UNESCO Votes: No Connection Between Temple Mount and Judaism: Jerusalem Post, Oct. 13, 2016 — In a 24-6 vote, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on Thursday gave preliminary approval to a resolution that denies Jewish ties to its most holy religious sites: the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.
Is the Tide Turning for Israel?: Jonathan S. Tobin, Commentary, Oct. 13, 2016 — The headline out of Geneva is as familiar as it is depressing and disgraceful.
Same Old, Same Old . . .: Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, Oct. 14, 2016— Every time the Clinton campaign hits a rough patch…
The Paradox of Sukkot: Finding Joy in Uncertainty: Nathan Lopes Cardozo, Algemeiner, Oct. 14, 2016 — When contemplating the festival of Sukkot, we are confronted with a remarkable paradox.
Sukkot For Our Time: Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Jewish Press, Oct. 14, 2016
Palestinians Suffer Defeat at UNESCO, Losing France, EU, India, Africa: Hillel Neuer, UN Watch, Oct. 14, 2016
After Elections, Will Obama Betray Israel at UN?: Breaking Israel News, Oct. 14, 2016
At the U.N., Only Israel Is an ‘Occupying Power’: Eugene Kontorovich & Penny Grunseid, Wall Street Journal, Sept. 13, 2016
UNESCO VOTES: NO CONNECTION BETWEEN
Jerusalem Post, Oct. 13, 2016
In a 24-6 vote, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on Thursday gave preliminary approval to a resolution that denies Jewish ties to its most holy religious sites: the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the vote stating: “The theater of the absurd continues at the UN.” “Today UNESCO adopted its second decision this year denying the Jewish people’s connection to the Temple Mount, our holiest site for more than 3,000 years,” he said. “What’s next? A UNESCO decision denying the connection between peanut butter and jelly? Batman and Robin? Rock ‘n’ roll?”
Twenty-six nations abstained from the vote and two were absent. The six countries that voted in support of Israel were the United States, Great Britain, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Germany and Estonia. A senior US administration official chastised the vote taken by UNESCO’s 58-member Executive Board and told The Jerusalem Post that the US “will not hesitate to use our vote at the current board meeting to oppose these resolutions.”
The Palestinian Authority, however, welcomed the results. The official spokesman of the Palestinian Presidency Nabil Abu Rudeinah said on Thursday evening that the continued international decisions against the occupation and its policy including that of UNESCO regarding Jerusalem and the al-Aksa Mosque form a clear message from the international community that it does not agree with the policies that protect the occupation and contribute to the creation of chaos and instability.
In 2015, the Palestinians, who have been recognized by UNESCO as a member state since 2011, began a drive to change the language with which that international body refers to the Temple Mount area, known to Muslims the Al-Haram Al Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary). Initially they tried and failed to have it declared a solely Muslim site. Since then, they have submitted resolutions on Jerusalem at every possible UNESCO meeting, that uses only the Muslims terms for the Temple Mount area and its adjacent Western Wall.
UNESCO’s Executive Board passed such a resolution last April and its 21-member World Heritage Committee had been poised to do so again in July in Istanbul. That vote was delayed until October 24-26, when the failed Turkish coup, cut the meeting short. Since then a sentence has been inserted into the text that mentions that Jerusalem and its Old City walls are holy to all three religions; Judaism, Islam and Christianity. The Western Wall is mentioned twice in quotes. Otherwise it was referenced in the text by its Muslim name of the Buraq Plaza.
Thursday’s vote was taken by UNESCO’s 58-member Program and External Relations Commission in advance of its ratification next Monday or Tuesday by the UNESCO Executive Board, which is made up of the same member states. UNESCO outgoing director-general Irina Bokova has spoken against such resolutions, but ultimately the matter lies in the hands of the member states.
