The U.S. authorities' recent arrest of an Israeli for seeking to sell arms to Somalia raises disturbing questions and answers
At least seven Israeli arms dealers are currently in jail in four countries - the United States, Russia, France and Britain - on charges of illegal arms dealing. Some of them are also suspected of crimes such as forgery, bribery, money laundering and violating UN Security Council embargoes. Such arrests are briefly covered in Israel and then forgotten. But they have a cumulative effect that is very damaging to Israel's image, or what remains of it.
Even though it is doubtful whether those in jail know one another, they have quite a lot in common. All are men in their fifties or sixties. All are well to do (or were in the past ), having made most of their money in international arms dealing or in exporting security services and equipment from Israel. They served in the Israel Defense Forces and reached mid-level ranks (from captain to lieutenant colonel ), and when they were arrested, they denied the charges. Friends who came to their assistance described them, naturally, as "the salt of the earth."
All seven are familiar faces in the corridors of the defense establishment, and at one time received arms dealing permits from the Defense Ministry. All sought to "expedite procedures" in violation of local or international laws, and did so out of pure greed. Due to this covetousness, they also fell into traps and can expect to face many years in jail.
Shimon Naor-Hershkowitz is detained in France and will apparently be extradited to Romania, where he will serve an 11-year jail sentence. He was convicted of forging documents (end-user certificates ) that he used to purchase Romanian arms together with a Romanian partner (who later informed on him to the authorities ). The arms were ostensibly destined for Togo, but in reality were sent to rebels in Angola.
Yair Klein has been held for over a year in a Russian jail, after being arrested there at the behest of Colombia, which wants him on charges of training drug barons' bodyguards. Klein, almost 70, may be the Israeli who comes closest to being a "mercenary" of the ugliest sort. He has previously done jail time in Sierra Leone.
In a British jail sits Gidon Sarig, 58, who was sentenced several months ago to seven years in prison for selling arms and other combat gear to parties in Venezuela, Peru, Senegal, Nigeria, Gabon and, primarily, Sri Lanka.
And in January, Ofer Pazaf, 50, the president of a Kfar Sava company that works as an intermediary and represents security consultants and defense industries, was arrested in Las Vegas. Arrested with him were two other Israelis who have lived in the U.S. for several years: Yohanan Cohen, 47, the CEO of a San Francisco company that manufactures security gear, and Haim Gary, 50, the president of a Miami company that functions as a middleman for defense companies. More
Tension within coalition as foreign minister accuses Netanyahu of undermining trust following reports PM approved clandestine talks with Turkish foreign minister.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman reacted furiously on Wednesday to reports that a cabinet colleague had held a secret meeting with the Turkish government, saying the move had damaged his relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Lieberman accused the prime minister of undermining his authority after it emerged that another minister, Benjamin Ben Eliezer, had met with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Switzerland - without first gaining permission from the foreign ministry.
"The foreign minister takes a very serious view of the fact that this occurred without informing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," Lieberman's office said in a statement. "This is an insult to the norms of accepted behavior and a heavy blow to the confidence between the foreign minister and the prime minister."
Ben Eliezer, a Knesset member of Defense MInister Ehud Barak's Labor party, has over the past few weeks expressed concern over Israel's deteriorating relationswith Turkey. Ties between the once-close allies have come close to breakdown following a deadly raid by Israeli commandos on a Turkish-flagged aid ship a month ago.
Wednesday's talks were apparently aimed at repairing the diplomatic damage.
Later on Wednesday, Netanyahu's office released a statement that cited technical grounds for the failure to inform Lieberman of the meeting in Zurich.
Turkish officials had approached Ben Eliezer perosnally with a request for an informal discussion, which the prime minister had seen no cause to block, the statement said.
"In recent weeks there have been several attempts at contacts with Turkey of which the foreign ministry was aware," the statement said. "The foreign minister was not informed for technical reasons only. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is working in full cooperation with the foreign minister and will clarify the incident with him."
Lieberman's hard-line Yisrael Beiteinu party is the second largest in the government coalition, behind Netanyahu's Likud. But the foreign minister's right-wing views have made him unpalatable to many of Israel's allies and he has often taken a back seat internationally, leaving high-level diplomacy to Netanyahu and Barak.
Following Israel's May 31 raid, Ben Eliezer broke with other ministers in demanding an international inquiry into the incident, in which nine pro-Palestinian activists, eight of them Turkish, were killed.
Israel is conducting its own probe, led by a former Supreme Court judge and monitored by two international observers. http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/lieberman-slams-netanyahu-over-government-s-secret-meeting-with-turkey-1.299245
A secret meeting between Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to try and repair Israeli-Turkish ties could very well end up harming relations between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman.
Lieberman issued a harsh response on Wednesday night to a Channel 2 report that Netanyahu had dispatched Ben-Eliezer, known for his good ties with the Turks, to a meeting with Davutoglu that took place in Zurich without informing Lieberman. Defense Minister Ehud Barak reportedly also knew about the meeting.
The meeting was aimed at improving relations that have deteriorated since the May 31 IDF raid on a Turkish-owned ship trying to block the blockade on Gaza, in which nine Turkish men were killed.
“The foreign minister views very gravely the fact that this was done without informing the Foreign Ministry,” said a statement put out by Lieberman’s office. “This harms both the norms of orderly government and the confidence between the foreign minister and the prime minister.”
The statement said that Lieberman planned to clarify the matter “to the fullest.”
The Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement of its own, saying that the failure to inform Lieberman of the meeting was due to “technical” reasons.
According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Ben-Eliezer informed Netanyahu about overtures being made to him by a Turkish official regarding an informal meeting.
“The prime minister saw no reason why the meeting should not be held, since over the last few weeks there were a number of initiatives for contacts with the Turks which the Foreign Ministry knew about,” the statement read.
The failure to update the ministry about this particular meeting was due “only to a technical reason,” it added.
According to the statement, the prime minister “cooperates fully” with Lieberman and will “clarify with him the details of this incident.”
No information on the content of the meeting between Ben-Eliezer and Davutoglu was released.
It's a conspiracy theorist's dream. For the last two weeks there has been a crescendo of reports that Israel and the United States are preparing for war against Iran.
On the face of it, they appeared to indicate that war was just around the corner. But they don't stand up under closer examination.
On June 19, the Arabic language newspaper Al Quds Al-Arabi, published in London, reported that the U.S. Navy battle group headed by the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, had sailed south through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea the day before.
On June 22, the Israeli Web site Debkafile, which is reputed to have links with Israeli intelligence and a widely suspected purveyor of disinformation, reported that the carrier group had "secretly" exercised in the Mediterranean off Israel to intercept missile attacks against Israeli and U.S. targets June 10-18.
Debka said the U.S. and Israeli governments didn't announce these drills, which also involved the Truman's 60 F/A-18E/F Super Hornet strike jets simulating bombing attacks using the firing range at the sprawling Nevatim Air Base in the Negev Desert.
But such exercises are nothing out of the ordinary, even though the timing may have seemed somewhat sinister.
Then Brig. Gen. Mehdi Moini of Iran's Revolutionary Guards announced in Tehran, also June 22, that heavy reinforcements were en route to the Caspian Sea region to "repel" what Iran claimed were U.S. and Israeli forces deploying at air bases in Azerbaijan. Other Iranian sources reported Israel had secretly dispatched warplanes to Azerbaijan via Georgia, while U.S. Special Forces were concentrating in Azerbaijan.
There was no independent confirmation of this and the Baku government made no comment.
The Americans and Israelis have long been reported to maintain electronic intelligence-gathering stations near Azerbaijan's border with Iran.
But there has been no other report of such military deployments in that region and U.S. and Israeli fighter squadrons, with all their support equipment, are very hard to hide.
The U.S. security consultancy Stratfor, noted these reports may have originated with a June 18 article by a "sensationalist American opinion writer."
"However rumors of Israel using Georgia as a base for a strike on Iran go back to at least 2008. These rumors have never proved accurate and Stratfor has no credible evidence that the current rumors are any different," Stratfor said.
