JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Kristallnacht unearthed

By Lisa Hostein · October 28, 2008

My mother-in-law is one of the thousands of German-born Jews who still can recall with horror Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, the pogrom 70 years ago that marked the beginning of the end. The memory of watching her Jewish school burn as a 9-year-old child is seared into her brain. Her story and others’ have been told time and time again. But there hasn’t been much physical evidence of that fateful day – until an Israeli researcher stumbled on a garbage dump. The New York Times gives a full report.

1 Comment | Share This | genocide, International, Shoah

Karsenty pushing al-Dura probe

By Uriel Heilman · October 23, 2008

The decision by a Paris court last spring to overturn a libel ruling against Philippe Karsenty, a French media watchdog who claimed the iconic shooting of 12-year-old Mohammed al-Dura was manipulated by video editing, lent new credence to claims that the September 2000 shooting was staged.

The ruling has fueled Karsenty’s increasingly public campaign for a probe of the shooting, which during the violent early days of the second intifada became a symbol for Palestinians of Israeli brutality.

Karsenty talks about the shooting in an interview in the latest issue of the Middle East Quarterly.

Here’s JTA’s latest story on the subject.

0 Comments | Share This | France, International, Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Palestinians

Money, hate and Jewish values

By Lisa Hostein · October 20, 2008

Fears of an anti-Semitic backlash from the global financial crisis continue to simmer, though evidence beyond the usual anti-Semitic hatemongers is scant.

JTA reported on the domestic fears a few weeks ago and now the ADL has issued a news release citing some worrying examples in the international press.

I often wonder whether giving publicity to these fringe voices does more harm than good.

While Jew-spotting can have its sinister side, it can also be a source of pride when it comes to noting Nobel laureates, as a Ha’aretz columnist points out in his recent piece.

And leave it to Shmuley Boteach to argue that the financial crisis should prompt Jews to re-evaluate our priorities – and our mark on the world in Up against a Wall (Street): The financial crisis and Jewish values.

1 Comment | Share This | Anti-Semitism, International

Israel’s Christian advocate for Africans

By Uriel Heilman · October 17, 2008

The Jerusalem Post’s Larry Derfner has a feature on the Christian woman who is one of Israel’s leading activists on behalf of African refugees: Charmaine Hedding.

At last week’s inaugural meeting of the council of South Sudanese refugees in Israel, Charmaine Hedding, who organized the group, sticks out - as usual. Tall, fair-skinned and platinum blonde, she sits surrounded by seven Sudanese men who also tend to be tall, but whose skin is the color of mahogany.

The meeting takes place in the old German Colony mansion that houses the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, where Hedding is in charge of special projects, mainly the annual Feast of the Tabernacles, which is expected to draw some 8,000 Christians to Israel this week. (Her father, Rev. Malcolm Hedding, heads the embassy, which is co-publisher of The Jerusalem Post Christian Edition.)

But in the last year and a half, Charmaine, 35, has become one of the leading activists on behalf of the thousands of African refugees who’ve crossed the Egyptian border into Israel. Devoting three days a week to their cause, she’s put the well-funded, well-connected embassy, the pioneer among contemporary Christian Zionist organizations in Israel, at the refugees’ service. With the government generally treating them as an unwanted burden, Hedding at times works with, but at other times around, Israel’s powers-that-be, usually in concert with left-leaning Israeli human rights organizations.

Read more.

2 Comments | Share This | International, Israel

The coming winter

By Uriel Heilman · October 17, 2008

What does the U.S. economic crisis mean for Israel? Mainly, that the government in Jerusalem won’t be able to bug a distracted Washington too much about threats to Israel’s security, writes Aluf Benn in Ha’aretz:

In the long run, a resilient America will be of greater help than anything else to Israel’s security-related and international standing. Obama will aspire to improve the status and image of the U.S. internationally, after the nadir reached under Bush’s eight years in office. That effort will oblige him to take an interest in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, if only to placate those who supported him in his run for the presidency. Israel will have to be careful not to give the impression that it is hampering Obama’s foreign policy, like a kind of vestige from the Bush period. Accordingly, Jerusalem will have to shy away from moves that will look like provocations in the international arena, such as authorizing extensive building in the settlements, at least until it becomes clear who Obama is and how he is going about the business of being president.

