10 yrs after Yitzhak Rabin's assasination, 25% of Israelis think it was a conspiracy, only 66% replied in the negative (israeli newspaper yediot acharanot poll)
the number of websites devoted to that idea are increasing, most attribute the conspiracies to an effort by the left/Shimon Peres to discredit the right wing.
as Tom Segev points in Israel's Haaretz out "conspiracy theories give meaning to things that are hard to accept"
David Klinghoffer author of some second rate books, most recently on the Jewish rejection of Christianity (see the review by my friend Prof Pinhas Giller here) has come to the defense of sleazebag lobbyist Jack Abramoff in the Forward.. Klinghoffer is also a frequent contributor to the National Review, the Forward and other publications in which he uses selective and biased reading of Jewish sources to support his conservative political views. And surprise ! all Jack's troubles are the product of liberal leaning anti orthodox Jewish journalists, not the Department of Justice which is in the midst of multiple investigations.:
a few gems from his nonsense:
his e-mails have been leaked to the press. Abramoff, who conducted his business affairs electronically, used coarse words such as "monkeys" and "troglodytes" in discussing some Indians. He exulted in his earnings in a somewhat undignified way: "Can you smell money?!?!?!" He also directed clients to contribute to his favorite political and other causes.
His humiliation is nearly complete. Yet who among us would not be humiliated if a decade's worth of our email were leaked by Senate investigators to be dissected by journalists eager to carve us up like a Thanksgiving roast?
No David I don't think most of us have emails in which we meticulously make use to omit the "o" in G-D but refers to clients paying us tens of millions of dollars as less than human.
Abramoff's guilt does not rise to the level of serious wrongs and crimes that would merit the intense personal scrutiny he has received. I am not going to shed any tears if those purer-than-spring-rain Indian gambling moguls got overcharged.
I'm glad David has become judge and jury but several federal prosecutors think otherwise and are in the midst of an investigations. And I trust John McCain's characterization of Abramoff's fees charged the Indians as obscene more than David's.
In a spirit of honesty, however, I admit that I'd like to see Abramoff left alone in large part because, instead of spending the millions of dollars he raked in on Ferraris and yachts, he lavishly spent it on causes that I think are good and important: an Orthodox high school he founded in the Washington, D.C., area, headed by a rabbi whose taped lectures I have long listened to with admiration; kosher restaurants (that lost a fortune but provided a public service); political organizations and candidates whose conservative philosophy I share, and so on.
David, explain to the folks in the Marinas Islands how a consulting contract for the Rabbi you admire, David Lapin (set up by Jack the persecuted) , ballooned in fees from $50,000 to over $1 million. Is a cause you believe in a Jewish school founded with money earmarked for sports programs for underprivileged kids, that closed within 2 years owing faculty $159,000 in back wages ?
Could it be that others' political and moral value system are outraged when someone presents themselves as someone who strictly upholds Jewish traditions spends his time lobbying so workers in a US territory are prevented from earning the minimum wage ?
But no. it's liberal ortho bashing at work. According to David:
If Abramoff were a secular Jew who directed streams of money to left-wing
candidates, to liberal think tanks, to charitable causes like Planned Parenthood
and PETA, do you think we ever would have heard his name? I don't.
Ah yes, that liberal left - wing Justice Department, headed up by anti Orthodox secular Jews, involved in multiple investigations of Jack is out to get him because he is a conservative orthodox Jews allied with the Christan right.
sorry David, I somehow doubt it
I also found this beaut from David in writing about the biblical injunction about the abomination of homosexuality and the consequent need to ban gay marriage:
When the Bible speaks of their moral
failings in very specific ethical areas, and the consequent downfall of
their civilization, there is a lesson not just for a Jewish society but
for everyone. The way God sets things up, a society that
institutionalizes same-sex unions will ultimately suffer tragic
consequences--“disgorgement” from its place in the world. What, in very
concrete terms, would that mean? Let’s hope we don’t have to find out.
now, there's an argument for legislation in our secular legal system if I've ever seen one. By the way, David, the bans on shaving the corners of one's beard , body piercing, and tattooing all occur in verses accompanying the ban on homosexuality. Please let me know when you start the campaign to shut down tatoo and piercing parlors.
If you have the stomach for it, you can take a look at many of Klinghoffer's columns for the Forward here the ones I read before I got sick drew selectively on jewish sources to make pathetically illogical poorly written arguments for conservative political causes.
NYT reports today on Jack Abramof's lobbying for the Mariana Islands. The Mariana Islands are a US territory that has weaker labor laws than the US mainland and thus is a center for textile production. Abramoff was hired to keep it that way. More from Daily Kos here.
Over six years, he and his law firm collected nearly $9 million from the Marianas. He also obtained work for friends. A $67,000 contract for one friend, Rabbi David Lapin, chief executive of Strategic Business Ethics Inc. of Los Angeles, to perform eight days of ethics training ballooned to $1.2 million a year later.(NYT)
A brochure from Rabbi Lapin's consulting group. lists his lecture topics which include:"Is Greed Really Good for the Economy " in which Rabbi Lapin shows how to "transform personal greed into a passion for organizational success.
