Hundreds of World Likud Members from the center and North Israel attended a gathering in Haifa aimed to garner support for the Likud party.  World Likud Chairman, MK Danny Danon reinforced the importance of remaining a strong united party and true to our Zionist ideology.  Danon spoke about his latest proposed legislations including social justice, women’s rights and global anti-Semitism, and many other important issues relating to the strengthening and productiveness of Israel both internally and internationally.  Also in attendance were World Likud Turkey Chairman Moris Levi as well as mayors   and deputy mayors from cities in the North.

When and how did you start your activity in the Jewish Community?

At first, when I was still attending the Jewish School in Rome, later on when I was Hanich and then Madrih in the Benè Akivà. In 1988 I became president of the Cultural Movement of the Jewish Students as it was necessary to do Hasbarah for Israel in schools and public Universities.  In 1993, for the first time I was elected Councillor of the Rome Jewish Community with a list called “For Israel” founded by me and from 1997 to 2008 I was Vice President of the Community. In that year I was elected President for two consecutive terms.  All was on the wake of the commitment to support Israel.

What was the event that affected you most?

Certainly it was the 9^th of October 1982 attack on Rome Synagogue, when the child Stefano Gaj Tachè was murdered by a Palestinian commando and my father Emanuel was seriously injured by fragmentation bombs.  He remained between life and death for three months and underwent several surgical interventions. It was the year in which I was supposed to spend the year of Achsharah with the B. A. and maybe making Aliyah. Instead I remained in Rome to help my parents in the work but I promised myself that I would achieve my “Aliyah” in Italy getting involved with Hasbarah, devoting myself every day to Israel and to my Community.

Another event was the first Gulf War and the various Demonstrations among which one with 2000 Israeli flags in January 1991 in Saint Peter Square.  However, the event of which I am most proud was the siege to the Rome Tribunal Palace following the infamous absolution of the nazi criminal Erik Priebke.  It was the afternoon and then the night between the 1^st and 2^nd of August. My friends and I physically prevented the nazi criminal to exit the Law Courts and negotiated with all the institutional authorities until the arrival – demanded by me – of the then Minister of Justice Mr Giovanni Maria Flick. In that hot August night we obtained his re-arrest. After a few months the infamous no-guilty verdict  was cancelled and after a second trial he was sentenced to life imprisonment for “crimes against humanity”.  Justice was carried out and in my and our small way from Rome we had avenged the victims of Nazism. One of the last opportunities of my generation.  It was a fact that allowed me to dedicate that victory to my grandparents killed at Auschwitz.

Do you think the relations between Israel and the Diaspora have changed in the last few years?

Unfortunately they have. Indeed, the fault is to be recognized on both sides. The true and genuine zionist ideals have been lost. The official representatives of the State of Israel in too many cases behave as simple bureaucrats and don’t put any longer their hearts into it. On our part as Jews of the Golah we lack that zionist education thanks to which Israel is Israel irrespective to who is at her government. That spirit is missing that made the Jews who survived the Shoah cry at the miracle, by which for the first time in our generation we had our own State that made us no more feel like “guests”.  We should both feel the humility to understand how to retrieve that spirit which was of the founding fathers of the State of Israel. Is a scandal to witness Sochnut officials discourage people to make Aliyah. We hope that an inquest will be open on that affair which will put a stop to that shame.

How do you envisage the Jewish (or Italian) Diaspora in the next years?

If  the peculiarity of Italian Judaism, and in particular of the Roman one, is that it has been a continuous presence from over 2200 years, I think that today we are going through an historical phase by which many families are emigrating from Italy particularly to Israel.  For many Jewish Community presidents this would have caused alarm. On the contrary I think that this is our biggest success.  Making Israel grow thanks to Aliyot is the only guarantee of survival for the Jewish people. It suffices to consider how Italian Judaism shrunk to practically insignificant numbers of which 85% of Jews live in Rome and Milan and the rest in other 19 Communities where only two, Florence and Turin hardly reach the 1000 units and the others have a number of Jews between 20 and 400. A demographic disaster, generated by the Shoah and above all by the inexorable assimilation. To this we have to add the ever overbearing weight of Islamic immigration that, besides being in some cases a source of empathy with and recruitment of terrorist Islamic fundamentalists, especially with their right to vote, will be the beginning of the end of the respect that today Italian Jews enjoy in the Country and in many cases, of the citizenry sympathy towards Israel.

