January 17, 2009 | 11:14 pm

Israel issues unilateral ceasefire; Hamas vows to keep waging war

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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I was gone all day at a miserable UCLA basketball game, but I just came home to read big news from Haaretz:

Prime Minster Ehud Olmert on Saturday night announced that Israel’s security cabinet has voted in favor of a unilateral cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, which went into effect at 2 A.M. local time.

The announcement comes after three weeks of fighting in the coastal strip, as Israel launched a massive military offensive aimed at halting years of daily rocket fire on its southern communities. Palestinian sources say that more than 1,100 Gazans have been killed since the offensive began on December 27. Three Israeli civilians and 10 Israel Defense Forces have been killed during that period.

“I want to thank, first and foremost, my friend the defense minister, Ehud Barak, for his professional expertise, and the understanding he showed throughout the whole operation,” Olmert said.
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“I also want to thank and express my appreciation to Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni for her contributions to the wide-ranging diplomatic efforts that greatly enhanced the international support Israel has received.”

The decision to launch the cease-fire was approved during a lengthy security cabinet meeting which began after sundown in Tel Aviv. Two ministers were against the move, and another abstained.

“Our fight is not with the people of Gaza,” Olmert said at the Tel Aviv press conference following the cabinet meeting. “We left Gaza in 2005 with the intention of never returning,” he said, referring to Israel’s unilateral withdrawal of troops and settlers from the territory under former prime minister Ariel Sharon.

Olmert warned that Iran, through its proxies Hezbollah and Hamas, was trying to establish its own hegemony in the region. He said that Hamas had underestimated Israel’s decisiveness, had been “surprised” by the launch of the offensive, and was still not fully aware of how badly it had been damaged.

Olmert said that “if Hamas entirely ends its rocket fire on Israel, Israel will consider an IDF withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.” If that did not occur, he said, “The IDF will continue to operate in order to protect our citizens.”

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January 17, 2009 | 2:12 am

You’re invited to the Madoff bris

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Looks like someone’s come up with a response to the anti-circumcision movement. Ouch.

This image was sent to me by my colleague Tom Tugend, who has his reasons.

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January 16, 2009 | 2:29 pm

Hamas and an adorable puppy

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

From Hamas to cute, sleepy puppies. That reminds me, keep this dog, who can’t seem to figure out to just lay on the floor, away from Hamas. They’ll just use him as an adorable shield.

In other news, you know media outlets are struggling when they start running senseless animal stories; on the other hand, it does work (another excuse to embed a “South Park” clip, after the jump). Actually, I’m posting this because Ted Olsen shared it with me, and he’s a big wheel at the Christian cracker factory.

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January 16, 2009 | 1:37 pm

Hamas leader to Gazans: ‘the aggression will soon perish on the rock of your steadfastness’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

This may come as no surprise, but a Hamas leader still isn’t interested in peace. In fact, he’s seems to urging Gazans to make martyrs of themselves by refusing to negotiate with Israel:

In a speech broadcast across the Arab world and widely followed in the Middle East and elsewhere, Khaled Meshal, the senior leader in exile of Hamas, told an unusual Arab gathering in Doha, Qatar, that “I assure you: despite all the destruction in Gaza, we will not accept Israel’s conditions for a cease-fire.

“We tell our loved ones in Gaza, the aggression will soon perish on the rock of your steadfastness,” he said.

Israel has long insisted that a cease-fire should be long-term and sustainable, preventing Hamas from firing rockets at Israel or re-arming.

But Mr. Meshal, who is based in Damascus, Syria, told the meeting in Doha that his organization would accept a cease-fire only if Israel withdrew its forces from Gaza, lifted its blockade of the territory and reopened border crossing points. Despite three weeks of fighting that has claimed around 1,100 Palestinian lives, he said, “resistance in Gaza has not been defeated. It has suffered harm but it has not been defeated.”

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January 15, 2009 | 10:04 pm

Jews, money and a classic canard

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Nazi propaganda

If you were looking for a money manager and you had to choose between Shylock, Fagin and Bernie Madoff, who would you pick?

Shylock, obviously. But the more interesting question is what do these three notorious figures—two fictional and one who lived in a fictional financial world—have in common? Well, if you’re familiar with the uncomfortable stereotypes regarding Jews and money, which means you are not Tommy Thompson, then you know the answer.

I don’t have a lot of experience as the target of anti-Semitism. But this is one canard in which I am well versed: the Jewish miser, the money grubber, the, well, shylock. It’s lesser in virulence only to the blood libel and the Christ-killer accusation. And yet, it is far, far, far more prevalent. The big question is: Why?

First, a brief history lesson:

Jews didn’t choose to become moneylenders and usurers. In Medieval Europe, the financial “industry” was one of the only fields open to them, and that was only because the church prohibited Christians from partaking in such a vile profession, one suited for, in Martin Luther’s words, “a brood of vipers and children of the devil.”

