Proud Pharisee of the 'American' 'Jewish' Committee Expects Catholic Submission to AJC Doctrine

Rabbi David Rosen, who heads the American Jewish Committee's interreligious affairs office and is a veteran of Catholic-Jewish dialogue, said he was worried about the Vatican's gesture [towards the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X] and awaited further clarification.


"If 'Nostra Aetate' and 'Lumen Gentium' (another Vatican II document) are not considered fundamental doctrines of the Church, and it is possible to question them without challenging the authority of the church, then we (and not just Jewish-Catholic relations) are in for a very rough ride ahead," he said in an email. ("Jews worried by Vatican gesture to traditionalists," Nicole Winfield, Associated Press, September 16, 2011)

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/16/3916038/jews-worried-by-vatican-gesture.html

Rabbi David Rosen of the 'American' 'Jewish' Committee wants Catholics to submit to the Vatican II document, Nostra Aetate as if it was "fundamental doctrine of the Church" (on par with the Apostles' Creed) because the 'American' 'Jewish' Committee, via Rabbi Abraham Heschel, co-wrote Nostra Aetate HERE.

In keeping with Jesus' teaching of Matthew 16;6,11-12 to beware the doctrine of the Pharisees, I reject the doctrines of the AJC and Rabbi David Rosen who self-identifies as a proud Pharisee HERE and I pray that every Christian does the same.

This is Rabbinic "Balance:" A Kosher-Slaughtered Gospel

Complete falsification of the Gospel is the aim of these Catholic and Rabbinic ideological and spiritual heirs of the Pharisees:

"Jesus understands himself completely as a Jew. He was never baptized, he never had a First Communion ..." Stueckl told the AP at an interview in May. "Increasing awareness of this is very important to me."

Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan, unto John, to be baptized by him ... (Matt. 3;13-17)

And whilst they were at supper, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke: and gave to his disciples, and said: Take ye, and eat. This is my body ... (Matt. 26;26-29)

AP INTERVIEW: Passion Play called more balanced

By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER (AP) – 3 hours ago

BERLIN — The redo of Germany's famous Oberammergau Passion Play apparently works.

A prominent American rabbi and the archbishop of New York said Friday that this year's production is more balanced than in the past, after the director removed several stereotypes that had raised concerns of anti-Semitism.

New York's Roman Catholic Archbishop Timothy Dolan and Rabbi Gary Greenebaum of the American Jewish Committee watched the play together Thursday in the Bavarian village where it has been performed for more than 400 years. They both told The Associated Press in separate phone interviews they agreed at a joint dinner during the play's intermission that the show was more sensitive than previous performances.

The two religious leaders lauded the passion play's director, Christian Stueckl, for his re-enactment of the suffering and last days of Jesus Christ.

"I have always been sensitive to Jewish concerns that the play could perpetuate the ancient and tragically unjust misunderstanding that the Jews are responsible for the killing of Jesus," Dolan said. "But thanks to the courage of the directors, the villagers and the Jewish leaders, the script has gradually been renewed."

Greenebaum said the American Jewish Committee and other Jewish groups had worked with the producers of the Oberammergau Passion Play since the 1970s to help them overcome anti-Jewish stereotypes. He said this year's performance "is more balanced than ever before and we need to appreciate the tremendous efforts that have gone into it."

The Alpine village of Oberammergau has performed the passion play for more than 400 years and it is considered the most famous one in the world. It is staged only every ten years, and roughly half of the village's population — some 2,500 people — perform in it.

Changes to the performance, which began in 1633 to fulfill a promise the village made to God if he were to end the Black Plague, are always hotly debated.

In this year's edition, Stueckl — who normally directs at Munich's Volkstheater — has altered the script and staging of his third Oberammergau Passion Play to make even clearer that the Jews at the time could not be held responsible for the killing of Jesus.

Stueckl has also highlighted the Jews' oppression by the Romans, making Pontius Pilate a more provocative character, and clearly showing Jesus' Jewish roots.

"Jesus understands himself completely as a Jew. He was never baptized, he never had a First Communion, but he celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at 12 and died as a Jew on the cross," Stueckl told the AP at an interview in May. "Increasing awareness of this is very important to me."

