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Comments (0)A New York City rabbi condemned the call to assassinate Palestinian leaders issued at his synagogue.
Elie Abadie of Congregation Edmond J. Safra in Manhattan said the call last week by the leader of an Israeli pro-settler organization to kill Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and other “terrorist leaders” is “odious and repugnant.”
He added the sponsoring organization, Americans for a Safe Israel, is no longer welcome to host events at his synagogue.
“On a personal level, I am horrified at such hateful statements, and I have made this clear to the organization,” Abadie said in a statement Friday. “We did not sponsor or support that event, and neither I nor any member of our congregational staff was present.
“While the use of the premises has always been available on a non-discriminatory basis, the nature of the remarks made disqualifies the AFSI from any further use of the space.”
Nadia Matar, the co-chairwoman of Women in Green, called for Israel to assassinate “all terrorist leaders, starting with Mahmoud Abbas,” last week in the context of a comparison of England’s response to Nazi aggression and Israel’s response to Palestinian terror. Her remarks were greeted with applause.
Obama Appeals to Iran for ‘Partnership’
President Obama appealed to Iran’s leaders to establish “renewed exchanges” with Americans and “greater opportunities for partnership and commerce.”
Obama delivered the message on March 19 via a video posted on the White House’s Web site delivering greetings on the secular holiday of Nowruz, which marks the arrival of spring and the pre-Islamic Iranian new year.
“The United States wants the Islamic Republic of Iran to take its rightful place in the community of nations,” Obama said. “You have that right—but it comes with real responsibilities, and that place cannot be reached through terror or arms, but rather through peaceful actions that demonstrate the true greatness of the Iranian people and civilization. And the measure of that greatness is not the capacity to destroy, it is your demonstrated ability to build and create.”
Israel and the United States believe that Iran could achieve the capacity to build a nuclear weapon within a year. Obama’s strategy has been to ramp up pressure on Iran through increased sanctions while accelerating diplomatic outreach.
“So on the occasion of your New Year, I want you, the people and leaders of Iran, to understand the future that we seek,” Obama said. “It’s a future with renewed exchanges among our people, and greater opportunities for partnership and commerce. It’s a future where the old divisions are overcome, where you and all of your neighbors and the wider world can live in greater security and greater peace.”
Alleged Chicago Bomb Threat Author Arrested
Police in Chicago arrested a man accused of mailing a bomb threat to a Jewish school.
Mohammed Alkaramla, a Jordanian national, was arrested Friday. His fingerprints were found on the envelope of the bomb threat, the Chicago Tribune reported Saturday.
A decade-old book of stamps matching the stamp on the envelope was found in Aklaramla’s apartment, and the text of the letter was found on the hard drive of Alkaramla’s computer, police told the Tribune.
The Ida Crown Jewish Academy received the bomb threat in late January. The letter threatened to detonate bombs at 22 educational centers in Chicago, though no explosives were ever found, the newspaper reported.
Alkaramla, of the West Rogers Park neighborhood on Chicago’s north side, is also under investigation for vandalizing several Chicago-area synagogues in early January, allegedly in response to Israel’s military incursion into Gaza. He was not charged for those crimes when he was arrested Friday, according to the Tribune.
He is being held without bail until a hearing Tuesday.
Poll: Jews Support Strong U.S. Peace Role
American Jews favor an active U.S. role in the Middle East peace process even if it means exerting pressure on Israel, according to a poll.
The survey by J Street, which backs assertive U.S. engagement in the peace process and markets itself as an alternative to the more hard-line views that it claims dominate many other pro-Israel organizations, also found that Yisrael Beiteinu head Avigdor Lieberman is not popular among American Jews and that President Obama and his policies on the Middle East garner more than 70 percent approval in the American Jewish community.
The survey of 800 self-identified American Jews by Gerstein Agne Strategic Communications was conducted Feb. 28 to March 8 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.
One issue on which the community was evenly split was how to deal with Iran. Forty-one percent did not favor a military attack on Iran “if they are on the verge of developing nuclear weapons,” while 40 percent supported such a strike. And 39 percent favored “direct negotiations” with the Iranians while 37 percent supported international sanctions.
According to the poll, 88 percent of respondents favored the United States playing “an active role” in helping the parties resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict, with 64 percent of those favoring an “active role” saying they would continue to back it even if it meant “exerting pressure on Israel.” Overall, 57 percent of those surveyed would support such pressure.
In addition, 69 percent said that if Hamas and the Palestinian Authority form a unified government, it would support the United States working with such a government to achieve a peace agreement with Israel.
The poll also found high name recognition for Lieberman, with 62 percent of American Jews saying they know who he is. After being told that he has “called for the execution of Arab members of Israel’s parliament who met with Hamas and whose main campaign message called for Arab citizens of Israel to sign a loyalty oath to the Jewish state in order to prevent their citizenship from being revoked,” 32 percent said that their “personal connection” to Israel would be weakened because Lieberman’s positions “go against my core values.”
During the election campaign, Lieberman called on all Israelis to sign the loyalty oath, but it was not part of the coalition agreement he signed with Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu.
Meanwhile, 75 percent of respondents backed Israel’s recent military operation in Gaza, although just 41 percent said it made Israel more secure. And 60 percent did not support the expansion of settlements in the West Bank.