In the aftermath of Thursday’s UNESCO vote, both Israel’s Ambassador to UNESCO Carmel Shama-Hacohen and outgoing Foreign Ministry director- general Dore Gold focused on the changes in the voting roster since the executive board last approved such a resolution in Paris in April. Shama-Hacohen and the Foreign Ministry had worked hard in advance of the vote to lobby member states to stand with Israel. Gold, who resigned his position on Thursday effective immediately, said that the UNESCO vote was a “going away present.”
Ten countries which voted for the resolution the last time it came before UNESCO for a vote, abstained this time around, Gold said. What that means, he said, is that more countries voted for Israel or abstained, than voted against Israel. The 10 countries which switched their vote from last time were France, Sweden, Slovenia, Spain, Argentina, India, Sri Lanka, Togo, Guinea and Ghana. Gold signed documents over the summer with Guinean officials formally reestablishing diplomatic ties. He also noted the significance of India and Argentina switching their votes and not voting against Israel, as they have traditionally done.
“What this indicates is that things are shifting for Israel,” Gold said. “You are not going to get a total re-definition about how states are going to vote in the UN system in a matter of a few months, but a new trend is clear, which I hope Israel can build upon in the months and years ahead.” Gold noted that none of the European countries voted for the resolution.
Asked how getting four European countries to abstain can be considered a victory, inasmuch as the resolution detaches any Jewish connection from Jerusalem, Gold said the drafters of the resolution included a sentence saying that the city is important to all three monotheistic faiths. Those countries that abstained – rather than vote against it – could point to that wording as not erasing completely Jewish ties to the capital. “We appreciate the shift of 10 countries in the direction of abstaining,” he said. Gold added that this is not a binding UNESCO resolution, and that UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova said that since there was no consensus around the resolution, she will not implement it.
The PA’s Foreign Ministry said, “We regret that few countries succumbed to the PR bullying orchestrated by Israel, which shifted the focus from Israel's illegal and colonial actions in occupied East Jerusalem to issues irrelevant to the content and objectives of the resolutions, which aims to put an end to Israel's dangerous and illegal actions against holy sites in Jerusalem and Palestinian rights, including the right to worship. “Palestine will continue to defend the rights of our people through all available legal and diplomatic avenues, including UN organizations. Our peaceful agenda will not be derailed by propaganda, nor will our tolerance and adherence to international law be altered by fallacies and cynical spin,” the PA Foreign Ministry said.
Netanyahu suggested that the Bible aside, UNESCO members should visit the Arch of Titus in Rome. “On it one can see what the Romans brought back to Rome after they destroyed and looted the Second Temple on the Temple Mount 2,000 years ago.
There, engraved on the Arch of Titus, is the seven-branched menorah that is the symbol of the Jewish People, and I remind you, is also the symbol of the Jewish state today,” he said. “Soon, UNESCO will say that the Emperor Titus engaged in Zionist propaganda,” Netanyahu said. “To say that Israel has no connection to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall is like saying that China has no connection to the Great Wall of China or that Egypt has no connection to the pyramids. By this absurd decision, UNESCO has lost what little legitimacy it had left,” Netanyahu added…
The votes broke out in this way. Those who supported the motion included Algeria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chad, China, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan and Vietnam.
Nations that abstained from the vote were: Albania, Argentina, Cameroon, Cote de’Ivoire, El Salvador, Spain, France, Ghana, Greece, Guinea, Haiti, India, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Nepal, Uganda, Paraguay, South Korea, St. Kits and Nevis, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Togo, Trinidad and Ukraine.
Absent countries included Serbia and Turkmenistan; Those who opposed the resolution were: the US, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Germany and Estonia voted against the motion.
IS THE TIDE TURNING FOR ISRAEL?
