Jewish Current Issues

J. Philip Rosen is a Jewish leader who writes and speaks on Israel and topics of importance to Jews worldwide. The following is his “Letter to My Children,” published here with his permission.

So today is Yom Hashoah - local ceremonies, ceremonies in schools and then its over.  But for me and thousands of other second generations it's never over.  It haunts us and always will.  

We lived mostly normal lives growing up.  But just mostly.  There were giant pieces missing. I had no grandparents.  My father had one living relative - his brother.  Nearly everyone else (his parents, 2 brothers, a sister and many cousins) were murdered in a concentration camp.  Murder is an understatement.  They were gassed and their bodies were burned.  They didn't have a chance.  Yom Hashoah is a day to remember; so let's remember.  Think about Shiya and Perel, our grandparents who were in their 40s when they were killed, Leon and Gittel Masha, aunt and uncle in their 20s and Noach Rozen, 12 years old.  They were fine people and good Jews.  They were killed solely because they were Jews.   

I always wonder what life would've been like had they survived.  My parents gave us a very normal life.  But every once in a while...  I would wake up in the middle of the night (even back then I couldn't sleep) and find my father staring at the pictures of his mother and father that hung in our living room (and that currently hang in our living room).  And there would be tears in his eyes (unlike me he never cried). And sometimes he would call me by one of his brothers' names - Henry or Leon or Noychele (Reuven Noach) or Pinyale (Pinchas) who survived in a Siberian camp, only to be killed as a soldier in Israel's War of Independence. When my brother, sister or I did something good in school (always my brother or sister) or sports (me) the pride they had was almost beyond normal.  We were everything to them.  

My father survived because of a series of miracles.  And so my survival and yours is because of an additional series of miracles.   

And if I ever seem over-protective of you, that's why.  

One very special thing my father taught us was to care about Jews all over the world, in every nook and cranny.  As you know I spend lots of time worrying about Israel and Jews in trouble.  The Jews who survived felt and feel that the whole world abandoned them - for 6 years the concentration camps existed, thousands of Jews were tortured and murdered every single day and no one, no one did a damn thing.  Simply amazing.  And the argument that no one knew is just not true.   

A few years ago I was on a business trip to Munich.  On my way back from a meeting outside of town I saw a sign to Dachau - 15 kilometers away.  I asked the driver if the camp was inside of town; he said he didn't believe there was a camp there.  So I changed my plans and had this driver pick me up at 8am the next day and we drove the 10 minutes to Dachau. 

The Camp was smack in the middle of the City with very old apartment buildings, 5 and 6 stories high, and a slew of retail establishments all around the Camp.  The Camp wasn't open yet so we drove around the camp from the gallows to the crematorium.  When the camp opened there was a German school group visiting the camp - 50-70 teenagers.  I asked if I could join their tour.  The teacher agreed.  So my driver and I joined. 

The teacher was germanic in the precision of her description of the camp during the war.  It was a torture camp, not an extermination camp like Auschwitz.  The teacher described the many tortures the prisoners went through in great detail.  She said they hung the prisoners from their hands or legs, but in a way to break their shoulders or knees or ankles.  She said there was screaming non-stop 24 hours a day. 

At the end of the tour she asked me if I wanted to say something (I guess my yarmulke gave it away).  I said no, but I would like all the kids to sit on the ground and tell me what they hear.  They did.  Kids started to yell out - I hear a child crying, I hear a car starting, I hear a wife yelling at her husband.  As they yelled these out, it became clear to the teacher and then the kids what this exercise was all about - if we can hear these sounds, the people who lived anywhere near the camps heard the screaming from inside.  They all knew.  Everyone knew.   

So my lesson on this Yom Hashoah is Care - care about your brethren, care about those that are suffering.  Don't ever let yourselves be silent.  And don't ever forget.  Shiya and Perel, your great-grandparents, Leon, Gittel Masha and Noach, your great-aunt and uncles.  Please.  Remember.

