Category Archives: Israel and Palestine

“No End of Conflict – Rethinking Israel-Palestine” by Yossi Alpher – A review

24 Sunday Jul 2016

Posted by in Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Social Justice

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“No End of Conflict – Rethinking Israel-Palestine” by Yossi Alpher (2016) is an important read for anyone seeking clarity about the past and future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Alpher was an officer for 12 years in the Mossad, a former Director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, and a special advisor to Prime Minister Ehud Barak during the 2000 Camp David talks. From 2001-2012 he coedited an Internet dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians called “Bitterlemons.” Though he still believes that the only solution to the conflict is a negotiated two states for two peoples agreement that settles all issues, he has come to the conclusion that getting to this end goal cannot happen all at once and will require new thinking on both sides and a new paradigm that diverges markedly from the Oslo process that set the course for all negotiations since including the 2000 Camp David effort, the 2007 Olmert-Abbas secret negotiations and the 2013-14 Kerry Initiative.

Alpher critiques those efforts and all options that are now being considered among which are one democratic but no longer Jewish state, one Jewish but no longer a democratic state, two governments in a larger one state confederation, and two states for two peoples.

One would think that after more than 20 years since PM Rabin and PLO Chairman Arafat shook hands on the White House lawn that by now all issues would have been resolved. Alpher explains why this has not happened and quotes the clear-sighted David Ben Gurion from a speech he gave in 1919 to explain the fundamental source of the conflict:

“Everybody sees a difficulty in the question of relations between Arabs and Jews. But not everybody sees that there is no solution to this question … I do not know what Arab will agree that Palestine should belong to the Jews …We, as a nation, want this country to be ours; the Arabs, as a nation, want this country to be theirs.”

For the core conflict to be addressed successfully will require that the two conflicting narratives change in the spirit of compromise and peaceful co-existence.

The Palestinian narrative understands Israel as a foreign entity created “in sin” by colonial forces. Palestine is Islamic Waqf land and is sovereign only to Muslims. Jews are not a people nor do they have national or historic roots in the Holy Land.

The Zionist narrative dates Jewish origins in the land to the time of Abraham (3600 years ago – confirmed by archeological and literary evidence) and that Jews have an ancient and legitimate claim to the land of Israel as its historic national home. Jews understand Judaism as far more than a religion, that it is a civilization with an ancestral land, history, language, legal and literary tradition, ethics, faith, and culture.

As time has passed the two narratives have become more deeply entrenched leading the two peoples to regard the conflict as a zero-sum game. One has to lose for the other to win, and there is an ever-closing window that can accommodate a win-win compromise.

As Jewish settlements spread throughout the West Bank making a future contiguous Palestinian state more difficult to achieve, right-wing nationalist and messianic Israelis have taken over the Israeli government. In this Alpher worries that Israel is firmly on track to become a one-state bi-national reality. He warns that should this occur, the Jewish democratic state of Israel will come to an end.

Alpher carefully reviews seven suggested “solutions” and recalls Albert Einstein’s observation that insanity is defined as repeating actions over and over and expecting a different result. To change the result Alpher calls upon Israel and the Palestinians to initiate a new paradigm for negotiations that leaves for a later time the evolution of each people’s narratives to accommodate the other.

He identifies two very different sets of issues, one that emerged after 1948 and the other after 1967. All negotiations to date have failed, he says, because both sets of issues have been considered together and the parties have agreed that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed upon,” effectively dooming a resolution of the conflict. He argues that instead of completing the negotiations now, Israel and the Palestinians ought to work towards a partial two-state solution the conclusion of which will likely have to be negotiated by future generations of Israelis and Palestinians after a period in which peaceful co-existence will be achieved.

Post-1948 issues for the Palestinians include addressing their humiliating loss of their land and their flight and expulsion from the land with regard to the right of refugees to return to the homes they left.

Post-1948 issues for Israel include achieving recognition by the Palestinians of the legitimate right of the Jewish people to a national home of their own and to their security from terror and war.

Post-1967 issues for Palestinians include establishing a Palestinian state that includes sovereignty, borders, a capital city in Jerusalem, security and the final disposition of Jewish settlements and Jews in the state of Palestine.

Post-1967 issues for Israel include establishing final international borders between the two states that are roughly drawn along the Green Line with land swaps so as to include large settlement blocs in the state of Israel, thus assuring Israel’s democracy and Jewish majority.

In all past negotiations there has been much progress on post-1967 issues, but no progress on post-1948 issues. The Palestinians have refused to compromise on the right of every refugee to return to his/her home because compromising means having to accept the fundamental premise of the Zionist narrative that Jews have a legitimate claim to Israel as its national home. The Israelis insist that the Palestinians recognize the state of Israel as a “Jewish state” and that Israel will not allow an unlimited number of refugees to return to Israel. Alpher says those issues must be left to a later time.

