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Sharansky Predicts 'Beginning of the End of Jewish History in Europe': Sam Sokol, Jerusalem Post, Aug. 14, 2014 — Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky has joined a growing chorus of high-profile figures in casting doubt on the viability of European Jewry in an article in The Jewish Chronicle.
The Harper Doctrine: Mark Kennedy, National Post, Aug. 4, 2014—On April 25, 2003, Stephen Harper appeared at a gathering of conservatives in Toronto brought together by the Civitas group.
Coming of Age with Hamas, at the White House: Matthew Foldi, Jerusalem Post, Aug. 11, 2014 — I turned 18 last week. In the weeks leading up to the end of my statutory childhood, I decided to do what I could to make each of its remaining days as meaningful as possible.
Farewell to Fouad Ajami: Lee Smith, Weekly Standard, June 25, 2014 — We are going to adopt you—we already have, of course—as Ibn Ballad,” Fouad wrote to me a little mischievously last year.
Speak Out Now Against Blatant Anti-Semitism at the New York Metropolitan Opera: COPMA, Aug. 14, 2014 — In recent weeks we have witnessed a surge in anti-Semitism around the world in response to Israel's efforts to defend itself against an aggressor who is sworn to its destruction.
The Death of Klinghoffer – An Inappropriate "Opera" (Video): Stand With Us, Youtube, Aug. 1, 2014
Le Conflit Israelo-Arabe en Dessin Animé (Video): Youtube, Feb. 10, 2014
In Front of CNN, Hundreds Protest Anti-Israel Media Bias: Cathryn J. Prince, Times of Israel, Aug. 8, 2014
It’s Anti-Semitism, Stupid: Efraim Karsh, Jerusalem Post, Aug. 11, 2014
When Will Europe Stand Up for the Jews?: Rabbi Abraham Cooper, National Post, Aug 2, 2014
SHARANSKY PREDICTS 'BEGINNING OF THE END
Sam Sokol Jerusalem Post, Aug. 14, 2014
Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky has joined a growing chorus of high-profile figures in casting doubt on the viability of European Jewry in an article in The Jewish Chronicle. Writing in the UK’s oldest Jewish newspaper, Sharansky said that he believed that “we are seeing the beginning of the end of Jewish history in Europe.” While Sharansky’s comments came partially as a response to the rising wave of anti-Semitism crashing over the continent since the start of Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip, the former Soviet refusenik also pointed to a number of long-term trends which he said militated against a continuing Jewish presence in Europe.
“Europe is abandoning its basic values of respecting identities while at the same time guaranteeing full freedom for its citizens,” Sharansky continued. “On the one hand, Europe opens its gates to immigration, to people who are not asked to share its values of freedom and tolerance. And on the other hand Europeans are rushing back toward the right-wing parties who are hostile to ‘the other.’ Then there is the intellectual atmosphere which asks Jews to choose between their loyalty to Israel and their loyalty to Europe. All this creates an impossible situation for Jews. This feeling of non-belonging and disengagement is much stronger than the feeling of aliya.” According to Sharansky, the trends he enumerated serve to justify the strategic emphasis placed on Jewish identity programs by the Jewish Agency in recent years. “Apart from the ultra-Orthodox who will keep their identities, all other Jews who don’t have that connection to Israel will assimilate,” he said, calling a connection to Israel the only other factor that can maintain Jewish identity in the face of the challenges facing continental communities. European Jews, he continued, may feel that “they can have more Europe in Israel, because it is Israel which is fighting to be both Jewish and democratic. Israel is the place that is fighting for European values. Europe will die here and survive in Israel.”…
In his article, Sharansky asserted that Europe had become “very intolerant of identities in a multicultural and post-nationalist environment” and that as a result Jews were caught in the middle of a kulturkampf. “This new anti-Semitism is very connected to Israel — demonization, delegitimization and double-standards — and is now so deep in the core of European political and intellectual leaders that practically every Jew is being asked to choose between being loyal to Israel and loyal to Europe,” he wrote. According to a recent study by the Anti-Defamation League, 45 percent of Europeans see Jews as more loyal to Israel than to their countries of residence. “Europe is abandoning its identities, with the multicultural idea that there will be no such thing as nation-states or religion. In post-identity Europe, there is less and less space for Jews for whom it is important to have both identity and freedom,” he explained.
