Israeli Delegation A No-Show At U.N. Due To Religious Holiday

[Purveyor]

(CNN) -- Israel says its U.N. delegation was not able to attend the U.N. General Assembly session on Thursday because of the observance of Sukkot, a Jewish holiday.

"Due to the overwhelming number of calls and e-mails that we are receiving, even though it is the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, we feel that it is necessary to release the following statement," the Israeli consulate in New York said.

There had been questions raised as to why the delegation was absent in light of President Barack Obama's focus in his address about the Middle East peace process. Some of Obama's policies are unpopular among Israelis, and there were questions as to whether the lack of presence was a snub.

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http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/09/23/israel.un/

[Ruby the Liberal]

1. Work is not prohibited during Sukkot.

Someone is adding 2 + 2 and coming up with 5.

[Jim Sagle]

2. Hogwash.

[Igel]

3. The first day is a sabbath.

The only work that you can do during that sabbath that you can't do during a weekly sabbath, in my understanding, is food preparation.

So unless they were going to roast Obama, they couldn't be there.

[azurnoir]

4. so I guess this counts as a roasting

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/139757

if arutz sheva, jpost, haaretz, etc could publish then someone was working. we have been regularly told how most Israeli's are secular , what none of them are in the government?

[henank]

5. Look carefully at the time stamps

Arutz Sheva is a religious publication. Their article was published on:

Published: 09/23/10, 10:33 PM

The festival day ended at 18.13, so this was 4 hours later. During the rest of the Sukkot week work is permitted, until Wednesday evening at around 5 p.m. for the final day, Simchat Torah.

As for the JPost and Haaretz, neither of those institutions are religious, they are privately owned work places and do not represent "official Israel" so perhaps they do work on Shabbat or festivals. Israel is not a theocracy, no matter what you may think, and if people want to break Jewish laws they are free to do so.

However Israel, as an officially Jewish state, and by extension its officials when they are on official duty, keep to the Jewish laws in public, whether Kashrut (dietary laws), working on holy days etc.

[azurnoir]

6. excuses excuses that's the time stamp on one article besides we're talking New York time n/t

[henank]

14. No, I was talking Israel time

If you want to convert that to NY time, do your own maths, deduct 6 hours. (Israel went on to winter time before Yom Kippur).

[azurnoir]

21. The UN address was in NYC not Israel n/t

[henank]

22. You really don't understand international time zones

do you? The Arutz Sheva website is produced in Israel, with Israeli time stamps. Therefore you can figure out from the time stamps what the equivalent time in NY it was. The fact that the article was published during Sukkot in NY time is irrelevant. The time ruling at publishing date was Israeli time, and at that hour it was not the 1st day of Sukkot any more. Therefore the religious website permitted itself to publish the story at that hour - since, as I said, it was not the 1st day any more, being after sunset.

[azurnoir]

24. no you do not understand that the UN address was held in the morning

I do not care when the Arutz Sheva article was published the Israeli reps could have been present or news flash the world does not set its clocks by Israeli time

[shira]

8. Remember, Israel and its supporters are always to blame

Nevermind that you'll never find Muslim or Christian representatives at these UN functions during their holiest days of the year. Try making Americans work on Christmas by giving the excuse that the daily papers are running....

:eyes:

One standard for Israel, one for everyone else.

Fair is fair.

[ConsAreLiars]

7. So, none among the delegation were not religiously insane?

In a state that supposedly includes secularists, atheists, Muslims, Christians and all regardless of delusional affiliation, not even one was exempt from that asinine superstition?

Wow!

[oberliner]

9. People who observe Sukkot are religiously insane?

Observing a Jewish holiday is an "asinine superstition"?

Would the observance of Ramadan also be characterized by you as an asinine superstition?

Are the over one billion Muslims who observe that holiday "religiously insane"?

[shira]

11. Not one American delegation does a normal 8 hr workday on Christmas or Thanksgiving?

What, none of them are secular or atheist?

:shrug:

Yes, I understand it's Israel and its supporters so anything goes.....

[oberliner]

10. Can't right-wing bloggers read a (lunar) calendar?

Right wing blogs were forced to issue humiliating updates after their most recent fake story -- that the Israeli delegation had rejected President Obama by "skip" his speech to the United Nations -- completely dissolved. In fact, the Israeli delegation was absent because they were observing the Jewish holiday Sukkot.

Israeli delegation was absent due to observation of Jewish holiday of Sukkot

Israeli spokeswoman: "It was not a boycott." According to Reuters, a spokeswoman for Israel's UN mission said that the Israeli officials' actions were "not a boycott" and that the delegation was absent due to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

Israeli consulate released statement explaining that Obama administration had been informed of planned absence. Citing the "the overwhelming number of calls and e-mails that we are receiving," the Israeli consulate in New York "said the Obama administration had been informed of the absence in advance and stressed that Israeli President Shimon Peres and Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak were present at Obama speech on Wednesday at the Millennium Development Goals summit at the United Nations," CNN reported.

The consulate statement also said, "In accordance to established practice when the U.N. General Assembly falls during a holiday or the Sabbath, Israel's Ambassador to Israel's Permanent Mission to the United Nation, the Honorable Meron Reuben, and members of the Mission called Ambassadors and members of their delegation explaining the meaning for Israel's absence during their speech and wishing them success. Similar calls were made to Missions who addressed the U.N. on the Sabbath."

