November 29, 2012 | 5:21 am

This week in power: Ceasefire aftermath, Barak retires, Hungary list, Soccer hooligans

Posted by Danny Groner

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

Peace this week
After last week's ceasefire in the Middle East, all is quiet on the Israel front after eight days of Israel's Operation Pillar of Defense against Gaza. In total, more than 1,500 rockets were sent toward Israel, and Israel said it shot back at more than 1,000 targets. "At the end of the day, a government or entity that wants to survive must meet its people’s psychological and tangible needs," said Jonathan Adelman in The Christian Science Monitor. "These confrontations only leave it more impoverished and keep it from taking the road to peace and global integration." How's it bode for the future? "The ceasefire can make us optimistic for a day but if we are realistic, we know that next week, next month or next year the peace will be broken again," said an Aurora Advertiser editorial.

Barak steps aside
Longtime politician and former prime minister Ehud Barak announced this week that he'll retire in January after the elections. "I want to dedicate more time to my family. I feel I have exhausted dealing with political life, which has never been a passion of mine, and I feel there is room to allow other people to serve in senior roles in Israel," Barak said. His legacy is mixed, said Eitan Haber at YNetNews: "From being the darling of the Israeli nation, with tens of thousands of people cheering for him at Rabin Square after he won the elections, Barak's status within Israeli politics gradually declined until it reached its current level. Politics may not miss Barak, but security will." Others were impressed with how he handled himself in recent years. "His alliance with Netanyahu over the past four years has been surprisingly strong, considering their divergent political leanings," said Dan Ephron at The Daily Beast. Barak has left the door open to be defense minister, some have noted...

Merkel's backing
German Chancellor Angela Merkel renewed her pledge to stand with Jews inside her country and for Israel's right to self-defense, according to reports. During the recent attacks, Merkel stated that it was Israel's duty to protect its citizens from rocket attacks. "Germany also has that right," she added. But not everyone is on board with that sentiment. "Berlin's popular BZ newspaper published a graphic of Berlin as though it were within range of rockets from Gaza," reported Deutsche Welle.

"Lists of Jews"
A Hungarian politician pushed his government to come up with a list of Jews who pose a "national security risk" which stirred debate as it brought back uncomfortable feelings tied to the Holocaust. Marton Gyongyosi, a leader the Jobbik party, insisted that they needed the list after the way Israel infiltrated Gaza. He half-heartedly apologized for the remarks, but many remain concerned. "Rhetoric like this in a country where more than half a million Jews were killed during the Holocaust are obviously disturbing. But what makes this more interesting than just another 'European far-right politician says offensive thing' story, is that Jobbik's old-fashioned anti-Semitism puts it at odds with the direction other European far-right groups are heading," said Foreign Policy's Joshua Keating.

Soccer threats
At European soccer matches of late, instances of overt anti-Semitism in the stands are on the rise, which has many people worried. So far, security has kept these individuals at bay, tossing them or banning them in other cases. “The days of English football crowds making mass monkey noises are thankfully gone, but massed anti-Semitic chanting about Hitler and gassing was clearly heard yesterday from a loud section of West Ham fans,” a community spokesperson told JTA. “We have heard such abuse against Spurs before and it risks seriously compromising the work against racism at all levels of the game.” Authorities are continuing to monitor the situation and are poised to act when it's called for.

November 22, 2012 | 3:39 am

This week in power: Israel intensifies, Prospect for peace, GOP future, Thanksgiving message

Posted by Danny Groner

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

Israeli operation
Israel and Hamas have engaged in rocket attacks over the past week that has some worried that the fighting could escalate into all-out war. Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system has been able to intercept a large number of the rockets, but more have been landing in Israel of late which has caused panic. Then, on Wednesday, a bomb took out a bus in Tel Aviv. "Unfortunately, Hamas is not rational. It targets Israeli civilians while hiding behind its own," said Michael Oren in The New York Times. "Israel will not allow its citizens' lives to be endangered. The international community must call on the Palestinian leadership in the Gaza Strip to take the same approach with its own people," added Danny Ayalon in The Guardian. A ceasefire announced later on Wednesday left some hopeful that the violence would end.

