Everyone’s talking about the ‘status quo’ on Judaism’s holiest site. There’s just one problem – if it ever existed, it doesn’t now.

By Hillel Fendel, INN

By Riv-Ellen Prell, MOSAIC

For several decades, Jack Wertheimer and Steven M. Cohen have been calling on American Jews to pay attention to the social, cultural, and demographic realities of their life as a community—and to how those realities have begun to endanger the future of that community. A high rate of intermarriage, a falling birthrate, and a steep decline in either religious or secular affiliation have placed at risk the ability to maintain a vital, pluralistic center, anchored in a strong middle ground between assimilation on the one hand and ultra-Orthodoxy on the other.

Wertheimer and Cohen’s latest essay, “The Pew Survey Reanalyzed,” offers a social-scientific version of the classic jeremiad, the prophetic lament over the imminent failure and downfall of a people. Unlike most examples of the form, social-scientific or not, theirs does not delve into the realm of ultimate causes or present a large-scale explanation of the tribulations that beset American Jews. But it does do something else: in a welcome turn, it offers glimmers of hope in the form of concrete suggestions for communal or philanthropic investments that, they believe, might yet help retard the downward slide.
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By Vic Rosenthal

Israel does not have a constitution. The role of a constitution is taken by several “Basic Laws,” which define the structure of the Knesset and how it is elected, the budget, the relationship of the state to the military, a partial ‘bill of rights’, and other things. But they do not (yet) describe the nature of the state that they regulate.

A constitution normally starts with a preamble or initial articles which define the nature of the state and the authority by which sovereignty is asserted. It is usually followed by statements about the national languages, state religions (if any), etc. This proposed Basic Law would do this for Israel.

Unlike states which were formed by accretion, conquest or colonial fiat, the state of Israel was created in a conscious act as a concrete realization of the philosophy of Zionism. This is expressed in Israel’s Declaration of Independence, but that document doesn’t have the force of law. Read more…

By Ted Belman

Publishing Israpundit is a full time job for me and has been for 13 years. My time is spent searching for the best articles I can find on sites in Israel the US or the EU. I also spend considerable time moderating the comments and attending to technical problems. Occasionally I write articles which are published by American Thinker, Canada Free Press, Israel National News and others, in addition to Israpundit.

In addition I attend conferences and lectures weekly to keep informed and to network.

This year has been particularly difficult as my host server was illegally entered and my former domain name stolen. Luckily I was able to purchase a new domain, israpundit.org, and reconstitute the site. Of course I couldn’t have done it without employing my technical expert. If that wasn’t enough, I had to retain a new host server to host my email program and mailing list. A few months later this host server crashed and all was lost. Luckily my technical expert who set it up for me was able to set me up on another host server.

Needless to say, it all costs money.

Many people tell me that they look forward to receiving my Daily Digests and very much appreciate the message I am delivering.

I invite you to be a partner in delivering that message by making a donation, large of small. It will help to defray my costs, ease my financial burden and ensure the continuance of Israpundit. Use the donate buttons under the banner above.

Checks may be sent payable to Theodore Belman, Hagdud Haivri #1, Jerusalem, 92344, ISRAEL.

By Sam Sokol, JPOST

PA President Mahmoud Abbas must be held accountable for inciting violence against Jews, a senior American Jewish leader declared Thursday.

Speaking with The Jerusalem Post, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations executive vice chairman Malcolm Hoenlein stated he believes that the disorder that has gripped Jerusalem in recent weeks, subsequently spreading to Judea and Samaria, can be traced back to both PA incitement and the failure of authorities to respond to less severe incidents, emboldening those perpetrating violent attacks.

While not the only, or even the primary, factor contributing to the increase in violence against Jerusalem residents, dubbed the “car intifada” by some Palestinians due to the use of cars as weapons against crowds of pedestrians, some of the blame for what is currently happening can be traced by to the “police failure to respond effectively” to the ongoing desecration of graves on the Mount of Olives and recurring stoning attacks against Jewish drivers in the vicinity, he asserted.
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By Ted Belman

Yesterday Min Lieberman reportedly said to the German Foreign Minister, “We will never accept the definition of building in Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem as settlement activity,’

I commented that according to Israel’s official policy, all of Jerusalem is part of Israel and she will not agree to its partition. Lieberman pointedly omitted Arab neighborhoods. He should not have made the distinction.

