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| Thursday, Sep 24 '09, Tishrei 6, 5770 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
1. Obama Orders Israel to 'End the Occupation' by Maayana Miskin  United States President Barack Obama issued a stinging condemnation of the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria on Wednesday in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly. The U.S. “does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements,” Obama announced. Using unusually harsh terminology, Obama called to "end the occupation that began in 1967" - referring to Israel's control of Judea and Samaria. Obama also stated that the U.S. must put more pressure on Israel to accept Arab demands. “The United States does Israel no favors when we fail to couple an unwavering commitment to its security with an insistence that Israel respect the legitimate claims and rights of the Palestinians,” he said. The U.S. president had demands for Israel's opponents as well, and called on UN member states to avoid “vitriolic” attacks on Israel and recognize Israel's legitimacy. In addition, he called on the Palestinian Authority to “end incitement against Israel.” In his speech, Obama reported that progress had been made in a meeting the day before with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Obama has pressured Israel to completely freeze building for Jews in Judea and Samaria, a plan Netanyahu has rejected. Israeli leaders have stated that many Judea and Samaria communities are within the “national consensus” regarding towns that are expected to remain in Israeli hands permanently, and that building should continue in those areas. The Obama administration's most recent statements on the subject made clear, however, that a freeze on settlements could not be a precondition for peace talks between Israel and the PA. Regarding Iran, Obama expressed support for both diplomacy and consequences. Iran and North Korea should be offered “greater prosperity and a more secure peace” if they agree to abide by international guidelines, but “must be held accountable” if they insist on pursuing nuclear weapons, he said. Bolton: Israel on the Chopping Block Former United States ambassador to the UN John Bolton said the president's message had strong significance, particularly given the venue. Obama has put Israel “on the chopping block,” Bolton warned. 'World Must Work Together' Obama called for the nations of the world to work together, saying, “Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility.” "Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world's problems alone,” he added pointedly. Obama said UN member states had fallen short in addressing the world's problems. Among the issues he called to address were genocide, “protracted conflicts,” nuclear proliferation, and global warming. Comment on this story 2. Netanyahu to Try to Upstage Obama after ‘Occupation’ Speech by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu  Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will try to take back center stage Thursday evening (afternoon EDT) when he speaks to the General Assembly at the United Nations. All ears will be glued to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech, which his aides have hyped as “dramatic." U.S. President Barack Obama took the upper hand in the battle of rhetoric on Wednesday, offering Israel a carrot and a stick. He took pains to say that Israel is a Jewish state, a definition that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has refused to accept and one which Prime Minister Netanyahu has said is necessary for Israeli-PA negotiations to advance. However, the president also referred to the Israeli presence in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria since the Six-Day War in 1967 as "the occupation." His comments in effect placed him four-square against both Israel and the PA. The Netanyahu government, supported by polls, does not accept surrendering all of the area that the PA demands. No Israeli government ever used the term “occupation”, employed by foreign news agencies, the Arab world and many Western countries, until former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon used the phrase to back the U.S. Roadmap proposal in 2003. “I think the idea that it is possible to continue keeping 3.5 million Palestinians under occupation–yes it is occupation, you might not like the word, but what is happening is occupation–is bad for Israel, and bad for the Palestinians, and bad for the Israeli economy,” Sharon said at that time. However, a later exchange of letters with then-President George W. Bush spelled out that large Jewish population centers in Judea and Samaria would remain under Israeli sovereignty in the event of the creation of a new Arab state in Judea and Samaria. The status of Jerusalem as the united capital of Israel never was even a matter of discussion. President Obama’s use of the term was an escalation in rhetoric. Obama had stated in his “reaching out to the Muslim world” speech in Cairo last June that Jewish “settlements” were “illegitimate,” a term he repeated in the U.N. on Wednesday. He also chastised the PA for continuing incitement against Israel. Although the Prime Minister diplomatically praised President Obama’s speech, it was met with catcalls by conservative Americans and Israeli leaders favoring a Jewish presence in all of Israel. Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton said that President Obama in effect has placed Israel “on the chopping block.” Republican Congressman Jason Chafetz, a Mormon, stated that his calling on Israel to “end the occupation that began in 1967” is “offensive and wrong. He added, "I am outraged by the President's comments at the U.N.” House Minority Whip Eric Cantor said he was glad that the trilateral meeting with Obama, Netanyahu and Abbas earlier this week was good but that he opposed Obama’s “disproportionate focus” on freezing construction for Jews in Judea and Samaria rather than on Iran’s nuclear development. “If you look at the policy that this White House has followed, it certainly does not seem as if we are dealing with a true friend” of Israel, Cantor said. Comment on this story  3. Qaddafi’s Mideast Solution: Isratine by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu  Libya’s eccentric dictator Muammar Qaddafi told a sleepy United Nations audience Wednesday night that he has the solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict: a single state called Isratine, an acronym for Israel and Palestine. He previously has suggested the term, but last night was the first time the phrase was introduced in the United Nations "The solution is a democratic state without religious fanaticism," he said. "Everybody should live in peace. Isratine, Isratine is the solution." Qaddafi did not resort to including his usual anti-Israeli rhetoric. Qaddafi’s speech was the first time in his 40 years in power that he has addressed the U.N. General Assembly, but many of the ambassadors either walked out or slept. At one point, he scolded the tired delegates, "Please can I have your attention," he said in his native language. "All of you are tired, having jet lag. ... You are tired. All of you are asleep." Besides calling for a single state with a new name, the Libyan leader’s rambling one hour and 35-minute speech included demands for $7.77 trillion in compensation for African countries for damages when they were colonies. He also mocked the United Nations charter, dramatically tossing over his shoulders after calling the United Nations Security Council the “terror council.” As for the charter, he said Libya “does not accept it” because its preamble states that all nations are equal but that any one member of the Security Council has veto power over a majority. Libya is a temporary council member this year. Qaddafi spent the night at the Libyan missions after hotels refused to let him bed down in their posh quarters, and New York police turned down his request to erect his elaborate Bedouin tent in Central Park. Comment on this story 4. Faulty Terror Bomb Saved Israeli Tourists from Death in Sinai by Maayana Miskin  Terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula planned to blow up a bus full of Israeli tourists, and were stopped only by a mechanical failure in the bomb they were using. The near-attack took place in July, according to a report Wednesday broadcast on Channel 2, as a bus of Israeli tourists made their way from Taba to Sharm a-Sheikh. A group of terrorists discovered that the passengers on the bus were Israelis, and began to follow the vehicle. The terrorists decided to strike near the town of Nuweibe, along the Sinai coast. The terror cell attempted to detonate a large bomb near the bus. The powerful explosives failed to detonate due to a mechanical failure.. To read the rest of the gripping story, click here! Comment on this story  5. Hamas Propaganda: IDF Bombs Soldiers Taken as Hostages by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu  Hamas propaganda, translated by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), alleges that the IDF kills hostages captured by the terrroist organization. The IDF recently bombed Hamas tunnels designed for kidnapping, but the aerial strikes came only as part of retaliation against mortar, rocket and shooting attacks on Israeli civllians and soldiers. [weJe Email readers, please click here to view the video! The IDF is likely to strike again following a resumption of terrorist attacks Thursday