What is the state of relations between Italy and Israel today?

Very good. They were never as good as today and this was demonstrated first by Foreign Secretary Frattini last September at the United Nations where he mediated to prevent a vote of recognition of the State of Palestine, and then by the new Minister Terzi whose first words were spent to highlight the Iranian nuclear danger and in favor of hardening United Nations sanctions.  A sympathy that we find, in all truth, also in good part of the political spectrum which represented the opposition to Berlusconi’s government.

What is for you Judaism? to be a Jew?

Judaism is Torah and Mitzvot, without which the essence itself of Judaism is lost. It is however also true that not all Jews observe the Mitzvot and for this reason what keep us united is not only our common past history but is what unites us today and will keep us united in the future. And this present and future for me is Israel.
To conclude: A wish for the State of Israel from the President of the most ancient Jewish Community of the Diaspora

A wish NOT commonly expected.  That Israel does return to speak with one voice only.  It is frustrating for us Jews of the Golà trying to show the genuine face of Israel, her justice and humanity, her ethics.  Above all, her right to defend herself from terrorism and the right to live also in the settlements side by side with Arab neighbors without having to sleep with the nightmare that massacred the Fogel family at Itamar. But then we end up being contradicted by the usual idealistic Israeli pacifists who, certainly in good faith and using the language of the legally constituted state and democracy, become accomplices of and the best living tribute to our enemies.  In particular they turn into a testimony for the friends of our enemies that then use these “good Jews” against the “evil Jews” who are in essence Israel’s great majority.

In conclusion, since we talk to a Likud newsletter, we cannot forget one of the heroes of Israel and one of her Founding Fathers, Menachem Begin z.l.. He who was the first Israeli government Minister to welcome an Arab leader, Sadat, in Yerushalaim, and then conclude in a short time the first Peace Treaty with a nation that only a short time before was an enemy.  Israel still needs such heroes and fighters who would defend her even with their teeth if she was attacked but that could lead all of us on the road to Peace when it would be guaranteed to every Jew in Israel and outside Israel not only to live this Peace, but simply to live!!!

Translated by Enzo Nahum

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The State of Israel has always prided itself on being not only a home to its native citizens but a haven for Jews from across the globe. For years the Ministry of Immigration Absorption has successfully focused on attracting Jews from around the world to make aliyah and reconnect with their homeland. This past year alone, more than 19,000 Jewish people chose to leave their countries of residence to start life anew in the Jewish state.

With so much effort spent on welcoming Jews from abroad, the ministry runs the risk of losing sight of another pressing concern: the deflating number of our own citizens.

Despite Israel’s ever-growing economy, some of our citizens choose to leave Israel in search of a more prosperous future. While they more often than not retain their Israeli identities by living in areas populated by other sabras, these mini-Israel communities abroad can never really live up to the real thing.

In an effort to remind our Israeli emigrants of the unique qualities of their homeland, the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption launched a series of television and billboard ads. Though controversial in nature, the ads were meant to remind Israeli expatriates that no matter where they currently reside, there’s no place like home.

Some American Jews were offended by the ads. Admittedly, like any successful campaign, the commercials were intended to get people talking; however, they certainly were not meant to offend.

Israeli and American Jews have shared an extremely tight relationship that is not to be taken for granted. Legions of Zionist supporters abroad have ensured Israel’s continued survival, and their tireless support has helped many an Israeli sleep easier.

Having spent some time working in the United States as a shaliach, an emissary, for the Jewish Agency in Miami, I have come to know the unique challenges facing American Jewry. Living as an integrated part of American society while fighting the effects of assimilations is arguably the most difficult task with which Jewish communities outside of Israel must cope.

While North American Jews have grown accustomed to weathering these challenges and working hard to maintain their unique identities, many Israeli emigrants have never had to cope with these added social pressures.

