Free Gilad Shalit

Abducted Three Years Ago Today:

Israeli Policy Advisor on Iranian Jewry's Security & Israel (Updated Audio)

Dr. Eran Lerman (Photo: Dave Bender - All Rights Reserved)

Israel’s incoming Deputy National Security Advisor for Policy, Dr. Eran Lerman, says that while growing riots and unrest in Tehran and other parts of Iran over disputed presidential elections may herald a Persian “Prague Spring,” the outcome for Iranian Jewry may be far less idyllic.

By Dave Bender - http://www.davebrianbender.com

In an hour-long talk given in Atlanta on Tuesday, June 16, Lerman addressed the possibility of sharper, US-led international sanctions to rein in Tehran’s nuclear ambitions in the wake of recent Korean missile tests and suspected Iranian cooperation:

“The dam, if you wish, which has already been cracked by North Korean behavior, will be brought down with another crack in Iran. What will come flooding in is an arms race in the region, and beyond the region which will pose a very real threat that this will soon come to blows — nuclear blows — one thing that any American administration is obliged to prevent from happening.”

Lerman, in a multi-city US speaking tour prior to taking up his new post in July, discussed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy speech in the wake of US President Barack Obama’s Cairo address, during a wide-ranging talk given at Congregation Young Israel of Toco Hills.

Turning to historical aspects of the situation, Lerman listed several parallels between Western reactions to Iran’s behavior during and since the 1979 revolution, and the ascent of Nazi Germany before and during WWII:

"Anyone who’s familiar with the internal workings of the Nazi regime would know that it was much more brittle in '38 than it seemed from the outside. This is something that has stuck in my mind since I read [William] Shire’s majestic work — and there’ve been many confirmations of this ever since: the German High Command was convinced that this little, crazy corporal from Munich is taking them to a war in which they will be wiped out — turns out to be true.

"They feared that if the British and French stand up to [Hitler], and the Russians will come in on the side of the Czechs – the Czechoslovak state had a formidable military – and that this combination will be much too strong for Germany to handle. And so they prepared, in case he came back from Munich with war on his hands, to arrest him – and 'terminate his contract,' as they say.… The commander of the German forces had a plan laid out — in detail.

"Instead, the 'genius' comes back victorious. And we paid for this mistake with 60 million lives, [and] six million Jews, and many others."

When this reporter asked about the fate of the estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Iranian Jews remaining in Tehran and other major cities who could be held as hostages against any Israeli military action against the Tehran regime, Lerman, a past deputy chief of the Israeli Defense Forces Intelligence Strategic Planning department, sighed and offered a bit of black humor:

“Look – we have to bitterly joke about these people who were give an opportunity to leave in [19]50, were given an opportunity to leave in [19]70, were given an opportunity to leave in [19]80, and are still there – therefore [the Iranian authorities] will hang them as ‘Zionists.’

“But bitter jokes aside,” Lerman said, “it is an issue,” and cautiously offered an even more bitter prospect – that of Israel being forced to choose between self-preservation and the security of an ancient Jewish diaspora community: “It is simply something that we will have to weigh against the larger [pause] considerations that may involve our very survival [pause] as a people and as a state.”

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Go here for more, including audio excerpts of the talk.

(This post's audio & text will be updated - check back soon)

Atlanta Man Turns Somali Pirate Fighter (Exclusive story - new website)

Just opened my new website for business, and am working on a fascinating audio profile about someone who has an extensive background in counter-terrorism:

Siegelman: Atlanta Man Turns Somali Pirate Fighter (Photo: Dave Bender)

At first glance, 30-year-old former Atlanta resident Ariel Siegelman doesn't strike you as someone who's used to facing off against pirates and gunmen. But then, the soft-spoken, observant Jew starts describing hair-raising experiences as a professional Israeli security chief guarding passenger vessels and freighters plying the treacherous waters of the Gulf of Aden.

"One day, his ship was in the sea lanes alongside the Maersk Alabama, and the pirates' motorboat first headed for him...

With some coaxing, the nominally taciturn Siegelman allows us into a secretive world on a little-seen front line, and how the violent contours of such daily skirmishes affect him, and his family.

We talk about his recent visit to the United States, primarily to train urban SWAT teams, and his heartfelt recommendations for the Jewish community, in the wake of recent terror threats.

I'll be posting excerpts from the story on my website soon, so make sure to bookmark it, and stop back there.

Editors: Contact me to get the full story on your website, radio station, or print publication.

