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A Personal Tribute to Senator Joseph Lieberman
Former US Senator Joe Lieberman speaks at an event in Ashraf-3 camp, which is a base for the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK) in Manza, Albania, July 13, 2019. Photo: REUTERS/Florion Goga
The words that come to me as I absorb with great sadness the sudden passing of Senator Joe Lieberman, of blessed memory, are from the verses describing his namesake, Joseph in ancient Egypt — how all who encountered him, from the top echelons of government to those imprisoned in its dungeons, could see that “God was with him, and everything he did, God made succeed in his hand.” (Genesis 39:3).
As Pharaoh himself said, on appointing Joseph to be the prime minister of Egypt, “Could we find another like him — a man who has the spirit of God within him … there is no one as insightful and wise.” (Genesis 41:38-39)
Like Joseph in ancient Egypt, as a United States Senator, Joseph Lieberman held high office in a global superpower, succeeding in everything he did, and enjoying Divine blessings. He was God’s ambassador for the Torah’s noblest attributes — humility, wisdom, integrity and compassion — and was the ultimate Kiddush Hashem, sanctifying the Divine name in the world, carrying it with befitting dignity and grace.
Senator Lieberman was a public servant in the truest sense, living, as our sages describe, “for the sake of Heaven.” His memoir, In Praise of Public Life, is a tribute to the idea of politics for a higher purpose. The book is about the importance of making a difference — of getting involved in public life in order to make the world a better place. He writes, paraphrasing Pirkei Avot: “The day is short… and there is much work to be done, tikkun olam, repairing our government and improving our beloved country and world. We are not required to complete the work ourselves, but, as good and grateful citizens, we cannot withdraw from it either.”
Senator Lieberman was a man of principle. He was the first national Democrat to publicly criticize President Bill Clinton for his infidelity, drawing the anger of his party and risking his political career. And yet, Al Gore — Vice President under Clinton — turned to Senator Lieberman to join the ticket for the 2000 presidential elections, making him the first Jewish candidate on a major-party ticket for the White House.
But Senator Lieberman wasn’t just Jewish by birth — he was a proud, vocal Jew, unreserved and totally committed to his Judaism. In the heat of the campaign, he made it publicly known that he would not be campaigning on Shabbat. As renowned political commentator Charles Krauthammer put it, “Jews in American public life are old news; Orthodox Jews are not… Which is why Lieberman’s entry onto the national stage is so significant. It not only confirms and ratifies the full entry of Jews into the higher councils of American life. It marks the entry of Judaism into the deeper recesses of the American consciousness.”
And at the heart of Senator Lieberman’s own Jewish consciousness was Shabbat. In the opening pages of The Gift of Rest — the title of his book on the subject — he describes how, delayed by an important vote at the Senate, he had to walk home one Friday night in the rain:
It’s Friday night and it’s one of those torrential downpours that we get in Washington, D.C., and I’m walking from the Capitol to my home in Georgetown getting absolutely soaked — the United States Capitol policemen at my side as we make our way up Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol building towards our distant goal, a four-and-a-half-mile walk. But I do not — indeed, I cannot — accept a ride in the car.
Reflecting on this symbolic moment he wrote, “Sabbath observance is a gift that has anchored, shaped and inspired my life.” It was through Senator Lieberman’s passion for Shabbat that I got to know him personally. We shared a vision of spreading Shabbat in the world. He kindly joined the International Advisory Board of The Shabbat Project, giving so generously of his time and effort, and sharing his connections and wisdom. He was a cherished advisor and mentor, and his gentle warmth and friendship meant the world to me. I will miss him dearly.
Our world is dimmer without Senator Joseph Lieberman. Let us illuminate it by living the values he personified — sharing the light of Shabbat, dignity, decency, and faith, in our world.
May his memory be a blessing — like his beloved Shabbat, “the source of all blessing.”
The author is the Chief Rabbi of South Africa.
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Israel Destroyed Top Secret Iranian Nuclear Weapons Site
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
JNS.org – The Israeli airstrikes on Iran last month destroyed a secret nuclear weapons research facility in Parchin, 19 miles southeast of Tehran, Axios reported on Friday.
The clandestine site held sophisticated equipment used for testing explosives needed to detonate nuclear devices, the report read, citing three US officials, one current Israeli official and one former Israeli official.
The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security acquired high-resolution satellite imagery of the facility, which showed that it was completely destroyed in Israel’s Oct. 26 attack.
Israeli and US intelligence agencies began noticing activity in the Taleghan 2 facility in the Parchin military complex in early 2024, which had been largely inactive since 2003, when the Islamic Republic froze its military nuclear program, according to Axios.
One unnamed US official quoted in the report said: “[The Iranians] conducted scientific activity that could lay the ground for the production of a nuclear weapon. It was a top secret thing. A small part of the Iranian government knew about this, but most of the Iranian government didn’t.”
Although President Joe Biden asked Jerusalem not to target Tehran’s nuclear facilities, the site in Parchin was chosen as a target because it was not part of Iran’s declared nuclear program.
This placed the mullah regime in a position where admitting a hit to the site would expose its efforts to resume activity forbidden by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
Moreover, “The strike was a not so subtle message that the Israelis have significant insight into the Iranian system even when it comes to things that were kept top secret and known to a very small group of people in the Iranian government,” the report cited a US official as saying.
