Washington — A major Jewish communal leader is criticizing the Obama administration’s top official dealing with anti-Semitism.
Alan Solow, a longtime backer of President Obama and chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, issued a statement criticizing the U.S. offical, Hannah Rosenthal.
At issue is a report in Ha’aretz stating that Rosenthal criticized Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, who had described the positions of J Street, a dovish pro-Israel group, as “inimical” to Israel’s interests.
Rosenthal, who was on J Street’s board until her appointment earlier this year, reportedly told Ha’aretz that the comments were “most unfortunate.”
“As an official of the United States government, it is inappropriate for the anti-Semitism envoy to be expressing her personal views on the positions Ambassador Oren has taken as well as on the subject of who needs to be heard from in the Jewish community,” Solow said in his statement, according to Politico. “Such statements have nothing to do with her responsibilities and, based upon comments I am already receiving, could threaten to limit her effectiveness in the area for which she is actually responsible.”
Two left-wing members of the Conference of Presidents – Americans for Peace Now and Ameinu – issued statements earlier this month criticizing Oren over his comments about J Street.
The White House is reportedly circulating a statement from a State Department official praising the Israeli ambassador.
Rosenthal, who could not be reached by JTA for comment, reportedly said that the current Arab-Israeli conflict is “unacceptable” and said that American Jewish views across the spectrum, from right to left, “need to be at the table” in considering the need for Israel to make peace. And she cautioned against confusing criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism.
“I do believe that some of the criticism against Israel is anti-Semitism but not all of it is,” Rosenthal was quoted as saying in the Ha’aretz interview, which was published Thursday. “And I think that healthy democracies – and Israel is one – have to do self reflection and the world looks at the light unto the nations and says I agree to this policy or I don’t agree – that is not anti-Semitism.”
Rosenthal described the United Nations Human Rights Council’s persistent singling out of Israel as “crossing the line” into anti-Semitism. She defined it as “having the U.N. single out Israel for 170 resolutions over the last five years – when everybody knows that Sudan is committing genocide and they have only five resolutions.”
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If it's inappropriate for Rosenthal, an official of the U.S. government, to express her personal views, then it's also inappropriate for Solow, the chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, to express his personal views, which do not represent any official position of the Conference of Presidents, which operates by consensus.
But it's a waste of time to try to reason with people like Solow. This isn't about right or wrong. It's about who can profess the most extreme support for Israel.
Thank you Norman.
And, it's inappropriate for representative of the State of Israel to be commenting on American organizations in that fashion: Now that Oren has been "fully informed," let him put his energy to responding to the "detention" of woman wearing tallit at The Wall.
And, all best to Rosenthal: it's gonna be a bumpy ride!
Esthermiriam,
Not only is it appropriate, it is RIGHT.
Maybe J Street and its non-practicing, self-haters appeal to you, but they will NEVER speak for me.
Don't forget though, to tell me and the rest of us that the Judenrat who had Nazi bayonets in their backs were right to, or the Jewish Ghetto police...because if you say otherwise, you're a hypocrite in your defense of the Soros-paid scum.
J Street - NOT PRO-ISRAEL NOR PRO-PEACE.
Ask Soros, or the Saudi Agents who keep them solvent.
"Rosenthal, who was on J Street’s board until her appointment earlier this year...."
This says it all.
Like I said, no point in trying to reason with them.
The important thing we can do is put it on the record that (1) Solow doesn't speak for all Jews and (2) Solow doesn't even speak for the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations.
I agree with both Norman,s and as leader of New Judaism, I can comfortably state that I represent most American Jews. Judaism demands social justice, and that means supporting the Palestinians in all of their aspirations, including the Right of Return. The Jewish people need to make the ultimate sacrifice by giving up zionism and therefore usher in a golden age of peace for all. The international community of world citizens demands it
For further discussion see Richard Silverstein [Tikun Olam]: "Obama Administration Hangs Rosenthal Out to Dry for Criticism of Oren" http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2009/12/26/obama-administration-aba\ndons-rosenthal-and-courageous-criticism-of-oren/
Bottom Line is this, folks.
