Recently in Israel Category

Rumors of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Jewish roots have circulated for quite some time and are surfacing once more. Interestingly, the most recent versions are more firmly rooted is specific details which point to at least the fact that his family is one with Jewish roots and perhaps that the Israel-hating, Holocaust-denying Iranian President is himself actually Jewish, at least according to Jewish law.

Details uncovered by The Daily Telegraph point to his parents' conversion to Islam in the 50's, and as I pointed out in a recent post, that conversion would not end their status as Jews in the eyes of halakha (Jewish law). In other words, not only might Ahmadinjad's family have Jewish roots, he really may be Jewish! But does it really matter?

History is filled with stories of converts and crypto-Jews who spent their lives trying to prove that they were "really" no longer Jewish by tormenting Jews and making sure that people appreciated the "truly ugly nature" of Judaism. From the early centuries of the Catholic Church this was a popular trend (including Paul?), which continued through the middle ages and into the present day.

To that extent, I am really not sure that Ahmadinejad's Jewishness is all that important. But to the extent that it might help us to better understand, and therefore avoid going to war with, Iran, it may be a very important story indeed.

A just released survey by the American Jewish Committee reports that for the first time ever, a majority of American Jews support using military force to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Are you part of that 56% and if so, why. Are you part of the 36% opposed to such an operation? How come?

Rather than take a stand on this one just yet, I am curious to hear what you have to say about this hot topic, whether you are Jewish or not. In light of President Obama's United Nations speech last week and the unanimous resolution of the Security Council about ending all nuclear proliferation, this topic is going to shape American and global military policy in powerful ways. So what do you think we should do?

I will post a Newsweek/Washington Post On Faith article I wrote yesterday, a little later. It deals with the fact that the entire issue of nuclear arms is more complicated than simply getting rid of all nuclear weapons, or simply identifying "good guys" and "bad guys". But until then, I want to know who thinks that this is something over which we should go to war.

Almost immediately upon her arrival in Israel, Madonna traveled to the Old City in Jerusalem and headed directly to the Kotel, the Western Wall. Perhaps the most significant thing is that the grand mistress of all things PR-related did not say a word to the hordes of reporters gathered around her. She prayed for about thirty minutes and simply departed.

Whatever one thinks of Madonna, her attachment to Kabbalah, or whether any of this merits attention, her visit modeled the kind of simply spirituality which all people should be able to respect. For thirty minutes, this mega-star wanted what we all want - a few minutes of peaceful prayer time in one of the worlds holiest places. I hope that she got it. I hope that we all do.

The truth is we don't need a wall for that to happen.

I have been deluged over the past ten days with e-mails, calls, etc. from "the pro-Israel community" expressing outrage over Mary Robinson being awarded the Medal of Freedom, our nations's highest civilian honor. The intensity of feeling about this issue demands a response. So here's mine:

With apologies to those who care about Israel no more than I do, given the list of 16 people awarded the Medal of Freedom last week, there doesn't seem to be anything terribly wrong with one of those being former Irish President Mary Robinson. Is her track record perfect? Far from it. In fact, her chairmanship over the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, was a major failure in leadership.

Ms. Robinson's failure lay with the fact that she allowed her understanding of justice and her antipathy toward Israel, about both of which reasonable people can disagree, to provide cover for Jew-baiting and ethnic hatred. Whether she supports that kind of behavior or not, and it's doubtful that she does, she did nothing to stop it. As the conference chair, that was a real failure of leadership, both institutional and moral.

On the other hand, it would be wrong to allow that single failure to undermine a life's work which has included many significant accomplishments on behalf of both the Irish people and people in need around the world. Moreover, those who opposed her receiving the Medal of Freedom are advocating for a litmus test which they themselves neither could, nor should be asked to pass.

Fishing expeditions are funny things -- sometimes you end up reeling in a catch you regret, no matter how much right-wing pundits like Dick Morris try to spin things. That seems to be the case with a recent poll conducted by the conservative Christian group, the Traditional Values Coalition, surveying American Jews aligned with the Democratic Party.

Why would TVC even bother with this poll? Almost certainly because they were fishing for dissatisfaction among those polled about the way President Obama is handling the Middle East in general, and Israel in particular. What they found must have disturbed and confused them though.

The poll showed that there is significant disagreement between American Jewish Democrats and the administration, on specific issues regarding the possibility of peace in the region and the best approach to settlements. For instance, 44 percent said "Obama is naïve in thinking he can make peace with the Arabs". Just 20 percent agreed with the statement that "if Israel could settle its dispute with the Palestinian refugees and give them a nation of their own, that the Arabs would live in peace with Israel" while 52 percent chose "the Arabs will never live in peace with Israel and that giving them a nation of their own will just make them stronger."

So far, TVC got what they were looking for. But the results of the poll also indicate that despite these real differences, the same audience remains strongly supportive of the actions which the Obama administration is taking to bring peace to the Middle East.