Greenebaum and Dolan, who went backstage before the play to chat with the actors, discussed the five-hour-long play over dinner during its three-hour intermission, then continued their talks for two more hours.

They are both involved in interreligious dialogue in the United States. Dolan is the co-chair of the Catholic-Jewish relationship for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Greenebaum is the U.S. director of interreligious relations for the American Jewish Committee, an advocacy group based in New York.

Still, they said some concerns remained.

The depiction of Caiaphas — the Jewish high priest whose blame for Jesus' crucifixion has long been debated by Jews and Christians — seemed to stick out.

"The high priest character is still the most difficult to watch for Jews," said Greenebaum. "He does do things that could be seen as stereotypical."

While not explicitly referring to Caiaphas, Dolan also said some scenes in the play still "may give impression that Jewish people at the time bear guilt with the crucifixion."

However, this year's production is a far cry from past performances, when Jew[ish Priests wore traditional Judaic pointed hats] and the Jewish crowd affirmed that Jesus' "blood be upon us and upon our children."

"The Oberammergau Passion Play is a paradigm for the friendship of Jews and Catholics, it has shown low points in their relation in the past, but now it has also become a sign of great progress," Dolan said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hA_xzesxvrIW54TCNo0SzN1MKh1gD9GMU95O0

Holocaustolatry in Atlanta Archdiocese

Christians, Jews Look Together At Holocaust History

The Georgia Bulletin, February 14, 2008

ATLANTA—Two upcoming Jewish-Catholic educational events will examine the history of the Holocaust in an interfaith setting. The American Jewish Committee and Atlanta Archdiocese, along with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, will host a lunchtime seminar and an evening lecture with leading experts focused on Holocaust history and other contemporary interfaith issues.

The lunch event, a discussion entitled “Christians, Jews and Studying the Holocaust,” will be held Tuesday, Feb. 26, from 12:30-3 p.m., at the Catholic Center, located at 680 West Peachtree Street, Atlanta. A kosher lunch will be provided. Space is limited. Parking is available on Spring Street behind the Catholic Center.

The evening event, a panel discussion on “Remembering for Reconciliation: Healing Memories in the Christian-Jewish Dialogue,” will be held at Our Lady of Assumption Church, 1350 Hearst Drive, Atlanta, also on Tuesday, Feb. 26, at 7:30 p.m.

During World War II, some 1.5 million Ukrainian Jews were killed. The deaths are called a “Holocaust of bullets” as mobile gangs of Nazis and collaborators tried to exterminate the Jewish people by shooting them all. The remains were tossed into unmarked mass graves.

Father Patrick Desbois, a French priest, works to find those remains by talking to people, who as teenagers or young children witnessed the killings.

The program is a conversation between the Father Desbois, who has received many honors for his work, and Paul Shapiro, director of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The two experts have been meeting in communities throughout the United States to talk about this history.

Father Desbois is the president of Yahad–In Unum, which was co-founded by the Archbishop of Paris and the head of the World Jewish Congress to promote Jewish-Catholic dialogue, joint social relief programs, and common moral values throughout Europe. In addition to serving since 2003 as an adviser to the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, he is also a member of the board of the French Judeo-Christian Friendship Society.

Shapiro is a member of the Congressionally mandated Interagency Working Group on Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records. He also serves on the Academic Advisory Committee of the Center for Jewish History in New York. Most recently he was instrumental in the Museum’s successful effort to open the archive of the International Tracing Service in Germany, the world’s largest and last major inaccessible collection of Holocaust-related records.

The events are being sponsored as a collaboration between the American Jewish Committee and Atlanta Archdiocese. Most recently they partnered for a community-wide immigration forum in November 2006.


To register for the lunchtime seminar, contact Ana Nagel at (404) 885-7458 or anagel@archatl.com. For more information on the evening event, call Our Lady of the Assumption Church at (404) 261-7181.

http://www.georgiabulletin.org/local/2008/02/14/history/

Dear Ana Nagel,

I'm interested in the “Christians, Jews and Studying the Holocaust,” lecture. Will the holocaust of Christians that took place in Russia prior to W.W. II at the hands of many Judaic persons be addressed? Will the Orthodox Judaic teachings of contempt against Christ and Christians which paved the road to this holocaust of Christians be addressed? Will the rabbis be pressured to revise their hateful teachings? If not, why?

