Wednesday’s “News in Review” Round-Up

New Year 5775: a Few Thoughts: Baruch Cohen, CIJR, Sept. 24, 2014

Rosh Hashanah: Challenges and Optimism: Isi Leibler, Candidly Speaking, Sept. 22 , 2014

The Virtues of Judaism: Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Jewish Press, Sept. 24, 2014

                            

NEW YEAR 5775: A FEW THOUGHTS                                               

Baruch Cohen                                                                                                      

CIJR, Sept. 24, 2014

 

Rosh Hashanah is called the Day of Judgement. Taking the three steps that places him before God with every Amidah prayer, a Jew on Rosh Hashanah takes his/her stand before eternity. Anyone who ever wonders at the order of the universe, at its beauty, at the fact that something exists rather than nothing at all – any such person can confront eternity, for, even though a fleck of dust, he can know himself to be one. He therefore stands in judgment for the way he uses, or wastes, the small amount of time allotted to him. A Jew does not know who he is until he finds himself judged.

 

Rosh Hashanah stresses the universalist motif of Judaism: the prayers are not for the individual, or only for Israel’s people, alone. There is a wonderful Hebrew phrase: Heshabon Hanefesh, the taking stock of one’s soul, a kind of sitting in judgment upon oneself, an inner accounting. Tikun Olam – the mending of the world, is the center, the leitmotif of Rosh Hashanah prayers. There is a powerful plea not only for Israel, but for the redemption of the entire world. Rosh Hashanah stresses the universalist motif of Judaism. In truth, one prays for brotherhood, and for the entire world, for the annihilation of hatred and discrimination. The prayers of Rosh Hashanah oppose any forms of racism that menace the world today! The prayers are a clear and strong plea for the establishment – in the entire world – of brotherhood and peace. There is a poignant plea in those prayers for the establishment of righteousness and truth, for the spirit of brotherhood, and the conquest of tyranny and inequality. Rosh Hashanah prayers are universal for the redemption, not only of Israel alone, but of the entire world. In the words of the Psalmist, to rejoice with trembling is in itself a sublime lesson. On the Day of Judgement, motivated by profound and earnest meditation, we render an accounting of our life and actions. Through the sounding of the shofar, we recall Creation and Revelation of Mount Sinai, and anticipate Messianic advent and Return to Zion!

 

May good health, peace, and joy be bestowed upon the House of Israel, on the entire world, and upon all CIJR friends and supporters for the coming year 5775!                                                                                                                                       

 

 

(Baruch Cohen is Research Chairman of CIJR)                                                                                                                                        

Contents
                       

ROSH HASHANAH: CHALLENGES AND OPTIMISM                                          

Isi Leibler                                                                                                                           

Candidly Speaking, Sept. 22, 2014

 

On the eve of Rosh Hashana 5775, traditional Jews are engaged in teshuva — reviewing the past year and soul-searching with a view to enhancing our moral standards for the coming year. While we indulge in self-criticism, we must also condemn the pessimism of the prophets of gloom in our midst and remain optimistic and positive about the future. Last year was indeed an annus horribilis, but we successfully confronted our challenges and with the help of the Almighty will continue doing so.

 

Of course we are frustrated that, because of a variety of valid external factors, the Israel Defense Forces was inhibited from unleashing its full might and we could not totally eliminate Hamas. Indeed, unless the global community determinedly cooperates in the demilitarization of Gaza, we may soon face another round of hostilities. But the fact remains that, notwithstanding the tragic loss of 66 soldiers, the IDF achieved its goals and Hamas failed to achieve its key objectives. We should appreciate that by destroying the Hamas tunnels, the IDF forestalled massive casualties and abductions of Israelis civilians. We should, above all, be thankful for the miraculous success of Iron Dome which prevented major Israeli casualties on the home front. It has become clear to the nation that if Israel ceded the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority, Hamas would take control — either by an election or by a coup — and extend Hamastan to the entire area. Clearly, in the absence of defensible borders and total demilitarization, a Palestinian state is — currently — off the agenda.