Georgia and Azerbaijan "would not be bad locations for basing air power to strike Iran," Stratfor observed.
But, "there would simply be too much visible activity involved in the run-up to a Caucasus-based air campaign against Iran to keep those preparations secret."
On June 23, the semi-official Iranian Fars news agency reported Israeli helicopters had landed large amounts of military equipment at Tabuk Air Base in northwestern Saudi Arabia June 18-19 in apparent preparation for an attack on Iran.
The Sunday Times of London reported June 12 that Riyadh had agreed to allow Israeli warplanes to fly through its air space to attack Iran.
That proposition made some sense since both Saudi Arabia and Israel have a common enemy in Iran but the Saudis vehemently denied the report.
And why the Israelis would need to use Tabuk, which is only about 100 miles south of air bases inside the Jewish state, wasn't explained.
The Iranians may have been seeking to stir things up. However, the Bahraini news outlet Akhbar al-Khaleej claimed the reports about Tabuk, west of Iran, were really Israeli disinformation intended to distract attention from U.S. and Israeli preparations in the Caucasus north of Iran.
On Sunday, the Truman battle group was reported in the Indian Ocean, joining the USS Eisenhower battle group on routine deployment.
The Truman force was east of the Strait of Hormuz, the only gateway to the Persian Gulf . Washington fears Iran will try to close the narrow waterway, through which one-fifth of the world's oil supplies pass, if the Islamic Republic is attacked.
U.S. officials said the Truman group was replacing the Eisenhower group, which had been on station for five months. Besides, any sustained assault on Iran would require greater naval strength than two carrier groups.
Before the March 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq there were five U.S. carriers gathered in the Persian Gulf region -- and their 300 aircraft made up less than one-third of coalition air strength. (c) UPI
This year’s top rabbi is Yehuda Krinsky (right), leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.
In the fall of 2006, Sony Pictures chairman and CEO Michael Lynton and his pal Gary Ginsberg, now an executive vice president of Time Warner Inc., began working on a list of the 50 most influential rabbis in the U.S. The friends devised the following unscientific criteria to rank the leaders, whose specialties range from kashrut to Kabbalah: Are they known nationally/internationally? (20 points.) Do they have political/social influence? (20 points.) Do they have a media presence? (10 points.) Are they leaders within their communities? (10 points.) Are they considered leaders in Judaism or their movements? (10 points. ) How big are their constituencies? (10 points.) Have they made an impact on Judaism in their career? (10 points.) Have they made a greater impact beyond the Jewish community and their rabbinical training? (10 points.) NEWSWEEK published that first list around Passover, 2007, with this caveat: “Is the list subjective? Yes. Is it mischievous in its conception? Definitely.” Now in its fourth year, Lynton and Ginsberg’s list includes eight fresh names and a new rabbi in the top spot.
1.Yehuda Krinsky—As the leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, Krinsky is the contemporary face of the Hasidic branch. (2009 Ranking No. 4)
2.Eric Yoffie—Yoffie represents 1.5 million Jews in more than 900 synagogues in his role as president of the Union of Reform Judaism. (2009 Ranking No. 8)
Marvin Hier, number 3. He founded the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
3.Marvin Hier—Founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, Hier is No. 3 for his tireless work combating issues such as anti-Semitism, bigotry, and hate. Hier’s many connections with major world leaders, politicians, and entertainment-industry bigwigs give him an international platform from which to speak on various matters affecting the Jewish people. (2009 Ranking No. 2 )
4.Mark Charendoff—A leading authority on the future of Jewish philanthropy, Charendoff serves as president of the Jewish Funders Network, an international organization of family foundations, public philanthropies, and individual funders. (2009 Ranking No. 3)
5.David Saperstein—Having just completed his term as the only rabbi serving on President Obama’s White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Saperstein continues to act as a major influence in Washington in his role as director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. (2009 Ranking No. 1)
6.Schmuley Boteach—Calling himself “America’s Rabbi,” Boteach continues to share his views on marriage, parenting, and relationships with the world, appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show, counseling various celebrities in their times of crisis and releasing his most recent book, The Michael Jackson Tapes. (2009 Ranking No. 7)
7.Irwin Kula—Kula, a bestselling author who serves as co-president of CLAL (the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership), is nationally known for his commitment to reshaping America’s spiritual landscape. (2009 Ranking No. 10)
8.David Ellenson—Under Ellenson’s leadership as president, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion continues to develop, train, and support the dynamic Jewish leaders of tomorrow. (2009 ranking No. 5)
9.Robert Wexler—Wexler continues influencing generations of Jewish students and scholars as president of American Jewish University. (2009 Ranking No. 6)
10.Morris Allen—As program director for Magen Tzedek, the ethical kosher seal, Allen is changing the way the world thinks about kashrut and the ethical issues surrounding the hechsher. (NEW)
11.Uri D. Herscher—Herscher is the founder, president and CEO of the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. (2009 Ranking No. 9)
12.Norman Lamm—Lamm is the chancellor of Yeshiva University in New York City. (2009 Ranking No. 14)
13.David Wolpe—Considered by many to be the No. 1 pulpit rabbi in America and a major leader of the Conservative movement, Wolpe is the rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. (2009 Ranking No. 11)
14.Yehuda Berg—Berg is known as the world’s leading authority on the Kabbalah movement. (2009 Ranking No. 13)
15.Joesph Telushkin—Telushkin is an internationally known bestselling author and speaker. (2009 Ranking No. 15)
16.Menachem Genack—In his role as CEO of the Orthodox Union Kosher Division, Genack has steadily supervised and maintained the organization’s stringent kosher requirements throughout a series of recent scandals. (2009 Ranking No. 17)
17.Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus—As president of the CCAR (Central Conference of American Rabbis), Dreyfus represents nearly 2,000 Reform rabbis. (2009 Ranking No. 18)
18.Avi Weis—A leading Modern Orthodox rabbi who heads the Hebrew Institute if Riverdale, N.Y., Weiss recently caused a stir in the Orthodox community with his controversial decision to grant his student, Sara Hurwitz, the title of “rabba.” (2009 Ranking No. 38)
19.Jeffrey Wohlberg—Wohlberg is president of the Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative rabbis. (2009 ranking No. 19)
20.Steve Gutow—Gutow is president and CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the public-policy and community-relations coordinating agency of the American Jewish community. (2009 Ranking No. 20)
21.Yehiel Eckstein—As founder and president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Eckstein is recognized as the world’s leading Jewish authority on evangelical Christians. (NEW)
22.J. Rolando Matalon—As senior rabbi for Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in New York City, Matalon presides over a congregation of more than 1,800 families. (2009 Ranking No. 16)
23.Dan Ehrenkrantz—In his role as president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Ehrenkrantz is recognized as a leading expert in issues pertaining to the Reconstructionist movement and American Jewish history.
24.Haskel Lookstein—Lookstein is principal of New York’s Ramaz School and rabbi at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun. (2009 Ranking No. 22)
Timothy A. Clary / AFP-Getty Images
Sharon Kleinbaum, number 25. She runs the world’s largest synagogue for GLBT Jews.
