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N.Y. City Council Votes to Add Muslim Holidays to School Calendar

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

Quick, someone get Daniel Pipes, the Islamists are restless. It appears they’re about to take over the NYC school system and perhaps even the City Council. How else to explain that the Council voted with only one nay to add the two most important Muslim holidays to the school calendar.

The only city official standing in the way of the adoption of the measure is the mayor, who remains to be convinced that a religious group comprising 12% of the school population deserves to have its own holiday recognized by the city. If Mayor Bloomberg is smart he’ll get those trusty Islamist-busters, Pipes and Stop the Madrasa on the case. In short order, they make a total mess out of the situation and have Jews and Muslims at each others throats. Which is just as it should be, right?

What puzzles me is that Bloomberg, who is up for re-election, doesn’t seem to be able to do the math: there are 600,000 Muslim voters in N.Y. To diss them doesn’t seem like an optimal election strategy. Furthermore, this comment isn’t going to help things:

The mayor told reporters before the vote that not all religions could be accommodated on the holiday schedule, only those with “a very large number of kids who practice.”

“If you close the schools for every single holiday, there won’t be any school,” he said.

Of course, Bloomberg is also thinking about the flack he’ll catch from the Muslim-haters among the 2-million Jewish voters. So I guess Mike’s solution is to ignore the Muslims and hope they’ll just go away. That oughta work.

Tags: add two muslim holidays to school calendar, new york city council
Posted in Jews & Judaism, Mideast Peace, Politics & Society | 4 Comments »

Israel’s Freeze Fraud

Monday, June 29th, 2009

Ethan Bronner writes in today’s NYT that senior Israeli officials say Ehud Barak will come to Washington Tuesday and offer what I’m calling “freeze-lite.” That is, a partial, temporary (as in, the blink of an eye) settlement freeze which Israel is naturally calling, according to Bronner’s formulation, “a complete freeze.” The problem? It isn’t complete. Not by a long-shot. Just note this sentence from Bronner’s second paragraph:

The freeze would not affect construction that was already under way, nor include East Jerusalem.

Well, that’s a loophole big enough to drive a Mack truck through. A settlement freeze that omits East Jerusalem is like Peter Stuyvesant purchasing Manhattan from the Indians, excluding Central Park.

Bronner is clearly a “believer” in this offer, as he characterizes it thus:

While such an offer falls short of President Obama’s demand that Israel halt all settlement building now, it is the most forthcoming response that senior Israeli officials have given to date and suggests that American pressure is having some effect.

Again, the phrase “some effect” is so vague as to be almost meaningless. Unless Israel agrees to a full settlement freeze that includes all portions of the Territories including East Jerusalem, then American pressure is not having enough of an effect. The same holds true of freezing all current construction.

In the report, the Israelis tell Bronner that 2,000 housing units are under construction and would be completed. That’s not a drop in the bucket. And it’s likely many of those units are in Maale Adumim, a prime area of contention, whose ‘thickening’ by Israeli builders and planner is a primary impediment to a territorially-contiguous Palestinian state.

I realize that Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem poses particular political problems for an Israeli government since, if it did agree to a freeze in East Jerusalem, it would be tacitly conceding that East Jerusalem is the same as the rest of the Territories. But this is Israel’s problem and not ours. It annexed East Jerusalem against the explicit wishes of the U.S. and most of the rest of the world. So now it will have to eat that crow if it wishes to get on board with the Obama administration.

Barak himself is always good for sheer chutzpah and effrontery and doesn’t disappoint here:

“Many Israelis fear that what Palestinians want is not two states but two stages,” meaning an end to Israel in phases. He also said that by focusing solely on settlement building and not on what the Arab countries should also be doing for peace, Israel felt that it was being driven to its knees and delivered to the other side rather than asked to join a shared effort.

He’ll have to pardon our collective jaws dropping at that whopper. Israel “being driven to its knees?” By a settlement freeze? Puh-leeze. Barak conveniently forgets that the Arab League has already offered simultaneous mutual recognition to Israel if it withdraws to 67 borders. But what has Israel offered that anyone can take seriously? Gorsnisht.

