oints of view
Publisher's Notebook
Editorial
From Civility To Politics
Plea for civility requires embrace
by entire rabbinic community.
C
iting a disturbing trend that is devel-
oping in our Jewish community, the
Michigan Board of Rabbis submitted a
letter to the editor of the Jewish News calling on
all members of our pro-Israel com-
munity to "maintain civility and
reject and condemn divisive speech
wherever it rises:'
Some of the rabbis have been
skewered by online local bloggers for
participating in interfaith gatherings
and dialogues, most recently one that
commemorated the 10th anniversary
of 9-11. In the case of Rabbi Joseph
Krakoff of Congregation Shaarey
Zedek in Southfield, supporters of a
vitriolic local blogger also subjected
his children to telephoned rants.
The Zionist Organization of
America, arguably the area's
most hardline supporter and
defender of Israel, also was
chastised by local bloggers for
the recent honor it bestowed
on Rabbi Krakoff and his wife,
Susan.
Yes, there is a strong need
Rabbi Krakoff
to restore civility in all of our
debates, conversations and discussions about
Israel and the complex and existential chal-
lenges it faces. And, there is a strong need for
our community to interact with and engage the
non-Jewish world in our metropolitan area (of
the region's 4.2 million population, Jews comprise
about 65,000). And there is a strong need for our
community's Orthodox and non-Orthodox rabbis
to identify a common agenda and talk to each
other rather than past each other.
The Michigan Board of Rabbis, the overwhelm-
ing majority of whom are non-Orthodox, and the
Council of Orthodox Rabbis should have crafted
this plea together. But because they don't inter-
act, they didn't. For the sake of our entire Jewish
community "maintaining civility and rejecting
and condemning divisive speech wherever it
rises" should be behavior that all of our rabbis
are modeling and embracing.
Rochelle Got It
Partially Right
Detroit Free Press columnist
Rochelle Riley got it partially
right when she wrote recently
about how the gerrymandered
14th Congressional District,
carved
out earlier this year by
Rochelle Riley
state Republicans in response
to Michigan's declining U.S.
Census numbers, can be an important bridge
between the city of Detroit and the suburbs.
22
EDITORIAL BOARD:
Publisher: Arthur M. Horwitz
Chief Operating Officer: F. Kevin Browett
Contributing Editor: Robert Sklar
>> Send letters to: letters@thejewishnews.com
December 22 - 2011
Democratic congressional incumbents Gary
Peters of Bloomfield Township and Hansen
Clarke of Detroit will be competing to represent
the district in next year's primary. In addition
to a large swatch of Detroit, the dis-
trict includes much of Southfield,
Farmington Hills, Oak Park and West
Bloomfield, home to a majority of the
area's Jewish community. Peters chose
to run in the 14th District after his
9th District was eliminated and very
long-serving Democratic Congressman
Sander Levin of Royal Oak decided
to continue seeking re-election in the
12th District. Clarke, who defeated
Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Detroit in
the 2010 13th District Democratic pri-
mary, opted to run in the 14th District
after a large segment of his constituency was
redrawn into it. Very long-serving Democratic
Congressman John Conyers of Detroit, who had
been representing the 14th District, will run in
the 13th District. Got that so far?!
On Dec. 9, Riley wrote: "Even though Detroit
comprises just over half of the district, voter
turnout is expected to come mostly from the
suburbs. So the 14th District won't be a Detroit
district, but a Michigan district for the first time,
with constituents united over economic rather
than racial issues, looking forward rather than
looking back. The challenge is for Clarke and
Peters to choreograph a delicate political dance
that lets them keep one foot in Detroit and one in
the 'burbs."
In Peters and Clarke,
Democratic primary voters
will have a choice of candidates
who are intelligent, energetic
and have progressive records
that align with the bulk of
the district. Within the Jewish
community, Peters has earned
Gary Peters
a strong following and his
positions on Israel have made
him one of the top House
recipients of financial support
from pro-Israel political action
committees. Clarke, the Detroit-
born, Cornell and Georgetown-
educated child of a Bangladeshi
father and African-American
mother, regained control of his
Hansen Clarke
life after a period of homeless-
ness and personal despair.
He has served primarily Detroiters in the state
House, the state Senate and now Congress. He is
a supporter of Israel's right to exist as a Jewish
state and an alumnus of the American-Israel
Education Foundation's outreach program.
Publisher's Notebook on page 23
Power In
Waiting:
The Muslim
Brotherhood
D
The Brotherhood icon depicts
elving into the
a koranic call to be prepared to
Muslim Brotherhood,
fight Allah's enemies.
Egypt's frontrun-
ner political organization
with theocratic ambitions, not only is eye popping, but also a
plunge into the dark side of Islamism, the radical form of Islam
that belittles infidels, all nonbelievers.
The Brotherhood — an Islamist Sunni transnational move-
ment founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, an imam
and Sufi schoolteacher — strategically stood on the sidelines
this year amid the street uprising that led to Hosni Mubarak's
ouster as president after 30 years. The Supreme Council of
the Armed Forces is Egypt's current power.
The Brotherhood is the largest political opposition organiza-
tion in many Arab states and a spur for Islamic jihad (holy war).
Egyptian voters exposed the delusion that the Brotherhood is
a marginal player. In November, the Brotherhood placed first
in Egypt's first round of parliamentary elections with 40 per-
cent of the vote. Fresh off that triumph, it staged an anti-Israel
rally, 5,000 strong, that vowed to "one day kill all Jews" — a
Koran quotation. The rally was positioned as a "battle against
Jerusalem's Judaization" and featured the refrain "Tel Aviv, Tel
Aviv, judgment day has come."
Take it from Steve Emerson's Washington-based
Investigative Project on Terrorism: The Brotherhood holds
the same global supremacist objectives as Al Qaida and the
Taliban. Such groups follow shariah, the moral code and reli-
gious law of Islam. Muslims are obliged to wage jihad in pur-
suit of a shariah-governed global Islamic state known as "the
caliphate."
On Dec. 4, Palestinian Media Watch, an important Israeli
watchdog, re-released its translation of the book Jihad Is The
Way by Mustafa Mashhur, the Brotherhood leader in Egypt
from 1996 to 2002. Mashhur didn't mask the core concepts
of the Brotherhood's brazen ideology: create an Islamic
state; dominate the world under Islam; embrace the public
and personal duty of military jihad; time the ultimate jihad
to maximum benefit. We're in the midst of a period of obliga-
tory preparation for this coming super jihad, according to the
Brotherhood.
The view that the Brotherhood has renounced violence,
Emerson says, glosses over the prospect of the organization
relegating women and Egypt's religious minorities (espe-
cially Coptic Christians) to second-class status; threaten-
ing the 30-year peace between Egypt and Israel; and aiding
terrorist groups, including Hezbollah and Hamas. It was the
Brotherhood that hatched Hamas to terrorize Israel.
The Brotherhood not only finds common ground with Iran
and its proxies, but also is conveniently hazy on how it would
operate the ever-pivotal Suez Canal. Imagine if it joins with
the Salafists' Al-Nour party, which follows a Saudi-burnished
brand of Islam, to form a hardline Islamic government.
A new regime controlled or influenced by the Brotherhood
without authentic checks by other layers of Egyptian govern-
ment could well destabilize the entire Middle East and trigger
a domino effect that results in the topple of the governments
of Jordan and other Muslim allies of the West. II