Is peace possible?
The bus bombing came amid talks led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton which only further damaged the possibility of the two sides hashing out a longterm resolution. "With that mindset among Hamas's backers, it's hard to be optimistic about the prospects for a sustainable truce. That is why Israel must pin Hamas down to an enforceable deal -- a genuine, durable peace grounded in reality, not the fantasy world of Hamas and its apologists," said an Australian editorial. And it's on Israel to start the process, said a Miami Herald editorial: "Israel would have to commit to genuine talks over the West Bank to provide Palestinians there the hope of a better life and offer a model that the people of Gaza can strive for. The United States can do its part by dragging both sides to the negotiating table. None of this is likely to happen unless the people of Gaza renounce the leadership of Hamas. By now they must surely realize that as long as they live under the rule of terrorists, they will never have a better future."

Murdoch tweet
Rupert Murdoch made headlines with a tweet over the weekend that adminished the "Jewish-owned press" for their coverage of the Israel situation. In an apology, Murdoch said "I should have stuck to the substance of the issue and not bring in irrelevant and incorrect ethnic matters." Was Murdoch so out of line? "He’s packed a remarkable amount of idiocy and nastiness into 140 characters. It will take a lot more space than that to dig himself out," said Peter Beinart at The Daily Beast. Some say it's expected with his personality. "Murdoch forthrightly speaks his mind and that's refreshing and unusual. It's a useful data-point to consider when consuming news produced by his employees," said Dan Murphy said in The Christian Science Monitor. "Twitter, free of his minders, offers a direct line to who he is," agreed Michael Wolff at The Guardian.

What's next for GOP?
Now that the election dust has settled, the Republican party is forced to reassess its values and mission as it looks ahead to 2016. One of the areas that pundits say they should consider is the Jewish vote, and their standing with Jews in America. "The GOP’s problem goes beyond candidate quality and can be summed up in a single question: What do they have to offer?" asked Jamelle Bouie in The American Prospect. "Clearly, the Republican party is in desperate need of realignment," said Gary Younge at GulfNews.com. "Today, six of the nine Supreme Court justices are Catholic (the other three are Jewish) and the Republican nomination was a contest between a Catholic (Rick Santorum) and a Mormon (Romney). The Catholic won the evangelicals; the Mormon won the Catholics." It's time to accept that "demography is not destiny."

Thankful for
"Thanksgiving is my least favorite meal of the year. The problem with the holiday is that it’s difficult to feel thankful when you’re slumped on the couch in a food coma after the meal," said Elana Horwich in the Jewish Journal. In fact, the Thanksgiving story and the Jewish tradition share many commonalities. Rabbi Laura Baum shared some insights in a Huffington Post article: "So, as we sit at our Thanksgiving tables this Thursday, and our Hanukkah tables in a few weeks, let us remember the celebration is not just about one snapshot in time that we seek to re-create. On Thanksgiving, we are free to replace the turkey with tofurkey, or the sugary pumpkin pie with a crust-less, Splenda concoction. We've welcomed a third football game to the holiday, not just watching the Lions' game and the Cowboys' game. There are many ways to be authentic."

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November 15, 2012 | 3:24 am

This week in power: Election aftermath, IDF tweets, Rocket attacks, Jewish jocks

Posted by Danny Groner

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

Obama's vote
How's the President wind up doing on Jewish support? Not bad. In 2008, he won 78 percent of all Jewish voters, with this year dipping a bit to 69 percent. The drop showed that Romney was able to sway some voters his way, but also demonstrated that Obama was able to keep people's fears and worries in check. "It is time to bury long-held myths around the Jewish vote and for the media and political pundits to stop hyperventilating over the tiniest movement within this 2 percent of the electorate," said Jeremy Ben Ami in The New York Times. And there's no better time for the President to reassure Jews that this is the start of a beautiful friendship, said Douglas Bloomfield in the Jewish Journal. "That starts with an early trip to Israel to reassure voters in person of his continuing 'unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security,' his determination to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions and his readiness to help Israelis and Palestinians make peace when they are ready. It should be an opportunity for him also to share his vision of the Middle East and America's role in it over the next four years."

A Twitter war?
Israel killed a military commander of Hamas in an air strike on Wednesday and stood firm behind its atatcks, according to reports. But what really got people fired up was the way the IDF announced the news -- via Twitter. And the tweets didn't seem to stop all day long. "The social media and real-life assaults are ongoing and more than a bit startling, combining the strong declarations of war with the immediacy and promotional aspects of the Internet, using lingo such as 'in case you missed it' and memelike photos designed for maximum virality," said New York Magazine's Joe Coscarelli. "This is truly war in real time. We've watched war "live" before, but not like this: There are no commercial breaks, no talking heads, no ticker tape running at the time. It is as unending and infinite and microsecond by microsecond as the speaker wants it to be, limited only by Twitter's current technical limits," added Matt Buchanan at Buzzfeed.