Though I can readily see why some Jews living abroad would be uneasy with advertisements whose subtext may seem to suggest that it is more difficult to maintain a Jewish identity outside of the State of Israel, it is essential to note that the intention of this campaign was not to pass judgment on our American brothers and sisters.

Sensitivities aside, the fact is that each year thousands of well-trained, highly skilled Israeli professionals are leaving the country to find employment elsewhere. These expatriates represent an invaluable human resource for our country, and the job of the Israeli government is to do whatever possible to direct them back to their home.

While the ads caused a huge stir in Jewish communities, the initiative was far from an unprecedented approach. Countless nations have created government programs aimed at reversing the effects of brain drain.

Israel will always be a homeland of the Jewish people. That being said, not every domestic policy pioneered by Israel’s government is necessarily aimed at the Jewish Diaspora.

With Israeli and Jewish culture being so closely intertwined, the truth is that the Israeli national character, including the Hebrew language, civic holidays and remembering our fallen heroes, is by no means exclusive to residents. American Jews and Jews from all across the Diaspora are always encouraged to embrace Israeli customs and pass them on to their children.

However, there are certain trappings of Israeli culture that cannot be emulated in America, such as bustling streets freezing completely in time while pedestrians and drivers commemorate our war dead, or sufganiyot and latkes lining the windows of shops rather than gingerbread. These are the charms that our government hopes to portray to woo our talented expatriates back home.

To ensure that we do not find ourselves in this situation again, my committee has recommended to all the relevant agencies and organizations that a higher level of coordination be implemented. This means that Israeli ministries such as the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Absorption, the Ministry of Information and Diaspora Affairs and the Foreign Ministry must coordinate before setting out on such an ambitious campaign.

We as Israelis also must be much more sensitive to our brethren in the Jewish communities around the world. A higher level of consultation with them probably would have enabled us to avoid this whole situation.

Admittedly, for all the celebrated charms of the Israeli character, subtlety is not among our strongest attributes. This is something I am confident that American Jewry can appreciate and recognize the intention and reasoning behind this campaign. Israelis are a passionate and honest people who say what we feel, and believe in what we say. It is an aspect of our character that has allowed us to survive and thrive.

Through mutual respect and admiration I am sure that our two communities will move beyond this incident and continue to focus on the important issues that are truly important to us all.

(Danny Danon is the deputy speaker of the Knesset and chairman of its Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs. He also is the chairman of World Likud.)

jta.org

Hundreds of World Likud Members attended the Hanukkah Toast held in Netanya. The event was highlighted by the various speakers including Yaakov Haguel, World Zionist Organization’s Head of Department for Activity in Israel and Countering Anti-Semitism, and World Likud Chairman MK Danny Danon, who emphasized the significance of national loyalty as well as raising international support for Israel.

Danon spoke about the importance strengthening Likud ideology and maintaining a strong voice as part of empowering Israel. He mentioned that as part of his international advocacy activities has was the first Israeli Knesset representative to meet with the newly created South Sudanese President and managed to garner further support for Israel.

Danon also announced his plans to run for President of the Likud Central Committee.

A caucus to battle international anti-Semitism was founded in the Knesset this week by MK Danny Danon (Likud) and activist Calev Myers.

“Today, anti-Semitism disguises itself as anti-Israel and denying Zionism, and we must put an end to it,” Myers, founder of the humanitarian group Jerusalem Institute for Justice, said.

“Hatred of Israel has become common in the world,” Danon told the group. “We have formed this caucus so that, together with our Christian friends, we can fight this phenomenon.”

Republican South Carolina State Sen. Alan Clemmons, who authored the “South Carolina Stands with Israel Resolution,” along with leaders of Christian-Zionist organizations gathered in the Knesset for the caucus’ opening ceremony.

David Parsons, head of media for the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem echoed Myers’ statement, saying that “anti-Israel and anti-Semitism is the same thing.”

“Unlike some Christians have in the past, we have decided not to stand silent and fight,” he said.

The caucus is in the process of joining the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism, which is led by Public Diplomacy Minister Yuli Edelstein, along with parliamentarians from the US, Great Britain, Canada, Germany and Italy.

