Around the Jewish World

By JTA

article created on: 2010-07-15T00:00:00

THE NATION

Ex-CIA chief: Path to Iran strike ‘seems inexorable’

WASHINGTON (JTA)—A former American spy chief U.S. Air Force four-star general says the path to U.S. military action against Iran is inescapable.

Michael Hayden, who headed the CIA under President George W. Bush, told CNN on July 25 that a strike “seems inexorable” because Iran has not been deterred from developing a nuclear weapon.

“In my personal thinking, I have begun to consider that that may not be the worst of all possible outcomes,” Hayden said.

He said an Iran on the verge of a nuclear capability would be as destabilizing to the Middle East as an Iran with a nuclear weapon.

Hayden said that under Bush, a strike was not seriously considered as an option.

Hill interns learn about civility

WASHINGTON (JTA)—Several hundred Capitol Hill interns attended a daylong summit aimed at promoting civil discourse on college campuses.

Interns at the July 22 Facing Change summit, which was organized in part by Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, learned several rhetorical techniques meant to help neutralize the vitriol that infests many campus discussions, such as those surrounding Israel and other hot-button political topics.

I don’t think the correct dialogue is being used [by students] because people are so focused on being anti-the other group,” Lyndsi Sherman, 20, a student at San Diego State University, told the Washington Jewish Week. I’m really hoping to go back to my campus and change it.

Campus conversations about Israel, Sherman added, are particularly contentious.

It’s really bad, she said.

In addition to Hillel, the event was sponsored by Interfaith Youth Core and AshokaU, an association that promotes innovation in social programs.

Greater Washington JCC
sued for discrimination

WASHINGTON (JTA)—The Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington is being sued for violating the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said July 20 that it is charging the Rockville, Md., center with demoting rather than accommodating an assistant nursery school teacher because of her disability, the Washington Jewish Week reported.

The teacher, Carole Schulman, has a hearing impairment.

Michael Feinstein, the JCC’s chief executive officer, said July 20 that the JCC had no comment, as “We haven’t been filed with a lawsuit at this time.”

Synagogue vandalized

(JTA)—A Maryland synagogue was vandalized with swastikas and anti-Semitic epithets.

The vandalism, discovered July 26 at B’nai Shalom Synagogue in Olney, located about 20 miles north of Washington, D.C., was spray-painted on the building’s walls, parking lot and light posts, the Washington Post reported.

The anti-Semitic phrases included “Juden raus,” German for “Jews out” and used by the Nazis; “work will set u free,” which was written on the sign over the Auschwitz death camp; and “Death 2 Zionists.”

Montgomery County police are investigating the vandalism as a hate crime, according to reports.

MIDDLE EAST

Israeli police heading to Haiti

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel’s Cabinet agreed to send a group of police officers to Haiti to maintain public order.

The 14 officers will assist the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, which is working to uphold order and stabilize the area following January’s earthquake.

The group, which works on a voluntary basis, will operate as part of a combined force of Israel, Italy and Serbia.

“This is a Jewish and humanistic action, and it follows up on the rapidly organized activity that preceded it after the Haitian earthquake,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday following the Cabinet’s decision.

Israeli officials: Copter crash victims bodies found

(JTA)—The bodies of seven soldiers aboard an Israeli transport helicopter that crashed into the side of a mountain in central Romania have been found, Israeli officials said.

Six Israeli soldiers and one Romanian soldier were on board the CH-53 transport helicopter, which was flying at a low altitude in heavy fog for a search, rescue and medical evacuation exercise when it lost radio contact July 26.

The wreckage, which was found later that day, was spread out over a large area; the bodies were found the next day. Representatives of the IDF Rabbinate and the Casualty Identification Center were headed to the scene to make the final identifications, according to the military.

Israeli and Romanian troops had been participating in a drill called Blue Sky 2010, an 11-day exercise to train troops to fly at low altitudes for certain missions.

An Israeli transport helicopter reportedly crash landed at the beginning of the exercises.

Settlers protest demolition

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Hundreds of Jewish settlers rallied at major junctions in the West Bank to protest the demolition of an outpost home built during the construction freeze.

The demolition July 26 came a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not extend the West Bank building freeze.