 

Another positive outcome of the war is the unprecedented potential for realignment or a working relationship between Israel and a number of Arab states in combating Islamic terrorism. This prospect has gained momentum in the context of the regional chaos and explosive military successes of ISIS and other barbaric Islamic fundamentalist groups that have superseded al-Qaida. They represent evil incarnate and their beheadings and carnage shocked much of the Arab world, as well as the U.S. and the West. We were disappointed with the negative diplomatic stances adopted against us by the Obama administration during the Gaza war. However the achievements of ISIS further highlight the failure of U.S. policy in the region but may hopefully result in a more rational U.S. policy in relation to global jihad. It will undoubtedly reinforce support for us by the American people and Congress and deter President Barack Obama from future political forays against our interests…

The silver lining is that after 2000 years of dispersion, the Jewish state today offers a haven for all Jews. The desperation of the Jews in the 1930s when they were denied entry visas to any country and perished in the Holocaust will never be repeated. Many Jews, especially in Europe, unwilling to live like pariahs and seeing no future for their children in such societies, will emigrate. Diaspora Jews committed to Jewish continuity are also aware of the intermarriage rates ranging from 50 percent to 70 percent and the effect on whether their grandchildren remain Jewish. Hopefully, many will choose Israel where they can fully express their Jewish identity…Shana Tova and Am Yisrael Chai…                                                     

[To Read the Full Article Click the Following Link—Ed.]                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Contents
                       

 

                                                             

THE VIRTUES OF JUDAISM                                                                

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks                                                                                       

Jewish Press, Sept. 24, 2014

 

Who am I? What are the most important things in my life? What do I want to be remembered for? If, as a purely hypothetical exercise, I were to imagine reading my own obituary, what would I want it to say? These are the questions Rosh Hashanah urges us to ask ourselves. As we pray to G-d to write us in the book of life, G-d asks us what we intend to do with this, His most precious gift. How do we use our time? The shofar of Rosh Hashanah reminds us of many things. It recalls the binding of Isaac, when G-d told Abraham to stop and offer up, instead, a ram that had been caught by its horn in a bush. It reminds us of the Torah, given at Mount Sinai, when “the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the shofar grew louder and louder.” It was blown to mark the Jubilee, the 50th year, when freedom was proclaimed throughout the land.

 

The shofar was the sound of victory at Jericho. It was blown in celebration when King David brought the Ark to Jerusalem. Jeremiah calls it the sound of war. Amos called it the sound of danger: “When the shofar sounds in a city, do not the people tremble?” Joel called it the sound of the End of Days. One of the psalms we say on Friday night calls it the herald proclaiming the arrival of the King: “With trumpets and the blast of the shofar, shout for joy before the Lord, the King.” Maimonides, though, calls the shofar of Rosh Hashanah a wake-up call. He says that without such a call, we can sleepwalk through life, caring about trivialities. The sound of the shofar wakes us up and makes us conscious of the fragility of life. Who knows how much time we have left? None of us will live forever. So how do we use our time?

Much recent research on happiness yields surprising conclusions. We can spend our days in pursuit of wealth, yet beyond a certain comfort zone where we do not have to worry, greater wealth is not correlated with higher levels of happiness. The status of a particular job has less to do with happiness than the fulfillment we receive from a job well done. The sources of happiness lie all around us: our family, our friends, the work we do voluntarily, the sense we have of being part of a community, the feeling we have that we are part of something worthwhile. A whole series of medical research projects has shown that faith, prayer and regular attendance at a house of worship actually have an effect on health and life expectancy. Not always, for surely we all know of deeply spiritual people who die tragically young. But for the most part, faith gives us an anchor in the storm, a compass as we navigate the future, a shelter when we are buffeted by the winds of circumstance.