Days of rockets
Israeli's attack this week followed several days of rocket attacks fired in the region. "Israel is literally surrounded by enemies, armed and funded by Iran, and sworn to its destruction," as Right Side News put it. "How many more civilians must be injured or killed, how many children must die before Israel realizes that it may have to put its military in harm’s way rather than its civilians?" asked Gadi Adelman in The Jerusalem Post. There's still hope to quell the Syrian uprising, said Paul Iddon at Digital Journal. "Calculated resolve and realistic encompassing outlooks are what is needed by the states of the region to nip such a catastrophic quake in the bud and alleviate the worsening of an already bleak and dire situation."

General Assembly meets
This week the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations in North America met in Baltimore without any theatrics. Some said it was more an opportunity for networking than to settle unresolved issues within the Jewish community. Elie Wiesel and Natan Sharansky were the keynote speakers at the event, and some argued that the assembly would be better off with some younger guests. "Because we’ve grown up in the age of Uzi’s and M16’s, battles like Wiesel’s and Sharansky’s—over the bare fact of Jewish survival—don’t resonate for us the way they do for our parents," said Sigal Samuel at The Daily Beast.

New book
"What Franklin Foer and I learned in the course of editing 'Jewish Jocks' is that sports, too, is a realm in which Jewish innovations ended up influencing everyone else. The no-look passes and backdoor cuts of basketball trace their lineage to turn-of-the-century New York City, where smaller Jews devised ingenious strategems to defeat squads representing more physically endowed ethnicities," wrote editor Marc Tracy about his new book. "With so much variance in substance and style, it's hard to pick a single standout," said Sam Allard in The Cleveland Plain Dealer. Othrs agreed that the book surprises in good ways. It "becomes clear that this book isn’t just about an athletic race. It’s also about the human race," said Bloomberg's David M. Shribman.

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November 8, 2012 | 4:20 am

This week in power: Election fallout, Jews and Sandy, Iran worries, Microsoft deal

Posted by Danny Groner

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

Obama wins
Barack Obama was reelected on Tuesday night thanks in part to the Jewish vote, though it was reportedly lower than 2008 numbers. He won in spite of what The Jewish Daily Forward reported about Romney's campaign: "Jewish Republicans have conducted their largest ever mobilization of activists and of funds, arguing that Obama, now poised to enter his second term in the White House, would maintain an unfriendly attitude toward Israel." Others felt that Obama had it in the bag. "That more Jews felt comfortable with President Obama is not such a big surprise. No one really expected it to go any other way. It was also quite obvious that Obama will not win as strongly with Jewish voters as he did four years ago," said Shmuel Rosner in the Jewish Journal. How this reelection will affect the United States's relationship with Israel is anyone's guess.

Sandy sets down
After a massive hurricane rocked the Eastern seaboard last week, volunteers stepped up to help the victims get back on their feet and get basic supplies. Among those who volunteered were several Jewish groups and organizations. As people tried to get back on their feet, some rabbis took the opportunity to attach to the storm to outrageous meanings. For others, it opened up a difficult decision about where to give money and resources when there are so many causes to choose from already.

New wave of attacks
Israel has been facing rocket attacks that have some growing more concerned. "Israel has been fortunate to suffer few fatalities so far from the Gaza attacks. Some of that owes to Israel's deployment of the Iron Dome air defense system, which recently intercepted eight rockets aimed at larger Israeli cities. But no defensive system is perfect and at some point a Palestinian barrage may take a large toll in lives, forcing Israel to respond in a major way," said a Wall Street Journal editorial. What happens next, wondered Elliott Abrams at the Council on Foreign Relations. "The collapse of the PA is not in our interest—nor in Israel’s, as surely the Israelis must recognize and as Israeli security agencies do fully realize. For the Israelis to take retaliatory steps that make their own situation worse cannot be a sensible reaction to the Palestinian move."

