HUNDREDS of US rabbis have signed an open letter protesting against Israel’s new far-right administration and pledging to block the extremist members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet from speaking at their religious centres and communities.
The letter, drafted by two prominent retired rabbis, drew more than 300 signatures from rabbis in the Reform, Conservative, Renewal and Reconstructing movements. There were no Orthodox signatories.
Among the signatories were current and former members of the boards of rabbis in Chicago and Los Angeles; rabbis who lead the largest Conservative and Reform congregations in the Washington, DC, area; former leaders of major Reform and Conservative movement bodies; the current leader of the Reconstructionist movement; and the rector of the Conservative movement’s Los Angeles-based American Jewish University.
The letter was organised by David Teutsch, a leading Reconstructionist rabbi in Philadelphia, and John Rosove, the rabbi emeritus of Temple Israel in Los Angeles.
The letter said the US rabbis will not invite members of the far-right political parties ‘to speak at our congregations and organisations. We will speak out against their participation in other fora across our communities. We will encourage the boards of our congregations and organisations to join us in this protest as a demonstration of our commitment to our Jewish and democratic values.’
The letter’s uncompromising tone and the breadth of the signatories is a signal of a burgeoning crisis in relations between Israel and the US Jewish community triggered by the election of the far-right parties.
Netanyahu announced his new cabinet including the far-right Religious Zionism, Otzma Yehudit and Noam factions late last Wednesday, although he has yet to finalise coalition agreements with his political partners.
Leaders of far-right parties have secured positions in Israel’s incoming cabinet that may help them push through policies such as annexing large swathes of the occupied West Bank, expansion of illegal settlements, and allowing Jewish prayer at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of al-Quds.
After the Israeli aggression on Gaza in May 2021, 25 per cent of American Jewish voters said Israel was an apartheid regime, in a poll conducted by the Jewish Electorate Institute.
Another 38 per cent of voters said Israel’s treatment of Palestinians was similar to general racism in the US.
- Russia and Iran are building a new transcontinental trade route that is beyond the reach of any foreign intervention.
Both countries are subject to Western sanctions that have prompted them to turn toward each other and look eastward.
The new 3,000-kilometre passage stretches from the eastern edge of Europe to the Indian Ocean, along rivers and railways that are linked by the Caspian Sea.
Bloomberg News said Iran and Russia are spending billions of dollars to speed up delivery of cargoes through the passage.
‘The goal is to shield commercial links from Western interference and build new ones with the giant and fast-growing economies of Asia,’ it said.
‘This is about establishing sanctions-proof supply chains all the way through,’ Maria Shagina, an expert on sanctions and Russian foreign policy at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, told the US financial news provider.
The most prominent thing about the emerging trade corridor is its advantage over traditional routes which are thousands of kilometres longer.
At its northern end is the Sea of Azov which – President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month – ‘has become an inland sea’ for Russia. It is bracketed by the Crimean Peninsula and the mouth of the River Don.
From there river, sea and rail networks extend to Iranian hubs on the Caspian Sea and ultimately the Indian Ocean.
Russia is finalising rules that would give ships from Iran right of passage along inland waterways on the Volga and Don rivers, according to Iran’s Maritime News Agency.
Last month, the Mehr News Agency reported that a first 12 million-ton shipment of Russian grain bound for India has already transited Iran.
According to Bloomberg, trade flows could increase if Iran manages to connect the unfinished and Chabahar Port complex on the Indian Ocean to its long distance train network.
India has invested in the project, seeing Chabahar as a stepping stone in its bid to become a regional infrastructure developer and expand trade with Afghanistan and other Central Asian states as well as the region beyond.
In September, President Putin underlined the need to develop the ship, rail and road infrastructure along the route.
The route, he said, ‘will provide Russian companies with new opportunities to enter the markets of Iran, India, the Middle East and Africa, and will facilitate supplies from these countries in return’.
According to Shagina’s estimates, Russia and Iran are investing as much as $25 billion in the inland trade corridor.
The two countries have announced a raft of new business deals that cover goods including turbines, polymers, medical supplies and automotive parts.
Russia, Bloomberg said, needs to compensate for the sudden breakdown of its commercial ties with Europe, which before the Ukraine war was its biggest trade partner, as well as finding workarounds for US and European Union sanctions.
Iran’s geographical location allows Russia to safely transport goods via the trade corridor through Iranian territory all the way to Asia and India without incurring the risk of Western sanctions, it added.
Head of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sergey Katyrin said trade with Iran is ‘a logistical bridge’ between Russia and the Middle East, as well as South and Southeast Asia.
Trade between Russia and Iran has surged this year, with turnover exceeding $4 billion over January-October 2022 and is expected to surpass $5 billion by the end of the year, according to Russia’s Federal Customs Service.
Russian exports to Iran have so far jumped by 27% versus last year, while imports are up 10%.
Katyrin told a conference in Tehran last month that there’s a ‘clear path’ to reaching $40 billion once a free-trade agreement is in place.
In July, Iran’s Shana news agency said the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and Russia’s Gazprom had signed a ‘historic’ deal worth $40 billion for joint investment in oil and gas projects.
Last month, the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines Group (IRISL) made a $10 million investment in a port along the Volga, the Iranian Labour News Agency reported.
The aim, it said, is to almost double cargo capacity at the Solyanka Port in the Russian city of Astrakhan, to 85,000 tons a month.
The new corridor is a boost to a concerted effort among Iran, Russia and China to knit together the whole Eurasian territory.
China and Russia are already members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, an economic-security body that is making Iran its ninth member.
China and Iran are both close to gaining membership in the Eurasian Economic Union, which will make free trade across the countries possible.
Another institution that links economies in the region and beyond it is the BRICS group.
Initially made up of Brazil, Russia, India and China, it now also includes South Africa and is poised to expand further.
