Category: Israel

“Jews May Kill Non-Jewish Babies”–Orthodox Rabbis

Author: Natalie Wood
Published: November 12, 2011

Anat.Hoffman

A blistering report by the Israel Religious Action Centre accuses state-funded Israeli rabbis of racism and criminal racial incitement.

The 40-page dossier, published last week during a conference at The Knesset (Israel Parliament), claims how some rabbis interpret Jewish law to argue that “Jews can kill non-Jewish babies because they may one day grow up to be enemies.”

IRAC and Anat Hoffman, its Executive Director often come to blows with the (ultra) Orthodox establishment but the impact of this particular report may have been weakened by the coincidental death of Rabbi Natan Tzvi Finkel, head of Jerusalem’s Mir Yeshiva (Talmudic Academy) on the day of publication.

During December 2010, Hoffman then warned that criminal action could be taken against allegedly racist Orthodox rabbis who forbade people to sell or rent properties to non-Jews. They could also face dismissal, she said. But it seems that almost 12 months on, nothing has changed.

Writing last week in The Pluralist, IRAC’s newsletter, she said:

“Racial incitement in the name of Judaism is a regular occurrence in Israel. IRAC works to change this reality. On the last day of the summer Knesset session, we presented a bill supported by 20 Knesset members to better define racial incitement and to regulate enforcement.

“ … This is the first report of its kind, compiling detailed cases of incitement by state funded rabbis. The 40-page report includes some material that is very difficult, such as the book Torat Hamelech which states that “Jews can kill non-Jewish babies because they may one day grow up to be enemies.”

“Incitement is a criminal offence in Israel. Unfortunately, there has been almost no enforcement in the case of rabbis. Forty-eight cases have been brought to court and in only one case was there a conviction. None of the rabbis featured in our report, most of whom are state funded, has had a disciplinary case opened against them.

“We created this report to remind the Israeli public of the harm that incitement can cause. We are also showing that the racist interpretations that some rabbis have espoused are an extremely fundamentalist approach to Halacha, Jewish law. The bible reminds us 36 times to treat strangers kindly because we were once strangers in Egypt. By bringing this report to the Knesset, we aim to raise awareness that these rabbis are being financed by the public and that there should be a limit to what they can or cannot do.

“Words can kill. The language of incitement that the rabbis use can draw real blood as we learned sixteen years ago when Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. Yigal Amir murdered Rabin at a peace rally that followed a barrage of statements by radicals, among them rabbis, calling for Rabin’s death. Without rabbinic consent, this would never have happened. Rabin’s murder was inspired by these extremists. They were using Halacha to challenge theL law of Israel.

“Has anything changed since Rabin’s assassination? A poll was released today stating that 39% of Israeli Jews believe another politically motivated murder is possible. We continue to see the consequences of incitement. Rabin’s death is only the most extreme example but it doesn’t end there. Seven mosques have been burned in the last few months by price tag attacks inspired by rabbis.

“The use of provocative language in this country is a dangerous threat to us all. Let’s do something about it.”

At the report’s launch, she added: “Presumably someone who devotes his life to sacred matters must meet high standards of ethics and morality … but the reality is that these rabbis are not called to account for actions which would be considered a violation of the law, if they were made by any other state employee.”

* The Israel Religious Action Centre is the public and legal advocacy arm of the Reform Movement in Israel and was founded in 1987 with the aim of advancing pluralism in Israeli society.

December 9, 2011
Turkey’s Erdogan To Give Hamas $300M In Aid

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has written Ismail Haniyya, Prime Minister of the Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip, inviting him to visit Turkey, and informing him that he has instructed Turkey’s Ministry of Finance to allocate $300 Million in aid for Hamas.

Hamas sources said that Erdogan was responding positively to Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal’s call for closer relations between Turkey and its fellow Islamist government in Gaza.

The Turkish aid will go a long way towards allowing the genocidal Hamas to continue its War Against the Jews. And yet, our Secretary if Defense Leon Panetta claims that Turkey is interested in ‘regional stability’ and that it’s Israel’s responsibility to mend fences with them!

US law states unequivocally that any person or nation associating with or providing aid to a terrorist group is subject to legal penalties if a US citizen and sanctions if a foreign nation. Both the EU and the US have named Hamas an officially designated terrorist group. Are sanctions on Turkey forthcoming ?

And shouldn’t someone warn President Obama that his man crush with Erdogan is contrary to US law?

