"Oiy Ya'Yoi" Yated ordered to run ads for "All Lady Party" in Israel.... UPDATED MAR 16

Lol! 
The Zionist court in Israel ruled that Chareidie Newspapers must run at least one ad for the "All Lady Religious Party" .... even though "gedoilim" are vehemently opposed to them!
These "gedolim" would have opposed Devorah the Shofetes.. too. 
They are of course holier than the Tanach!

Ruth Kolian

Read and laugh your head off!

A Lod District Court ordered ultra-Orthodox newspapers Yated Ne'eman and Yom Le'yom on Friday to run campaign ads for the Haredi women's party B'Zechutan, after the party claimed the papers were discriminating against it by refusing to print its ads.

The decision could also result in official Shas and United Torah Judaism journals - which serve as the mouthpiece of the most prominent Haredi rabbis - also having to run campaign ads for a party that challenges them and accuses them of exclusion of women.

B'Zechutan leader Ruth Kolian petitioned the court with the help of the Center for the Advancement of the Status of Women and the Center for Women's Justice. Her lawyers, attorneys Karen Horowitz and Shai Zilberberg, explained that the printed Haredi press is the only media channel accessible to the party's potential voters.

Yated Ne'ema (File photo)

Judge Jacob Spasser issued an interim order which requires the two newspapers to run at least one of the party's campaign ads until Election Day, noting that in this case the principle of equality surpasses the property rights of the newspapers' owners.

"This is an ad which is public in nature, and mostly targets women in the Haredi sector," the judge wrote in his ruling. "There's considerable public importance in running it, an importance that might be higher in light of the prohibition on discrimination and the principle of equality in elections."

The court rejected the papers' claim that papers that already cover different parties whose views are clearly not in line with their own views, might offend their readers by running an ad for the Haredi women's party.

Prof. Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, the head of the Rackman Center for the Advancement of the Status of Women at Bar-Ilan University's Law Faculty, said following the ruling that "this is a historic legal precedent which determines that in certain circumstances, considerations of equality for women and election equality, as well as preventing discrimination against women and their preventing their exclusion, surpass property rights of commercial bodies like newspapers.

"This is the height of women's exclusion. Haredi women are not only prevented in practice from realizing the basic human right of running and being elected for Knesset, they are also denied the equal opportunity to inform their potential voters that they are running independently."

B'Zechutan leader Ruth Kolian said: "By having the Haredi newspapers refuse to allow us to reach our voters, we're excluded twice. First, we're not allowed to reach our audience of voters, and secondly, instead of using the time we have left until the elections to campaign, we have to turn to different courts in order to realize our right to be elected."
Kolian also said she hoped her party continues creating precedents in the elections as well.

UPDATED!!!!

Three days after an Israeli district court ordered chareidi newspapers to run election ads featuring women, the Supreme Court today overturned that decision, arguing that the judgment was hastily made and would have to be reexamined in depth without time constraints.

The chareidi women’s party Bezchutan petitioned to have their advertisements shown in chareidi print publications Yated Ne’eman and Yom Le’yom. A ruling Friday at the Lod District Court rejected claims that printing the images would insult the sensibilities of readers, and ordered their publication before Israelis head to the polls on March 17.

The newspapers, however, appealed that decision at the Supreme Court and the presiding judge ordered the commercials be postponed until the case can be properly mulled “without [the] time constraints” of Tuesday’s impending vote.

“The sequence of events led to a situation where the merits of the legal issue weren’t discussed in depth,” Supreme Court Justice Neal Hendel said.

“The necessary balance between conflicting interests and the principles at stake was not found [in the initial judgment,]” Hendel said.

He noted that a ruling had not been made in either of the parties’ favor, and called on both sides to hold a hearing within an acceptable time frame.

Rav Shmuel Auerbach Continues His Campaign of Machlokas against other Gedoilim

Let's face it .....Rav Shmuel Auerbach is a fanatic .. and it's his way or the highway. 
He doesn't care if he opposes "Daas Torah" of Rav Kanievsky and Rab Shteinman, .... he has his own "Daas Torah!"

