February 13, 2013
February 13, 2013
To Read: Aaron David Miller examines the possible foreign policy implications of yesterday's 'State of the Union' address-
Quote: "it has turned into a childish spectacle, and I don't think that I want to be there to lend dignity to it", Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia about the State of the Union.
Number: 34,000 the number of soldiers President Obama announced he will withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of the year.
Headline: 'Dead Mossad agent' affair revealed
To Read: Jeffrey Goldberg imagines how the future meeting between Netanyahu and Obama might look like-
Quote: “This was the deadliest attack on European soil since 2005… Despite this, however, Hezbollah remains conspicuously absent from the European Union’s list of recognized terrorist organizations. In fact, many states—including some in this hall—continue to classify Hezbollah as a charity. Not since Napoleon invaded Russia has the European continent seen such an astonishing lack of foresight”, Israeli UN Ambassador Ron Prossor talking about the Burgos bombing at the general assembly yesterday.
Number: 1, the number of times Obama mentioned Israel in his 6,500 word speech.
The Middle East
Headline: Iran to Resume Nuclear Talks
Read: David Ignatius follows the recent changes on the Syrian battlefront-
Quote: “If these people had been around during the French Revolution, they would have said, ‘What kind of revolution is this? It’s terrible. We wish the king had remained’”, Yigal Carmon, founder and president of MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute, voicing a surprising optimism about the Arab Spring.
Number: almost 10,000, the estimated number of deaths in the Syria from the beginning of the year alone.
The Jewish World
To Read: Rabbi David Golinkin of the Schechter institute explores several historical, political and religious aspects of prayer at the Kotel-
It is therefore clear that even if someone claims that the established custom of the Kotel was to pray with a mehitzah - a claim we have disproved in paragraph I above - the large upper plaza is not a synagogue according to Jewish law and according to the practices of the Chief Rabbinate itself for about 35 years after the Six Day War. Therefore, the Chief Rabbinate has no halakhic right to demand certain types of dress or behavior in that area.
Quote: "The demise of young American Jews’ interest in Israel is a myth", Malcolm Hoenlein, vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish organizations, voices his optimism about young American Jewry.
Number: 6-10, the estimated percentage of holocaust survivors who die annually, according to the Tauber Holocaust Library and Education program.