(hat tip Challah Hu Akbar)

via J O S H U A P U N D I T: Turkey’s Erdogan To Give Hamas $300M In Aid.

https://joshuapundit.blogspot.com/2011/12/turkeys-erdogan-to-give-hamas-300m-in.html

December 5, 2011
US defence chief urges Israel to repair regional relations

JERUSALEM // Israel has become isolated in the region and too reluctant to compromise with the Palestinians, the top US defence official has warned in a rare public rebuke of Israel.

The US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, criticised Israel’s response to the Arab Spring uprisings, saying it was damaging the country’s ties with Egypt and Turkey and undermining prospects for peace with the Palestinians.

He also cautioned Israel against taking hasty military action against Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons facilities.

Speaking on Friday at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, a think tank, Mr Panetta called on the government of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to “get to the damned table” and resume negotiating with the Palestinians.

“I understand the view that this is not the time to pursue peace, and that the Arab awakening further imperils the dream of a safe and secure Jewish and democratic Israel,” he said. “But I disagree with that view.”

His remarks, although unusually firm for a US official, come amid reports of rising frustration in Washington with Israel and the policies of its right-wing, pro-settlement government. Mr Panetta took a similar line in October during his first visit to Israel as defence secretary and some analysts see his words as coming straight from the White House and the president, Barack Obama.

“He’s very influential in the White House,” said Yaron Ezrahi, a professor of political science at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

“I think the fact that he said this is not necessarily because Obama can’t say it, but because it’s something coming from the defence establishment in the US: it’s the head of America’s security and policy-making establishment flatly saying that Netanyahu’s policies are sabotaging America’s interests in the region. It’s as simple as that.”

Mr Panetta is the latest senior US official to talk tough on Israel, a delicate balancing act given the Israeli lobby’s powerful influence in Washington.

Mr Panetta’s predecessor, Robert Gates, who retired over the summer, was reported in September to have called Mr Netanyahu an “ungrateful ally” after the Israeli leader appeared to upbraid Mr Obama during a White House meeting in May.

Last month, Mr Obama described Mr Netanyahu as difficult to work with in remarks to French President Nikolas Sarkozy that were supposed to be private but which were accidentally picked up by microphones and heard by reporters.

US frustration also stems from Israel’s refusal to halt provocative, and repeatedly announced, plans to expand its Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.

Mr Netanyahu’s failure to halt settlements construction – a key demand of the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas – ultimately scuttled last year’s brief resumption of direct Israel-Palestinian negotiations.

The two sides have since been unable to reconcile their differences and return to direct talks, even as Mr Abbas appears to have placed his United Nations statehood-recognition bid, which Israel and Washington oppose, on hold for the moment.

That gesture has failed to impress Mr Netanyahu, who reportedly rejected proposals on negotiating borders and security arrangements offered by Palestinian officials last month.

The Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Thursday Mr Netanyahu declined to offer the Palestinians a counterproposal – as requested by the Middle East Quartet, the US, EU, Russia and the UN – citing his preference for doing so in direct talks.

Mr Panetta said the “problem right now is we can’t get them to the damn table, to at least sit down and begin to discuss their differences”.

He also urged Israel to “reach out and mend fences” with Egypt and Turkey because of their shared interest in regional stability.

“I believe security is dependent on a strong military but it is also dependent on strong diplomacy,” he said. “And unfortunately, over the past year, we’ve seen Israel’s isolation from its traditional security partners in the region grow.”

Relations with Istanbul and Cairo, once pillars of Israel’s regional policy, have been seriously undermined recently.

Ties with Turkey sank after a deadly Israeli raid last year on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in which eight Turkish citizens and one Turkish-American activist were killed.

“It is in Israel’s interest, Turkey’s interest, and US interest for Israel to reconcile with Turkey, and both Turkey and Israel need to do more to put their relationship back on track,” Mr Panetta said.

Israeli leaders have sounded growing alarm since Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak was driven from power in February. A cross-border raid into Egypt in August, in which Israeli forces were chasing Islamic militants, killed five Egyptian security officers and inflamed anti-Israel sentiments.

Egypt is one of two Arab countries that maintain a peace treaty with Israel. Jordan is the other.

Mr Panetta also cautioned Israel against taking military action to thwart Iran’s purported plans to build nuclear weapons, saying that international diplomatic efforts, including sanctions, were yielding success.

He emphasised a military response would have to be a “last resort” and said that even if Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear facilities, “at best” this would delay its nuclear ambitions by two years.

A report released last month by the UN’s nuclear watchdog claims Tehran appears to have drawn up designs for a bomb and conducted clandestine research. Iran denies its nuclear activities are intended to produce weapons.