Last week, Rafael Grossi, the director of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency, visited Iran for the first time since May.
He is expected to meet with his agency’s board of governors in Vienna this week for a vote on a resolution to censure Tehran for its lack of cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
Speaking about the tensions between Israel and Iran, Grossi said during a news conference in Tehran on Thursday that the Islamic Republic’s “nuclear installations should not be attacked.”
Earlier in the week, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz suggested that Iran’s nuclear facilities may be targeted.
Iran is “more exposed than ever to strikes on its nuclear facilities. We have the opportunity to achieve our most important goal—to thwart and eliminate the existential threat to the State of Israel,” Katz said.
Israel’s two assaults against Iran’s air defense system this year have left the country vulnerable to future attacks, with all four of Tehran’s Russian-made S-300 surface-to-air missile batteries destroyed, according to U.S. media.
On April 19, Israel took out one of the S-300 systems in response to Tehran’s first-ever direct attack against the Jewish state. On Oct. 26, in response to a second Iranian attack, Israel targeted 20 sites in Iran, destroying the remaining three.
“The majority of Iran’s air defense was taken out,” a senior Israeli official told Fox News.
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Yemen’s Houthis Say They Attacked ‘Vital Target’ in Israel’s Eilat
Houthi-mobilized fighters ride atop a car in Sanaa, Yemen, Sept. 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
Yemen’s Houthi forces attacked “a vital target” in Israel’s Red Sea port city of Eilat with a number of drones, the Iran-aligned group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree said on Saturday.
The terrorist group has launched dozens of attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea region since November in solidarity with Hamas.
“These operations will not stop until the aggression stops, the siege on the Gaza Strip is lifted, and the aggression on Lebanon stops,” Saree added in a televised speech.
The Houthi attacks have upended global trade by forcing ship owners to reroute vessels away from the vital Suez Canal shortcut, and drawn retaliatory U.S. and British strikes since February.
The post Yemen’s Houthis Say They Attacked ‘Vital Target’ in Israel’s Eilat first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Muslims from ‘Abandon Harris’ Campaign Gutted by Pro-Israel Cabinet Picks
US Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, Sept. 10, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
JNS.org – Muslim leaders in the United Stated who called for supporting President-elect Donald Trump at the expense of Democrat runner Kamala Harris are deeply disappointed with the former president’s Cabinet nominees, Reuters reported on Thursday.
“It’s like he’s going on Zionist overdrive,” Abandon Harris campaign co-founder Hassan Abdel Salam, a former professor at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, said about Trump’s recently announced picks.
“We were always extremely skeptical. … Obviously we’re still waiting to see where the administration will go, but it does look like our community has been played,” Abdel Salam told Reuters.
Rabiul Chowdhury, a Philadelphia investor who chaired the Abandon Harris campaign in Pennsylvania and co-founded Muslims for Trump, was cited as saying: “Trump won because of us and we’re not happy with his secretary of state pick and others.”
Some political strategists believe that the Muslim vote for Trump, or the renunciation of Harris, helped tilt several swing states such as Michigan in the favor of the Republican candidate.
“It seems like this administration has been packed entirely with neoconservatives and extremely pro-Israel, pro-war people, which is a failure on the side of President Trump, to the pro-peace and anti-war movement,” said Rexhinaldo Nazarko, executive director of the American Muslim Engagement and Empowerment Network.
On Wednesday, Trump named Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) as his choice to be secretary of state.
Rubio is known for his staunch pro-Israel stance, including calling on Jerusalem earlier this year to destroy “every element” of Hamas and dubbing the Gaza-based terrorist organization as “vicious animals.”
Rubio joins a slew of pro-Israel officials Trump has tapped since he won the U.S. election, including former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) as his U.N. ambassador with a seat in the Cabinet.
Blaise Misztal, vice president for policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), told JNS that Trump’s focus so early in the transition process on Israel-related foreign policy picks is a mark of how his second administration will approach the region.
“That, in and of itself, signals that President Trump and his administration are going to take the region, the Middle East, the threats confronting Israel, seriously and take the U.S. friendship with Israel seriously,” Misztal said.
“The people that we’ve seen are known to be tremendously strong friends of Israel, first and foremost, but also very clear-eyed about the threats that the United States and Israel face together in the region.”
Before the election on Nov. 5, Trump promised Arab and Muslim voters he would restore stability in Lebanon and the Middle East, while criticizing the current administration’s regional policies during campaign stops targeting Muslim communities in Michigan.
Trump recently addressed Lebanese Americans, stating, “Your friends and family in Lebanon deserve to live in peace, prosperity and harmony with their neighbors, and this can only happen when there is peace and stability in the Middle East.”
Israel has been at war for more than a year on its southern and northern borders, ever since Hamas led a surprise attack on communities near the Gaza Strip border on Oct. 7, 2023, murdering some 1,200 people and abducting 251 more into the Palestinian enclave. A day later, Hezbollah joined Hamas’s efforts by firing rockets into Israel’s north.
The post Muslims from ‘Abandon Harris’ Campaign Gutted by Pro-Israel Cabinet Picks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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