I don’t even know whether Bronner realizes that in this passage, discussing Israel’s conquest of the Territories in the 1967 war, he reveals himself as a Revisionist:

…Taking the West Bank, previously held by Jordan, fired the collective imagination in Israel because so much of it — including the cities of Hebron, Nablus and Jericho — was part of the biblical Jewish homeland that Zionism sought to reclaim.

Parse that carefully: Zionism sought to reclaim the “biblical Jewish homeland.” That’s pure Jabotinsky. In truth, David Ben Gurion accepted Partition, which meant precisely the opposite of what Bronner is claiming. Not to mention that aside from the Revisionists, mainstream Zionism never felt it needed the entirety of the “biblical Jewish homeland” in order to establish the State of Israel. I suppose one could argue that Bronner phrased this awkwardly and didn’t mean to say that Zionism wanted to reclaim the “biblical Jewish homeland,” at least not necessarily in its entirety. But when you write about a subject as freighted as this, you must be careful and nuanced. If not, you leave yourself open to all sorts of mischief, which is what this journalist does regularly in his reports.

And lest anyone claim that Bronner is not an apologist for Israeli policy, read this passage:

Israel says the real problem is Arab rejection of its existence in any borders at all…

Excuse me? The 2002 Saudi offer explicitly offered Israel Arab recognition. Syria is practically clamoring to recognize Israel if it returns the Golan. The PLO has for several decades recognized Israel. So what is Bronner “on” about?? Once again I ask in vain–if Bronner doesn’t want to write more carefully about these delicate issues isn’t there an editor in the house to do so for him?

Ever the cheeky one, Barak has more. Here he touts Israel’s ‘generosity’ toward the Palestinians:

It has formed a ministerial committee headed by Mr. Netanyahu aimed at starting economic projects in the West Bank. It has also given the Palestinian security forces greater freedom of action in the past couple of weeks.

Mr. Barak presented such steps as examples of concessions Israel had already made that deserved recognition from Washington and Arab leaders.

Wow, you set up a government committee and hand over a few IDF roadblocks to PA security forces and all of a sudden you’re ready to make peace with the Palestinians. Israel has zero credibility on these issues and so will have to do much better before the Arab states will risk being burned by offering anything to Israel in response to such alleged “good faith.”

Tags: 1967-borders, 2002-saudi-peace-initiative, barak washington visit, east jerusalem annexed, ethan bronner revisionist, israeli settlement freeze
Posted in Jews & Judaism, Mideast Peace, Politics & Society | 21 Comments »

IDF-Border Police Pogrom at Safa

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

Ta’ayush leaders, David Shulman (also a Hebrew University professor ) and Joseph Dana, report that peace activists who attempted to accompany the West Bank villagers of al-Safa yesterday to harvest their fields were met with brutal force by the Israeli Border Police. One Palestinian suffered a broken leg. An Israeli teenager suffered a severely sprained arm that they thought was broken.

David’s report came via eyewitness Amiel Vardi, whose daughter’s arm was nearly broken:

Amiel says that not only were the 30 activists arrested as soon as they arrived at as-Safa to accompany the farmers to their fields, but they were also savagely beaten at the time of the arrests and then beaten again, severely, with clubs, while being transported to the police station. We are talking about people who had their heads rammed against the sides of the army jeeps, and severe beatings with clubs in full view of the senior commanders who were present there– two Mahatim, that is, brigade commanders. No policemen were involved– these were Border Police (two units), and the sense is that they had explicit orders to do this. Sahar, Amiel’s daughter, had her arm badly twisted but fortunately not broken. One of the Palestinians had his leg broken.

All of us have been arrested before, most of us many times, but we’ve never seen this– although we know it’s common practice used against Palestinian arrestees. It was a very frightening experience, not much different in kind from what the Iranian regime has been doing to protesters in the streets of Iran (in case anyone thinks Israel is more enlightened than Iran).

…We need to get this information out into the international media as soon as possible.

Best, David

Bernard Avishai has published David’s much longer and more comprehensive account at his blog.

