The Council on Foreign Relations is always near the top of the Left's list of bogeymen that stand accused of pulling the strings of US foreign policy. It is right up there with the Bilderberg Group and the Trilateral Commission, right? Wrong. If that was the case, those arguing that US support for Israel is based on it being a "strategic asset" will have a hard time explaining a Pew Research Center survey on America's Place in the World, taken of 642 CFR members between October 2 and November 16. The Pew poll not only reveals that the overwhelming majority, two-thirds of the members of this elite foreign policy institution, believes that the United States has gone overboard in favoring Israel, it doesn't consider Israel to have have much importance to the US in the first place.
... That apparently not a single US newspaper saw fit to report on the opinions of CFR members, under those circumstances, is not surprising. The evidence:
......The entire Pew survey can be viewed here. Full story(1) That on a list of countries that will be the "more important as America’s allies and partners" in the future, just 4 per cent included Israel ...
(2) When asked which countries would be less important to the US, Israel, at 9 per cent was behind 22 countries including Canada and Mexico and in the region Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.(Q20)
(3) What was particularly revealing is that "in the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians," only 26 per cent of the CFR sided with Israel...
(4) That the CFR has not had a major hand in making US Israel-Palestine policy nor is it in agreement with those who did is strikingly revealed by the response of its members when asked their opinion of US Middle East policies. The problem, according to 67 per cent of CFR members (as compared to 30 per cent of the public) is that the US favored Israeli too much......
Lobby for Jewish values passes out fliers against hotels, restaurants putting up Christmas trees, other Christian symbols ahead of civil New Year, say businesses who do so risk losing kosher certification
A new front for religious battles: Hotels and restaurants.
The "Lobby for Jewish values" this week began operating against restaurants and hotels that plan to put up Christmas trees and other Christian symbols ahead of Christmas and the civil New Year.
According to the lobby's Chairman, Ofer Cohen, they have received backing by the rabbis, "and we are even considering publishing the names of the businesses that put up Christian symbols ahead of the Christian holiday and call for a boycott against them."
Fliers and ads distributed among the public read, "The people of Israel have given their soul over the years in order to maintain the values of the Torah of Israel and the Jewish identity.
"You should also continue to follow this path of the Jewish people's tradition and not give in to the clownish atmosphere of the end of the civil year. And certainly not help those businesses that sell or put up the foolish symbols of Christianity."
The Jerusalem Rabbinate also works each year to ensure restaurants and hotels receiving kosher certification from the Jerusalem Religious Council do not put up Christian symbols.
According to a senior official in the kashrut department, this is done each year consensually, but that businesses which do not meet this requirement may find their kashrut certificate revoked.
It should be noted that most of the hotels in Jerusalem and a significant part of the restaurants in the capital receive permanent kosher certification from the city's religious council. Full story
JTA...“Ed really provided substance to the Middle East peace process at Camp David and in overseas negotiations,” said Stuart E. Eizenstat, then Carter’s chief domestic policy advisor. “We also worked closely together in the White House on such issues as Soviet Jewry, Holocaust reparations, the Arab boycott, and economic aid to Israel.”
On the national scene, Sanders led the National Conference of Christians and Jews, American Israel Public Affairs Committee [AIPAC] and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
In Los Angeles, Sanders headed the Jewish Federation Council and United Jewish Fund in the 1970s, and most recently spearheaded the Federation’s $20 million Campaign for the 21st Century. He also served as chairman of the L.A. Urban League.
A dedicated, lifelong Democrat, Sanders took leadership roles in the Carter, Dukakis and Clinton presidential campaigns. Locally, he was a strong supporter of Tom Bradley, the first African-American mayor of Los Angeles. Full story
"Step by step, we will bestow upon the citizens of Israel the laws of the Torah and we will turn Halacha into the binding law of the nation...
...In a statement released later Tuesday the Justice Ministry's spokesman clarified Ne'eman's comments: "The minister clarifies that his address did not contain an appeal to replace the state's laws with the laws of Halacha... The minister spoke in general and broad terms about returning the glory of Hebrew law... Full story
...The LRC stated that it documented 187 violations against East Jerusalem including 186 violations against the Palestinian natives of the city.
...A society for women in Silwan neighborhood in the Old City was also demolished.
...The Center stated that Israel has a plan to change the demography of Jerusalem by decreasing the percentage of Palestinians living in the city.
In 2000, the Jerusalem Municipality said that at maintaining a %78 majority for
the Jews in Jerusalem.
The LRC further reported that the Annexation Wall built around the city aims at annexing more Palestinian lands and isolating Jerusalemite Palestinians from their city.
...prevented the residents from having access to publish facilities, educational facilities and even hospitals.
On November 9, 2009, an 18-year-old from Al Z’ayyim neighborhood in east Jerusalem, died at an Israeli roadblock after the army prevented an ambulance from transferring him to Al Makassid Hospital. Full story
The center added that the Israeli claim to ‘temporarily freeze’ settlement activities in Jerusalem is fake as Israel is ongoing with its violations against the Palestinians and their homes while at the same time encouraging the settlers to occupy more Palestinian homes and to build illegal outposts.
