Week in Review: July 30, 2010Click here to watch in High Definition (HD)
When Right-Wing British Sound Like Right-Wing Israel AdvocatesWhen you hear someone say of President Barack Obama, “I think his attacks…are unfortunate because we would like to maintain a strong special relationship with the United States,” do you imagine the speaker’s talking about Israel?
That rhetoric is certainly reminiscent of much of what we’ve seen recently from right-wing critics of the Obama administration’s approach to Israel.
But these words came from the deputy leader of the United Kingdom’s Independence Party, Lord Christopher Monckton, Viscount of Brenchley, this morning on CNBC’s Squawk Box (you may view his comments on Obama beginning at about the 2:10 mark in the above video).
More quotes:
“I do think there are one or two indications that President Obama is not very friendly disposed towards the United Kingdom,” he said, citing Obama’s removal of a bust of Winton Churchill from the White House’s Oval Office, which was replaced with one of Abraham Lincoln. He also cites Obama’s treatment of BP in the current oil spill, saying “There does seem to be a sort of deliberate hostility in the way President Obama went around referring to it as ‘British Petroleum’ all the time and almost using the disaster as a way of hitting back at the Brits…That I think has played very badly on this side of the water.”
What does it mean when right-wingers among these two U.S. allies are using similar rhetoric in criticizing Obama’s approach to their countries? Depending on whose side you’re on, potentially a number of things.
Pretty interesting to see the correlation, regardless.
Week in Review: July 23, 2010Click here to watch in High Definition (HD)
Week in Review: July 16, 2010Click here to watch in High Definition (HD)
The Actual Israel Conversion Bill That’s Creating Controversy Among American JewsToday’s New York Times carries an Op-Ed condemning the conversion spill drafted by Israeli Knesset Member David Rotem. There’s plenty of additional condemnation in English-language reports, but very little of it cites the actual bill.
To facilitate a more-informed discussion, the actual text of the bill in Hebrew can be found here, and the following is our translation of the bill into English:
Read more
Week in Review: July 9, 2010Click here to watch in High Definition (HD)
Who is the Israeli Reporter Who Asked Obama About “Bashing of Israel”?When offered to choose a reporter to ask a question, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu very quickly chose an Israeli-sounding male who used some pretty bold terminology in his questions to both President Barack Obama and Netanyahu:
Mr. President, in the past year, you distanced yourself from Israel and gave a cold shoulder to the Prime Minister. Do you think this policy was a mistake? Do you think it contributes to the bashing of Israel by others? And is that — you change it now, and do you trust now Prime Minister Netanyahu?And if I may, Mr. Prime Minister, specifically, did you discuss with the President the continuing of the freezing of settlements after September? And did you tell him that you’re going to keep on building after this period is over?
That’s a fierce phrasing of a question for Obama — and a rather leading question for Netanyahu regarding settlement construction.
So, who was this guy?
The video below starts with Obama offering Netanyahu the choice of a reporter to ask a question.
Note also that the reporter seems very prepared; it sounded to my ears initially as though he was reading from a prepared text. And how quickly Netanyahu picks him. This naturally raises the question: did Netanyahu and the reporter arrange this ahead of time? And if so, did they let Obama know about it, too?
Obama’s & Netanyahu’s responses are after the jump. Read more
Orthodox Rabbinical Group Outlines Women’s Roles as “Clergy” and MoreIn a noticeable contrast to the resolution of the mainstream Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America’s resolution forbidding Orthodox women rabbis, this resolution from the International Rabbinic Fellowship — a more-liberal group about 1/3 the size of the RCA — does just about everything but use the word “rabbi” to describe women’s roles in Orthodox life, calling for them to be “clergy,” “spiritual guides and mentors,” “preachers,” “teachers of Torah” and “persons who can… answer questions…in all areas of Jewish law in which they are well-versed.”
In other words, they’re saying women can be like Maharat Sara Hurwitz, if not explicitly Rabba Sara Hurwitz.
Interesting to note that they’ve stopped short of including women as rabbis in their organization — at least thus far — though IRF co-founder R’ Marc Angel called it “quite likely” in an e-mail to TJC in March. So was that option jettisoned, or simply delayed?
Full text of the resolution is after the jump. Read more
Week in Review: July 1, 2010Click here to watch in High Definition (HD)