Top Senators urge Obama to stand by Israel

Top US senators: Obama, stand by Israel

Democratic majority, Republican minority leaders urge president to resist calls for international probe into Turkish ship incident

Yitzhak Benhorin 6/12/10   http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3903955,00.html


WASHINGTON – The top two US senators are urging President Barack Obama to stand by Israel in the face of recent global pressure following the lethal raid on the Gaza-bound Marmara ship.

Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wrote a letter to the President, urging him to show strong support for Israel in international bodies, insist on the Jewish State's right for self-defense, and look into the terror connections of the Turkish organization that led the violent Gaza sail.

The letter constitutes a clear message to Obama, letting him know that both Democratic and Republican senators are united in their objection to an international probe of the sail, as well as any changes to the Gaza blockade policy.

The top senators will be circulating the letter among the other senators in a move expected to be completed by Wednesday, when the document will be handed over to the president.

The senators wrote that the US traditionally stood by Israel because this is an American security interest, and that this attitude must continue. They also noted that Israel is America's strongest Mideastern ally, a partner to the US on military and intelligence matters, and also a vital democracy.

As to Turkish aid group IHH, which organized the recent Gaza-bound flotilla, the senators recommend that it be included in the US list of terror organizations following a review by the intelligence community, State Department, and Treasury.
 

Syrian blood libel at UN Human Rights Council

On Wednesday at the UN's Human Rights Council meeting, Syrian diplomat Rania Al Rifaiy declared: “ Let me quote a song that a group of children on a school bus in Israel sing merrily as they go to school: ‘With my teeth, I will rip your flesh with my mouth I will suck your blood.’ ”      

 

Are you sure you understand the Middle East? // Mark Finkelstein, jcrc@dmjfed.org

 

 

American Jewish Committee's  UN Watch Testifies Against Syrian Blood Libel at UN Human Rights Council

June 9, 2010 – Geneva – Hillel Neuer, director of UN Watch, AJC’s affiliate in Geneva, testified today before the UN Human Rights Council on Syria’s grotesque accusation against Israel that was presented to the Council yesterday.

The full text of the UN Watch statement follows:

Mr. President, we had prepared a speech on violations the world over.  Instead, I am obliged to address a human rights violation that occurred here, in this chamber.

I am referring to remarks that violate the anti-racism prohibition of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

I am referring to the Syrian statement falsely accusing Israel of being a state that is not only “built on hatred…and a paranoid feeling of superiority,” but also one that glorifies the “ripping of flesh” and the “sucking of blood.”

Mr. President, this crude and coded language echoes the libel voiced by Syria on 8 February 1991 at the Human Rights Commission, when its delegate accused Jews of killing Christians to use their blood, whereupon she cited the book “Matza of Zion” by former Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlas. That speech was condemned at the time by 29 countries.

We remind Syria that the EUMC working definition of Anti-Semitism includes, “Using the symbols and images associated with classic Anti-Semitism, e.g. [the] blood libel, to characterize Israel or Israelis.”

Mr. President, yesterday’s patently false and hateful remarks are historical incitements to prejudice and violence. They have no place in the United Nations, and we call on all stakeholders to condemn them.

Sadly, these words did not arise in a vacuum. For last week, during this council’s urgent debate on the flotilla, we heard similar motifs as Israel was speciously depicted as an attacker of innocent humanitarians—when in truth it was defending itself from violent Jihadists bent on martyrdom.

Once again, Israel was singled out by those seeking to delegitimize it. A resolution was adopted condemning Israel, creating yet another investigation where the guilty verdict was declared in advance.

Tellingly, many accused the Jewish state of being “inhuman,” including Pakistan for the OIC, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and Nicaragua.

Mr. President, word is father to deed. History teaches that when nations turn to dehumanization and demonization, the world remains silent at its peril. 

Thank you, Mr. President.

AJC source:

http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=849241&ct=8431271

 

 

Obama, Israel & American Jews: The Challenge?A Symposium conducted by Commentary

Commentary magazine has released the responses to their survey.

http://www.jidaily.com/I3AITOg/f

Commentary asked 31 prominent American Jews to respond to this
statement:

The open conflict between the Obama administration
and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu has created tensions between
the United States and Israel of a kind not seen since the days of the
administration of the first President Bush. And those tensions are
placing unique pressure on American Jews, who voted for Barack Obama by a
margin of nearly 4-to-1 in 2008 after being assured by Obama himself
and by his supporters in the Jewish community that he was a friend and
an ally of the State of Israel despite his long association with, among
others, the unabashedly anti-Israel and anti-Semitic Reverend Jeremiah
Wright.

