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The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has apologized for suggesting that the impact of climate change would be worse than the Nazi genocide of some six million Jews. Welby, the most senior cleric in the Church of England and leader of the worldwide Anglican communion, made the comments in an interview with the BBC at the COP26 summit in Glasgow.
He added that politicians who fail to tackle environemental issues would be spoken of by future generations “in far stronger terms than we speak today of the politicians of the [19]30s, of the politicians who ignored what was happening in Nazi Germany.”
Notably, Welby’s father was Jewish.
I unequivocally apologise for the words I used when trying to emphasise the gravity of the situation facing us at COP26. It’s never right to make comparisons with the atrocities brought by the Nazis, and I’m sorry for the offence caused to Jews by these words. https://t.co/T0Be5rpnc1
— Archbishop of Canterbury (@JustinWelby) November 1, 2021
Meanwhile, former US president Donald Trump claimed during a radio interview that Israel “literally owned Congress” until roughly a decade ago, whereas now “it’s almost the opposite.”
He qualified: “You have between AOC [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)] and [Rep. Ilhan] Omar [D-MN] — and these people that hate Israel. They hate it with a passion — they’re controlling Congress, and Israel is not a force in Congress anymore. I mean, it’s just amazing. I’ve never seen such a change.”
Ocasio-Cortez and Omar were among 11 lawmakers who did not vote in favor of $1 billion in supplemental funding for Israel’s defensive Iron Dome missile defense system in September. But the funding was later green lighted in a separate bill that passed overwhelmingly, with 420 votes in favor. It has since been held up in the Senate by Rand Paul (R-KY).
With respect to the media, Trump said: “Look at The New York Times. The New York Times is vicious against Israel, and it’s just a terrible thing to watch.”
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Some 200 Republicans in the House of Representatives sent a letter to President Joe Biden opposing the administration’s stated desire to reopen the US consulate in Jerusalem.
The letter, spearheaded by Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) and co-sponsored by 199 House Republicans, including House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), states that reopening the consulate would “be inconsistent with the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 that became law, and was reaffirmed in recent years, with overwhelming bipartisan support.”
The Jerusalem Embassy Act calls for Jerusalem to be recognized as the capital of Israel and remain undivided. The Trump administration enacted this law in December 2017. As part of that move, the American consulate to the Palestinians was merged into the US embassy after the latter was relocated to Jerusalem in May 2018.
The letter follows a resolution introduced last week by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and co-signed by 35 Republican senators that aimed to block Biden’s plan to reopen the consulate, an initiative that many contend is tantamount to challenging Israel’s sovereignty over the holy city.
Both Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid have voiced their opposition to the prospect.
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Israeli Energy Minister Karin Elharrar was unable to participate in the UN Climate Change Conference, which she had traveled from Israel to Glasgow to attend, because it was not handicap accessible. Elharrar, who has muscular dystrophy, uses a wheelchair and a special handicap-accessible vehicle to get around. After attempting to enter for two hours, she left the conference.
“I went to the international climate conference to promote the joint struggle in the climate crisis through meetings with my counterparts around the world…. Unfortunately, that was not possible because of accessibility problems that have no justification in the year 2021,” Elharrar tweeted.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called Elharrar and said the situation was unacceptable and that he would make sure she could enter the summit in his motorcade on Tuesday morning. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said the climate conference’s organizers should know that “you cannot take care of the future, the climate and sustainability, without taking care of people, accessibility and people with disabilities.”
According to the conference’s website, “the venue, events and exhibits are wheelchair accessible.”
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For the first time ever, an official national team from the United Arab Emirates will compete in a soccer tournament in Israel, along with youth teams from Germany, Russia, and the Jewish state. The Gavri Levy winter tournament will take place from November 12-17.
It will be the first visit by an Arab sports team to Israel and comes a year after the respective football associations in Jerusalem and Dubai signed a cooperation agreement.
Israel Football Association Chairman Oren Hasson said: “[The] good news is unparalleled and is the fruit of a warm and fruitful relationship between the two associations.… Many good people on both sides have worked for this moment and for the deepening of cooperation in a variety of fields, believing that football is a wonderful means of bringing the two countries closer together and strengthening them…”
At a White House ceremony last year, Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed a deal, known as the Abraham Accords, that normalized relations between the two countries.
Bahrain, Sudan and Morroco have also signed onto the accords.
The Association of Gulf Jewish Communities (AGJC), the umbrella organization for the Jewish communities of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), announced the launch of the first dating website in the region for Jewish singles.
“We created JSG [Jewish Singles in the Gulf] for those who are looking for their soulmate,” text on the website explains, in addition to: “So tell us about yourself and what you are looking for and our dedicated matchmakers will help set you up with your bashert [loosely translated from Yiddish as ‘the one’].”
AGJC President Ebrahim Dawood Nonoo said: “As our communities throughout the GCC experienced unprecedented growth over the past few years, we have seen more and more singles move here with an interest in establishing more permanent roots in the region.”
The AGJC’s board consists of members from all six Gulf countries — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — that are working to strengthen Jewish life in the region.
Recommended Reading
- Is There a Future for American Jews? (Bret Stephens, Sapir)
- Cornell Professor’s Threat to Fail Maskless ‘Hook-Nosed’ Student Causes Backlash (Doree Lewak, New York Post)
- Israel’s Designation of Six Terrorism-Linked NGOs Was in Full Accordance with International Law (Lea Bilke, Amb. Alan Baker, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
- Strong Ties Bind Silicon Valley to Silicon Wadi (Abigail Klein Leichman, Israel21C)
- Jerusalem’s Archaeological Secrets Explored in Tower of David Pavilion (Rossella Tercatin, Jerusalem Post)
