Avigdor Lieberman's epic chutzpah

Surprisingly enough, a Christopher Hitchens column about Israel that I actually agree with, on Avigdor Lieberman.

Now we have to watch the rise of a thug and a demagogue who has called with relish for the execution of elected Arab members of Israel's parliament if they meet with Hamas, who has demanded the drowning of Palestinian prisoners in the Dead Sea, whose supporters chant "Death to the Arabs" at their rallies, and who has materialized the worst fears of those Arabs who have made the longest-lasting accommodation with the Jewish state. Avigdor Lieberman's essentially totalitarian and Inquisitionist style, though, may be even more manifest in his insistence that non-Zionist haredim, or pious Jews, also either take an oath of loyalty or forfeit their citizenship. This takes the ax to the root of the idea that Jews have a presence in Jerusalem from time immemorial and that their resulting rights are not derived from, or dependent on, any state or any ideology. Shame on Benjamin Netanyahu if he makes even a temporary alliance with Lieberman. As questionable as the "right to return" may already be, it certainly cannot confer the right to expel.

I knew about the racism, the call for the execution of Arab members of Knesset who meet with Hamas (what about Israeli officials who are actually negotiating with Hamas right now?) and the threat to Israeli Arabs' citizenship. I hadn't known that he made the same threat to the non-Zionist haredim. No wonder Rav Ovadya Yosef (the leader of Shas, the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox party) warned that a vote for Lieberman was a vote for Satan: "Whoever votes for Lieberman gives strength to Satan."

I haven't written earlier about the results of the Israeli election on Feb. 10 because frankly I find them so depressing. Any election in which Bibi Netanyahu is not the worst choice elected is really a bad sign.

Waltz with Bashir does not win an Oscar

I'm disappointed to see that the Israeli film Waltz with Bashir did not win an Academy Award tonight, but rather a Japanese film called Departures. I saw the film last summer in Israel and thought it was excellent, and just participated in a panel discussion about it when it was recently shown in Ithaca.

Venezuela - database of Jewish community stolen

One of the scariest part of the attack on the Caracas synagogue is what was stolen - two computers in the synagogue that contained the database of the Jewish community of Venezuela. This information could be used, obviously, to target any member of the community as an individual - for example, for a kidnapping or extortion, a physical attack - or the community as a whole, for example by rounding them all up or expelling them from Venezuela.

Daniel writes about this:

In one of the most perturbing aspects of the Caracas Synagogue attack we learned that among the stolen items was the registry of all Jewish families associated with Tiferet Israel and the Jewish community of Venezuela, including we suppose the amount of gifts offered by each to help sustain the Temple and diverse charities....

By the way, the article listed above establishes without a doubt the "professional" nature of those who were doing the night attack. My guess is on Cuban trained Venezuelan "security" personnel. Chavez is welcome to prove us all wrong at any time by bringing forth the real guilty party. I am not holding my breath.

More on Venezuela

The Associated Press reports that Venezuela's Jews fear more attacks.

About 15 people overpowered two security guards at the Tiferet Israel Synagogue, shattering religious objects and spray-painting "Jews, get out" on the walls. Most worrisome, according to Elias Farache, president of the Venezuelan-Israelite Association, was their theft of a computer database containing many names and addresses of Jews in Venezuela.

Police are now posted outside the synagogue, and prosecutors said Friday that the security guards "could be involved." Venezuela's attorney general ordered them to court on Feb. 13 — two days before Venezuelans vote in a referendum that could enable Chavez to extend his rule indefinitely.

One week before the invasion, a Chavista columnist named Emilio Silva posted a call to action on Aporrea, a pro-government Web site, describing Jews as "squalid" — a term Chavez often uses to describe his opponents as weak — and exhorting Venezuelans to confront them as anti-government conspirators. "Publicly challenge every Jew that you find in the street, shopping center or park," he wrote, "shouting slogans in favor of Palestine and against that abortion: Israel." Silva called for protests at the synagogue, a boycott of Jewish-owned businesses, seizures of Jewish-owned property, the closure of Jewish schools and a nationwide effort "to denounce publicly, with names and last names the members of powerful Jewish groups present in Venezuela."

Aporrea later replaced the column with an apology that describes Silva's posting as anti-Semitic and exhorts Chavistas to show more discipline by criticizing the Israeli government rather than its people or Jews in general.

Silva, a 35-year-old mathematics professor at the Bolivarian University of Venezuela, got the message. He told The Associated Press Friday that he couldn't comment on the "controversial subject," and that his "position is to condemn any act that goes against the integrity of any faith or conviction."

But other anti-Semitic writings by Silva remained on the site Friday, including one posted on Jan. 19, a week before the synagogue attack. That posting also crudely criticized a Venezuelan archbishop for failing to condemn Israel's Gaza offensive; offices of the Vatican have been tear gassed twice since then....

Hate crimes have escalated despite Chavez's declaration that his government "rejects any type of aggression against any temple, be it Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, or any other." And the attorney general's statement Friday gave no details about any progress investigating a list of more than a dozen threats against Jews that the Venezuelan Confederation of Israelite Associations gave her office a week before the synagogue attack.

The group said one threat involved a rabbi who was leaving a Jewish school in Caracas when two men, one wielding a broken bottle, shouted: "Jew, we are coming for you!" A nearby taxi driver offered refuge and sped him away.

Other Jews have stopped wearing yarmulkes while walking to temple on Friday evenings. Simon Galante said he and his brother now fear for their safety after being accosted by men on motorcycles yelling "Murderers!"

"Thank God, nothing more occurred ... we continued walking and ignored the comments, but it's very sad," said Galante, who joined a demonstration against the attacks this week.

Feb. 5: Heidy Gordon, 85, left, and her husband Andres Gordon, 88, survivors of Auschwitz concentration camp, attend a protest against anti-Semitism.

Some more information from the Latin American Herald Tribune:

After five days, with eyewitnesses and video evidence, there is increasing criticism of the government for not identifying the perpetrators of the attack. "A source close to the investigation in the government security services confirmed to the Latin American Herald Tribune that a group of Palestinian and Arab supporters in Venezuela were responsible." Chavez is blaming the opposition for the attack - despite the fact that the opposition would have no reason to attack a synagogue.

Supporters of Chavez have continued this theme and have even blamed the Mossad: "Susana Kalil, a member of the Organization for the Relief of the Palestinian People, pointed the finger at Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service. She claimed that Mossad had done it in order to damage the image of Chavez' revolutionary process. She went on to claim that the attack on the Jewish house of worship is typical of Mossad and the Zionist movement worldwide, 'putting bombs in their own synagogues and then accusing the rest of anti-Semitism.'"

Since 2005, Chavez has started a campaign against Jews in Venezuela by saying, "The world is for all of us, then, but it so happens that a minority, the descendants of the same ones that crucified Christ, the descendants of the same ones that kicked Bolivar out of here and also crucified him in their own way over there in Santa Marta, in Colombia. A minority has taken possession all of the wealth of the world, a minority has taken ownership of all of the gold of the planet, of the silver, of the minerals, the waters, the good lands, oil, of the wealth then and have concentrated the wealth in a few hands." This statement of course includes classic anti-semitic tropes - Jews are responsible for the death of Jesus and are trying to take over the world.

The article goes on to say: "Since then he has twice raided Jewish schools and community centers - always close to or on the eve of a visit by the Iranian President - in a continuing campaign that analysts trace back to one of his mentors, the un-repentant anti-semite and Holocaust-denier Norberto Ceresole."

On Ceresole, from the ADL:

Norberto Rafael Ceresole, who died in 2003, was an Argentine sociologist and political scientist, who identified with Peronism and left-wing militias. He was labeled throughout his life as neo-fascist and anti-Semitic because of his Holocaust denial and hatred of Zionism and Israel.

Cresole was one of Chaez's mentors. He came to Venezuela in 1994 at the same time Chavez was being pardoned by President Caldera for his 1992 coup attempt. Cresole was exiled from Venezuela in 1995 by Caldera for his alleged ties with Islamic terrorists, but he returned in 1998 after Chavez's victory and wrote a book entitled, "Caudillo, Ejercito, Pueblo" (Leader, Army, People) about the Chavez revolution. The introductory chapter is titled, "The Jewish question and the State of Israel" and it blames Israel and the world Jewish community for his exile.

Ceresole claimed that Jews use the "myth" of the Holocaust to control the world, although he contended he wasn't an anti-Semite. He repeatedly stated that he has nothing against Jews, but that rather he was against the State of Israel for using the Holocaust for political gain.

Anti-semitism in Venezuela

When I was growing up I believed that anti-semitism was an affliction of the past - it was not something that was going to affect me. It was something that happened before I was born - the Holocaust was over and Jew-hatred in the United States had come to an end after the horrific revelations of the Jewish deaths at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators. I did not even know any survivors when I was growing up - the one time I saw someone at a family bar mitzvah with a number on his arm I was frozen with shock, and never talked about it with my parents. I hardly experienced any anti-semitism on a personal basis.

As I grew older, I began to read articles about attacks on Jews outside of Israel - for example, the attack on the synagogue on the Rue Copernica in Paris in 1980, which killed 4 people outside while 600 were at Shabbat services inside. Or an attack on August 9, 1982, the Goldenberg restaurant on the Rue de Rosiers in the Marais (Pletzl) in Paris was attacked by Abu Nidal - six people were killed and 22 were wounded. But it was clear that these were acts of terrorists, not of the government of France. I could still think - well, there may be occasional anti-semitic terrorist attacks on Jews outside of Israel by people who are twisted enough to think that all Jews should be blamed for whatever Israel does. I believed that outside of the Arab and Muslim world, governments will protect Jews, they will not conspire against them - and there are now hardly any Jews left in the Arab-Muslim world, so we are still relatively safe in the world.

The news coming out of Venezuela has shattered this illusion that I had still nurtured from my childhood. The Venezuelan government is consciously fomenting Jew hatred and the fruits of this teaching have issued forth in the form of direct attacks against Jews, Jewish schools, and synagogues. This is the first time I can remember in my lifetime that there has been a deliberate governmental anti-semitic campaign in a non-Arab or Muslim country.

Daniel Duqenal, of Venezuela News and Views, translates part of an anti-semitic article published in Aporrea, which is supported by the Venezuelan government: Teaching antisemitism in Venezuela. The anti-semitic article gives instructions to Venezuelans on how to conduct an anti-semitic campaign: boycott Jewish-owned shops or restaurants, or any shops where kosher food is sold; scream at Jews in the street about the Palestinians, denounce any Jew living in Venezuela, especially if owns a business, and questions whether a Jewish school named Hebraica should exist.

The synagogue in Maripérez was attacked a couple of days ago - it was desecrated by thugs.

As Daniel writes:

I did not think that yesterday's post would be validated that fast: the synagogue of Caracas was attacked last night by a group of pro Chavez thugs. They knew perfectly well what they were doing, they knew how to find the Torah and left taking with them the surveillance videos. The antisemitism of Chavez is now having serious consequences....

The government was prompt in taking its distances from the Synagogue attack. Unfortunately for the government even if it can prove that there is no direct links between its Red Shirted storm troopers and the attack, Chavez and his acolytes have been saying too many things against Israel (when not the Jews themselves) not to take blame from this attack. It also does not help the credibility of the government that the "condemnation" was emitted during a political act where the Venezuelan diplomatic expelled from Israel was received as heroes. As if they ever held a stone in some Intifada....

At least elsewhere the condemnation was certainly less ambiguous, showing clearly that any antisemitism in Venezuela is to be found almost exclusively in the chavista ranks. The Catholic Church, the dissident Student movement, the political opposition did not waste time. For many the finger is pointed to the hate speech coming from the government itself, something that this blogger has been writing for years now, and which is today quite open from scholars to some of the best legal minds of the opposition.

Hugo Chavez did "condemn the actions on the synagogue of Caracas" on Sunday, while hinting that opposition leaders actually plotted to attack the synagogue.

The ADL said the incident was not random, rather it was "directly related to the atmosphere of anti-Jewish intimidation promoted by President Chavez and his government apparatus." The ADL called for Chavez to "abandon the official government rhetoric of demonization of Israel and the Jews and to publicly denounce this wanton act of anti-Semitic violence."

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro condemned the attack and promised it would be investigated, while reiterating his government's opposition to what he called Israel's criminal government. "We respect the Jewish people, but we ask respect for the people of Palestine and their right to life," Maduro said in a ceremony called to welcome home two Venezuelan diplomats expelled from Israel this week. [RL: what does Palestine have to do with an attack in Venezuela?!]

The Israeli Foreign Ministry ordered the envoys to leave after Venezuela expelled all Israeli diplomats on January 6th, to protest Israel's offensive in the Gaza strip. Chavez labeled Israeli leaders as genocidal, as nearly 1,300 Palestinians are said to have died in the 22-day offensive in Gaza. [RL: And if Israel had actually wanted to commit genocide, many thousands more of Palestinians in Gaza would be dead now]

Leaders of Venezuela's estimated 15,000-member Jewish community warned that vocal denunciations of Israel by Chavez and the country's government-funded news media may have encouraged Friday's attack. "These declarations permeate society," said Abraham Levy, president of the Venezuelan Confederation of Israelite Associations. "We feel uncomfortable, threatened and intimidated," said Elias Farache, of the association.