LRC further said that the violations against Jerusalem are parallel to ongoing violations against the West Bank as Israel issued 825 orders targeting Palestinian homes since the beginning of 2009.
Israel also uprooted 14000 trees in the West Bank this year and act that directly violates the International Law and the Fourth Geneva Conventions.
Ma'an
According to New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Broidy admitted that he made nearly $1 million in payoffs to four senior New York state officials as he pursued an investment from the state public pension fund...
Cuomo said that Broidy has acknwoledged paying at least $75,000 for high-price luxury trips to Italy and Israel for a top official in the New York State Comptroller and his relatives...
By raising $800 million, Broidy turned his Markstone Capital Group into the largest private equity fund in Israel.... In Los Angeles, Broidy has been a major donor to the United Jewish Fund and Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, a trustee of the University of Southern California and USC Hillel, and has served on the Hebrew Union College board of governors and as a trustee of Wilshire Boulevard Temple.
He is credited with revitalizing the dormant California-Israel Chamber of Commerce in the mid-1990s, together with Stanley Gold and Stanley Chais. Gold is president and CEO of Shamrock Holdings and outgoing president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. Chais, a large contributor to Israeli and Jewish causes, faces three legal actions as an alleged middleman for Bernard Madoff.
Broidy has also been a GOP heavy hitter, serving as finance chairman of the Republican National Committee and a top fund raiser for the presidential campaigns of President George W. Bush in 2004 Sen. John McCain in 2008. Full story
Ma'an
Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Michael Martin "I just wanted to go in and see Gaza" said Minister Martin.
...It is not the first time a European Minister has being refused entry to Gaza.
Chairman of the Dáil Committee on European Affairs Bernard Durkan felt that the move by Israel to block a foreign minister from visiting Gaza was "totally intolerable" and that an Irish minister's request "to assess a humanitarian situation is almost without precedent and is tantamount to censorship."
Durkan also voiced his opposition to the blockade of Gaza, which is vehemently opposed by the Irish and Europeans alike.
“The continuing blockade of Gaza by Israel is utterly unjustified." He also said Israel was "unwilling to let the outside world see the suffering which is going on."
...Israel was condemned in a recent Human Rights report in which they were accused of committing war crimes during the short Israeli incursion into Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009. Full story
On 10 July 2009, Adeeb Abu Rahmah, a leading activist and organiser from the occupied West Bank village of Bi'lin, was arrested during the weekly demonstration at the Wall. A man committed to non-violent direct action, Adeeb was charged with incitement to violence, a blanket charge often used to indict leading members of Palestinian communities resisting against the confiscation of their land. A judge initially ruled that Adeeb should be released with restrictive conditions, forbidding him from attending demonstrations, but an appeal filed by the military prosecution was upheld, meaning that Adeeb would be held until the end of legal proceedings. Trials for Palestinians in Israeli military courts often last for over a year, leaving Adeebs family fatherless for the holidays.
Jody McIntyre spoke to Rajaa, Adeebs eldest daughter of eight children who is currently studying medicine at the All Quds University, to see how the family were coping... Full story
CounterPunch - Bill Christison
AFP"The ambassador was summoned today to the foreign ministry where he was handed an official letter of protest expressing deep concerns and rejection of unilateral measures in the outer western walls of the church," a senior official told AFP.
The Jordanian government demanded Israel "immediately halt such actions and restore the status quo," according to the letter.
"Israel's measures are illegal and violate international laws because Israel is the occupying force in the West Bank and east Jerusalem," the official said.
... the Israelis "claimed that they were doing renovations but nobody asked them to do anything"."This is unprecedented and dangerous," the official said, noting that anything to do with the Holy Sepulchre is "very sensitive."
In Jerusalem, the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, which looks after the holy places on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church and liaises with other Christian denominations, also protested against what it said was a unilateral Israeli action.
"The work presently being carried out by the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) on the ancient sealed door known as Mary?s Gate, which is located on Christian Quarter road in the Old City of Jerusalem, is the sole and entire initiative of the same Israeli Antiquities Authority," it said in a statement.
"The Custody of the Holy Land never asked the IAA to do this work nor did the Custody give its permission.
"In fact the representatives of the Custody informed representatives of the IAA of the sensitive nature of this door.
"It must be stated that the Custody asked that no change to this door be made, and that the iron bars protecting the door be left in their present state, precisely because behind this sealed door is the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Sepulchre Church.
"The Custody would like to state for the record that the status quo regarding this ancient door must be left unchanged."
...[The church] is regarded by most Christians as the holiest place in Christendom.
Church sources in Jordan told AFP that Israel started work on the walls on November 23.
Jordan, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, ....... is the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, in coordination with the Palestinians. Full story
Israeli forces detain Ibrahim Abu Rahmeh from Bil`in [MaanImages - Archive]
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