February 19, 2013

By Ted Belman

The Holocaust didn’t occur because of Hitler but because of the Church. Hitler merely built upon the policies of the Church and drove them to their logical conclusion.

Of course I am familiar the idea that but for Christianity, the holocaust wouldn’t have happened but wasn’t fully aware of the debt owed by Hitler to precedents set by the Church or the details of his policies, including the final solution.

R. Hilberg’s classic The Destruction of European Jews provides the link. Hilberg begins his introduction with these words:

The German destruction of the European Jews was a tour de force; the Jewish collapse under the German assault was a manifestation of failure. Both of these phenomena were the final product of an earlier age.

Anti-Jewish policies and anti-Jewish actions did not have their beginning in 1933. For many centuries, and in many countries, the Jews have been victims of destructive action. What was the object of these activities? What were the aims of those who persisted in anti-Jewish deeds? Throughout Western history, three consecutive policies have been applied against Jewry in its dispersion.

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I remember reading about this at the time of disengagement. Gaza was only stage one of the disengagement. Sharon had been brutalized by the Roadmap which was forced upon him. He understood that Israel had to act unilaterally and not simply wait for the pressure. Thus he concocted the disengagement. Ted Belman

Prime minister was drafting plan for a unilateral pullout when he fell ill, says his former adviser Rafi Eitan, and Netanyahu should tell Obama he’s ready for similar ‘mosaic separation’

By ELHANAN MILLER, TOI

US President Barack Obama is due to arrive in Israel for his first presidential visit in March, and speculation abounds surrounding the true intent of his trip. Rafi Eitan, a former high-ranking Mossad official and government minister under Ehud Olmert — banned from the US since the capture of his most famous agent, Jonathan Pollard — says Netanyahu should await the president with a diplomatic proposal of his own: unilateral disengagement from the West Bank.
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By Ted Belman

Apparently, according to TOI, Livni is ready to join the coalition in which she will be the Justice Minister and will be on the negotiating team for peace. Elsewhere I have read that Netanyahu intends keeping her on a short tether in this role. As Justice Minister it will be crucial whether she accepts the Levy report. Did Bibi put any constraints on her in this regard or other sensitive legal issues?

But of greater interest,

Meanwhile, United Torah Judaism officials have begun compiling a document of principles outlining the political concessions the party is willing to make in coalition talks, Maariv reported Tuesday.
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By GIONNI QUER, JPOST

On November 19, the UN Security Council voted on a resolution against Israel for the government’s decision to build in the settlements and east Jerusalem. The resolution was vetoed by the US, but European members of the Security Council, including France, the UK, Germany and Portugal, together with India and South Africa, adopted a joint declaration of condemnation for the building plan approved by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Catherine Ashton, head of EU diplomacy, also condemned the plan to build in the E1 zone, between northeast Jerusalem and west Ma’aleh Adumim.

These condemnations are based on two principles: settlements as an obstacle to peace per se, and the presence of settlements as an obstacle to the territorial contiguity of a potential Palestinian state. Regarding the first principle, the main counter argument focuses on the Palestinian will to negotiate borders.
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