25.Sharon Kleinbaum—Kleinbaum is senior rabbi of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, the world’s largest synagogue for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered Jews. (2009 Ranking No. 25)
26.Jack Moline—Moline, the spiritual leader of Gauds Achim Congregation in Alexandria, Va., is also the Rabbinical Assembly’s newest director of public policy. (NEW)
27.Steven Wernick—Wernick is the newly appointed executive vice president and CEO of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. (NEW)
28.Art Green—As dean of Hebrew College’s Rabbinical School, Green is internationally recognized as an authority on Jewish thought and spirituality. (2009 Ranking No. 27)
29.Peter J. Rubinstein—As senior rabbi for New York’s Central Synagogue, Rubinstein presides over a congregation of more than 1,700 families. (2009 Ranking No. 12)
30.M. Bruce Lustig—As senior rabbi for Washington’s largest synagogue, Washington Hebrew Congregation, Lustig presides over a congregation of more than 3,000 members. (2009 Ranking No. 26)
31.Sharon Brous—Founder of Los Angeles’s progressive spiritual community, IKAR, Brous has received international attention and acclaim for her leadership and impact within the Jewish community. (2009 Ranking No. 31)
32.Michael Siegel—In addition to serving as senior rabbi at Chicago’s Anshe Emet congregation, Siegel is also nationally known as the co-chair of the Heksher Tzedek Commission. (NEW)
33.Abraham Cooper—As the associate dean of the Simon Weisenthal Center and its Museum of Tolerance, Cooper is internationally known as an activist for human and Jewish rights. (2009 Ranking No. 29)
34.Arthur Schneier—Known as the first rabbi to host the pope at his Park East Synagogue in New York, Schneier is also the founder and president of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation. (2009 Ranking No. 36)
35.Ephraim Buchwald—Buchwald is the founder of the National Jewish Outreach Program, which aims to address issues such as intermarriage and Jewish assimilation. (2009 Ranking No. 35)
36.Sara Hurwitz—Hurwitz rose to national attention when Rabbi Avi Weiss (No. 18) bestowed her with the title of “rabba.” She is considered the first Orthodox woman rabbi ordained in the United States, and in this role she has had an impact on the roles considered acceptable for modern Orthodox women. (NEW)
37.Kerry M. Olitzky—As executive director of the Jewish Outreach Institute, Olitzky is one of the leading rabbinical advocates for outreach to interfaith and unaffiliated families in America. (2009 Ranking No. 34)
38.Bradley Shavit Artson—Artson is dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University. (2009 Ranking No. 40)
39.Naomi Levy—Considered a leader in the Conservative movement, Levy is a nationally recognized speaker and author as well as founder and leader of the Los Angeles-based Jewish outreach organization Nashuva. (2009 Ranking No. 39)
40.Harold Schulweis—In addition to being considered one of the leading voices of the Conservative movement, Schulweis is internationally known for founding Jewish World Watch. (2009 Ranking No. 21)
41.Marc Schneier—Schneier is president and founder of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, which seeks to strengthen relationships between ethnic communities in the United States. (2009 Ranking No. 33)
42.Zalman Schacter-Shalomi—Schacter-Shalomi is known as the founder of the Jewish Renewal movement in America. (2009 Ranking No. 45)
43.Elliot Dorff—As chairman of the Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. Dorff serves as the leader of Conservative Judaism’s top lawmaking body. (2009 Ranking No. 41)
44.Bradley Hirschfield—A nationally known proponent for interfaith dialogues and pluralism, Hirschfield is co-president of CLAL. (2009 Ranking No. 42)
45.Steven Leder—In addition to serving as Senior Rabbi at Los Angeles’s Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Leder is also a bestselling author. (Returning from 2008)
46.Ed Feinstein—A noted author and speaker, Feinstein is senior rabbi of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, Calif. (2009 Ranking No. 44)
47.David Stern—As senior rabbi for Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, Stern presides over the largest congregation in the Southwest. (2009 Ranking No. 30)
48.Michael Paley—Paley is the scholar in residence and director of the Jewish Resource Center of the UJA-Federation of New York. (2009 Ranking No. 50)
49.Jill Jacobs—A leading expert in Jewish social-justice issues, Jacobs serves as the rabbi in residence at the Jewish Funds for Justice. (2009 Ranking No. 48)
50.Mark Dratch—As founder of JSafe (The Jewish Institute Supporting an Abuse-Free Environment), Dratch is a nationally recognized speaker and consultant in matters of domestic violence, child abuse, and professional abuse within the Jewish community. (NEW)
Editor's Note: With this issue we are inaugurating a new series that will examine Jewish communities, one country at a time, as they existed in 1935 - a world before the Nazis began their extermination campaign against the Jews; a world in which there was no state of Israel. The second installment will appear in the July 30 issue, from which point the series will run as an inside-the-paper column the final week of each month. * * * * *
The stories in this essay are translations from an old German-language book, and I think it useful to state at the outset how that book came into my possession.
A number of years ago, when I lived in Boston, I helped clean and clear out the apartment of an elderly Jew who'd recently passed away. Among the old man's possessions were a number of German-language books. He must have been born in Germany and somehow got out before World War II, taking these books with him. My fascination with the language must have been apparent to his relatives, who asked me if I'd like to have the books.
Every volume was a jewel. But the book that most caught my eye was one with the title Die Juden in der Welt which, translated literally, means The Jews in the World. The full title is Die Juden in der Welt/Gegenwart und Geschichte des Juentums in allen Ländern (The Jews of the World/Present and (Past) History of Judaism in All Lands). Its author was Mark Wischnitzer.
Before I go any further, I need to state a few things about this book. It was published by the Erich Reiss Verlag (Publishing Company) in Berlin - Nazi-ruled Berlin - in 1935. This was not, however, a Nazi publishing house but rather a struggling Jewish one. On the inside cover there is an advertisement for a biography of the Rambam, and a Google search for Erich Reiss Verlag yields references to a fair number of books written by Jews, for Jews, on Jewish topics, between the end of World War I and 1936.
There are no Internet references for anything after 1936. I think it safe to say that the Nazi government closed down Erich Reiss permanently that year.
This book does a simple thing. It examines the history of the Jews in every country of the world, as those countries existed in 1935. Every country has its own chapter. The fact that it's old may well be advantageous, since it is that much closer to the subjects and events contained therein.
There is fine print on the inside cover which reads, "Erstes bis viertes Tausand," which means, "[The] First through [the] fourth thousand." I take it to mean the publisher planned to print up to 4,000 copies, but reserved the right to publish fewer. There could even have been a French edition, since Erich Reiss seems to have had a working relationship with Payot Verlag of Paris.
It's anybody's guess how many copies still exist. It's unlikely that any German library stocked this book at the time of its printing and the German-language edition was published solely in Germany.
While this is not a Nazi-inspired book, it is fair to say the specter of Nazism does influence the way certain things are said. For example, while the book details tragic events of Jewish history such as the Chmielnicki pogroms of 1648, there is no mention of any German atrocities against the Jews at any time in history. And the chapter about the Jews of Germany is only three pages long. By comparison, the chapter on the Jews of China is about twice that length, though surely the history of German Jews is far more extensive than that of Chinese Jews.
We'll lead off this series with an installment about those Jews of China because several weeks ago I saw a heartwarming clip on the Internet about Chinese Jews landing at Ben Gurion Airport to reconnect with the rest of the Jewish world, and I was curious to see what my book had to say about them, and how and why they wound up in Israel.
The Jews of China
The oldest settlement of Jews in China is recorded under the Emperor Ming-Ti of the Han Dynasty in 58-76 CE. [Translator's note: All dates from Die Juden in der Welt were given in the common BC-AD format and numbering system, as established by the Christian monk Dionysios Exiguus in the 6th century CE. I will translate iterations of "BC" or "AD" respectively as "BCE" or "CE," or will simply state the number with no alphabetical characters.]
Chinese sources that mention Jews in the country go back as far as the 5th century CE. Under the Sung Dynasty (960-1126) an immigration took place via ship from India and a few years later via caravan from Chorassan in Persia. The new arrivals settled in Shantung, Ning-po, Nanking, Beijing, Hang-cho-fu, Amoy, and Kan-tshou. The religious center found itself in Kai-Fung-Fu [This is evidently the same as the modern Kaifeng, from where the Chinese Jews who recently landed in Israel hailed], a.k.a. Piennang in Hunan Province (400 miles south of Beijing), where a synagogue is recorded to have been built in the year 1163.
The Jesuit Father Gozani had seen the reconstruction of the restored synagogue in 1704 and an inscription: "The essentials of the Jewish religion are that Adam was our first ancestor, and our religion was founded under Abraham and later came Moses, who was the transmitter of our sacred writings. In the time of the Han Dynasty (25-221 CE) this religion was introduced to China ... those who worship false gods or images of false gods pray in vain to empty phantoms, but those who revere and follow the writing know the source of all things. The Holy Scriptures and the eternal wisdom construct and complement each other; they explain and make clear from what and how mankind was made. All members of this faith strive for good deeds and avoid sins."
