It's Almost Supernatural

10 out 10 Jewish Doctors Recommend Jesus?

The South African Union of Orthodox Synagogues (UOS) has won its legal battle against an advert by the evangelical missionary group Jews for Jesus over offensive adverts claiming that ’10 out of 10 Jewish Doctors Recommend Jesus’. Last week the Advertising Standards Authority ruled that the advert was offensive to Jews and should be removed.

The ad is of course ridiculous. 100% of Jewish doctors do not endorse Jesus. It actually refers to a book that Jews for Jesus is promoting called ‘Jewish Doctors Meet the Great Physician’ which has testimony from ten Jewish doctors on why they chose Jesus. And thus I think it should have been struck down on the grounds of false advertising alone.

This affair, however, raises interesting questions about the extent of freedom of speech and religion in South Africa. Michael Sischy, the director of Jews for Jesus in South Africa and a medical doctor, defending the advert said that ‘We feel they are light hearted hyperbole aimed at stimulating the kind of dialogue and debate you want to stimulate in an open and democratic society’.

Should an open and democratic society extend to allowing religious groups like Jews for Jesus to proselytise? Furthermore is it in the Jewish community’s best interests to try and ban them?

I personally find Jews for Jesus an abhorrent organisation. Their very name screams of dishonesty. They are not Jewish. They pray at a church not a synagogue. They repeatedly use Jewish symbols and themes to try and lure Jews to Christianity. Just seeing their posters enrages me.

But this is not enough to justify denying them a voice. Rather than censoring them, we should be exposing their deceitful and anti-Jewish behaviour. Moreover, in both our words and our actions we need to continually show the broader South African community that 10 out of 10 real Jews choose Judaism. (Jews for Judaism is an excellent organisation that does just that.)

Update @ 15-10-2007

From the Sunday Independent

UOS executive director Darren Sevitz welcomed the ruling on Friday saying that while the union was in no way opposed to Christians or Christianity, it did take issue with a campaign that unapologetically targeted Jews for conversion. "Outside our office there is a huge billboard saying Jesus Christ is lord and saviour of the universe. I don’t care about it because it’s not targeting me. I don’t have a problem with Pick ‘n Pay advertising a pork chop because they are not targeting me,” Sevitz said. “But for instance, if SAB were to advertise beer with a picture of a Muslim drinking beer they would have crossed the line. That’s where we are coming from.

The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy

Here's some recommended reviews/responses to John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's book "The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy."

• Great but very long read at The New Republic by Jeffrey Goldberg: The Usual Suspect
• And here's one of Maurice Ostroff's famous open letters, this time a follow up to a response he received from W&M: Follow up open letter to Proffessors Mearsheimer and Walt .

Darfur Watch: Mayhem Continues

Last week we reported on the African Union's proposal to remove the United Nations Human Rights Council's human rights monitor from Sudan.

Egyptian envoy Ihab Gamaleldin, speaking on behalf of the council's African bloc used Sudan’s “good behaviour” as motivation for the removal of the monitor. He waxed lyrical of the "positive developments" in Darfur, "the marked improvement of the situation on the ground," and "the strong political will of the government of Sudan."

The shame of this request is well illustrated today, as reports stream in of a Darfur town that has been ‘razed.’

The Scotsman: Army 'loots and destroys' Darfur town

A DARFUR town has been looted and burnt to the ground since coming under the control of Sudanese troops , the United Nations said last night. Observers who inspected the North Darfur town of Haskanita say 15,000 civilians have fled since the army moved in this week. The town, which is currently under the control of the government, "was completely burned down, except for a few buildings", the UN mission to Sudan said. The Sudanese government forces took control of the area after suspected Darfur rebels attacked the nearby African Union (AU) base a week ago, killing ten peacekeepers. A UN official just back from Haskanita said there was a full army battalion of 800 men now stationed at the entrance of the town, which he described as "still smouldering". "There's absolutely no doubt the army and Janjaweed [militias of nomad Arabs] did it," the official, who requested anonimity, said. The AU confirmed it was investigating the attack on the base, but could not say whether it would enlarge its inquiry to the nearby destroyed town.

Questions: Will we see a media frenzy covering this incident comparable to the vitriolic (and ultimately incorrect) reports that covered the invented “massacre in Jenin?”

Will the South African press (I'm looking at the Mail & Guardian) ask Muslim South Africans to dissociate themselves from this brutality as the South African Jewish community was asked to do after Jenin?

Only in South Africa

It is well known that under Apartheid South Africa many bizarre racial laws were passed. It is less known that people who broke these laws still suffer the implications of having a criminal record. Examples of these crimes included a black South African travelling in the front seat alongside a white South African!

The official opposition party in South Africa proposed a bill that would wipe these criminal records clean. But the ruling ANC party has rejected the proposal out-of-hand. According to Ever-Faster news, the ANC did not even read the proposed legislation!

Related: The fighting between the Sunday Times and the president's office continued this week with an hysterical "Mamparahad of the week" award for, as they put it, "that nauseatingly arrogant little stuffed shirt, Essop Pahad."

Darfur Watch: SA/AU aid and abet Sudanese regime

South Africa has once again demonstrated that it stands “shoulder to shoulder” (as South African Minister of intelligence Ronnie Kasrils once put it in respect to South Africa’s Zimbabwe policy) with tyrants and dictators. Last week the African bloc and the African Union, both of which South Africa is a prominent member, proposed that the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) remove its human rights monitor from Sudan.

This is to be a reward for Sudan’s ‘good behavior’. As the Egyptian envoy Ihab Gamaleldin, speaking on behalf of the council's African bloc put it, the "positive developments" in Darfur, "the marked improvement of the situation on the ground," and "the strong political will of the government of Sudan." Propaganda ala Joseph Goebbels.

UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer responded by explaining that "removing outside scrutiny is what the killers in Kharotum want". And as he points out, the sad thing is that the council is likely to oblige. In June this year the council agreed to eliminate the experts who reported on abuses in Cuba and Belarus, and placed the remaining ten country monitors on the chopping block, to be "reviewed" going forward. South Africa has shamefully supported all of these moves.

The most disturbing part of this whole affair is the silence within this country. South Africa’s behavior at the UN is hardly ever covered by the mainstream media. We should be holding protests outside the Union Building calling on the government to live up to the principles enshrined in our constitution. By doing nothing, we too, like the government, are aiding and abetting the genocide in Darfur.

You can view the videos from this session here.