US Jews 'angered' by Olmert
PM's comments on Iraq war seen as misguided support for Bush; Diaspora press
Leaders of the American Jewish community expressed anger at Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, following his support for President Bush's Iraq war, The Jewish Week of New York reported.
"Six days after voters resoundingly rejected the Bush administration's Iraq policies, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, speaking at the White House, just as resoundingly endorsed the war," The Jewish Week said.
"A wide range of Jewish leaders anxiously dismissed Olmert's words praising the administration for bringing 'stability' to Iraq as little more than an attempt to buck up a president distraught by last week's election results and the continuing chaos in Iraq," the report added.
According to the Jewish Week, Olmert told Bush: "We in the Middle East have followed the American policy in Iraq for a long time, and we are very much impressed and encouraged by the stability which the great operation of America in Iraq brought to the Middle East. We pray and hope that this policy will be fully successful so that this stability which was created for all the moderate countries in the Middle East will continue."
The comments were blasted by American Jewish leaders and Israeli analysts, who "questioned Olmert's grasp of regional security issues."
Meanwhile, Los Angeles' Jewish Journal reported that " California's Jewish voters upheld their liberal reputation in the Nov. 7 election, despite a strong effort by the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) to focus on the Bush administration's pro-Israel record. "
"While Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger won re-election by nearly 55 percent of the popular vote, 52 percent of the Jewish ballots went to his Democratic opponent Phil Angelides, according to Los Angeles Times polling director Susan Pinkus," the Jewish Journal said.
London: Bomb-making equipment found near synagogue
Britain's Totally Jewish news site, the online version of London Jewish News, reported that "police in South London have launched an investigation after bomb-making equipment was discovered in woodland close to Croydon & District Federation Synagogue."
"There was a threat to Croydon Synagogue, involving the possibility of petrol bombs or similar devices," the Community Security Trust, a Jewish security organization, told Totally Jewish. The report added that "the revelation came less than a week after the outside walls of South London Liberal Synagogue in Streatham were defaced with bloody images of Palestinian casualties of an IDF missile attack."
Totally Jewish added that the find was made during a BBC investigation into radical UK Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir.
"The incident came on the 68th anniversary of Kristallnacht," Totally Jewish noted.
The problem with Borat
Australia Jewish News' Chemi Shalev outlined his issues over anti-Semitic Kazakh star Borat (played by Jewish comedian Sascha Baron Cohen) this week.
"A fter seeing the film, a sense of discomfort lingers, as the New York-based Anti-Defamation League explained in its press statement: 'The audience may not always be sophisticated enough to get the joke, and some may even find it reinforcing their bigotry,'" Shalev said.
"Thus, the film might actually legitimise anti-Jewish "jokes" that are far less benign than those presented by Borat's Jewish creator, Sacha Baron Cohen. If a Jew can make jokes about Jews, your garden-variety anti-Semite may figure, why can't I?" he asked.