While this inscription declares Judaism's opposition to the cult of images of the heathen religions, it also revealed the efforts of the Jews in 1488 to create an agreement and commonality with the cult of ancestor veneration. It says, "Also when our religion to a large extent agrees with the religion of the learned, and only to a minor degree deviates from it, so their basic character is nothing other than the honoring of Heaven and the veneration of ancestors. Loyalty to the nobility and obedience to parents...."
The inscription also lays value to the understanding "that there is nothing contained in the religious requirements of the Jews what is not in agreement with what is stated in the six canonical books of the Chinese."
[Ancestor veneration might arguably be a form of avodah zarah. This was, l'havdil, what the pope believed in Fr. Gozani's time, which was why he rejected the conversion of the emperor of China, who had insisted on retention of the cult of veneration of ancestors as a condition for his conversion to Catholicism - and the conversion of the rest of China too.] * * * * *
In the course of centuries the community of Kai-Fung-Fu was weakened as a result of floods and wars. [Historically, China has always been subject to devastating floods.] The synagogue was rebuilt several times. It maintained no connection with the rest of the Jewish world. Occasionally one heard from China about crafty Jews through explorers and missionaries, for example, via Marco Polo in 1286, via the Jesuit Father Mattei Ricci at the end of the 16th century, and at the beginning of the 18th century via the already-mentioned Jesuit Gozani, and also via Gaubel, Cibo, and Domengo, who described the needs of the Jews in Kai-Fung-Fu, and who made a sketch of the community's buildings and set down the inscriptions.
From the Jewish side, in 1760 a grand rabbi from London, Isaac Nieto, made a connection with the Jews of Kai-Fung-Fu. The famous Christian theologian and Hebraicist Benjamin Kennicott and Oluf G. Tychsen likewise became interested in the history of these Jews. In 1794 Shearit Israel in New York maintained a correspondence with the Jews in China.
In 1815 English Jews sought to commence connections with the community in China. In 1844 the English Consul in Jerusalem, James Finn, wrote a letter to the Jews in Kai-Fung-Fu. The answer came back after 26 years. The letter-writers complained of the fall of the community and the disappearance of relief [shipments]. There was only one woman, of 70 years of age, who knew some Hebrew. "With tears in the eyes we bring incense and beseech that our religion again may bloom."
The number of Jews in Kai-Fung-Fu was indeed shrunken. In 1850 there were 200 souls who lived in great poverty, who in spite of the nearby presence of other believers in a temple of fire remained true in the hope that their community could one day be renewed. In 1866 the remaining foundation of the synagogue was taken apart and sold off as construction material.
In Shanghai in 1900 an organization for the development and the rebirth of the Chinese-Jewish community was founded. The Chinese government reaffirmed the rights of the community in 1902. The Shanghai community educated two young Jews from Kai-Fung-Fu in Jewish law and then sent them back out again to be teachers.
In 1908 someone estimated the number of Jews in Kai-Fung-Fu as 400. Their connection with Judaism was concentrated in the observance of a few commandments . They marry each other, eat no pork, and use no heathen musical instruments at their weddings. Outwardly they are hardly any different from other Chinese. Only occasionally does the [outward, non-Chinese appearance of] Jewish origin break through. They dress as Chinese, and the women bind their feet in the manner of Chinese women. [This is a very painful practice where feet were bent almost double back into themselves, hobbling women for the sake of what Chinese culture took for beauty. When the Communists came to power after 1948, they put a halt to it.] * * * * *
The rites of the old Chinese Jews originate a bit from Persian practice. Concerning the slender connection with Persia, there have been found in China books that were printed in modern Persian. These books were protected in the libraries of Cambridge, Oxford, Cincinnati [Hebrew Union College] and in other places. There are copies of the Pentateuch divided into 53 sections. The prayer book of the Chinese Jews contains sections from the Mishna but not Talmud. The Sabbath was strongly observed, with the observances agreeing many times with rabbinical Judaism. Rosh Chodesh [the text says only "Neumond"] was celebrated as a full festival day.
Around the middle of the 19th century Jewish settlements arose in the port cities of China, particularly Shanghai. Baghdad Jews who had settled in India expanded farther to Shanghai. Elias David Sassoon, one of the sons of the founder of the famous Baghdad firm Abdullah David Sassoon, established himself in Shanghai in 1850; around him and his business enterprises gathered a number of Jews who later achieved prosperity, such as Silos Aaron Hardoon, the "richest man east of Suez" who died in 1931 as a Buddhist, and the philanthropist Sir Elie Cadoorie. They built a Sephardic community.
At the end of the 19th century there came about an immigration of Ashkenazim, in particular from Russia. After the Bolshevik regime change, refugees came to Shanghai via Harbin and founded in Shanghai an Ashkenazi community. The Russian Jews founded their own club, a community aid organization, an interest-free bank, a Talmud-Torah, and a Committee for the Welfare of the Brotherhood of the Harbin Immigrants.
As opposed to the Sephardim, one found by [the Ashkenazim] not only merchants and office workers (but also artisans), who, however, were unable to compete with the poor Chinese artisans. This condition and the general crisis under which Shanghai suffered greatly in the 1920s caused a portion of the immigrants to go farther, to Australia and elsewhere. [This refers to the beginnings of Imperial Japan's invasions of China prior to World War II.]
Statistics from the year 1933 show that about 4,000 Jews lived in Shanghai, almost entirely locked inside the city quarter of the English, Americans, and the French. In 1934 there was a noteworthy immigration of Jews from Germany, above all doctors, of whom part succeeded in grasping a foothold by looking around for opportunities in port cities or in other lands.
The outlook for a further immigration of doctors is deemed unfavorable . The outlook for industrial enterprises is favorable. * * * * *
We will complete the story of the Jews of China, and feature a bit about the Jews of Manchuria/Manchukuo and Ireland, in the July 30 issue of The Jewish Press, when the translation of The Jews of the World becomes a monthly column.
Ezra James Nollet is a retired U.S. government chemist living in Poland where he is officer of the local synagogue in Legnica.
Fifth Annual United Nations Holocaust Remembrance Day
Why not turn the faken useless UN into a Holo Museum?
“We must continue to examine why the world failed to prevent the Holocaust and other atrocities since. That way, we will be better armed to defeat anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance".
United Nations Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon said that on January 27, 2009 during the International Day of Commemoration of the Victims of the Holocaust one year ago and it was just as poignant during this year's event.
This year's theme, "Holocaust Remembrance: the Legacy of Survival" highlighted the moral messages expressed by those who suffered from Nazi persecution and the denial of basic human rights. As there are unfortunately fewer survivors to tell their stories today, it is of primary importance that these universal lessons be shared with all fellow human beings. Only this will insure that their legacy will continue to promote respect for diversity and human rights for generations to come.
This year's events included exhibits at the UN Library on "Generations: Survival and the Legacy of Hope" as well as "Architecture of Murder: The Auschwitz-Birkenau Blueprints". On January 27th, Holocaust Remembrance Day, B'nai B'rith and the permanent mission of the Czech Republic to the UN hosted an enlightening panel discussion on "Interreligious Responses to the Holocaust: 65 Years after Liberation". The speeches of Daniel Mariaschin, Executive Vice President of B'nai B'rith and Michael Kinnamon, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches are reprinted in this issue.
That evening in the packed General Assembly Hall there was the Holocaust Memorial Ceremony and Concert sponsored by the Government of Germany. The musical portion included the Nurnberg Philharmonic, Bayreuth Zamir Choir, Jerusalem Oratorio Chamber Choir, Isaak Tavior, conductor, H.E. Ambassador Martin Ney of Germany on flute and Zev Muller, Cantor of the West Side Institutional Synagogue chanting Ani Ma'amin [I Believe] and El Maleh Rachamim [Merciful God], the traditional Hebrew prayer asking God to grant perfect rest to the souls of the dead.