Obama will not have time on his hands to mediate between Israel and the Arabs. He will have to decide whether to appoint a special presidential emissary to the region. Perhaps someone like Richard Holbrooke, who mediated between the factions in former Yugoslavia, with rich experience, a broad mandate and an open line to the White House. The Israelis and Palestinians have neutralized quite a few such mediators in the past, and can succeed in doing the same with the next emissary, but, as in the case of Rice, they will have to go about it very carefully, without offending the new president.

Livni will find it difficult to depend on the Jewish establishment in the U.S., which for the most part worked against Obama. She will need a close liaison with the president. Perhaps Lester Crown, the 82-year-old Chicago billionaire, who was one of Obama’s first Jewish supporters in the primaries against Hillary Clinton. Crown is closely connected to Israel, takes an interest in its strategic problems, and will undoubtedly be able to intervene at moments of crisis.

And crises there will be. Israel’s strategic arena is fraught with points of friction that are liable to erupt at any moment: Hezbollah’s threatened revenge for the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, the renewal of rocket fire from Gaza, a third intifada in the West Bank, settler violence against Palestinians and much more. How the new leaders here and in Washington handle these problems will determine their place in history.

0 Comments | Share This | International, Israel, Politics

Film on Tom Hurndall recalls fatal shooting in Gaza, and the fallout

By Uriel Heilman · October 13, 2008

Britain’s Channel 4 has produced a new film about Tom Hurndall, the 21-year-old British activist who was shot in Gaza by an Israeli sniper in 2003. The film documents the efforts by Hurndall’s parents to have Tom’s death investigated and the soldier who shot him brought to justice.

In a preview by Kate Kellaway of the U.K. Guardian, father Anthony Hurndall talks about the pain of observing his own government’s silence about the death, and its lack of pressure on Israel for an investigation. Kellaway writes of Anthony Hurndall:

There is barely suppressed outrage in his voice as he remembers the British government’s failure to protest when Tom was shot: ‘The government viewed Israel as a close ally who they did not want to put out in any way.’

It was only when a Tel Aviv bar was bombed by two British Muslims three weeks after the shooting of Tom in 2003 that Anthony became aware of how skewed the British government’s attitude could be. ‘Jack Straw expressed deep sympathy to the Israelis and promised to put all the resources of the British government at their disposal. This was our government taking responsibility for two people who were not employees of the British government, merely two citizens of Britain who happened to be in Israel.’

But when their own British citizens (Tom, along with Iain Hook, a UN worker shot by an Israeli sniper in November 2002, and James Miller, a documentary-maker shot by an IDF patrol in May 2003) were attacked by Israeli soldiers, there was no outcry (no ministerial interest at all, beyond a standard request, from a junior level, for a proper inquiry). ‘They were shot not by people for whom the Israeli government had no responsibility but by their own soldiers. That, for me, was outrageous.’

5 Comments | Share This | Gaza, International, Israel

Britain and Holocaust denial

By Lisa Hostein · October 6, 2008

British commentator Melanie Phillips raises questions about Britain getting entangled in a Holocaust denial case as London considers extraditing Fredrick Toben to Germany.

If Toben, a German-born Australian, is extradited, Phillips writes, “this will mean that Britain will be treating as a criminal suspect someone who is accused of behaviour which is not regarded as a crime in this country.”

1 Comment | Share This | Holocaust revisionism, International

Sarkozy charms the world

By Lisa Hostein · September 24, 2008

Rabbi Arthur Schneier (right), presents the Appeal of Conscience World Statesman Award to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and GE chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt look on along with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

In his brief visit to New York this week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed continued pressure on Iran, reiterated his condemnation of anti-Semitism and extolled France’s close relationship with America. No wonder he is being feted by the Jews and Jewish-sponsored human rights groups.

He was honored by both the Elie Wiesel Foundation and the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, and gave passionate speeches at both events extolling human rights and slamming anti-Semitism and racism.

Lauded by Rabbi Arthur Schneier, president of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, as a “man of courage,” Sarkozy quipped Tuesday night that it was a dubious honor to receive the group’s “World Statesman” award at a time “when everything is going wrong” in the world.

Earlier in the day, the French leader made a forceful speech at the United Nations, vowing to pursue further sanctions against Iran and urging that those responsible for the world financial crisis be held accountable.

Sarkozy, elected president of France just last year, has catapulted onto the world stage rapidly, playing a key role in resolving political tensions in Lebanon, working out a cease-fire agreement between Russia and Georgia and hosting an international gathering of Mediterranean country leaders, including Israel, Syria and other Arab nations.