He lists as clients: American Express, General Electric, the Federal Department of Justice (your tax dollars at work) and the City of San Diego. I guess some people at the latter client fell asleep during the lectures.
btw Davi
d Lapin is the brother of Daniel Lapin, who originally introduced Abramoff to Tom DeLay. I mention that in case you're wondering how brother David scored that million $ contract .Daniel Lapin, head of something called toward tradition, is a frequent defender of "traditional values" on radio and tv. He i
s the house orthodox rabbi for conservative shindigs like the recent conclave to fight for repeal of the filibuster. Daniel Lapin (yeah i get confused too) is the "rebbe" of conservative talk radio star Michael Medved. Lapin was Rabbi at the Orthodox Pacific Jewish Center on the boardwalk in Venice, CA where Medved was President for a time.Lapin left the Venice congregation under a cloud, I don't know who followed whom but both are now affiliated with the same Orthodox congregation in Seattle.
Forget about assimilation, intermarriage, jewish literacy, the high cost of jewish education, anti semitism on campus, meeting the needs of seniors, or social action in the domestic and international sphere. We have more important things to worry about:
In case you missed it, worldnet reports about an important new group in the community.
A
longtime columnist and author has birthed a new organization made up of
Jews who are committed to battling anti-Christian bias and
discrimination in the culture.
Don Feder, a Boston Herald writer and syndicated columnist for 19 years, is president of Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation, or JAACD....
Feder says about a year ago he decided there should be a distinctly Jewish organization dealing with anti-Christian prejudice, which he considers a "political pogrom."
"The fate of America hinges on whether or not Christians – I mean authentic Christians – succeed in the political arena." (actually I agree with that, but I don't think quite in the way he meant it)
And I swear I did not make this up:
involved
with the group include: David Horowitz (Center for the Study of Popular
Culture), Morton Klein 
(Zionist Organization of America), Herb London
(Hudson Institute), Bruce Herschensohn (professor, Pepperdine
University), Rabbi Daniel Lapin (Toward Tradition), syndicated
talk-show host Michael Medved, Rabbi Jacob Neusner (professor, Bard
College) and comedian Jackie Mason.
I couldn't make this up either. On his website, the group's founder,Don Feder, describes himself as follows:
I’m to the
right of Sharon on Zionism, to the right of Pat Buchanan on immigration
and Americanism, to the right of Mother Angelica on abortion, to the
right of Chuck Heston on Second-Amendment rights, and generally make
the legendary Atilla look like a limousine liberal.
And I guess this lovely cartoon on his website (click on the word Ghengis at left) represents the lessons he has learned in compassion from working with clergy of all religions:
I had never heard of him before, but he seems like a less intelligent ann coulter w/out the legs and butt that are the only reasons I pay any attention to her.
The shabot6000.com (see chag sameach post below) site gives props to 50 shekel (Aviad Cohen) and I will too. He has 4 songs to hear on his site. Two are passable, the jap rap is poor but a rap called missing in memory of victims of suicide bombers is actually quite movin.
Lead singer Adam Levine, center, and members from Maroon 5, winner in best new artist category, are pictured at left at the
47th Annual Grammy Awards, Sunday, Feb. 13, 2005, at the Staples Center
in Los Angeles . Obviously he is an M.O.T. = Member Of the Tribe, for those that are wondering, if you're wondering what that means, I can't help you) I'm kvelling Want a hoot ? Check out this website
I am strongly in favor of Ariel Sharon's planned withdrawal from Gaza. I also think that the issue is important enough to be put before the country in a referendum. This weekend 150 -200,000 Israeli opponents to the withdrawal demonstrated, calling for a national referendum on the issue ( Haaretz) I think they are right.
NYT reports on the ambivalent reception to renowned economist and Citigroups executive Stanley Fisher (pictured at left talking to, what's his name ? ) who has left a lucrative career in the US to make aliyah (immigrate) to Israel to become Governor of the Central Bank of Israel
This ambivalence is well summarized by this observer:
Shlomo Avineri, an internationally renowned political philosopher and former Foreign Ministry official, the fuss is reflective of a deeper Israeli ambivalence toward successful Jews in the rest of the world, who are a source of both pride and resentment.
"Israel
wants aliyah, immigration, and we always ask why don't thousands of
American academics come here," Mr. Avineri said. "But on the other
hand, they will take our jobs. In general, Israel hasn't attracted a
lot of top-drawer immigrants. We've been the country of refuge, which
takes in the poor or the downtrodden, from North Africa or Iraq or the
Soviet Union, and gives them room in our house."
On the other hand at least one Israeli observer has unbridled enthusiasm for immigration to Israel by the elite of American Jewry.
Avinoam Bar-Yosef, who directs the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, which studies the diaspora, said: "Israel's main asset is the Jewish brain and the support of the Jewish world. To our sorrow, the majority of Jews in the world don't live here, and at the top of our agenda is to attract the best and brightest to join us."
Imagine, he said, if Steven Spielberg came to Israel,
or Henry Kissinger. "It
would be like living in the days of the
Messiah," he said.
Somehow I don't think that's exacty what they have in mind in Lubavitch headquarters around the world. Ithink a number of them are praying (expecting ?) that the gentleman pictured below makes another appearance.
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