There were moving and heartfelt speeches by German Ambassador to the UN, Peter Wittig, Israel's Minister of Information and Diaspora Affairs, Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, keynote address by Holocaust survivor and author of "Defiance", Professor Nechama Tec, Co-producer of "Defiance", Roland Tec, Senior Advisor on Roma and Sinti issues, Andrzej Mirga and messages from UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, Kiyotaka Akasaka, and Vice-President of the UN General Assembly, Byrganym Artimova of Khazakstan. Several of these speeches are reprinted in this issue as well. The final programs included a briefing on the legacy of Jews in Morocco and a screening of the highly acclaimed film "Defiance".
Stuart Levey was given a big stick when the Bush administration made him the first under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence. But the stick only started to hurt its targets—terrorist groups and rogue nations—when he figured out how to soft-talk nations and private businesses into going along.
Levey is that rarity—a senior government official who has transitioned not just between two administrations, but between two presidents with profound foreign policy differences.
President Obama’s decision to keep Levey and his office in place has less to do with ideology and more with how Levey has made the office into a tool that has effectively squeezed Iran and North Korea and hindered the ambitions of terrorist groups.
Most recently, on June 16, Levey had the floor in the White House press room when he outlined new sanctions targeting an Iranian bank, a number of shipping companies and individuals associated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is believed to control the Islamic Republic’s suspected nuclear weapons program.
“Stuart has been the chief architect of our strategy to impose growing financial costs on Iran for its continued defiance and he has played a major leadership role on this issue internationally,” Obama’s Treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, said in introducing Levey.
The strategy, in fact, predated the Obama administration.
Levey told The New York Times in a 2008 story that he came upon the idea when he was in Bahrain in January 2006, shortly after he assumed his position. Upon reading read in a newspaper that a Swiss bank was pulling out of Iran, it occurred to Levey that the tendency of governments to confine their actions to what they could accomplish directly was overly narrow and that he could do more by talking private enterprise into isolating bad actors.
U.S. laws and executive orders clearly ban U.S. business dealings with Iran, with a few exceptions; getting third parties to comply is more complex and vexed. Levey’s innovation was to transition from law enforcer to diplomat, and to make his case through watertight presentations.
“A lot of it was urging international allies to adopt a more effective international standard,” said Rob Nichols, who was an assistant secretary of the Treasury and the communications director when Levey moved to the department in 2005.
By April 2008, Levey was successful enough to have become a bete noire in Tehran.
“They had assigned one of their Zionist deputies to halt the Iranian economy,” said Davoud Danesh Jafari, a former finance minister in Iran. “This person would personally travel to many countries around the world. He would use incentives and encouragement to request cooperation against Iran, and if he failed to get any results he would use threats to pursue his goal.”
Levey’s Jewishness clearly was significant to Jafari, but though Levey’s children attend a Jewish day school in suburban Maryland and he is involved in school activities, he does not wear it on his sleeve at work.
Levey tells Jewish friends that he has never personally encountered anti-Jewish hostility on his travels in the Muslim and Arab worlds, and feels equally driven to pursue Iran as he does North Korea or the drug dealers and money launderers he went after at the Department of Justice.
And contrary to Jafari he does not threaten, although Levey’s interlocutors have told the media that they understood the threat of U.S. action underpins his outreach. Instead, Levey would task his staff to come up with unimpeachable evidence of wrongdoing by an entity and then make the case to his interlocutors, often with charts.
“Stuart shared facts,” said Molly Millerwise Meiners, his spokeswoman until 2009, who accompanied Levey on his overseas trips and now works as a spokeswoman for Citigroup. “He was very straightforward and worked side by side with these individuals, be they government or private sector.”
Jonathan Schanzer, an analyst for Levey in the middle of the decade who is now a vice president at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy think tank, said Levey was exacting and probing in assessing evidence.
“The system that has been created involves layers of lawyers,” Schanzer said.
In making his case for sanctioning shipping companies, Levey at times has attracted headlines with a spectacular find—notably in 2008, when his agency helped linked the owners of a building in New York’s financial district to an Iranian bank with ties to weapons dealers. But Levey generally keeps his victories under wraps, partly because he does not want to exercise a threat option.
“He understands that he cannot make waves in the financial community,” Schanzer said. “Slinging around threats would not induce financial stability.”
Levey’s single major brush with controversy was his role in accessing the database at SWIFT, the international grouping that coordinates interbank transactions. President George W. Bush authorized such access after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and The New York Times revealed the U.S. Treasury’s use of the access in 2006.
Levey vigorously defended his use of the database, saying it was subject to independent audits for any inappropriate privacy breaches. The Belgium-based grouping objected, but the story—unlike other revelations of Bush-era privacy incursions—slipped out of sight.
Before joining the Bush administration in 2001, Levey was in law practice for 11 years at the Washington firm Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin, where he worked with Nathan Lewin, well known for his work on behalf of Jewish groups.
Levey, 47, the son of an Akron, Ohio-area dentist, is plugged into Washington’s Republican network. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1989, he clerked with Laurence Silberman, a conservative judge on the Washington federal appeals court. In private practice, as a white collar criminal defense lawyer, he contributed only to Republicans.
Levey joined the incoming George W. Bush administration at the Department of Justice in 2001, and made enough of a splash as part of the team transferring responsibilities to the then-new Department of Homeland Security that he seemed a natural pick for the new Treasury terrorism financing office when it was established in 2005.
Despite his GOP and conservative credentials, Levey has emerged as nonpartisan to the extent that when Obama’s nomination of Geithner hit a glitch over back taxes, Levey was appointed acting secretary.
“We were absolutely delighted when the Obama administration chose to ask him to stay in office,” said David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, which honored Levey with the organization’s 2009 Public Service Award. “That really spoke to the reputation Stuart established.”
Levey welcomes submissions from nongovernmental groups, like the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, that track sanctions busters and terrorist financing. He tells colleagues that people behave better when they know they are being watched.
“He is a very sturdy, organized, rational guy,” said Jeff Kupfer, who was deputy chief of staff at the Treasury when Levey transferred and helped select him. “He’s not in it to make a big name for himself.”
Levey’s colleagues cite his ready smile and good-natured approach to his work.
Meiners recalled a 10-course dinner in China in Levey’s honor. The first course was shrimp: Levey declined, saying it was not kosher, but adding that he was sure he would enjoy the other offerings.
The waitstaff swept the shrimp away and brought Levey a heaping plate of broccoli.
“Enough to feed a family of six,” Meiners recalled.
Levey dug in—then Meiners spotted a menu and showed it to Levey: All 10 items were not kosher.
The waitstaff insisted it could substitute every item—and did, each time with more broccoli. Levey gamely delved into each plate until he was stuffed—at about the sixth plate.
“He couldn’t look at broccoli for another year,” Meiners said.
Notably, Levey in interviews has counted the Chinese as among the most cooperative in his efforts.
With a letter to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) enclosing two virulently anti-Semitic "histories," including a newly written volume claiming Jews for centuries have worked to financially undermine Black people, Minister Louis Farrakhan has "opened a new chapter in his ministry where scapegoating Jews is no longer just part of a message, but the message."
In the letter addressed to ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman, Minister Farrakhan accused Jewish leaders of using accusations of anti-Semitism as a means to hide the truth and to silence criticism "of what I and many others feel is Jewish behavior that has ill-affected Black people and others."
Minister Farrakhan's June 24 letter was sent to numerous American Jewish leaders along with copies of the now two-volume work, "The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews," an anti-Semitic screed written and published by the Nation of Islam's "Historical Research Department."
"Never, in our more than 20 years of following Minister Louis Farrakhan, have we seen him so obsessively devoted to his hate crusade against Jews," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "His anti-Semitism is obsessive, diabolical and unrestrained. He has opened a new chapter in his ministry where scapegoating Jews is not just part of a message, but the message."
Farrakhan's missive accused Foxman and other Jewish leaders of being guilty of "the most vehement anti-Black behavior in the annals of our history in America and the world," before extending an offer of dialogue to "help me in the repair of my people from the damage that has been done by your ancestors to mine."
Farrakhan wrote that his message was not written out of hatred or bitterness, but because "One greater than you and me has permitted this for His own wise purposes."
