June 13, 2013 | 3:53 am

This week in power: Samantha Power, Wieseltier, WWII diary, Princesses

Posted by Danny Groner

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

Jews and Power
"Samantha Power brings to foreign policy an activist impulse that many in the pro-Israel community wish was more prevalent among American diplomats Except Power, a former White House National Security Council staffer nominated this week by President Obama to represent the United States at the United Nations, also has directed her interventionist inclinations at Israel," reported The Jewish Week. Some came to Power's defense as she was nominated to replace Susan Rice as Ambassador to the United Nations. "I know Samantha personally and all an individual has in this world is their good name, and if it’s being unfairly sullied it deserves to be protected," wrote Shmuley Boteach in The Jerusalem Post.

Wieseltier comments
Leon Wieseltier fears Israel may be in jeopardy, he said in an interview this week while accepting the Dan David Prize. "Unless there is a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there will not be a Jewish state for very long," he said. The prize recognizes his contributions to humanity through science, art, public service, humanities and entrepreneurship. "If, as Wieseltier suggests, there is effectively no longer a Palestinian question, his darkening sense of Israel's future raises another, the subject of this week's self-test: How long does Israel have left to live?" asked Bradley Burston at Haaretz.

Nazi diary
A diary was found in upstate New York that reportedly holds the thoughts of top Nazi officials and specific information about the looting of Jewish-owned art. It belonged to Alfred Rosenberg and turned up in the possession of a one-time secretary to a Nuremburg prosecutor. "The documentation is of considerable importance for the study of the Nazi era, including the history of the Holocaust," according to historians at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "A cursory content analysis indicates that the material sheds new light on a number of important issues relating to the Third Reich's policy. The diary will be an important source of information to historians that compliments, and in part contradicts, already known documentation."

Bravo show
The latest reality TV show, Princesses: Long Island, has some up in arms about the portrayal of Jewish stereotypes. "I was surprised. Not because I’m offended that there’s a show about self-proclaimed Jewish American Princesses, but that it took the reality TV gods so long to make it," wrote Slate's Jessica Grose. "I have never met anyone in all my travels in the Jewish world who is as outlandish as these girls (I wont call them women)," said Ronn Torossian at The Algemeiner. "And while indeed reality TV is often offensive, this gross show is simply over the top." The show does have its defenders, though.

Dayan appearance, sorta
"Yes, that was a big picture of Moshe Dayan hanging over Stan Rizzo’s bed," on "Mad Men" last week, wrote JTA's Ami Eden. The sighting set bloggers ablaze. "I am open to any and all theories as to why Stan (as opposed to, say, Ginsberg) would have a poster of Moshe Dayan above his bed," said Alan Sepinwall at Hitfix. In context, this reference makes a bit of sense, said Slate's Hanna Rosin: "In the late '60s Dayan would have been the Jews’ equivalent of Che, a freedom fighter for a cause which at that point in history many were still rooting for. And yes, the notorious eye patch gives the image extra significance, because this episode is so much about not seeing what you ought to."

June 6, 2013 | 3:05 am

This week in power: Kerry, Walker, Flatbush flight, Knaidel spelling

Posted by Danny Groner

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

Push for peace
Secretary of State John Kerry made a call for more peace talks while addressing the American Jewish Committee this week. "We are running out of time," Kerry said. "We are running out of possibilities." How'd that go over? "The substance of John Kerry's speech was that he had learned absolutely nothing from the past and that everyone else should join him in not learning anything from the past. That optimistic ignorance is not a luxury that either America or Israel can afford," said Daniel Greenfield at Right Side News. "Unfortunately, wishful thinking is a poor guide to navigate the treacherous waters of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. What Kerry lacks is a dose of cold realism," wrote Leo Rennert at American Thinker.

Walker's letter
Alice Walker wrote an open letter urging Alicia Keys to cancel her upcoming concert in Israel, which sparked outrage. "Of all the self-important and patently stupid characters Alice Walker has written, she’s finally given us the grandest of them all: herself," wrote Liel Leibovitz at Tablet. For her part, Keys said she won't back out of the show: “I look forward to my first visit to Israel. Music is a universal language that is meant to unify audiences in peace and love, and that is the spirit of our show," she told the New York Times.