So please never ever tell me that this is "Daas Torah" or that is "Daas Torah"

Daas Torah, my friends is to vote Likud! Yup...you heard it here first!
Voting for Likud is Daas Torah, don't waste your vote for the frum hypocrites!

Shas and other frum parties are following the position of  "gedoilim," and the "gedoilim" have indicated that they would sit with Tzippy Livni in a coalition, if she should G-d forbid get the upper hand..
They ignore the position of  Tzippy Livni that has repeatedly said; that she is ready to have the Arab parties join her coalition... 
and they ignore that she has said numerous times that she is prepared to give back parts of Eretz Yisroel to the Arabs, the land that G-d gave to us.

But the Gedoilim don't seem to care as long as Tzippy doesn't give back Ponovitz, Brisk, Mir .. etc..

That's the shita of today's "Gedoilim"!

So here is the latest low-down!

**Rav Auerbach has said that you get an Aveirah if you vote Gimmel....

**Rav Kanievsky and Rav Shteinman said that you get an Aveirah if you don't vote Gimmel!

**Satmar says it's an Aveirah if you vote for anyone!

** You are all going to hell, whatever you do according to the "gedoilim" 

Meanwhile, the "Chachomim" in Bnei Brak invited the fanatic R' Auerbach  to the massive Degel Hatorah kinnos which drew a staggering crowd of 100,000, according to some estimates, 
with Gedolei Hador  Rav Aaron Yehuda Leib Shteinman, Rav Chaim Kanievsky and Rav Nissim Karelitz, in attendance, but they didn't succeed to change the "godel's" stubborn mind.

Gedolim, have instructed the tzibur to vote Gimmel, Yahadut Hatorah, in next week’s elections for 20th Knesset.

Rav Auerbach  believes Degel is abandoning the correct path and while the door to cooperation has not been closed and locked, with days remaining to the elections it is difficult to know what he will do. 
He wants Rav Kanievsky and Rav Shteinman to come crawling to him and beg him to endorse Gimmel. 

At present it appears that a boycott of the elections is the likely scenario. HaPeles, R' Auerbach's mouthpiece  newspaper quotes Rav Auerbach saying that if one supports those (R' Kanievsky and R' Shteinman)who are implementing these unacceptable changes, he has a hand in one performing an aveira. -

So there you have it in a nutshell!

But they all agree that you can't have an Iphone....
Moshiach where are you?

Obama getting world powers to lift sanctions on Iran

Major world powers have begun talks about a United Nations Security Council resolution to lift U.N. sanctions on Iran if a nuclear agreement is struck with Tehran, a step that could make it harder for the U.S. Congress to undo a deal, Western officials said.

The talks between Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — the five permanent members of the Security Council — plus Germany and Iran, are taking place ahead of difficult negotiations that resume next week over constricting Iran's nuclear ability.

Some eight U.N. resolutions - four of them imposing sanctions - ban Iran from uranium enrichment and other sensitive atomic work and bar it from buying and selling atomic technology and anything linked to ballistic missiles. There is also a U.N. arms embargo.

Iran sees their removal as crucial as U.N. measures are a legal basis for more stringent U.S. and European Union measures to be enforced. The U.S. and EU often cite violations of the U.N. ban on enrichment and other sensitive nuclear work as justification for imposing additional penalties on Iran.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told Congress on Wednesday that an Iran nuclear deal would not be legally binding, meaning future U.S. presidents could decide not to implement it. That point was emphasized in an open letter by 47 Republican senators sent on Monday to Iran's leaders asserting any deal could be discarded once President Barack Obama leaves office in January 2017.

But a Security Council resolution on a nuclear deal with Iran could be legally binding, say Western diplomatic officials. That could complicate and possibly undercut future attempts by Republicans in Washington to unravel an agreement.

Iran and the six powers are aiming to complete the framework of a nuclear deal by the end of March, and achieve a full agreement by June 30, to curb Iran's most sensitive nuclear activities for at least 10 years in exchange for a gradual end to all sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

So far, those talks have focused on separate U.S. and European Union sanctions on Iran's energy and financial sectors, which Tehran desperately wants removed. The sanctions question is a sticking point in the talks that resume next week in Lausanne, Switzerland, between Iran and the six powers.

But Western officials involved in the negotiations said they are also discussing elements to include in a draft resolution for the 15-nation Security Council to begin easing U.N. nuclear-related sanctions that have been in place since December 2006.

"If there's a nuclear deal, and that's still a big 'if', we'll want to move quickly on the U.N. sanctions issue," an official said, requesting anonymity.

The negotiations are taking place at senior foreign ministry level at the six powers and Iran, and not at the United Nations in New York.

U.S. OFFICIAL CONFIRMS DISCUSSIONS

A senior U.S. administration official confirmed that the discussions were underway.

The official said that the Security Council had mandated the negotiations over the U.N. sanctions and therefore has to be involved. The core role in negotiations with Iran that was being played by the five permanent members meant that any understanding over U.N. sanctions would likely get endorsed by the full council, the official added.

Iran rejects Western allegations it is seeking a nuclear weapons capability.

Officials said a U.N. resolution could help protect any nuclear deal against attempts by Republicans in U.S. Congress to sabotage it. Since violation of U.N. demands that Iran halt enrichment provide a legal basis for sanctioning Tehran, a new resolution could make new sanction moves difficult.

"There is an interesting question about whether, if the Security Council endorses the deal, that stops Congress undermining the deal," a Western diplomat said.

Other Western officials said Republicans might be deterred from undermining any deal if the Security Council unanimously endorses it and demonstrates that the world is united in favor of a diplomatic solution to the 12-year nuclear standoff.

Concerns that Republican-controlled Congress might try to derail a nuclear agreement have been fueled by the letter to Iran's leaders and a Republican invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress in a March 3 speech that railed against a nuclear deal with Iran.

The officials emphasized that ending all sanctions would be contingent on compliance with the terms of any deal. They added that the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Vienna-based nuclear watchdog, will play a key role in verifying Iran's compliance with any agreement.

Among questions facing negotiators as they seek to prepare a resolution for the Security Council is the timing and speed of lifting U.N. nuclear sanctions, including whether to present it in March if a political framework agreement is signed next week or to delay until a final deal is reached by the end-June target.

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed, Lesley Wroughton and Patricia Zengerle in Washington, Parisa Hafezi in Ankara and John Irish in Paris; Editing by Jason Szep andMartin Howell)

Not voting is like desecrating G-d :Reb Chaim Kanievsky defying Satmar, Eida Hachareidis who call voting "Tuma"

"Whoever does not vote is responsible for all the damaged caused by that choice," said Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky at a United Torah Judaism rally on Wednesday..
Meanwhile, The Hisachdas Ha'ganovim, the Eida Hachreidis call voting "Becheeros Ha'temeios" the Tumedika voting"
These Meshigoim still don't realize that the State is a fact and that their entire Shitah is false and opposite of reality!
The Rabbis  were wrong when the advised pre-WW2 Jews to remain in Europe and are wrong now.... but they are brainwashing generations to think like the Arabs!

Der Goy Headline...calling voting "Tumah" 

Der Blatt Headline calling the Voting "Prohibited"

Tens of thousands from the ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi community gathered for a pre-election rally in support of United Torah Judaism in Bnei Brak on Wednesday.

 Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky told the crowd at the rally that "anyone who does not vote is desecrating G-d's name. Whoever does not vote is responsible for all the damaged caused by that choice."

The United Torah Judaism alliance made of up two smaller haredi parties -- Degel Hatorah and Agudat Israel -- traditionally does not do much campaigning until shortly before the election, when it typically holds a single central event at which its rabbis and supporters speak.

Officials from the group's Lithuanian sect spoke at the rally, including leader Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman. Rabbi Shteinman is not known for public speaking, and his speech at the rally was less than a minute long. "We are obligated to sanctify the name of G-d and to behave according to the Torah," he told the crowd.

Despite the rally's success, members of United Torah Judaism are concerned that they may have missed the boat in terms of garnering votes.

"[Agudat Israel faction head Yakov] Litzman gained popularity with his work with the Health Ministry and [Degel Hatorah MK Moshe] Gafni was praised for his work with the Knesset Finance Committee -- many people who would vote for United Torah Judaism have spoken up," one party official said. "But I think that if we had started campaigning earlier and working harder in the secular community, we could have gotten many more votes."

"Frumies" constantly re-writing, re-creating and falsifying history....

Rabbi Berel Wein Shlitah

One of the great dangers in life, both national and personal, is looking backwards and dwelling upon what could have been, had we but chosen to behave and choose otherwise. 

There is much to be said for knowing history and appreciating the past. Yet the past, glorious and correct as  we may wish to make it in our memory, is simply no longer here and many times it is no longer relevant to the issues and challenges that we currently face.

I have studied Jewish history as well as world and American history for most of my life. The one lesson that I think that I have learned from all of these decades of study and reading is that there is much to be learned from the past but that the past is never the present.

The Jewish people have hallowed the concept of tradition and past custom. Therefore in many sectors of the Jewish world the past is more important than the present. The Talmud even goes so far as to say that in certain instances custom can override halakha. 

Perhaps as with no other people, the Jewish past holds us in its grip and in many respects prevents us from dealing successfully with the current problems and challenges that face us.

Not only do we treasure our past, but also we willingly recreate it, falsify it to meet current political correctness and beliefs, and fantasize it in order to avoid dealing differently with the current troublesome present. 

The complete fictionalizing in much of the Jewish Orthodox world today of nineteenth and twentieth century Eastern European Jewish life has had dire consequences for us today. We deal in what could have been rather then in what actually was.

Part of the problem lies in our inability to admit that mistakes might have been made in the past. In our devotion to Torah and its scholars and leaders, we have built a wall of infallibility and a false portrayal of unanimity of our then leaders about the issues and events of the past two centuries.

The traditional Jewish community that comprised most of eastern and central Europe began to dissolve and fracture in the 1800s. The false prophets of Marxism and of the Left seduced much of the Jewish youth of the time. Zionism arose as an antidote to Marxism and ironically as a movement that assimilated much of the ideas of the left into its nation building ideology.

There were many great rabbinic leaders who endorsed and joined the Zionist idea or at least the idea of the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel. 

On the other hand there were many rabbinic leaders who opposed Zionism in all of its forms and counseled strongly against leaving the “old home” of Eastern and Central Europe. The opposition to emigration was not only applied to moving to the Land of Israel but perhaps even more vehemently to leaving for America.

No one saw the Holocaust on the horizon and the resulting annihilation of European Jewry at that time but there is no question that our Jewish world would look quite different today had mass emigration of Jews from Europe occurred, leaving either to the Land of Israel or to North America.

I am of course writing from perfect hindsight. But I do so because of the fact that the past has been so falsified and deified so that it has become a detriment instead of an asset to us in our current struggles for survival and growth.

One thing the past should have taught us is that politics and religious beliefs do not and perhaps should never mix or become identical. I cannot believe in my heart of hearts that voting for one political party over another is a fundamental matter of Jewish faith.

The political battles of the religious and secular sections of the Jewish people and perhaps even more so the bitter political battles between various factions of the religious community itself that we witness today are little more than the continuity of those struggles that took place over the past two centuries in Europe.

And the irony is that none of the combatants in today’s struggles seem to realize the déjà vu involved in their current political and ideological disputes. 

One would think that the Jewish left would have been cured of Marxism by the experience of the Soviet Union. One could also think that the events of the Holocaust and of the enormous success of the state of Israel would cause many in the religious world to rethink their view of the state and its place in Jewish life.

However, since many of us are always more concerned with what could have been than in what really was, this is pretty much a forlorn hope. 

Nevertheless, we should be wise and truthful about our past, practical about our present, and optimistic about our future.

All Frum Parties set to go left if Labor gets upper hand.

Hypocrites with beards

A bunch of money grubbing whores!
UTJ, Kulanu, Yisrael Beytenu are all set to go left if Labor gets upper hand. 

They would join them in a coalition even though Herzog has voiced support for Reform and Conservative conversions to Judaism, as well as civil burial and same-sex marriage, and would join the left even though Herzog supports expulsion of Jewish communities in Yehuda and Shomron.

Why do people wonder that their children are going off the derech watching all this hypocrisy...

Shas MK Nissim Ze'ev, one of the founders of the party who was recently ousted by chairman Aryeh Deri, spoke to Arutz Sheva about the upcoming elections next week, and Deri's recent comments according to which he would not negate joining a coalition led by Labor chairman Yitzhak Herzog.

According to Ze'ev, if Likud falls short of Labor as it has in several recent polls, Deri isn't the only one who would join a leftist government - several other parties seen as leaning right, including Yisrael Beytenu, United Torah Judaism (UTJ) and Kulanu would join Herzog, he says.

The MK notes that Shas and UTJ, both haredi parties, seek to join governments to advance their agendas. He notes "look at the history. Shas once was with Labor and once with Bibi (Binyamin Netanyahu) and (Ehud) Olmert. 

Shas doesn't intentionally go against the right, but if a situation arises where Herzog has a chance to form a government it will sit with them as will United Torah Judaism."

"Their ideology is to help the (haredi) Torah world and the political topic isn't the central issue according to which these parties go to elections," he explained.

Ze'ev also expressed outrage at Yisrael Beytenu chair Avigdor Liberman for refusing to allow the haredi parties to join the outgoing coalition, in a replacement of Hatnua and Yesh Atid after Netanyahu removed them, sparking the elections.

While Herzog has voiced support for Reform and Conservative conversions to Judaism, as well as civil burial and same-sex marriage, issues that should concern Shas and UTJ from a religious standpoint, Ze'ev reasons that after the "catastrophe of religion and state" - in other words anti-religious legislation in the outgoing coalition - they may not find a Labor government as any worse.

He suggests that after election campaign posturing ends, religious red lines for joining a coalition will be formed to allow the haredi parties to join a leftist government.

Identifying right or left?

However, Ze'ev notes that if the right-wing bloc comes out stronger in the elections there is no doubt UTJ and Shas will prefer to join a government of Likud, Jewish Home and Yachad - Ha'am Itanu, which could also include Yisrael Beytenu and Kulanu.

But the MK warns "if Buji (Herzog) goes up and the left overcomes the center will go to the left."

When asked whether Deri's recent statements supporting the expulsion of small communities in Judea and Samaria were an expression of his position or an attempt to steal leftist votes, Ze'ev said the talk is "not relevant."

"The Arabs don't fold and therefore this whole topic isn't relevant, but those who declare in advance they are ready for concessions harm the goal," said Ze'ev.

The MK noted that as someone who sat in the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for 16 years, he knows there is no chance for a peace deal of any sort with the Palestinian Authority (PA), unless someone advances a unilateral process like the 2005 Disengagement plan, a process independent of the desires of the Palestinian Arab side.

Ze'ev also criticized Shas spiritual founder Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's daughter, Rabbanit Adina Bar-Shalom, who recently voiced her support of a peace process to advance a "two-state solution."

"It's an illusion of a wide public that doesn't understand that the Palestinian viewpoint changed completely and they aren't giving up," said Ze'ev. "Every evacuation will bring Hamas and terror organizations."

While Ze'ev was surprisingly removed from the Shas list, he notes he is still in close contact with all the Shas MKs - other than Deri.

He stated that he separates between personal and political connections; despite his great differences of opinion with Arab MKs Ahmed Tibi and Hanin Zoabi, "still there is a statement of peace. I respect every person as they are."

Ze'ev spoke out in favor of Eli Yishai's Yachad party, formed after Yishai broke off from Shas, and condemned the "struggle by Shas and Jewish Home against it, as if they are potential enemies of theirs."

"People who go to Yachad maybe were with Shas in the past, but today would not vote Shas, and the same with hardalnikim (religious Zionist haredim), these are voters who wouldn't vote Jewish Home, and likewise the Chabadnikim (Chabad followers)," he explained.

Watch Jews On Lower East Side Preparing For Pesach In April 1932

Thousands of Haman's Grandchildren will gather in Willaimsburg today to burn the Israeli Flag

So you read the megilla this morning and you read that we managed to hang Haman and his children....