Mr. Foxman said, "Dialogue does not begin with bigoted accusations. Farrakhan's call for dialogue with Jews is so outrageous and disingenuous that you can't believe anyone would take him seriously. And yet he continues to fill convention centers with those eager to bear witness to his bigotry, and to believe that he holds the truth. One wonders why there aren't more voices in the African-American community willing to stand up and reject his hatred, his anti-Semitism. When will good people in the community be courageous enough to stand up and say, 'enough already?'"
During a sold-out speech on June 26 to thousands of followers at the Atlanta Civic Center in Atlanta, Georgia, Farrakhan, whose anti-Semitic rhetoric has been monitored by ADL for decades, announced his intention to present the newly written anti-Semitic book to Jewish leaders on behalf of the NOI. Like the book itself, Farrakhan's speech was rife with conspiracy theories about Jews and Israel and Jewish control of government, finance and Hollywood.
Farrakhan told the crowd that he had also sent copies of "The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews" to various media outlets and members of the Obama Administration.
"Today the Jewish people have developed a new strategy," he told the audience in the speech, titled "Who are the Real Children of Israel?" "They have always tied themselves to Black people. They attach themselves to our talent. They are the managers, the agents and they are the accountants and that's why our black artists loved fame and got fame but died poor because somebody else got their money."
"No black man or woman becomes a multimillionaire without friendship in the Jewish community," he added.
Australia’s first female Prime Minister has denied claims her stance on Israel is influenced by her partner’s connection to a Jewish businessman.
Jewish groups have also denounced the smear against Julia Gillard by a former Australian ambassador to Israel.
The Welsh-born politician, who won the leadership after ousting fellow Labour politician Kevin Rudd, was accused by diplomat Ross Burns of being "remarkably taciturn on the excesses of Israeli actions."
Mr Burns, Australian ambassador to Israel between 2001 and 2003, criticised Ms Gillard for the fact her partner, works for a well-known supporter of Israel.
He queried why Tim Mathieson, a hairdresser now working as an estate agent, had been employed by Albert Dadon.
Mr Dadon organised a delegation of Australian politicians, including Ms Gillard, to visit Israel in 2009.
But Ms Gillard said she had made up her own views about Israel.
“I made them publicly known well before there was any suggestion that my partner would work in a property group associated with Mr Dadon.”
She added that her partner "has got a right to live his life too."
John Searle, the president of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, said the reports did not accurately portray Ms Gillard’s views.
Her record on Israeli matters has been debated by various groups. A former leader of an Australian Jewish group, Isi Lieber, praised Ms Gillard’s election as “outstanding” for Israel and said she is “one of Israel’s closest friends.”
But although Mr Leber said she was supportive of Israel’s position during Operation Cast Lead, she has called Israel to freeze construction in the Palestinian territories.
Ms Gillard has also come under fire from Christian groups after she revealed she does not believe in God.
She said: "I am not going to pretend a faith I don't feel."
Israel brought 12 Jews from conflict-riven southern Kyrgyzstan to Israel.
The Kyrgyz Jews arrived June 20 and immediately were made Israeli citizens.
About 70 Jews are thought to live in southern Kyrgyzstan. Most of the country’s estimated 1,500 Jews reside in the capital city of Bishkek. To date, no Jews have been harmed in the ethnic violence, according to the Jewish Federations of North America.
More than 2,000 people have been killed and 40,000 displaced in fighting between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz that began earlier this month in the country’s south.
Hamas spy Mosab Hassan Yousef fears he will be killed if he is deported from the United States to the West Bank. The oldest son of one of Hamas' founders, he was an Israeli spy for a decade, and he abandoned Islam for Christianity, further marking him a traitor.
He is scheduled to plead his case Wednesday to an immigration judge in San Diego, California, four months after publishing memoirs that say he was one of the Shin Bet security agency's best assets and was dubbed The Green Prince, a reference to his Hamas pedigree and the Islamists' signature green color.
Yousef's case seems straightforward: Helping Israel find and kill members of the militant group would make him a marked man back home. Nearly two dozen members of Congress wrote Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano this week that Yousef would be in "grave danger" in the Middle East. Former CIA Director James Woolsey says his deportation would discourage other potential spies.
"It is not an exaggeration to say that such an action would set us back years in the war on terrorism," Woolsey wrote in a letter released by Yousef's attorney. "Mosab's deportation would be such an inhumane act it would constitute a blight on American history."
But the Department of Homeland Security isn't convinced and wants him gone, calling him "a danger to the security of the United States" who has "engaged in terrorist activity."
Yousef, 34, settled in Southern California after stepping off a plane in Los Angeles with a tourist visa in January 2007. He remains free while his application for asylum is considered.
"Exposing terrorist secrets and warning the world in my first book cost me everything. I am a traitor to my people, disowned by my family, a man without a country. And now the country I came to for sanctuary is turning its back," he wrote on his blog last month.
Asylum applicants can close their hearings to the public, but Yousef welcomes the publicity. He urges supporters to contact the Homeland Security attorney assigned to his case and invites anyone in the San Diego area to attend the hearing.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency within Homeland Security that is arguing the government's case, declined to comment, saying in a statement that it "respects the privacy of all individuals involved in the immigration litigation process."
Homeland Security: Yousef is a terrorist danger
Homeland Security called Yousef a terrorist danger when it denied asylum in February 2009 and, in court documents provided to The Associated Press by Yousef's attorney, says he "discusses his extensive involvement with Hamas in great detail" in his recent memoir. It cites a passage in which Yousef identifies five suspects in a 2001 suicide bombing to a Shin Bet official and admits that he drove them to safe houses. It was not more specific in its pre-hearing briefing about the threat he may pose to the U.S.
Yousef says his intelligence work for Israel required him to do anything he could to learn about Hamas and that neither he nor Israel knew they were suspects in the suicide bombing when he gave them rides.
"Yes, while working for Israeli intelligence, I posed as a terrorist," he wrote. "Yes, I carried a gun. Yes, I was in terrorist meetings with Yassir Arafat, my father and other Hamas leaders. It was part of my job."
Israel has not commented on Yousef's claims, though members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee wrote him this month to thank him and recognize his work for Shin Bet.
His attorney, Steven Seick, said Shin Bet will not have a representative address the immigration judge but that the now-retired officer who recruited and supervised him, Gonen Ben-Itzhak, is expected to testify.
Ben-Itzhak wrote that hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians owe their lives to Yousef for preventing violence. The officer is identified only by a pseudonym, Loai, in court documents.
The government does not plan to call witnesses, Seick said.
Yousef's attorney wanted an FBI agent to support Yousef's claim that he gave information about Hamas and terrorism. The FBI refused but said it would not object if Yousef testifies he met twice with agency personnel.
In his book, Yousef describes growing up admiring Hamas and hating Israel, leading him to buy a couple machine guns and a handgun in 1996. He said the guns didn't work and that he was arrested by Israeli forces before he killed anyone.
Yousef says he started working with Shin Bet after witnessing Hamas brutalities in prison that left him disillusioned. He gravitated toward Christianity after his release in 1997, joining a Christian study group after a chance encounter with a British tourist at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem.
Yousef says he joined his father, Sheik Hassan Yousef, at many meetings with Palestinian leaders and reported them to Shin Bet. His father, a senior Hamas leader who is serving a six-year sentence in an Israeli prison, disowned him in March.
Sholom Rubashkin, former head of the kosher slaughterhouse Agriprocessors, has been sentenced to 27 years for financial fraud. He was acquitted on immigration charges.
Some in the Orthodox Jewish community think Rubashkin is a saint. Others in the secular community think he is the devil.
On the sainthood claim, Rubashkin’s prosecution is regarded as motivated by animus beyond the requirements of the law, or even by anti-Semitism. Rubashkin is regarded as a public servant, one who provided kosher meat on a grand scale, and made some innocent mistakes, taking money frombanks that he intended to return.
