Vatican City, October 28, (BNS-AP-AFP)–On Wednesday the Catholic Church marked the 50th anniversary of the historical Nostra Aetate [“In Our Time”] declaration which called for interfaith dialogue with a host of non-Christian religions and led to an historical change in Catholic-Jewish relations.

St. Peter’s Square Wednesday hosted an audience with the pope to remember this groundbreaking move made on October 28, 1965, when Paul VI was pope and the Church condemned anti-Semitism.

During his usual general audience, pope Francis spoke about the importance of Nostra Aetate and said it had transformed Catholic-Jewish relations from “doubt and opposition to cooperation and goodwill. … From enemies and strangers we have become friends and brothers.”

Retired lieutenant colonel Jonathan D. Halevi, senior researcher on the Middle East and radical Islam at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, has published an article on the current wave of violence in Israel called “The Hidden Hand behind the Palestinian Terror Wave” on the JCPA’s Institute for Contemporary Affairs website.

The Hidden Hand behind the Palestinian Terror Wave
Institute for Contemporary Affairs
Founded jointly with the Wechsler Family Foundation
Vol. 15, No. 33
October 25, 2015

• Gaza has in effect become an independent Palestinian state, and this Hamas-ruled state is making a pitch, by means of the “Al-Quds Intifada,” to annex the West Bank as well. For Hamas, this is only one phase in the phased plan to implement an ethnic cleansing of the Jews from the Land of Israel.

Gerald M. Steinberg, professor of political science at Bar Ilan University and president of NGO Monitor, a group which reports on anti-Israeli NGOs and the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) movement world-wide, has published an editorial in the Times of Israel on EU plans to require special labels on “colonial goods” produced in the occupied territories for import to the EU under the EU-Israel Association Agreement signed in 1995 granting preferential customs rates.

The op/ed came in response to an interview with EU ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg-Andersen in the same newspaper in early October in which he said he failed to understand why Jerusalem was making such a “big fuss” about the EU’s plan to label Israeli products from the West Bank.

Steinberg said: “If nothing else, European officials at least get credit for consistency. For decades, in war and peace, terror and calm, they have not flagged in the belief that they can engineer their vision of peace for Israel. Having failed in so many previous attempts, the European move is another step in the effort to impose its preferred policies, via the labeling of products from the post-1967 ‘occupied territories’ in order to create economic pressure on Israel.”

An ominous shadow has swept across the Middle East and North Africa, leaving chaos and carnage in its wake. Mad men armed with Kalashnikovs and depraved convictions commit unspeakable acts—all safe in the knowledge that they are doing God’s work.

How the civilized world counters the Islamic State and its associates is the subject of lord Jonathan Sacks’s timely new book, “Not In God’s Name.”

The former chief rabbi of Britain sees the battle against ISIS and similar groups as the defining conflict of the 21st century.

The frontline might be Syria and Iraq, but the battle is being fought everywhere and targets everyone—especially Jews.

Israel went on the defensive last Wednesday, pushing back against what officials, including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have called the “10 biggest lies” being spread about the Jewish state and its actions amid the recent spate of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

In addition to the prime minister, who listed the 10 lies to the 37th World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer also laid them out, virtually identically, in a piece appearing on the same day in Politico.

The first two lies address the Temple Mount, a site around which Israel believes the current escalation in Arab attacks against Israeli Jews originated. Those lies are that Israel is either trying to change the agreements set up between Israel, Jordan and Palestinians to administer the site to allow Jews the right to pray there—many Israeli activists and some politicians say Jews should have the right to worship anywhere on the Temple Mount, which is where many Jews believe the Jewish temple once stood—or that Israel is trying to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

VILNIUS, Oct 22, BNS–Lithuania’s President Dalia Grybauskaite said in an interview to Israeli media that it is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s deeds, not words that should be taken into consideration.

She spoke when asked by i24news.tv to advise Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the relations with Russia.

“Usually our experience with today’s Russia led by Mr. Putin, we usually say ‘don’t believe what they say, just try to check what they do’,” the Lithuanian president said, adding that Putin’s actions in Syria is not a war against the Islamic State but an attempt to support the regime of Syrian President Bashar al Assad.

A delegation of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) and the Israel Council on Foreign Relations (ICFR) met with Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė in Tel Aviv Wednesday morning. The meeting was also attended by Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevičius.

Grybauskaitė told the WJC-ICFR delegation: “Our society acknowledges its history. Our Jewish heritage is part of the heritage of Lithuania. Our support for Israel comes automatically. We understand what is going on in the Middle East, and we coordinate our position with the United States.”

WJC CEO Robert Singer praised strong relations between Israel and Lithuania, saying: “Lithuania’s support is much appreciated.”

Singer also raised the issue of neo-Nazi rallies held each year in Vilnius and Kaunas and said the Jewish world was “very distressed by this phenomenon, especially given the tragic history of Lithuanian Jewry.”

Grybauskaitė agreed that this was a problem but said it was difficult for the government to act unless the groups involved openly used Nazi symbols or explicitly espoused anti-Semitism and racism. She assured the delegation that this was an entirely marginal phenomenon. “They make lots of noise, but represent very few people.”

In recent years, Lithuania has tried to foster good relations with the World Jewish Congress Israel. In an address to a WJC-ICFR event last month, Lithuanian prime minister Algirdas Butkevičius pledged that all Jewish cemeteries in Lithuania would be “memorialized and marked” by the end of 2017.

In 2014 the World Jewish Congress established the WJC International Yiddish Center in Vilnius aimed at promoting cultural treasures created in Yiddish and the continuity of Yiddish learning and research.

Dalia Grybauskaitė took office as Lithuanian head of state in 2009 and was re-elected in 2014. She previously served as a government minister and was Lithuania’s first European Commission commissioner between 2004 and 2009.

In the picture above (from left to right): ICFR Board member professor Dina Porat, WJC Steering Committee member Eduardo Elsztain, WJC CEO Robert Singer, president Dalia Grybauskaitė, ICFR Board member Colette Avital, chairwoman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community Faina Kukliansky. Photo courtesy of World Jewish Congress.

Full text here.

VILNIUS, October 21, BNS–Israel’s president and prime minister take pride in their Lithuanian origin and feel sentimental about Lithuania, Lithuanian foreign minister Linas Linkevičius. currently visiting Israel, said.

“Both the Israeli president and prime minister emphasized their Lithuanian roots, they’re both Litvaks. Clearly, a lot of time has passed since then but they’re proud of their history, their family history and both say that their families come from Lithuania. Without doubt, such sentiments are important, because relationships are different that those wtih other countries where there’s no such link,” Linkevičius told BNS.

The Lithuanian foreign minister said he sensed favorable feelings towards Lithuania during meetings with Israeli president Reuven Rivlin and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We have to take advantage of this, this is highly felt in the atmosphere of conversations; they are very warm, highly business-like and very specific,” said the Lithuanian diplomatic chief who is in Israel as part of the delegation led by president Dalia Grybauskaitė.

BNS