Not all pro-Israel advocates – or Jews in France – support his outreach to Syria and they wonder whether as the current president of the European Union, he will do much to ease tensions with Israel. The E.U. Parliament, for example, earlier this month passed a resolution conditioning improved relations with Israel on Israel improving its treatment of Palestinian prisoners.

As incidents of anti-Semitism in France continue to dominate headlines, it’s not clear how much Sarkozy will be able to do to quell it, despite his forceful condemnation.

Still, Sarkozy and his current stature is garnering a great deal of attention, even though he appears more popular abroad than at home. Sadly, much of the media are more enamored by his wife, Carla Bruni Sarkozy, than by him. At the press opportunity with Sarkozy at the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, there were as many paparazzi crowding around the couple as political reporters and photographers. You can bet “Inside Edition” wasn’t there to hear his views on the political and financial crises of the day.

2 Comments | Share This | France, International

What’s missing at the U.N.

By Lisa Hostein · September 22, 2008

Remarkably little has been written in the media leading up to today’s opening of the U.N. General Assembly, where leaders from nations around the globe gather in New York for official speeches and sideline meetings.

For once, Israel is not expected to be a major target of vilification; but neither is Iran, which poses the biggest threat not only to Israel but the world, as Dennis Ross and other top former diplomatic and security officials write in the Wall Street Journal.

Jewish groups appear to be leading the charge, starting with a rally today across from the United Nations protesting Iranian President Mahmoud Achmadinejad. The Jewish effort illustrates the tensions between not wanting to make it seem like the nuclear threat from Iran is a “Jewish/Israeli” issue and not wanting to idly stand by as the threat escalates.

In a meeting of foreign ministers on Friday, Russia and China reiterated their position that the United Nations should take no further action on sanctions.

Beyond Iran, it’s sadly ironic that the intended theme of this year’s General Assembly – global poverty – is being overshadowed by the financial crisis that is roiling the United States and the world.

As for President Bush, his address on Tuesday will mark his farewell speech to the world body.

By the way, if you want a primer on what the United Nations was originally intended to do, see this.

2 Comments | Share This | International, Iran, U.N.

Anti-Semitism—still

By Lisa Hostein · September 18, 2008

The latest Pew Research Center survey of global attitudes on religion is out and the news is not good for Jews – or Muslims.

Anti-Jewish attitudes are up in most major European countries, with the highest numbers in Spain, Poland and Russia. Only British attitudes have remained constant in recent years. But the same is true about attitudes toward Muslims. And according to Pew, “there is a clear relationship between anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim attitudes: publics that view Jews unfavorably also tend to see Muslims in a negative light.”

But none of this comes as a big surprise. Similar studies in recent years have come up with similar numbers, give or take a few percentage points. A major report last year by Human Rights First went beyond the numbers to chide European countries for not doing more to halt the trend. See JTA’s analysis of that report.

But while anti-Jewish sentiments appear a constant (so what else is new in Jewish history?), some other troubling – though not necessarily surprising – findings have garnered less attention:

• The deepest anti-Jewish sentiments exist outside of Europe, especially in predominantly Muslim nations. The percentage of Turks, Egyptians, Jordanians, Lebanese and Pakistanis with favorable (my emphasis) opinions of Jews is in the single digits.
  
• A majority in people in Jordan express a positive view of Hamas. But views of Hamas tend to be negative in Lebanon, Turkey, and Egypt.
• Views of the militant Lebanese Shi’ite organization Hezbollah are overwhelmingly negative in Turkey, while slim majorities in Egypt and Jordan express positive views of Hezbollah. In Lebanon itself, Hezbollah is almost unanimously popular among the country’s Shia community, but is overwhelmingly unpopular among Sunnis and Christians.
• Most Muslims continue to worry about the rise of Islamic extremism, both at home and abroad. Majorities in Indonesia, Pakistan, Tanzania, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Nigeria say they are concerned about extremism in their own country and in other countries around the world.
  



Perhaps, in these troubled times, we should take comfort in this, though it’s hard to believe given the daily headlines:

* Since 2002, the percentage saying that suicide bombing and other forms of violence against civilians are justified to defend Islam from its enemies has declined in most predominantly Muslim countries surveyed.

1 Comment | Share This | Anti-Semitism, Arab world, International