The nationalist backlash, with the election of far-right parties, many of them hostile to Jews, and increasing Muslim immigration serve to reinforce Jewish alienation from Europe, he added, using the increased number of French Jews immigrating to Israel as evidence. In an interview with The Jerusalem Post earlier this year, Rabbi Yosef Pevzner, director of the hassidic Sinai school network in Paris, expressed similar sentiments that many French Jews felt trapped between Islamic anti-Semitism on the one hand and increasing state secularism on the other, leaving them feeling they no longer belonged there. While many predicted that European Jewry would not survive the Holocaust, “we see today that quite a large Jewish Community still exists in Europe,” Ukrainian Chief Rabbi Ya’acov Bleich told the Post in response to Sharansky’s comments. “It is shocking but true. So I think that the Jews are a stubborn nation. And even though hundreds of thousands have made aliya in these 70 years I think that there will remain a Jewish community in Europe. He added, however, “there is an important message in the underlying anti-Semitism which tells us not to feel at home in Europe. Our home is in Israel, and everywhere else is exile.”…
[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link –ED.]
Mark Kennedy
National Post, Aug. 4, 2014
On April 25, 2003, Stephen Harper appeared at a gathering of conservatives in Toronto brought together by the Civitas group. He was leader of the Canadian Alliance party, a thankless job with little likelihood he could knock the governing Liberals from their perch. But Mr. Harper’s speech that day, later reprinted in an essay, was remarkably prescient. For anyone who cared to notice, it revealed how he would one day turn Canadian foreign policy on its head and, perhaps most notably, make this country the world’s most fervent ally of Israel. Mr. Harper said Canada’s conservatives needed to “rediscover” the traditional conservatism of political philosopher Edmund Burke, which valued “social order,” custom and religious traditions. “We need to rediscover Burkean conservatism because the emerging debates on foreign affairs should be fought on moral grounds,” said Mr. Harper. “Current challenges in dealing with terrorism and its sponsors, as well as the emerging debate on the goals of the U.S. as the sole superpower, will be well served by conservative insights on preserving historic values and moral insights on right and wrong.” Mr. Harper stressed that unlike the “modern left” — which had adopted a position of “moral neutrality” — conservatives understood “the notion that moral rules form a chain of right and duty, and that politics is a moral affair.” He added: “We understand that the great geopolitical battles against modern tyrants and threats are battles over values. “Conservatives must take the moral stand, with our allies, in favour of the fundamental values of our society, including democracy, free enterprise and individual freedom.”
Three years later, after an unanticipated meltdown of Liberal power, Mr. Harper was prime minister. He immediately launched an unshakable foreign policy in support of Israel, beginning that summer when the Jewish state launched a military ground offensive into Lebanon to combat Hezbollah. This summer, Mr. Harper is once again standing firmly by Israel — this time, as it responds to rocket fire from Hamas by pounding Gaza with air strikes and a ground offensive to punish the terrorist group and destroy a network of tunnels it has built to launch attacks into Israel. More than 1,700 Palestinians, most of them non-combatant civilians, have been killed. The United Nations Works and Relief Agency has accused Israel of committing a “serious violation” of international law after civilians were killed from the Israeli shelling of a UN designated building sheltering Palestinians, including many children. By comparison, Mr. Harper has accused Hamas of being responsible for all the bloodshed. What’s behind Harper’s thinking? What are its roots? Why is he so seemingly single-minded? The questions perplex some Canadians and have spawned a range of theories. Some purport that he has come under the influence of evangelical leaders who want him to defend Judeo-Christian heritage. Mr. Harper’s supporters scoff at the notion as groundless. Others say it’s all about domestic politics — raising money from Jewish-Canadians for the Conservative Party and securing their vote. The Tories helped feed that theory earlier this year when Harper brought many Tory MPs on his trip to Israel — and when one of them (York Centre MP Mark Adler) urged a PMO aide to let him get into the picture frame during Mr. Harper’s visit to the Western Wall, pleading: “It’s the re-election. This is the million-dollar shot.”