The Argentine office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization, condemned the attack and warned of an anti-Semitic campaign in Venezuela.

Chavez in 2005 sparked outrage in the Jewish community by stating that those who killed Jesus Christ had become the owners of the world's riches. A Venezuelan Jewish organization later came to Chavez's defense, denying the statement was anti-Semitic.

And to think that good leftists in the United States and other western countries consider Hugo Chavez a wonderful revolutionary leader whose Bolivarian Revolution we should all emulate. He is nothing more than a fascist wrapped in the flag of socialism and revolution.

See also Adam Holland on the anti-semitic campaign of the Venezuelan government. And a report on Z-Word about the attack on the Caracas synagogue from Eamonn McDonagh, who usefully provides English translations from Venezuelan newspapers for the Spanish-impaired.

Updated Post on the Israeli election campaign

The Israeli election campaign is in full swing, and election propaganda is a crucial part of it - advertisements from the various parties broadcast after the evening news on television. Jeffrey Goldberg brought my attention to an incredible advertisement for the Israeli Green Leaf party. The party platform aims at legalizing marijuana. They have now decided to take up the cause of Holocaust survivors in Israel. Their election ad combines these two causes:



Update: From the JTA: "Perhaps the most unusual alliance in this year's election is between the Green Leaf Party, which has no seats in the Knesset, and the Pensioners' Party, which has six. Renamed the Holocaust Survivors' and Grown-Up Green Leaf Party, the party's prime issues are legalizing marijuana and pensioners' rights, especially those of Holocaust survivors. One of the party's TV ads shows party head Gil Kopatch smoking a joint at the grave of Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion."

Lisa Goldman has also just posted on this bizarre match-up. (She also reports on the much more terrifying prospect that Bibi Netanyahu may be Israel's next prime minister - and as she said, he was the worst Israeli prime minister ever. I was living in Israel for part of that time, and he demonstrated the most amazing incompetence I have seen until the Bush II years in the U.S.)

From the "Holocaust Survivors and Grown-Up Green Leaf Party" website: "The Holocaust Survivors & Grown-Up Green Leaf party is a green, human rights, liberal movement founded in 2008 as a unity of activists from the Green-Leaf party and the Holocaust Survivors movement. Today we running for Knesset for the first time. The ideology we are interested in forwarding is personal freedom, quality of life and decriminalization and legalization of all applications of the cannabis plant. We are a movement of activists that are connected by a common love of Basic Human Freedom. We have no stable source of financial backing and only you can help us realize our vision by giving your personal generous support." Their blog is also entertaining to read and gives the names and biographies of the candidates on the list.

Lisa has also posted the election advertisement for the Hadash Party. Their slogan is "Jews and Arabs Refuse to be Enemies." On the evidence of the ad, if I were an Israeli citizen, I would be very inclined to vote for Hadash.

U.S. campaign for academic boycott of Israel

There is now a U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel, alongside the British one that the UCU was forced to halt because it broke UK anti-discrimination laws. See this article in Inside Higher Ed for information on the campaign. This is in addition to a group called Teachers Against Occupation, which recently formed, and which publicized an open letter to President Obama written by David Lloyd (USC) and signed by about 900 academics. For the text of the letter and the signatories, see article in the Daily Star (Lebanon), also available here.

It's a very dispiriting letter, placing the entire blame on Israel, accusing it of committing "one of the most massive, ethnocidal atrocities of modern times." The last paragraph says that, "Almost certainly, the only hope of a lasting solution is a single state in Israel/Palestine, committed to the civil and human rights of all peoples within its boundaries, irrespective of religion or ethnicity. That is, after all, the standard to which we hold all other states in the world, Israel alone excepted."

What do they mean by a single state - what would happen to the Jews living in this single state once they are a minority in it? How can the Jews of Israel and Hamas live together in a single state without an even worse state of war than the one that exists right now? I'm not defending what Israel has done in Gaza - I think I've made it clear in this blog that I think that Israel should not have attacked Gaza, that negotiations are the only way to peace, that Israel should be talking to Hamas.

A single state is not the way to peace, it is the way to perpetual war. It is the way to worse atrocities than the ones we have just seen committed.

Even more dispiriting to me personally is that I know some of the people who have signed this letter.

Update: Haaretz today (1/29/09) has a good article on this boycott attempt.

Vatican: Comments by Holocaust-denying bishop unacceptable

Now the Vatican has said that comments by the Holocaust-denying bishop were unacceptable.

In a front-page article, the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano reaffirmed that Pope Benedict XVI deplored all forms of anti-Semitism and that all Roman Catholics must do the same....

The Vatican has stressed that removing the excommunication by no means implied the Vatican shared Williamson's views.

Williamson and three other bishops were excommunicated 20 years ago after they were consecrated by the late ultraconservative Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre without papal consent - a move the Vatican said at the time was an act of schism.

Benedict has made clear from the start of his pontificate that he wanted to reconcile with Lefebvre's traditionalist Society of St. Pius X [SSPX] and bring it back into the Vatican's fold.

Lefebvre had rebelled against the Vatican and founded the society in 1969. He was bitterly opposed to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings that brought liberal reforms to the church.

One of the key documents issued by Vatican II was Nostra Aetate, which said the Church deplored all forms of anti-Semitism. The document revolutionized the Church's relations with Jews.

In the article, L'Osservatore said Benedict and his predecessors had all made clear the Church's teaching on Nostra Aetate in documents, actions and speeches and that its contents are not debatable for Catholics.

"Williamson's statements, broadcast last week in a Swedish state TV interview, contradict this teaching and are thus very serious and regrettable," L'Osservatore said. "While broadcast before the Jan. 21 document lifting the excommunication, they remain unacceptable," it said.

This is good as far as it goes - but what about the anti-semitic opinions of Lefebvre and the SSPX itself? Why does the Pope want to welcome these people back into the church if he is so devoted to fighting against anti-semitism? See these two articles from the SPLC website on the group - the first one is about Williamson, and the second one is about the SSPX. The SSPX is itself a thoroughly anti-semitic group.

