JNS News Briefs: August 23, 2012

The recent decision to file criminal charges against a German rabbi for presiding over a Jewish circumcision (brit) continues to reverberate across the world and Israel.

A day after Israel’s Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger met with German lawmakers to lobby against the criminalization of the custom, Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) wrote a letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel urging her to protect Jews’ freedom of worship, Israel Hayom reported. Yishai sent a copy of the letter to the German justice minister as well.

“As deputy prime minister, as the interior minister and as the head of the largest religious party [in Israel], and— above all—as a Jew, I call on you to end the abuse of the [German] justice system; please make sure that Jews are once again allowed to lead a rich and proud life according to Jewish traditions in your country,” Yishai wrote.

Rabbi David Goldberg, a mohel in Hof in northern Bavaria, was recently accused by a German doctor of engaging in the outlawed practice (the ruling is binding only in Bavaria). Goldberg dismissed the allegations against him, telling Israel Hayom that the person who filed the complaint was an “anti-Semitic physician who filed criminal charges against me for allegedly committing bodily harm to children and maiming them. In Germany, once a complaint is filed, the chief prosecutor in the city has to decide whether to move to the trial phase; I hope he drops this case.”

UN secretary-general to attend Iran summit, denying Israel’s request

(JNS.org) Amid sharp anti-Israel comments by Iranian leaders, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will attend the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran from Aug. 29-31, according to reports.
Israel asked the UN head not to attend, and that request “still stands,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman Marc Regev told Bloomberg News. The UN said in a statement that the secretary-general “takes seriously his responsibility and that of the United Nations to pursue diplomatic engagement with all of its member states.” Ban plans to inform Iran of “the clear concerns and expectations of the international community” regarding its nuclear program, according to the statement.

Continuing his penchant for anti-Semitic and anti-Israel rants, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Aug. 16 called the existence of Israel “an affront to humanity” and added that the “Zionist regime is a malignant cancer.” Earlier, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said of Israel that Iran seeks “to save this Islamic state from the oppressive Zionist fingernails.”

Ban’s decision to go to Iran “will be seen as an endorsement of the regime’s legitimacy and another whitewashing of hatred and anti-Semitism,” NGO Monitor President Gerald M. Steinberg wrote in an op-ed for JNS.org.

Israel alarmed by Egyptian moves in Sinai

(JNS.org) The Israeli government is deeply alarmed by the entry of Egyptian tanks into the Sinai and has asked Egypt to remove them, an Israeli government spokesman told the New York Times.
The tanks were deployed in Sinai following the Aug. 5 terrorist attack on an Egyptian military checkpoint. The Sinai has become a hotbed for Islamic terrorists, especially from Gaza, following years of neglect by the Egyptian government.

As part of the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty, the Sinai is demilitarized. Egyptian military personnel can only be deployed in the region with Israeli consultation. Israel claims that the recent Egyptian moves came without its permission.

According to an Egyptian government spokesman, Egypt has denied hearing of Israeli complaints and claims that the move was coordinated with Israel.

Some Israeli leaders are apprehensive. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told his ambassadors, “We must make sure that every detail is upheld, otherwise we’ll find ourselves in a slippery slope as far as the peace treaty is concerned.”

Former military Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin, however, was more optimistic. “What the Egyptians are doing in Sinai today is a more significant effort than in the past to deal with terrorism,” Yadlin told Army Radio.

South African cabinet bans ‘Made in Israel’ labels on West Bank Jewish goods

(JNS.org) After months of heated debate, the South African cabinet banned the use of “Made in Israel” labels for goods originating in West Bank Jewish communities. Instead, products will be labeled as coming from “Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

“This is in line with South Africa’s stance that recognizes the 1948 borders delineated by the United Nations and does not recognize occupied territories beyond these borders as being part of the state of Israel,” said South African spokesperson Jimmy Manyi, according to AFP.

It is unclear which “borders” Manyi is referring to, since the UN did not delineate borders in 1948. Manyi could be erroneously referring to either the 1947 UN Partition Plan or the 1949 Armistice Lines, which became the de-facto boundaries of Israel until 1967.

Leaders of the South African Jewish community were “outraged” by the decision, according to statements.

Relations between Israel and South Africa have been deteriorating for years. Recently, South African Deputy Minister Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim told South Africans not to visit Israel because “Israel is an occupier country which is oppressing Palestine,” according to the Times of Israel.

More than 600 rabbis join Obama campaign initiative

(JNS.org) President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign has announced a new grassroots initiative, “Rabbis for Obama,” consisting of more than 600 rabbis from across the denominational spectrum who state their support for the incumbent.

“Their ringing endorsement of President Obama speaks volumes about the President’s deep commitment to the security of the state of Israel and his dedication to a policy agenda that represents the values of the overwhelming majority of the American Jewish community,” said Ira Forman, the Jewish Outreach Director for Obama.

According to the latest Gallup poll, Obama leads Republican candidate Mitt Romney 68 percent to 25 percent among Jewish voters. Republicans have been targeting Obama’s credentials on Israel, citing what they claim to be his tense relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as his weakness in dealing with the Arab Spring uprisings and the Iranian nuclear threat.

According to the Obama campaign’s press release, the rabbis initiative is led by Rabbis Sam Gordon and Steven Bob, who were the founding co-chairs of Rabbis for Obama in 2008, and Rabbi Burt Visotzky, a vice chair for the campaign in 2008.