Jewish settlers and Palestinians squared off after a caravan home and a goat pen in the Givat Ronen outpost near the settlement of Har Bracha were demolished for violating Israel’s 10-month building freeze. Four settlers were injured by rocks thrown at them by Palestinians, according to Haaretz. Two Palestinians also were injured.

Settlers reportedly set a Palestinian field on fire south of Nablus in response, according to reports.

That evening, Jewish settlers and their supporters gathered at about 15 major road junctions to protest the demolitions. In some places the protesters blocked the roads and Boarder Guard officers reportedly removed them by force.

Yemeni death sentence upheld

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Yemen’s Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of a Yemeni man who killed a Jewish fellow citizen after demanding that he convert.

The court on July 24 affirmed the sentence of death by firing squad levied by an appeals court on Abdel Aziz Yahia al-Abdi, 39, for the December 2008 slaying of Masha Yaish Nahari, a father of nine from Raydah. Abdi killed Nahari after saying that Yemeni Jews should convert or be killed.

Nahari’s children moved to Israel after the murder. His parents, wife and siblings remain in Yemen.

Fewer than 200 Jews still live in Yemen, down from about 60,000 in 1948.

Forest burns near Jerusalem

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israeli teens are being blamed for accidentally starting a massive fire near Jerusalem that nearly led to the evacuation of Hadassah Hospital.

The fire, which broke out the afternoon July 25 in the hills surrounding the hospital’s Ein Kerem location, burned about 250 acres of forest and resulted in the evacuation of hundreds of residents of three nearby moshavs. Twenty-three cars in the hospital parking lot were damaged by the fire.

Three teenagers from a Jerusalem-area yeshiva who were hiking inside the Aminadav Forest when they allegedly started the blaze were arrested and questioned. They were released on. The yeshiva head also was questioned, according to the Jerusalem Post.

A second fire also started in the forest on the same afternoon, according to reports.

Israel hits Gaza targets
in retaliatory airstrikes

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israeli airstrikes reportedly destroyed a weapons manufacturing site and two smuggling tunnels in the Gaza Strip.

The Monday, July 26, attacks were in response to rocket and mortar fire from Gaza on southern Israel over the weekend, according to an Israel Defense Forces statement.

Four rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel on the preceding Saturday. One reportedly was manufactured outside of Gaza and can be aimed with much better accuracy, according to reports.

More than 100 rockets and mortars have been fired at Israeli territory since the beginning of 2010, the IDF said in its statement.

Settler rabbi arrested
for controversial book

JERUSALEM (JTA)—A leading rabbi of the settler movement was arrested for writing a book that says Jewish law allows the killing of non-Jews.

Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira of the Yitzhar settlement was arrested July 26 on suspicion of incitement for his book “The King’s Torah,” which was published last year and garnered headlines then for its controversial content.

Shapira, who heads the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in Yitzhar, was released on bail hours after his arrest.

Shapira wrote in his book that it is permissible to kill gentile babies in time of war “since it is assumed that they will grow up to be evil like their parents” and will pose a threat to Israel. He based his conclusions on biblical passages.

Israel Museum reopens

JERUSALEM (JTA)—The Israel Museum in Jerusalem has opened after a five-year, $100 million renovation project.

The renewed campus of the museum was inaugurated July 25.

The museum’s three collection wings—the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Archaeology Wing, the Edmond and Lily Safra Fine Arts Wing, and the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Wing for Jewish Art and Life—have been redone. Though the exhibit space has more than doubled, fewer objects are on display for more ease in viewing.

The new galleries are opening with a series of exhibitions highlighting recent acquisitions and long-held masterpieces.

Jewish leader disappears

JERUSALEM (JTA)—The president of Egypt’s Jewish community has allegedly fled the country after being convicted of fraud and ordered to prison.

Carmen Weinstein, 82, was convicted last month by an Egyptian court and sentenced to three years in prison, as well as fines and restitution totaling more than $8,000.

Weinstein was convicted of selling an Egyptian businessman a Jewish community building that did not belong to her and then refusing to return his money. Weinstein said documents proving she had sold the building for 3 million Egyptian pounds, or $520,000, were forged.

Egyptian security sources have not been able to find her, Ynet reported.

The Jewish community secretary, Rauf Fuad Tawfiq, told Ynet that Weinstein had gone to visit the United States days before the ruling, and that she intended to return.