Joseph Dana of Ibn Ezra was an eyewitness to the police riot:

Over the last several months, Israeli and international activists have made the small village of Safa an important part of the struggle for the rule of law in the Occupied Territories. The village is situated next to the settlement of Bat Ayin, which was the scene of a horrific murder of a twelve-year-old boy by a mentally disturbed resident of Safa in April 2009. Since that incident, and along with growing US pressure on Israel regarding settlements, [Bay Ayin] has become increasingly violent towards its neighbors in Safa. This violence has been characterized by the burning and cutting down of Palestinian groves, severe beatings of Safa residents and Israeli activists and, just last week, hurling rocks on the farmers and activists that attempt to work the land…

Today, 27 June 2009, the IDF and Israel Border Police created a blockade at the entrance of the farmlands. As soon as we arrived, the IDF began using violent force against the forty to fifty Israelis, Palestinians and international activists on the ground. As we walked into the area, pleading with the army to allow us entry, we were beaten, thrown to the ground, attacked and insulted. We demanded to see legal authority for such actions. That only came later after we had been ‘removed’ from the area. Many of us suffered bruises and injuries, including an 18-year-old Israeli female whose arm was sprained and a Palestinian man who reportedly had his leg broken.

The IDF arrested 30 Israelis for violating a “closed military zone” order that, according to the 2006 Supreme Court ruling, cannot be used simply to prevent farming in Safa. The activists were detained for three hours and then released without being charged with any offense.

The events today in Safa are a major escalation in the IDF policy to intimidate and attack Israeli and international peace activists who wish to help Palestinian farmers maintain their livelihood, even as the IDF does nothing to restrain the settlers. No matter how much the state may sympathize with the settlers and feel the need to protect them, it must not allow this vigilante behavior to continue, as it only propagates the cycle of violence.”

Let anyone who sides with Bibi Netanyahu regarding the settlement freeze consider what effect encouraging such settler thugs and their state-sanctioned enablers has on the political situation. As Pres. Obama and George Mitchell seem to be saying: we need more, rather than less pressure. Easing the pressure allows law-breaking Jews to feel vindicated by their behavior. We need to let Bibi know that every such riot by agents of the state makes our job easier. So he has two choices–he can clamp down on this madness and try to make Israel’s Occupation policies look slightly more palatable to the world; or he can do nothing and let our side make hay.

David Shulman presents the argument in Avishai’s blog eloquently as usual:

Let no one claim that such things happen only in places like Iran but never in Israel. Let no one claim that Israel is an enlightened, free country, the very opposite of places like Iran. Let no one claim that the Israeli army is incapable of inhuman cruelty inflicted on innocent victims, whether they are Palestinian civilians or Israelis demonstrating peacefully against the occupation. Already now, as I write, the system Israel has put in place in the occupied territories is barbaric, in every sense of the word. Unless there is massive international pressure and effective protest, that system is not about to go away. Indeed, in the meantime, things are getting worse, on the ground, day by day.

What is astonishing about this incident is that the Bat Ayin settlers didn’t even have to weigh in with their usual brutish thuggery. The IDF and Border Police acted on their behalf. Let no Israeli or Diaspora Israel supporter ever say that the settlers do not represent Israel, that they are somehow aberrant extremists. Indeed they do fully reflect and represent Israel. If this were not the case then there would be security and order in the Territories for settlers and Palestinians alike.

Tags: al safa, amiel varda, bat ayin settler pogrom, david shulman taayush, ibn ezra blog, israeli border police violence, joseph dana
Posted in Jews & Judaism, Mideast Peace | 1 Comment »

Yeshiva Bochers Study Arabic

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

Ben Heine

After writing something particularly critical of Orthodox Jews (say, extremist settlers) some of my readers disparage my views claiming I clearly have an animus against Orthodoxy. While it is true that I do not admire many Orthodox interpretations of Jewish law and practice (I am a Conservative Jew by practice), my grudge with such Jews lies in their political beliefs much more than in their religious ones.

As evidence of this, I offer up a wonderful article published in the N.Y. Times today (on Shabbos no less!) about the SAR Yeshiva in Riverdale, which offers Arabic language instruction to 40 students. Frankly, I was amazed to read this. I do have certain conceptions about contemporary Orthodox Jewish beliefs about Islam and Muslims, and they aren’t favorable. This branch of American Judaism is known far more for its deep suspicion of, and intolerance toward Arabs because of its ardent support for the Israeli settler movement, among others.

So imagine my surprise and delight to read this:

Several years ago, six teenagers at the SAR yeshiva high school in Riverdale came to the principal with a request: They wanted to study Arabic.