Bad news for Catholic-Jewish relations

Pope Benedict has just let back into the church four bishops who were excommunicated in 1988 by Pope John Paul II. The French bishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated them and then he and the four bishops were immediately excommunicated by Pope John Paul II for defying his authority. The Society of St. Pius X, to which they belong, denies the legitimacy of the Second Vatican Council, which made Catholic-Jewish reconciliation possible when it absolved the Jewish people of the charge of deicide and denounced anti-semitism with these words: “The Church deplores all hatreds, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism leveled at any time or from any source against the Jews.”

One of these bishops is a man named Richard Williamson, who denies that the Holocaust occurred and believes in the truth of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

As Ruth Gledhill (Times of London) says:

If Benedict XVI goes ahead with lifting the excommunication in spite of Bishop Williamson’s comments, that will in turn wreak havoc on more than 40 years of attempts to rebuild relations with the Jewish community after nearly two millennia of Christian anti-Semitism culminating in the Holocaust.

The damage will be doubled, coming as it will on top of the Pope’s revival of the Tridentine Mass last year with its Good Friday prayer for the conversion of the Jews.

She also says:

If he brings them back in with Williamson on board, then truly it will be a disaster. Vatican II might as well never have happened and it won't just be the Jewish community that would be justifiably disgusted. For many thousands of lay Catholics the world over, this could be the final proof that what the atheist bus campaign suggested was true: 'There probably is no God.' At least not the God that Williamson and his like believe in. Who could blame them, then, if they put traditionalist Catholic guilt aside, and get on and enjoy their lives.

Andrew Sullivan's response: "I am truly, deeply ashamed of my church for this action and hope this provokes such an outcry it is reversed. These are not the words of Christ. They are the words of evil."

An article in Der Spiegel outlines what Williamson has said and what the Society of St. Pius X has done. (Translation from cathcon.blogspot.com)

Problem for the Pope

A bishop of the Society of Pope St Pius X denies the holocaust.

Anti-semitic tendencies lead to tension between German Catholics and the Central Council for Jews in Germany.

The history of the Catholic Church is also the history of separations from her, of heresy and of error. When the religious deviationists win many supporters, they can be considered, like the Protestants, a church and when rather they remain among themselves, they can be considered as a sect.

Presently, one of the most important splits in the Catholic religious universe is an association of priests, which takes its name from an especially pious Pope, named “The Society of Saint Pius X”. The group founded in 1970 by the conservative and later excommunicated Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre celebrates the Mass in Latin to this day, holds confession in high honour and fights in general things which conform to “an anti-Christian consumer and fun-fuelled society”.

The fundamentalists are thoroughly successful in conversion work. Just in Germany, they have about 10000 supporters and worldwide dependent operations in over thirty countries. In more than fifty places in Germany they have a church or at least a chapel. “We are the tip of the spear against the further destruction of Church and society” says the German district superior, Father Franz Schmidberger, convinced by himself.

The reality is that the Society is so subversive that the top of the Vatican recently tried to bring them back into the womb of the Church. Since Pope Benedict XVI invited the General Superior of the Society, Bernard Fellay and his German representative Schmidberger to his summer residence in Castelgandolfo a great shuttle diplomacy has been set in train.

As a sign of a great coming together, the Pope has given the word for Mass in the old Rite, which is again more often than in the past possible in the Catholic Church without the need to obtain special permission for a service in Latin. The Society sees the majority of the Sacraments which they dispense such as baptism, confirmation, Mass, Last Rites and also priestly orders as recognised by Rome. In May of last year, the Vatican published a clarification that the Society is being courted by the Vatican.

All was going along a good path, but now a problem has surfaced. The tip of the Catholic traditionalist spear is not only pious, it is in parts also antisemitic. This makes the change brought about by the rapprochement also into a problem for the German Bishops’ Conference and, at the same time, for the German Pope himself, who in May will make his first visit to Israel in order to push ahead reconciliation between Christians and Jews.

The antisemitism of the leadership of the Society of Pope St Pius X showed itself to the representatives of the Pope just before Christmas, when the District Head Father Schmidberger sent a circular letter to all 27 bishops, in which he took the position, “The Jews of our day.....share in the guilt of deicide so long as they don’t distance themselves from their forefathers through belief in the divinity of Christ and baptism”.

After this statement, there has been tension between the Central Council of Jews in Germany and the Bishops Conference.

Dieter Graumann, Vice President of the Council sees the letter as propagating the “worst clichés against Jews” and asked the Bishops to distance themselves or to find a clear position statement. So far only the Hamburg Bishop, Hans-Jochen Jaschke has made use of the opportunity to answer publicly and that was in the form of a reprimand: Graumann probably does not know that the Catholic Church has nothing to do with the Society of Pope St Pius X, whereby every criticism of the Vatican and her representatives is irresponsible.

Schmidberger rejects the complaint, “These are only religious propositions.” For those knowledgeable in the matter, the anti-Jewish excursions are however no surprise, reservations about Jews having a long history in the Catholic Church and considered only to have been overcome since the Second Vatican Council in the middle of the sixties. The Society with its rejection of all fashionable innovations are also inheritors of this tradition. Exactly their fundamentalist convictions make them attractive to certain sorts of people, which is significant for the willingness of these people to donate money for the building of new churches.

Money flows because the Society does not only pray and talk, they are also prepared to fight for their case on Germany’s streets. Recently they could be found with demonstrators in front of the House of Art in Munich to protest against a “blasphemous exhibition”- which included a crucified frog. During the Christopher Street Day in Stuttgart, their supporters stood on the side of the street armed with rosaries, murmuring prayers against the alleged vice.

A particularly enthusiastic representative of the Society is Bishop Richard Williamson, born in Great Britain, who was commissioned by the founder, Archbishop Lefebrve when the latter was near death to continue the life’s work of the Archbishop. Williamson is frequently in Germany in order to push ahead with this development. In consequence, the next generation lies close to his heart, that will be introduced into the so-called crusader camps. “Life as we know it is coming to an end,” he said a short while ago in a talk to confirmation candidates. “Martyrdom is perhaps coming. Perhaps our blood will be necessary to bring about the cleansing of the Catholic Church.”

An event which took place on the sidelines of a deaconing at the end of last year on All Saints Day can only severely damage the in any case tense relations between Catholics and Jews. Williamson travelled to Zaitkofen where the Society operate a seminary in a small baroque castle to make a Swedish convert, Sten Sandmark into a deacon of the Society. As his departure from the Protestant church was taken as a scandal in the far north, a Stockholm TV reporter Ali Fagan was there. After the deaconing, they both placed themselves in the chapel for an interview in front of the camera

Talk turned to the Nazis. One sees in the film Williamson breathing in and then says he does not believe six million Jews to have been gassed.