 

Often in the highly charged debates between atheists and religious believers, it seems as if all religion is, is a set of beliefs. It surely is, but that is not all it is. Judaism is a way of life, a code of conduct, a calendar. It shapes our experience of time into a kind of rhythm. Three times daily prayer, Shabbat, the festivals and the Days of Awe function like paragraph- and chapter-breaks in the story of our lives. So we work, but one day in seven we also rest and spend more time than usual with family and friends. In shul we reestablish our links with the community. Through the festivals we relive the history of our people, and cure ourselves of the narrow sense of living for the moment. On Rosh Hashanah we ask, “Why am I here?” On Yom Kippur we try to make amends for the wrongs we have done, and rededicate ourselves to the things we hold holy…

 

Jewish faith, which suffuses all our acts but especially the act of prayer, tells us that we are not alone in the universe, that at the heart of being is One who created us in love, hears our prayers, and believes in us more than we believe in ourselves. Judaism helps us hear the music beneath the noise, the theme beyond the episodes, the meaning that links our days and years into a story of a life well lived because it has been lived in the light of high ideals. We will always fall short; everyone does. But we stand as tall as the values that inspire us, and those of Judaism are the highest ever asked of a people. So as you hear the shofar, think of what, in the year to come, you will live for. And may G-d write you, your family, and all Israel in the Book of Life.       

 

“Hamas is ISIS. ISIS is Hamas,” —Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, drawing a parallel between the world’s growing anti-ISIS coalition and Israel’s own efforts to fight Hamas. Netanyahu said he applauded U.S. and Canadian efforts to battle a “common enemy” that is “threatening everyone.” Netanyahu added: “They have different minutiae of theological differences of ethnic origin. Who cares? They are part and parcel of the same militant Islamic scourge.” (National Post, Sept. 23, 2014)

 

“If you fight it (Islamic State), it becomes stronger and tougher. If you leave it alone, it grows and expands. If Obama has promised you with defeating the Islamic State, then Bush has also lied before him,”—Islamic State spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani. Adnani said the intervention by the US-led coalition against I.S. would be the “final campaign of the crusaders,” according to an English-language transcript of an audio recording in Arabic. “It will be broken and defeated, just as all your previous campaigns were broken and defeated,” Adnani said in the statement, which urged followers to attack US, French, Canadians, Australians and other nationals. Addressing Obama directly, Adnani added: “O mule of the Jews, you claimed today that America would not be drawn into a war on the ground. No, it will be drawn and dragged … to its death, grave and destruction.” The U.S. and allies launched an expansive attack on extremist fighters in Syria on Monday night as air strikes hit I.S. strongholds and another anti-Western group. Five Arab countries, including Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, helped carry out the air strikes in Syria, with some flying alongside the U.S. warplanes, according to an allied official. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 22, 2014 & Wall Street Journal, Sept. 23, 2014)

 

“If America and Pakistan really want it, peace will come to Afghanistan,” — Outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai, in his farewell speech on Tuesday. Karzai used the speech to take one last swipe at the U.S., capping a long-testy relationship with the accusation that the U.S. hasn’t wanted peace in Afghanistan. “War in Afghanistan is based on the aims of foreigners. The war in Afghanistan is to the benefit of foreigners. But Afghans on both sides are the sacrificial lambs and victims of this war,” said Karzai. Karzai’s relationship with the U.S. has grown increasingly fragile in recent years, but the U.S.-Afghan relationship may get a reset on Monday, when President-elect Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai will be sworn in. The U.S. has spent more than $100 billion on aid in Afghanistan since 2001 to train and equip the country’s security forces, to pave crumbling dirt roads, to upgrade hospitals and to build schools. More than 2,200 U.S. forces have died in Afghanistan operations since 2001. Nearly 20,000 have been wounded. The UN says that some 8,000 Afghan civilians have been killed in the conflict over the last five years alone. (Breitbart, 23 Sept. 2014)

 

“Those elections that the foreigners considered the fruition of their 13-year-old occupation are now seen as a historical shame,” —Taliban message to NATO leaders earlier this month. Some in the Taliban movement supported Afghan President-elect Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, a Pashtun like most Taliban leaders, who draws most of his support from the ethnic Pashtun areas of southeastern Afghanistan. (Wall Street Journal, Sept. 19, 2014)

Contents

 

