Shabtai Shavit, who served at the helm of Israel’s overseas intelligence service from 1989 to 1996 was recently interviewed by the Times of Israel:

The United States and Europe are far more prepared to confront terrorism since the attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in September 2001, Shavit said.

“I do not believe that global terrorism can execute an operation on the scale of the 9/11 attacks,” he said. “Many things have changed in the United States, Europe, and the rest of the free world, both with regards to preventative and defensive measures and with regards to the development of offensive counter-terrorism doctrines.”

Following 9/11, Shavit founded Athena, a company which advises countries on issues of homeland security, intelligence gathering, and counter-terrorism. He maintains the position of CEO in the company.

If international terrorist groups were free to plan and execute attacks before 9/11, today they invest over 50 percent of their time worrying about their own survival, he claimed.

“The fact of the matter is that since 9/11 they haven’t repeated an attack of similar magnitude, and it’s not for lack of trying.”

Source:  Times of Israel

Tonight Rosh Hashanah begins a period of inward reflection – far better than recovering from night before.

Rabbi Samuel Altschul says Jews have had to find humour in dark times. Photo / Natalie Slade

For most of us, the sunset at 6.03pm tonight will be unremarkable. But for the 450 families who make up the Auckland Hebrew Congregation, it will mark the moment when the year 5773 becomes 5774.

The New Year ushered in at midnight on December 31 is a time of revelry. For Jews the world over, Rosh Hashanah (literally “the head of the year”) ushers in a period of inward focus and contemplation.

As darkness falls, Jews, for whom the day begins and ends at sundown, begin Yamim Noraim, the Days of Awe – a 10-day period that ends at Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

I knew none of this until last week when I went to see Rabbi Samuel Altschul at the congregation’s central Auckland HQ in Greys Ave. I shudder to think what my late mother, a snobby Anglican who regarded just talking to Catholics as sinful, would have made of it, but the rabbi seemed most happy to see me and if he was alarmed at my ignorance of Judaism, he was far too polite to show it.

Even when I told him that most of what I knew about Judaism I’d picked up from listening to comedians, he seemed unfazed: “We haven’t had much to laugh at through the years,” he said, “and I guess that’s one of the reasons why Jews make such good comedians: we have had to spice up our lives with humour that looks at the dark side of life and then laughs at it.”

“These traditions are very much alive today,” he said, “in the way that we celebrate, the daily remembrances, in everything that we do. I don’t want to trespass on anyone’s territory, but just as the Maori are very attached to their whenua, so the Jews have a spiritual connection to the dirt.”

I would have asked the rabbi how this 5773 years “since the creation of the world” (his words) squared with palaeontology and Darwin, but he saw that one coming.

“We have to understand,” he said, “that all religion is written in a language that man can access. For me there is no conflict between creation and evolution. If God created the laws of physics should he not abide by them?”

I had a sneaking suspicion that this rather avoided the point but I wasn’t about to buy a fight over theology with a man so obviously learned.

On Saturday – the Jewish Sabbath or Shabbat – I was back at the synagogue at the rabbi’s invitation. Garth Cohen, the president of the congregation, greeted me, found me a kippah, or skull cap, to cover my head, and politely put paid to my idea of note-taking in the synagogue. During Shabbat, we are required to neither create nor destroy anything, he explained.

About two dozen, men and women seated apart, were in attendance in the sanctuary for the three hours of prayer, in which the rabbi chanted prescribed portions of the Torah – the entire thing is read over the course of each year. At one point, the exquisite sacramental version, hand-inscribed on calfskin scroll, was taken from the cabinet, called an ark, and unrolled on a high desk, to which men from the congregation were summoned to read.

I was struck by the mixture of solemn liturgy and casual conversation – the men who talked to me did not use hushed tones and the rabbi broke off prayers to speak directly to individuals. More than anything it seemed like the gathering of a community in which ritual was the medium rather than the aim.