Israelis stand in place during a two-minute silence in Tel Aviv as sirens sound across Israel in memory of Holocaust victims on April 12, 2010. The wail of sirens brought Israel to a standstill for two minutes in solemn remembrance of six million Jews killed by the Nazis. (Getty Images)   

 

RISHPON, ISRAEL - APRIL 12: Israelis stop their cars on the road and stand to hold two-minutes of silence on April 12, 2010 at the highway near Rishpon, Israel. Israel fell silent as a two-minute-long siren wailed across the country at 10am to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. (Getty Images)   

 

Israelis stand still at the Mahne Yehuda market in Jerusalem as a two-minute siren marking Holocaust Remembrance Day is sounded April 12, 2010. (Reuters) 

 

Israelis hold a two-minute silence in Jerusalem as sirens sound across Israel in memory of the Holocaust victims on April 12, 2010. Israel fell silent as a two-minute-long sirens wailed across the country to mark Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Day.   (Getty Images)

 

Israelis hold two-minutes of silence in the market place of the coastal city of Ashkelon, on April 12, 2010. Israel fell silent as a two-minute-long sirens wailed across the country to mark Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Day.   (Getty Images)

 

Israelis stand next to their cars near Tel Aviv's beach promenade as a two-minute siren marking Holocaust Remembrance Day is sounded across Israel April 12, 2010. (Reuters) 

 

Israelis stand in place during a two-minute silence in Tel Aviv as sirens sound across Israel in memory of Holocaust victims on April 12, 2010. The wail of sirens brought Israel to a standstill for two minutes in solemn remembrance of six million Jews killed by the Nazis.  (Getty Images)  

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the opening ceremony of the Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial on April 11, 2010 in Jerusalem, Israel.

 From Netanyahu’s speech this evening:

Several months ago, I headed the Israeli delegation to the ceremony marking 65 years since the liberation of the death camps Auschwitz and Birkenau.  The candle-lighting ceremony took place outside in front of the monument.  It was 15 degrees celsius below zero, but it was still warmer than the terrible winter of 1944-1945 when temperatures ranged from 30 to 35 degrees below zero.  We stood for about 30 minutes during the ceremony, well-dressed for the weather, but nevertheless we were freezing.  Suddenly I understood a simple, chilling truth about millions of my brothers and sisters who ended up in that cursed place: those who didn’t burn, froze; and those who didn’t freeze were burned.

Several months prior, I had visited the Wannsee Villa in Berlin.  When I was there, I saw the original invitation for the meeting of high-level Nazi officials, during which they decided on the destruction of the Jewish people.  On the invitation that was sent by the Deputy Head of the SS was written: “The chief of the Reich main security office, Reinhard Heydrich, cordially invites you to a discussion about the Final Solution to the Jewish problem.  Breakfast will be served at 09:00”.

This is how, in an elegant villa on the shore of a pastoral lake, over breakfast and glasses of cognac, 15 men sat and decided how to destroy our people. No one batted an eyelid; no one expressed any doubt regarding the mission, either its necessity or its justness.  Immediately after the meal, they began their work to erase the seed of Abraham from the Earth.

As I was walking through the villa, moving from document to document, I felt myself becoming filled with helpless rage, and the feeling continued to grow until it became a flood.  At the end of the tour, my German host asked me to write something in the guest book.  I sat in the chair and the sadness and the anger rose up and started to overflow.  And because of the storm of emotions I wrote three words: Am Israel Chai [the People of Israel live].

Tonight at Mount Herzl, I say it again: Am Israel Chai.  The people of Israel will continue to live.  It re-established its country, gathered its exiles, built its army, settled its homeland and reunited its capital, Jerusalem.  “The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people.”  That is how David Ben-Gurion opened the Declaration of Independence.  The State of Israel was born out of the ruins and the ashes, and today it impresses the entire world with the force of its creativity and innovation, with its advanced research and knowledge, with the momentum of its economy and with its free and democratic society.