To the surprised counter-question “Were there no gas chambers?” “I believe there were no gas chambers, yes.” In the matter of the Holocaust, he associated himself with the “revisionists” who believe that “two to three hundred thousand Jews died in Nazi concentration camps. But none of them died as a result of gas in gas chambers.”

Then the cleric talked much about technically unsuitable chimney heights and unsuitable, as they could not be sealed, doors which can still be seen by tourists in Auschwitz. “If this is not anti-semitism,” added the interviewer, “what is it then?”

Bishop Williamson, “If anti-semitism is bad, it is against the truth. When something is true, it is not bad. I am not interested in the word anti-semitism”.

SVT1 will show the one hour long documentary film on Wednesday this week on the programme “Uppdrag granskning” - “The Task of Checking” and it will also be available on the internet.

The Central Council is now going to examine whether a legal case be possible as denial of the holocaust is a crime in Germany.

Graumann is also awaiting a clear statement from the German Bishops Conference, in the context of the Papal visit to Israel.

“They who cannot or do not wish to distance themselves, make themselves complicit.”

More on Williamson at Box Turtle Bulletin.

Gila Svirsky - co-chair of B'Tselem

Gila Svirsky, co-chair of B'Tselem, sent out this e-mail yesterday:

I was listening to the radio interview of two teens from the south of Israel, both of whom had been living under intolerable conditions for several weeks, caught in the crossfire of the adults.

“Oh my family never watches the foreign TV stations,” said one. “They’re not as accurate as the Israeli news.”

“My father forbids it,” said the other. “It could be demoralizing.”

Yes, indeed, it could be demoralizing. If you don’t watch the “foreign channels” – CNN, the BBC, or Sky News, let alone al-Jazeera – you don’t hear the (other) half of what is happening. You never heard, for example, that

al-Quds Hospital in Gaza took a direct hit yesterday; or that

UNRWA notified the IDF that a shell had struck their storage facility (food, medicine, and fuel), but that the IDF fired six more shells after that; or that

children were found cowering in their home near the dead bodies of their parents, probably for days, as ambulances could not reach them, despite strict international laws about the free movement of medical crews.

But Israelis hear only the Israeli news. So what does my neighbor say to me yesterday? “Israel has the most moral army in the world. What other army would drop leaflets warning civilians to leave so they won’t be hurt by shelling?”

Well, the answer is: many countries. It’s a common propaganda tool. Here’s an excerpt from a leaflet dropped by the US into Japan during World War II:

“The weapons used by the Japanese military authorities in order to extend this hopeless war will be completely destroyed by the US Air Force. However, bombs cannot see, so we do not know where they will land. As you know, we Americans are a humanitarian people and we do not want to injure innocent people. Therefore, please evacuate these cities."

And here’s an excerpt of one dropped by Israel into Gaza a few days ago:

"As a result of the acts undertaken by terrorists in your area against Israel, the IDF is forced to respond immediately and take action in this area. For your own safety, you are asked to leave the area immediately."

Needless to say, there is nowhere to go. Gaza is a tiny area – 10% the size of Rhode Island – densely occupied, and all the borders are sealed shut.

But Israelis are still repeating the mantra that turns my stomach: The IDF is the most moral army in the world.

Throughout these horrific weeks, the most carefully documented reports inside Israel of what is and what isn’t actually happening have been those of the human right organizations. You can see a combined blog of these organizations at gazaeng.blogspot.com. You know there have been serious human rights abuses when eleven organizations come together to do something. B’Tselem even took the unprecedented step of issuing a call for a cease fire. All have done important work in getting the message out to Israelis.

Last but not least, the peace organizations continue raising their brave and lonely voices to the ongoing vilification of patriotic passersby and motorists. Here’s what I wrote on my sign yesterday: “We have become our own worst nightmare.” Most passersby didn’t get it.

Gila Svirsky
Jerusalem

Co-chair, B’Tselem
http://www.btselem.org/English
http://www.gilasvirsky.com

Leah Shakdiel in house arrest

I just received this letter on the Israel Feminist Forum list. What Leah recounts is truly shocking - I have never heard of this kind of behavior towards totally peaceful Israeli Jewish protesters before.

A Letter from Leah Shakdiel

Until Sunday night, and please don't worry I am fine and even strengthened politically. I participated twice in protest watches in Beer Sheva (standing with signs with no microphone is legal and does not require police permit by law but the police of course does not know this). I carried a sign in Arabic "In Gaza and Sderot children deserve to live" and near me someone carried a sign in Hebrew that said, "Stop, hold fire, talk". The group Darom4peace ["South for Peace"] is that wishy-washy, yes, very middle of the road we thought, no extreme left, no accusation of Israeli govt or army, not even "peace now" type of thing.

Yet the police these dark days are apparently instructed to play an active role in boosting public morale and national unity, so they jumped into our midst literally and grabbed six of us on Wednesday into their cars etc. Four univ students, myself, and Nir Oren, the director of an NGO called The Parents Circle (look it up on the net), or in Hebrew, Forum Mishpahot Shakulot, Israeli and Palestinian families who lost a family member in the conflict and work together towards peace. Nir's own mother was killed in a suicide bombing of a bus in 1995. It turned out that one of the arrested students also lost his father in a terrorist attack several years ago and showed a great interest in joining the circle.

So now I am in house arrest for a few days, am not allowed into Beer Sheva for two weeks (my students will probably come to Yeruham instead), and we face trial on January 28. This is totally silly as Israel already has a landmark Supreme Court ruling from 1953 on freedom of speech (Bagatz Kol haÁm) but it does drive the message home that only traitors resist killing for their own group.

No one is surprised that the police wrongly thought we were breaking the law, disobeying the police, rioting (???!!!) and disturbing public peace (Orwellian enough, if you wish to disturb the war you actually disturb peace because war is peace, i.e. consensual, and we are controversial).

What is surprising and I think worrisome is the silence of the press on all this in a country where there is freedom of the press, i.e. it is self imposed censorship. Many journalists called, were there at the watch, took pictures and interviewed, telephoned later, promised to come to the court, and nada, not a word, no coverage published. So Israel crossed the line from self-defense to war crimes in my opinion the minute it refused to cease fire when Hamas requested it. We shall not give in. Arrests only radicalizes politically, but I am holding my ground and I still refute the reasoning of the extreme left ("Israel is fascist") or the extreme right: ("a nation state cannot be democratic").