Flight disruption
One hundred and one Yeshivah of Flatbush students and their eight chaperones were removed from an AirTran flight this week after they allegedly misbehaved and wouldn't shut down their electronic devices before takeoff. “They treated us like we were terrorists,” student Jonathan Zehavi told CNN. “I think if it was a group of non-religious kids,  the air stewardess wouldn’t have dared to kick them off.” Terry Maxon at the Dallas Morning News joked, "We hope none in the group called the flight attendants “stewardesses” on board the flight." News spread quickly about the incident. "With 101 students kicked off the flight, this is likely not the last we will hear from both groups regarding the matter," said James Johnson at The Inquistr.

Whiskey love
The New York Times ran a story on Tuesday about "Whisky Jewbilee," a on enight event in New York City, on the eve of WhiskyFest. It's popular among Orthodox Jews who wouldn't be able to attend the annual festivities at WhiskeyFest since they coincide with the Sabbath. "The article posits that Jews have traditionally loved whiskey," and sip it at synagogue events, wrote a Heeb blogger. "What the article doesn’t mention is that whiskey is delicious and it gets you good and ripped, which is, I suppose, the only way some of us could make it through a synagogue event in the first place."

Knaidel controversy
Arvind Mahankali may have won last week's Scripps National Spelling Bee, but the debate went on long after the final word. He correctly spelled the Yiddish word “knaidel,” to tak home the top prize, but some argued that the word doesn't really have one proper spelling to it. "Like Helen of Troy with her ships, knaidel seems to be 2013’s food that launched a thousand complaints," said Ally Bruschi at The Daily Meal. "But type it, and a red line appears underneath it. That was a theme of the evening. Nearly every time one of the indefatigable 11 finalists would spell a word, Microsoft Word would insist that the word did not exist. Of the 57 words in the finals, spell check was adamant that 48 were not actual words," pointed out Alexandra Petri at The Washington Post.

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May 30, 2013 | 3:36 am

This week in power: French president, Jewish fund, Egypt support, Bronner op-ed

Posted by Danny Groner

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

Re-meeting Cukierman
Roger Cukierman was elected last week to head the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, the representative body of French Jewry. He served previously in the position from 2001 to 2007. He said he would work “under the sign of a relentless, constant and determined fight against anti-Semitism and the respect of memory,” reported JTA, as told to The Parisian. "I want a CRIF stronger, strictly independent and open to the civil society as a whole,” he added.

Financial recoupment
The German government agreed to pay back some of the losses to Jews who lost their savings during the Holocaust in Berlin. The government agreed to pay around $1 billion in homecare for victims. There are reportedly 56,000 survivors in 46 different countries who will receive financial support under the agreement to last the next four years. The fund also supplied welfare services such as food, medicine or transportation to victims. It's a significant development in the ongoing struggle to assist these people as they grow older.

Other side of Germany
A meeting of the elected leadership of the Berlin Jewish community led to physical attacks last week over the 2013 budget, according to reports. Some witnesses said that “some members were choked” during a break in the meeting. Although this is the first recent report of Jew vs. Jew violence, some recent stories indicate that there's still some level of anti-Semitism and hatred inside German society. Still, some like The Jewish Daily Forward's Lilit Marcus are enjoying the area as tourists. "And here I am, alive and Jewish and wearing a pair of hamza earrings, walking alone down the streets of what used to be East Berlin. That is beautiful too, I think," Marcus wrote earlier this month.

Egypt funds
Outrage from the Jewish community in Egypt poured out this week after reports that the Egypt council had opted to revoked annual grants allocated to them by former president Hosni Mubarak. It's yet to be resolved, with a member of the committee saying he's not opposed to providing the financial aid if it's deemed appropriate. Not everyone is so optimistic. "When looking at the situation of Egypt today, one concludes that when the Muslim Brotherhood took control in Egypt, it made the worst possible deal anyone can make: it tried to buy a car which was basically a 'total loss,' and then drive it and its passengers as if it could actually get somewhere besides the garbage heap, the garbage heap of history," said Mordechai Kedar in the Jewish Press.