Netanyahu said the first lesson of the Holocaust “relates first and foremost to us, the people of Israel who were abandoned and defenseless when faced with waves of murderous hatred that rose against us time after time:”

“In every generation there are those who stand against us.”  And in this generation we must fortify our strength and independence so that we will be able to prevent the current enemy from carrying out its plan. …

The historic failure of the free societies when faced with the Nazi animal was that they did not stand up against it in time, while there was still a chance to stop it. 

And here we are today again witnesses to the fire of the new-old hatred, the hatred of the Jews, that is expressed by organizations and regimes associated with radical Islam, headed by Iran and its proxies.

Iran’s leaders race to develop nuclear weapons and they openly state their desire to destroy Israel.  But in the face of these repeated statements to wipe the Jewish state off the face of the Earth, in the best case we hear a weak protest which is also fading away.

The required firm protest is not heard - not a sharp condemnation, not a cry of warning. … Today, 65 years after the Holocaust, we must say in all honesty that what is so upsetting is the lack of any kind of opposition.  The world gradually accepts Iran’s statements of destruction against Israel and we still do not see the necessary international determination to stop Iran from arming itself.

But if we learned anything from the lessons of the Holocaust it is that we must not remain silent and be deterred in the face of evil.

I call on all enlightened countries to rise up and forcefully and firmly condemn Iran’s destructive intentions and to act with genuine determination to stop it from acquiring nuclear weapons.

An email from Michelle Grant:

On May 5^th, 2010, I will be leading an Environmental Mission with the Jewish National Fund to Israel. 

What makes this mission unique is the opportunity to see the future.   

Many of us have been to Israel and visited all the wonderful and astonishing biblical and historical sites; but here is a chance to look forward.  Into Israel's future and thus into the World's.     

Israel is on the forefront of all things green and environmental, from the conservation of water, to turning deserts into forests and wasteland into crops.  The Jewish National Fund supports all these efforts and so much more.    

Please consider joining us for this mission.  From May 5th through 11th, we will meet with key leaders in Israel's ecological and environmental movement.  Some of the highlights include a visit to Kibbutz Lotan, Israel's first ecologically sustainable community, tour Hula Valley Bird Sanctuary, see the development of the Be'er Sheva River Park and audit a class at the Arava Institute. 

If you are unable to join us in person, please join us in spirit with your donation to the Jewish National Fund.  The below link takes you to my personal page.  As chair, I am hoping to raise funds to support the Jewish National Fund's Parson Water Fund. * 

Thank you for your support, now and always.

Michelle Grant 

Click here to visit my personal page.
If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:
http://support.jnf.org/site/TR/Events/SecurePages?px=2826085&pg=personal&fr_id=1510&et=C4aHpeypIIwPVjhr3vosIg..&s_tafId=6250

In a debate moderated by Tom Ashbrook, Rabbi David Wolpe and author Christopher Hitchens conducted the fourth of their serial debates on religion and atheisim. Ashbrook's first question to them was the same one he said his daughter asked at her baptism: "What is God?" It's worth watching:

My own thoughts on the subject are in "Responding to Neo-Atheism" in American Thinker.

Sarah Palin on Obama, Iran and Israel:

While President Obama once said a nuclear-armed Iran would be “unacceptable,” after more than a year in office it’s sobering to have to acknowledge that his administration has made no progress in implementing “crippling” sanctions on Iran, let alone halting Iran’s nuclear program. Even the rhetoric moved in the wrong direction – recently the administration downgraded their call for “crippling” sanctions to sanctions that “bite.” Shockingly, as we learned last week, these “biting” sanctions will no longer include actions that could actually change Iran’s behavior, including limiting Iran’s access to international capital markets and banking services or closing air space and waters to Iran’s national air and shipping lines. So the issue is not when the so-called sanctions will come (President Obama promised them in “weeks” today) but whether they will even “nibble.” . . .