Leah Shakdiel, Yeruham, Israel, and Shabbat shalom, no computer until tomorrow night

Israel Declares Cease Fire

Israel Declares Cease Fire - this is certainly welcome, but what does it mean? If there's no agreement between Hamas and Israel for a truce, then how can Israel's declaring that it will stop attacking result in anything except a temporary respite? Hamas doesn't have any reason to stop firing rockets if they haven't made an agreement with Israel to stop doing so. Or does this mean that Israel will remain in parts of Gaza? I'm confused.

Haaretz editorial on the ceasefire - "A cease-fire, albeit a unilateral one, is a necessary condition, though it is certainly insufficient for a stable, long-term arrangement in Gaza. It would behoove the government not to flinch from its decision to end Operation Cast Lead immediately and act to change relations with the Palestinians. After the hard blows Israel has inflicted, the time has come to aid the Palestinian population in both the West Bank and Gaza, and to work toward an agreement with the moderate leadership."

What it means to be pro-Israel

What it means to be pro-Israel by Ezra Klein, in Haaretz.

The American center, thankfully, considers itself resolutely pro-Israel. But it does not agree with Israel's every action. It wants an immediate cease-fire and is only tepidly supportive of Operation Cast Lead. In this, it is well-represented by groups like J Street, which provides a home for those who support the state without justifying its every twitch and gesture. And in this, Israel is well-served by J Street, and by other attempts to broaden its base of supporters rather than narrow the definition of support. It would be deeply unwise to write that perspective, and those supporters, out of the community that can consider itself "pro-Israel." A country that cannot brook criticism cannot have friends. And when Operation Cast Lead ends, Israel will still need friends. Indeed, it may need them more than ever.

Amen.

"Israel must lose" the war against Hamas - UK academics

This is one of the most depressing responses to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that I have seen in decades.

Engage has provided the text and signatories on a petition by UK academics asking that Israel lose its war against Hamas:

Israel must lose. It is not enough to call for another ceasefire, or more humanitarian assistance. It is not enough to urge the renewal of dialogue and to acknowledge the concerns and suffering of both sides. If we believe in the principle of democratic self-determination, if we affirm the right to resist military aggression and colonial occupation, then we are obliged to take sides… against Israel, and with the people of Gaza and the West Bank.

We must do what we can to stop Israel from winning its war. Israel must accept that its security depends on justice and peaceful coexistence with its neighbours, and not upon the criminal use of force.

We believe Israel should immediately and unconditionally end its assault on Gaza, end the occupation of the West Bank, and abandon all claims to possess or control territory beyond its 1967 borders. We call on the British government and the British people to take all feasible steps to oblige Israel to comply with these demands, starting with a programme of boycott, divestment and sanctions.

I read through the list, hoping that I wouldn't know any of the people on it personally, but was dismayed to read the names of two of the Israeli "New Historians" - Ilan Pappe and Avi Shlaim. I would guess that their immediate plans don't include visiting Israel anytime in the near future.

George Orwell, during the Second World War, used to write about pacifists being "objectively pro-fascist," because had they been able to convince enough Britons to agree with them, their advice not to fight would have led to British surrender to Nazi Germany. After the war, if I recall correctly, he apologized for using this rhetoric against the pacifists. After reading this petition, I think it is possible to say that the signers of this petition are both objectively and subjectively pro-Hamas, because by calling for Israel's defeat, what they are really calling for is Hamas's victory. The problem with their call for Israel to "accept that its security depends on justice and peaceful coexistence with its neighbours" is that not all of their neighbors agree with this contention, including Hamas.

I do not support this war. Whatever the contentions of Israeli spokespeople, Israel is not doing nearly enough to prevent the killing of civilians or the devastation of their homes and livelihoods. Otherwise over 1,100 people would not have been killed, including a significant number of non-combatant children, women, and men.

But I have no illusions about the peaceful intentions of Hamas. Just today, Khaled Mashall at an Arab meeting in Qatar rejected the latest ceasefire proposal, with these words:

Mashaal sought Arab support in a strongly worded address to the summit, insisting Hamas cannot stop fighting until border crossings into the Gaza Strip are opened. "We will not accept Israel's conditions for a cease-fire," Mashaal told the summit. He said Hamas demands that "the aggression stop," Israeli troops withdraw and crossings into Gaza be opened immediately.

Mashaal insisted that Israel was to blame for the offensive in Gaza, and said that "the enemy turned to the murder of civilians and the destruction after it failed before the resistance." He promised residents of the Strip that "the Israeli aggression" would collapse before their "will and determination."

Mashaal said Hamas refused to renew a 6-month-old truce with Israel that ran out in December because the period of relative calm had not led to an end to the blockade of Gaza. "Did we do wrong, by rejecting a truce that let the blockade continue?" Mashaal said. "Don't the people of Gaza deserve to live free? ... They want to live free without blockade or occupation, just like all the Palestinian people do."

He said Israel wanted to impose their policies in the Strip and that the "resistance organizations" were the only barrier between these policies and the residents. "Please listen to the voice of the resistance," he said. "Don't think that Hamas wants an open war. We are defending our people."

Mashaal asked Arab countries to boycott Israel and cut off any ties with it. "We will not accept Israel's conditions for a cease-fire," Mashaal told the summit. He said Hamas demands that "the aggression stop," Israeli troops withdraw and crossings into Gaza be opened immediately.

Was Jesus a Feminist?

Leonard Swidler has recently published a book arguing that Jesus was a feminist: Jesus Was a Feminist: What the Gospels Reveal about His Revolutionary Perspective. According to a recent review written by Kathleen E. Corley (PDF: book review), he is continuing his old contention that first century Judaism in Palestine was overwhelmingly oppressive to women and that the task of Jesus was to save women from it. "To support this thesis, Swidler reconstructs an overwhelmingly negative view of Judaism in Palestine of the first century but uses late rabbinic sources for his reconstruction." She continues:

This is an old script that the scholarship of the past thirty years has long disproved as being false. First, it is totally inappropriate to use late rabbinical sources to reconstruct first-century Judaism. When only first-century Palestinian sources are used, a different, more progressive picture of Palestine emerges. Women were in the Zealot movement and the movement of John the Baptist, may have written writs of divorce, owned their own property, and kept their own finances. Even the Gospels themselves show that women moved freely out in public and were in no way separated from men socially. There is social and religious mixture of women in the women’s court at the temple, where women such as the prophetess stayed day and night to worship God and greeted the infant Jesus (Luke 2). Far from being segregated from her community by some blood taboo, the women with the issue of blood moves freely amidst the crowd, nor was uncleanliness a matter of utter segregation, but both men and women became unclean as a matter of the course of their daily lives, and this was easily removed by ritual bathing. Furthermore, ritual uncleanliness may have only been truly significant when one entered the temple in Jerusalem, as the many ritual baths in the temple precincts show. Thus, the Judaism of Palestine was not one that made women utter social inferiors as Swidler attests.

