Mumbai Attack, Jewish Angle

By Benjamin Schuman-Stoler All our Thanksgiving weekends were touched with sadness as news from Mumbai interrupted what should have been cheery days watching football and spending time with family. The details of the perpetrators' motivation and planning are still being worked out, but we know a number of attackers landed via boat at Mumbai on Wednesday and attacked specific locations around the city, from malls to cafes to train stations. The most publicized was a siege at the Taj Mahal Hotel that lasted until the weekend. In all, at least 179 were killed and 239 injured. We at Moment were particularly aghast when we heard that one location the attackers targeted was the Lubavitch Chabad center. The bodies of six Chabad center victims--Chabad emissaries Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, Yocheved Orpaz, Ben-Zion Kruman, Aryeh Leibish Teitelbaum and Norma Schvartzblat-Rabinowitz--were...

Continue reading

Shin Bet Justice: Tunnel Vision?

Tunnels. The very word connotes ancient secrets, mystic rites and modern adventure. Israel is blessed with tunnels both natural (the country gets whole pages on spelunking websites) and man made: The "Rabbinical" tunnels alongside and beneath the Temple Mount get lots of attention. Their excavation launched Arab riots as well as a new locus for tourism. (Jerusalem's coolest tunnel is Hezekiah's ancient passage to the Gihon Spring, seen at right.) For Israel's security forces, it's the tunnels under Gaza's border with Egypt that, understandably, generate the most interest. Egypt's government claims, unconvincingly, that it's trying to keep the tunnels closed, while evidence at the other end (filmed by France24's English newscast) shows Gazans' using the tunnels routinely to smuggle in market goods and even electricity generation. Hamas undoubtedly also uses them for less homey shipments, like...

Continue reading