Front Lines
ROUN
Bibi: Obama Attacks
Are Unwarrented
Jerusalem/JTA — Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu called recent
unflattering Israeli media reports about
the Obama administration "unaccept-
able."
Netanyahu also said that he and his
advisers are working to "reduce the gaps"
with the United States on ways to advance
the peace process.
"I have recently heard anonymous,
unworthy remarks in the media regard-
ing the American administration and the
American president.
"I would like to make it clear: I find
these remarks to be unacceptable,"
Netanyahu said Sunday at the start of the
ADL Doubts Carter
Atlanta/JTA — Jimmy Carter's apology
last December to the Jewish commu-
nity was insincere, the Anti-Defamation
League said.
The Anti-Defamation
League issued a state-
ment last Friday ques-
tioning Carter's apology,
which came in a letter
published by JTA, fol-
lowing a speech by the
former U.S. president
during a conference in
Jimmy Carter
Atlanta last week on
U.S.-Arab relations.
As far as I'm con-
cerned, there is no
`Al Chet," Abraham
Foxman, ADL's national
director, said in the
statement, referring to
Carter's evocation of a
Abraham
prayer for forgiveness
Foxman
said on Yom Kippur.
"President Carter's recent comments
on Israel are profoundly disappointing
and leave little doubt of the insincerity of
his apology."
Carter accused the U.S. of being "much
more attuned to the sensitivities of the
Israelis" and of having "yielded exces-
sively to the circumstances in the Holy
Land as Israel has confiscated several
lands within Palestine." He also called the
Obama administration's shuttle diplo-
macy efforts "feeble!'
His comments came amid tensions in
the Israel-U.S. relationship over Jewish
housing starts in east Jerusalem and the
breakdown of newly started proximity
talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
In a March 25 letter to Carter, Foxman
questioned the sincerity of his apology
regular Cabinet meet-
ing.
"They are from
nobody acting on
my behalf. Relations
between Israel and the
U.S. are those between
Prime Minister
allies and friends and
Netanyahu
reflect longstanding
tradition.
"Even when there are differences of
opinion, they are differences of opinion
among friends and will remain so."
On his talks last week in Washington
with President Obama, Vice President
Joseph Biden and Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton, Netanyahu said they
discussed a range of issues, including
Iran, and the desire
to resume and restart
the peace process. The
Israeli leader said there
were areas in which
there was full agree-
ment, as well as dis-
agreement.
President
"We tried to take
Obama
— and we took — var-
ious steps to reduce the gaps in order to
advance the process," he said. "We are
continuing these efforts?'
Netanyahu's inner Cabinet, known
as the Septet, met Saturday night in
Jerusalem to formulate a response to
U.S. demands in an effort to help restart
proximity talks and advance the peace
and offer to continue discussions in the
future — an offer Carter had proffered in
a call to ADL the same day of his speech
in Atlanta, according to the ADL state-
ment.
"I do not believe further discussions
between us will be fruitful," Foxman
wrote. "I continue to hope the day will
come when you have truly repented of
your insensitive views of Israel and the
Jewish people?'
carry or wear aboard aircraft?'
Cohen had raised the tefillin issue with
the TSA several years ago when a number
of Orthodox Jewish travelers encountered
problems with airport security.
In January, a US Airways flight from
New York to Louisville was diverted to
Philadelphia when a 17-year-old passen-
ger's tefillin were mistaken for a bomb.
Third Temple Call
Jerusalem/JTA — An extreme right-wing
group has launched a campaign calling
for the building of the Third Temple.
The Our Land of Israel party has put
posters on 200 city buses showing an
artist's rendition of the Third Temple
on the site now occupied by the Al Aksa
Mosque.
The signs read "May the Temple be
built in our lifetime:'
Activist Baruch Marzel and Rabbi
Shalom Wolpe formed the Our Land of
Israel party in 2008.
Feds Teach About Tefillin
Washington/JTA — The U.S.
Transportation Security Administration
has taken steps to educate its workers
about tefillin.
Information about the nature, content
and use of the religious item is now
incorporated into briefing materials for
U.S. security officials.
The action comes at the urging of
Rabbi Abba Cohen, Washington direc-
tor and counsel of Agudath Israel of
America, who called the TS.Ns action "a
welcome development that should go far
in clearing up potential misunderstand-
ings on the part of agency employees and
the public regarding a religious article
that Jewish travelers sometimes may
Chabad House Targeted
Mumbai/JTA — Chabad House was the
target of the February bomb attack on
a bakery in India, a government official
said.
The Indian state of Maharashtra's
Chief Minister Ashok Chavan told the
Indian Legislative Assembly last week
that the target of the attackers was the
Pune Chabad House, located several
yards from the German Bakery.
Chavan said the bakery was tar-
geted after the attackers discovered
that Chabad was well protected by state
police, according to the Press Trust of
India.
"There was adequate security near the
Chabad House," he told the Assembly.
"Since the attackers could not break
the security, they targeted the German
Bakery. We have increased our police
force and also purchased sophisticated
weapons to deal with such attacks. We
are taking all the necessary security mea-
sures based on intelligence reports."
Seventeen people were killed and oth-
ers injured in the bomb attack in Pune
on Feb. 13.
Mumbai Widow Deported?
New York/JTA — The widow of a rabbi
killed in the attack on the Mumbai
Chabad House is having immigration
trouble that could keep her away from
process. The Septet will continue to meet
in the coming days on the issue, accord-
ing to reports.
Meanwhile, top Obama aide David
Axelrod on Sunday morning told CNN's
"State of the Union" program that Obama
did not snub Netanyahu when the two
met in the White House last week.
White House reporters and Israeli col-
umnists have raised the issue after the
leaders' talks were closed to the media
and there was no photo-op for media.
"This was a working meeting," Axelrod
said. "We have a deep, abiding interest in
Israel's security, and we believe the peace
process is essential to that and we are
doing everything we can to move that
process forward:'
her children.
The U.S. Customs Department has
charged Frumet Teitelbaum, 37, an Israeli
citizen, with overusing her tourist visa
to travel back and forth from Israel to
Brooklyn, where her eight children aged 2
to 14 live with her late husband's family.
Though Teitelbaum had a valid travel
visa, her frequent travel to visit her chil-
dren caused Customs officials to stamp it
with restrictions limiting her time in the
United States. The children are attending
school in New York.
Brooklyn-born Rabbi Leibish
Teitelbaum, 37, was among six Jews killed
in the 2008 attack on Chabad's Nariman
House, one of 10 Mumbai sites under
siege during a three-day attack by an
Islamist Pakistani group that left 166
dead and hundreds injured.
Rabbi Teitelbaum had traveled to
Mumbai to work as a kosher food super-
visor.
Frumet Teitelbaum must leave the
United States in early April or she will be
deported, the New York Post reported.
Attorney Michael Wildes told the
newspaper that he will appeal to the
Immigration Court on Teitelbaum's
behalf so that she can receive a green
card and permanent residency.
Schindler's List For Sale
New York/JTA — The only privately held
original copy of Oskar Schindler's list of
Jews is on sale for $2.2 million.
Gary Zimet, a historic document sales
specialist in upstate New York, told news
outlets that he is selling the document
on behalf of an anonymous seller. It will
not be auctioned but be offered on a first-
come-first serve basis on his Web site,
MomentsInTime.com, he said.
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