You know also that his party is backing the anti Israel Hayom bill because he wants to support its rival Yedioth Aronoth.

Yesterday they returned him the favour in reporting on his Jewish neighbourhood remark under the title, “Lieberman: Israel will never limit East Jerusalem settlement building”. The opening sentance was “Israel will never agree to limit its construction activity in East Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday.”

How blatant can you get?

By Richard L. Cravatts, AMERICAN THINKER

“What if the Jews themselves were Nazis?,” mused French philosopher, Vladimir Jankélévitch in 1986. “That would be great. We would no longer have to feel sorry for them; they would have deserved what they got.”

The recasting of Israelis, and, by extension, Jews as Nazis has, in fact, taken place, just as Jankélévitch envisioned. This summer’s Israeli incursion, Operation Protective Edge, provided anti-Semites and loathers of the Jewish state with resurgent justifications for assigning the epithet of Nazi on the Jews yet another time, together with oft-heard accusations of “crimes against humanity, “massacres,” genocide,” and, according to recent comments by Turkey’s prime minister Tayyip Erdo?an, in their treatment of the Palestinians, Israel has demonstrated that “. . . their barbarism has surpassed even Hitler’s.”

The Nazification of Israelis — and by extension, Jews — is both breathtaking in its moral inversion and cruel in the way it makes the actual victims of the Third Reich’s horrors a modern-day reincarnation of that same barbarity. It is, in the words of Boston University’s Richard Landes, “moral sadism,” a salient example of Holocaust inversion that is at once ahistorical, disingenuous, and grotesque in its moral and factual inaccuracy.
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Investigative report vindicates Jewish Home leader, says Yaalon tried to avoid launching attack on Hamas tunnels.

By Gil Ronen. INN

Channel 2‘s main investigative news program, Uvda, has vindicated EconomicsMinister and Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett, who has claimed that the operation the IDF launched against Hamas’s terror tunnels was largely a product of his insistence.

Uvda’s report determines that it was Bennett who repeatedly raised the subject of the tunnels at cabinet sessions in the summer, while Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon tried to avoid launching an operation against the tunnels.

“If there is anything that a person who is familiar with the protocols of the cabinet sessions can see,” reported Uvda’s editor and anchorwoman Ilana Dayan, “it is that Minister Naftali Bennett demands, again and again, to launch an operation against the tunnels, and he hears an answer that more or less repeats itself, from Defense Minister Yaalon: the tunnel threat is one we can live with, it need not be defined as a target, at least not in this round of fighting.” Read more…

Police deployed to Abu Snan to prevent further violence, after 41 hurt in overnight riots in wake of school disagreement exacerbated online.

Hassan Shaalan, YNET

Tensions continued to mount Saturday evening in the village of Abu Snan a mere day after 41 Israelis were hurt in heavy clashes between Druze and Muslims Arabs. Police forces have deployed to the area fearing another flare-up in riots sparked by a dispute between local students.

Residents said that in midweek two Muslim students entered the Abu Snan high school wearing kaffiyehs and were confronted by two Druze students who asked them to remove the scarves. “You have no right to wear that here,” they were told.

The two groups of students at the high school clashed in the wake of the incident. The school day was suspended and those in charge dismissed the students early. The school council was scheduled to convene in an attempt to calm tensions, but the meeting was delayed due to the overnight clashes.
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The bill seeks to enshrine Israel’s status as the nation-state of the Jewish people; will make Hebrew only official language of the state.

By Cynthiqa Blankl, INN

The controversial ‘Jewish State Law‘ will be brought before the Ministerial Committee on Legislation for approval Sunday.

The law, which has been frozen for some time, is now being promoted by MK Ze’ev Elkin (Likud), with the support of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

The bill, opposed both by Yesh Atid and Hatnua, was transferred by Elkin to a special committee for formulation, after he concluded that the Committee was dragging its feet in drafting the proposal.

According to the bill, all Jewish school will teach Jewish history as well as Jewish tradition and heritage. Hebrew will be recognized as the only official language in Israel. Arab, which as of now is considered an official language in Israel, will instead be given special status.  Read more…

The sooner they do it the better. In response Israel should proceed to make the TSS unviable by building in Jerusalem and E1 at a minimum. Israel should make it crystal clear that she will not accept a TSS based on the ’67 lines plus swaps and the division of Jerusalem. T. Belman

By Barak Ravid, HAARETZ

A settler looking at Ma’aleh Adumim from the E1 area. The EU sees any further settlement building in E1 as a red line. Photo by AP

The European Union has distributed a confidential document to its 28 member states that contains the draft of a proposal for sanctions to be imposed on Israel if it takes action in the West Bank that could make the two-state solution impossible, European diplomatic sources and senior Israeli officials said.

