January 26, 2012 | 5:13 am

This week in power: Florida, Newt, German anti-Semitism, Kosher Jesus

Posted by Danny Groner

A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:

Florida factors in
“How Florida Jews cast their ballots January 31 is actually serious business,” said The Jewish Daily Forward in a preview piece for next week’s primary. “After all, the Florida GOP primary will be the first opportunity to get a glimpse of the highly regarded ‘Jewish vote,’ and we will finally see some “voting patterns of this decidedly vital demographic group.” So how will it go? Steven Windmueller said in the Jewish Journal that while Jews are “primarily a moderate-liberal base of voters,” they “can be found in all sectors of the political spectrum.” But this focus and attention could all be misguided, warned Peter Beinart at the Daily Beast: “In fact, most American Jews don’t really vote as Jews at all. On many issues, in fact, they’re indistinguishable from atheists. They vote as secularists.”

Newt’s rise
According to recent polls, Newt Gingrich could be the candidate to walk away with the much-coveted Jewish vote in Florida. As he’s gained momentum, Gingrich has also run into some resistance. “The notion that Gingrich, whose campaign has been revived by large contributions from Sheldon Adelson because of the candidate’s down-the-line backing for Israel, is somehow such a covert Jew-hater is simply a smear,” said Jonathan S. Tobin at Commentary. “Though his faults are many, he is, if anything, a more ardent Zionist than many Jewish liberals and has never done anything that could possibly link him to hatred for Jews.”

Germany’s anti-Semitism endures
Many decades after WWII Germany is still grappling with hatred against Jews, according to a recent report. “According to the report, Iran’s anti-Semitic ideology not only manifests itself in propaganda within the country, but also influences Germany.” A 10-person committee spent two years worked on producing the first-ever report. “We commend the authorities for honestly exposing and confronting the scope of the problem,” said Elan Steinberg of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants. “The tragic legacy of the Nazi era places a special burden on Germany to confront anti-Jewish hate.”

An Obama hit?
After writing a piece speculating that Israel would think about killing President Obama, Atlanta Jewish Times owner and publisher Andrew Adler resigned and said he would write an apology to appear in the next issue of the print publication. He said he wrote the article to see what kind of reaction it would provoke among readers. “Andrew Adler did not start a debate. He focused attention on some of the worst aspects of the right wing – the virulent, baseless hatred of Democrats, the blind support Israel and the arrogant hypocrisy of a nation born out of a holocaust and centuries of oppression demanding a right to do the same to others,” said Linda Carbonell at LezGetReal. It’s time to tone down the rhetoric, said Chemi Shalev at Haaretz. “Anyone who has spent any time talking to some of the more vociferous detractors of Obama, Jewish or otherwise, has inevitably encountered those nasty nutters.”

‘Kosher Jesus’ furor
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is back with a new book titled “Kosher Jesus” and it’s already caused a storm in recent weeks. “Jesus was a Torah-committed Jew whose mission was to restore Jewish observance fully among his Jewish brethren and fight Roman persecution,” said Boteach in a Jewish Week editorial. And he has his defenders. Josh Fleet at The Huffington Post said, “In 2012, the topic of Jesus should not be a Jewish taboo. If we believe so much that our relationship with Christianity is based on deceit, tragedy and senseless hatred—that it has broken us—then we are obligated to believe it can be based on trust, opportunity and boundless love—that it can be fixed.”

January 19, 2012 | 5:02 am

This week in power: The Iran question, Romney, “False flag,” Haagen-Dazs

Posted by Danny Groner

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney speaks at the Devine Millimet-Manchester Chamber of Commerce Forum in Manchester, New Hampshire Nov. 18, 2011. Photo by REUTERS/Brian Snyder

A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:

Iran flares up
A joint anti-missile exercise has been pushed back to the summer and the anticipation over the visit to Israel of Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, this week has Iran back front and center. “If you’re an optimist you may decide to interpret the comings and goings of the US and Israeli generals as yet another way to intimidate Iran and prevent it from manufacturing nuclear arms,” said Rabbi Dow Marmur at the Jewish Journal. But Lynn Gottlieb at the Fellowship of Reconciliation warned that “outside military intervention will only make matters worse for everyone.” What would an Israeli attack provoke, exactly? The New York Times’ Roger Cohen lays it all out:It “unites Iran in fury, locks in the Islamic Republic for a generation, cements the Syrian regime, radicalizes the Arab world at a moment of delicate transition, ignites Hezbollah on the Lebanese border, boosts Hamas, endangers U.S. troops in the region, sparks terrorism, propels oil skyward, triggers a possible regional war, offers a lifeline to Iran just as Europe is about to stop buying its oil, adds a Persian to the Arab vendetta against Israel, and may at best set back Iran’s nuclear ambitions a couple of years.”

Where’s the Jewish vote stand?
Mitt Romney appears to be ahead of the Republican pack when it comes to the Jewish vote, according to the Jewish Journal, “a sign that A. Jewish Americans are really becoming more conservative (as some have argued), or B. That Obama’s policies (on Israel and other matters) were truly hurting the Democratic ticket with one of the most staunchly Democratic groups in America.” At a recent event, it was reported, Romney said: “And I would note that there are people in our nation that have different beliefs; there are people of the Jewish faith, and people of Islamic faith, and other faiths who believe other things, and our president will be president of the people of all faiths.” But Romney’s respect for the Jewish people hasn’t come without opposition. Stay tuned.

Israel’s “False flag” allegation
The Israeli government denied that it had intelligence officer pose as CIA officers to assassinate Iranian officials. The events reportedly took place in 2007 and 2008. The so-called false-flag accusation came to surface just after the latest assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist. “No good realists should be surprised when countries do deceitful or underhanded things to try to advance their interests, and if that’s the way the Israelis want to play it, so be it,” said Stephen M. Walt at Foreign Policy. “But this sort of behavior helps you understand why more and more U.S. officials are questioning the ‘special relationship,’ no matter what they have to say in public to keep the lobby quiet.” David Dayen at Firedoglake warned that this kind of escalation should be considered carefully. “We’re seeing a significant rising in the possibilities for war, and the genus of much of the tension comes from spy games played by either Israel or a Western consortium, outside the boundaries of international law.”

New Jersey hate
Someone is vandalizing synagogues in New Jersey and parts of New York by spray-painting swastikas and other hateful messages. In other cases, Molotov cocktails were thrown. It has local Jews on edge. In one of the incidents, people have arrested a suspect, who is Jewish, who apparently was tormenting his mother. “If we act as if the vandals represent the tip of an anti-Semitic iceberg, Jews are going to have to accept the kind of security seen in many European synagogues and Jewish centers: armed guards, 24-hour surveillance, garrison architecture. The costs — literal and in a lost sense of well-being — will be enormous,” said Andrew Silow-Carroll in the New Jersey Jewish News. And some wonder if anti-Semitism is on the rise.

Haagen-Dazs under fire
Kosher-keeping Ice cream lovers may lose one of their favorite snacks if the Chief Rabbinate in Israel has its way, as Haagen-Dazs fights to keep its kosher certification. The ice cream is reportedly made with an unsupervised liquid milk that causes “a severe infringement of kashrut procedures.” “Why the ban has been issued now remains unclear. The rabbinate claim their notice about Haagen Dazs has been issued several times previously but gone unheeded, recommending Israelis turn to home-made kosher ice creams to fill the gap,” according to The Telegraph. Some consumers are worried: “Still, I shudder to think what’s next. No more Toyota cars and trucks in Israel because their carburetors aren’t sufficiently supervised? A blockade on iPhones because the workers in the assembly plants might be eating ham and cheese sandwiches while checking the screens for glitches? A ban on seaweed for sushi because it might contain traces of shellfish (oh, wait, that already happened,” said Brian Blum at Israelity.com.

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January 12, 2012 | 5:11 am

This week in power: New Hampshire, Santorum, Holocaust analogies, Credit cards

Posted by Danny Groner

A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:

Romney’s win
Mitt Romney won the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, with Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman finishing second and third, pushing Romney even further ahead of the competition. “Of the entire field, Romney has the greatest upside among Jewish voters,” said someone quoted in The Jewish Week. “Of the remaining Republican field, he is the one Jews feel most comfortable with – he’s kind of heimish.” But if we’re just going based on the campaign and the debates, warned Shmuel Rosner of the Jewish Journal, We still know “nothing exactly about the way a President Romney will act tomorrow.” And the debate goes on about who has Israel’s best intentions in mind.

Santorum’s “Jesus guy” comments
Late last week, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum told a radio show host that we could always use a “Jesus guy” running the country. “Most American Jews will be hard put to find their place in this new interdenominational Christian alliance,” said Chemi Shalev at Haaretz. Let’s keep the religious attacks out of the campaign, shall we? suggested Tod Robberson in the Dallas Morning News. “Voters should be encouraged to make their decisions based upon their assessment of the qualifications, integrity and political positions of candidates, not the intensity of their religious beliefs.”

Nazi imagery law
The Israeli government passed a law this week that will make it illegal to use any Nazi or Holocaust imagery, according to reports. Violators face big fines or possible jailtime. The law follows recent unrest over ultra-Orthodox people’s use of Nazi imagery in protests over immodesty. “As Jews, we have found ourselves needing to constantly raise our voices against this kind of trivialization in an effort not only to remind others of the pain and offensiveness of these remarks, but also to protect the memory of the Holocaust, so that we do not wake up one day to a world that no longer remembers the lessons of that period—or, worse, is indifferent to them,” said Abraham H. Foxman in JTA.

A new political party in Israel?
Until recently, Yair Lapid was a popular TV personality on Israel’s Channel 2. Now, he’s running for Knesset and might be forming his own party. “The trouble is that politics is not about ratings. One must ask what Lapid brings to politics that gives him the skills to make decisions about the country’s fate. He has no political or administrative experience and has never been immersed in the turmoil that is Israeli politics, whose pressures, from within and without, are some of the greatest in the world,” said Shlomo Avineri at Haaretz. Of course, Lapid could wind up just finding his place within the establishment. “With the centrist Lapid possibly more willing to join a Netanyahu coalition than Kadima (Lapid doesn’t expect to be PM, Livni does – there’s a lot of ego involved with such ambitions), Netanyahu might have a viable path towards being less dependent on the hardcore right-wingers and the ultra-Orthodox parties,” said Shmuel Rosner at the Jewish Journal.

Israel vs. hacker
A Saudi teenage hacker posted Israeli credit card numbers online, prompting the Israeli government to call it “a breach of sovereignty comparable to a terrorist operation, and must be treated as such.” “I’ve hacked much more than you can imagine,” wrote the hacker. He said he had more credit card information than what he published so far. “Yes, because shooting a missile at someone and killing them is exactly the same as leaking their credit card data and temporarily inconveniencing them, and taking out a shit-eating script kiddie is essential to Israeli sovereignty. It’s only a few more dumb leaps in logic to blowing up anti-Israel YouTube trolls,” said Adrian Chen at Gawker. “Yeah, they sound pretty pissed,” said Tanya Ghahremani at Complex.

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January 5, 2012 | 5:31 am

This week in power: Iowa, Bibi’s year, Beit Shemesh followup, Fox poll

Posted by Danny Groner

A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:

Iowa caucus
Everyone was paying attention to Iowa on Tuesday as the Republican candidates vied for votes, resulting in a close contest that left three strong contenders: Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and, Ron Paul. It became even clearer that foreign policy - particularly that related to Iran - will play a major role in the election season. “Iran is about to have nuclear weaponry just down the road,” Romney said. “Iran is important, but one should still wonder: China, Russia, Korea, Europe, the Arab Spring – aren’t they all important enough to be worthy of some discussion?” asked Shmuel Rosner at the Jewish Journal. Jewish voters might tip the scales for one of the candidates, said Mik Moore at Shma, but they should tread carefully. “When the media covers the Jewish vote, it will likely focus on the candidates’ support for Israel. After all, why should this year be any different? But the fight for Jewish swing voters, volunteers, and donations will almost certainly be won or lost elsewhere.” Heading toward New Hampshire, the Jewish vote remains a concern.

How’d Netanyahu do?
“Bibi Netanyahu had a very good year,” said Douglas Bloomfield in The Jewish Week. “He may have dissed the President of the United States with a rude lecture on live television but that didn’t stop Barack Obama from leading the campaign to block the Palestinian bid for U.N. membership, raising the level of security cooperation to new highs and approving the transfer of weapons system denied by the Bush administration. As a bonus, Netanyahu got standing ovations at a joint session of Congress that insulated him from pressure to be more flexible in the peace process; he returned home stronger than ever – and less interested in fulfilling his end of the U.S.-Israeli partnership.” But that’s not the complete story, said Aaron David Miller in the Los Angeles Times. “Unless Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu find a way to cooperate on a big venture that makes both of them look good, and in a way that allows each to invest in the other, the U.S.-Israel relationship may be in for a bumpy ride.” Stay tuned.

Beit Shemesh furor goes on
The conflict goes on in the Israeli city between ultra-Orthodox and modern Jews over modesty. And the commentary continues to pour out. “Rape is not about sex, it’s about violence. So too Orthodox Jewish men attacking young Orthodox Jewish girls in Beit Shemesh, Israel this past week for wearing short sleeves was not about modesty (the perpetrated acts of violence were of course anything but modest), but about power,” said Rabbi Hyim Shafner in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Clearly, the haredim see themselves as the victims here,” said a Jewish Week editorial. “But while it is true that the number of ultra-Orthodox militants is small, the deeper concern is the passive behavior toward them by fellow haredim and the relative silence of the leaders of their communities.” Either way, this needs to end soon, said Richard N. Weltz at American Thinker: “This has got to be nipped in the bud, and decisively so, for the sake of all the rest of us Jews.”

Nazi imagery
As the debate has heated up in Beit Shemesh, so have the methods, according to reports. Ultra-Orthodox protesters reportedly gave young boys yellow stars and striped prison camp uniforms to wear, an evident comparison to the Holocaust. Some people were arrested for a similar stunt. This “constitutes a new low point,” said Ronn Torossian at the Algemeiner. “People in Israel misuse the Holocaust in politics and other areas all the time,” said someone quoted by the Daily Beast. ‘It’s used mainly by the right wing but also by the left and center’ to vilify political adversaries.”

Fox’s Jesus poll
The Latin American division of Fox issued an apology for a controversial poll last week that included a suggestion that Jews killed Jesus. It asked people, “Who do you think is responsible for the death of Christ?” and gave three choices: Jewish People, Pontius Pilate and High Priests. “There really isn’t much else to say, except what else can we expect from Fox News? This is the norm for this network, whether it’s done here in the U.S. or overseas,” said Claudio E. Cabrera at The Root. “There was no word on the results of the poll,” added Nando Di Fino at Mediaite.

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