This issue is the most serious security challenge facing the U.S. in the region. Yet just as the Obama administration inexplicably gives up on imposing crippling sanctions on Iran, it’s taken an uncompromising hard line against one country in the Middle East: Israel. On his recent visit to Washington, the Israeli Prime Minister was treated like an unwelcome guest, as shown by White House actions such as refusing to be photographed with Israel’s Prime Minister.

Public demands for concessions have been made of the Israelis while the Palestinians add ever more conditions to their participation in peace talks, and those in the administration that dare to argue for looking at these policies through the lens of Israel’s security needs are subject to slanderous attacks from “senior administration officials.” The Obama administration has their priorities exactly backwards; we should be working with our friend and democratic ally to stop Iran’s nuclear program, not throwing in the towel on sanctions while treating Israel like an enemy.

The AIPAC dinner last week in Washington D.C. had more than half the U.S. Congress in attendance. Before Benjamin Netanyahu spoke, there were speeches from Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

A Jewish senator from New York addressing a conference of pro-Israel activists is not a remarkable event; a Baptist senator from South Carolina is something else. Graham gave a remarkable speech, which I am posting here in its entirety because it is worth reading in its entirety (the video is here):

Thank you. That music sounds like "The Ten Commandments" — that's pretty cool. Well thank you Barry for a very kind introduction and back home I would say he laid it on pretty thick, so I've got a lot to live up to. Thanks for having me here tonight. This is the annual AIPAC dinner that begins on Monday and apparently is going to end on Tuesday, so I'll try to pick up the pace a little bit here.

 

But when Barry told me — Yeah, for those who need to go to the restroom, right? Well the more you drink, the better I sound. But when Barry told me that I was going to be the speaker and it was an all-Senate night, I knew it'd be long, but I was honored. How many people here are going to Capitol Hill tomorrow to lobby? Okay. If you think it doesn't matter, you're wrong. It matters. Go to your Senator or your Congressman — people you can vote for — and make your voice heard. The most effective way to lobby a Member of the Senate or the House is to show up and let them know that you live in their State or their District and you care. They will listen. It's not money; it's people that matters.

 

Now we've done this once before, but would every Member of Congress, would every Democrat, every Republican, stand just for five seconds. Stand. On behalf of every person standing, to our friends in Israel, to AIPAC: The Congress has your back! We will not let you down!

 

Republicans, Democrats, Joe Lieberman who's both a Republican and a Democrat and an Independent — we have your back!

 

If you want to know how wide and deep the support for Israel runs, I'm a Baptist Republican from South Carolina; the next speaker, is a Jewish senator from New York, Chuck Schumer — that's as wide as it gets. You can put the whole planet in the middle.

 

But we're here tonight to speak with one voice. And you don't have much of that going on in Washington now, do you? If you're watching television, you wonder if we've all lost our minds, and some days I wonder, too. So it's good to be here tonight to celebrate something that we all agree on, and that's our support for Israel. Tonight is a celebration. Tonight is not about healthcare; it's not about immigration. It's about our national security. It's about our best friend in the world, the State of Israel. It's about those things that unite us.

 

And I say that with no animosity to anyone else, any other group. I say that with no animosity to the Palestinian people. I share your hopes and dreams. All I ask is you recognize that Israel has a place on the planet.

 

Now some of you may have come here tonight because of a recent dust-up. I'm not going to get political and I'm not going to overly dwell on the recent conflict we've had. But let's say this, and let's say it loud and let's say it clear: friends disagree. That's part of being friends. They call it marriage. The one thing that will make a strong friendship and a good marriage is to disagree quietly, so that those who wish you ill, who do not have your common interest at heart, will not be empowered.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, Howard said it best: Jerusalem is not a settlement. No government in Israel will ever look at Jerusalem as a settlement! No government in the United States should ever look at Jerusalem as a settlement! It is the undivided capital of the State of Israel. It is the eternal home of the Jewish faith. And it is now time to move onto other issues.

