The difference between Laban and Jacob

By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal

SAN DIEGO–After Jacob leaves Laban and begins his journey back to Eretz Yisrael, Laban chases after him and accuses him of deserting him. Jacob explains his actions and Laban eventually decides to leave Jacob alone and returns to his own home.

The Torah puts it this way: “Laban returned to his place and Jacob continued on his journey.” (Gen. 22:1-2)

The commentator Mashach Chochma illuminates the Torah’s words. He writes that when the Torah says that “Laban returned to his place” it was not referring to his home or anything physical. Rather, the Torah was telling us that after leaving Jacob, Laban returned to being a deceiver, money lover, and all around bad guy. While Jacob grew and matured during his years with Laban, Laban stayed the same. He refused to grow or to allow any of Jacob’s growth to rub off on him.

Jacob, on the other hand, “continued on his journey.” He went from to step to step, ever upwards, in his quest to become a good, loving, and Godly human being. As the Talmud says, “Talmidei Chachamim (scholars) have no rest, neither in this world nor the next. They never stand but are always moving.” That is, they never stay in one place, they are always learning, growing, and expanding their knowledge and opening their souls.

So may all of us journey each day in our quest to bring holiness into our lives and into the world.

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Rabbi Rosenthal is spiritual leader of Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Diego

Middle East peace process reduced to a charade

By Ira Sharkansky

JERUSALEM—Reading the announcements of government officials is more of an art than a science. It is appropriate to weigh the use of certain words rather than others, and take note of what a statement does not say. No one, including those involved in its preparation, can claim certainty as to how it should be read, much less what it can lead to as one statement provokes others from allies and antagonists.

Consider Prime Minister Netanyahu’s announcement that his government has agreed to a freeze of new housing construction in the West Bank (excluding Jerusalem) for a period of 10 months in an effort to persuade the Palestinians to begin negotiations toward a peace agreement.

 

While members of the government trumpeted the announcement as a gesture that should move the Palestinians, It did not take long for commentators to declare it a dead letter. Sure enough, within a day ranking Palestinians reiterated their new position that they would only start negotiations when there was a total freeze of construction (homes and other facilities), including the post-1967 neighborhoods of Jerusalem.

What does all this mean?

One interpretation is that it reflects the teething problems of the American president. When he and his secretary of state emphasized the need to freeze settlements, and included Jerusalem in the mandate, they brought the Palestinians to assert a demand they had not made before during 17 years of negotiations.

Another interpretation, not altogether different, is that the talk of negotiations is a game without end played by numerous governments. If officials are wise and have noticed what has happened since Oslo, they should realize that negotiations go nowhere as long as the Palestinians adhere to their mantras of refugee rights and 1967 borders. Since Gaza fell into the hands of Hamas, the chances of an agreement are even less. The Fatah party of Mahmoud Abbas is barely holding on to the West Bank, propped up by Americans, Israelis and others. Should Abbas dare to show flexibility, his hold on power would be even more tenuous.

Even though wise leaders may recognize that reality, they cannot admit it, and give up the quest for peace. Who could do that when the future of the Holy Land is at stake? Moreover, there are unwise leaders in the bunch who may really believe in fairies and other delights, like peace between Israel and Palestine. With them beating the drums, and especially if they are the powerful Americans with a popular leader (who no other leader can publicly call naive), then the chorus joins in the pursuit of peace.

The result is that emissaries flit hither and yon, trying one idea after another, all the while gaining publicity and feeding the media’s needs for a story. Minor players puff themselves up and offer their services as mediators. It is hard to tell them “no,” but it is appropriate to weigh the expressions of “yes” to know if they are anything more than words.

The government’s freeze for 10 months appears to be no more than a gesture for the Americans, knowing that it might not be enough to attract the Palestinians.

The gesture has not come smoothly. Netanyahu has distanced himself from one minister who has termed the Obama administration “dreadful.”

Among the problems of the freeze is its implementation. The attorney general told the government, during the session when the freeze was approved, that there were not enough building inspectors to enforce it. Things more substantial than curtains will be added to existing structures in the West Bank. And whatever goes up in established settlements against the government’s edict is not likely to come down.

Settler leaders have expressed anger. They use the word “traitor” in condemnations of the government’s action, symbolic as it may be. We hear of young couples who cannot find housing in the same settlement as their parents. Whether they actually build is yet to be seen. One must reckon with the political influence of the settlers. To ride roughshod over them would be like Barack Obama riding roughshod over insurance companies and physicians while passing his health reform. Such things do not happen in the American democracy, or in the Israeli democracy.

If there was any life in the peace process, it appears that the Obama administration killed it by an ill advised overreach (complete settlement freeze, including Jerusalem). Shimon Schieffer, a respected centrist commentator, used the word “childish” in reference to American efforts. Yosi Beilin, a former foreign minister, former head of the left-wing Meretz Party, and the major voice in the Geneva Initiative, expressed his amazement and worry about American blunders. Beilin’s mentor, Shimon Peres, former just about everything in Israeli government and the doyen of the peace camp, said pointedly and publicly to the American president that Jerusalem is Israel.

The terms evil and stupid are not appropriate, but naive is sufficiently polite and accurate. President Obama came on the stage of international politics with a great deal of support in the United States and throughout the world. He has made things worse in the Middle East, and may not be doing better elsewhere.

