OU Booklet Alleges Vatican Collaboration With Hezbollah
By Gabrielle Birkner
A booklet that alleges that the Vatican is in cahoots with Hezbollah was published by a branch of the Orthodox Union and was, until recently, being distributed to Israeli solders. Haaretz is reporting that the booklet — purported to be narrated by a Hezbollah leader who converted to Judaism, changed his name to Avi, and spied for Israel — asserts that Catholic prelates lead members of the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah on concentration camp tours in order to teach them how to kill Jews.
In a press release, the New York-based Orthodox Union said the decision to endorse the text, which was published in conjunction with the chief rabbi of Safed, had been made by staffers in Israel, and had not been approved by the organization’s senior management. The statement reads:
While the Haaretz report certainly sensationalized the book’s contents, there is no doubt that some of what it contains is antithetical to the well-known views of the OU regarding respect for other faiths and their leaders. The OU rescinds the endorsement of the book and disavows any connection to the views expressed in it. The OU’s senior leadership has directed that an internal review of this incident take place, and that the organization tighten its procedures to ensure that such a situation is not repeated. The Orthodox Union expresses its sincere regret to those of other faiths who may have been embarrassed or offended by the publication of this work.
The IDF, alerted to what a spokesman called “the sensitivity of [the booklet’s] content,” has stopped giving the pamphlet to its ranks, according to Haaretz.
July 17, 2008, 6:32pm
Ari Shavit: Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran and Syria Win
By Daniel Treiman
Ha’aretz’s resident Jeremiah, Ari Shavit, paints a pretty grim picture about where the past two years have left Israel vis-à-vis its enemies:
Here are the results of Israel’s war against Hezbollah so far. Hezbollah is bringing home a living murderer, and Israel is bringing home two dead soldiers - over whose capture it sacrificed 160 other soldiers and civilians.
Hezbollah celebrates a symbolic victory, and Israel is in ideological crisis.
Hezbollah has won almost complete political control over Lebanon, and Israel wallows in irrevocable political chaos.
Hezbollah is armed with 40,000 rockets threatening most of Israel’s territory, while Israel has no response.
Hezbollah increases its firepower four or five times, and Israel remains feebly silent.
Hezbollah doubles its fighting alignment and sets up numerous outposts north and south of the Litani River, which will force Israel to conquer half of Lebanon in the next confrontation, while Israel remains paralyzed with confusion.
Feeling its power, Hezbollah is demanding the Shaba Farms area as well, while Israel is stammering its way to the next withdrawal.
Two years after an ephemeral militia provoked a regional superpower, the militia is growing stronger than ever, and the regional superpower is in a state of turmoil, degeneration and foggy stupor.
And, he argues, things aren’t much better on the Palestinian, Iranian and Syrian fronts.
Read the full article here.
Hat tip: Jeffrey Goldberg
UPDATE: It is worth noting that not everyone in the Arab press is hailing Hezbollah’s “victory.”
July 16, 2008, 3:34pm
The Exchange: Perspective and Prayer
By Daniel Treiman
The Associated Press has sent out a summary of some past prisoner exchanges between Israel and its enemies. It’s useful context in light of today’s swap. (Hat tip: Jewlicious)
Meanwhile, Jewschool posts a prayer for Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.
June 30, 2008, 10:35pm
Hezbollah's 'Cannibalistic Game'
By Daniel Treiman
Ha’aretz’s Yoel Marcus on the prisoner deal:
In the wake of this miserable affair, Israel must wake up to the sad fact that 60 years after its establishment, we are looking at a crueler, more cannibalistic, less humane Middle East. During World War II, even Nazi Germany abided by the conventions governing prisoners of war, at least in the case of American and British POWs. Letters could be sent and received through the Red Cross. The families at least knew whether they were dead or alive.
In this ongoing war against the dark forces of fundamentalist Islam in our region, we must be prepared for the possibility of more kidnappings, more POWs and more cynical abuse of families by withholding news of their loved ones. Aware of the supreme value Israel attaches to human life, Hezbollah played a cannibalistic game with us, refusing to provide even the most basic information on the fate of soldiers who had fallen into their hands.
For two whole years, there was no sign of life from Regev and Goldwasser, yet they led us to believe they were alive. This tragic saga now coming to an end, which has driven the families and the whole country insane, cannot be allowed to repeat itself.
June 29, 2008, 5:22pm
Hezbollah’s Hero
By Daniel Treiman
Hezbollah will be celebrating the release of Samir Kuntar, who will be swapped, along with four other Lebanese prisoners, in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, whose uncertain fates had tormented Israel and Jews around the world.