But a review of Mr. Harper’s public remarks and speeches in recent years, as well as interviews with those who know him, paint a different picture. What motivate him? It’s about the simplicity of right and wrong, of good and evil. And it’s also about the complexity of the need to take the right side — Israeli democracy versus Islamist terror — in a geopolitical conflict that could some day have impact on Canada. On Nov. 8, 2010, Mr. Harper delivered a speech in Ottawa about the Holocaust which — like his 2003 address to the Civitas group — explains his current policy on Gaza. “History teaches us that anti-Semitism is a tenacious and particularly dangerous form of hatred,” he said. “And recent events are demonstrating that this hatred is now in resurgence throughout the world.” He spoke of how he had visited Auschwitz in 2008, and more recently, he had been to Babyn Yar, a ravine in Ukraine, where the Nazis had massacred Jews. “I knew I was standing in a place where evil — evil at its most cruel, obscene, and grotesque — had been unleashed.”
Moreover, he said that the Holocaust was just one chapter in a long history of anti-Semitism and the “same threats” still faced Israel. “Yet, in contemporary debates that influence the fate of the Jewish homeland, unfortunately, there are those who reject the language of good and evil. They say that the situation is not black and white, that we mustn’t choose sides.” Mr. Harper made it clear. He was going to emphatically choose a “side.”
In January of this year, during his visit to Israel and the West Bank, Mr. Harper continued the pattern. He was dogged by questions over Canada’s position on Israel’s construction of settlements in the West Bank. Canada’s Foreign Affairs website declared the settlements are “not legal” but Harper refuses to say so publicly. “I’m not here to single out Israel for criticism,” he chided reporters as he stood next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The previous day, Mr. Harper had addressed the Knesset, Israel’s legislature, in a speech that emphatically promised Canadian support. He spoke of a “mutation of the old disease of anti-Semitism,” of how Israel’s very existence was imperilled if it didn’t defend itself, and of how Canada needed to stand by the only real beacon of democracy in the Middle East. “Those who often begin by hating the Jews, history shows us, end up hating anyone who is not them,” said Mr. Harper. “Those forces, which have threatened the state of Israel every single day of its existence and which, as 9/11 graphically showed us today, threaten all of us.” Morality and self-protection. They are the principles at the core of the Harper Doctrine.
COMING OF AGE WITH HAMAS, AT THE WHITE HOUSE
Matthew Foldi
Jerusalem Post, Aug. 11, 2014
I turned 18 last week. In the weeks leading up to the end of my statutory childhood, I decided to do what I could to make each of its remaining days as meaningful as possible. But I never anticipated how it all would end: being attacked outside the White House for standing up for Israel. When I first heard that there was a pro-Hamas rally scheduled to take place outside the White House, I was dubious. How, in the capital of the free world, can people support a terrorist group that stands for the destruction of Israel and the annihilation of the Jewish people as well as the oppression of women, gays, Christians, political opponents and just about everyone who disagrees with them? I figured it was a garden variety pro-Palestine hate fest and took note of the fact that groups like Code Pink were among the co-sponsors.
All the same, I was appalled, and I didn’t feel I could let an event like this go unchallenged. So I took the Washington Metro to the White House, wearing an IDF T-shirt and an Israeli flag as a cape. As I approached the White House I was stunned and physically sickened to see a crowd of thousands gathered to cheer Hamas and call for the destruction of Israel. Signs justifying Hamas’s terror and comparing Israel to Nazi Germany were everywhere. Shocked by the absurdity of these claims, I decided to confront a few of the hostile individuals. The first person I spoke with held a picture of a little girl who he claimed was murdered by the IDF. Yet, when I informed him that the picture had actually been taken from a horror movie, he only stared at me and defiantly said, “The horror movie called Gaza.” “No, Final Destination 4, a B-movie that you can search on YouTube,” I responded. Rather than confronting this truth, he stormed off.