Jonathan S. Tobin
Commentary, Oct. 13, 2016
The headline out of Geneva is as familiar as it is depressing and disgraceful. UNESCO—the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization—voted again today to claim that Judaism and the Jewish people have no ties to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount and the Western Wall. The vote, just the latest example of the UN’s anti-Semitic bias is a brazen attempt to deny history aimed at promoting the delegitimization of Israel. But the Palestinians and their supporters who sponsored this pathetic show shouldn’t be celebrating. The vote at the UN agency went against Israel but, for the first time, more nations abstained than supported the vicious assault on truth. While the mere fact that UNESCO is being used in this fashion illustrates its moral bankruptcy, the decline in support for the Palestinians’ big lies shows that their campaign against the Jewish state is actually losing ground.
The vote at the UNESCO council was lopsided, with 24 nations supporting the resolution denying Jewish ties to the holiest sites in Judaism and supporting efforts to force Jews out of their capital and only six (the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Lithuania, and Estonia) opposed. But this time, a total of 26 countries abstained. Among the abstainers were France, Sweden, Slovenia, India, Argentina, and Togo, which had all previously announced their support for the smear. In all, ten nations that had voted for a similar resolution in the past abstained this time. Not a single European nation backed the Palestinians on this, the key symbolic plank in their effort to isolate the Jewish state and deny it legitimacy.
The shift to a majority opposing or abstaining on the Palestinian’s Jerusalem resolution reflects the growing success of Israeli diplomacy throughout the world. Efforts to isolate Israel in the Third World are finding increasing resistance in both Africa and Asia as many nations are realizing that supporting the Palestinians’ outrageous claims serves no purpose other than to make peace even less likely. Others are seeking closer ties to Israel—both openly and sometimes covertly—because they appreciate what the Jewish state has to offer in terms of security cooperation at a time when the threat from Islamist terror looms larger around the globe. They are also reading the signals from some of the most vicious enemies of Israel, such as Saudi Arabia, which have recently demonstrated that they fear Iran and look to the Jewish state as a potential ally. Though all continue to pay lip service to the Palestinian cause, backing their obsessive and pointless war against Israel does no one much good–least of all the Palestinian people, who continue to labor under the misrule of both Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza.
But while Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel’s diplomats should be forgiven for expressing some satisfaction at the lower than expected vote total for this act of historical denial, the resolution’s passage is still a matter of deep concern. The manipulation of UNESCO by the Israel-haters is a warning to the world that the Palestinian goal isn’t really a fair-minded two-state resolution, which peace process advocates say is the only possible way to resolve the conflict. The Palestinian Authority’s diplomatic offensive on Jerusalem is a companion piece to their effort to gin up public opinion against Israel by promoting canards about Israel’s supposed plans to harm the Temple Mount mosques. That incitement has fueled the latest round of terrorist murders called the “stabbing intifada.” The point of this hate isn’t to build support for the independent Palestinian state they claim to want but rather to make clear their intent to deny Jewish rights and history and ultimately force Jews out of Jerusalem, if not the rest of the country.
The Palestinians may content themselves with resolutions that encourage them to believe they may achieve their goal of ridding Jerusalem of its Jewish majority. But this effort demonstrates that Palestinian opposition to coexistence and anti-Semitic incitement is a far bigger obstacle to peace than anything Israel has done. As the lower vote total at UNESCO shows, their problem is not just that Israel refuses to disappear. It is that much of the rest of the world is also beginning to understand their true goal.
Victor Davis Hanson
National Review, Oct. 14, 2016
Every time the Clinton campaign hits a rough patch — the Clinton Foundation disclosures, the State Department e-mail scandals, Hillary’s health crisis, the “deplorables” smear, the WikiLeaks releases — it lets off an IED, from the staged theatrics of the Khans and the Venezuela beauty queen to the Access Hollywood tape and the groper accusations.
Clinton, Inc. assumes, so far consistently correctly, that the toady media will obsess with Trump’s frothing and screaming about being hit. That defense will eat up about three to four days of the campaign calendar, and likely cost him a three- to four-point dip in the polls. After the IED goes off, a wounded Trump recalibrates and inches up more slowly than after the last explosion — only to step on another land mine and blow himself up all over again.
