Mission Statement
Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin is an independent group of academic, religious and political leaders, dedicated to promoting consideration of Gov. Sarah Palin’s political positions in the wider American Jewish community.
We find Ms. Palin’s policy positions on Israel, Iran, national security, fiscal responsibility, energy, and social policy – as well as her record on these issues as governor of Alaska and candidate for Vice President of the United States – to be serious, substantive and politically mainstream.
Though not at present a candidate for any political office, Gov. Palin’s track record in public office has been exemplary, and has withstood the test of the most demanding scrutiny of investigative news media. Gov. Palin’s ongoing contribution to the public discourse in America is welcome.
Via our friends at SarahPalinInformation –
U.S. Army chaplain Capt. DALE GOETZ, K.I.A.
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Eric Marrapodi
Paul Vercammen
CNN
For the first time in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a U.S. military chaplain has been killed in action.
On August 30, U.S. Army chaplain Capt. Dale Goetz, 43, was killed in the Arghandab River Valley in Afghanistan, when the convoy he was traveling in was struck by an improvised explosive device, according to the Department of Defense. Four other soldiers also were killed in the attack.
Goetz was serving as the battalion chaplain for the 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment.
Friends and co-workers said Goetz was a dedicated father and chaplain. He leaves behind a wife and three sons.
The Army’s chief of chaplains, Maj. Gen. Douglas Carver, said in a statement, “Dale was a selfless servant of God, a devoted husband and father, a strong American patriot, and a compassionate spiritual leader whose love for Soldiers was only surpassed by his firm commitment to living his calling as a United States Army Chaplain.”
Senior Pastor Stuart Schwenke of First Baptist Church in Oelwein, Iowa, attended seminary with Goetz. Schwenke said they talked at least once a month and he had talked to Goetz just days before he deployed in July.
“He was not a drill sergeant,” Schwenke said. “He did not jab a finger in your chest. He put a hand on your shoulder and got you to understand what was going on in your life. Dale helped you to get things right with God and other people.”
Goetz’s tour in Afghanistan was his second deployment. He joined the Army in January 2000, and in 2004 he spent a year serving in Iraq.
Bolton on WND Radio: ‘No substantive progress’ at M.E. summit
Former UN ambassador John Bolton talks about why today’s promise of future direct talks between Israel and Palestinians is unlikely to succeed.
Video – Aftermath of Tuesday’s terrorist shooting in Hevron
Israel’s ‘peace partner:’ Yes, we’re doing the shooting
At the White House summit (l-r) – ABBAS, NETANYAHU, ABDULLAH AND MUBARAK
Jews targeted in 2nd attack in 2 days
as Obama kicks off Mideast summit
Aaron Klein
WorldNetDaily
JERUSALEM – A cell of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the so-called military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah organization, called WND today to claim responsibility for a shooting attack that targeted two Israeli civilians.
The two Israelis, both reportedly in their 30s, were wounded, one seriously, in the drive-by shooting in the West Bank, one day after a similar attack left four Israeli civilians dead.
The attacks come on the eve of a Washington summit organized by President Obama aimed at reopening direct negotiations between Israel and the PA to create a Palestinian state. The summit kicked off today.
A Fatah cell, calling itself the Al-Namir cells of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, claimed in a statement issued to WND that today’s shooting was “part of a series of more attacks to come.”
High-placed sources in both Fatah and the Al Aqsa Martrys Brigades said the cell involved in today’s attack was a renegade Fatah cell that opposed the opening of negotiations with Israel. The sources claimed the cell was not coordinating with the political leadership of Fatah or of the PA.
The sources said today’s attack was planned and carried out by renegade Fatah fighters along with Hamas and the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad.
An official in Fatah’s Preventative Security Services in Ramallah confirmed to WND his security forces are looking for two Fatah gunmen as well as Hamas members suspected of carrying out today’s attack.