What Israelis want
New York Times' write Ethan Bronner ruffled some feathers this past weekend with an op-ed that argues Israelis have given up on the peace process. "The peace process was working when Israelis were dying. And the bar was being moved further down. It stopped working when Israelis stopped dying," wrote Daniel Greenfield in the Jewish Press. "Should a sea change in Palestinian political culture ever occur that produces a leadership ready to permanently end the conflict and live in peace alongside Israel, they will discover the Israelis willing to do whatever is necessary to secure the agreement. But until then, most Israelis are not going to waste their time or endanger their lives on a futile quest," said Commentary's Jonathan S. Tobin.

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May 23, 2013 | 3:26 am

This week in power: Biden, Lapid budget, Poland, Oklahoma cleanup

Posted by Danny Groner

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

Biden's comments
Vice President Joe Biden talked on Tuesday night at a Jewish American Heritage Month event where he highlighted American Jewish influence for helping to shape policy, including gay rights. “The truth is that Jewish heritage, Jewish culture, Jewish values are such an essential part of who we are that it’s fair to say that Jewish heritage is American heritage,” he said. Not everyone was thrilled by this characterization. "Biden’s intentions here are obviously as friendly as can be, but the execution is awkward. The civil rights movement today is so widely sanctified that mentioning the disproportionate Jewish role in it is in the same category as mentioning Einstein, Jonas Salk, and so on — look at all these wonderful things the Jews have helped bring us," pointed out Jonathan Chait at New York Magazine. It's probably best not to bring it up.

Money issues
After Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid took away $100 million from yeshivas that were being paid by taxpayers, reports surfaced that wealthy Haredim would foot the bill. Some are calling it “a Lapid bypass plan." For Haredim, "Lapid and his colleagues are little more than the latest incarnation of what the halakhic literature calls minim – Jewish assimilationists whose hatred for the Jewish religion and for religious Jews has contributed to governmental decrees against Jews and Jewish practice for centuries," according to The Jerusalem Report. But he does have one thing going for him, said The Daily Beast's Emily L. Hauser: Public opinion. "He doesn’t want to be brave, or bold, or honest. Yair Lapid wants to be elected. And he’s not going to risk that for anything so inconsequential as the truth."

Attention on Poland
Poland is seen as having the "worst record on the restitution of Jewish property lost during the Holocaust," according to reports. And Jewish groups that are seeking restitution are doing everything they can to get their due. Poland sits as the only European country that does not offer private property restitution to Holocaust survivors and their families. While these groups rally to recoup at least some of the losses, others are grappling with issues of faith that came out of WWII.

New report
Discrimination is on the rise, but not just against Jews, Muslims, too, according to an annual Department of State report. Anti-Semitism in particular grows in Venezuela, Egypt, and Iran. During the announcement, Secretary of State John Kerry appointed a new special envoy on anti-Semitism, Ira Foreman. The position has been around since 2004, and Foreman worked to recruit Jewish voters for President Obama ahead of the past election. "Of course it is a sad statement that in the 21st century, the United States requires a high-level post to deal officially with anti-Semitism," said a Jewish Week editorial.

Oklahoma tornado
Jewish groups were among the many organizations to volunteer with the efforts to help those displaced by the tornado in Oklahoma City this week. “We are numb with grief, and yet inspired by the heroic resilience of the people of Oklahoma,” Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said. Others are sending love through prayer: "You told Elijah, the prophet, that You were not in the windstorm. Please, then, be in the still, small voices of the children crying out to be found. Be in the voices of the rescuers calling out for survivors. Be in the cries of those who are lost and of those who have lost."

