Commentary on the Commentary: Iran war talk

There is a very real need to confront anti-Israel activism in the gay community, showing Israel to be a positive place for everyone.

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN
Nuclear Power plant 311 AP (photo credit: Associated Press)
Nuclear Power plant 311 AP
(photo credit: Associated Press)
The week ended on an apoplectic note with talk about talk about war on Iran. This is the three month news cycle that claims to know inside information about a strike on the Iranian nuclear menace. However our readers' desire to be informed and therefore the op-ed pages were prescient in running Louis Beres and General John T. Chain’s ‘Dealing with Iran at the 11th hour’. They discussed the ability to intercept Iran’s missiles and noted that “the preemption option will have to be rejected.”
Kenneth Bandler also reminded readers of the Iranian leadership’s continued use of vitriol against Israel and the Jews. Scott Krane also wrote an excellent op-ed on the question of who has the power to make war in Israel. MK Zahava Gal-On has complained that too much power is concentrated in the prime minister’s hands in this respect. Krane disagrees in showing that in fact the cabinet represents a wide swath of Israeli political factions. Ideally a solution will be found to the Iranian threat, one that, in its precision or good sense, does not involve a catastrophic war.
A reminder of the type of hatred that Iran espouses was found in an eloquent article by Frimet Roth, whose daughter Malki was murdered in the terror attack on the Sbarro in Jerusalem eleven years ago. Malki reminded readers that Ahlam Tamini, the terrorist, was one of the 1,027 Palestinians released in the Schalit deal.
The IDF was also in the news this week with talk about a hazing incident and sexual harassment. Chaim Landau of Shatil, argued that the IDF should stamp out smoking in order to change “the very culture of the IDF.”
As always the role of the Rabbinate in Israeli society came up for discussion. Rabbi Seth Farber argued that “it is time to call upon the rabbinic establishment to improve its services to citizens.”
Atara Kenigsberg, of Bar-Ilan University, writes about how the court has changed in recent years and through Bar-Ilan’s work many of its rulings have been made accessible to the public. She concludes that soon “we will not remember that there could ever have been a time when women were prevented from serving as CEO in the rabbinical court.”
Our writers took an interest in foreign countries. Can Kasapoglu, a Turkish scholar, wrote about the fear of a Kurdish spillover of violence in Turkey from Syria. Michael Freund, the columnist, writes about how Serbia has emerged from the hardships of the 1990s, to be a state that readers should take an interest in. Shmuley Boteach was in Rwanda this week and wrote an important piece explaining how the Rwandan genocide should remind us all of the need to prevent mass state-sponsored murder. Lastly, Aiman Zarul, wrote about the interesting, behind the scenes, Malaysia-Israel relationship.
The week ended on a sort of tongue-in-cheek note with Jayson Littman’s aptly titled ‘How I pink-washed my way through Israel’. A gregarious pro-Israel activist, Littman is the founder of He’bro, which promotes events for gay and secular Jews in New York. He was recently in Israel on a gay-friendly birthright trip. This may seem odd to some readers, but there is a very real need to confront anti-Israel activism in the gay community, and showing Israel to be a positive place, for everyone. The writer is The Jerusalem Post's op-ed editor.