On the devil claim, Rubashkin is regarded as having perverted Jewish law and given Judaism a bad name by placing ritual requirements above the human requirements of treating employees kindly, and of treating animals without cruelty.
We are not inclined to either extreme. It is hard to regard someone who stands convicted of defrauding banks of some $30 million as a saint. It is hard to regard someone whose defamers include the likes of PETA as a devil. Our take is different. We believe, although admittedly without firsthand evidence, that the root of Argriprocessors’ criminality was its blithely operating in a misplaced spiritual vacuum, oblivious to niceties in the law and of its own impact on the rural Iowa society around it. The mental modus operandi seemed to be: We’re doing a mitzvah; nothing else counts.
Be this as it may, we have waited for the criminal proceedings to play out. Here is what we have:
First, an acquittal on all immigration charges, which should give pause, especially to those in the Conservative Jewish community who regarded Rubashkin’s behavior as necessitating a new, ethical kosher seal.
Second, a conviction on fraud charges with a sentence of 27 years, a legal determination that should give pause to those in the Orthodox community who regarded Rubashkin as a saint.
If Rubashkin’s conviction is upheld, those who have condemned Rubashkin will be vindicated. If his conviction is overturned, those who have stuck by him through thick and thin will be vindicated (though we would still doubt the charges of anti-Semitism; as one of his own lawyers has said, no responsible person has made that charge).
Either way, Rubashkin’s 27-year sentence raises serious questions about fairness in the federal judiciary. Locally, and unfortunately, we have a basis for comparison. We have had the unpleasant experience of watching one of our own kosher purveyors, Arnie Zaler, convicted of financial fraud. He was sentenced to serve three 15-year sentences concurrently. Even those 15-year sentences were “enhanced” by the judge. Still more, this was not Zaler’s first conviction. He had already served time for similar crimes. Not only that, he fled the country for a year to escape prosecution.
Now here is Rubashkin, not a repeat criminal. He was a first-time offender and he never fled. He, too, is convicted of fraud, albeit on a larger scale. Yet, Rubashkin gets 27 years, plus five years probation.
In sentencing Rubashkin, Judge Linda Reade followed an advisory “point” system. Comparing this system to the crimes of Zaler, the two criminals dovetail very closely. Yet, their sentences vary dramatically. Not to mention, where is the justice in one judge following these guidelines while another does not? Read the related news story for details of the sentencing
Something is wrong with this picture. There seems to be no consistency, and therefore no fairness, in federal sentencing. After all, if a court is “federal,” that is, national, there should be, by definition, consistency within federal sentences. The same crime in one state should earn the same sentence if committed in another state. Even allowing for the differences in each individual case, only a general consistency in sentencing effectuates justice.
We shall leave the potential reversal of Rubashkin’s conviction up the appeals judge. But even if the conviction is upheld, his sentence should be substantially shortened. Justice, after all, is the goal of the entire process.
The dire threat of Iran is widely recognized to be the most serious foreign policy crisis facing the Obama administration. Congress has just strengthened the sanctions against Iran, with even more severe penalties against foreign companies. The Obama administration has been rapidly expanding its offensive capacity in the African island of Diego Garcia, claimed by Britain, which had expelled the population so that the US could build the massive base it uses for attacking the Middle East and Central Asia. The Navy reports sending a submarine tender to the island to service nuclear-powered guided-missile submarines with Tomahawk missiles, which can carry nuclear warheads. Each submarine is reported to have the striking power of a typical carrier battle group. According to a US Navy cargo manifest obtained by the Sunday Herald (Glasgow), the substantial military equipment Obama has dispatched includes 387 “bunker busters” used for blasting hardened underground structures. Planning for these “massive ordnance penetrators,” the most powerful bombs in the arsenal short of nuclear weapons, was initiated in the Bush administration, but languished. On taking office, Obama immediately accelerated the plans, and they are to be deployed several years ahead of schedule, aiming specifically at Iran.
“They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran,” according to Dan Plesch, director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London. “US bombers and long range missiles are ready today to destroy 10,000 targets in Iran in a few hours,” he said. “The firepower of US forces has quadrupled since 2003,” accelerating under Obama.
The Arab press reports that an American fleet (with an Israeli vessel) passed through the Suez Canal on the way to the Persian Gulf, where its task is “to implement the sanctions against Iran and supervise the ships going to and from Iran.” British and Israeli media report that Saudi Arabia is providing a corridor for Israeli bombing of Iran (denied by Saudi Arabia). On his return from Afghanistan to reassure NATO allies that the US will stay the course after the replacement of General McChrystal by his superior, General Petraeus, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen visited Israel to meet Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and senior Israeli military staff along with intelligence and planning units, continuing the annual strategic dialogue between Israel and the U.S. in Tel Aviv. The meeting focused “on the preparation by both Israel and the U.S. for the possibility of a nuclear capable Iran,” according to Haaretz, which reports further that Mullen emphasized that “I always try to see challenges from Israeli perspective.” Mullen and Ashkenazi are in regular contact on a secure line.
The increasing threats of military action against Iran are of course in violation of the UN Charter, and in specific violation of Security Council resolution 1887 of September 2009 which reaffirmed the call to all states to resolve disputes related to nuclear issues peacefully, in accordance with the Charter, which bans the use or threat of force.
Some respected analysts describe the Iranian threat in apocalyptic terms. Amitai Etzioni warns that “The U.S. will have to confront Iran or give up the Middle East,” no less. If Iran’s nuclear program proceeds, he asserts, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and other states will “move toward” the new Iranian “superpower”; in less fevered rhetoric, a regional alliance might take shape independent of the US. In the US army journal Military Review, Etzioni urges a US attack that targets not only Iran’s nuclear facilities but also its non-nuclear military assets, including infrastructure – meaning, the civilian society. "This kind of military action is akin to sanctions - causing 'pain' in order to change behaviour, albeit by much more powerful means."
Such harrowing pronouncements aside, what exactly is the Iranian threat? An authoritative answer is provided in the April 2010 study of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, Military Balance 2010. The brutal clerical regime is doubtless a threat to its own people, though it does not rank particularly high in that respect in comparison to US allies in the region. But that is not what concerns the Institute. Rather, it is concerned with the threat Iran poses to the region and the world.
The study makes it clear that the Iranian threat is not military. Iran’s military spending is “relatively low compared to the rest of the region,” and less than 2% that of the US. Iranian military doctrine is strictly “defensive,… designed to slow an invasion and force a diplomatic solution to hostilities.” Iran has only “a limited capability to project force beyond its borders.” With regard to the nuclear option, “Iran’s nuclear program and its willingness to keep open the possibility of developing nuclear weapons is a central part of its deterrent strategy.”
Though the Iranian threat is not military, that does not mean that it might be tolerable to Washington. Iranian deterrent capacity is an illegitimate exercise of sovereignty that interferes with US global designs. Specifically, it threatens US control of Middle East energy resources, a high priority of planners since World War II, which yields “substantial control of the world,” one influential figure advised (A. A. Berle).
But Iran’s threat goes beyond deterrence. It is also seeking to expand its influence. As the Institute study formulates the threat, Iran is “destabilizing” the region. US invasion and military occupation of Iran’s neighbors is “stabilization.” Iran’s efforts to extend its influence in neighboring countries is “destabilization,” hence plainly illegitimate. It should be noted that such revealing usage is routine. Thus the prominent foreign policy analyst James Chace, former editor the main establishment journal Foreign Affairs, was properly using the term “stability” in its technical sense when he explained that in order to achieve “stability” in Chile it was necessary to “destabilize” the country (by overthrowing the elected Allende government and installing the Pinochet dictatorship).
Beyond these crimes, Iran is also supporting terrorism, the study continues: by backing Hezbollah and Hamas, the major political forces in Lebanon and in Palestine – if elections matter. The Hezbollah-based coalition handily won the popular vote in Lebanon’s latest (2009) election. Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian election, compelling the US and Israel to institute the harsh and brutal siege of Gaza to punish the miscreants for voting the wrong way in a free election. These have been the only relatively free elections in the Arab world. It is normal for elite opinion to fear the threat of democracy and to act to deter it, but this is a rather striking case, particularly alongside of strong US support for the regional dictatorships, particularly striking with Obama’s strong praise for the brutal Egyptian dictator Mubarak on the way to his famous address to the Muslim world in Cairo.