<snip>

Right wing media just can't stop pushing fake stories

Right-wing media are constantly pushing entirely concocted stories, such as their claims that a deceptively edited video indicated Shirley Sherrod was a racist; that Mexican gangs had "invade" Texas and taken over two ranches; that President Obama "backed the release" of the Lockerbie bomber; that the Obama administration planned to "ban sport fishing"; and that Obama lied about attending his daughter's soccer game.

http://mediamatters.org/research/201009230049

[shira]

12. Israel haters love far Rightwing stories that defame Israel and its supporters

How else to explain the way they fall for almost every wild story released by Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran....?

:shrug:

[azurnoir]

13. I guess that makes Jon Stewart right wing huh?

http://www.thedailyshow.com/ first vid up

[oberliner]

15. Ask Media Matters - it was their headline and story

Jon Stewart is a comedian. There was definitely some humor in the situation.

[azurnoir]

16. Stewart may be a comedian however his views are taken seriously enough for Bill Clinton,

Jimmy Carter, and on the show in question the King of Jordan to appear BTW Stewart did not refute that Sukkot is a holiday, just that it is a major holiday and truly worthy of Israel absenting it self, not to mention that the address was well before sunset unless we are to believe Jews are supposed to set their clocks to Israeli time no matter where they are located and one would think that at least some of Israel's UN reps reside in NYC

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

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[shira]

18. It's a national holiday in Israel, just as Christmas is in the USA when no UN delegations work. n/t

[henank]

19. Your refusal to recognize Jewish holidays

is highly amusing but pathetic and sad.

Unless religious insanity within the whole delegation or some sort of cultism is an excuse, this is nonsense
What utter bigoted drivel. I dare you to say a similar thing about Islam.

Maybe everyone with citizenship takes some secret oath to never work on this holiday if getting a government salary or some such silliness.
Well, of course. That secret Jewish cabal is hard at work, making all citizens take secret oaths. They wouldn't be getting their money's worth otherwise.

"This BS about work being prohibited to all Jews regardless of degree of religiosity is pure fiction.
Riiight. Because you're such an expert on Judaism, Rabbi.

I shall rinse and repeat one last time: According to Jewish law, work is prohibited on the first and last days of Sukkot and Pesach (Passover), and on the day of Shavuot (Pentecost). Religious Jews keep to these laws religiously (pun intended). Non-religious Jews probably do not observe the laws meticulously. This is their right in any free and democratic state. So if American non-religious Jews choose to work on Sukkot they are free to do so. No one is going to stone them to death, or even issue a fatwa against them.

HOWEVER - as representatives of Israel, which is a Jewish country whether you like it or not, even non-religious Jews will not work on a Jewish holiday, because these are the equivalents of a national holiday, as Shira said.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[henank]

23. What a fine misrepresentation of religion

Your argument is that as a theocracy both the secular and the religious Israeli citizens are prohibited by law from doing anything other than eat
You have deliberately twisted my words. I have never claimed that Israel is a theocracy. On the contrary. I have stated that it is not.

But it is not "Jewish law," since Lieberman, who works overtime to present himself as ultra-religious as well as ultra-dumbass worked that day.
It is indeed Jewish law. You go and find me the relevant halacha that says work is permitted. The fact that Lieberman worked on that day is irrelevant. I don't care how he presents himself, or how he represents himself. It is his right to do as he want. That doesn't change Halacha. And if you don't know what Halacha is, go and google.

Furthermore he may have found a way to "work" without actually breaking any halachic rules. There are several ways to manage this.

All of which does not mean that the Israeli delegation, whether secular or religious, will work in any official capacity on a Jewish holiday.

But your defense of what I saw as an intentional insult is claiming those in the "Jewish country" of Israel are not free to violate the religious dictates of a theocratic state, and that this is a case in point. They were not free to attend, even the secular ones,
You're the one making intentional insults now. As I said, Israelis in official representative delegations cannot work on a Jewish holiday - by virtue of Israeli civil law, which accepts Jewish holidays as national holidays. I wonder how many Americans would work in an official delegation representing their country on 4th July.

They were not free to attend, even the secular ones, even if they wanted to show some respect, because they were prohibited by an extremest version of a religious superstition that very few American Jews ever recognized, but that had been written into Israeli law.
I don't think you realize just how breathtakingly bigoted and racist you actually sound, whether you are or not in real life. The fact that American Jews do or do not recognize Orthodox Judaism as "their" religion is once again irrelevant. The Judaism as practiced by the "official" Israeli civil state as far as dietary laws and national holidays are concerned is Orthodox Judaism. To call that "superstition" and "extremist" is just about the most bigoted and racist thing I have read. But then, I repeat myself.

Once again, I dare you to use any of these adjectives WRT Islam.

Wow! How many here actually refused to go to work or participate in discussions or attend meetings or do anything but fix food and eat it on that Thursday.
I did, for one. But then you're going to call me superstitions, extremist and racist aren't you.

Go ahead. Do the count here in this forum.
What the HELL has this forum got to do with the subject??! We are talking about the Israeli delegation at the UN.

I can see you're not going to let this go until you've thoroughly convinced yourself that Judaism is extremist, racist, superstitious and backwards. Gesundheit is all I can say, and I hope you can get over yourself.