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May 16, 2013 | 3:46 am

This week in power: WoW scuffling, IRS scandal, Newseum, Shavuot message

Posted by Danny Groner

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

Kotel fight
Last Friday, the Kotel was a spot for outrage and bickering as the Women of the Wall again arrived to pray on the date of the new month. Only this time they encountered much more resistance than ever before, as "religious teenage girls turned up in large numbers to protest the group’s insistence on praying at the wall in religious garb traditionally worn by men," reported The New York Times. Three people were arrested, though none of them WoW members since the court ruled in their favor some weeks ago and upheld their right to be at the holy site. "A democracy cannot tolerate the stifling of religious freedom, particularly when this freedom is expressed so innocuously with the wearing of tallitot and tefillin," said a Jerusalem Post editorial. "I have to ask. With all the good intention of Israel’s rabbinic leaders, how could they not see that this was going to happen? It isn’t as though protests in the past never had things like this happen. The fact is that this almost always happens," said Harry Maryles at The Jewish Press.

IRS snooping
A bombshell dropped late last week when it was revealed that the Internal Revenue Service had classified some conservative groups differently when it came to seeking tax-exempt status. The IRS quickly apologized. "Taking away a non-profit’s ability to receive tax-exempt charitable contributions is equivalent to a death sentence," said Commentary's John Podhoretz. The scandal hit the Jewish world when The Jewish Press wondered whether it had hit Jewish organizations. But not everyone bought it. "There are some red flags in The Jewish Press story, said geoconger at Patheos. "Though it is characterized as a news story, the article is a one-sided advocacy piece written by an individual closely associated with one of the organizations under IRS scrutiny. No names, dates or details are given though a powerful quote is supplied. Absent a name, it is difficult to judge its veracity."

Venezuelan reveal
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro flipped his story after long claiming that he wasn't maintaining ties with Iran, but now he's said publicly that he's not anti-Semitic because he descended from Sephardic Jewish ancestors. Maduro took over for Hugo Chávez, who had been critical of Israel during his reign and didn't exactly warm up to the Jwish Community there. “Chavez also opened the doors of Latin America to some of the world’s worst human rights offenders. In addition to the Iranians and their terrorist proxies, these included Sudan’s Omar Al-Bashir, Qaddafi, Mugabe, Saddam Hussein, and the Assad family," Sammy Eppel, a leader of the Venezuelan Jews, told IsraelNationalNews. Improved relations may come with time.

Newseum under fire
Washington, D.C.'s, museum dedicated to media and reporting is reportedly "reconsidering" its decision to honor a slain cameramen employed by a Hamas affiliate. The Newseum wanted to highlght Mahmoud al-Kumi and Hussam Salama, cameramen killed in November by an Israeli strike. They worked for Al Aqsa TV, an arm of Hamas “Serious questions have been raised as to whether two of the individuals included on our initial list of journalists who died covering the news this past year were truly journalists or whether they were engaged in terrorist activities,” the Newseum said. As of early this week, it had merely postponed the honor, not nixed it completely.

Shavuot takeaways
The annual spring festival celebrating the giving of the Torah came around this week, and some people got thoughtful in the leadup. "Shavuot is about participation, not commemoration. About joining a community of listeners. About experiencing the resonance of His expression," wrote Mendel Horowitz in The Jewish Daily Forward. And in each generation, we must recommit ourselves to the text, and to the creator, wrote Steven R. Edelman in the Fay Observer. "God has made a succession of covenants with various people in the history of Jewish faith. He made a covenant with Abram, then he made covenants with Isaac, and again with Jacob. None of the covenants replaced an earlier one. The covenant made at Mount Sinai continues."

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May 9, 2013 | 3:51 am

This week in power: Syria airstrikes, Scottish church, Beck comparison, Hawking retreat

Posted by Danny Groner

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

Serious about Syria
"Israeli airstrikes in Syria on Iranian weapons destined for Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia could be seen as heralding wider international involvement in Syria’s intractable civil war," reported the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday. Israel hasn't formally admitted to bombing the weapons caches. "Nothing would unite Syria like a common enemy, and yet even when the common enemy invades their country, it makes more international headlines than in Syria itself," said Marc Ambinder at The Week. "At the end of the day, it's an issue of survival (for Assad) and retaliation will further endanger that survival," Bilal Saab, director of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, North America, told the Associated Press. "The most existential threat (to the regime) is the rebels, not Israel."