 

I want to talk very quickly about the world as we wish it to be. As we celebrate tonight, let's embrace in our hearts the world that we all wish it to be, a world where there's no rockets from Gaza, no Hizballah attacks from the north, where Palestinian children go to school without being taught hate — that's the world we wish it to be.

 

An Iran controlled by its people, not some theocracy. An Iran governed by someone other than a Holocaust denier — that's the world we wish it to be. An Iran pursuing peaceful nuclear power, not a nuclear weapon. A world where moderate Muslims are celebrated, not condemned and killed. An Afghanistan where a young girl never fears the soccer stadium, but can go to school and achieve her dreams. A free and independent Iraq where Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds can settle their differences at the ballot box and through the rule of law and be an inspiration to the Mideast. A UN, a United Nations that can actually control thugs and dictators. A United Nations that would never issue the Goldstone Report. That's the world as we wish it to be.

 

This is the world as it is, and if you don't know the difference, then the world is a dangerous place. I know the difference between the world as we wish it to be and the world as it is. The world as it is, is a divided Palestinian people, a place that allows rockets to be launched from apartment buildings, a place for a mosques are weapon storage sites, a place where school children are taught hate — that's the world as it is. Iran, a theocracy that kills its own children. Iran, a nation whose president questions whether or not the Holocaust actually existed — that's the world as it is, ladies and gentlemen.

 

I've got one simple idea. If you're a nation that wants to pursue nuclear power there should be an application, and if the president of that nation denies the existence of the Holocaust that should be the end of the application process.

 

The world as it is — Russia and China are AWOL when it comes to Iran. It's important to have a good relationship with Russia and China, but it's equally important that Russia and China help the world deal with the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran. That's the world as it is.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, here's the world as it must be. We must never allow anyone to drive a wedge between the State of Israel and the United States of America. It must be so. Israel's right to exist must be acknowledged by every group in every corner of the world. That's the way the world must be to move forward. We must not allow this Iranian theocracy to develop a nuclear weapon. It's not enough to be determined. We have to say without any hesitation: it will not happen.

 

All options must be on the table. You know exactly what I'm talking about. The question is — do the people we're talking to understand what I'm talking about? I've been in the military as a support person. I've never been a combat troop walking down the streets of Iraq and Afghanistan, but I've been in the theater. I know that war is a terrible thing. It takes the lives of people at the prime of their life, and when you talk about war you should never talk about it with a smile on your face. But I do know this: that sometimes it's better to go to war than it is to allow the Holocaust to develop a second time.

 

It is not lost upon me what would happen if military force had to be used against Iran. I hope and pray that is not the option that we have to seek. I hope and pray that other options will work. But as Barry indicated, time is not on our side. Here's the question for this group: Is this the last AIPAC meeting before Iran has a nuclear weapon? Fourteen months from now we meet again. I don't know the answer to that question, but I do know this: Time, ladies and gentlemen, is not on our side. It is not fair to put this ally of ours, the State of Israel, its prime minister and its government on both sides of the aisle, under the burden of having to deal with this issue alone. That's not good for the world; it's not good for Israel.

 

And I'm often asked, would a military strike as the last option be effective against the Iranian nuclear threat? My belief is a military strike stopping the Iranian government from having a nuclear weapon is more effective than trying to deal with the Iranian government after they have one.

 

And if military force is ever employed, it should be done in a decisive fashion. The Iranian government's ability to wage conventional warfare against its neighbors and our troops in the region should not exist. They should not have one plane that can fly or one ship that can float.

 

We have time, but time is not on our side. The UN Security Council has an opportunity to act; I hope and pray they do. Russia and China have a chance to change the course of history; I hope they will understand that a nuclear-armed Iran is just as much a threat to them as it is to us or Israel or any other tolerant person or group.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, these are consequential times. This is the time to show determination and resolve in the face of extremism. We are at war as a nation. September 11, 2001, everything changed about our country. We're almost nine years down the road and some of us I think have gotten too short of a memory. We're at war and we have to fight this war within our values. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11 should not be in civilian court in New York City. If he is not an enemy combatant worthy of military commission trial, who would be? I think a lot of Democrats and Republicans believe that thought.

