By Margot Lurie, Jewish Ideas Daily [first published October 18, 2010]

Fifty-five years ago, a star was born: plucky, lucky Marjorie Morningstar, the “American Everygirl who happens to be Jewish.” At least, that’s how Time described her. Today, depending on whom you ask, Herman Wouk’s 1955 novel, Marjorie Morningstar, is either the story of the romantic awakening of a blue-eyed Jewish beauty or a cautionary tale about what happens when you stray too far from your origins.

Born Marjorie Morgenstern in 1916 (a year after the birth of her creator), our heroine appears to us first as an undergraduate at Hunter College in New York, dreaming of becoming an actress and striving to rid herself of every mitzvah and mannerism that comprised her identity. She Anglicizes her Semitic surname, dabbles in sex, and engages in the years-long pursuit of a dilettantish stage director—all without success. In the end, never having seen her stage name on a marquee, she settles for settling down with a steady husband, children, and a return to religious observance.
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The EU demands Israel give in to the demands of the PA and Turkey so that EU’s interests will be served. They have no respect for our interests or sovereignty. Ted Belman

Lithuanian FM: Heed settlement goods label issue

By HERB KEINON, STEVE LINDE, JPOST

If products grown or manufactured in settlements are not properly labeled as such, it could spark moves in some European countries to boycott all Israeli goods, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

“You should take it [the settlement labeling issue] seriously,” said Linkevicius, whose country will take over the rotating presidency of the European Union in July.

“I know the mood in some countries is that if you don’t change the market practice, you could lead to a boycott of all [Israeli] goods. You should take this into account,” he said.

Linkevicius, who arrived Sunday for a four-day visit, said the EU fully backed US Secretary of State John Kerry’s current efforts to get Israel and the Palestinian Authority back to the negotiating table.

Kerry, who is scheduled to arrive for a two-day visit on Thursday, has not asked anything in particular from the EU in moving his initiative forward, the foreign minister said.
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By Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah
Jerusalem Issue Briefs Vol. 13, No. 13 21 May 2013

-After the jubilation that accompanied Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s
“victory” over the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) in August
2012, the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi himself began signaling their
intention to turn Egypt into an Islamic state, arousing the fears of
liberals and religious minorities.

-The opposition turned hostile to the regime and began castigating it,
exploiting the newly acquired freedom of the press. Never in Egypt’s modern
history had the press enjoyed such liberties, and Morsi became the target of
satire and mockery. In addition, a new activist group emerged calling itself
the Black Bloc. Its members, who dress in black with black masks, have
declared open war against the Brotherhood.
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By Ted Belman

A week ago I had an exchange with a macher from Canada’s Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs about Peace Now. I objected to them embracing them. Yesterday I was asked to make my case in advance of a meeting of CIJA tonight where the matter is to be discussed. Here’s what I wrote.

CIJA exists in part to “increase support for Israel”. Let that be the measuring stick for whether to embrace, in some fashion, Peace Now.

Peace Now has a big worldwide presence and a small Israeli presence. Most of their financial support comes from outside Israel. It has little support in Israel.

According to them they are against the settlement project and support a peace deal based on the ’67 lines. Certainly many people and governments around the world share their view but the vast majority of Israelis don’t. Read more…

– Zalman Shoval (Jerusalem Post)

Even a perfunctory examination of the “Arab Peace Initiative,” which the Arab League adopted on March 28, 2002, shows that it was no more than a list of take-it-or-leave-it demands requiring Israel to commit itself in advance to “full withdrawal from all territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights”; east Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state; and the “right of return” of Arab refugees.

Future political historians will probably be frustrated when they attempt to unravel how the idea of “land swaps” between Israel and the Palestinians ever achieved traction. After all, this wasn’t what UN Security Council Resolution 242 had said about Israel’s future borders.
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The New American

Deputy Speaker of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) Moshe Feiglin, who leads the Manhigut Yehudit (the Jewish Leadership) faction of the ruling Likud Party, spoke to The New American’s Alex Newman in late April during an interview at the Knesset in Jerusalem. (The photo shows MK Feiglin, center, with Newman.) While a controversial figure in Israel and still relatively unknown abroad after his successful election in January, the new lawmaker has developed a strong following among liberty-minded Jews.

However, MK Feiglin has also come under fire for statements about Arabs and Muslims perceived as incendiary — especially the idea that Israel should encourage non-Jews to emigrate, using financial incentives in an effort to create a more Jewish state. The war veteran and former army captain, also a father of five, shared his thoughts on the role of Israel in the world and much more.
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Lt. Col. (ret.) Michael Segall, Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs

• The visit to Israel in April 2013 by Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mamadyarov intensified growing Iranian concerns over the tightening ties between Jerusalem and Baku, both of which view Iran as a threat. Iran’s progress in its nuclear program and the failure of the nuclear talks with the West have raised Tehran’s threshold of sensitivity about a military attack on its nuclear facilities, and it increasingly fears that Azerbaijan is turning into a base for such a strike.

• In recent months, Iran has stepped up its critical public tone toward Baku’s “incautious” policy. Iran continues its covert subversive activity in Azerbaijan including through Lebanese Hizbullah, which is providing assistance to local terrorist and espionage cells. Iran’s aim is to build an infrastructure for retaliation there in case it is attacked, and also to try and influence Azerbaijan’s domestic political arena. Azerbaijan has exposed and arrested a number of Iranians, Hizbullah operatives, and local activists on suspicion of involvement in terror and subversion.

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IPT News
http://www.investigativeproject.org/4021/grand-deception-documentary-by-steven-emerson

“Jihad in America: The Grand Deception,” a new film by a new film by Investigative Project on Terrorism Executive Director Steven Emerson, was honored this week as the best documentary at the 2013 International Beverly Hills Film Festival.

A jury of entertainment industry professionals selected the film, which also won best documentary at last month’s Myrtle Beach International Film Festival.

The 70-minute film focuses on the Muslim Brotherhood and its penetration in the United States. It features documents and recordings from federal investigations, undercover recordings and interviews with FBI agents, federal prosecutors and Muslim experts on radical Islam. Read more…

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, PMW

The Palestinian Authority daily recently published a report attacking Israel’s program to resolve questions of land ownership in Israel’s southern desert region, called the Negev. The PA daily refers to Israeli building in the Negev as additional “settlement”:

“The Netanyahu government has not decided to freeze settlement, but rather has transferred it to the Negev.”

This PA daily report shows the PA’s rejection of Israelis living and developing land anywhere in Israel. For years, Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the PA as policy often defines all of Israel as “Palestine” or “occupied Palestine.”

The following is the official PA daily’s report calling Israeli construction in the Negev “a settlement”:
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NGO MONITOR

Jerusalem – A report presented to Members of Congress today by NGO Monitor shows that U.S. Government funding of several political NGOs in the Palestinian Authority and Israel contradicts U.S. policy, has a negative impact on the peace process, and lacks the independent oversight necessary to prevent abuses.

Professor Gerald M. Steinberg, President of NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based research institute, is meeting this week with Members of Congress, congressional staff, Washington think tanks, journalists and foreign policy decision-molders.

The 13-page report, The Negative Impact of U.S. Government Funding for Mideast Political NGOs, is written by Steinberg and Naftali Balanson, NGO Monitor Managing Editor. The 38-page appendices include a directory of the political NGOs involved and correspondence with U.S. government agencies and officials.
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