IDF SHOOTS DOWN SYRIAN FIGHTER PLANE INFILTRATING ISRAELI TERRITORY (Jerusalem) —The IDF’s aerial defense system on Tuesday fired a Patriot missile and shot down a Syrian Sukhoi 24 fighter jet that infiltrated Israeli territory. This is the first time since the Lebanon War in the 1980s that the IAF has toppled a Syrian aircraft. The jet apparently took off from a base in eastern Syria and was toppled after it had reached an altitude of 10,000-14,000 feet. At that height, the plane was capable of launching attacks on the Syrian rebel forces near the Israeli border. Although Israel did not see any threat of attack on its own territory from that plane, its policy stipulates that any plane that breaches its territorial authority must be downed to avoid security risk. (Ha’aretz, Sept. 23, 2014)

 

3 TEENS’ SUSPECTED MURDERERS KILLED IN CAPTURE ATTEMPT (Jerusalem) —Israeli forces found and killed the two main Palestinian suspects behind the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens earlier in the summer, after a several month manhunt. Marwan Kawasme and Amer Abu Aysha were both killed during an early Tuesday arrest attempt in Hebron, the IDF said in a statement. The operation was carried out by the Shin Bet along with IDF soldiers and troops from the Yamam police anti-terror unit. The two were responsible for the abduction and killing of Naftali Fraenkel, 16, Gil-ad Shaar, 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19, on June 12. (Times Of Israel, Sept. 23, 2014)

 

MORE THAN 130,000 SYRIAN KURDS FLEE INTO TURKEY TO ESCAPE I.S. OFFENSIVE (Ankara) —More than 130,000 Syrian Kurds fleeing an advance by IS have crossed into Turkey in the past three days and the authorities are preparing for more, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Monday. “We are prepared for the worst scenario, which is an influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees,” Kurtulmus told reporters in the capital Ankara. Residents fleeing the frontier town of Ayn al-Arab, known in Kurdish as Kobani, and its surrounding villages said the militants were executing people of all ages in the areas they had seized to create a climate of fear and slavish obedience. Some Syrian Kurds compared their plight to the Yazidi minority in Iraq, which came under attack from I.S. earlier this year. (Globe & Mail, Sept. 21, 2014)

 

AUSTRALIA STEPS UP SECURITY AFTER REPORTED IS PLOT TO ATTACK LAWMAKERS (Canberra) —Intercepted intelligence indicating IS could be planning to attack Australian lawmakers triggered a security alert at  the country’s Parliament building Friday. Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that Australian Federal Police would ramp up security in the Parliament House building in Canberra after agencies intercepted intelligence pointing to attacks against lawmakers, including Abbott. The development comes a day after hundreds of police carried out raids in major Australian cities to disrupt an alleged plot by IS to snatch people off the streets and behead at least one. In an update to this story, on Tuesday an 18-year-old man who had made threats against Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott was shot dead in Melbourne, reports say. (Fox News, Sept. 20, 2014 & BBC, Sept. 23, 2014)

 

DETAILS OF TERROR PLOT EMERGE AFTER OTTAWA MAN’S GUILTY PLEA (Ottawa) —He is the type of terrorist the government has been warning about: a fanatic who returned from a war zone with a plan to set off explosions in Canada. Yet Hiva Alizadeh, a 34-year-old living in Ottawa and trained in Afghanistan, never got a chance to execute his plan. The scheme had involved 56 detonation devices he’d built with instruction from Taliban-aligned fighters and smuggled into Canada. “If Allah wills, we will break their backs in their own country,” he was caught saying in Ottawa, on a wiretap, before his 2010 arrest. Such evidence was kept secret until last week, when Alizadeh – who had sworn an oath to al-Qaeda – entered a surprise guilty plea to terrorism charges in an Ottawa court. The plea got him a 24-year sentence. Globe & Mail, Sept. 17, 2014)

 