Great PBS video features religious Atlanta baby doc

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From PBS:

May 29, 2009 ~ Dr. T | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly

"What role does faith play in a delivery room? If you ask one doctor in Atlanta, the answer is a big role. Dr. Joseph Tate delivers babies the old-fashioned way, using methods some obstetricians call risky. But his patients say God guides his hands."

The Costs of Keeping the Faith (video, photos)

Money magazine has an interesting, three-part in-depth profile (Jewish, Muslim, Christian) of what it takes for a faith-based household to make ends meet in America - all while staying true to your traditions:

"Ask Abbi Perets about financial pain, and she starts talking about grape juice. Specifically, she's referring to the half-gallon bottles of grape juice that her local grocery sells for $9 each.

"Drinking the juice is an integral part of the prayer ritual that Abbi, her husband, Guy, and their four children follow every Friday and Saturday to commemorate the Jewish Sabbath. Like all the food in the Perets household, the juice must be kosher - that is, prepared according to Jewish dietary laws. And the $9 juice, more than three times the price of the regular kind, is the only kosher grape juice she can find."

Go read the rest.

Mr. Virtual Crap, Meet Mr. Mideast Fan...

From the JPost:

The upcoming home front drill, Turning Point 3, is based a scenario in which "a combined missile and rocket attack on Israel from all sides combined with terror attacks from within," and is "not a fictional scenario," Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilan'i told members of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday.

Matan Vilan'i describes upcoming home front drill simulating war on three fronts (opens a new video console page)

Vilna'i briefed the committee on the state-wide drill, scheduled to begin on May 31. The threat of missiles hitting mainland Israel "is not unrealistic," Vilna'i continued. "If a war breaks out, that is probably what would happen."

Yeah, well alright then.

Trying mightily to unstress as I type in all the tags below... even if I always did appreciate the Israeli penchant for "cutting to the chase," about what's at stake.

Great NPR Profile on Israeli Musician/Producer

Idan Raichel

Click here to hear the interview (a pop-up player console will open).

From National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday, May 10, 2009:

"Israeli music producer Idan Raichel collaborates with many musicians from around the world. So far, he has worked with more than 90 artists.

"'I see myself as the director of many, many scenes,' he says. "We are 90 musicians: The youngest is 16 years old, and the eldest are 64, 79, 83 and 89 years old. For those listeners who are not familiar with the Israeli society, we are all kinds of immigrants. So we have singers from the Ethiopian community in Israel, and musicians from the Moroccan community. And we are proud to have all these singers joining us by MySpace, or by just writing to our Web site.'"

"It's all part of his ongoing recording work with what he calls The Idan Raichel Project. Raichel (pronounced RYE-kell — "with phlegm," he says) writes, arranges and performs on many of the songs, but he works with a far-reaching cast of musicians to record his compositions"
Read the rest.

And, despite NPR's perennial editorial animus towards Israel, and considering Raichel's stated hard-left politics, there nary a note against the Jewish State.

In The Court of the Crimson King (Original photograph)

Part of an inner courtyard, at the compound on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem's Old City, housing the tomb of King David. (Dave Bender)

Riverdale Temple Terror Plot: Been There, Done That

Prosecutors branded the gang as bloodthirsty anti-Semitic killers during a brief hearing in federal court, and a fourth suspect was expected to appear later in the afternoon.

"It's hard to envisage a more chilling plot to bring murder to a . . . community," said Eric Snyder, an assistant U.S. attorney.

"These are extremely violent men," he added. "These people who are eager to bring death to Jews." (Daily News)

An official said three of the men are converts to Islam. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation. Three of the defendants are U.S. citizens and one is of Haitian descent, officials said. More on this angle here.

Since I've attended services at that Jewish community center, and flew in and out of Stewart Airport last summer, I guess I join the moving Jewish target club. Ah - also Israeli. Trifecta!

That's about as snarky as I'll get here, since the threat is real, current and constant:

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Lone attackers or small, independent groups with no formal ties to wider terrorist networks have planned several plots against Jewish targets.

March 1, 1994 -- Lebanese-born Rashid Baz opens fire on a van carrying 15 Chabad-Lubavitch rabbinical seminary students on the Brooklyn Bridge, killing Ari Halberstam, 16, and injuring three others. Raz claims he was upset by the killing of 29 Muslim worshipers in Hebron by an Israeli Jew, Baruch Goldstein, a few days earlier. Baz is convicted of second-degree murder and 14 counts of attempted murder and sentenced to 141 years in prison

March 20, 1994 -- Members of the neo-Nazi Volksfront group fire 10 shots into a synagogue in Eugene, Ore., damaging its interior. Police said the attack on Temple Beth Israel was motivated by a newspaper article about several prominent members.