I became even more enraged after spotting a man with a media badge filming and protesting. I know quite a bit about the biased coverage of Israel from my reading. But all the knowledge in the world didn’t prepare me for the shock of seeing a “reporter” actually participating in a pro-terror demonstration outside the White House. I decided to get him on record denying Hamas’s use of human shields, a fact impossible to counter because Hamas even writes about it. As I filmed him, the fun began. First, I was told that “Hamas is a resistance group.” Shortly after, one of the protesters threatened to break my iPad, hurling a fist-sized projectile at my face that fortunately missed me. I was relieved that when I first arrived at the rally a couple of Israeli tourists were trailing after me, both to protect and to encourage. But at some point they got lost in the crowd. So I found myself alone, questioning these supporters of the genocidal terrorists of Hamas as they spewed their hateful bile. Suddenly I felt something tightening around my neck. A woman had come up from behind me and ripped my Israeli flag from around my neck. I tried to pursue her. But my assailant melted into the crowd before I could take it back.
Then a crowd surrounded me and began chanting about ripping my IDF shirt off as well. As these cries rang in my ears, one of the Israelis returned. She said she saw the woman running with an Israeli flag and wanted to make sure I was okay, and promised to stay with me until I left. The flag-thief and her fellow terror supporters then proceeded to set my flag on fire. Distressed, my new Israeli friend and I slowly made our way to the White House along with her Israeli friends. We were hoping to find some other Israel supporters there. At last we came across one. It was a lone US Marine, who stood for us like a beacon of light in the darkness. He held an American flag in one hand, and an Israeli flag in the other. Despite their attempts, the Hamas supporters were unable to dislodge him. Shortly after we arrived, Manny the Marine was descended upon by a crowd of Hamas supporters who spat on him, kicked him and screamed like a pack of hyenas. No matter how they cursed, no matter how they attacked, Manny would not budge. His bravery was beyond measure.
I was dumbstruck that this was all happening at the doorstep of the White House. I commented to Manny about the irony of how he had served to protect these people’s right to slander and abuse him. He looked me in the eye and said, “I’d do it again.” What a difference between this marine, and the Israel and America that he so stalwartly defended that day outside the White House, and these terror supporters. From the man holding the picture from a horror movie, to the bullies who threatened to destroy my iPad if I didn’t delete footage of their lies, to the violent woman who stole and burned my flag, to the horde that attacked the soldier, it was clear to me that what these people were doing that morning was the antithesis of the ideals that stand at the base of America and Israel. They weren’t there to debate or defend their ideas. They were there to end debate and discussion through intimidation. It is not knowledge they wished to share, but ignorance.
On the metro heading home, I was relieved to see that everyday passersby shared this assessment. People who saw my shirt didn’t condemn me and curse me as a terrorist and a war criminal. They thanked me for going to the protest. I know that these people, rather than the mobs that receive the coverage from the media, represent what America actually believes. My experience that day made me realize the power we all have, the things that we can accomplish simply by sounding our voices. The protesters wanted to silence and pretend away reality. But because of Manny, and the Israeli tourists, and yes, even me, they failed.
After seeing my post of the protest on my Facebook page, that night friends I hadn’t spoken with in years, and even total strangers shared my post and thanked me for standing up for Israel. Simply by sounding my voice, I empowered them. Now, they said, they too will sound their own voices…
[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link –ED.]
Matthew Foldi graduated this year from Charles E. Smith
Jewish Day School in Rockville, Maryland.
Lee Smith
Weekly Standard, June 25, 2014
Why were the words of Fouad Ajami “never welcomed in the cultural salons of Beirut and Cairo?” asks Samuel Tadros in Tablet magazine. And why are they now “unfashionable … in the halls of power in Washington?” Because “instead of following the herd and blaming the ills of the region on the foreigner, he had written in the opening pages of his 1981 book The Arab Predicament that ‘the wounds that mattered were self-inflicted wounds.’” Tadros, a contributor to this magazine, has written a wonderful tribute to his teacher, and later publisher of his two brilliant books on the failure of liberalism in modern Egypt, Motherland Lost: The Egyptian and Coptic Quest for Modernity, and the recently released Reflections on the Revolution in Egypt. “I met Ajami for the first time in October 2010,” writes Tadros.
As a student at Georgetown distressed with the state of Middle East studies in American universities, I had emailed him asking for his advice on my quest for a doctorate. We met a week later, and for the next three hours a bond was created. I like to think that he saw a younger, though less brilliant, version of himself in the student sitting in front of him, that he saw a similarity between my ideological transformation because of Sept. 11 from an Arab nationalist to a conservative…Ajami was remarkable because he became a full American and loved this country as anyone could love it, but that never lessened his passion for what he had left behind. He knew well the region’s ills, the pains it gave those who cherished it, and God knows it gave him nothing but pain. But he always believed the peoples of the region deserved better, and he was unabashed in championing their cause and their yearning for freedom.
