In the Trenches: Ten worst news stories of 2008

Monday Dec 22, 2008 -Posted by David Harris

This year, it wasn't difficult to identify candidates for the worst new stories. The challenge was limiting them to ten.

Here's my list:

An ethical meltdown

An Israeli prime minister compelled to leave office, on the heels of an Israeli president who was obliged to leave his post under a cloud in 2007, sent another disturbing message that all is not well in Israeli politics.

The Bernie Madoff story, embodying greed and fraud to the Nth degree, inflicted more harm this year on the Jewish world than all of our external enemies combined.(read full article)

Self-Restraint

Prof. Paul Eidelberg - Dec 16, 2008
Arutz-7

"Havlaga" prolongs the war.

US Admiral Bull Halsey, a rational and responsible man, said, "Hit hard, hit fast, hit often." Rationality and responsibility are qualities quite foreign to those who shape Israel's policy toward its enemy, the Palestinian Authority. Their policy is "Hit softly, hit slowly, and hit seldom." (read full article)

Political Correctness Will Doom Israel

Israel seems to be sliding inexorably toward an abyss and the aftershock will be felt by Jews everywhere. Olmert, clinging on to his office by his dirty finger nails, is desperately trying to give away the Golan Heights and Judea and Samaria to appease Israel’s sworn enemies. These acts of self-destruction will perplex historians for all times. Many Jews, who are more of the lifestyle than of the book, seem indifferent to what is happening in and to Israel . Many could not care less that a group of young Orthodox Jews were recently evicted from a legally bought house in Hebron . Jewish police set upon Jewish men and women with a vengeance. Thus, demonstrating to the world their political correctness by turning against their own and proving that Jews, themselves, can be the “clever” architects that have brought on the wrath of civilizations. Is it possible that the true Jewish spirit and bravery of these settlers is what sends a chill up every weak spine? Many Jews seem oblivious to the hostile drumbeats emanating from the UN where tribal leaders try to outdo each other in an Olympic-style hate fest against Israel . Many Jews are also oblivious to the fact that a publicly subsidized Saudi Arabian Mosque was recently completed in Boston , in our own backyard. This Mosque will literally become a field of dreams as in “if you build it they will come”. French Jews, who now live in fear of marauding gangs of young Mus lims, would attest to this scourge. When courageous people like Charles Jacobs and Tom Mountain dare speak the truth, they are assailed by those who worship at the alter of multi-culturalism, the new attic sanctuary for progressive Jews. If, “we are living in biblical times”, as stated by Elie Wiesel, it will do no good for Jews to bury their bibles in the sand along with their heads.

"Beit Hashalom "

December 7, 2008
DAVID WILDER, THE JERUSALEM POST

Following the expulsion of families from Beit Hashalom in Hebron, during a radio interview with the BBC, I was asked about our future plans. When I responded that the community would continue to purchase property in Hebron, the interviewer asked, "But won't that just cause more violence?" I answered, "If I bought a home in London and was told that a Jew purchasing on 'that side of the city' would cause a violent reaction, how would that be viewed? Probably as anti-Semitism and racism. Why then can't a Jew buy property in Hebron, just as people purchase homes all over the world?"

Another common question I've had to field from journalists is, "Don't you think this has all gotten out of control?" My response is quite simple: "Of course it is totally out of control. That's not the question. The question is who is out of control?" Clearly, in my opinion, those who have lost control are those democratic institutions which are designed to protect citizens from despotic leadership.

FOLLOWING PURCHASE of Beit Hashalom for close to $1 million, the Hebron community found itself under attack from numerous sources. Rapidly the question of our legitimate presence in the building made its way to court. The original court decision found enough evidence supporting our claims to prevent immediate eviction. However, harsh restrictions were imposed, including denial to install windows and to hook up to the Hebron municipal electric grid. Only in the middle of a major snowstorm did the defense minister allow installation of windows in the building last winter.

Due to the political sensitivity of the case, we soon found ourselves opposite a Supreme Court panel hearing the various issues involved. That panel was composed of Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch and Justices Edmond Levy and Uzi Fogelman. Levy is religious. Following a break in the court hearings, Beinisch changed the panel, removing Levy and Fogelman and replacing them with Justices Ayala Procaccia, who is known to be one of the most left-wing justices on the court, and Salim Joubran, the only Arab on the court. Beinisch, it must be noted, is not known for her right-wing ideological opinions. Two leftist justices and an Arab were left to decide the fate of the Jews living in Beit Hashalom. If that's not a stacked deck, nothing is. So wrote retired District Court judge Uzi Struzman, calling the court's final decision blatantly political.

In that decision, the court ruled that it would not examine the evidence presented, including proof of authentication of the legal sales documents, a video of the seller receiving and counting the money received for the building, and an audio recording of his description of the sale and receipt of the money.

Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz, when presented with new evidence in the case, specifically the audio cassette, refused to meet with community attorneys or examine the proof of purchase.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced only two weeks ago his intention to legalize all the illegal Beduin construction in the South. Yet he gave the go-ahead to violently expel all residents of the building in the midst of advanced high-level negotiations which would have allowed him to forgo the brutal confrontation.

These are examples of nothing less than terror - administrative terror, utilized by the highest echelons of the country's democratic institutions to further their own political beliefs against loyal citizens of the state, in this case, residents of the Hebron Jewish community.