Israeli security officials, meanwhile, told WND they are also suspecting breakaway Fatah members along with Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
A growing movement among Jews strives to assert sovereignty over the Jerusalem Temple Mount
Kamoun Ben-Shimon
Jerusalem Report
ON THE EVE OF THE 17TH of the Hebrew month of Tammuz (June 29), a fast that commemorates the beginning of the destruction of the Jerusalem and the Second Temple by the Romans, 22 school children, accompanied by their teachers and rabbis, ascended the Temple Mount, referred to by Muslims as the al-Haram ash-Sharif, in Jerusalem’s Old City.
The visit was a reward for 11-year-olds from the Hebron Talmud Torah, in the Jewish settlement of Hebron, who had faithfully attended their morning prayers throughout the school year. Excited and moved, the boys, dressed in their finest Sabbath clothes, walked along the site reverently.
“Considering the success,” says the principal of the school, “we will probably, with God’s help, make more visits as of next year.”
Although the visit attracted almost no public attention, it marked an important first in the difficult history of the Temple Mount: this was the first time since 1967, when Israel captured the Temple Mount from the Jordanians during the Six Day War, that students from a recognized school were ever brought to the site and permitted to visit the Mount.
And the fact that the principal confidently intends to continue these visits points to a littleobserved but growing trend among religious Jews in Israel. Based on political and religious developments, Jewish religious and political leaders are increasingly demanding the right to visit and pray on the Temple Mount, thus threatening to throw a spark into the already-combustible situation in Jerusalem.
The Temple Mount is a small, trapezoid-like shaped hill that slopes slopes from north to south, above the Kidron Valley to the east. Jews consider this their most holy site, the location of [both the First and] the Second Temple, which was destroyed by Titus in 70 CE. According to Jewish tradition, this is where the third Temple will be rebuilt when the Messiah arrives.
The al-Haram ash-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) consists of nearly 40 acres of religious structures and gardens, including the Aqsa Mosque in the south and the Dome of the Rock in the center. Muslims consider this to be the place from where Muhammad made his journey from Jerusalem to heaven. It is their third most holy site. According to evangelical Christians, the Temple Mount must be rebuilt in order for Jesus to return and bring on the End of Days.
Jews have been prohibited from performing any religious ritual on the Temple Mount ever since Moshe Dayan, defense minister during the Six Day War, fearing that conflict over the site would highlight the religious aspects of the Israel-Arab conflict, handed over the management of the site to the Muslim waqf (the Islamic council, which, according to historians, has managed the site continuously since the Muslim reconquest of Jerusalem in the 12th century).
According to restrictions imposed by the waqf, Jews are allowed to ascend the mount, but not to pray or to participate in any religious ritual.
‘The blast of the shofar is a call to action’
Jewish New Year’s message
from Rabbi Pesach Lerner,
National Council of
Young Israel
(representing more than 135 centrist Orthodox synagogues in the United States)
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
As we welcome the new year, with all its hope and opportunity, we must demand change.
We must call upon Abbas and the Palestinian Authority to disavow the relentless violence that has claimed thousands of innocent Israeli lives. We must insist that the Palestinian leadership denounce calls for Israel’s destruction and recognize Israel’s fundamental right to exist as a sovereign Jewish nation.
Maimonides, the great Torah scholar, wrote the following in his compilation of laws relating to teshuvah [repentance]: “Although the sounding of the shofar [ram's horn] on Rosh Hashanah is a Divine decree, nevertheless we can discern a purpose in doing so. It is as if it tells us: ‘Sleepers! Arise from your slumber, and those who are dozing, awake from your lethargy. Review your actions, repent your sins and remember your Creator!’ ”
The blast of the shofar is a call to action intended to rouse our souls and inspire us to do what is right.
Now is the time for American Jewry to stand up and proudly proclaim that the land of Israel belongs to the Jewish nation. We must insist that Israel’s security is not negotiable. We must continue to demand the release of Gilad Shalit, the captive Israeli soldier who languishes in Gaza. We must demand the cessation of anti-Israel rhetoric and education in mosques and in schools.
American Jews must stand up and be heard on the issues that are vital to the security and survival of the Jewish people and the land of Israel.
For the Jewish new year, one of our favorite charities
There are close to 50,000 abortions in Israel
every year.