Hannah Rosenthal was hired to combat anti-Semitsm, not aid and abet it. She has had no background to do the former, but by her past experience as a J Street groupie, and by this shrill, unwarranted attack on an Ambassador who is a gentleman, scholar of renown, and soldier, she has demonstrated no capability for battling Jew-hate but she sure has aided and abetted Anti-Semitism.
A typical stupid and incompetent choice but then again Obama is known for his hiring of stupid, incompetent sycophants. After all, Uncle Jeremiah's "son" is pretty stupid, gutless and a liar himself, not to mention an anti-semite and reverse racist. Poor dumb Hannah fits the mold.
Let's stop this vindictive, nihilistic, senseless shoot out in the Wild West between Ziomania & Rosen because it looks like the only way the discussing is going is down - way down with no end in sight. As a Jew and ardent Zionist I have little use for either AIPAC or J Street. As far as AIPAC is concerned Israel can do no wrong. According to J Street, Israel can do no right and must be more understanding of the problems & issues confronting the Palestinians. This is all nonsense! First of all, let Ziomania apply the same or even similar standards to the both the Palestinians and other Arabs as she does to Israel. A review of history (real history not politically correct)indicates that whatever flaws and short comings portrayed by Israel these past sixty years the other side has managed to out do her thousands of times over. The Palestinians are hardly the residual by product of the Holocaust, but rather willing participants. According to the official records kept by the British Foreign Office in Palestine from 1922 to 1951, of the 700,000 "Palestinians" who fled or were driven out of Israel in 1948 at least half only migrated to Palestine as recently as the 1920's & 1930's when most of the Jews came. They did so because the British relaxed many of the traveling restrictions originally imposed by the Ottomans from about 1453 to 1919. By the way these same records were used as bibliography by Jimmy Carter in his highly controversial book a few years ago which most interpret to be highly anti-Israel. That obviosly corroborates the validity of the records. Natually the relationships between the two new arriving peoples were less than cordial resulting in conflict with atrocies committed on both sides. But in 1939 under pressure from the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the leader of the Palestinians, the British issued the White Paper not only negating the Balfour Declaration but closing Palestine off to further Jewish immigration when by then they were fleeing Hitler. However Arabs continued to pour in from other Arab countries unabated. Why the double standard? The Grand Mufti then fled Palestine and after co-leading an unsuccessful revolt against the British in Iraq in 1941 fled to Nazi Germany and spent the rest of the war as Hitler's guest. When the Nazis occupied the former Yugoslavia in 1941 Himmler put him in charge of a Muslim brigade of Pro Nazi troops who rounded up much of the Balkan's Jewish population and helped deport them to their final destination. When Germany surrendered, the Grand Mufti found his way back to Palestine where he was welcomed as a hero by his countrymen. So much for the innocence of the so-called Palestinians. Subsequent to 1948 these people were actually punished by God for their collaboration with the Nazis and the rest is history.
As far as Rosen is concerned, you must remember that Israel, like the United States is comprised of human beings that are mortal with all kinds of frailties. We are not perfect. Only Ziomania, the Palestinians and their supporters are. As true democracies do have to hold ourselves up to a higher standard and are therefore capable of short comings. The expansion of the settlements on the West Bank are exacerbating the situation much in the same way as those who seek Israel's destruction are. Israel, like the United States is far from perfect but democracies cleanse their sins and dirty laundry out in the open unlike the other side (if they even cleanse them at all).
Hopefully this will put things in proper perspective and let both AIPAC and J Street continue to make their meaningless noise. But then again, empty barrels make the loudest noise!
Norman "I support Hamas and Israel making peace, because both sides will be better off under peace than war."
Israel supports peace. Israel withdrew from Gaza and has no interest in war. Hamas supports the elimination of Israel and the murder or Jews. Read its charter.
"Rose (SIC) wants Palestinians and Israelis to fight each other to the death, in the belief that there won't be too many Jewish deaths."