Weinstein heads a Jewish community of only dozens of members, most of whom are women. According to the Jerusalem Post, she rents out a few buildings to support the community.

Oil field identified in Israel

JERUSALEM (JTA)—A commercially sized oil field has been identified in central Israel, an oil prospecting firm said.

Tests on the Meged Five drill site near the central town of Rosh Ha’ayin have determined that the site can produce about 470 barrels of oil a day, the Givot Olam Oil prospecting and production firm announced late Wednesday.

The well will be ready for production by Aug. 15, the Israeli business daily Globes reported.

Ritz Carlton to open
first kosher hotel

JERUSALEM (JTA)—The Ritz Carlton hotel chain will build its first kosher hotel in Herzliya.

The $160 million project, which will include a hotel and six floors of luxury condominiums, will be outfitted with Shabbat elevators and an upscale kosher restaurant.

The hotel will be located on the coastline overlooking the Herzliya Marina.

WORLD

PA gives Irish flotilla passengers honorary citizenship

DUBLIN, Ireland (JTA)—The Palestinian Authority has granted travel documents and honorary citizenship to Irish anti-Israel activists who participated in a Gaza aid flotilla.

A spokesman for the General Delegation of Palestine in Ireland confirmed the offer and said passports and honorary citizenship had been offered to all activists who were on the May 31 flotilla, according to a report in the Irish Times.

Eight Irish citizens and one Irish-registered vessel, the MV Rachel Corrie, were part of the six-ship convoy that tried to reach Gaza from Turkey two months ago. Some of the Irish citizens were detained in Israel after Israeli forces detained the ships, including the Marmara, where fighting resulted in the deaths of nine Turkish passengers and injuries to several Israeli commandos.

Israel, Ukraine now visa free

JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel and Ukraine signed an agreement canceling visas between the two countries.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko signed a reciprocal visa cancellation agreement in Jerusalem on Jul;y 21.

The agreement, which means that Israelis and Ukrainians do not need visas to visit the other country, is “an expression of the good and stable relationship” between the two countries, Lieberman said.

It is the second such agreement Israel has signed. Israel and Russia have had a visa-free agreement for more than a year.

The Shas Party, a member of the coalition government, objected to the agreement, saying it would increase crime and prostitution.
Shechitah ban spurs lawsuit

SYDNEY, Australia (JTA)—New Zealand’s Jewish community is mounting a legal case against the country’s new law banning kosher slaughter.

Community spokesman David Zwartz told JTA that an agreement between the community’s working group on shechitah and Agriculture Minister David Carter “could not be reached.”

Carter announced the ban in late May, overruling advice from the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee to exempt shechitah from a new Animal Welfare Slaughter Code. The law leaves New Zealand’s 7,000 Jews without access to kosher chickens; kosher meat can be imported from Australia.

“The minister is firm in his resolve to preserve his position, which does not give the Jewish community a secure continuing supply of kosher meat,” Zwartz said. “This is disappointing and has meant turning to progress the work on a legal action.”

Church group urges boycott of West Bank products

SYDNEY, Australia (JTA)—The elected leader of Australian Jewry blasted his Christian counterpart over an “ill-considered” resolution asking churches to boycott goods produced by West Bank Jews.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry President Robert Goot, in a July 23 letter to the National Council of Churches in Australia’s general secretary, the Rev. Tara Curlewis, said the resolution passed by Australia’s top ecumenical body “revived painful memories for Jews in Australia of earlier times in Europe when churches allowed themselves to be swept up in the tide of popular prejudices against the Jewish people.”

The resolution, passed during the organization’s seventh triennial forum held July 9-13, called on member churches to “consider boycotting particular goods produced in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.”

Curlewis said in a statement that she “hoped that such actions will liberate the people from an experience of injustice to one where a just and definitive peace may be reached.”

The resolution also affirmed the right to exist for Israel and a Palestinian state within secure internationally recognized borders, and it condemned all acts of terrorism.

Goot, saying he felt “badly let down by people we have long thought of as our friends,” asked to be able to present a critique of the resolution to the executive of the National Council of Churches.

The council of churches comprises 17 groups, including the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church and the Uniting Church. It was a founding partner of the Australian National Dialogue of Christians, Muslims and Jews, a body founded in 2003 alongside the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils.