News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Eric Yoffi, the head of the Reform movement, compared Jewish and Muslim ‘fanatics’ on Friday in a speech given to members of the Islamic Society of North America.  Both religions have a “tiny, extremist minority” that uses violence, he said, and a moderate majority.  Moderate Jews and Muslims have a “collective task” to fight fanatics, he said.

Similar arguments made recently in a CNN special caused anger among many Jewish groups, who argued that there is “no counterpart among Jews and Christians to the violent jihadist Muslim campaigns underway across the globe.”  Jewish violence was limited to a handful of incidents over the course of the past three decades, members of CAMERA pointed out.

Yoffi also told the group that American Jews and Muslims should work together to pressure the US government to make peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.  The Reform movement supports giving Judea and Samaria to the PA, he said, as does the Islamic Society.  The groups should “join together and send a message of peace,” he said.