It was an unusual appeal in this heavily Orthodox neighborhood in the Bronx…The talk on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is usually supportive of the settlers on the West Bank, many of whom are transplanted Orthodox Jewish Americans, not Arabic speakers.

Still, the students, all of whom had spent time in Israel…were eager and…the principal of SAR High School decided to add Arabic to the foreign language offerings…This year, the fifth year of the Arabic program, 40 students are studying Arabic in four grades…

Though I would venture to guess that in a few years, many of these children will no longer hold views as open-minded and tolerant as the ones they express now, still their good-heartedness is very moving.

Their reasons for studying the language of Israel’s enemies showed an inquisitiveness about “the other” that was refreshing:

“The Arab-Israel conflict is a huge part of our lives, and understanding the culture and language helps us to relate to the other side,” said Jonah Eidman, an 11th grader taking Arabic for a third year.

Sarah Samuels…who just completed their first year, said a schoolmate had questioned her commitment to study Arabic, saying, “It’s the language of terrorists.” But Sarah shrugged the student off. “You can’t define a whole people by certain members of the language-speaking population,” she said.

Adin Goldstein, another ninth grader, added: “Not everybody who speaks Arabic is a bad person. Most are good people.”

“I feel like lots of people have misconceptions about Arabs and Palestinians,” chimed in Ariel Mintz, “and if I speak Arabic I can better understand the culture and understand what is really going on.”

If I read more stories like this one and heard Orthodox leaders saying some of the same things these children are saying, I would feel much more heartened about Orthodox Judaism than I do. But this article gives one hope that the next generation may free itself from some of the shackles with which its elders are chained.

Keyn yirbu (”may they thrive and prosper”).

Tags: jews study arabic, orthodox judaism intolerant toward islam, SAR, Yeshiva Students Make Arabic Cultural Bridge
Posted in Children & Family, Jews & Judaism, Mideast Peace | 17 Comments »

Rabbi Brian’s Blog: New Progressive Jewish Blog

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

When I first began this blog in 2003, you could’ve put every progressive Jewish blogger comfortably inside a phone booth. There were Dan Sieradski, Aaron Trauring and maybe a few others. Now, just look at my Mideast Peace blog directory in my sidebar. There are 90 sites listed there. Not all are blogs written by progressive Jews, but well over half are. It’s an extraordinary flowering and a testament to a historic trend toward a just peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

There are two categories of bloggers who are underrepresented among us in my opinion: academics and rabbis. I’ve felt that in order for the world to begin to take us more seriously we needed to include more “experts” among us who could add gravitas to our efforts. And that is precisely what has happened. Mark LeVine for years was one of the few academics willing to put his name out there. Now there is Jerry Haber, Bernard Avishai, Aryeh Cohen and others. For years, Velveteen Rabbi was one of the few blogs written by a rabbi. Now there are Shalom Rav, Marc Gopin and others.

Now, I’d like to welcome Rabbi Brian Walt to our chevra. He writes Rabbi Brian’s Blog and began blogging in May, 2009. He is the executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America (a group founded in Israel by Rabbi Arik Ascherman). I hope you’ll check out his blog, subscribe to his RSS feed, and keep tabs on his work.

Baruch Ha-ba.

Tags: brian walt, rabbi brian's blog, rabbis for human rights
Posted in Blogs-Tech-Science, Jews & Judaism, Mideast Peace | 4 Comments »

Democrats Abroad Calls ‘Feel the Hate’ Video ‘Drivel’

Saturday, June 20th, 2009

The leader of Israel’s chapter of Democrats Abroad, an international organization that promotes the interests of the Democratic party among expatriate Americans, has condemned Max Blumenthal’s Feel the Hate in Jerusalem video as “drivel” and “hate material.” Instead of blaming the American Jews who spouted racist epithets smearing Barack Obama and the peace process, Joanne Yaron appears to blame Max Blumenthal for producing the video in the first place.

After the group’s spokesperson lambasted Blumenthal in the right-wing Jerusalem Post, Yaron wrote:

The video is a stupid piece of hate material. [Saying] anything more than that [about the video] would elevate such nonsense to the level of a worthy opponent, which it is not. Let’s forget it.

Earlier Schorer had said this to the Post:

The spokesman for Democrats Abroad in Israel, Sheldon Schorer, called the video “useless.”

“This video is of no value whatsoever. If you removed the expletives you’d be left with very little material,” Schorer said.

The video…”should be ignored as a silly piece and as more of a comment on the depth to which the Internet can sink. The journalist really should have gone out to find people who had an opinion and supported their opinion. You can’t have an intelligent discussion with someone who is inebriated,” he said.

What I find astonishing about this reaction is the notion that the individual American Jews featured in the video did not have an opinion or support their opinion. At work among Jews offended about the video, is the notion that the views expressed somehow don’t count because they may’ve been spoken by geshikert Jews. Mel Gibson was drunk when he asked a non-Jewish Malibu police officer whether he was Jewish and then proceeded to rant about the Jewish conspiracy to run the world. Did Abe Foxman dismiss his views and say they should be “ignored?” Of course not. So why is a shvartze-hating Jewish drunk let off the hook when an anti-Semitic Hollywood celebrity isn’t?

The video has been viewed on YouTube and other sites several hundred thousand times, yet Yaron dismisses it as little more than a prank unworthy of being addressed. One of the interviewees boasts about shooting the president if he endangers Israel. All of the interviewees express disgust with Obama’s Israel policy and African-Americans in general. Yet Democrats Abroad wants to shoot the messenger instead of defending the president and addressing the source of the Jewish hate. It make you wonder about their priorities.

So what’s the real problem here: it’s that pro-Israel liberal Jews wear blinders. They are so petrified about anti-Semitism and what potentially damaging material like this can do to Israel that they refuse to examine the underlying issues. We need to confront Jewish hate not excuse it as the drunken prank of Jewish teenagers. For every drunken Jew in this video, there are 100 who are not drunk who freely express such attitudes. But because there are anti-Semit’n lurking out there waiting to pounce on the least tidbit that embarrasses Israel the operative phrase is: sha shtill.

A similar process was in play when Israeli liberals like those in Meretz (Yaron is head of the World Union of Meretz North America-Australia desk) initially refused to condemn the wars in Lebanon and Gaza. They were petrified that they would look like enemies of Israel by critizing her in her “hour of need;” instead of thinking what the proper Jewish (or even Zionist) moral response should be to Israel’s brutish behavior. Again, we’re faced with a certain timidity when what was required was forthrightness. Essentially, they did the wrong thing for the wrong reason. That is why Meretz tanked in the last election. It no longer (if it ever did) represented a true alternative to the political mainstream. It became its left bank instead.

What Jews need is a truly progressive vision of Israel and Jewish identity, not a blinkered one represented by Democrats Abroad or Meretz.

Posted in Jews & Judaism, Mideast Peace, Politics & Society | 12 Comments »

YouTube Bans Blumenthal’s ‘Feeling the Hate’ Video

Friday, June 19th, 2009

Feeling The Hate In Jerusalem — The Censored Video from Max Blumenthal on Vimeo.

What is YouTube afraid of? They’ve taken down Max Blumenthal’s stunning video, Feeling the Hate in Jerusalem because it’s offended the sensibilities of some frightened Jews who believe it stirs anti-Semitism. Imagine that, showing the world that there are Jews who actually hold hateful, racist views of Arabs and their own African-American president might provoke anti-Semitism. And the best way to confront this hate is not to denounce it or combat it or even address it. The best approach is to kill the messenger and suppress the video. Of all the stupid things I’ve heard Jews do this is one of the stupider, and alas, more predictable ones.

Here’s how Max describes what’s happened to the video:

it is clear there is an active campaign by right-wing Jewish elements to suppress the video by filing a flood of complaints with Youtube. At the same time these elements have attempted to paint me as a self-hating Jew determined to foment anti-Semitism.

In a way, these timorous souls have given Max a gift. Instead of the hundreds of thousands who’ve seen it on Youtube before it was banned, now millions will see it thanks to the publicity they’ve inadvertently generated.

Jewish Voice for Peace, whose members discovered the video had been taken down by YouTube, has just begun a mass petition campaign to protest YouTube’s censorship. Tell YouTube that you’re not frightened of a little dose of truth; that you can handle hate by acknowledging it and fighting back against it. Tell YouTube that no matter how many timid Jews there are out there who are offended by this video, that it serves an important educational purpose. We want the video back!