Regardless, Mr Panetta warned, an attack on Iran could have disastrous global ramifications “that would not only involve many lives, but I think could consume the Middle East in confrontation and conflict that we would regret”.

hnaylor@thenational.ae

December 5, 2011
The secret flotilla negotiations between Turkey and Israel

Claire Berlinski, one of the best observers and reporters out of Turkey, has a must-read article on what happened during the negotiations between Israel and Turkey over the Palmer report on the flotilla:

The Turkish journalist Kadri Gürsel published an interesting piece the other day inMillyet about the failure of the negotiations between Turkey and Israel to normalize relations in the wake of the Mavi Marmara fiasco. Kadri Gürsel is a journalist whose work and opinions I take seriously; here, for example, he’s written a thoughtful piece in Turkish Policy Quarterly that will help you locate him in the spectrum of Turkish political opinion.

Gürsel first places the blame for the failure of the negotiations on the Turkish foreign ministry’s incompetence (he uses the more tactful phrase “lack of experience,” but the Turkish foreign ministry is hardly inexperienced, so I assume we’re to read between the lines). He then moves to what has become something of a standard narrative in Turkey and elsewhere: that the deal was “95 percent completed,” but fell through only because of Israeli Foreign Minister Lieberman’s intransigence:

But the deal was never “100 percent complete” because in Israel, the obstacle, the extreme of the extreme Lieberman was not overcome. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could not persuade Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman for an apology and compensation. And the Turkey-Israel secret negotiations that started after the U.N. Investigation Panel was formed in August 2010, collapsed in June following the days when the draft agreement was prepared.

Matters in this “duplex channel” were held tight. The Israeli member of the U.N. Investigation Committee, Joseph Ciechanover and Ambassador Özdem Sanberk, who represented Turkey on the panel, were also negotiating through the duplex channel. The head of the panel Geoffrey Palmer and his deputy Alvaro Uribe, even if they were aware of that secret negotiations were conducted between the two countries, they did not know that Ciechanover and Sanberk were the participants. The “duplex channel” held meetings in Geneva, Bucharest and Rome.

Despite all, this draft agreement could be the operational basis for a new normalization process between Turkey and Israel. Of course, if it is possible to persuade Lieberman in the light of new situations in the Middle East.

I asked an Israeli official who was close to these negotiations–and who has thus far never provided me with information that has proved unreliable–for comment. This is what he said:

I’ve seen the “draft deal” and the formula for apology includes indeed the English word “apologize”, though the phrase “operational mistakes that caused life losses and injuries to Turkish people” was preceded by an “if.” (I can’t remember the exact wording, but it went something like: Israel apologizes if there were any operational mistakes etc … ) This was the mutually agreed formula, and by using the conditional mode, it was possible for us to apologize without admitting that we actually did something wrong, which of course we believe we didn’t.

It is also correct that we agreed to pay compensations (through a bi-national fund, not directly), though the Turks did not specify at that point how much they thought would be reasonable. We thought the details and the sum could be worked out later on, based on mutual trust that would arise from the approval of the package deal.

Turkey, however, did not guarantee that “Turkish citizens and their legal representatives would not take legal action against Israel.” It agreed to promise not to prosecute Israelis, but explained it could commit itself on behalf of private citizens in Turkey or abroad. This made some Israelis suspicious: what would happen if we endorsed the deal, and then had to face suits by members of the Turkish public, maybe even with covert assistance by the government? What guarantee did we have that the “deal” would actually end all claims and enable Israel and Turkey to reconcile and restart their relationship? This suspicion grew stronger in light of Turkey’s insistence that the text should state that Israeli soldiers killed activists “intentionally.” Why insist on this admission of guilt if not to enable legal action? As Gürsel himself says, this text which the Israeli government was supposed to approve was not completely agreed upon by Turkey, because they still wanted to include the intentionality wording. Even if the Israeli government had approved the draft, it would have left us with Turkish disavowal and discontent.

Another condition set forth by the Turks, and agreed to by Israel, was shelving the Palmer Report. Strange that Gürsel should say nothing of this, since he starts his discussion with the meaning of the Report to Turkey. The Turks were very keen on making the report disappear …

Finally, when it all came down to a discussion in the Israeli Cabinet, it wasn’t just Lieberman who was reluctant to approve the whole package deal. Others, too, did not exactly trust Erdoğan, and raised doubts as to his real intentions: what would we get in return for the (indirect) apology, the compensations and the shelving of the report? Restoring ties with Ankara and an “end of conflict.” But what if, after all was said and done, Erdoğan would claim that not all of his conditions were met? That Israel did not fulfill the requirements? All of a sudden, he speaks about lifting the siege on Gaza as a condition – but it was never mentioned in the negotiations nor in the draft! How easily it could have served as a pretext not to restore ties. And as for taking legal action against Israelis, well … With the intentionality clause still open, and with Turkey’s non-commitment to stop private suits, and with the Palmer Report scrapped, where would it all lead us? Certainly not to an end of conflict, but rather to a further deterioration, with us in an inferior position.