We argue that American Jews are facing an
unprecedented political challenge, and at a crucial moment, with the
need to address the existential threat to Israel—and by extension to the
future of the Jewish people as a whole—from a potentially nuclear Iran.
How will American Jews handle this challenge? Can Obama’s Jewish
supporters act in a way that will change the unmistakable direction of
current American policy emanating from the White House? Will American
Jews accept Barack Obama’s view that the state of Israel bears some
responsibility for the loss of American “blood and treasure” in the
Middle East? Will they continue to extend their support to the Obama
administration and to Barack Obama’s political party?
Their responses appear on the following pages
in alphabetical order

U.N. Security Council Passes Iran Sanctions

June 9, 2010
U.N. Security Council passes new Iran sanctions

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The United Nations Security Council passed new sanctions against Iran, setting the stage for new and tougher U.S. sanctions.

The vote Wednesday expands existing sanctions and creates a basis in international law for nations to target Iran's energy and banking sectors.

Read more: <http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/06/09/2739532/un-security-council-passes-iran-sanctions>

Madrid university: Attempt to lynch two Israelis inside a police car

From Madrid. "An attempt to lynch two Israelis INSIDE A POLICE CAR, after a whole pogrom inside the campus of the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. The mob included many who weren't students. They did whatever they wanted for hours, all over the campus, and the police said they "can't do anything" in... private property... They put the Israelis in the car to protect them, and the mob practically destroyed the car before they could drive them away."

http://www.libertaddigital.com/sociedad/raid-antisemita-en-la-autonoma-de-madrid-1276394630/       June 7, 2010

 

Conservative movement critical of Presbyterian Middle East report

United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism Resolution on the Presbyterian Church USA Middle East Study Committee Report

Approved at June 6, 2010 General Assembly

Whereas Jews and Presbyterians in the United States have cooperated in joint advocacy on many social issues and we wish to further that productive relationship; and

Whereas the Presbyterian Church USA at its General Assembly in July 2010 will consider a report of its Middle East Study Committee (MESC) which if adopted would damage the relationship between our communities; and

Whereas the report is distinctly one-sided, traffics in troubling theology, distorts history; and

Whereas we determine that the report specifically:

(1)  misrepresents Jewish history when it indicates that there is no scientific evidence that contemporary Jews are linked to their ancestral home in Palestine;

(2)  describes Israel as the occupying army and the major impediment to peace without acknowledging that the Israeli government has the ethical imperative to defend its citizens from terrorist infiltration;

(3)  considers the settlements as the obstacle to peace without recognizing that there has been longstanding hostility to Israel predating the defensive 1967 War;

(4)  and praises the Kairos Palestinian document, ignoring its virulently anti-Israel content. The Kairos document employs retrograde theology that has been rejected by most Christians as supercessionist.  It refers to Palestinian terror as “legal resistance,” and calls for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel; and

Whereas we believe that the Middle East conflict can be resolved with the kind of two-state solution that is promoted by moderates in Israel and among the Palestinian leadership and has been endorsed by most world leaders and the United Nations; and

Whereas we further affirm that it is important for both sides of the conflict to recall that the United Nations recognized the State of Israel in 1948 and the government of Israel has recognized the rights of Palestinians to a state of their own.  Israel will defend its citizens against terrorist attacks and provide for their security. It is a tragic consequence of this conflict that innocent people on both sides continue to suffer; and

Whereas our friends and colleagues in the Presbyterian Church should understand that slander of the State of Israel will be felt deeply in the American Jewish community;

Therefore be it resolved that the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism urge our rabbis and congregational leaders to familiarize themselves with the content of the MESC report. They should approach their Presbyterian colleagues and specifically delegates to the July General Assembly and advocate for the defeat of that report.  Towards that end, the USCJ will provide our regional leadership with names and contact information for local delegates.

Former Agriprocssors exec Rubashkin cleared of all child labor violations

Rubashkin found not guilty in child labor law case

  By JEFF REINITZ For the Globe Gazette | Posted: Monday, June 7, 2010 1:52 pm

WATERLOO --- Former Agriprocessors executive Sholom Rubashkin has been acquitted of allowing minors to work at the Postville slaughterhouse.

The jury indicated they had reached a verdict shortly before 1 p.m. Monday [ June 7, 2010].

Jurors acquitted him of all 67 counts of child labor violations.

Rubashkin is awaiting sentencing on federal bank fraud charges in connection with loans Agriprocessors received. Federal immigration charges stemming from the May 2008 raid at the plant were dropped earlier.

State labor officials began investigating information that minors worked at the plant in the months before the May 2008 immigration raid.

Prosecutors said Rubashkin, who was described at the CEO and co-vice president of the company, knew underage workers held jobs at the facility and did nothing to remove them or change hiring practices.

Twenty-six former Agriprocessors employees from Guatemala and Mexico testified they had worked at the plant as teenagers. The state said they worked with dangerous chemicals and some tended power-driven equipment like conveyor belts.