FOLLOWING VIOLENT reactions to the extremely harsh expulsion, which included use of tear gas and stun grenades, I was asked about "red lines" - and decisions to "cross those red lines." Unfortunately we are presently facing situations where the government is crossing all the red lines that previously existed. The transformation of the judicial system, including the attorney-general and the Supreme Court, into an extended arm of the political arena ends all notions of impartiality or objectivity.

Hebron residents are often labeled extremists. However nothing could be more extreme than the above-described actions of Mazuz and Beinisch. But due to their positions and political ideologies, their extremism is considered legitimate.

It should be clear. Hebron's Jewish community opposes and rejects any and all violence aimed at innocent people, be they Arabs, Jews or anyone else. However it is unthinkable and intolerable that Israel's top leadership should change the rules in the middle of the game, expecting the other side to play by the old ones, while they play by the new. Such actions, as we have recently witnessed, quite literally push a large segment of the population into a corner with no way out, creating a dangerously volatile situation. Peace may breed peace but by the same token, extremism breeds extremism.

The real danger to Israeli society is not a few dozen kids throwing rocks while violently and illegitimately being thrown out of a home in Hebron. The true threat to our country is the warping of the fundamental institutions whose presence is supposed to protect the people rather than terrorize them. The decisions made concerning Beit Hashalom were not based upon justice, rather upon pure judicial terror.

The writer is spokesman of the Jewish community of Hebron.

- The New Republic - Why Israelis Love Chabad

Jerusalem, Israel
by Yossi Klein Halevi

Dec. 4, 2008

Gavriel and Rivkie Holtzberg, the young Israeli couple who ran the Chabad House in Mumbai and were murdered there by jihadists, died bound and helpless, like those Jewish martyrs disparaged for their quietism by the Zionist ethos. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, the Holtzbergs never served in the Israeli army--yet when they were buried on Tuesday, Israeli society mourned as though they were fallen soldiers. When their coffins arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport, they were draped in the national flag. Israeli leaders, including President Shimon Peres, who doesn't usually attend the funerals of terror victims, came to the Holtzbergs' funeral. When I came into work that morning, I found the young woman in the room beside mine weeping. (read full article)

Townhall.com - The Rabbi and the Terrorists

Tuesday, December 02, 2008
by Dennis Prager

It was obvious to observers around the world that one of the designated targets of the Pakistani Islamist terrorists was the Mumbai Chabad House, the one Jewish center in Mumbai. The 10 Islamic terrorists who came from Pakistan to India chose their targets with great care.

If one assumes that the terrorists primary goals were to destabilize India, weaken growing Indian-Pakistani cooperation in fighting terrorism, and greatly increase Indian-Pakistani tension, hopefully to the point of military war between the two countries, every one of the targets made strategic sense. Slaughtering as many people as possible in Indias major economic center, including as many foreign tourists as possible at Mumbais finest hotels, also made sense. (read full article)

Boston mayor tried to help local black muslims build a mosque, wound up with Saudi terrorist mosque

Boston Jewish Advocate
“Menino’s Mosque”
By Charles Jacobs
November 23, 2008

This was the title of the Boston Phoenix’s lead story last week, featuring on the cover an image of Mayor Menino serving up a new mosque on a silver platter to -- the story argues – exactly the wrong people.

The Phoenix report is the first public account of how a well intentioned Mayor tried to help local African-American Muslims in Roxbury build a mosque, but wound up subsidizing what many in Boston worry is a Saudi-funded and controlled center with connections to radical Islam -- a mile from downtown.

Phoenix reporter David Bernstein sketches a complex tale of good intentions gone awry. At the center of Bernstein’s account is Muhammad Ali-Salaam, who played a double role: as promoter and fundraiser for the mosque, while being paid as a city official to guard Boston’s interests.

Twenty years ago, Bernstein says, the Muslim Co
uncil of Boston (MCB), a consortium of Sunni congregations in Roxbury, proposed to build a mosque on land held by the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA). Mayor Ray Flynn was supportive. He had worked as a probation officer years before and came to know people at Roxbury’sIntervale Street mosque who he thought “could do good for their community.”

But in 1996, when it became clear that the MCB could not raise enough money, the BRA’s Ali-Salaam put forward another group – the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB) -- as the designated developers and helped the ISB get the $2 million dollar parcel for $175K.

Did the BRA ever vet the ISB? Bernstein describes ISB members as “largely of Saudi Arabian heritage.” Simple due diligence would have found that Yusef al Quaradawi, then a registered ISB Trustee, called for the killing of Jews and homosexuals, that the ISB’s website featured instructions on wife-beating, and that ISB Trustee Walid Fitahi called Jews the "murderers of prophets.” Today, the ISB’s founder is in prison as an al-Queda money runner. Even the BRA should know that a mosque that gets millions from the Saudis is unlikely to be an enthusiastic promoter of moderate Islam.

Now, Bernstein says, the Mayor hides from the issue in a “zone of silence,” and doesn’t show up at mosque events. The BRA, which is being sued to open its public records, seems to want the silence permanent: BRA officials recently told the judge that all relevant e-mails have disappeared.

At the height of the controversy over the leadership of the mosque, the ISB claimed that it had cleansed itself of objectionable characters. Fitahi actually resigned from the ISB board. But now, Bernstein tells us, Fitahi is back.

And Bernstein reports that the ISB recently turned the mosque over to the Muslim American Society (MAS). This is a group thought by some to be the American branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, sparked and now may guide the anti-West jihad.

Has the BRA put the mayor in an untenable position? Has the time come for a FinCom investigation of the BRA/ISB/MAS deal?