JustASC

Helpful resource: The Simon Wiesenthal Center posts the candidates’ answers to their questions on Israel, terrorism and the economy.

A SWC news release summarizes:

All three candidates reaffirmed their commitment to a safe secure Israel and praised the Jewish state as a natural ally to the U.S. They also agreed that nurturing a moderate and willing Palestinian partner is the best way to create the two-state solution and to bring a lasting peace to the region.

WQXR, the classical station of the New York Times, rejects a paid commentary on Sderot by American Jewish Committee’s David Harris.

Pathetic explanation by Tom Bartunek, president of New York Times Radio and general manager of WQXR:

“In my judgement several elements of this spot are outside our bounds of acceptability. First, the opening line- `Imagine you had fifteen seconds to find shelter from an oncoming missile’-does not make clear that the potential target of the missile is not our listening area, and as a consequence, runs the risk of raising anxiety in a misleading way. Second, the description of the missiles as arriving `day or night’ and `daily’ is also subject to challenge as being misleading, at least to the degree that reasonable people might be troubled by the absence of any acknowledgement of reciprocal Israeli military actions. Finally, in my judgement the `countdown’ device and the general tone of the message do not meet our guidelines for decorum.”

Harris nails the illogic:

Stunning, above all, is the reference to “the absence of any acknowledgement of reciprocal Israeli military actions.”

In other words, according to Bartunek’s logic, the only way to broadcast the plight of Sderot’s residents over the airwaves is to equate Israel’s right of self-defense with Hamas’s and Islamic Jihad’s right to strike Israel at will.

This week in the New Jersey Jewish News:

I want to know: Am I man enough for synagogue?

State leaders applaud Congressional bill recognizing the rights of Jewish refugees from Arab countries.

Soccer moms, Reform Jews, Chabadniks, Jewish mothers, teenagers, and yoga instructors get the once-over in a new novel by Baristanet founder Debra Galant.

Rabbi Alan Brill sees promise in Muslim-Jewish dialogue:

American Jews who fail to see an immediate purpose to any interfaith encounter with Islam must remember that dialogue is a long-term process. They should also know that extremists on either side are not part of dialogue; rather, dialogue aims to remove the ground from beneath extremists.