The representatives, who received the document from the EU’s European External Action Service (EEAS), were asked to keep its distribution limited and not to show it to Israel yet. Israeli diplomats in a number of European capitals reported the existence of the document to the Foreign Ministry, adding a few details about its content. However, they were unable to obtain the full document. Read more…

Yaacov Katz (former MK), INN

4. Instead, a terrorist, whether he is a rock-thrower/firecracker hurler/knife wielder/murderous driver/firebomb attacker has to know that as a result of his violence, his entire village will be under 24/7 curfew for at least a month. Closing a village to traffic for a month in Kfar Kana, with no one leaving for work or returning from it, no one going in or out, would result in not one stone being thrown again. We must get to the population through their pockets and they will control the hooligans and terrorists.

The source of Arab violence is the 24/7 incitement on Arab media, where Jews are portrayed as pigs, snakes and monkeys that must be destroyed, even if the appear to be “in the image” of women and children.

1. An Arab has to be an angel to avoid being influenced by the barrage of incitement to violence that he hears all day. That is why compassion will not work here. The more goodwill gestures there are, the more we are despised.

2. The past 150 years have shown that the only thing Arab hooligans understand is deterrence. If we do not implement a policy of “hands-on” intervention reaching everywhere, the present situation in which they reach everywhere instead will continue, as in the biblical words said by the angel who appeared to Hagar about her son Ishmael:” his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him”.
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The quantities approved – some 40 truckloads of cement, iron and gravel – are far from sufficient; Gaza is thought to need about 6,000 tons of cement a day.

By Zvi Bar’el, HAARETZ

Alaa Radwan, head of the Popular Committee for Monitoring the Reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, makes a simple calculation: “Given the pace at which construction materials are currently entering Gaza, it will be at least 20 years” before the damage caused by this summer’s war is repaired.

The reconstruction is expected to cost more than $4 billion. Ostensibly, the Palestinian government has even more than that available. At a conference last month, donor states pledged $5.4 billion.

Another conference was supposed to be held in Cairo on October 24 at which the donors – with Israel absent – would discuss how to supervise construction imports to satisfy Israel’s security needs while enabling rapid reconstruction. Read more…

Now that both Houses of Congress are under the control of Republicans, will President Obama have as free a hand in making a deal with the Iranian mullahs regarding their nuclear weapons program?

Many members of Congress, in both chambers and on both sides of the aisle, believe that President Obama is willing to allow Iran to become a threshold nuclear weapons power, as long as they don’t actually develop a nuclear bomb during his watch.  Israeli leaders, both in the majority and in opposition fear the same thing. Nobody wants to see a nuclear-armed Iran and few want to see a military attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons program, except as an absolute last resort. Everyone would like to see a good deal that assures the world that Iran will never develop nuclear weapons, and in return for that assurance ends the crippling sanctions against the Iranian people.  The questions are what sort of a deal will bring us closer to this desirable outcome, and are the United States and its European allies demanding enough from Iran to assure compliance with a commitment not to weaponize its “civilian” program.
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By Yoram Ettinger, ISRAEL HAYOM

The intra-Arab and intra-Muslim terrorism plaguing the Arab street has been a Middle East fixture since the seventh century emergence of Islam, driven by religious, political, tribal and ethnic megalomaniac aspirations and violent intolerance.

Terrorism dominated the Middle East long before the onset of the Arab-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli conflicts, the re-establishment of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, the controversy over Jerusalem, and the reconstruction of the Jewish state.

Against the backdrop of ruthless and persistent terrorism targeting fellow Arabs and fellow Muslims, one would expect the Arab/Muslim terrorism against the “infidel” Christian, Buddhist, Hindu or Jew to be at least as ferocious. The U.S. in particular is considered the chief threat to terrorist regimes, morally and militarily. Hence it has been termed “the Great Satan” and the lead target for Islamic terrorism.
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By Hal R.Crane, AMERICAN THINKER

There are voices in the media blaming Israel’s prime minister for the deteriorating relationship between the United States and Israel and for the failure of the “peace process.” These critics miss the mark completely. President Obama and other members of his administration have regularly insulted and vilified Israel and its leaders. They appear to treat Israel as an enemy of the United States, instead of a longstanding ally. From the suspect vote at the 2012 Democratic National Convention concerning Jerusalem to the support given to Israel’s mortal adversaries, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, this administration has proven it can’t be relied upon and must be viewed by Israel and other American allies with extreme circumspection.