Of course, Trump should not take the bait, and should instead offer, if the charges are indeed false, a two-minute denial followed by a ten-second simple “I am not a perfect person and am sorry for some things in my past,” and then focus on Hillary’s dismal public record while publishing a new version of something like a Contract with America — ten or so initiatives he would promise to get into law during his first 100 days of office. But that is like training your cattle-dog Queensland Healers not to bite ankles, while somehow being resigned to the fact that they can’t help themselves from such inbred snapping.
Somehow Trump, the supposedly astute businessman, cannot envision that inside the Clinton campaign there are shelves and shelves of stacked Trump IEDs, an inventory all primed with the media and fused to go off the minute Hillary hits another crisis.
Clinton’s greatest fear — the logical conclusion from the WikiLeaks trove thus far — is that the campaign will hinge on the dismal economy, record debt, a war against police, Islamic terrorism, newly emboldened enemies abroad, illegal immigration, the Obamacare disaster, and her past ineptitude in office. With less than a month left, her campaign is now reduced to the easy enough gift narrative of Trump as pervert and creep, followed by three to four days of furious Trump denials — and then on to the next exploding land mine.
It would be as redundant to say Trump’s past vulgarity and detour rants (what the media calls “temperament”) made him uniquely a plodding target as it is banal to drag up again old Heraclitus (“character is fate”). But, in fact, it is a little more complicated than that. Is an imploding Target Trump all that new? George W. Bush lost the popular vote in 2000 largely because of a late IED about a DUI that went off five days before the election. John Kerry and the media almost blew Bush up in 2004 with a forged National Guard document. John McCain in 2008 was reduced to a senile plutocrat and alleged adulterer. Romney in 2012 was an unimpeachable candidate, but then we learned that he had hazed in prep school, was a financial vulture who picked over the carcasses of the defenseless poor, tortured dogs, slandered nearly half the non-income-tax-paying electorate, had a callous “binder” of women, and was married to an equestrian wife with an elevator in their home.
THE PARADOX OF SUKKOT: FINDING JOY IN UNCERTAINTY
Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Algemeiner, Oct. 14, 2016
When contemplating the festival of Sukkot, we are confronted with a remarkable paradox. As is well known, the Sukkah visualizes our life span in the world. For what is a Sukkah? It is a frail structure in which we need to dwell for seven days. Many commentators remind us that these seven days represent man’s average life span, which is about 70 years. This was well stated by King David when he wrote, “The span of his years are seventy and with strength eighty years.” (Tehilim 90:10)
Indeed, under favorable circumstances, we may prolong our stay in this world into our eighth day; this is symbolized by Shemini Chag Atzereth, (a separate festival immediately following the seven days of Sukkot). Nevertheless, it’s a wonder how frail our life is — not only short, but also unreliable. As long as we live under favorable and healthy circumstances, life is a pleasant experience, and just like the Sukkah, it seems to protect us and make us safe. But once life gives us serious problems or turns against us, we realize how unstable our lives really are. Like the Sukkah, it is far less reliable than we had imagined.
Perplexing, however, is the fact that the festival of Sukkot is seen as the highlight of joy and happiness. Speaking specifically about Sukkot, the Torah states: “And you shall be happy on your festival” (Devarim 16-14). This means that we should experience the most exalted form of happiness at a time when we have to dwell in a structure that is far from secure. In fact, Jewish law makes it utmost clear that the Sukkah must be built in such a way that it is not able to stand up against a strong wind, that its roof must be leaking when it starts to rain and that it must contain more shadow than sunlight. These conditions should make us feel distressed, because the Sukkah seems to represent the vulnerability of man. So why command us to be joyful precisely at the time when we are confronted with all that can go wrong in life?
Here another question comes to mind. Since the Sukkah teaches us about life’s handicaps, we would expect that Jewish law would also require the interior of the Sukkah to reflect a similar message. As such, the Sukkah should be empty of all comfort. It should just contain some broken chairs, an old table and some meager cutlery with which to eat one’s dry bread.