If you’re able to do more call David Drummond, chief legal officer of Google at 650-253-0000 to complain about YouTube’s overreaction. E-mail YouTube’s press office to demand an explanation. Ask them to talk to Max about the video before banning it.

UPDATE: Other YouTube members have uploaded Max’s video via their own accounts and they are available for viewing. But Max’s original video is still banned. Our goal is for YouTube to unban Max’s account and his video. I presume that the other videos may be removed at any time.

Michael Levin made me aware of another YouTube controversy during the Gaza war in which the service banned a series of IDF videos of air strikes against Gaza targets. After the Israeli government and the hasbara crowd organized a campaign on behalf of the videos they were reinstated.

It would seem to me that if YouTube can reinstate videos portraying possible Israeli war crimes (targeting civilian targets) that the least they can do is reinstate a video which contains nothing more offensive than a few drunken American Jews spouting racist taunts.

Tags: anti-semitism, censorship, jewish voice for peace petition campaign, max blumenthal, youtube bans feeling the hate in jerusalem video
Posted in Blogs-Tech-Science, Jews & Judaism, Mideast Peace | 16 Comments »

Abbas Demands Israel Recognize Palestine as Muslim State

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

One of Bibi Netanyahu’s non-starter demands is that the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Forget the fact that it is more than just a Jewish state since it is also a state for its Muslim, Christian and Druze citizens. Think about how ridiculous it would be for Mahmoud Abbas–or even Ismail Haniye for that matter–to demand that Israel recognize Palestine as a Muslim state, before Palestine would negotiate a peace agreement.

My more ‘pro-Israel’ readers will object that it is less critical that there be yet another Muslim state in the world while there is only ONE Jewish one. So let’s turn the tables and say hypothetically there is no other Muslim state in the world besides Palestine. Still, and I repeat the question, why in heaven’s name does it make any difference whether Bibi Netanyahu concedes that Palestine is Muslim? I’d say it’s none of Bibi’s damn business whether Palestine is Muslim, Christian, Hindu or Shinto for that matter.

Similarly, it’s none of Abbas’ business what Israel is. That’s for Israelis to decide.

Does Mexico demand that we recognize it as a Catholic state before we negotiate cross-border agreements? Should we insist that Canada recognize that the U.S. as a Christian nation before we negotiate the next thorny issue confronting our two nations?

Now to return to one of the more problematic aspects of the issue of Israel as a Jewish state. If Israel is a Jewish state, then it is not a democratic state. It is an ethnocratic state. That is, a state with a hierarchy of rights with Jews at the top and Muslims at the bottom.

This is not to say that Israel, in an ideal articulation, could not be a state in which its Jewish citizens see it as a Jewish homeland while its Arab or Muslim citizens see it as their respective ethnic homeland as well. To concede this is not to concede that Jews will lose recognition of any of their Jewishness within this reframed state. Instead, what will happen is the re-envisioned state will expand its conception to embrace all its citizens and their respective religions and ethnicities.

Make no mistake, my rightward pro-Israel readers call this “the death of Israel as a Jewish state” or “the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state.” It is nothing of the sort. If Israel continues to embrace its Jewish citizens while reaching out additionally to its Arab citizens, this is the death of nothing. It is different from the current system. But nothing need die if Israel adopts a truly multi-ethnic egalitarian model.

And another point which Tony Karon raises, if Israel is to claim it is a Jewish state this implies a continuity of values or interests with the rest of the world’s Jews. But who has asked Diaspora Jews whether Israel is their state? Who has given Israel the right to speak for them as Jews? Yes, there are many older generation Jews and the Israel lobby which accept this deal. But increasingly, a younger generation of Jews doesn’t.

If Israel is to become a state of all its citizens it would be far healthier for there to be more of a distinction between Diaspora and Israeli Jewish interests. I do not say that they should never overlap, but there certainly should be nothing wrong when they don’t. Israel must earn the support of the world’s Jews, that support should not be automatic or assumed. If Israel realizes the Jewish values of Diaspora Jews then it should gain our support. If it violates our conception of such values it should not assume we will fall into line like good soldiers.

Tags: diaspora jews, ethnocracy, netanyahu demands palestinians recognize israel as jewish state
Posted in Jews & Judaism, Mideast Peace | 20 Comments »