The terrorist acts attributed to Hamas and Hezbollah pale in comparison to US-Israeli terrorism in the same region, but they are worth a look nevertheless.
On May 25 Lebanon celebrated its national holiday, Liberation Day, commemorating Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon after 22 years, as a result of Hezbollah resistance – described by Israeli authorities as “Iranian aggression” against Israel in Israeli-occupied Lebanon (Ephraim Sneh). That too is normal imperial usage. Thus President John F. Kennedy condemned the “the assault from the inside, and which is manipulated from the North.” The assault by the South Vietnamese resistance against Kennedy’s bombers, chemical warfare, driving peasants to virtual concentration camps, and other such benign measures was denounced as “internal aggression” by Kennedy’s UN Ambassador, liberal hero Adlai Stevenson. North Vietnamese support for their countrymen in the US-occupied South is aggression, intolerable interference with Washington’s righteous mission. Kennedy advisors Arthur Schlesinger and Theodore Sorenson, considered doves, also praised Washington’s intervention to reverse “aggression” in South Vietnam – by the indigenous resistance, as they knew, at least if they read US intelligence reports. In 1955 the US Joint Chiefs of Staff defined several types of “aggression,” including “Aggression other than armed, i.e., political warfare, or subversion.” For example, an internal uprising against a US-imposed police state, or elections that come out the wrong way. The usage is also common in scholarship and political commentary, and makes sense on the prevailing assumption that We Own the World.
Hamas resists Israel’s military occupation and its illegal and violent actions in the occupied territories. It is accused of refusing to recognize Israel (political parties do not recognize states). In contrast, the US and Israel not only do not recognize Palestine, but have been acting for decades to ensure that it can never come into existence in any meaningful form; the governing party in Israel, in its 1999 campaign platform, bars the existence of any Palestinian state.
Hamas is charged with rocketing Israeli settlements on the border, criminal acts no doubt, though a fraction of Israel’s violence in Gaza, let alone elsewhere. It is important to bear in mind, in this connection, that the US and Israel know exactly how to terminate the terror that they deplore with such passion. Israel officially concedes that there were no Hamas rockets as long as Israel partially observed a truce with Hamas in 2008. Israel rejected Hamas’s offer to renew the truce, preferring to launch the murderous and destructive Operation Cast Lead against Gaza in December 2008, with full US backing, an exploit of murderous aggression without the slightest credible pretext on either legal or moral grounds.
The model for democracy in the Muslim world, despite serious flaws, is Turkey, which has relatively free elections, and has also been subject to harsh criticism in the US. The most extreme case was when the government followed the position of 95% of the population and refused to join in the invasion of Iraq, eliciting harsh condemnation from Washington for its failure to comprehend how a democratic government should behave: under our concept of democracy, the voice of the Master determines policy, not the near-unanimous voice of the population.
The Obama administration was once again incensed when Turkey joined with Brazil in arranging a deal with Iran to restrict its enrichment of uranium. Obama had praised the initiative in a letter to Brazil’s president Lula da Silva, apparently on the assumption that it would fail and provide a propaganda weapon against Iran. When it succeeded, the US was furious, and quickly undermined it by ramming through a Security Council resolution with new sanctions against Iran that were so meaningless that China cheerfully joined at once – recognizing that at most the sanctions would impede Western interests in competing with China for Iran’s resources. Once again, Washington acted forthrightly to ensure that others would not interfere with US control of the region.
Not surprisingly, Turkey (along with Brazil) voted against the US sanctions motion in the Security Council. The other regional member, Lebanon, abstained. These actions aroused further consternation in Washington. Philip Gordon, the Obama administration's top diplomat on European affairs, warned Turkey that its actions are not understood in the US and that it must “demonstrate its commitment to partnership with the West,” AP reported, “a rare admonishment of a crucial NATO ally.”
The political class understands as well. Steven A. Cook, a scholar with the Council on Foreign Relations, observed that the critical question now is "How do we keep the Turks in their lane?" – following orders like good democrats. A New York Times headline captured the general mood: “Iran Deal Seen as Spot on Brazilian Leader’s Legacy.” In brief, do what we say, or else.
There is no indication that other countries in the region favor US sanctions any more than Turkey does. On Iran’s opposite border, for example, Pakistan and Iran, meeting in Turkey, recently signed an agreement for a new pipeline. Even more worrisome for the US is that the pipeline might extend to India. The 2008 US treaty with India supporting its nuclear programs – and indirectly its nuclear weapons programs -- was intended to stop India from joining the pipeline, according to Moeed Yusuf, a South Asia adviser to the United States Institute of Peace, expressing a common interpretation. India and Pakistan are two of the three nuclear powers that have refused to sign the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), the third being Israel. All have developed nuclear weapons with US support, and still do.
No sane person wants Iran to develop nuclear weapons; or anyone. One obvious way to mitigate or eliminate this threat is to establish a NFWZ in the Middle East. The issue arose (again) at the NPT conference at United Nations headquarters in early May 2010. Egypt, as chair of the 118 nations of the Non-Aligned Movement, proposed that the conference back a plan calling for the start of negotiations in 2011 on a Middle East NWFZ, as had been agreed by the West, including the US, at the 1995 review conference on the NPT.
Washington still formally agrees, but insists that Israel be exempted – and has given no hint of allowing such provisions to apply to itself. The time is not yet ripe for creating the zone, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated at the NPT conference, while Washington insisted that no proposal can be accepted that calls for Israel's nuclear program to be placed under the auspices of the IAEA or that calls on signers of the NPT, specifically Washington, to release information about “Israeli nuclear facilities and activities, including information pertaining to previous nuclear transfers to Israel.” Obama’s technique of evasion is to adopt Israel’s position that any such proposal must be conditional on a comprehensive peace settlement, which the US can delay indefinitely, as it has been doing for 35 years, with rare and temporary exceptions.
At the same time, Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, asked foreign ministers of its 151 member states to share views on how to implement a resolution demanding that Israel "accede to” the NPT and throw its nuclear facilities open to IAEA oversight, AP reported.
It is rarely noted that the US and UK have a special responsibility to work to establish a Middle East NWFZ. In attempting to provide a thin legal cover for their invasion of the Iraq in 2003, they appealed to Security Council Resolution 687 (1991), which called on Iraq to terminate its development of weapons of mass destruction. The US and UK claimed that they had not done so. We need not tarry on the excuse, but that Resolution commits its signers to move to establish a NWFZ in the Middle East.
Parenthetically, we may add that US insistence on maintaining nuclear facilities in Diego Garcia undermines the nuclear-free weapons zone (NFWZ) established by the African Union, just as Washington continues to block a Pacific NFWZ by excluding its Pacific dependencies.
Obama’s rhetorical commitment to non-proliferation has received much praise, even a Nobel peace prize. One practical step in this direction is establishment of NFWZs. Another is withdrawing support for the nuclear programs of the three non-signers of the NPT. As often, rhetoric and actions are hardly aligned, in fact are in direct contradiction in this case, facts that pass with little attention.
Instead of taking practical steps towards reducing the truly dire threat of nuclear weapons proliferation, the US must take major steps towards reinforcing US control of the vital Middle East oil-producing regions, by violence if other means do not succeed. That is understandable and even reasonable, under prevailing imperial doctrine.
Maybe Chomsky and Herman and Limbaugh and Gingrich and the rest of our brilliant social commentators should spend less time talking, and more time cleaning toilets. Lock them in the biggest, dirtiest movie theatre around, isolate them from the minions and dittoheads who feed them the sound bites and half-truths they collect to support their pet theories... Let them turn their mental energy inward. Let them subject their own theories, their own reasoning, even their own values to the relentless critical scrutiny to which they subject the work of their detractors. This, the opportunity for self-examination, is one of the gifts afforded by menial labor.
There is another gift, as well, when it comes to cleaning toilets.
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