While Israelis will be in mourning for the two of soldiers they have lost, Hezbollah is expected to give Kuntar a hero’s welcome.
What did this man do to win Hezbollah’s affections?
The New York Times reports:
Mr. Kuntar was part of a cell that in 1979 raided the northern Israeli town of Nahariya, shooting dead Danny Haran while his daughter Einat, 4, watched, then smashing the girl’s head, killing her as well. Mr. Haran’s wife, Smadar, hid with their 2-year-old daughter and accidentally suffocated her to death in an effort to stop her from crying out.
Mr. Kuntar has said he regrets nothing…
UPDATE: Some background: Smadar Haran Kaiser, whose family was murdered by Kuntar, had issued a statement expressing hope to government ministers that her “personal pain will not interfere with your dilemma and your decision regarding the prisoner exchange deal.” (Back in 2003, she wrote a heart-rending article for The Washington Post that recounted her ordeal.) Danny Haran’s brother, however, said that Kuntar must not be freed.
May 13, 2008, 11:54pm
Lebanese Druze Fight Hezbollah With Sarcasm
By Daniel Treiman
Hezbollah maintains that it needs to hold on to its weapons to defend Lebanon from Israel. Never mind that Israel pulled out of Southern Lebanon eight years go.
Now, of course, the Shiite militia is turning its guns against its fellow Lebanese. After heavy fighting earlier this week in Druze-dominated mountain areas outside of Beirut, some locals responded to Hezbollah’s attacks with a bit of sarcasm.
“I guess they got lost on their way to Tel Aviv but we will forgive them,” a local official, Sheikh Abdallah al-Khishn, told Agence France Presse.
“Do you see Jews here?” asked 28-year-old Nivine Naeem, whose home was hit by rocket. “Is Hassan Nasrallah trying to free the Shebaa Farms from here?”
“How can we ever again believe their weapons are meant for our protection?”
May 12, 2008, 6:18pm
The Army in Hezbollah’s Pocket?
By Daniel Treiman
Ha’aretz’s Yoav Stern writes:
Hezbollah’s rapid and savvy raids of recent days brought to light the true balance of power in Lebanon, and, at the same time, the close connection between the Lebanon Army and Hezbollah.
Witness accounts of Hezbollah’s actions in Lebanon in the course of the incidents demonstrate not only that the Lebanon Army is refraining from trying to bar Hezbollah from operating throughout the country, but is in fact carrying out orders from the organization and granting it media cover.
Read the full article.
May 8, 2008, 1:06pm
Lebanon’s ‘Cell Phone Civil War’?
By Daniel Treiman
Things are getting ugly in Lebanon. The months-long standoff between Lebanon’s pro-Western government and Hezbollah and its allies has escalated into violence. The trigger? Cell phones.
Time magazine reports:
The country has been politically paralyzed for 16 months, unable to elect a new president because of a deadlock between government and opposition forces in which neither side has the strength to prevail over the other. Then came the telephone crisis: Last weekend, Walid Jumblatt, leader of Lebanon’s Druze minority and an arch enemy of Hizballah, accused the militant Shi’ite party of maintaining its own private telephone network, and of using security cameras to monitor Beirut airport with the possible aim of staging attacks or kidnappings. On Tuesday, the government followed up with an edict declaring Hizballah’s telephone network “illegal and unconstitutional”. It also launched an investigation into the alleged monitoring of the airport, and dismissed airport security chief General Wafiq Shuqeir, on suspicion of opposition sympathies.
Hizballah was having none of it, angrily declaring that the telephone network is part of its military wing — which it justifies as necessary to defend Lebanon against Israel — and warning anyone seeking to dismantle it would be treated as an “Israeli spy”. Within days, the two sides were shooting at one another.
Read the full article.
January 8, 2008, 3:37pm
Hezbollah Is ‘Hatikvah’ To Norman Finkelstein’s Ears
By Daniel Treiman
Anti-Israel firebrand turned academic-freedom martyr Norman Finkelstein recently paid a visit to his favorite Lebanese extremist group.
The AP reports that the “Holocaust Industry” author and former DePaul University professor met with Hezbollah’s commander in south Lebanon and toured a village that was the scene of heavy fighting in the summer of 2006.
“After the horror and after the shame and after the anger there still remain a hope, and I know that I can get in a lot of trouble for what I am about to say, but I think that the Hezbollah represents the hope. They are fighting to defend their homeland,” Finkelstein told reporters.
UPDATE: At least Finkelstein apparently thinks Israel has a right to exist, as this bizarre debate lineup at the Oxford Union seems to suggest.
Hat tip: Solomonia
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