Sincerely,
your name

The archbishop of Atlanta, Wilton D. Gregory's contact info is:

Phone: 404-888-7804
Fax: 404-885-7282
Email: archbishop@archatl.com

Vatican II Kabbalist Sage, Rabbi Abraham Heschel: "I Want to Attack Their Souls"

Rabbi Abraham Heschel with Cardinal Augustin Bea

Returning to the biography of the Hasidic change agent, Rabbi Abraham Heschel (Spiritual Radical, by Edward K. Kaplan, Yale University Press). In this book is an account of an interview of Rabbi Heschel during the time the Vatican II document Nostra Aetate, which Heschel collaborated on, was being deliberated. The interview reveals an attitude of remarkable hostility to Christians, which should come as no surprise to those knowledgeable of the rabbinic tradition. What may surprise some (but shouldn't at this point) is that such a hostile character would be invited by Vatican officials to participate in the writing of a Church council document.

First some background: In Heschel's many meetings with Vatican officials (as an agent of the American Jewish Comittee) regarding Nostra Aetate, mostly with Augustin Bea, but including a secretive meeting with Paul VI, Heschel was most adamant that the document should clearly proclaim his belief that it is unacceptable for Christians to seek the conversion of "Jews." Heschel's chutzpah in peddling this absurd idea (which consequently would undercut Christ's incarnation, evangelical mission and sacrifice) went to the extreme of appealing to the non-Biblical, relativistic, Talmudic anti-principle mipnei darchai shalom during his meeting with Paul VI.

During the deliberations, a draft of the Nostra Aetate document was leaked to the press which did not include the prohibition against converting "Jews" which Heschel desired. This infuriated Heschel, and in response he wrote an editorial published by the New York Times and Time magazine in which he proclaimed, "As I have repeatedly stated to leading personalities of the Vatican, I am ready to go to Auschwitz any time, if faced with the alternative of conversion or death."

Edward Kaplan (citing Schuster's notes on record at AJC/Paris) writes that AJC European director, Zachariah Schuster warned Heschel that this outburst had been embarrassing to their Vatican collaborators but that Heschel replied undauntedly, "I had my own private reasons for making this remark." Heschel later revealed what those private reasons were to Stern Gang terrorist, Geula Cohen in an interview which she conducted for the Israeli newspaper, Ma'ariv.

In interviewing Rabbi Abraham Heschel, Geula Cohen made reference to Heschel's hysterical "ready to go to Auschwitz" statement saying she was proud of it, but that she would have handled it differently:

"This statement of yours made me proud. Yet, I would have written it differently, saying: 'if this were the only way in which I would be permitted to live, I would have endeavored to send them [Christians] to Auschwitz.'"

Cohen relayed that Heschel was not shocked by her words, but explained that his statement was stronger than hers:

"Frankly, I assert that the statement on Auschwitz, of which you are proud, is the strongest statement possible, and it has shaken many people throughout the world."

Heshel further clarified, explaining the private reasons he earlier said he had for making the "Auschwitz" statement:

"[Christians] correctly understood that I was comparing them to the Nazis. If I had made the statement in a straightforward fashion saying 'you are Nazis,' it would have sounded ridiculous. My style of writing is by hinting, because truth is in the depths. There are those who would like to attack their bodies. I want to attack their souls. Today, there is no longer any place for religious wars as such. Today there is occasion for conversation and discussion. Do you consider the desire to discuss a sign of weakness?" (Rabbi Abraham Heschel, interviewed by Geula Cohen for Ma'ariv, January 4, 1965 as translated by AJC/Paris)

And there you have the motivation behind "dialogue" with "elder brothers" so succinctly summed up by one of the greatest pioneers of interfaith "dialogue" who participated in the writing of a Church council document, Nostra Aetate. Rabbinic warfare against Christian souls is not fought with guns and bombs, but with "conversation" and "discussion."