In addition, Myers is producing a video meant to fight anti- Semitism, which he plans to post on the Internet and hopes will become a viral hit.

jpost.com

In honor of November 29, the day the UN voted on the Partition Plan and the end of the British Mandate in Palestine, the World Zionist Organization staged a reenactment of the events that day in the plaza of the National Institutions Building on King George Street in Jerusalem, which used to house the first Parliament, the Knesset.

The event included actors who played the roles of former Prime Minister Golda Meir and the chief rabbis of that time, reiterating those very same words the original leaders had spoken from the balcony of the building 64 years earlier. Street musicians, dancers and old-fashioned “paper boys” filled the plaza and even several actors dressed in the khaki shorts and red berets of the British Mandate-era armed forces, and photographers taking pictures with authentic 1940s cameras.

The balcony was shared by various leaders including Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky and World Likud Chairman MK Danny Danon and Yaakov Hagoel, head of the Department for Israel Activities and the Struggle against Anti-Semitism.

This was the first time the event has ever been reenacted. “We decided to create an accurate reconstruction of the historical scene of the crowds dancing in the streets, in order to enable all Israelis to feel some of the joy that enveloped the nascent state on that historic day and to raise public consciousness of this day,” said Yaakov Hagoel, head of the Department for Israel Activities and the Struggle Against Anti-Semitism.

Chairman MK Danon added that he plans to draft a bill that would make November 29 “National Zionism Day,” which would be commemorated in schools, army bases and government institutions. “We cannot forget this important date and the value of Zionism, which are an essential part of the story of the establishment of the State of Israel,” Danon said.

World Likud hosted a Hasbara Panel to address the current challenges facing Israel and the Likud. World Likud members gathered to participate in a panel which featured distinguished speakers in Beit Sokolov in Tel Aviv. Among the speakers were Dr. Mordecai Kedar, Dan Diker, Professor Eli Polack and World Likud Chairman MK Danny Danon.

The speakers discussed the problems with the uprising of leftist organizations rising and the threats over maintaining Likud ideology when dealing with these problems.

To view pictures please click here

By Dr. Gerardo Stuczynski

President of COSLA (Latin American Zionist Confederation)
Member of the World Zionist Executive

Last week it was published that four out of ten Jewish students in British universities claim to have seen or being the object of Anti-Semitic acts.

In a survey carried out recently by the DAIA in Argentina, 82% of the people interviewed stated that they thought that the main interest of the Jews is to make money.

Last month a lady in Concordia attended mass and heard the priest say that “Jews are such liars that their soul is rotten to the bones”.

A few days later, a Jew was brutally assaulted at the door of a synagogue in the neighborhood of Flores, Buenos Aires.

We are talking about a hatred that is so deep and ancestral that it pervades popular culture.

The Jewish people are the most persecuted in the history of humankind. There is no other nation that has had to bear such hatred, with so many terrible consequences for such a long time and in so many places.

500 years BCE the Jewish faith was already very old and possibly the belief in only one God that was unique, abstract and ethical started generating hostility.

The Greeks and later the Romans accused them of disloyalty because they refused to practise the religion of the empire.

Christianism accused them of killing their God and of not accepting Jesus’ divinity.

Pope Gregory Magnus, who was considered a Saint and after whom religious music is named, was the ideologist of Christian anti-Judaism.
He argues that the Jews, unlike other peoples, knew the truth but denied it. Therefore, they could not be considered human and should present different characteristics, like smell different, have horns or hidden tails, or serve the devil himself.

The legend was spread that the matzah (ritual bread) required as an essential ingredient the blood of a Christian child.

In the Middle Ages they were mercilessly ill-treated and accused of every evil, even of causing and spreading the Black Death that devastated Europe.

Inquisition ensued and later the Jews were expelled in 1492. They were forced to convert to Christianity in order to save themselves from eternal doom.

It took Muslims longer to generate anti-Jewish feelings, since Muhammad was not crucified but went to heaven with his horse.

But under Arab authority, the Jews were “dhimmi”, citizens of a lower hierarchy.

History shows us that anti-Jewish hatred is transformed and adapts to new situations in order to continue surviving.

Thus religious anti-Semitism evolves and gives birth to popular anti-Semitism.

Masses bring about persecution and massacres to take revenge on the deicidal people.

