Ever since last fall’s news of the Stuxnet computer virus that allegedly threw Iran’s nuclear program into disarray, interest in the nuclear threat from that Islamist tyranny has dropped. But a recent report from the International Atomic Energy Agency—which has not exactly been alarmist in its attitude toward Iran—stated that Tehran has been working on construction of a triggering device whose only purpose would be to set off a nuclear weapon. It also reported that the Iranian program is recovering from Stuxnet.
This is bad news for those who hoped a computer worm would relieve the world from its obligation to do something about the impending catastrophe that a nuclear Iran would represent. The mild sanctions that the international community has imposed on Iran have made no impression on Tehran, while more draconian American sanctions on the Iranians have been widely evaded due to the generous granting of waivers by the Treasury Department.
Another IAEA report confirmed that the Syrian facility destroyed by an Israeli air raid in September 2007 was a nuclear reactor intended to make material for bombs. It’s a relief to know that decisive action ensured that the Assad regime didn’t gain nuclear weapons. There is no such assurance about Iran in the offing.
Scotching Jewish Books
The banning of books by Jewish authors was one of the early acts of the Nazi regime, foreshadowing the horrors to come. While one cannot compare the contemporary comeback of anti-Semitism in Europe with the Shoah, the decision of a Scottish municipality to ban books by Israeli authors is a haunting throwback. The West Dunbartonshire Council, which governs an area west of Glasgow, said no new books by Israelis would be allowed into public libraries. The Scots claim they are not anti-Semites, but are supporters of the Palestinians.
So supporters of Palestinians feel free to ban books written by Jews. It matters little what the West Dunbartonshire Council chooses to call this. We know what to call the West Dunbartonshire Council.
Chavez’s Protocols
In Venezuela, the increasingly dictatorial regime of Hugo Chavez has flirted with anti-Semitism for years, causing the Jewish community in that country to worry about its future.
The building that serves as the Jewish community center in Caracas has been trashed and attacked numerous times, and recently another building housing a synagogue was flooded with hostile squatters who were unquestionably given the green light to occupy its upper floors by the regime. Most disturbing was a government radio broadcast during which a positive review of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion was read on the air. The Protocols, a century-old hoax that purported to show a Jewish plot to control the world, is an evergreen of anti-Semitism. It was written by the Czarist secret police, has since been used both by Stalinist and Islamist regimes alike, and is now finding new utility as a tool for a Leftist populist like Chavez.
Straight out of the Nazi Playbook
Last month we reported that a petition had placed a measure on a November ballot that would ban circumcisions in San Francisco. New evidence has surfaced, revealing the malign intent behind the move. As part of the campaign, the author of the petition has written an Internet comic book in which an Aryan-looking “Foreskin Man” battles an evil “Mohel Monster.” The latter, a sinister-looking Orthodox Jewish villain who lusts after the flesh of innocent babies, is straight out of the Nazi propaganda playbook.
The anti-Semitic nature of the anti-circumcision effort is no longer debatable.
The Least of His Problems
Back in April, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, told the French newspaper Libération that opponents would use his Jewish parentage to stop him from becoming president of France. It turns out that was the least of his problems. An interesting aspect of the deluge of coverage of the rape charge against Strauss-Kahn is that his Jewishness has barely rated a mention. Given the way hatred for Israel has helped incite higher levels of anti-Semitism (in the same interview, he disavowed a statement he made in 2003 expressing his desire to help Israel every day), Strauss-Kahn’s travails might have become a Jewish issue in Europe. That they haven’t is the only praiseworthy aspect of this disgusting episode.
Israel’s Best Ally?
For four decades it has been a truism that Israel’s only ally is the United States. That is still true, in that U.S. aid and arms sales are the foundation of the defense of the Jewish state. But when it comes to international diplomacy, Canada is gaining on the U.S. At the recent G-8 Summit, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper vetoed the inclusion of the term “1967 borders” in the summit’s internal communiqué, since the endorsement of President Obama’s formulation of terms for Middle East peace talks was not accompanied by any demands on the Palestinians. Prior to Harper’s election in 2006, Canada was not always sympathetic to Israel on the international stage. It is heartening to see a change for the better in Ottawa.
A Rabbi Both Conservative and Gay
Conservative Judaism, which still holds itself out as the sensible and traditional middle ground between Orthodoxy and Reform, is finding itself a bit closer to the latter these days. This past month, the Jewish Theological Seminary ordained its first openly gay rabbi. Rachel Isaacs, 28, began her studies at the Reform movement’s seminary but switched to JTS because she wished to lead a more observant community. Her ordination was made possible by the Conservative Law Committee’s 2006 decision to accept gay rabbis. While this brings the Conservatives closer to other non-Orthodox denominations, the movement’s Israeli seminary still opposes gay clergy, as do Orthodox seminaries.
Anne Frank, He’s Not
The promiscuous use of Holocaust analogies is one of the banes of public discourse. The trend, in which expressions of intolerance are deemed analogous to the murder of six million Jews, is in part the result of Jewish efforts to universalize a Jewish tragedy to make it more accessible to non-Jews. The Diary of Anne Frank was itself the subject of a long-running fight over the efforts of some, including Anne’s father Otto, to make her a universal heroine rather than a Jewish one. So it is fitting that the most inappropriate Holocaust analogy in recent memory would involve Anne Frank. In a recent issue of Sports Illustrated, former football star Tiki Barber said the time he spent hiding from the press in his Jewish agent’s attic after he left his pregnant wife for a younger woman was “reverse Anne Frank thing.” Barber was condemned, rightly, by the Anti-Defamation League. But his egregious remark was largely the end result of decades of Holocaust universalizing. If any tragedy can be the Holocaust, why can’t a scorned adulterous athlete be another Anne Frank?