The church eventually dropped its restriction, but the moneylending tradition remained with Jews wherever they landed. I’m not sure why this is; it’s something I’m exploring for a future article. But a reasonable explanation is that money is fungible, property and businesses are not. And when anybody who looks or acts like you is having their assets seized or their community expelled by state governments every few decades, well, you look for ways to CYA.

Look at what billionaire and newspaper villain Sam Zell told The New Yorker when explaining why, as a Jew, he could never earn enough and why he diversifies his investments globally:

“I think that being Jewish means that you’re vulnerable forever. Was there a stronger Jewish community anywhere in the world a more intellectual, more successful than Germany in the late twenties and early thirties, before Hitler? And seven years later they’re building concentration camps! So, do I expect something like that to happen in the United States? Of course not. Do I think it could? Absolutely.“

Which leads us back to the question of why Jews are so overrepresented in the financial industry, as anti-Semites have reminded us to no end these past few months. It turns out the Wharton School and the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where the student body has no shortage of Jewish students, has initiated a lecture series on this very topic, “Jews in Business: Between Myth and Reality.”

The presentations grew from a yearlong postdoctoral study program at the Katz Center, which has its own series of speeches on the topic in the community. Each year, 20 fellows from around the world come to the center to study a particular issue. This year, it is Jews, commerce and culture.

“We don’t want to be intimidated by the perceptions of Jewish economic life,” said Jonathan Karp, a fellow at the Katz Center who teaches Jewish history at Binghamton University and will be the first speaker for the Wharton lectures.

Michael Gibbons, a deputy dean who approved Wharton’s role in the lectures, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Karp and other visiting scholars at the center said many Jews had indeed done well in modern business and finance. They trace the financial success of Jews in the Western world to a cultural emphasis on education coupled with centuries of persecution that forced Jews to disperse around the world - creating the foundation for global trade networks - and discrimination that shut Jews out of the most prestigious jobs. That honed a talent for spotting opportunity on the fringes of the economic world. Jews were among the first, for example, to see the mass-audience potential in movies and recorded music by black artists, Karp said.

The downside of economic success throughout much of Jewish history was that it fueled resentment and harsh treatment from competing groups, the scholars said.

“If you wanted to criticize Jewish society, you would use their . . . economic success as a stick to beat them with,” said Adam Teller, a University of Haifa historian who with Karp and Derek Penslar, of the University of Toronto, proposed devoting this year at the Katz Center to economic history.

This story, from the Philadelphia Inquirer, leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Mainly how Jews ended up being business all-stars and whether there was anything innate in Judaism that gave them this advantage. This is, of course, a difficult subject to tackle.

For deeper study, I strongly recommend Yuri Slezkine’s “The Jewish Century.” I have detailed notes on the book back at the office that I’ll share soon. Books that you might want to refrain from include “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” anything from Kevin MacDonald’s “Culture of Critique” series.

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January 15, 2009 | 7:29 pm

Still supporting Israel, L.A. mayor stops by shul for Shabbat service

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Last week, a few days after Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stood shoulder to shoulder with leaders of the Jewish community and spoke out in support of Israel’s war against Hamas, I got an email from Rabbi Eli Herscher of Stephen S. Wise Temple, inviting me to celebrate Shabbat with the mayor:

“I cannot emphasize too strongly the meaning of the Mayor having taken a publicly supportive stand, while under pressure from some quarters not to do so.  I also cannot overstate how important it is forIsrael to receive such support.  So often the media fails to offer any context for the painful photographs it puts on display.  Rarely are we given any sense of history or perspective on how the conflict in Gazahas arisen out of unrelenting Hamas bombardments of the innocent residents of Southern Israel.  And only seldom are we reminded that Israel’s operation in Gaza is an effort against the scourge of terrorism.  Much of the world also seems oblivious to the reality that Hamas terrorism is inspired and enabled by Iran.

“But we know all this.  And more importantly, Mayor Villaraigosa has visited the Israeli town of Sderotand seen the destruction with his own eyes.  More, he has born testimony to it.”

This was far from a first for Villaraigosa, whom The Forward called “something of an honorary member of the tribe.” There is a short story about the mayor’s visit in this week’s Jewish Journal. No word yet on whether L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca, who spent the weekend in Israel, will be popping up at a local synagogue tomorrow night.

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January 15, 2009 | 4:17 pm

Hadassah reveals it withdrew $130 million from Madoff account *

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Last month, Hadassah announced that it had lost $90 million from investments made with Bernard Madoff. Whether Hadassah was a winner or loser, though, is up for debate. The Jewish Week is reporting that during the past 20 years the Women’s Zionist Organization of America had withdrawn $130 million from its Madoff account:

“We had no idea how much we had pulled out until a few days ago,” said a source close to the organization.

The source said Hadassah “went back through its books, year by year, to check all the records” to learn how much was withdrawn after receiving many calls from members upset with the $90 million loss.