This is the reason why quite a few ministers refused to endorse the draft. The Turkish anger at the leak of the Palmer Report, and Davutoğlu’s hot-headed reaction and statements, only seemed to confirm our worst doubts: they were never in earnest to begin with.

December 4, 2011
Iran would attack Turkey if U.S. or Israel go after their nuclear weapons

‘We will target NATO’s missile shields in Turky,’ says Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander

BY Bloomberg News

Sunday, November 27 2011, 2:27 PM

Iranian sodiers march past President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (C) and military officials during the Army Day military parade in Tehran on April 18, 2011. AFP PHOTO/ATTA KENARE (Photo credit should read ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images)

Iranian soldiers march past President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and military officials during the Army Day military parade in Tehran in April.

An Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander said Iran will target a North Atlantic Treaty Organization defense system in Turkey if its nuclear program is attacked by the U.S. or Israel.

“If there is a threat we will target NATO’s missile shields in Turkey and will then go after the next targets,” Ali Hajizadeh, Commander of the air defense division of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. said yesterday.

The warning is part of a new strategy devised by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that consists of responding “to threats with threats,” Hajizadeh said according to the state-run Mehr news agency. Iran’s new stance is the result of increased threats by the U.S. and Israel, he said.

Tensions between Iran and Western countries have increased after the International Atomic Energy Agency released a report on Nov. 8 suggesting Iran was seeking to develop nuclear weapons. The report was followed by additional sanctions imposed last week by the U.S. and U.K. against the Persian Gulf country, which target its central bank and oil industry.

Iran says the IAEA report was politically motivated and insists its program is civilian and needed for power generation and medical research.

U.S. president Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have said military force against Iran is not off the table and Israeli President Shimon Peres said Nov. 4. the possibility of using force through “serious sanctions” or “a military operation,” to halt Iran’s nuclear program was drawing nearer.

Turkey will host an early warning radar as part of a NATO defense system, which will help protect against ballistic missile threats and is part of a strategic initiative agreed upon last year, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said Sept. 2

A military installation in the Turkish town of Kurecik, about 700 kilometers west of the border with Iran, has been chosen as the radar site, Associated Press said, citing Turkish officials.

via Iran would attack Turkey if U.S. or Israel go after their nuclear weapons – NY Daily News.

November 28, 2011
say “NO” to Israel ‘s new solicitations

Khalid Amayreh’s Open letter to Erdogan : say “NO” to Israel ‘s new solicitations

“The Syrian regime must change, or it will be changed” Thus Fa*ted Khalid Amayreh from the land occupied by Dayton’s army on behalf of “Nazi Like” Israel.

Though he is the the main (may be the only) commenter at PIC, his Fa*t was not puplished.
Now I understand Khalid’s threat “The Syrian regime must change, or it will be changed”

Was he speaking on behalf of Sutan Erdugan?

Moreover, the day of Hamas and Fatah reconciliation was his big day “A great day for Palestine”

But Khalid’s great days turned into a sad dark day, after he discovered that Sultan Erdugan is not Sultan Abdulhamid, though Erdogan refused to meet Mashaal khalid thinks that Erdugan whose stabed Necmettin Erbakan, his God father, in the back would care to read his open letter, and may refuse the Amirican deal.

“I know I have no right to interfere in the affairs of a sovereign state. However, Turkey is not just another state, and the Palestinians are not just another people” he wrote, but has the full right to interfere in affairs of Syria. “The Syrian regime must change, or it will be changed”

Open letter to Erdogan : say “NO” to Israel ‘s new solicitations

[ 22/06/2011 – 11:42 PM ]

By Khalid Amayreh

Seeking to restore erstwhile good relations with Turkey, Israeli prime Minister Benymain Netanyahu has asked Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to forget the past and turn over a new leaf in Israeli-Turkish relations.

Last year, Netanyahu ordered the Israeli navy to massacre Turkish activists en route to the Gaza Strip to show solidarity with the estimated 1.6 million blockaded Gazans for daring to try to free themselves from Jewish-Zionist oppression and subjugation.

At least nine Turks were murdered in cold blood in the gruesome massacre for which Israel is yet to apologize. Some Orthodox rabbinic authorities don’t recognize non-Jews as fully human and see their lives as having no sanctity, especially in comparison to Jews.

There is no doubt that Israel seriously miscalculated Turkish reactions both to brazen Israeli interference in Turkey’s internal affairs and also the Nazi-like treatment Israel was (and still is ) meting out to Israel’s subjects and neighbors, especially in the Gaza Strip and Southern Lebanon.

In Turkey, Israel attempted to undercut Erdogan’s Justice and Development party by instructing the pro-Zionist Masonic arm to destabilize the government. It also tried to incite the historically-secular military establishment against new quasi-Islamic rulers. In several instances, Israeli agents asked some high ranking Turkish officers to disobey and overrule their government.

Turkey made some strenuous efforts to mediate between Israel and some of her neighbors.

However, instead of walking in the path of peace, Israel sought relentlessly to exterminate Lebanese and Palestinians in the thousands. This genocidal approach toward the very people with whom Israel claims to want to make peace reached a high point in 2008-09 when the Israeli army, navy and air force carried out a blitzkrieg against the Gaza Strip, killing, incinerating and maiming thousands and destroying tens of thousands of homes throughout the coastal enclave.

Less than two years earlier, Israel dropped between 2-3 million cluster bomb-lets over southern Lebanon, causing incalculable damage.

One doesn’t have to be a great mathematician to calculate that 2-3 million bombs can kill or maim 2-3 million children. This is at least half-a holocaust by the Israeli Jewish standards.

Now, all the pornographic murder and destruction the Israeli war machine was inflicting on basically innocent, helpless and unprotected civilians were being watched on TV screens around the world.

Among the viewers who had “a wonderful time” watching the very people who boast about being “the light upon the nations” have a free season on Palestinian and Lebanese children, were 75 million Turks.

They watched with seething anger their coreligionists in Gaza and southern Lebanon being slaughtered like sheep while the emulators of the Third Reich were shouting terror! Hamas! Auschwitz and anti-Semitism.

Israeli barbarianism is not a thing of the past. Israel continues to commit real crimes against the Palestinian people every minute, every hour, and every day. Criminality is Israel’s modus operandi and dishonesty is her ultimate policy.

My grandfather was an officer in the Ottoman army. He viewed the Ottoman state as our state, the Ottoman Sultan as our Sultan. His loyalty to the Ottoman state was an inextricable part of his loyalty to Islam.

In 1953, the newly established Israeli army killed my three uncles Hussein, Mahmoud and Yousuf in a single day. And until this moment, the Israeli state never said sorry. It seems “mea culpa” doesn’t exist in Hebrew.

When will Israel express real regret let alone apologize for her crimes? Perhaps when kosher pigs fly!

Today, Israel spares no chance to decapitate any conceivable chances for peace. In the West Bank, Israel allows the Nazi-like thugs, also known as settlers, to harass, brutalize and murder unarmed Palestinian villagers and peasants in order to force them to leave their ancestral homeland.

Moreover, these murderous thugs from Russia, North America and Eastern Europe routinely attack and torch mosques, thinking that by so doing they will please the Almighty.

More to the point, Netanyahu is still maintaining Israel’s nefarious siege on the Gaza Strip and preventing building materials from getting into the coastal enclave.

This shows that Israel is not only destroying people’s homes; it is also preventing them from rebuilding them.

Israel doesn’t want to restore relations with Turkey so that the latter would have certain leverage or help in peace efforts which Israel never wasted a chance to scuttle and kill.

The truth of the matter is that Israel simply would like to use relations with Turkey to counter balance the new political realities in the Arab world, especially Egypt.

More to the point, Israel hopes that next time Israel commits genocide in Gaza or elsewhere, Turkey will show minimal public indignation.

I know I have no right to interfere in the affairs of a sovereign state. However, Turkey is not just another state, and the Palestinians are not just another people.

Hence, I would like to remind my brother Recep Teyyip Erodogan not to be tricked by the this pathological liar in occupied Jerusalem who thinks that lying is the best policy especially in dealing with ” sheepish” Gentiles whom the Almighty created solely to serve the master race!!!

Sir, Don’t be cajoled or deceived by this liar, who practices mendacity as often as he breathes the oxygen of life, and his ministers who really deeply hate Turkey in their hearts, especially a Turkey that values truth, freedom and justice.

TURKEY’S ERDOGAN IS JEWISH?

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

November 19, 2011