During the week covered by this review, we received 9 articles on the following subjects:
Political Issues
Anti-Missionary Activity
Jewish Attitudes Concerning Christians
Anti-Semitism
Miscellaneous
Archaeology
Political Issues
Israel Hayom (two articles), January 16, Israel Hayom, January 17, 2017
The first article states that anti-Semitism, anti-Judaism and anti-Zionism are merely “the same lady wearing a different cloak.” It says that today’s anti-Zionism is “when Islam sees Jewish sovereignty as a rebellion against the ‘sharia’,” and “when Western elements accuse Israel of using Holocaust remembrance for its own interests.” This article sees no difference between Charles de Gaulle’s speech after the Six Day War- saying that “the existence of the State of Israel is the Europe’s reparation for the Holocaust, but that Israel has no right to go beyond the borders” he defined in that speech- to the Paris conference or “the UN vote in favor of a state that doesn’t exist.”
The second article says that the Paris conference was motivated by the desire of the administrations of President François Hollande and President Barack Obama “to strike the Jews a moment before everything comes apart,” since “the reason for all the chaos in the region is the ‘settlements’.” However, making a correlation between settlements and terror “obliquely justifies murdering Jews and ignores the reasons for the murder of Christians in Europe.” Contrary to what Hollande said in his speech, “the oldest conflict in the Middle East is that between Islam and Christianity. The French want to give Jerusalem to the Muslims in the hope that they will stop the killing in Europe.” “Jerusalem under Jewish sovereignty is the guarantee for the safety of Paris, since Jerusalem is the front line in the free world’s war for its own existence.”
The third article states that “the countries at the Paris conference banded together to force on Israel a move that puts it in danger.” It finds the caution of French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault regarding a US embassy in Jerusalem to be “ridiculous,” as “Jerusalem was the capital of the kingdom of Israel long before the French came out of their caves.” The article also mentions the Palestinian threat of violence against Israel and against US embassies in Arab countries, and perhaps against the Arch of Titus as well, as “this serves as a proof of the Jews’ right to their capital.”
Anti-Missionary Activity
HaMevaser, January 16, Yom L’Yom, January 19, 2017
Continuing its protests against the book of Bible stories for children published by The Bible Society in Israel and sold at the Stalactite Cave souvenir shop, the anti-missionary activist organization Yad L’Achim sent a letter on the subject to the Minister of Tourism and to the head of the Nature Reserves and National Parks Authority, stating that “beyond the danger of spiritual destruction,” stocking the book constitutes an apparent breaking of the law against proselytizing minors. The authority “clarified that they will not be renewing the stock of the missionary book,” and what had been placed on the shelves was taken off. “Yad L’Achim has announced that they will continue to follow the implementation of the move, and that “they expect the Ministry of Tourism to hone the policies on the subject.”
Jewish Attitudes Concerning Christians
The Jerusalem Post, January 18, 2017
The article is a letter to the editor by Robert Grimshaw of Syracuse, Indiana, responding to Alexander Spinrad’s “assault on ‘Christian’ Crusaders” (“Maoz Tzur, our Muslim hero”, December 25). Grimshaw states that “there is no moral equivalence between the Crusaders and the Muslim jihadis,” since “when ‘Christians’ try to advance Christianity with the sword, they do so in direct disobedience to the teaching and example of Jesus,” but that “when Muslims slaughter people in jihad, they are following exactly both the teaching and example of their master.” Since Muhammad died cursing the Jews and the Christians, “it is patently wrong and extremely offensive to Christians who love Israel to cast Muhammad as the savior of the Jews.” Grimshaw ends by saying that “it is not helpful to slander your best friends, whose commitment to the well-being of Israel is based on a profoundly deep religious belief in the God of the Bible.”
Anti-Semitism
Status HaTzafon, January 13, 2017
This article surveys Teresa May’s redefinition of anti-Semitism for Britain as “a particular outlook on Jews, that is likely to be expressed as hatred towards them.” The article hopes that “by adopting this definition hatred will be lessened.” However, the article considers that the true and lasting solution will only come about “if the Jewish people unify in order to carry out their moral duty to be a ‘light to the nations’” by means of “the wisdom of the Kabbala,” since this will “calm the hate.”
Miscellaneous
HaModia, January 17, 2017
Scores of non-Jewish Polish nationals in Warsaw have begun wearing yarmulkes, apparently in order to express identification with rising anti-Semitism in the world, and specifically as the result of an attack at a Warsaw restaurant in which four Jews were beaten, and regarding which “the police called to the site were apathetic to the point of not even filling out a report.”
Archaeology
Israel Hayom, January 16, 2017
A well-fortified ancient wall dated to the 10th-century BCE, with many ballista stones beside it, has been found at the copper melting site at Timna by a team from Tel-Aviv University led by Dr. Erez Ben-Yosef. Ben-Yosef stated that there is much evidence to show that “the miners at the site were not slaves, but rather experts commanding apprentices in a complicated and demanding job,” adding that they are “finding more and more evidence of a hierarchical and centralized society that had many relationships with its neighbors.” The team also found donkey bones and droppings on both sides of the gate.