It is timely to say once again that, compared to other democracies, the United States has a flair for selecting national leaders who can excite popular enthusiasm, but are woefully short on relevant experience. Barack Obama is the flip side of  George W. Bush. The circus of presidential primaries, inspiring rhetoric, and a lot of money does not assure a better world.

Enjoy what you think is best, my American friends. The rest of us will do what we can to minimize the damage.

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Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University

New Lebanese government endorses Hezbollah fight against Israel

BEIRUT (WJC)–Lebanon’s new unity government has adopted a policy that recognizes the Shiite paramilitary group Hezbollah’s right to use arms against Israel, in spite of UN resolutions calling for its complete disarming. The text adopted by the Cabinet reaffirms right of “Lebanon, its government, its people, its army and its resistance” to liberate all Lebanese territory.

Hezbollah, whose political wing is part of the government of Prime Minister Saed Hariri, is commonly referred to as “resistance” in Lebanon. Christian members of the majority, including the Phalange Party and Lebanese Forces, argued that group’s weapons arsenal ran counter to UN resolutions, but Hezbollah said its right to use weapons against Israel was not up for debate.

The group, considered a terrorist organization by the United States and other countries, maintains that Israel posed a serious threat and it was hence necessary to protect Lebanon against future “acts of aggression”, although it was Hezbollah which began the war in 2006 by firing rockets on Israeli cities. Israeli forces withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000.

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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress

Pope meets founder of Child Survivors Germany

VATICAN CITY (WJC)–Pope Benedict XVI has met at the Vatican with a Holocaust survivor from his native Germany. After his weekly general audience, the pontiff of the Catholic Church met with Cäcilie Peiser, the founder and honorary president of Child Survivors Germany. She presented him with a signed copy of her biography, which tells the story of her survival. Peiser was accompanied by Father Norbert Hofmann, secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.

“After the ‘Kristallnacht’ in 1938, at the age of 13, I was forced to flee with my younger sister Jutta and other children to Holland,” Peiser, who is 84, told the official Vatican newspaper ‘Osservatore Romano’. Her mother and younger brother were deported and killed.

After the war, Peiser dedicated herself to the care of former prisoners who had contracted tuberculosis in the Nazi death camps. “I also went to Palestine in 1946, where I struggled for peaceful coexistence between men of different cultures and religions. In 1957, I returned to Germany to work with handicapped children,” she explained.

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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress

Abbas recruits Chile’s President Bachelet to anti-settlements cause

JERUSALEM (WJC)–Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said a 10-month settlement construction  freeze will not include Israeli’s “sovereign capital” of Jerusalem, including the eastern parts of the city captured in 1967. The moratorium would also not apply to construction already started or authorized in the West Bank, as well as buildings to allow the 300,000 residents of the West Bank to live “a normal life,” including, he said, “synagogues, schools, kindergartens and public buildings.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Netanyahu’s announcement had brought “nothing new. Settlement activity will continue in the West Bank and Jerusalem,” he said in Santiago de Chile, adding that Netanyahu “had a choice between peace and settlements, and unfortunately, he chose the settlements”.

In a joint declaration with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Abbas reaffirmed “the pressing need for Israel to cease illegal settlements in the Palestinian territories.” Egypt’s foreign minister called the moratorium “an incomplete step and not compatible with the requirements for achieving peace.”

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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress

European Jewish Congress lobbies Kremlin against sale of missiles to Iran

MOSCOW (WJC)–At a meeting at the Kremlin President Dmitry Medvedev, leaders of the European Jewish Congress (EJC) asked Russia not to sell the S-300 surface-to-air missiles to Iran and to push for new sanctions against the regime in Tehran.

“We asked that Russia stop supplying the S-300 to Iran,” said EJC President Moshe Kantor after meetings with the president and the foreign minister of Russia, Sergey Lavrov.

“Minister Lavrov told us the sale did not contravene international law. We were also told [by President Medvedev] that while the system represents a sophisticated means of protection, Russia was within its rights in selling Iran a defensive system. It was not endangering global security,” Kantor told the ‘Jerusalem Post’. He pointed out that the current Iranian regime “has declared openly that it wants to destroy other countries – not just Israel, but also the United States and Britain.”

The EJC president said that Iran was reportedly planning to sue Russia over delays in the shipment of S-300 systems that were ordered as far back as 2005. Iran believes the delays are deliberate; Russia has faced pressure from Israel and other countries to cancel the shipment altogether. “I think we should encourage Russia’s doubts, and support its delays,” Kantor said.

Medvedev told the EJC delegation that the Iranian threat “is very real and  should be treated seriously.” However, according to the ‘Jerusalem Post’, he warned that “a military strike [on Iranian nuclear installations] would be catastrophic, and that we must continue to negotiate and maintain constant contact with the Iranians in order not to push them into a corner, a situation that could lead to disastrous results.”

The Jewish leaders also called on Russia to observe International Holocaust Day (27 January), starting next year.  “We submitted our proposal and await his decision,” Kantor told reporters at a press conference after the meeting with Medvedev in Moscow.

“It’s important people realize that xenophobia is horrific.” Kantor said in Russia the day would be renamed “Day of the Soviet Army and the Liberation of Auschwitz” in order to honor the role of the Red Army in freeing the Auschwitz death camp on 27 January 1945.

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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress