Displaying posts published in

February 2012

PIOUS OF THE CARIBBEAN?: THE SYNAGOGUES IN THE SAND…

http://www.forward.com/articles/151799/#ixzz1ngXxclGY

By Julie Kay

For most people, a trip to the Caribbean is all about sandy beaches, crystal-clear water and relaxing in the moment. But for tourists with an interest in Jewish history, the Caribbean is also home to some of the oldest Jewish communities in North America, dating back to the 1600s.
Whether traveling alone or on one of several Jewish-heritage cruises, the old synagogues, cemeteries and even a Torah still in use since 1659 reveal a rich history of Jewish culture that took root here around the time of the Pilgrims.

Harry Ezratty, Baltimore lawyer, historian and former resident of Puerto Rico, wrote the book “500 Years in the Jewish Caribbean.” He said American Jews tend to focus on the history of Jews “who immigrated to New York in the late 19th century” and are surprised to learn that Jews were the earliest European settlers to the Caribbean.

ELECTIONS ARE COMING: ARIE FRIEDMAN FOR STATE SENATE IN ILLINOIS DISTRICT 29

http://www.friedmanforsenate.com/
Changing Springfield

Arie Friedman is running for State Senate to change the direction of our state government.

As a physician, Arie will provide much needed experience and knowledge regarding our state’s fastest growing expenditure: health care. There currently is not a single physician in the General Assembly; despite this, the legislature routinely makes far-reaching health care decisions.

As a small businessman, Arie also knows employers are having a tough time creating new jobs – a problem made worse by the higher taxes passed in January of 2011. Arie will vote to repeal those taxes.

And, as a father with children in public schools, Arie knows their futures should not be tied to union rules and a bureaucracy more interested in tenure and pensions than in students. Arie believes in real education reform.

http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109399419729&s=1738&

Friedman for State Senate

P.O. Box 831

Northbrook, IL 60065

PH: (847) 220-7337

FAX: (847) 793-7221

www.friedmanforsenate.com

ELECTIONS ARE COMING: JOSH FIRST FOR PENNSYLVANIA SENATE DISTRICT 15

http://joshfirst.com/

A NOTE FROM JOSH FIRST:
Less than a month ago, Pennsylvania’s state supreme court threw out the GOP redistricting plan, and I found myself back in the state senate district I had always wanted to run for. I am the perfect fit for this district.

Lacking time to prepare, a bunch of dedicated volunteers and I threw ourselves into Job #1, getting on the ballot, which we did with flying colors after two and a half weeks of walking door to door getting Republican signatures on our ballot petitions.

Now, less than a month later, we find ourselves in need of the most basic campaign materials: Yard signs and brochures.

Any donation you can make will take us far. You can donate online by using this link: https://secure.piryx.com/donate/CrfHnm3n/First-for-PA-Senate-Committee/ , or you can send a check to First for Senate PO Box 5128 Harrisburg, PA 17110.

Please consider donating generously. Thank you!

A Future for Britain : Free from Islamization: Jerry Gordon interviews British Freedom Party Chairman, Paul Weston ****

http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/108985/sec_id/108985

The United Kingdom, or as Daily Mail pundit, Melanie Phillips calls it, Londonistan, has been mired in massive demographic change and concomitant Islamization brought on by its recent “open door” immigration policy. This was graphically evident in the July 7, 2005 London underground and bus system attack by four British Muslim suicide bombers who took the lives of more than 52 innocent victims and injured over 700. It was also reflected in the condoning of the more than 85 Shariah courts by the UK legal system and controversial Church of England head, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. Deeply disturbing has been the de facto creation of what former Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali called “no-go areas” where native Britons are not welcome, especially if they happen to be homosexual or Jewish.

The current government coalition, led by Conservative PM David Cameron, officially admitted the failure of the long history of Labour and Conservative governments’ multi-cultural policies. In February 2011, Cameron criticized 30 years of failed multi-cultural policies that may have partially given rise to Muslim extremism. These policies have fostered massive immigration of Muslims who have rejected traditional British values of tolerance and fair dealing while placing an intolerable burden on the national health and welfare systems. During the past decade this has led to protests by groups such as the English Defense League, and most disquieting, the rise of racist, antisemitic leadership of the British National Party (BNP), founded in 1982 from what remained of the ‘whites only’ National Front.

THE AFGHAN DEBACLE: SRDJA TRIFKOVIC

http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/2012/02/29/the-afghan-debacle
The Afghan Debacle
The Obama administration’s strategy in Afghanistan is in tatters. This month’s violence, sparked off by the reported burning of Qurans at an American military base, has claimed at least thirty lives. Two of the dead were U.S. Army officers murdered at their post inside the Afghan Interior Ministry, supposedly one of the most secure locations in the country.

The killings prompted General John Allen, who commands U.S. and NATO forces, to pull his personnel from Afghan government buildings, while NATO advisers in Kabul have limited communication with Karzai’s ministries to telephone and e-mail.