The Obama administration has established an abysmal foreign policy record. A few examples – the failed Russian “reset,” turning Libya into a lawless disaster zone, abandoning Iraq to chaos and bloodshed, Obama’s quickly surrendered Syrian “red line,” canceling the planned missile defense system for Europe, and appeasing Iran. Obama’s pre- election promise to keep Jerusalem undivided lasted less than one day. There is little reason for any ally to trust this administration. Examining how Israel has been treated should make any sane Israeli leader wary of relying on this president.
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By Adam Kredo, FREE BEACON

Nearly $420 million in weapons and other “sensitive items” have gone missing from U.S. Army bases in Afghanistan and are not likely to be recovered due to mismanagement and improper accounting, according to an internal report by the Pentagon’s inspector general obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Some 15,600 pieces of equipment—including “weapons, weapons systems, and sensitive items”—went missing in the past year from Army facilities in Bagram and Kandahar, accounting for around $419.5 million in losses, according to the report, which was issued in late October and marked “for official use only.”

The extent of these losses was only discovered following an internal audit by the Pentagon’s inspector general, who recommended that military leaders institute a series of reforms aimed at increasing transparency and strengthening mechanisms meant to detect such losses. Read more…

So let there be an explosion. Israel should reassert that there will be no reconstruction without disarmament. At the same time Israel should be pushing for resettlement rather than rebuilding. Ted Belman

Izz ad-Din al-Qassam spokesman warns ‘the fight is not over,’ saying ‘if the siege on Gaza and the obstacles for reconstruction remain, there will be a new explosion.’

YNET

RAFAH – The military wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas warned Thursday of renewed violence unless Israel allows the reconstruction of the war-battered Gaza Strip.

“We are saying to all sides – if the siege on Gaza and the obstacles for reconstruction remain, there will be a new explosion,” said Abu Obeida, spokesman of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

A devastating 50-day war between Israel and Hamas that ended on August 26 killed more than 2,140 Palestinians, and 73 on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers.

Gaza has been under a stringent Israeli blockade since 2006, with construction materials tightly restricted for fear terrorists could make use of them to forge arms or build fortifications.
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By Daniel Gordis, BLOOMBERG VIEW

The mood in Israel today is simply bleak. With acrimony over this summer’s Gaza War still consuming the security services, and Palestinian attacks on Israelis raising the specter of a Third Intifada, there is a feeling that things may go very wrong, very soon.

Now, the Knesset is considering a bill that would formally apply Israeli law to Jews living in the West Bank. The Israeli left isvehemently opposed and insists that the pending bill is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration that he has no interest in a negotiated peace settlement. But with Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic State and Iran all menacing, few Israelis are terribly worried about the Israeli left.

This pending piece of  legislation, little noticed outside Israel, is a telling lens through which to sense the mood of the Jewish state.
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Based on these numbers, the next coalition will include Likud, Bayit Yahudi, Israel Beyteinu, Shas and UTJ totalling 63 seats. Kahlon will join bringing the total to 70 seats. That leaves Livni and Lapid. Will either be invited? Will either join? Ted Belman

INN

The scent of possible early elections has not caused a meaningful shift in the public’s poilitical preferences, according to the latest Knesset Channel poll by Panels Politics.

The poll gives Likud 22 seats, leaving it as the largest party. It is followed by the Jewish Home under Naftali Bennett, with 17 seats.

In third place is Labor with 14 seats. It is followed by Yesh Atid, with 10, and Meretz with 9. Yisrael Beytenu would have 8 MKs, as would hareidi parties United Torah Judaism and Shas.

The new party founded by ex-Likud minister Moshe Kahlon is down from previous weeks with 7 MKs and Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua just barely makes it into the Knesset, with 4 seats – down from 6 at present. Any further weakening would leave her below the minimum threshold required for entering the Knesset.

The Arab parties, which were concerned that they would not pass the threshhold for entering the Knesset, appear to have nothing to worry about in that respect. Hadash receives 5 MKs, and Balad and Raam-Taal each receive 4.