What is more, Swidler completely ignores the feminist scholarship that since his first publication debunked his thesis and pointed out how without basis his argument was. Corley writes:

Finally, this book is marred by having no intercourse with feminist scholarship of the past thirty years, which has worked hard to correct the anti-Judaic reconstruction of Judaism that Swidler proposed when he first published his original articles in the early 1970s. The work of Ross Kraemer, Amy-Jill Levine, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Bernadette Brooten, Judith Plaskow and others has been simply ignored, and Swidler writes blithely on in this book as if thirty years of scholarship never happened to correct his ill-fated views since 1971. This book is thus a rehash of an argument long since abandoned by historical critics around the world in light of the last thirty years of feminist scholarship on Jesus and first-century Judaism.

One wonders why the publisher bothered to publish the book.

A possible plea bargain for Madoff?

It's hard to imagine, but apparently there are negotiations going on for a plea deal for Bernie Madoff! And the government failed in its arguments that his bail should be revoked on the grounds that he sent $1 million worth of jewelry to family members and had $173 million worth in checks in his drawer ready to send off.

"Prosecutors had asked the court to revoke Mr. Madoff’s $10 million bail, secured by various family homes held in his wife’s name, after he violated a court-ordered asset freeze by mailing about $1 million in expensive watches and jewelry to family and friends on Christmas Eve.In addition to the jewelry that was sent out, prosecutors said, Mr. Madoff had plans to transfer $200 million to $300 million of investors’ money to family members and friends. When authorities searched Mr. Madoff’s office desk, they found $173 million in signed checks ready to be sent."

Letter by British Jews to government of Israel

The following letter was published today in the Guardian newspaper. This letter comes pretty close to representing my current views.

To the government of Israel

We are writing this letter as profound and passionate supporters of Israel. We look upon the increasing loss of life on both sides of the Gaza conflict with horror. We have no doubt that rocket attacks into southern Israel, by Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups, are war crimes against Israel. No sovereign state should, or would, tolerate continued attacks and the deliberate targeting of civilians.

Israel had a right to respond and we support the Israeli government's decision to make stopping the rocket attacks an urgent priority.

However, we believe that only negotiations can secure long-term security for Israel and the region.

I believe this as well, but I don't see how negotiations with Hamas on a long-term settlement are going to go anywhere as long as Hamas is unalterably opposed to the existence of the state of Israel.

We are concerned that rather than bringing security to Israel, a continued military offensive could strengthen extremists, destabilise the region and exacerbate tensions inside Israel with its one million Arab citizens. The offensive and the mounting civilian victims - like the Lebanon war in 2006 - also threaten to undermine international support for Israel.

We stand alongside the people of Israel and urge the government of Israel and the Palestinian people, with the assistance of the international community, to negotiate:

• An immediate and permanent ceasefire entailing an end to all rocket attacks and the complete and permanent lifting of the blockade of Gaza.

• International monitoring of the ceasefire agreement, including measures to ensure the security of the borders between Israel and Gaza as well as the prevention of weapons smuggling into Gaza.

It is our desire to see a durable solution for ordinary people and our view that an immediate ceasefire is not only a humanitarian necessity but also a strategic priority for the future security of Israelis, Palestinians and people of the region.

Rabbi Dr Tony Bayfield (head of the Movement for Reform Judaism)
Sir Jeremy Beecham (former chair of the Labour party)
Professor David Cesarani
Professor Shalom Lappin (University of London)
Michael Mitzman (who set up Holocaust Memorial Day Trust for the Home Office)
Baroness Julia Neuberger
Rabbi Danny Rich (chief executive of Liberal Judaism)
Rabbi Professor Marc Saperstein (principal of Leo Baeck rabbinical training college)
Rabbi Dr Michael Shire
Sir Sigmund Sternberg
Paul Usiskin

When I was an undergraduate at Harvard, Professor Marc Saperstein was my adviser. I hadn't realized that he was now in Britain - the last I had heard he was teaching at Washington University in St. Louis. His brother, David Saperstein, is head of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, D.C.

Z-Word blog has an interesting response to the open letter.

Rally Roundup

War demonstrations

The protesters have been very busy.

Los Angeles
In Los Angeles there was a demonstration on January 6 (Tuesday) by Hamas supporters crying out things like "Free Palestine from the River to the Sea," and "Long Live Hitler."

Duisberg, Germany (from the Muqata)



Today, 10.000 people demonstrated against Israel here in my hometown Duisburg (Germany) and to express their solidarity with Hamas. So, my girlfriend and me put two Israel flags out of the windows of our flat in the 3rd floor. During the demonstration which went through our street the police broke into our flat and removed the flag of Israel. The statement of the police was to de-escalate the situation, because many youth demonstrators were on the brink of breaking into our apartment house. Before this they threw snowballs, knifes and stones against our windows and the complete building. We both were standing on the other side of the street and were shocked by seeing a police officer standing in our bedroom and opening the window to get the flag. The picture illustrate this situation. The police acquiesced in the demands of the mob.

London - a good report from Harry's Place. Plenty of Nazi imagery and the slogan of "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free."

A sample of Nazi imagery from the London rally below:



A.N.S.W.E.R. rally in Washington, D.C.

What happened at today's A.N.S.W.E.R. demonstration in Washington, D.C., which a group from Ithaca attended? From the reports I've been able to find, the official ANSWER posters and slogans seem to be much less "pro-war" than the protest today in London.

A video from the AP -

Signs: "Faith over Fear and Justice for all," "Free Palestine: Let Gaza Live."
One anti-semitic sign - "Jewish controlled Congress supports Jewish terrorism." Slogans: "Allahu Akbar!" "Free Free Palestine, Occupation is a crime." "Long live Palestine!" Another slogan - the Shehada, plus another line in Arabic that I didn't understand.

A report from AFP on the rally:

Several thousand protesters descended on the White House Saturday in support of Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza, as other protests took place across Canada and in the Mexican capital.

As many as 10,000 people, according to organizers, gathered from about 1:00 pm (1800 GMT) in Washington's Lafayette Park, across from the White House, chanting "free Palestine" as protest leaders and activists spoke from a podium.