Here we see the subtlety of rabbinic warfare--utterly undefended against--even as the rabbis conscribe their spiritually conquered prisoners of war and their resources to fight their war against the specter of "Islamofascist" "Amalek."

More Documentation on AJC Agent, Malachi Martin

The following is from the book, Spiritual Radical: Abraham Joshua Heschel in America by Edward K. Kaplan. This is an important book for those interested in the machinations of the American Jewish Committee in the Second Vatican Council. It recreates this history, presumably from copious AJC notes, documents, transcripts, interviews and cataloged letters. Rabbi Abraham Heschel was the primary AJC player in the authoring of and shepherding of the document Nostra Aetate through the council. I will be returning to him later. But for now we offer further documentation of what has already been revealed of Malachi Martin's role in this matter:

"Less overtly, [AJC European director, Zachariah] Shuster found other ways to obtain restricted information, and even copies of secret documents. He developed a clandestine source of information, a "mole" within Cardinal Bea's Secretariat. The secret agent was an Irish Jesuit, Malachi Martin, a voluble, larger-than-life figure variously referred to as "Forest," "Pushkin," and Heschel's "young friend" in Schuster's confidential reports and transcripts of transatlantic phone conversations. Martin ... was sympathetic to the Jewish position ...

"With a mixture of motives, lofty and ignoble, Martin became close to Heschel and Schuster. He enjoyed their company immensely, especially when they vied with each other in telling jokes in Yiddish ... Martin primarily advised the AJC on theological issues, but he also provided logistical intelligence and copies of restricted documents." (Spiritual Radical: Abraham Joshua Heschel in America, Edward K. Kaplan, Yale University Press, p.243)

Cited sources for this information are an interview with Malachi Martin, a letter from Martin to the author, and a file on Zachariah Schuster at AJC/NY.

Documentation of AJC payments to Malachi Martin for his services and more here:

http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2007/06/malachi-martin-american-jewish.html

On Rabbi Abraham Heschel who Martin as "Heschel's young friend" refers to:

http://mauricepinay.blogspot.com/2007/12/vatican-ii-kabbalist-sage-rabbi-abraham.html

Malachi Martin: American Jewish Committee Change Agent

Malachi Martin's Double Agent Status Documented

By John Grasmeier
Angelqueen.org
June, 2007

Angelqueen.org has obtained numerous incriminating documents proving not only that Malachi Martin was indeed the infamous Vatican II "double agent," but also that his duplicitous activities during the Council ran far deeper than had been previously thought.

Background

During the Second Vatican Council, Martin acted as an assistant and translator to Cardinal Augustin Bea, head of the Secretariat for the Promotion of Christian Unity (SPCU). At the time, a major focus of the SPCU was the Jewish declaration portion of Nostra Aetate, the Vatican II document that addressed the Church's relations with other religions. Cardinal Bea would later be referred to by Archbishop Lefebvre as an "instrument of betrayal."

In January of 1966, Look Magazine ran an article entitled "How the Jews Changed Catholic Thinking," a lengthy, in-depth look at the influence various Jewish lobbying groups had over the final draft of Nostra Aetate. In the article, Senior Editor Joseph Roddy tells of an unnamed Jesuit priest who held a key position in Rome during the time the Second Vatican Council was in session. The priest, described as a “double agent who "could never turn down work" and a "savior in the diaspora," would use his position to gather and disseminate inside information to the secular press and the Jewish lobbying groups, who would in turn use that information in their efforts to influence the Council fathers, particularly the progressive American bishops. Although the priest's actual name is withheld, several pseudonyms he used for his various activities are revealed.

As Michael Serafian, he wrote "The Pilgrim" (Ferrar, Straus & Giroux, 1964), a tell-all book on the politics, key figures and inner dealings of the council. As F.E. Cartus, he penned two timely articles, one for Harper's Magazine and one for the American Jewish Committee's influential intellectual periodical "Commentary." As Pushkin, he would feed "inside tips and tactical leaks," often in the form of notes slipped under doors, to journalists of major media organizations.