 

We are at war and we must win this war. We must see it through in Iraq and we must get it right in Afghanistan. President Barak Obama is my president. I am here to say tonight: I stand by him. I stood by him in Afghanistan. I will stand by him as he draws our troops down in Iraq in a responsible way. And if it ever becomes necessary to use military force or any other strong engagement tactic against Iran, I will stand by my president, and I ask you to stand by him. I ask you to pray for him. I have a lot of differences with President Obama, but can you imagine being president of the United States in these times? This man has a very hard job. We can have our fusses and we can have our fights, and this week on healthcare we're going to have a hell of a fight, but when it comes to national security, no Democrat in this room is my enemy. You're my opponent on the political battlefield, but you're my brother and you're my sister. We're all Americans.

 

I can promise you one thing: that the people we fight in far-away places with strange sounding names could really care less the political differences between Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham. They hate us both equally. Many of you may be that way. But our enemy doesn't distinguish between our political differences. They hate us because we will accept differences. They hate us because we will allow on the streets of South Carolina a mosque, a synagogue and a Baptist church — that we will stand up for each other.

 

They hate us more than they love life. Ladies and gentlemen, people asked Ronald Reagan, how does the Cold War end? He said: we win, they lose. How does the War on Terror end? We win, they lose. And when I say we, I mean moderate Muslims, who have been slaughtered by al-Qaeda and Islamic extremists. No group has suffered more than people in the Muslim world trying to be tolerant. By we, I mean Jews and gentiles, Buddhists, agnostics, vegetarians — you name it. I mean anybody that believes in tolerance and support for their fellow man.

 

One last thought. This is 2010, and we're wondering what to do with a country whose president denies the Holocaust. We do what we have to do to make sure there is no second Holocaust.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, we gather tonight with one simple message, and never let it be misunderstood by the enemies that we commonly face. Our message tonight to the world, to the people in Israel, to the young men and women serving overseas on our behalf — never again. God bless you; God bless the people of Israel; God bless the United States; God bless all those who believe in peace and tolerance.

Gideon Rose, the managing editor of Foreign Affairs, held an on-the-record conference call today with Ehud Yaari, an International Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the Middle East Commentator for Channel 2 in Israel, who was speaking from Jerusalem while awaiting the return of Benjamin Netanyahu from the United States.

Rose asked Yaari to provide his “first-hand take on what’s going on right now” and received this response (the quotes are from my transcription):

… I think that the sense among the Israeli delegation coming back from D.C. right now is that they fell into a trap. The general sense in Israel right now is that the Prime Minister was [unintelligible] humiliated by President Obama. There is quite a degree of amazement at the way he was treated. I think it’s fair to say that neither the Prime Minister nor his Defense Minister Ehud Barak were aware [beforehand] of the kind of reception that they were greeted with at the White House. They did not expect the Obama administration to insist on a freeze of all activities in east Jerusalem, including those Jewish neighborhoods built decades ago, which was understood with both Presidents Clinton and Bush would remain part of Israel in any future peace settlement.

Rose asked whether the essence of the problem was Netanyahu’s statement at AIPAC that “Jerusalem is not a settlement”:

Yes. I think every Israeli prime minister — let’s assume the leader of the opposition Kadima Party Tzipi Livni was prime minister now, she would say exactly the same [thing], and she would not refute what I am saying now – it’s impossible for any Israeli prime minister to say that he is going to forego Jerusalem before final status negotiations with the Palestinians for an end-of-conflict, end-of-claims [agreement]. … And it was always understood between Israel and the United States, and I venture to say also between Israel and Mr. Abbas, that [the Jewish neighborhoods] were going to stay part of Israel in any future peace deal. …

Rose asked how important Yaari thought the current moment is:

I think it is the worst moment in U.S.-Israeli relations … going back to Eisenhower-Ben Gurion in ’56. But I hope it’s only a moment, and not an extended period. But I think that what should be of concern to anybody interested in advancing the peace process is the fact that at this moment, despite the rhetoric to the contrary, we have a lot of daylight, a lot of space, between Israel and the United States, and a very strong sense in Israel, including amongst many people who are not fans of the present government and Mr. Netanyahu – people who were extremely enthusiastic about the election of President Obama – people feel that this administration is seeking to maintain distance from Israel, to maintain some sort of ongoing strain and tension, if not a continuing crisis, in order to serve probably broader objectives in the Middle East.