The problem is not new. In May 2011 a U.S. Army study established that murders of Westerners by Afghan national security forces did not represent “rare and isolated events”: between July 2010 and May of last year, more than thirty NATO personnel were killed by Afghan soldiers or policemen. Even before the latest incident there had been little trust between U.S.-led coalition forces and their local Afghan “allies” in the elusive quest for peace and stability.

BRITISH FREEDOM PARTY CHAIRMAN PAUL WESTON: A WARNING TO AMERICA ****

http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/108922/sec_id/108922

A speech by Paul Weston
delivered on Feb 15, 2012 to a private group in Nashville, TN. on behalf of the British Freedom Party.

What I really want to talk about tonight is to warn America not to go down the same Islamic road that Europe finds itself on, particularly so Britain, which is almost on the point of no return – or perhaps no peaceful return. Samuel Huntingdon was not necessarily writing about Britain when he penned his prescient book “The Clash of Civilisations”, but one particular theme he raised very much applies to my poor old country where he refers to the dying of civilisations and the lack of concern amongst their native people, due to what he terms the “Illusion of Permanency.”

No one in Britain expects tomorrow to be very different from today. No one really expects things to be particularly different this time next year, or the year after that. People find it inconceivable that the future could possibly be radically different to the recent past, but certain things have happened in Britain over the last 50 years that will make the next 50 years a period of total and utter transformation.

GEOGE SOROS TELLS ‘PROGRESSIVES” THAT OBAMA MAY NOT BE THE BEST BET

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/17/george-soros-obama_n_785022.html

WASHINGTON — At a private meeting on Tuesday afternoon, George Soros, a longtime supporter of progressive causes, voiced blunt criticism of the Obama administration, going so far as to suggest that Democratic donors direct their support somewhere other than the president.

The Hungarian-American financier was speaking to a small side gathering of donors who had convened in Washington D.C. for the annual gathering of the Democracy Alliance — a formal community of well-funded, progressive-minded individuals and activists.

According to multiple sources with knowledge of his remarks, Soros told those in attendance that he is “used to fighting losing battles but doesn’t like to lose without fighting.”

“We have just lost this election, we need to draw a line,” he said, according to several Democratic sources. “And if this president can’t do what we need, it is time to start looking somewhere else.”

JERRY GORDON AND MIKE BATES: ISRAEL AND THE US FACE THE REALITIES OF THE ARAB SPRING AND NUCLEAR IRAN

http://www.newenglishreview.org/ Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu meets President Obama in Washington on March 5th for discussions. There is yet another emerging impasse on which option to pursue with a truculent nuclear Iran and concerns about the rise of an Islamist alliance in Syria should the brutal Assad regime be toppled. That Islamist alliance ringing Syria and supported […]

ELECTIONS ARE COMING! JOSH MANDEL FOR SENATE IN OHIO….SEE WHO IS OPPOSING HIM

http://www.timesofisrael.com/in-the-hot-seat/ ASHINGTON (JTA) — As the 2012 campaign heats up in Ohio, Republicans are pinning their hopes on a young Jewish military veteran to unseat Democratic incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown. Josh Mandel, a 34-year-old US Marine Corps veteran and the current state treasurer, has faced a number of challenges but he is doing well in […]

ABE GREENWALD: POP STAR STING STUNG BY PICTURE YUKKING IT UP WITH BASHAR-AL ASSAD….SEE NOTE PLEASE

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/02/27/sting-and-the-police-state/#.T06dckO_Xf4.email

Sting and the Police State
WELL DIDN’T MME. HILLARY SAY BASHAR WAS A REFORMER JUST ONE YEAR AGO?

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/143161

In terms of lifestyle, dictators and rock stars occupy the same stratum. Consider only a fraction of what they share: palace residences, obsessively broadcast concern for the poor, appearances before strange crowds who chant their names, flattery from identical media sycophants, protection from hired flunkies who allow their eccentricities full expression, an ever-ready foul word for Israel, and another for the United States. Experientially, rock stardom is dictatorship without death squads and the pretense of governance.

Perhaps that’s why newly released pictures of British rock star Sting laughing it up with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in 2008 seem to capture a moment of natural affinity. Who but a rock star understands the demands of the dictatorial daily grind? Viewing photos in the Daily Mail of the two happy men with glamorous wives in tow, it’s easy to imagine they’re trading stories of bumbling private-jet stewards or the headaches of polo-court installation or condemning rapacious capitalists (present company celebrated, of course) or whatever else the dictator-rock star class gets up to when not dictating or rock starring.

Sting’s second career is self-righteous pontification. He has irritated on the matters of trees, earthquakes, and the poor. He has served since 1981 as “ambassador” for Israel-bashing Amnesty International. He is the unparalleled rock-star activist self-parody. Which, of course, is why his flirtations with human-rights abusers are so delectable. Yes, flirtations—plural. Sting is one of those human-rights promoting singers who take big money to sing for human-rights abusers (while opposing the evil regime of George W. Bush, naturally.)