He makes the case that negotiations henceforth ought to separate post-1967 issues from post-1948 issues and deal only with the former. Should negotiations be successful on those post-1967 issues, the Palestinians would achieve their state, sovereignty, national dignity, and security, and Israel would achieve internationally recognized borders, maintain its Jewish and democratic character, and dramatically reduce the risks of violence and war. Israel would also likely be received more openly by moderate Arab and Muslim states in the region, and its western allies’ relationships would be strengthened, the BDS movement’s appeal would diminish and the world Jewish community now fractured would rally as one to her support.

PA President Abbas has already agreed to demilitarize the future Palestinian state and to allow Israeli and international combined forces to be stationed along the Jordan River for a period of time, to be determined. PMs Barak and Olmert both already agreed that Jerusalem could become the capital city of both states.

Alpher insists that no more than this can be achieved at this time and that we continue with the status quo at our peril.

Is he correct? Or is it still possible for Israel and the Palestinians to compromise on their respective narratives to achieve an end-of-conflict two-state solution?

Alpher says “No!”

This book will challenge readers to think differently about this seemingly intractable conflict and what might be necessary to address the many concrete pragmatic issues (post-1967) between Israel and the Palestinians before it is too late and a one-state bi-national entity destroys Jewish and Zionist dreams.

“Palestinian terrorism and Muslim hypocrisy: An open letter from a Muslim woman”

07 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by in Ethics, Israel and Palestine, Jewish-Islamic Relations

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Following the murder of 13-year-old Hillel Yaffe Ariel in her Kiryat Arba home on June 30, the following blog was written by an American Muslim interfaith activist and  appeared in the Times of Israel. Nadiya Al-Noor’s words are a must read and, hopefully, can restore a measure of faith and hope shattered by this cruel and incomprehensible act of violence on a child.

Palestinian terrorism and Muslim hypocrisy: An open letter from a Muslim woman – July 1, 2016, 6:40 am – Times of Israel Blog

Blogger Nadiya Al-Noor is a young Muslim interfaith activist with a focus on Jewish and Muslim communities, and she actively supports peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Nadiya is a graduate student at Binghamton University in New York, studying Public Administration.

“I am a Muslim, and I know that when it comes to Palestinian terrorism, too many Muslims are hypocrites. I have seen firsthand the casual, destructive anti-Semitism that plagues the Muslim community. I have heard it from the mouths of our religious leaders, from our politicians, and even from our otherwise peaceful, liberal Muslim activists. I have witnessed in horror the desperate attempts to justify Palestinian terrorism from people who I once respected. Why? Why do we decry all other types of terrorism, but bend over backwards to legitimize violence against Israeli Jews?”

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-terrorism-and-muslim-hypocrisy-an-open-letter-from-a-muslim-woman/

Why Bernie Avishai winces at the term “radical Islam”

21 Tuesday Jun 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Israel and Palestine, Jewish-Islamic Relations

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I take seriously just about everything Bernard Avishai says and writes.

Bernie is an Adjunct Professor of Business at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has taught at Duke University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Dartmouth College, and was director of the Zell Entrepreneurship Program at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in Israel. A Guggenheim Fellow, Bernie holds a doctorate in political economy from the University of Toronto. Before turning to management, he covered the Middle East as a journalist. He has written many articles and commentaries for The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Harvard Business Review, Harper’s Magazine and other publications. He is the author of three books on Israel, including the widely read The Tragedy of Zionism, and the 2008 The Hebrew Republic. He lives in both Jerusalem and the United States.

Bernie doesn’t shoot from the hip. He knows what he is talking about, is honest, articulate, and wise. I am printing in its entirety his most recent article below because it is so important for us American Jews and so many Israelis to appreciate and understand, especially in this political season when fear-mongers and haters extrapolate awful events (i.e. the Orlando massacre) and judge the corrupted character of 1.5 billion Muslims.

Bernie explains why he winces when he hears the term “radical Islam.” Hopefully, the rest of us will wince along with him.

What Republicans Don’t Know About Islam

Posted: 20 Jun 2016 10:50 AM PDT

This is the week to say the things that go without saying. Mainstream Republicans—not just their Gorgeous George nominee, shock-radio echo-chamber, and Bibi cheerleaders—are mocking President Obama for speaking of terror and not “radical Islam.” The inference to be drawn is that Muslims, especially Arab Muslims, are predisposed to intolerance and violence, as if the Muslim religion is a subtle ideological toxin that can be managed in homeopathic doses, but is fatal full force. If we said “radical Islam,” presumably, then we’d be acknowledging the real danger, now suffered for the sake of political correctness.