Rose asked whether Yaari viewed this as an attempt to disrupt Netanyahu’s coalition and make the government fall:

Absolutely so.  I think that the sense in Israel right now — as I said the Prime Minister is just about to land, is that Mr. Netanyahu and Barak — and it’s very important that he took with him the Defense Minister, because he wanted to reassure President Obama that he is indeed talking about a two-state solution, that he is bringing his closest ally, the defense minister, who was the man who made the proposal at Camp David in 2000 — but instead he was presented by what is perceived at the moment at least as demands that are very difficult to accept.

If the American moves are generated by the wish to see a different government in Israel, then I have to say that, number one, I don’t think that the Netanyahu coalition is about to disintegrate; and number two, I do not think that the Kadima party – Livni – who seems to be viewed more favorably in Washington – that she is going to join the coalition any time soon. And if indeed the coalition breaks down and we go to early elections, I can assure you – I will take the responsibility for that – that the right wing will win.

The extraordinary aspect of this manufactured crisis is that as Iran proceeds steadily toward nuclear weapons, while the Obama administration lowers its sights from “crippling” sanctions to ones that will “bite” Iran’s ankles, the administration has decided to provoke a fight over long-standing Jewish neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem, which were not the critical issue even in the “peace process,” much less the broader Middle East.

At least, they weren’t until Obama elevated them into a precondition not previously raised as a barrier to any prior negotiation -- but which now have elevated Palestinian and Arab expectations beyond the level that any Israeli prime minister can fully satisfy.

Photographer Thorney Lieberman, who previously prepared a large-scale photographic document of American Indians at the turn of the millennium, has created a stunning montage of America’s coal miners, through a process shown in the five-minute video below – part of a project to put a human face on the energy issue by creating a collection of life-size photographs suitable for museum exhibition.

If you watch the video, you will undoubtedly agree that Lieberman “surpasses the depth of intimacy and detail available in extant photographic portraiture” and has created a work of honor and beauty -- one that captures the contribution to the rest of us of the people who go down in the mines every day on our behalf.

The following is an excerpt from the statement entitled “The Time is Now” posted at Z Street:

The outrage hurled against the Jewish State by the current US administration for (1) daring to approve the building of homes for Jews in a Jewish neighborhood, two miles from the holiest site in Judaism, the Temple Mount, and for (2) daring to do so when US Vice President Joe Biden was in Israel, is grossly misplaced and is itself an affront.  The public expression of this outrage is yet another means to pressure Israel’s government unfairly.

Outrage should, more appropriately, be directed at those expressing the outrage. We are especially appalled at those who claim to be supporters of Israel and yet demand that this policy of religious bigotry be enforced with threats of official shunning both diplomatically and in terms of military support. 

Let’s be clear: The only apologies should come from those attempting to bar Jews from building homes and living in any neighborhoods in Jerusalem, and from those who think that if Jews do build in Jerusalem they should do it quietly, and hope that no one notices.

If you agree with this and want to publicly assert your belief in the right of Jews to live in any neighborhood of Jerusalem, you can go to www.ZStreet.org and leave a comment, or email LoriLowenthalMarcus@ZStreet.org and your name will be added to the list supporting the statement.

Also worth reading at this time is the “Statement by Prime Minister Begin on U.S. Measures Against Israel” (December 20, 1981), issued after the U.S. “punished” Israel for its strike against Iraq’s nuclear reactor.