We felt that same distress when we read about the destruction of Joseph’s tomb in Shechem by marauding Arabs, immediately after the holy place had been turned over to the Arabs for “protection.” Kever Yosef had been one of our regular visiting sites on our AFSI Chizuk missions. The last time we were able to go there, it was only at midnight, on a specially arranged bus, with military escort.
The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is another holy place on every AFSI Chizuk itinerary. The shameful, humiliating treatment we receive when we arrive there, escorted by Rabbi Chaim Richman, is disgraceful. But we usually manage to ascend the Mount, followed by Arab Waqf members who walk closely behind, checking to see that we don’t move our lips in prayer. Israeli police follow us also, to reinforce the Waqf’s demands.
At the Cave of the Patriarchs, in Hebron, we must also usually suffer the indignity of having most of the rooms closed to Jews throughout the year. Jews pray in an open courtyard, covered with a tarpaulin that is fails to keep out cold, heat, rain and snow. We will be visiting this November 10 to commemorate Abraham’s purchase of the tomb for his wife, Sarah. On this special Shabbat, Parashat Chayei Sarah, the cave is entirely open to Jews. How tragic it is that in the Jewish land of Israel, Jews suffer so much intolerance and degradation when it comes to our holy sites.
Freund is absolutely right. Israel must take back sovereignty over its holy sites.
Helen Freedman
Executive Director Americans for a Safe Israel/AFSI
Point/Counterpoint
I told Aaron Klein (Quick Takes, June 15) that I had no knowledge of Obama’s being a member of the New Party or “signing a contract’” or that the New Party was “socialist” (it was not) or that it was “far left” (the far left in Chicago all opposed the NP for being too reformist).
Yet Klein cited my name to back up all these claims.
Carl Davidson
Field Organizer
Committees of Correspondence for
Democracy and Socialism
Aaron Klein Responds: Utilizing a tactic popularized by his ideological comrades at the controversial Media Matters for America, Carl Davidson denies statements that were never actually attributed to him in the first place.
In my column last week I reported on evidence from the New Party’s own literature listing President Obama as a member. I also reported that Stanley Kurtz at National Review Online dug up Obama’s signed contract with the New Party.
The only mention of Davidson in my entire column was the following factual statement: “This reporter also conducted an exclusive interview with Marxist activist Carl Davidson, a founder of the New Party, who recounted Obama’s participation with the party.”
Nowhere in my column did I cite Davidson’s name to back up any of the information he misleadingly mentions. I only wrote that Davidson recounted, as a New Party founder, Obama’s participation with the party.
My column was a shorter version of a longer article of mine for WorldNetDaily.com in which I posted Davidson’s full quotes reminiscing on Obama’s participation. Unfortunately, due to space limitations (I must squeeze three Quick Takes news briefs into 900 words), I was not able to include Davidson’s full quotes, although the paraphrase was accurate.
For trivia purposes, here is my report, in full, of what Davidson told me:
“A subcommittee met with [Obama] to interview him to see if his stand on the living wage and similar reforms was the same as ours. We determined that our views on these overlapped, and we could endorse his campaign in the Democratic Party,” Davidson said.
Davidson said that to his knowledge Obama was not a member of the New Party “in any practical way” – using qualifying language.
Asked whether Obama signed the New Party contract, Davidson replied there was “no need for him to do so” – information now contradicted by Kurtz’s discovery.
“At the end of our session with him, we simply affirmed there was no need to do so, because on all the key points, the stand of his campaign and the New Party reform planks were practically the same,” Davidson said.