Many of these abortions could be prevented, if only the woman was provided some basic social and financial support.
Last year alone, Efrat saved the lives of 3,027 Jewish children in Israel.
If we had twice our budget we could have saved twice as many children.
Politico – ‘Secret showdown set for Islamic charity’
One of the nation’s most prominent Muslim organizations, the North American Islamic Trust, is set to face off with the U.S. government in a federal appeals court Monday.
The reputation of the group, known as NAIT, may well hang in the balance, but don’t bother trying to attend the court session this afternoon before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. In a highly unusual move, judges have — without explanation — ordered the arguments closed to the public. The jurists have also put under wraps all of the briefs the two sides filed in the appeal.
The legal battle stems from federal prosecutors’ decision in 2007 to place NAIT and two other prominent Islamic organizations, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Islamic Society of North America, on a publicly filed list of about 300 unindicted co-conspirators in a Dallas trial of a defunct Islamic charity accused of being a front for Hamas, the Holy Land Foundation.
NAIT, CAIR and ISNA rejected any suggestion of ties to terrorism or other crimes and denounced the list as a smear tactic. In public legal briefs filed with the district court, they also contended that the public designation violated Justice Department regulations.
Prosecutors responded in kind, arguing that the designations were justified because of evidence showing ties between the Islamic groups and an international political movement known as the Muslim Brotherhood, which gave rise to Hamas. The American groups and some individuals on the list have suggested that the evidence of such ties is flimsy and dates to an era before Hamas was first designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. in 1995. NAIT, CAIR and ISNA also noted that since they were never charged with any crime, they had no obvious way to clear their names.
The groups’ request to have the co-conspirator list formally renounced by the district court seems to have languished through a trial and retrial for the Holy Land Foundation and five of its top officers. However, after they were convicted on terrorism-support charges in 2008, Judge Jorge Solis issued a secret ruling in July 2009 on the groups’ demands to strike the Justice Department filing.
I reported exclusively on this blog last year that Solis had, to some degree, split the baby in his decision. “The ruling was ambiguous,” a knowledgeable source told me. “The judge acknowledged the way the whole thing was handled by the prosecutors was not appropriate. On the other hand, he did not really go ahead and reverse the decisions.”
Of the three major Islamic groups, NAIT, which holds title to the land used by a series of American mosques, is the only one that appealed Solis’s ruling.
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Obama ‘blackmailing’ Israel amid U.S. summit?
PA Chairman MAHMOUD ABBAS
Threat would create Palestinian country outside of coordination with Jewish state
Aaron Klein
WorldNetDaily
JERUSALEM – If Israel and the Palestinian Authority fail to reach an agreement within the next year, the Obama administration could support a United Nations resolution that would unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state, senior PA officials told WND.
The officials were speaking ahead of a major summit that starts today in Washington to launch direct talks between Israel and the PA. The foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan will also take part in the summit.
Sources in both the PA and Israel told WND the Obama administration did not impose any preconditions for the summit, a move that is somewhat out of character for the U.S. president. It was Obama who urged Israel to halt all Jewish construction in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem as a precondition for indirect negotiations last November.
Under intense pressure, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu froze Jewish West Bank construction for 10 months, a moratorium set to expire at the end of September.
PA officials told WND they received an American pledge against any new Jewish construction into the foreseeable future in the West Bank or eastern sections of Jerusalem, excluding what are known as the three main settlement blocs – Gush Etzion, Maale Adumin and Ariel.
The PA officials said the U.S. has been negotiating the borders of a future Palestinian state that would see Israel eventually withdraw from most of the West Bank and some areas of eastern Jerusalem with the exception of the three blocs.
While the PA does not believe it will see an actual Palestinian state within a year, it expects in that time it will take over many more neighborhoods in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem that are normally controlled on the ground by Israel.
The PA said the expectation is based on pledges by the Obama administration.
Still, both Israeli leaders and PA officials told WND that following today’s summit they do not expect any major momentum toward a future Palestinian state until after November’s midterm elections.