Tadros’s moving reminiscence, alongside those of others like Paul Wolfowitz, Bret Stephens, and Michael Mandelbaum, is perhaps the most personal. “For me,” writes Tadros, “I will remember the magnificent scholar who took a young man under his wing and mentored him for four years. I will remember the kindness, the encouragement, the generosity he showed me. Farwell, my Mo’allem. Farewell my friend. Farwell to the complex and extraordinary Fouad, the American, the Shia, the Lebanese, and though he wouldn’t have liked it, the Arab as well.”
SPEAK OUT NOW AGAINST BLATANT ANTI-SEMITISM
AT THE NEW YORK METROPOLITAN OPERA
COPMA, Aug. 14, 2014
In recent weeks we have witnessed a surge in anti-Semitism around the world in response to Israel's efforts to defend itself against an aggressor who is sworn to its destruction. This anti-Semitism, hiding behind a facade of anti-Zionism, is unparalleled since Nazi Germany. Most of the more egregious incidents have occurred abroad, but there is one particularly blatant example of anti-Semitism here in the U.S. that should not be ignored. The Metropolitan Opera, despite vigorous opposition from many parts of the Jewish Community, is forging ahead with its plans to present the opera, "The Death of Klinghoffer," during its Fall 2014 season. After a campaign of letter writing, demonstrations, and articles in the Jewish press, the Met has refused to remove the opera from its schedule, offering only to "compromise" by cancelling its worldwide HD simulcast programs, but not the production at the Metropolitan Opera House itself. This opera presents the takeover of the cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985 by Palestinian terrorists, and their murder of 69 year old, wheel-chair bound Leon Klinghoffer, as justified, not only by Palestinian grievances against Israel, but also by the alleged evil and exploitative actions of Jews against others around the world. The terrorists are humanized and presented as freedom fighters, who have been forced by Jewish and Zionist oppression to take extreme actions…Many in the artistic world and in the mainstream press (e.g. the NYTimes and The New Yorker) have failed to see this opera as anti-Semitic. They have defended it as "dialogue" on a difficult subject or on the basis of artistic freedom.
Many people ask "What can I do as one individual" to stem the growing tide of anti-Semitic sentiment around the world? One simple and concrete step that you can take is to call or email Peter Gelb, director of the Metropolitan Opera. Tell him in your own words that you oppose the Met's production of this anti-Semitic opera, and urge him to cancel its appearance at this venerable institution. You won't be alone. In addition to thousands of individuals protesting this production, prestigious institutions are already abandoning the Met's anti-Semitic Klinghoffer production. The Guggenheim Museum, which had scheduled as part of its "works and progress" series an event that would have included Metropolitan Opera performers performing excerpts from the “Klinghoffer” opera, has just announced a cancellation of its production. We urge you to let your voice be heard now. Time is of the essence if we are to stop the production from going forward this season.
Phone Peter Gelb at: 212-799-3100, extension 2891.
Email Peter Gelb at: pgelb@metopera.org
CIJR wishes all our friends and supporters Shabbat Shalom!
The Death of Klinghoffer – An Inappropriate "Opera" (Video): Stand With Us, Youtube, Aug. 1, 2014
Le Conflit Israelo-Arabe en Dessin Animé (Video): Youtube, Feb. 10, 2014
In Front of CNN, Hundreds Protest Anti-Israel Media Bias: Cathryn J. Prince, Times of Israel, Aug. 8, 2014—Several hundred people rallied outside CNN’s Time Warner studios Thursday evening, calling on it and other US news outlets to stop slanting its coverage against Israel.
It’s Anti-Semitism, Stupid: Efraim Karsh, Jerusalem Post, Aug. 11, 2014 —Let’s admit it: Israel can never win the media war against Hamas. No matter what it does, no matter how hard it tries.
When Will Europe Stand Up for the Jews?: Rabbi Abraham Cooper, National Post, Aug 2, 2014 —From the start, Hamas knew there was one battlefield in its asymmetrical genocidal war against the Jews it could win.
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