Bullshit, Rosen does not want a "fight to the death." He wants peace between Israel and the Palestinians. He wants a resumption of talks and he is for two States a Jewish State and an Arabs State leaving side by side in pece and security.
Does Norman want real peace, or the elimination of israel?
Also Rosen already served in the US army and did do his own figthing. Rosen has friends in Israel and supports their desire to leave in peace and security in their own country.
Where did Norman serve?
I don't have any more to say to people who defend Solow (other than, "If you're such a dedicated Zionist, why aren't you living in Israel?"), but by way of education for the people like me who want a just peace for the Palestinians, I'd recommend the following article from The Guardian.
Gordon, like the historian Gershom Gorenberg, describes how the Palestinians started their resistance with peaceful, nonviolent protest, modeled on Ghandi (!), but the Israelis responded with brutality. According to Gordon, Israeli generals, *by their own accounts,* deliberately provoked the Palestinians into violence.
So when you complain about the Hamas Charter, or about the Gazans electing Hamas, or about firing rockets into Sderot, the answer to you is, the Hamas movement is a creature of your own making. You had many chances to work with nonviolent Palestinians who were trying to get a peaceful solution, and you rejected it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/23/israel-palestinian-peace-movement
Guardian, 23 Dec 2009, Breaking Palestine's peaceful protest, Neve Gordon.
Gordon says that Palestinians started peaceful non-violent resistance modeled on Ghandi from the beginning.
In 1967, Palestinians in Nablus started a campaign against introduction of Israeli textbooks in Palestinian schools, with a general strike. Israel categorized all forms of resistance as insurgency, including protests, meetings, publishing articles and listening to nationalist songs.
Maj. General Shlomo Gazit said in his book The Carrot and the Stick, Israel wanted to convey the message that any act of resistance would result in a disproportionate response.
The Second Intifada also began as a popular nonviolent uprising, but as Haaretz journalist Akiva Eldar revealed, top Israeli security echelons decided to "fan the flames"; Amos Malka said that the Army fired 1.3 million bullets to intensify the level of violence, to lead to a swift and decisive military victory and the successful suppression of the rebellion.
This policy continues today. Abdallah Abu Rahman, a high school teacher and coordinator of Bil'in's Popular Committee Against the Wall, was arrested on 2am 10 December, as part of a coordinated attack.
Here is an example of peaceful resitance:
Hamas Charter
Hamas Principles The principles of the Hamas are stated in their Covenant or Charter, given in full below. Following are highlights.
"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).
"The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. "
"There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."
"After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying."
http://www.mideastweb.org/hamas.htm
Norman is either ignorant Jew hater or a liar and a hypocrite for not moving to Gaza.
More on the Charter:
"The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas)"
18 August 1988 "
In The Name Of The Most Merciful Allah
"Ye are the best nation that hath been raised up unto mankind: ye command that which is just, and ye forbid that which is unjust, and ye believe in Allah. And if they who have received the scriptures had believed, it had surely been the better for them: there are believers among them, but the greater part of them are transgressors. They shall not hurt you, unless with a slight hurt; and if they fight against you, they shall turn their backs to you, and they shall not be helped. They are smitten with vileness wheresoever they are found; unless they obtain security by entering into a treaty with Allah, and a treaty with men; and they draw on themselves indignation from Allah, and they are afflicted with poverty. This they suffer, because they disbelieved the signs of Allah, and slew the prophets unjustly; this, because they were rebellious, and transgressed." (Al-Imran - verses 109-111).
Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it" (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).
"The Islamic world is on fire. Each of us should pour some water, no matter how little, to extinguish whatever one can without waiting for the others." (Sheikh Amjad al-Zahawi, of blessed memory)."
....
From article 7
""The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.""
............
Article 28
"The Zionist invasion is a vicious invasion. It does not refrain from resorting to all methods, using all evil and contemptible ways to achieve its end. It relies greatly in its infiltration and espionage operations on the secret organizations it gave rise to, such as the Freemasons, The Rotary and Lions clubs, and other sabotage groups. All these organizations, whether secret or open, work in the interest of Zionism and according to its instructions. They aim at undermining societies, destroying values, corrupting consciences, deteriorating character and annihilating Islam. It is behind the drug trade and alcoholism in all its kinds so as to facilitate its control and expansion.