Well, one of them must have gotten away ..... because ....
today at 3:30 PM .... in Williamsburg at Hewes Street corner Lee Avenue, thousands of his descendants, dressed like Chassidim, will publicly burn the Israeli Flag ....the flag that represents the Jewish people!

Netanyahu makes a Kiddush Hashem.... overwhelming praise .....

DIN: 
What a Kiddush Hashem... as opposed to the Romanian Hooligans protesting this speech in New York City, making a Chillul Hashem .... 
also couldn't help see many democrats continue sitting when Netanyahu mentioned Ellie Weisel who was  siting in the balcony... Pelosi marched out of the chambers, after the speech avoiding reporters ....

Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu  addressed the US Congress this morning, saying that the current deal being formulated by the P5+1 group of world powers and Tehran would inevitably lead to a nuclear Iran and war.

The US has said over the past year that no deal with Iran is better than a bad deal, Netanyahu told the assembled American lawmakers."Well this is a bad deal. A very bad deal." 

Netanyahu said that the alternative to this deal was not war, as some have posited, "but a better deal."

"The days of the Jewish people remaining passive in the face of genocidal enemies, those days are over! " Netanyahu said to rousing applause.

The Israeli leader said that the Western powers' emerging deal with Iran would all but guarantee that Tehran gets nuclear weapons.

Any deal would include concessions that would leave Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure, he said. "Not a single nuclear facility would be demolished," according to the terms of deal, Netanyahu added.

Their breakout time would be a year by US assessments and even shorter by Israeli assessments, he said.

He said that nuclear inspectors in North Korea had not been able to stop Pyongyang from getting nuclear weapons and they would not be able to stop Tehran either.

Netanyahu said that sanctions against Iran should not be lifted until Tehran stops aggression against its neighbors in the Middle East, stops supporting terrorism around the world and stops threatening to annihilate Israel, "the one and only Jewish state."

He recalled the story of Purim in which Persians tried to wipe out the Jews, saying that the people were saved by Esther speaking out.

Today, Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is trying to wipe out the Jews, he said. "He spews the worst kind of anti-Semitic hatred. He tweets that Israel must be destroyed."

He rejected Iran's claim that it opposes Israel only, and not Jews, by quoting Iranian ally, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah: "'If all Jews gather in Israel, it will save us the problem of chasing them around the world.'"

"We must all stand together to stop Iran's march of conquest subjugation and terror," Netanyahu said to applause.

He rejected the notion that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was a moderate, saying that the regime is as extremist as ever.

"The ideology of Iran's regime is deeply rooted in Islam and therefore will always be an enemy of the US. The fact that Iran and US have a common enemy in Islamic State doesn't make Iran a friend of America," he said.

"To defeat ISIS and let Iran get nuclear weapons would be to win the battle and lose the war," he said. "We can't let that happen.

Netanyahu said he regretted that some saw his visit to Washington as political. "That was never my intention," the prime minister said.

"I know that no matter what side of the aisle you sit, you stand with Israel," Netanyahu said to applause. 

He said that the US-Israel alliance must remain above politics. The prime minister said that he had called US President Barack Obama a number of times in Israel's hour of need, and he had obliged. He thanked the US president for all of the support he had provided Israel.

"This Capitol dome helped build our Iron Dome," Netanyahu said.

US President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, US Secretary of State John Kerry and several dozen Democratic members of Congress sat out the speech. Netanyahu was invited to address Congress by Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner and accepted the invitation without coordinating the move with the White House. The White House has called Netanyahu's move a breach of accepted protocol.

Obama said in an interview to Reuters on Monday that he thinks the timing of Netanyahu's address to Congress is a mistake.

"As a matter of policy, we think it's a mistake for the prime minister of any country to come to speak before Congress a few weeks before they're about to have an election. It makes it look like we are taking sides," Obama said.

Obama's National Security Adviser Susan Rice said at the AIPAC conference on Monday that Netanyahu's stance on Iran is not a viable negotiating position.

"We cannot let a totally unachievable ideal stand in the way of a good deal," Rice stated.

