turns out it was Sasha Cohen.
AP scandal: Obama stabs biggest ally, the media, in the back
By Andrew L. Jaffee, netwmd.com
After multiple scandals — using the IRS as a political weapon, covering up Americans being killed in Benghazi — the Obama administration may have just put the last nail in its own political coffin. The President has alienated a key ally: the mainstream media. According to the Yahoo! News:
Exactly ten days ago, President Barack Obama was piously telling reporters who cover him that free speech and an independent press are “essential pillars of our democracy.” On Monday, the Associated Press accused his administration of undermining that very pillar by secretly obtaining two months’ worth of telephone records of AP reporters and editors. …The latest revelations are sure to pour fuel on the fire of Republican-driven Richard Nixon comparisons. They come in the wake of revelations that the IRS may have improperly scrutinized the tax-exempt status of conservative, tea party-linked groups. This might, in order words, not be a great time to announce a groundbreaking trip to China.And the news threatens to pile fresh political woes on a second term already burdened by a painful gun-control defeat, a seemingly stalled economic agenda, and Republican rage at the botched response to the Sept. 12, 2012 terrorist attack that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya. …
For a long time, many have suspected that Obama has made “the US media its mouthpiece.” Perhaps the “US media” wanted to be Obama’s mouthpiece — until they got targeted. The AP wasn’t too happy, according to NBC:
Hareidi schools to teach core cirriculum
As part of deal between Deri and Piron, Shas’ education network will incorporate core curriculum, follow ministry’s guidelines.
Shas announced Monday evening that its chairman, Aryeh Deri, and Finance Minister Yair Lapid have reached an agreement with Education Minister Shai Piron under which the finance minister will shelve his plan to cut funding the ultra-Orthodox party’s school system – including the Ma’ayan Hahinuch Hatorani network and independent Shas schools.
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The Case for Pre-Emptive War, From Goliath to the Dardanelles
Some lessons for Israel as it contemplates an attack on Iran’s nuclear program.
by Andrew Roberts
When—and it is most probably now a question of when, rather than if—Israel is forced to bomb Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities, the Israeli government will immediately face a cacophony of denunciation from the press in America and abroad; the international left; the United Nations General Assembly; 20 secretly delighted but fantastically hypocritical Arab states; some Democratic legislators in Washington, D.C.; and a large assortment of European politicians. Critics will doubtless harp on about international law and claim that no right exists for pre-emptive military action. So it would be wise for friends of Israel to mug up on their ancient and modern history to refute this claim.
The right, indeed the duty, of nations to proactively defend themselves from foes who seek their destruction with new and terrifying weaponry far pre-dates President George W. Bush and Iraq. It goes back earlier than Israel’s successful pre-emptive attacks on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981 (not to mention other pre-emptive Israeli attacks like the one on the Syrian nuclear program in 2007). It even predates Israel’s 1967 pre-emption of massed Arab armies, a move that saved the Jewish state. History is replete with examples when pre-emption was successful, as well as occasions when, because pre-emption wasn’t employed, catastrophe struck. (Read more…)
Ted Belman
Jerusalem, Israel
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