Tonight and tomorrow and in the days to come, that sanctuary will be packed, the rabbi told me, because new year is “a time of the year to refocus”.

“You open up the ledger and look at your actions for the past year. Is there somebody you need to apologise to? Is there something that you could have done better? Where can you improve yourself?”

I can’t help feeling it’s a more useful undertaking than nursing a hangover.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Peter Calder is a freelance journalist

Source:  NZ Herald 4/9/2013

Jewish New Year brings with it a renewed desire that Palestinians and Israelis will eventually live in peace.

This week Jewish people around the globe will take time out to welcome in the new year of 5774.

According to a tradition that dates back to the 13th century, we bid the outgoing year good riddance for the hardships it brought upon us and welcome the New Year and the blessings we hope it will bring us. This belief that the new leaf that we turn may be a harbinger of good things to come has not changed. Through eras of bounty and periods of want, during years of peace and in times of unparalleled persecution, generations of Jews have never given up the hope for a better future.

It is true that we are still faced with an on-going threat from beyond our borders and the view from our collective window reveals an unsettling panorama of strife and violence. Although Israel remains uninvolved, we must maintain our vigilance. Despite the turmoil, as we approach the New Year the aspirations of the Israeli people remain as strong as ever. We refuse to give up our conviction that a new dawn is possible. Even though several years were lost, we still maintain our faith that Palestinians and Israelis will eventually live in peace.

Nurtured by this belief, Israel has welcomed the efforts of Secretary of State John Kerry to renew direct talks between our government and the Palestinian Authority. We have no illusion that the road we undertake to travel is going to be smooth. The stakes have not changed. Those who clamour for Israeli withdrawal from territories seem to overlook the fact that the conflict is not only about borders. Security-related issues are equally important. We expect our neighbours to respect our right to self determination as the Jewish State, just as they insist on their identity as a Palestinian State. The eventual agreement should state explicitly that once it is signed and implemented the conflict will have come to an end.

These and other issues that we will have to tackle are momentous and touch on every facet of our lives as a nation. Yet, as Israel has demonstrated time and again in the past, when the opportunity for change presents itself, our leaders have shown courage and determination to move forward.

This new chapter in our voyage towards peace requires patience and perseverance. As we re-launch our efforts, we are encouraged by the voices of those who understand that there are no shortcuts along the way and simplistic slogans do the cause of peace a disservice.

We have a vision which is common to all peace-loving nations and is applicable to all. It is embedded in one of our most traditional prayers: He, who creates peace in His Celestial Heights, may He create peace for all of us and all Israel and all Humanity and say Amen.

Let us all re-iterate our hope that the vision of peace will become a reality and that this time our efforts will bear fruit.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Yosef Livne is the Israeli Ambassador to New Zealand.

Source:  NZ Herald 5 September 2013

Egypt’s Tamarod movement succeeded in its attempt to pressure the Egyptian military to expel former President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood-led government from office. Now the question is whether Tamarod and the other elements of the former opposition can avoid the kind of fragmentation and divisive infighting that played a significant role in catapulting the Muslim Brotherhood to power in the first place. There are many challenges to overcome, not the least of which is that the military ultimately holds the keys to power — something the Muslim Brotherhood learned the hard way July 3. Going forward, it will be difficult for the disparate blend of liberal, secular and Islamist parties united in their shared desire to see Morsi deposed to maintain their cohesion

Read more.

It is unclear what will become of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in the wake of the July 3 ouster of President Mohammed Morsi. In the short term, the world’s oldest and largest Islamist movement will continue to denounce the coup and engage in protests which, coupled with the security crackdown on the Brotherhood, will likely result in violence. Eventually, however, the group will try to revive itself by re-assimilating into Egypt’s political institutions, though it is in no hurry to attempt to reclaim the presidency.

Read more:  Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Recovers After Morsi’s Ouster

This article is republished with permission of Stratfor.