Great Scot!
Scottish Jews called out the Church of Scotland for a paper that denies the Jews' claim to the land of Israel, according to reports. In“The Inheritance of Abraham,” it stated that “reconciliation can only be possible if the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the blockade of Gaza are ended." The Church and Society Council of the Church of Scotland put it out last week. "The church owes the Jewish people an apology for this incendiary text that is more fitting to the 13th century than to this one. Jewish groups, Church of Scotland members and others must join together to oppose and repudiate this vicious and defamatory text," wrote Seth J. Frantzman at The Jerusalem Post.

Beck's comments
Glenn Beck has a long history of making controversial comments, especially when it comes to comparing people to Nazis. At the National Rifle Association's annual convention last weekend, Beck compared New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to Hitler and reportedly gave a Nazi salute. Beck played down the comments, but you can decide. Here they are: "When somebody argues for gun control, they are either living in self-imposed ignorance or they are just living an argument of control," Beck stressed to the crowd of more than 10,000. He urged the group "to make sure that we give no more power to those in government at any level," and held New York City up as an example of where things are headed. "I am amazed at how many of my New York friends have become absolute dopes and just will accept the soda ban, the popcorn ban, the salt ban," he spat. "I've come up with a new advertisement for New York, a new slogan: 'You will love New York!'"

Hawking rouses anger
People were aghast on Wednesday when news came out that Stephen Hawking opted to join a boycott at an Israeli conference against the state's occupation of Palestine. Many were quick to point out that Hawking depends on Israeli technology in the computer equipment that helps him function. "Calls for academic boycotts of Israel are longstanding in the United Kingdom, and have been proposed numerous times at meetings of academic trade unions, with varying success. Although some researchers have backed boycotts, others call them counterproductive," wrote Daniel Cressey at Nature.

Lipman smear
American Dov Lipman, who is a freshman Knesset member of the Yesh Atid party, had his name besmirched this week by the head of his former yeshiva. At issue for Rabbi Aharon Feldman was speculation that Lipman would try to shut down some ultra-Orthodox schools that don't teach secular studies. In fact, Lipman has no such plans. He dealt with it with a classy op-ed at Baltimore Jewish Life. Lipman wrote: "I certainly hope the misquote will be acknowledged and that the comparison to Amalek and Haman will be taken back.  Misunderstandings happen and can always be corrected. Let us all learn the lesson of the dangers of the rumor mill and misquotes and let's work together to strengthen Torah study, the spreading of Torah values, and unity amongst the Jewish people."

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May 2, 2013 | 3:57 am

This week in power: Drone, Sarin, WoW decision, BBC documentary

Posted by Danny Groner

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

Finger-pointing
Israel is facing a tough decision over a recent drone spotting. Prime MinisterNetanyahu's helicopter was forced to land after word got out and he remained grounded until the Israeli Air Force had secured Israeli air space, according to reports. First reports said that Hezbollah launched the drone, but that was unsubstantiated. However, Catholic Online reported that "It is widely speculated that Hezbollah sent the drone as a publicity stunt in an effort to demonstrate to their own people that they still have an emphasis on destroying Israel. Recently, Hezbollah has been sending fighters and resources to support the regime of Bashir al Assad in Syria. Many Lebanese are upset at this involvement." Stay tuned.

Attention on Syria
Syria denied this week that it has ever had chemical weapons, after allegations flared from the United States, Israel, France, and Britain. "Mr. Obama must soon provide a clearer picture of how he plans to use American influence in dealing with the jihadi threat and the endgame in Syria," said a New York Times editorial. "If it is proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Syrian government is using chemical weapons on its people, the world -- and that includes the United States -- cannot and must not sit on its hands," wrote Dorian de Wind at The Huffington Post.

Abbas honored
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was give honorary citizenship in Naples, Italy, last weekend, which upset many Italian Jews. Shalom Bahbout, the rabbi of Naples and South Italy, said that Abbas “had skeletons in the closet” and that the local Jews "are not against conferring honorary citizenship on a Palestinian," just for the sake of it. The controversy centers again around the postgraduate thesis Abbas penned titled “The Connection between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Movement 1933 – 1945."