morning, when a mortar shell struck the Eshkol region and sniper fire was aimed at soliders patrolling near the Gaza separation fence. No one was injured. Israel has sustained approximately 12,000 mortar and rocket attacks since September 2000, when the Second Intifada, also known as the Oslo War, broke out. More than 250 attacks were recorded since the end of the three-week Operation Cast Lead counterterrorist campaign in mid-January. The IDF has not yet retaliated. The government policy the past several months has been to respond, usually within 24 hours, to all attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers. Retaliation often takes the form of bombing smuggling tunnels. Earlier in the week, three tunnels were bombed after terrorists fired two Kassam rockets at the Negev. Comment on this story 6. Shas MK: Ease Conversion for IDF Soldiers of Jewish Descent by Gil Ronen  MK Rabbi Chaim Amsalem (Shas) is vigorously pursuing a plan that would ease the conversion to Judaism (giyur) of descendants of Jews who immigrated to Israel and served in the armed forces. The plan is seen as a revolutionary one, coming as it does from a rabbi and politician who belongs to the hareidi-religious stream, which is not known to favor military service at all. The plan would help ease the plight of many immigrants to Israel and their children who made Aliyah from the former Soviet Union and who are not considered Jewish according to Jewish law because they were not born to Jewish mothers. These immigrants are required to serve in the IDF and often risk life and limb for the nation, yet they are not recognized as Jews and encounter problems when they wish to marry a Jew. Many of them do not wish to live as observant Jews but are required to do so in order to be converted. MK Rabbi Amsalem has now completed an essay explaining his idea and sent it to 1,000 rabbis from all orthodox streams in Israel, in the hope of receiving their support and comments for the plan. Zera yisrael "Everything that I have written about the need for easing the conversion process,” MK Rabbi Amsalem said, “was not said about regular gentiles who wish to convert, but only towards those who are descended from Jews and are known by the rabbinical authorities as 'the seed of Israel' (zera yisrael).” MK Rabbi Amsalem issued a clarification Wednesday in which he explained that he never said that enlistment to the IDF is a substitute for obeying the Jewish mitzvot (commandments), but that it should be seen as “only a part of the mitzvot that the convert accepts upon himself.” MK Rabbi Amsalem's initiative was lambasted by hareidi newspaper Yated Neeman a week ago. The newspaper said his idea was “less than what one would expect from a Conservative 'rabbi'” and claimed that it was contrary to the opinions of all the great rabbinical authorities. It called Amsalem a “low-grade political hack” and used an Aramaic phrase afra lefumey -- literally “dirt upon his mouth” – which means “he should shut up.” Amsalem punched back at the paper, calling it a “tabloid” and saying it was beneath his dignity to respond to its misrepresentation of his initiative. Tradition is enough Amsalem has argued that by making conversion difficult for zera yisrael who serve in the IDF, the Jewish establishment is committing a chilul Hashem, or a desecration of G-d's name. He quotes Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, who in another, similar context, asked: “What will the 'free' [Jew who do not observe Torah and mitzvot say when they see that we push away from us those who risk their lives for Israel.” Rabbi MK Amsalem noted that the obligation to observe mitzvot as a condition for conversion was in force when most of the Jews were observant, but this is not the case today. In our times, he says, “it is proper to see the service in the IDF and the connection to the nation of Israel as proof of their true wish to convert.” He adds that he does not mean that the converts should not be required to make any changes in their lifestyle, but that it should be enough that they become “traditional” by blessing on the wine on Sabbath, fasting on Yom Kippur, avoiding non-kosher food, eating kosher-for-Pesach foodstuffs on Pesach, and respecting the holidays that symbolize Judaism. "Even the beloved mitzva (commandment) of tefillin,” he adds, “we see that many who do not observe the Sabbath properly lay them and pray with them. Would we consider these gentiles?” Comment on this story 7. Rabbi Benzion Lipsker Laid to Rest After Final 'Ta'alucha' by Hana Levi Julian  Thousands of Chabad Chassidim and other residents of Arad stood in the hot Negev sun Thursday morning, gazing at the tallit-wrapped body of Rabbi Benzion Lipsker, the city's first Chief Rabbi and a member of the Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbinical Court of Israel. He is survived by his wife, four daughters and their families, including many grandchildren. The funeral began shortly before noon in the courtyard of the Central Synagogue of Arad where Rabbi Lipsker reigned as spiritual leader. Many sobbed openly as they listened to eulogies delivered by Rabbi Lipsker's colleague in the Arad Rabbinate, Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yosef Albo, Mayor Gideon Bar-Lev, and others. "He had a warm heart," Bar-Lev told Israel National News prior to the funeral, "a big heart. That was the most prominent thing about him -- his heart. It was huge." Rabbi Albo described his colleague's dedication to his dual post as Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, and emissary of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. "He was a faithful messenger of the Rebbe, spreading Torah Judaism, teaching them to love the Torah," he said. "You were connected to everyone, and every single one was connected to you," Isaiah Unger said directly to the body of the Rabbi lying before the podium. "There was no mechitzah, no barrier between you and others." Rabbi Mordechai Shmuel Ashkenazi of Kfar Chabad, head of the Chassidic sect's Beit Din (Rabbinical Court) of which Rabbi Lipsker was a member, also spoke, as did his son-in-law, Rabbi Yaakov Mendelsohn. Ethnicity Didn't Matter For more than 30 years, Rabbi Lipsker worked to bring spiritual guidance to a city wracked with the changes that come with periodic influxes of new immigrants from different lands. The faces of those who flooded into the courtyard of the Central Synagogue where he reigned as Spiritual Leader reflected that legacy. "His weekly lesson on Tanya helped me get over my depression," A woman with a European accent. told Israel National News. "For two years I went faithfully every week. It is eight years since I became a religious woman, but I was depressed for 18 years, but no longer, all of it thanks to Rabbi Lipsker." A second woman, Ruthie, of Middle Eastern descent, related how she, too, had attended Rabbi Lipsker's weekly Tanya class, "but suddenly three weeks ago, it ended and we had no idea why. I saw him in the bank last week just before the holiday, and he looked so frail -- he said he was arranging money to build the foundation for the new synagogue; there wasn't enough money yet to do more." A tireless emissary of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Lipsker never stopped working on behalf of the Jews of Arad, regardless of where they came from said his son-in-law, Rabbi Mendelsohn. "It was impossible to walk home with him," he said, "it could take hours on Sukkot. Every person he met, he would stop to offer him his lulav and etrog in order to ensure that he could have the merit of having performed the blessing properly." Rabbi Mendelsohn -- whose wife, Chanie, is principal of the Chabad Girls' School, Ohr Menachem -- made a strong effort to strike an upbeat note. The rabbi was thinking of his congregation and the people of Arad right up until the end, he explained to the crowd, relating that his final words were, "I love them all!" and then he had read the Shema, the central prayer of the Jewish faith. "The Rebbe sent you here, and you were a faithful messenger," Rabbi Mendelsohn said, his voice breaking. "When the Rebbe of Gur, Shlita, went to meet with the Rebbe, the Rebbe said to him, "You know my man in Arad? The Rebbe called you 'my man.' That's who you were. The Rebbe's man in Arad." Rabbi Mendelsohn vowed to continue in his father-in-law's path and said with a hint of a smile, "Chassidim don't say goodbye. We know that death is not an ending, not really. It is a passage, and we will see each other again, when the Messiah comes -- may it be soon!" A Final Ta'alucha With this assurance, mourners proceeded to travel with the rabbi's body in a final "ta'alucha" around the town -- the traditional Chabad procession in which the Chassidim walk to visit other Jews. Each institution that he had founded -- the Chabad girls' and boys' elementary schools, as well as the ORT High School where he had taught classes and conducted special Jewish outreach programs for decades, was given the opportunity to offer a final farewell to the rabbi who had given so much. The procession then traveled to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, where Rabbi Lipsker was laid to rest near the graves of his parents. Comment on this story | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Everyday of Freedom is an Act of Faith for my writings ============> http://robertoscaruffi.blogspot.com for something on religions ===> http://scaruffi1.blogspot.com
Thursday, 24 September 2009
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