Then scientific anti-Semitism appears. It is the racist theory that claims, supported on historic-anthropological arguments, that the Jewish race is inferior.

The Tzar’s secret services develop the political doctrine of the Jewish complot to rule the world as described in “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion”. This apocryphal book, in which Hitler inspired, is adopted both by the Nazis and by the modern Arab anti-Semitism. It is a bestseller in many Arabic countries nowadays.

The last mutation of anti-Semitism is anti-Zionism.

After the Holocaust it is no longer politically correct to identify oneself as a simple anti-Semitic. Thus anti-Semitism modernizes and becomes anti-Zionism. It states that all the peoples of the world have the right to self-determination, except the Jewish. That is why Zionism is illegitimate and Israel is the only country that has no right to exist.

This conception is common to anti-Semitics of the far right, totalitarian regimes and many sectors of the left for whom Israel represents American Imperialism in the Middle East.

We can find different trends within anti-Zionism. Some minimize the importance or directly deny the existence of the Holocaust, claiming that the Jews invented or exaggerated it in order to promote the creation of Israel.

Other intellectuals and journalists compare the Palestinian refugee camps to Auschwitz or claim that the Israeli army use Nazi methods to fight against Palestinian terrorism.

All of them hide the purest anti-Semitic prejudice under the form of legitimate criticism.

That is why the Palestinian cause is so popular. They are the most subsidized people in the world. There is an Agency in the UN for Palestinian refugees and another one for the rest of the refugees in the world. The amount of money they receive in donations is unparalleled.

The countries of the world hurry to recognize a Palestinian State that does not satisfy the necessary requirements to be a State and that is governed mainly by a terrorist organization. And when UNESCO recognizes Palestine as a member, it is implicitly accepting the anti-Jewish hatred transmitted in their schools and through the mass media.

This completely disproportionate solidarity is not due so much to the concern of the Palestinians but to the fact that it is fundamentally anti-Israeli.

When Iran’s president claims in a loud voice that Israel must be wiped out from the map, how does the world react?

The UN offers Palestinians a podium so that their words have more repercussion.

I cannot imagine any other leader making such threats to another member state without being expelled immediately from any international forum.

However, the majority of the resolutions issued by the General Assembly of the UN are condemnations of Israel.
Of all the ills afflicting the world: global warming,, ecology, human rights violations, lack of freedom, the situation of women and children, illiteracy, violence, terrorism; the only thing majorities can automatically agree on is the condemnation of Israel.

If there is a species of whale in danger of becoming extinct, Israel is guilty of it.

Thus they have turned the UN into an instrument to promote anti-Semitism.

In our Latin America the situation has worsened significantly in the last years. Many countries like Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, etc have strengthened their alliance with Iran which is the current world champion of anti-Semitism. In many of these cases, hatred travels in an opposite direction to the traditional one. It is the official policy and it is transmitted from the government to the population in general.

The serious thing is that these practices have very important consequences.

In the field of international relations they cause the break of diplomatic relations, the expulsion of ambassadors, massive support to the recognition of Palestine, disproportionate condemnations of Israel.

And many times they encourage a feeling of hatred in people that many times results in concrete events. Throughout the world there are threats, assaults, desecration of cemeteries and synagogues, street paintings of legends against the Jews, anti-Semitic expressions in demonstrations against the embassies and against Jewish communities, cartoons with high anti-Semitic content and press versions that look very much like the worst of the last century.

By: Morton Klein

We must go on the offensive by delegitimizing the delegitimizers – by speaking loudly and clearly the unalloyed truth about Abbas’s PA.

Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority (PA) has launched into a bid to obtain statehood through the United Nations, refusing negotiations with Israel.

This is illegal.

The Oslo II agreement (1995), Article 31, Paragraph 7, is explicit: “Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations.”

Clearly Abbas’s goal is statehood without agreeing to end all claims against Israel.

Last May, Abbas wrote in The New York Times, “Palestine’s admission to the UN would pave the way for the internationalization of the conflict as a legal matter. It would pave the way for us to pursue claims against Israel at the UN, human rights treaty bodies and the International Court of Justice.”

In short, more conflict – not peace.

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