This all took place many years before Malachi Martin became a cult figure and public author who wrote books under his own name. Although word began to get around in certain circles that Martin and the pen-names were one in the same, it wasn't until 5 years after he left Rome, when he wrote "The Encounter" (Ferrar, Straus & Giroux), that the first solid nexus was made between Martin and the double-agent priest. On the back cover of The Encounter, it states clearly that Malachi Martin did indeed write "The Pilgrim" under the pseudonym Michael Serafian.

Despite the indisputable self-admission that Michael Serafian was Martin's pen name, many of his devoted fans would claim that there was no evidence that he was the mole priest identified in the Look article who wrote for the American Jewish Committee and used his position in Rome to pass sensitive information to the press.What follows, will indisputably show not only that Martin was the double-agent priest in the Look article, but that the "warm friendship with the AJC" described by Joe Roddy was far warmer than anyone, including Roddy, had suspected.

The documents referenced below were made available to AQ by the Manuscripts Department of the New York Public Library. They are part of the Ferrar, Straus & Giroux collection, which contains correspondence and documentation on the publishing company's dealings with many of its authors. They are available to any and all. None have been altered in any way shape or form.

THE DOCUMENTS

Exhibit A: Setting up the Swiss bank account - This memo, dated March 19, 1964 was written by FSG treasurer Robert Wohlforth (RW) and sent to Robert Straus (RWS). Roger Straus is the president of Ferrar, Straus and Giroux and the sole heir to the Guggenheim fortune. The memo describes a discussion the two had regarding “The Pilgrim contract” and what steps needed to be taken to set up a Swiss bank account.

Exhibit B: Zachariah Shuster receives royalty payments from Martin's book, "The Pilgrim" - This extraordinarily fascinating sheet of paper must be colloquially described as the proverbial "doozey." It's a Ferrar, Straus and Giroux royalty statement listing payouts and deductions for The Pilgrim. Only instead of the payee being the author of the book, Malachi Martin (aka Michael Serafian), the payee just happens to be Zachariah Shuster of the American Jewish Committee.

Exhibit C: Zachariah Shuster wonders where the check is - Zachariah Shuster of the American Jewish Committee writes a letter to FS&G treasurer wondering why a check that was destined for a Swiss bank account hasn't yet arrived. He follows up with a confirmation then receives a response from Ferrar, Straus and Giroux treasurer Robert Wohlforth.

Exhibit D: Martin’s services are requested by the AJC - Here we have Marc Tanenbaum, Director of Interreligious Affairs for the AJC, accepting a gracious offer from Roger Straus to use Malachi Martin as he sees fit. Tanenbaum thinks the idea is a good one, stating that “Serafian (Martin) could provide a genuine service if he were to deal with the crucial issue of the deicide problem. Although the hoped for late summer deadline would not be met, in the January 1965 issue of the AJC publication, Commentary, Martin, as F.E. Cartus, writes an article entitled "Vatican II and the Jews" At the beginning of the third paragraph, it reads in part as follows:

"Roman Catholic believers drew a whole range of practical conclusions from these premises. The Jews as a people-not only the Jews of Christ's time but Jews of all time-were guilty of having killed Christ, the God-man: theologically speaking, they were deicides."

Not only does Martin dutifully write the article (containing a vast amount of insider information) as requested, but he exceeds all expectations when he fabricates a statement on the Jews that he attributes to Pope John XXIII, claiming it was written shortly before his death and was to be read on a set date in all Catholic Churches worldwide. That story HERE.

Exhibit E: Robert Straus receives Martin’s assignment from the AJC - Robert Straus acknowledges receiving Tanenbaum's letter and notes that he simultaneously had received the assignment for "The Pilgrim" to write the article for the AJC publication.

Exhibit F: Roger Straus wants to discuss Martin with Podhorez - Roger Straus wishes to discuss a letter from Michael Serafian (Malachi Martin) with Norman Podhorez, the editor of Commentary, where the article was to appear. It's unclear what is meant when Straus states they should discuss the matter as a "possible post mortem." Perhaps he was referring to the fact that the hoped for timeframe of late summer couldn't be met.

