JN-1054

Jerusalem News (13 April, 2014, 13 Nisan, 5774)

Contents:
1. EU Foments Strife in Ukraine
US blaming Ukrainian authorities for violence is 'catastrophic move'
2.  Denmark Forbids Ritual Jewish Slaughter of Animals but Legalizes Sex with Beasts
Jewish groups excoriate Denmark over legalized bestiality by SAM SOKOL
3. Spanish village called 'kill Jews' mulling name change
Village of Castrillo Matajudios will convene its 60 families to vote on name dating back to Spanish Inquisition.

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1. EU Foments Strife in Ukraine
US blaming Ukrainian authorities for violence is catastrophic move
http://rt.com/op-edge/us-blaming-ukraine-violence-catastrophic-012/
February 21, 2014 07:35

Extracts:

Washington's putting all of the blame for the violence in the streets of Kiev on the government is irresponsible and dangerous, Martin Sieff, chief global analyst at the Globalist Research Center and editor-at-large at the Globalist told RT.

Sieff believes the turmoil in Ukrainian has been triggered by pressures from the EU, unwilling to accept Kiev's decision to put European integration deal on hold. Now the stance that the US and the EU have taken in supporting the insurgents in Ukraine might inspire similar processes in Western Europe, where secessionist movements are on the rise.

RT: We've heard a number of people say on this very channel today, that with America's unconditional backing - the opposition feels it can get away with a lot more. Could Washington's support be fueling the violence?

Martin Sieff: To some degree yes but not totally. Washington is certainly culpable, but I think Washington is being ill-served by Brussels and the European Union. The primary triggers for the crisis came from the pressures that the European Union put on Ukraine and for the EU's refusal to play a good loser when President Yanukovich decided that he could not go through with the terms that the EU had laid down for association.

Washington has followed Brussels' lead continually on this and they should not have done so. The US State Department, at the highest policy-making levels, is relatively weakly staffed when it comes to Europe and, for that matter, Russia. The main emphasis in recent years has been primarily on the Asian Pacific and also on the Middle East. They've ignored Europe and this lack of high-powered expertise is now starting to tail.

RT: What do you make of Washington blaming the authorities in Kiev for this violence?

MS: It's a catastrophic move, it's a revolutionary move. There are far greater dangerous implications to this than anybody in Washington or Western Europe seems to realize. It is placing the European Union and the United States on the side of revolutionary chaos and disorder not just in other countries around the world, which would be bad enough, but in the heartland of Europe. This is very dangerous and irresponsible.

RT: Did the EU and the US not see the rise of nationalism and extremism in these riots? In effect what we're seeing is a revolution and that's what the nationalists want. Is that what the EU and US wanted?

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2.  Denmark Forbids Ritual Jewish Slaughter of Animals but Legalizes Sex with Beasts
Jewish groups excoriate Denmark over legalized bestiality
By SAM SOKOL
04/03/2014 18:28
http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Jewish-groups-excoriate-Denmark-over-legalized-bestiality-347467

Extracts:
  
Several Jewish groups issued statements this week slamming Denmark for last month's ban on Jewish ritual slaughter on the grounds of animal rights, despite the country continuing to sanction bestiality.

Denmark is one of several European countries in which sexual intercourse with animals is permitted by law. The country's legalized bestiality has even attracted sex tourists from Norway, the Norwegian Afterposten newspaper reported in 2011.

Agriculture and Food Minister Dan Jorgensen banned all slaughter without pre-stunning last month.

Importation of kosher and hallal meat is still legal.

Denmark's legalized bestiality... puts the argument that the ban was engineered to protect animals into doubt, several leading European rabbis argue. Jewish organizations have doubted Denmark's animal rights record in the past, with the Conference of European Rabbis recently issuing a statement calling the ban 'a fig leaf intended to cover the country's woeful record on animal welfare.'

In the statement, CER President Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt referred to the recent outrage surrounding the killing of a healthy giraffe and four lions at a Copenhagen zoo. He asserted that 'as the media continue to report stories about perfectly healthy animals being slaughtered for no good reason, it becomes ever more apparent that this is less about animal welfare and much more about the politics of immigration and integration.'

According to Ben Williamson of PETA UK, an animal rights organization in Britain, 'Denmark is one of the few remaining NATO countries that still mutilates and kills live animals during medical training exercises.'

In a statement to The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, Goldschmidt, whose great-grandfather served as the Denmark's chief rabbi, called the country's legalized bestiality 'another example which clearly shows that the issue at hand is not the rights of animals but a society set to limit the religious freedom of minority religions at its midst.'

Rabbi Menachem Margolin, president of the Rabbinical Center of Europe, another continental rabbinical organization, said that the dichotomy between allowing sex with animals who cannot give consent and disallowing ancient religious traditions calls into question the sincerity of those who say that the ban is not anti-semitic.

Those supporting the ban are hypocrites, he added.

'As long as hunting and bestiality are allowed in Denmark, the ban against shechita is populist at best,' Rabbi Yitzchock Loewenthal of Chabad of Denmark remarked.

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3. Spanish village called 'kill Jews' mulling name change
Village of Castrillo Matajudios will convene its 60 families to vote on name dating back to Spanish Inquisition.
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/1.585318
By JTA | Apr. 12, 2014 | 11:18 PM| 2
 
Extracts:

A Spanish village is considering removing the phrase 'kill Jews' from its name.

The village of Castrillo Matajudios near Leon in northern Spain will convene its 60 resident families at a town hall meeting next week to discuss and vote on the first formal proposal to change the village's name, the regional daily Diario de Burgos reported Friday.

Mayor Lorenzo Rodriguez, who submitted the proposal, suggested changing the village's name to Castrillo Mota de Judios, which means 'Castrillo Jews' Hill.' He said this was the village's original name, but it was changed during the Spanish Inquisition.

In parts of Spain, and especially in the north, locals use the term 'killing Jews' (matar Judios) to describe the traditional drinking of lemonade spiked with alcohol at festivals held in city squares at Easter, or drinking in general.

Leon will hold its 'matar Judios' fiesta on Good Friday, April 18, where organizers estimate 40,000 gallons of lemonade will be sold.

The name originates from medieval times, when converted Jews would sometimes be publicly executed in show trials at around Easter, Maria Royo, a spokesperson for the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain told JTA.

'Regrettably, this type of expression exists in Spain in ceremonies and parties,' she said, but added that 'the people saying it are mostly unaware of the history. It is a complicated issue that is ingrained in local culture.'