Women's right
An April 24 District court decision ruled that Women of the Wall have a right to pray at the Western Wall as they wish, and the organization will be back on May 10 for the new new month. "Judge Sobel’s decision reflects the history and traditions of that holy place, knowledge of or regard for which has clearly escaped contemporary zealots who seek to bar women from praying there collectively—or to dictate how they might pray there or what they might wear while doing so," wrote Tablet's Elliott Horowitz. Of course, not everyone agrees. "G-d is not a mushy, honey-coated sugar-daddy. He states exactly what He wants and anything outside that is not acceptable," said Boris Karshinov at Israel National News.

Nixed film
A BBC documentary about ancient Jewish history was shelved last week, which has upset filmmaker Ilan Ziv who is the man behind "Jerusalem: an Archaeological Mystery Story." "This is ultimately a sad saga of what I believe is a mixture of incompetence, political naiveté, conscious or subconscious political pressure and ultimately, I believe, a lack of courage of broadcasters when they are faced with the complexity of the Middle East issue and the intense emotions, fears and aggression it generates," Ziv wrote on his blog. "As is so often the case, the decision to censor the film appears to have been counter-productive, ultimately bringing it more publicity than it would have otherwise had, wrote Samira Shackle at Middle East Monitor. Coming as it does at a time when a man with known pro-Israel sentiments has been appointed to a top BBC post, this is one accusation of bias that will be far from easy to shrug off."

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April 25, 2013 | 3:43 am

This week in power: UN agreement, Marathon security, Florida law, Bible winner

Posted by Danny Groner

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

New deal
An "unusual partnership" was struck this week, reported The New York Times, that brings together the "United States and Russia, with the help of Jordan, Brazil... As part of the arrangement, the Palestinians agreed to postpone five resolutions critical of Israel that were pending before the agency." Many were enthusiastic about the new deal struck by Unesco, the U.N.’s cultural arm. “It’s a door that was opened,” Israeli Ambassador to UNESCO Nimrod Barkan said. “It’s a move toward confidence building and an attempt to see whether there is forward movement.”

Boston lockdown
"I am not judging the people of Boston and their leaders and yes, there is something to be said about being safe rather than sorry. But, I wonder about the long-term strategic ramifications and if this won’t be viewed as a near-surrender to terrorism," wrote Yaakov Katz in The Jerusalem Post. Some last weekend pointed to how well Israel handles tough security situations like these. Yet, some took exception to these comparisons. "We can choose whether and how, with what nuance or with what lack thereof, we draw comparisons between terror in Boston and terror in Israel. And we can remember that comparisons, like all speech acts, are not morally neutral: somebody always benefits, and somebody always loses," said Sigal Samuel in The Daily Beast.

Controversial law
A bill passed the Florida House recently that bans "foreign legal principles from being used in state courts" which has united Muslim and Jewish advocates in opposition to it, according to Jacksonville.com. It's being called "anti-Sharia law," and Gov. Rick Scott supports the bill. "But hey, you want to make a culturally homogenous omelette, you gotta crack some multi-ethnic huevos," snarked Gawker's Adam Weinstein. At issue is whether such a law is even necessary, as people wonder what type of incident would provoke a foreign law to become entangled with a state one.

Ruskay steps down
John Ruskay, the head of the UJA-Federation of New York for the past 14 years, announced on Tuesday that he will step down as executive vice president and CEO of the world’s largest local charity on June 30, 2014. Under Ruskay's direction, the UJA-Federation has led the charge for Jewish organizations in the region in communal planning and philanthropy. The organization works with nearly 100 network beneficiary agencies, synagogues, and other Jewish organizations -- and 60 other countries around the world. “This has been a fabulous, wonderful professional journey,” Ruskay said. “It’s also time to move on a little bit, to create some room for others."

Bible quiz draw
This year's annual Bible Contest led to a tie between Elior Babian of Beit Shemesh and Yishai Eisenberg of New Jersey, a student at Yeshiva University High School. The two contestants both achieved perfect scores in the final, challenging rounds, and the judges ultimately decided that they couldn't take away the win from either boy. It's the first time in contest history that there was a tie. “It makes me very happy to see young people from Israel and from the world that are so interested in our Book of Books,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the contest's conclusion.

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