Exhibit G: Straus makes undeniable connection between Martin and F.E. Cartus - Roger Straus writes to a British publisher telling him to look for an article by pseudonym Michael Serafian (Martin) that will appear in the September 1965 issue of Harper's Magazine. As promised, an article by F.E. Cartus entitled "The Vatican Council Ends - Reform on borrowed time?" by F.E. Cartus appears in the September edition of Harpers.

Exhibit H: An ledger with interesting transactions - A ledger that was created to show "actual payments to or in (sic) behalf of Michael Serafian," offers some interesting insights. On line 1, it shows the check sent to Zachariah Shuster on June 25, 1964 (see Exhibit C). On line 3, it shows the net royalty payment that is shown on line 29 of the document at Exhibit B. On line 2, it shows another payment to Zachariah Shuster that does not have any corresponding documentation in the FS&G collection. On line 5, it shows a payment of $500 to Abe Karlikow. Abe Karlikow was the director of the American Jewish Committee's European office, based in Paris, France. On line 9, it shows Martin's last payment as being on June 7, 1965. Just a few weeks later, on June 24, 1965, Martin would receive a $7,350 (around $48,000 in 2007 dollars) fellowship grant from the Harry F. Guggenheim foundation. The founder of that foundation, Harry Frank Guggenheim, just so happens to be Roger Straus' uncle on his mother's side.

In conclusion

There is no doubt whatsoever that the double agent described in the Look article by Joseph Roddy was in fact Malachi Martin. The document at exhibit G undeniably ties Michael Serafian - who is undeniably Malachi Martin - to the F.E Cartus pseudonym.

Joe Roddy was somewhat remiss, in that the relationship between Martin and the American Jewish Committee was far more than "warm friendship." The relationship was outright collusive. Zachariah Shuster and Abe Kalikow were receiving payments on Martin's behalf that were laundered through a Swiss bank account set up specifically for that purpose. Marc Tanenbaum requested custom propaganda for the AJC periodical "Commentary," which Martin happily provided. Shuster and Kalikow were attached to the European office of the AJC in Paris, France, which just so happens to be where Martin fled to after he left Rome.

Martin was paid well for his services. According to the Straus ledger (exhibit H), during the latter half of 1964, he received a total of $3,651.03. According to the Federal Reserve consumer price index calculator, that would equal $24,202.80 today. In the first half of 1965, he received $4,282.85, which works out to $27,940.50 in 2007 dollars. Immediately after receiving his last payment from Straus in June of '65, Martin receives a grant from Straus' uncle's foundation for $7,350 or $47,950 adjusted to 2007. In fairness to Martin, it must be noted that he took that grant in monthly payments over 15 months following the time it was awarded to him. The fact remains however, in the year's time that spanned from June of '64 and June of '65, Martin was paid, granted, or received on his behalf at least $100,000 adjusted for inflation. This sum only includes what has been documented by AQ as being paid from Guggenheim and FS&G from in that one year span. It does not include other payments, if any, from Guggenheim and FS&G that AQ doesn't have a record of. It does not include any payments Martin would have received for writing the articles for Commentary and Harpers. It does not include any other possible income sources. In the summer of 1963, Robert Kaiser claims that Martin 'always had a wallet was stuffed with hundred dollar bills,' that he believed was provided by the AJC. In any case, he most certainly didn't do the AJC's bidding for free. It's more than safe to assume that Martin had income aside from that which AQ has been able to document 40 years after the fact.

While Malachi Martin was supposed to be working on behalf of Holy Mother Church, the Holy See and his brother and sister Catholics, he was working for secular publishers, secular media organization and Jewish interest groups.

Also Read:

Another interesting Malachi Martin article (1974)

Martin lauds Judaism, Buddhism and Chairman Mao while his harshest criticism is for Catholicism. He also proclaims more of the heretical gunk he was given to during that time. He tells us of how he was named after his Jewish banker ancestor.

Malachi Martin 1973 interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer

He relates to the interviewer how during the council he was blackmailing cardinals by digging up dirt from their past and using it to get them to go along with him and Cardinal Bea during the council. He also provides more of his absurd views on religion and Christ.

