Other items in today’s column include:
*Four Balkan countries take stands against anti-Semitism
*Political bytes
*Jewish organizational news
SAN DIEGO — Congressional candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar, reacting to an unfavorable story carried about him by the Breitbard news organization, reiterated on Wednesday his support for a peaceful two-state solution for the Israelis and Palestinians, and his opposition to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
In a telephone interview with San Diego Jewish World, Campa-Najjar pointed out that he once had met and shook hands in a moment of reconciliation with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who during his career as an IDF officer commanded the mission which assassinated Campa-Najjar’s grandfather, Mohammad Yusuf al-Najjar.
The grandfather, who was killed 16 years before Campa-Najjar’s birth, was considered one of the masterminds behind the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre of Israeli athletes. The mission not only killed Campa-Najjar’s grandfather, but also his grandmother.
Yet, in meeting Barak, “we shook hands and said let’s make peace,” Campa-Najjar recalled in the interview “Peace is my biggest priority,” adding others can also do it, “if he and I can let go of the past. … Peace is my biggest priority.”
Campa-Najjar, who follows his Mexican-American mother’s Christian religion, said he considered the BDS movement harmful not only to Israel but also to Palestinian workers who commute every day –“like Mexicans do here” — to work in Israeli industries. “BDS is just wrong in every way,” Campa-Najjar said.
The 50th Congressional District candidate, a Democrat, is opposed by former Congressman Darrell Issa, a Republican, who a recent poll in the San Diego Union-Tribune indicated is trailing Issa by a margin of 51 percent to 40 percent.
Campa-Najjar also told me that he is in support of the Abraham Accords, in which both the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain normalized relations with Israel, and which Sudan also recently agreed to participate in. Campa-Najjar said Israel and the Arab world now recognize that they have a common enemy in Iran.
As important as those agreements are, he said, “there still is much more to accomplish,” especially bringing about a permanent peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians.
Campa-Najjar said that the Middle East is “so much more nuanced than the President (Trump) understands.”
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Four Balkan countries take stands against anti-Semitism
Representatives of Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Montenegro — joined by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and representatives of the European Parliament and Israel — on Wednesday agreed to stand against anti-Semitism. Meeting in New York City, the Balkan officials spoke out against anti-Semitism.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama warned against hate spreading n the internet. “Let us not forget that the very first pogroms originated from the ‘fake news’ and slanders of the day against the actions of Jews,” he said. “This is where it all originated. The new form of spreading this in the digital world should worry us. There is a lot of hope in digital society for progress, but this must not turn into a nightmare spiraling out of control.”
Montenegro’s Parliament President Aleksa Becie said: “It is the obligation of our generation and of generations to come to never again allow this to happen. Anti-Semitism is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated in the modern world.”
Kosovo’s Parliament Speaker Vjosa Osmani said, “This forum is a great opportunity to have the space to understand where we stand and how we can come together to respond responsibly to the rising levels of anti-Semitism and bigotry around the world.”
North Macedonia’s Parliament Speaker Tlat Xhaferi said, “Holocaust education is one of the key things that individuals should acquire to raise awareness in order to create values of respect for difference and build an equal society.”
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Political bytes
*Barbara Bry’s mayoral candidacy was the subject of a favorable column in Times of San Diego by Colleen O’Connor, whose own sister, Maureen O’Connor, is a former mayor of San Diego. Bry, a San Diego city councilwoman, opposes Assemblyman Todd Gloria for the position.
*Former Democratic Congresswoman Lynn Schenk of San Diego tells in a column how then Senator Joe Biden reached out to her husband, Hugh Friedman, after Friedman was diagnosed with deadly cancer. And former Democratic Congresswoman Marjorie Margolies, in the same article in Times of San Diego, tells how Biden comforted her after the death of her daughter.
*John McCormick, our correspondent in New Zealand, writes that overseas ballots for the U.S. elections apparently have been stalled. “There are quite a few Americans here married to Kiwis who have voted in US elections for more than four past elections but their voting papers for next week have not arrived. Our Minister’s wife comes from an area just south of San Francisco and hers have not arrived. She votes Democrat. I wonder what is going on. Her papers would or should have been sent to their home street address in Waipukurau.”
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Jewish organizational news
*American Friends of Magen David Adom sponsors an evening honoring Israel featuring well known actors and musicians including Jason Alexander, Howie Mandel, Miri Ben-Ari, David Brroza, Gad Elbaz, Dudu Fisher, Jarrod Spector and Lior Suchard on the Internet at 4:30 p.m. PST on Sunday, Nov. 8. Register for this free event via this website.
*American Technion Society tells in a news release of researchers at the Technion, Tel Aviv University, the University of Glasgow, and the Schneider Children’s Medical Center are making progress in thwarting the spread of metastatic leukemia to the brain. An article detailing the research is in the current issue of Nature Cancer.
*Coastal Roots Farm and the Hive at Leichtag Commons in Encinitas, California, have issued a video showing how they conducted a drive-through Sukkot celebration. Watch it via this link.
*Nefesh B’Nefesh reports that 90 Americans from 14 states, and three Canadians, immigrated to Israel on Wednesday, in time for National Aliyah Week. Among them was “24-year-old Simcha Brodsky from New York,” reported the organization that assists Americans to immigrate to Israel. “Simcha is a musician who grew up in a musical home and has explored his many talents – playing, singing, recording and producing music. At a young age, he was part of a Jewish choir and has collaborated with Israeli singers as a director of a production company. His musical talent has led him on a path to fulfilling his musical dreams in Israel, where he is planning to reside in Jerusalem and continue creating Israeli music.”
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com
Don, the article about Camp-Najjar making efforts to make peace left a tremendous impression upon me. The Idea of: Let’s make peace at a time when peace is at a dire premium. It took a great deal of chutzpah to even come to this point. We may (and do) have a long way to go, but a start is better than no start. Thanks for sharing the article. Be well.