What about Iran?
"The road could be very rocky, and war with Iran and the continued viability of a two-state solution hang in the balance," said Ali Gharib at The Daily Beast the day after Obama's win. The topic is particularly on people's minds now that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday stood by his comments that Israel would be willing to attack the Iranian nuclear program without U.S. support. "With Obama’s relection, the Likud and Netanyahu are no doubt somewhat unhappy," said Joseph Puder at Front Page Mag. Stay tuned for the next chapter of this ongoing and tumultuous affair.

Shalom, Microsoft
Silicon Valley meet Jordan River Valley. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was in Israel this week for the ThinkNext conference drawing in members of the high-tech start-up scene. At the event, 15 companies showed off their innovations, and all in attendance got some wisdom from a series of guest speakers on technology. Still, some weren't impressed by the slow pace that Microsoft took to embrace its foreign audience. "It’s unclear why it has taken so long for the Xbox 360 to appear in the Middle East, but we can only hope that Israel won’t be waiting another seven years before the next Xbox launches," said Lauren Varley at Geek.com. "Whatever the reason behind the console’s belated appearance in Israel, gamers there can finally get an officially sanctioned dose of Xbox excitement this month. For everyone else, it can probably be taken as a sign that Microsoft still sees plenty of life in its long-serving games machine yet," said Martin Bryant at The Next Web.

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November 1, 2012 | 3:41 am

This week in power: Sandy aftermath, Election forecast, Government merger, Mindy walkout

Posted by Danny Groner

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

Hurricane Sandy
The Eastern seaboard got walloped by Sandy early this week resulting in tremendous amounts of damage, and some reports of synagogues being decimated by the powerful storm. "The greater New York area, home to the largest population of Jews in North America, took a harsh hit as severe winds and flooding toppled trees, triggered electrical fires and flooded public transportation systems. The result: mass evacuations of apartments and dormitories, widespread school closings and damaged homes and community institutions," reported JTA. Through it all, though, there were also some stories of hope and courageand brotherhood. Others took the opportunity to consider what impact Sandy would have on the upcoming election...

VOTE!
The long road to the White House will reach its due ending on Tuesday with the arrival of the presidential election. "When I was filling out my absentee ballot, with every circle I filled in I was not actively thinking about my Jewish identity but I know that my politics and my Judaism do go hand in hand, consciously or subconsciously," said Sarah Brammer-Shlay at MinnPost. "Let each of us make sure to vote his or her conscience and may we all feel passionately about the privilege that we have to vote in a democratic country and about the views we hold on the candidates running for election, but let us remain united as people who love each other and respect each other regardless of our differences," added Rabbi Haskel Lookstein in The Jewish Week. Which way will you go?

Unexpected merger
"Last week’s surprise announcement that Netanyahu’s Likud Party and Avigdor Lieberman’s nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party would merge their candidate slates — but not their parties — in the upcoming election offers some signs that the smart money is on the right-wingers," reported JTA. What's it mean, asked Karl Vick at Time Magazine: "Even if Likud and Israel Beiteinu gather fewer total votes as a single list than they might have separately, the amount will surely be more than the Likud would have gained alone, and hence all but assures Netanyahu will emerge from the election atop the faction with the largest number of seats in the Knesset, likely assuring he will return as prime minister." Others looked more into the future when making their assessments. "The fusion of Bibi and Lieberman may promise Netanyahu another term, but it does not solve the problems that afflict Israeli society," said Yacov Ben Efrat in +972Mag.

A poll and a correction
The AP released a poll this week that seemed to suggest that 18 percent of Americans believed President Obama is Jewish. But they later corrected that to say that the results got mixed up, and that less than 1 percent of Jews believed that to be true. "Although the poll was in error, it is not unreasonable that some might assume Obama is Jewish. He does, after all, share a name with Israel’s Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak. And he did celebrate Hanukkah at the White House last December," said Howard Portnoy at The Examiner.

Mindy's empty seat
Brooklyn's favorite young candidate, Mindy Meyer, made local headlines this week when she was a no-show to face off with her opponent on The Jewish Channel. Meyer said she was busy with midterms. "The Jewish Channel gave the Meyer campaign every opportunity to try to schedule the debate to accommodate the candidate, but never received any communication from the Meyer campaign indicating a time at which she could or would appear," said anchor Steven I. Weiss. Democrat incumbent Kevin Parker did participate, "alongside an empty chair, Clint Eastwood-style," according to reports. "There was also a reality-television film crew, but not for Meyer, exactly — the show focuses on the catering company working the event," said New York Magazine's Joe Coscarelli. When will Mindy defend herself? Stay tuned.

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