The Judaic Propensity to Have It Both Ways

While Jewish communal leaders focus most of their current lobbying efforts on pressing the United States to take a tough line against Iran and its nuclear program, some are privately voicing fears that they will be accused of driving America into a war with the regime in Tehran.

http://www.forward.com/articles/groups-fear-public-backlash-over-iran/

There is one very simple way for Judaic leaders to avoid accusations that they're driving the U.S. into a war against Iran--stop driving the U.S. into a war with Iran.

But that simply won't do. They want to drive the U.S. into war on Iran, and, they want to do so free of accusations that they're driving the U.S. into a war on Iran, even though that's exactly what they're doing. They want it both ways.

It's rather similar to how the rabbis lobby Christian leaders to revise the Gospel to state that the Romans--and not the judges of the Sanhedrin--were responsible for Christ's execution, even as the rabbis' own texts record their gloating over their forebears' responsibility for Christ's execution to the degree that they relieve the Romans completely of responsibility. (Babylonian Talmud, tractate Sanhedrin 43a).

The American Jewish Committee issued an "inter-office memo" on the topic on their website in 2003 and then removed it quickly afterwards.

Jesus in the Talmud

September 24, 2003 Steven Bayme, National Director, Contemporary Jewish Life Department

... Consider ... the following text from the Talmud:

On the eve of Passover Jesus was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, "He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Anyone who can say anything in his favor let him come forward and plead on his behalf." But since nothing was brought forward in his favor, he was hanged on the eve of Passover. Ulla retorted: Do you suppose he was one for whom a defense could be made? Was he not a mesith (enticer), concerning whom Scripture says, "Neither shall thou spare nor shall thou conceal him?" With Jesus, however, it was different, for he was connected with the government. (Sanhedrin 43a)

This text, long censored in editions of the Talmud, is concerned primarily with due process in capital crimes. Standard process requires that punishment be delayed for forty days in order to allow extenuating evidence to be presented. However, in extreme cases, such as seducing Israel into apostasy, this requirement is waived. The case of Jesus, according to the Talmud, constituted an exception to this rule. Although one who enticed Israel into apostasy is considered an extreme case, the Jews at the time waited forty days because of the close ties of Jesus to the Roman authorities. However, once the forty days elapsed without the presentation of favorable or extenuating comment about him, they proceeded to kill him on the eve of Passover.

... the Talmud is here offering a subtle commentary upon Jesus' political connections. The Gospels portray the Roman governor Pontius Pilate as going to great lengths to spare Jesus (Mark 15: 6-15). Although this passage may well have been written to appease the Roman authorities and blame the Jews, the Talmudic passage points in the same direction: The Jews waited forty days, in a departure from the usual practice, only because Jesus was close to the ruling authorities.

Lastly, the passage suggests rabbinic willingness to take responsibility for the execution of Jesus. No effort is made to pin his death upon the Romans. In all likelihood, the passage in question emanates from fourth-century Babylon, then the center of Talmudic scholarship, and beyond the reach of both Rome and Christianity. Although several hundred years had elapsed since the lifetime of Jesus, and therefore this is not at all a contemporary source, the Talmudic passage indicates rabbinic willingness to acknowledge, at least in principle, that in a Jewish court and in a Jewish land, a real-life Jesus would indeed have been executed ...

The full article is still archived at this link: http://web.archive.org/web/20030925214732/http://www.ajc.org/inthemedia/RelatedArticles.asp?did=933

The article is not entirely honest, but it does make interesting reading, particularly in contrast with the one-sided "dialogue" taking place between the rabbis and Christian leaders: dialogue which has for nearly a century been directed towards rectification of the alleged Christian "teaching of contempt" but which never seems to get around to discussion of the very real and very contemptuous Judaic teachings of contempt. But since when have the rabbis ever applied standards evenly?

The objection inevitably arises that the Jesus of Nazareth mentioned in Sanhedrin 43a is not the Savior of Christianity but "some some other Jesus of Nazareth." The Jewish Encyclopedia dismisses that silly notion handily:

"... some medieval apologists for Judaism, as Nachmanides and Salman Zebi, ... [asserted] that the "Yeshu'" mentioned in the Talmud was not identical with Jesus; this, however, is merely a subterfuge. (Jewish Encyclopedia, "Jesus of Nazareth")

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=254&letter=J&search=jesus