Yet Jewish law holds a great surprise. It requires that the Sukkah’s interior should reflect a most optimistic lifestyle. Its frail walls should be decorated with beautiful art, paintings and other decorations. The leaking roof, made from leaves or reeds, should be made to look attractive by hanging colorful fruits down from it. One is required to bring one’s best furniture into the Sukkah, to put a carpet on the ground, have nice curtains hanging in front of its windows, etc. One should eat from the most beautiful plates and use one’s best cutlery. Meals should be more elaborate, including delicacies. Singing should accompany those meals. All this seems to reflect a feeling that this world is a most pleasant place made for our enjoyment and recreation.
So why sit in a frail hut? The message could not be clearer: however much the outside walls and the leaking roof reveal man’s vulnerability and uncertainty, inside these walls one needs to make one’s life as attractive as possible and enjoy its great benefits and blessings. This should not be lost on us. Instead of becoming depressed and losing faith in life after the great tragedies that befall us, we should continue to approach life with the optimistic note that is conveyed to us by the beautiful interior of the Sukkah. True, the ongoing guerrilla attacks on Jews in the land of Israel and the collapse of the Twin Towers in the heart of the US prove how vulnerable modern man really is and how shaken the outer walls of his “Sukkah” are. But this should not hold us back from enjoying life as much as possible. To be happy when all is well is of no great significance. But to be fully aware of the dangers that surround us and simultaneously continue our lives with “song and harp” is what makes humans great and proud.
We should therefore discourage people from speculating about “the end of days” or reading kabbalistic and other sources informing us that the messianic days are very close and that the wars preceding his coming are imminent. There is no way of knowing. Just as in the days of Shabbatai Zvi, such speculations, however tempting, could cause a great backlash and do a lot of harm. Instead we should stay planted with our feet on the ground, and make sure we live up to our moral and religious obligations.
All of our tragedies should encourage people to be more united and to show more sensitivity to each other’s needs. They should encourage Jew and gentile to build strong family ties and create, just as in the case of the Sukkah, strong and pleasant homes. They should inspire people to go to synagogue and church and create strong communities, because these are some of the decorations in our lifelong Sukkah. The walls of our world may be shaking, but let us not forget that we have an obligation to decorate the interior.
CIJR Wishes All Our Friends & Supporters Shabbat Shalom!
No Daily Briefing Will Be Published on Monday
Sukkot For Our Time: Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Jewish Press, Oct. 14, 2016—Of all the festivals, Sukkot is surely the one that speaks most powerfully to our time. King Solomon’s Kohelet, which we read on Sukkot, could almost have been written in the twenty first century. Here is the ultimate success, the man who has it all, and yet who, surveying the totality of his life, can only say, in effect, “Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless.”
Palestinians Suffer Defeat at UNESCO, Losing France, EU, India, Africa: Hillel Neuer, UN Watch, Oct. 14, 2016—Despite the outrageous denial of Jerusalem’s historic Jewish and Christian ties implied by the Palestinian-drafted Islamist resolution adopted today by UNESCO’s executive board—detailed here by UN Watch—the fact is that the Palestinians suffered a significant defeat in the international arena.
After Elections, Will Obama Betray Israel at UN?: Breaking Israel News, Oct. 14, 2016—WikiLeaks recently exposed an email written by former White House official Stuart Eisenstadt that discussed the Obama administration’s deteriorating relationship with Israel and warned, “There is a distinct possibility that the Administration may seek a new U.N. Security Council resolution embodying the two-state, with [pre-] 1967 lines and agreed land swaps, and some vague statements about Jerusalem.”
At the U.N., Only Israel Is an ‘Occupying Power’: Eugene Kontorovich & Penny Grunseid, Wall Street Journal, Sept. 13, 2016—The United Nations began its annual session this week, and Israel will be prominent on the agenda. Many fear the Security Council may consider a resolution setting definite territorial parameters, and a deadline, for the creation of a Palestinian state.