"I know that some of you will be urging Congress to insist that Iran forgo its domestic enrichment capacity entirely. But as desirable as that would be," she said to members of the pro-Israel lobby, "it is neither realistic nor achievable. Even our closest international partners in the P5+1 do not support denying Iran the ability ever to pursue peaceful nuclear energy – if that is our goal, our partners will abandon us."

"Simply put, that is not a viable negotiating position," she continued. "Nor is it even attainable. The plain fact is, no one can make Iran unlearn the scientific and nuclear expertise it already possesses."

Netanyahu Speaks and Satmar, J Street and Reform Liberal Jews Tremble

On the eve of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress the level of hysteria among American Jewish liberals has reached cascading proportions. 

From full-page advertisements in The New York Times to anguished columns in The Times of Israel expressions of outrage pour forth. They are furious lest an Israeli prime minister implicate them in such a heinous deed as warning against the imminent surrender of the Obama administration to Iranian nuclear ambitions.

All the usual suspects on the Jewish left chimed in. J Street released a petition with 20,000 signees protesting: “I’m a Jew. Bibi does NOT speak for me.” 

That self-identified “pro-Israel pro-peace” group also purchased a full-page advertisement in The New York Times warning that the Prime Minister’s speech would damage American-Israeli relations. 

Jewish Voice for Peace urged members of Congress to skip the speech, presumably lest they be contaminated by hearing something outside their comfort zone. Not to be outdone Tikkun declared: “No Mr. Netanyahu, we will not let you drag us into a proxy war for Israel against Iran.”

The following warning from similarly frightened American Jews resonates in memory: “Harm has been done to the morale and . . . to the sense of security of the American Jewish community through unwise and unwarranted statements and appeals which ignore the feelings and aspirations of American Jewry.” 

It might even include: “The State of Israel represents and speaks only on behalf of its own citizens and in no way presumes to represent or speak in the name of Jews who are citizens of any other country.” 

Ooops. Those were the words of American Jewish Committee president Jacob Blaustein, fifty-five years ago, in a letter to Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. The Israeli leader had the temerity to request assistance from the American government for the fledgling state and urge  American Jews to make aliya. In the old Yiddish expression: “plus ca change plus c’est la meme chose.”

Now it is Netanyahu’s turn to heighten the anxiety of anxious American Jews. 

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, criticized his plan to speak to Congress as “a bad idea” because it might make Israel a partisan issue in American politics. “That is something we in the Jewish community cannot afford,” he added. 

Prominent Jewish organization leaders chimed in. Anti-Defamation League director Abe Foxman labeled the controversy “a tragedy of unintended consequences.” Seymour Reich, former chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations lamented that Netanyahu was splitting Congress and dividing the American Jewish community.

Even former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, not otherwise noted for his pronouncements as a Jew, chimed in. He dutifully informed Israelis: “You should know that the new-found alliance between your Prime Minister and our Republican Party, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and some wealthy right-wing Jews here (such as billionaire Sheldon Adelson), is poisoning the relationship between Israel and the United States.” 

The shanda of speaking to Congress “foists your own domestic politics onto ours,” especially “the right-wing radicalism that has taken hold in Israel – a radicalism that rejects a ‘two-state solution’ and continues to build new settlements on the West Bank.”

Frustrated and infuriated American Jewish liberals, like their outraged conservative anti-Zionist predecessors, seem terrified at the prospect of an Israeli prime minister saying something to an American audience about protecting Jews. 

Dual loyalty always has been, and remains, the unspoken curse of Diaspora communities. American Jews – especially, these days, of a leftist persuasion – must beat a hasty retreat from Israel lest it sabotage their privileged American status and penchant for moral preening.

But Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel issued a bold challenge to the Netanyahu naysayers when he announced his intention to attend the Prime Minister’s Congressional warning about the horrific dangers of a nuclear Iran. 

In an ad placed in The New York Times by Orthodox rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Wiesel requested support “for keeping weapons from those who preach death to Israel and America.”

Who knows better than Elie Wiesel that one Holocaust is enough?

Jerold S. Auerbach is a frequent contributor to The Algemeiner.