JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Sarah Silverman is no schlepper

By Ami Eden · May 5, 2009

Sarah Silverman's plug for "The Great Schlep" -- the effort to get young Jews down to Florida so that they could convice their grandparents to vote for Barack Obama -- won the Webby Award for best political video (she also won the best actress award for this not-for-the-children spoof about her fictitious affair with actor Matt Damon).

For those in a cave during the election season ...

And in case you want to know what happened during the schlep to Florida...

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By Uriel Heilman · May 5, 2009

Israeli columnist Nahum Barnea is troubled by the anti-Semitism he sees in online talkbacks and comments on U.S. newspapers' Web sites:

Two weeks ago, Henry Kissinger published an article in the Washington Post about America and Iran...

It wasn’t the article that was of interest, but rather, the talkbacks that the newspaper’s website posted below the item. It’s been a while since I’ve seen such an overabundance of Jew hatred. The respondents, all of them using nicknames, charged the Jewish people with conspiring to entangle the United States in a military operation in Iran in order to make profits and promote the State of Israel's dark interests.

The Jews control the American administration, lamented the respondents in one talkback after another. They control Congress and the media. The Jews are America’s real enemy.

There were always anti-Semites in America. The surprise is that this anti-Semitic garbage is being published by one of the world’s most respected newspapers. The second surprise is that it didn’t prompt much reaction.

The Jewish community in the US has a powerful and effective organization tasked with fighting any anti-Semitic display. It’s called the Anti-Defamation League. The League’s National Director, Abe Foxman, was in Israel last week. I told him about the talkbacks I read and he shook his head sadly. The League employs seven people in monitoring anti-Semitic statements on the Internet. Yet they can’t handle the onslaught.

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Sexual abuse in the Orthodox community

By Uriel Heilman · May 5, 2009

Last month the Brooklyn D.A.'s office opened a hotline for alleged victims of Orthodox Jewish sexual abuse; already, the office has 19 active cases , ABC News reports in an in-depth piece on sexual abuse in the Orthodox community.

ABC News has spoken to Orthodox Jews who claim they were victims of abusers in New York, Baltimore and Illinois, who shared stories of alleged molestation followed by what they described as hostility from community leaders when they sought help...

Though [New York State Assemblyman Dov] Hikind and some rabbis have recently been willing to take on the issue, alleged victims say there is still tremendous pressure to keep quiet. Several said community leaders were skeptical of their claims, and said they were told that they and their relatives would never be able to find someone to marry them and that they would become outcasts in their tight-knit communities.

One prominent rabbi, speaking on the condition of anomynity, questioned whether abuse allegations were true.

"If there's a family fight, a dispute in the family, it could start with verbal abuse. What happens next? You know and I know, it becomes 'he raped me,' or whatever," the rabbi said. "If you're telling me there are allegations of abuse, I don't know what 'allegations' really means."

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Israel’s new man in Washington

By Uriel Heilman · May 5, 2009

The Israeli government's appointment of historian Michael Oren as Israel's new ambassador to the United States puts an unusual personage in what is arguably Israel's most important post overseas.

The Jerusalem Post editorialists note that Oren, who made aliyah from New Jersey when he was 15, will have to cede his U.S. citizenship to take up the post.

After serving in the paratroops, Oren returned to the US to take degrees from Columbia and Princeton universities. A senior fellow at The Shalem Center, Oren is a best-selling historian whose books include Six Days of War: June 1967, The Making of the Modern Middle East and, most recently, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present. He's also an accomplished polemicist with scores op-eds and television appearances to his credit.

As recently as Operation Cast Lead, Oren voluntarily donned his army uniform to work in the IDF Spokesman's office. He has diplomatic experience too, having served in Israel's UN Mission...

We at The Jerusalem Post take pride in the appointment of a fellow Anglo, a reconfirmation of what immigrants can achieve in Israel. For in Oren we have an American who came here, served in an elite unit, and then worked tirelessly to improve the way the world understands our country and the region.

However, an ambassador, no matter how eloquent or well-connected, cannot be compelling if the policies at the top are jumbled or lack resonance. Oren will be at his most effective if Netanyahu can articulate a foreign and security policy that is coherent and sensible.

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Dream on, Moshe

By Uriel Heilman · May 5, 2009

Former Israeli defense minister Moshe Arens, now a columnist for Ha'aretz, wishes the Palestinian state on Jordan and Egypt.

I say wishes because it's wishful thinking to think that Egypt will take over Gaza or Jordan will absorb the West Bank. Arens acknowledges as much, but says that could change if the reason for Gaza and the West Bank's undesirability -- that they're breeding grounds for terrorism -- changes. He writes:

If Palestinian terrorism were to be eliminated, the attitude of the key players - Israel, Jordan and Egypt - would most likely change, and options that are not realistic at this time might become acceptable. The obvious implication of this analysis is that the immediate goal of those who seek to improve the situation should be eliminating Palestinian terrorism, and that no substantial political progress is likely to be achieved until that mission is accomplished. And as the IDF's success in combating terrorism in the West Bank in recent years has shown, this is not an impossible mission.

Imposing a "two-state" solution at this time is not feasible, and stubbornly insisting that it is the only future solution, to the exclusion of all others, could very well be counterproductive. It is time to look at some other paradigms.

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