An interesting article by someone named Jeff Nall on divisions in the anti-war movement over Israel/Palestine. After listing the range of groups protesting Israel's attacks in Gaza, he writes:

A definite consequence of anti-war organizations’ unanimity against Israel’s Gaza assault will inevitably lead to a loss of some supporters. I have witnessed firsthand the immediate backlash of the anti-war movement’s stance against Israel’s invasion of Gaza. One-time supporters of organizations such as Code Pink have expressed outrage over support for the Palestinians and have begun asking to be removed from email lists. Other activists have begun to report of falling out with friends. I have personally had heated debates with family members.

Even key activists are likely to oppose this new phase of the movement. When I attempted to organize a South Florida protest against the Gaza assault I received criticism from a fellow organizer. A key activist who has organized actions for Code Pink in the area took issue with my praise of the anti-war movement for its unified "condemnation of Israel’s murderous assault on Gaza." In direct response to this statement she wrote: "As peace activists I think it is counter productive to spend energy on laying blame and ‘condemning’ one side—in this situation there is plenty of blame on all sides and yet plenty of room to look for understanding as well." Ironically, the peace activist made this statement on precisely the same day the Associated Press reported that Israel had killed at least 30 Palestinians when it attacked a United Nation’s school, acting as a shelter, twice in a few hours.

At this critical juncture the anti-war movement must not waiver. Our stand against the disproportionate and unjustified assault on the Palestinian people is grounded in the basic moral principle of universality – that we can no more freely destroy innocent people than our enemies – and the realization that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is as unjust as U.S. occupation of Iraq. The anti-war movement must maintain its ethical high ground by condemning all unjustifiable assaults on and killing of civilians.

In the past, many peace groups and individuals have bemoaned the plurality of issues taken up at both local and national anti-war protests. Many have specifically taken issue with ANSWER’s inclusion of the Palestinian struggle in protests principally aimed at ending war in Iraq. Both ANSWER’s militancy and its prominent treatment of Palestinian freedom have made some in other movements uncomfortable. A thawing of the ice dividing our movement and its most capable organizations, however, may be occurring as all groups unite against Israel’s Bush-backed assault on Gaza.

Now, for some actual peace rallies, in Israel

The first one, from the Galilee: "Jews, Arabs hold peace rally."

Hundreds of Jews and Arabs from the north and center of Israel gathered near Kfar Kara'a on Highway 65 Saturday in a rally for peace. The only sign present at the demonstration read "Hand in hand – neighbors for peace".

A demonstration in Tel Aviv - Meretz and Peace Now

Some one thousand Israeli activists from Peace Now and the left-wing Meretz party protested Saturday against the offensive in Gaza, opposite the Defense Ministry compound in Tel Aviv.

"We have assembled to call on Israel to think twice before expanding the [Gaza] operation, we are here because we care about the IDF soldiers," said Peace Now chief Yariv Oppenheimer.

Israel indicated Saturday that it would begin a third phase of its two-week operation aimed at halting rocket fire on its southern communities, dropping leaflets in Gaza warning civilians that it plans to step up its military campaign.

"This is a demonstration that includes many true Zionists who fear for peace in the country, but our Zionism does not make us crave blood and war," Oppenheimer said.

Meretz chairman Haim Oron also attended the demonstration, and called on the Israeli government to "Stop the war and reach an agreement as soon as possible." This is "the only way to stem the bloodshed," he said.

Oron and Meretz initially supported the Israel Defensive Forces operation when it first began. But, he explained Saturday, "We said that the action's objective was to reach a cease-fire as early and as quickly as possible in order to achieve calm." He said that the time had come for even those who back the operation to call for a truce.

The protesters were joined by activists from the Hadash movement and members of the radical left in Israel. There was a minor skirmish at the sidelines of the protest when Oppenheimer, who is also a member of the Labor Party, tried to pull down a banner reading: "Not pleasant, a murderer," a reference to the election campaign headed by Labor Party leader Ehud Barak.

If I had been in Israel, I would have gone to this demonstration.

A Jew's Prayer for the Children of Gaza

From Bradley Burston of Ha'aretz -

Lord who is the creator of all children, hear our prayer this accursed day. God whom we call Blessed, turn your face to these, the children of Gaza, that they may know your blessings, and your shelter, that they may know light and warmth, where there is now only blackness and smoke, and a cold which cuts and clenches the skin.

Almighty who makes exceptions, which we call miracles, make an exception of the children of Gaza. Shield them from us and from their own. Spare them. Heal them. Let them stand in safety. Deliver them from hunger and horror and fury and grief. Deliver them from us, and from their own.

Restore to them their stolen childhoods, their birthright, which is a taste of heaven.

Remind us, O Lord, of the child Ishmael, who is the father of all the children of Gaza. How the child Ishmael was without water and left for dead in the wilderness of Beer-Sheba, so robbed of all hope, that his own mother could not bear to watch his life drain away.

Be that Lord, the God of our kinsman Ishmael, who heard his cry and sent His angel to comfort his mother Hagar.

Be that Lord, who was with Ishmael that day, and all the days after. Be that God, the All-Merciful, who opened Hagar's eyes that day, and showed her the well of water, that she could give the boy Ishmael to drink, and save his life.

Allah, whose name we call Elohim, who gives life, who knows the value and the fragility of every life, send these children your angels. Save them, the children of this place, Gaza the most beautiful, and Gaza the damned.

In this day, when the trepidation and rage and mourning that is called war, seizes our hearts and patches them in scars, we call to you, the Lord whose name is Peace:

Bless these children, and keep them from harm.

Turn Your face toward them, O Lord. Show them, as if for the first time, light and kindness, and overwhelming graciousness.

Look up at them, O Lord. Let them see your face.

And, as if for the first time, grant them peace.

Gaza - top news story on Google News

One of the things that has been amazing me since the war in Gaza started is how prominent the coverage has been all around the world (not just in Israel or the Arab world). One way to measure this is through looking at the Google news front page - which lists the most popular topics plus how many news articles are devoted to each topic. I couldn't figure out how to make a screenshot of the page, so I've turned it into a PDF and put it on my Google Sites wiki, where it's available as a document with the name Google News.pdf. This is on the home page of the wiki.

The "Top Stories" are about Obama's speech today on the economy (4,524 articles), the Madoff scandal (368 articles), and Blagojevich (520 articles). Certainly from the perspective of people in the U.S., the economy is currently the main story. 

When we turn to the "World" stories, the top one is about Gaza and Israel (33,226 news articles), followed by the Russians turning off natural gas for Europe (7,538 articles), the sacking of the Pakistani security chief (apparently because he admitted that the surviving Mumbai gunman actually is Pakistani) (5,081 articles). 

So, at least according to the Google news algorithm, the top story in the world today is Israel's attacks on Gaza and the conditions in Gaza. Isn't this kind of peculiar?