CANADA STARTS REVOKING TERRORISTS’ PASSPORTS (Ottawa) —The Canadian government has begun invalidating the passports of Canadians who have left to join terror groups in Syria and Iraq, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander announced on Friday. The minister said his department had also revoked the passports of several Canadians who had not yet left the country but who had intended to travel to the region to enlist as fighters. Although he refused to disclose just how many of passports Canada had revoked he admitted there were “multiple cases.” The government reports about 30 Canadians are aligned with extremist groups in Syria and 130 are active elsewhere. (Arutz Sheva, Sept. 20, 2014)

 

ARAB BANK FOUND LIABLE OVER HAMAS ATTACKS, US JURY SAYS (New York) —In a historic verdict, an 11 member jury on Monday found Arab Bank liable for knowingly providing financial services to Hamas – the first time a financial institution has ever been held civilly liable for supporting terrorism. The Arab Bank trial took place in a federal court in Brooklyn for the last five weeks and revisited some of Hamas’ worst terror attacks, including the August 2001 Sbarro suicide bombing in Jerusalem killing or wounding 130 and a range of 24 horrid terror attacks during the Second Intifada. 297 plaintiffs who were injured or are family members of those murdered in the 24 terror attacks from 1998-2004 financed via Saudi Arabia and Hezbollah’s al-Shahid Foundation sued the bank in 2004 for allowing itself to be used as a conduit for the terror funds. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 22, 2014)
                                                                                                                                                LANCET ‘HIJACKED IN ANTI-ISRAEL CAMPAIGN’ (London) —According to senior British medical figures, the Lancet is being hijacked to campaign indefatigably against Israel, and used as a platform by alleged conspiracy theorists. In August, it published a controversial “open letter for the people of Gaza” that condemned Israel in the strongest possible terms, but strikingly made no mention of Hamas’ atrocities. The five principal authors have campaigned vociferously for the Palestinian cause over many years. NGO Monitor, an Israeli watchdog, points out that over the past 15 years, the journal has formed a number of partnerships with Palestinian groups, including the Lancet-Palestinian Health Alliance, Medical Aid for Palestinians and the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme. By contrast, there have been no comparable collaborations with Israeli groups. (Telegraph, Sept. 22, 2014)

 

FLEEING UNREST, UKRAINIAN JEWS ARRIVE IN ISRAEL (Tel Aviv) —Days before Rosh Hashana, 140 immigrants from Russia and Ukraine arrived in Israel, including refugees from war-torn Luhansk. Held by Moscow- backed separatists rebelling against Kiev, the Jewish community of that city has been scattered to the winds, with many taking refuge in Kharkov, Kiev and Dnipropetrovsk. Approximately 4,200 Ukrainian immigrants have come so far in the Jewish calendar year of 5774, an increase of 110% over the previous year, according to figures the Jewish Agency released on Monday. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 22, 2014)       

                                               

 

CIJR Wishes all our Friends and Supporters:                                                         

Happy Rosh Hashonah, and a Happy, Healthy, and Peaceful New Year!

 

On Topic Links 

 

Dealing With Foreign Fighters Who Return Home Must go Beyond Imprisonment, Experts Say: Douglas Quam, Postmedia, Sept. 17, 2014 —With reports surfacing that some westerners fighting in Syria and other conflict zones have become fed up with what they signed up for, governments are wrestling with how to deal with this disillusioned bunch if they come home.

The Guns of August: Jonathan Spyer, Middle East Forum, Sept. 17, 2014 —Erbil has changed a lot since I was there last. In early 2013, on my way into Syrian Kurdistan, I had stopped off in the city for a few days to make preparations.

A Chance To Wish IDF Soldiers a Sweet & WET New Year!: Jewish Press, Sept. 23, 2014— Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is coming up and while most Jews will be praying in synagogues for a healthy and sweet year, the men and women in the IDF will be on duty protecting Israel from those who seek her destruction.

 

Rob Coles, Publications Editor, Canadian Institute for Jewish Research/L’institut Canadien de recherches sur le Judaïsme,   www.isranet.org Tel: (514) 486-5544 – Fax:(514) 486-8284. mailto:ber@isranet.wpsitie.com