June 18, 1999 -- White supremacists Benjamin Matthew Williams and James Tyler Williams set fire to three synagogues in the Sacramento area. The arson attacks cause more than $1 million in damage. The Williams brothers later go on to kill a gay couple in Redding, Calif. Benjamin Williams commits suicide in prison in November 2002.

July 4th weekend, 1999 -- White supremacist Benjamin Nathaniel Smith carries out a three-day, two-state shooting spree in the Chicago area, wounding six Orthodox Jews and several blacks and Asians. One black man and one Korean man are killed. Smith later committs suicide. Smith belonged to a white supremacist group, the World Church of the Creator, which espouses hatred against non-whites.

Aug. 10, 1999 -- White supremacist Buford O. Furrow Jr. walks into the lobby of the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, Calif., and fires 70 shots into the building before fleeing; fire people are wounded. Furrow later kills a mail carrier. Furrow, a native of Washington state, considered targeting three Jewish institutions: the Skirball Cultural Center, the American Jewish University and the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance. When security measures prove prohibitive, he drives to the San Fernando Valley with the stated purpose of “killing Jews,” police said.

July 4, 2002 -- Egyptian immigrant Hesham Mohamed Hadeyet shoots and kills two at Los Angeles International Airport at the El Al airline counter. Police said the shooting was motivated by a mixture of the personal and the political; Hadeyet was suffering financial problems related to a struggling limousine business and worried about his aging parents, but he also opposed Israel’s occupation of West Bank territory.

Oct. 25, 2002 -- Five men, all Volksfront members, drive to Temple Beth Israel synagogue in Eugene, Ore., with the intention of intimidating congregants. During a service with 80 worshipers, the men throw rocks etched with swastikas through the building’s stained-glass windows. They are caught later.

2005-2007 -- Temple Beth Israel in Niagara Falls, N.Y., is targeted consistently by vandals who paint swastikas and urinate on the building. On Jan. 12, 2007, “Kill the Jews” is duct-taped to the building’s door. In August 2007, the perpetrator, Shawn Blount, is sentenced to one to three years in prison; his co-conspirator, a juvenile, is sentenced as a youthful offender to one year in Niagara County Jail.

Aug. 31, 2005 -- Four men are charged with plotting a series of attacks on military and Jewish targets in Los Angeles. Kevin Lamar James had founded a group in prison called Jamiyyat Ul Islam Is Saheeh and preached to members that it was their duty to attack the U.S. government and supporters of Israel. Once released from prison, one of James' followers, Levar Haley Washington, recruits Gregory Vernon Patterson and Hamad Riaz Samana to help him carry out the attacks. Washington and Patterson are arrested on suspicion of committing a series of gas station robberies, and investigators then discover evidence of a terrorist plot. The men had conducted research on a variety of Jewish targets, including El Al Airlines and the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles, and planned to carry out an attack on a synagogue on Yom Kippur in order to maximize casualties. Patterson, Washington and James have all pleaded guilty to terrorism conspiracy charges; the fourth defendant was declared mentally unfit to stand trial.

July 28, 2006 -- Naveed Afzal Haq shoots six women at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle building, one fatally. Witnesses said Haq told them, "I'm a Muslim American, I'm angry at Israel." One of the victims reported that Haq said "this was his personal statement against Jews and the Bush administration for giving money to Jews," and for Jews "giving money to Israel"

May 20, 2009 -- Authorities arrest four men in connection with a plot to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx, N.Y., and shoot down military planes at an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y. Law enforcement said the group had planned to use missiles to attack the planes and planted what they believed were car bombs outside the synagogues in the Riverdale section. During the course of the elaborate FBI sting operation, faulty explosives had been provided to the would-be terrorists. Police said the four, all of whom had a history of petty crime and are not believed to be tied to any major terrorist networks, frequently talked about their anti-Semitic leanings.

(Source: JTA)

Gratitude, Ambivalence Over Christians Backing Israel (Exclusive Audio)

This is a radio feature I wrote and produced last year for Georgia Public Broadcasting. I'm posting it now, in it's relevance to today's meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Some 2,500 pro-Israel Christians, led by Texas mega-church minister, John Hagee, gathered at an Atlanta-area church in a stirring show of support for the Jewish State. While some American Jews fear a religious agenda behind the bear hug of love, Israelis appreciate someone in their corner in a hard and hostile world.

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