Arab countries surrounding Israel are asked to open their borders before the fighters from among the Arab and Islamic nations so that they could consolidate their efforts with those of their Muslim brethren in Palestine.
As for the other Arab and Islamic countries, they are asked to facilitate the movement of the fighters from and to it, and this is the least thing they could do.
We should not forget to remind every Muslim that when the Jews conquered the Holy City in 1967, they stood on the threshold of the Aqsa Mosque and proclaimed that "Mohammed is dead, and his descendants are all women."
Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Muslim people. "May the cowards never sleep.""
http://www.mideastweb.org/hamas.htm
Yoram,
If you live in Israel, I wonder how you feel about the killings of children, some of them 3 and 5 years old, by IDF soldiers, as documented by the Goldstone report?
Rosen is filling this conference with quotations from the Hamas Charter.
That's the point. The Hamas Charter has extremist statements about exterminating the enemy, just as the Torah has extremist statements about exterminating the enemy. (And settler Rabbis are quoting those passages today.)
So what? People on both sides who want peace will ignore those extremist statements and make peace.
Norman "If you live in Israel, I wonder how you feel about the killings of children, some of them 3 and 5 years old, by IDF soldiers, as documented by the Goldstone report?"
I feel terrible about the killing of children.
The PLO going back to the 1960's and since then Hamas have been deliberatley targeting Jewish children. How do you feel about that?
The Goldstone report was flawed from beginning to end.
How do you feel about Hamas firing rockets into Israel some of whom have maimed women and children, Norman?
Yoram,
I believe that the killing of children is a horrible crime. I believe that we should do everything possible to stop it. I believe that anyone guilty of such a crime should be prosecuted.
And I believe we should clean up our own house first.
If the PLO targets children, the individuals and leaders responsible should be prosecuted -- PROVIDED people on both sides are prosecuted equally for the same crimes.
Amnesty International has called for the prosecution of people on both sides who commit war crimes. I agree.
This idea of yours that Jews who criticize Israel are willing to ignore Palestinian crimes is a propaganda fantasy.
Getting to the Israeli killings of Palestinian children -- this has been documented repeatedly, by human rights organizations founded by Jews, like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and B'Tselem, and reported by journalists from the major news media, many of them Jewish, and supporters of Israel, like Thomas Friedman. This policy was confirmed by the Goldstone report. In one case, an IDF lawyer wrote a letter to B'Tselem and denied the facts required any further investigation -- and accidentally included a copy of her own memo to her supervisor which revealed that she was lying. So IDF soldiers repeatedly kill Palestinian children without justification, and are not punished for it.
If you're going to reject the Goldstone report, and say that it doesn't convince you that the IDF killed innocent children -- then nothing will convince you. You're refusing to accept the documented truth.
You're doing the same thing that the Holocaust deniers are doing.
Every Jew should read this and decide what the lesson of the Holocaust is.
When Germans killed Jews, most German defended Germany. Some spoke out against it.
Now Jews are killing Palestinian children. Will you defend it? Or will you speak out against it?
Poland turns to Sweden in probe of Auschwitz theft
Move confirms confirming authorities suspect Swedish link in robbery of 'Arbeit Macht Frei' sign
Poland will formally seek Sweden's help in investigating the theft of the "Arbeit Macht Frei" ("Work Sets You Free") sign from the Auschwitz memorial, confirming that Polish authorities suspect a Swedish link in the crime.
Boguslawa Marcinkowska, a spokeswoman for Krakow prosecutors, says her office will send a formal request for help Wednesday to the Swedish Justice Ministry in Stockholm.
Polish media have been reporting that the theft was commissioned by a collector living in Sweden, but investigators have not confirmed that.
The sign was stolen earlier this month and found two days later cut into three pieces. Police have arrested five men whom they described as common criminals who likely stole the sign on a commission from abroad.