“There are a lot of angry people out there,” the source said. “When we checked, we found that we did quite well — $130 million was withdrawn” since 1987.

Nancy Falchuk, the president of Hadassah, confirmed the $130 million figure in a phone interview late Wednesday morning as the paper was going to press. She stressed that the organization was still in need of money because over the past five years it has sent $91 million in cash each year to Hadassah’s projects in Israel. She said the organization is obligated to send another $91 million this year to pay, among other things, salaries at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.

“Yes, we have money in the bank but a lot of it is restricted,” Falchuk said, adding that Hadassah is now erecting a new tower at Hadassah Hospital and is still housing children in its youth aliyah village in Israel. “We’re looking for an opportunity to recover [from the Madoff and stock market losses]. ... Three hundred thousand women own this organization and we will come through this.”

*Update: In very related news, Hadassah began massive layoffs yesterday. A quarter of its national staff is looking at pink slips:

The layoffs, however, were not solely caused by the Madoff losses. The organization had been discussing streamlining for nearly two years. The downturn in the stock market and the Madoff losses accelerated the process, the spokesman confirmed.

Last September, the organization hired McKinsey and Co. to help implement a strategic restructuring plan, the preliminary components of which were approved by Hadassah’s executive committee the week before the Madoff scandal broke, Hadassah President Nancy Falchuk said in a letter to her board in December.

That restructuring plan, which included massive layoffs, was intended initially to be implemented over 18 months. The Madoff scandal “turned it into a 30-day plan,” said a former Hadassah employee who was notified that he was laid off Wednesday morning.

Employees were notified starting Tuesday that they were being let go immediately.

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January 15, 2009 | 3:42 pm

WTFWJD?

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Just saw that image on the blog God Spam, under the heading “Progressive Christian T-Shirts.” You’re telling me. It’s from the Going Jesus shop on CafePress. Another design in the collection is “Christian Who Thinks.”

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January 15, 2009 | 2:14 pm

Little Adolf Hitler and his sisters placed in state custody

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

Remember the little boy whose name was so offensive that a supermarket refused to put it on his birthday cake? Well, it looks like the parents of Adolf Hitler Campbell attracted a little too much attention to little Adolf and his two Nazi-named sister. New Jersey’s Division of Youth and Family Services placed the children in state custody last week. State officials aren’t saying why, but here’s the best guess of a psychologist who talked with FOXNews.com:

Forensic psychologist N.G. Berrill said naming a boy Hitler could be considered child abuse.

“Part of it is the infantile nature of the parents’ behavior,” Berrill said. “You can name your dog something weird, but they think they’re making some kind of bold statement with the children, not appreciating that the children will have separate lives and will be looked at in a negative light until they’re able to change their name. It is abuse.”

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January 14, 2009 | 7:54 pm

Protesters chain themselves to Israeli consulate entrance

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

My wife messaged me this morning to say Wilshire Boulevard had been shut down outside the Israeli consulate building. The reason? The protest that VideoJew Jay Firestone reports on in the video above. The protest, organized by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, led group members to chain themselves to the entrance of the consulate building, preventing anyone from getting in and prompting consulate officials to tell workers not to bother coming in.

Danielle Berrin has more details. The money quote from one anti-Zionist organizer: “I don’t believe Hamas is a terrorist organization.”

And I, sir, don’t believe I can take you seriously.

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January 13, 2009 | 6:55 pm

Tim Tebow is sinning against the NCAA

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

I don’t believe what I just saw.

On “Rome is Burning” a few minutes ago, they were actually debating the appropriateness of Tim Tebow’s “overt displays of faith.”

“Read the Constitution, the amendments, all that. I believe in separation of church and state and church and sport. I really do,” said Rick Telander, a sportswriter for the Chicago Sun-Times. “You couldn’t have Eat at Burger King across here”—moving his finger across the bottom of his eye. “What if somebody has Allah is Great? We are a very Christian nation and we assume that when we speak about religion everybody is on the same page. I just think that should be kept separate.”

Give me a break. Seriously. What a joke.

What’s next? Parents are prevented from naming their sons Muhammad or Christopher, lest they be prohibited from playing sports?

Tebow, you may remember, wrote “John” under his right eye and “3:16” under his left before the BCS National Championship Game last Thursday. John 3:16, the most often quoted verse of the Bible—for kids, it’s right after John 11:35 “Jesus wept”—states “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

I thought everyone knew this verse. Sort of like Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning ...” But it turns out that the day after the national title game, “John 3:16” was the top search on Google.

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January 13, 2009 | 12:21 pm

‘Job has all his children killed and Michael Bay gets to keep making movies’

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

In the “Cartmanland” episode of “South Park,” Kyle renounces his Judaism and decides, based on the fact that Cartman has his own theme park while Kyle is hospitalized with an aggressive hemorrhoid, that there isn’t a God. I, obviously, don’t agree. But I can understand Kyle’s reaction to the story of Job. The money line, teased in the headline, comes at the end.

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