For Muslims—so the argument goes—non-Muslims are infidels who must be either converted or killed. For Muslims, heaven beckons with sexuality (which is creepy back on earth), and the only law that counts is deadly, or maiming, and God-given. Terrorist acts, killing non-Muslims (or weak Muslims) at random, are, in this view, just Muslims at their most honest. The inference for action: strength, intimidation. We should carpet bomb ISIS, or send in the 101st Airborne, or leave Israeli settlers alone, or ban Muslim immigration “until we know what the hell is going on.” (Our side’s Bill Maher won’t go this far, but seems to suppose that, as long as mankind is ditching religion anyway, we should probably start with Islam.)

Now, the President has answered this claim about as well as it needs to be answered. The sociopaths want us to presume that they are cadres of the true Islam, much like Klan members in the sixties saw themselves as Christian crusaders, and, for that matter, the Red Brigades in the seventies saw themselves as “objectively” proletarian. Every religion has chilling texts, commandments, and supremacist claims that its adherents ordinarily ignore, suppress, or interpret into oblivion. The phrase “radical Islam” should offend us much like “Jewish extremist” applied to likes of, say, Yishai Schlissel, the maniac, a professed ultra-Orthodox, who stabbed six at a gay pride parade in Jerusalem last summer—and might have done much worse had he had access to an AR-15. Not every Jew has a little Schlissel struggling to come out. Omar Mateen was not a Muslim in the extreme.

But let’s assume that speaking of a religious culture is not just silly—you know, that we can extrapolate from the norms and practices of a religion to the expected political culture of a religious community. I have lived for much of my adult life in a city, Jerusalem, that is a one-third Muslim. I have spent months of days (going East to West) in Jordan, Egypt, Libya, and Morocco—let’s just say I have known a great many Arab Muslims. And when I hear Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and others, insist on the phrase “radical Islam,” I wince, but also feel slightly bemused, sort of the way you’d feel around someone who speaks knowingly while getting things almost exactly backwards.

The Muslims I’ve have known, day-in, day-out, have a very abstract yet immanent sense of the divine, which leads them, not to any kind of fanaticism, but to an instinctive humility and acceptance of their fate. God is everywhere and nowhere, embedded in family love. Indeed, the family, and extended family, is an unrivaled preoccupation. Sexual mores mirror what Americans mean by “family values” (my oldest Arab friend in Jerusalem sent his daughter to a Mormon university in Utah); and the mosque takes over where fathers (and mothers) leave off. My Jerusalem Arab friends, reporting on some recent frustration, typically end their complaints with alhamdulillāh, praise be to God, and an embrace. A hope, or just the plan for a meeting, is accompanied by in’shallah, God willing.

This is a sense of family loyalty that is not necessarily extended to national claims. (I am reminded of nothing so much as my immigrant Jewish Montreal home, when I would visit my grandmother. There were few adult sentences that weren’t also prayers of a kind. Surrounding me were uncles, aunts and cousins. Every happiness was reported with Gott tzedank, “Thank God,” every plan or prediction with im yirtze ha’shem, “God willing.”) If anything, the practice of prayer in Muslim families, the visits and feasts of yearly festivals—all of these—breed in the bone a sense of obedience, propriety. They make commitment to honor and order, even political quiescence, far more likely than violence. As long as the home is safe, and family property is respected, there isn’t much debate about the specific public policies political leaders pursue. There is more concern for whether or not leaders are corrupt.

“That’s why, ironically, Arab Muslims have been so patient with authoritarian regimes and long periods of colonial rule,” my friend Bruce Lawrence, the veteran Duke University historian of the Arab world told me. “They may be enraged by insecurity to their families, disorder, or anything that undermines their honor, but they are less animated by transformative political ideologies. Inequalities are tolerated, but not humiliations.”

Like Lawrence, I sometimes marvel at the rugged patience and generosity my Arab friends exhibit, not their volatility. They admire Israel’s social safety net, as if a work of charity. On a personal level, generosity is the norm, even from total strangers. Once I was driving in Beit Jalla and saw a weathered old man carrying a basket full of succulent apricots. I stopped my car and pointed at his basket, asking where he got them. He opened my back door and poured half the basket’s contents onto the back seat. In Tripoli, a colleague invited me to his home, and his six-year-old daughter, seeing me for the first time, greeted me with a kiss. A few months ago, I brought my car early to the garage and found it empty, but for an Arab watchman. I turned to him officiously and asked when the mechanics would show up. “Why do you not first say, ‘Good morning?’” he scolded me gently.

I lost a step-sister and cousin to the terror of Abu-Nidal. Please don’t lecture me about the things warped people do; Arabs are members of the human race, which is about the worst thing you can say about them. Last year, there was a knife attack ten-minutes from our home, in the German Colony. A block away is the former Café Hillel, which was bombed in September, 2003. The main street, Emeq Refaim (The Valley of the Ghosts), is another café, Caffit, where two suicide bombers were foiled on two separate occasions. At the summit of the gentle hill overlooking the valley, near Terra Sancta, in the Rehavia quarter, another café, Moment, was bombed in 2002. Walk another ten minutes, into the city center, and you come to a pizzeria that was bombed twice. The nearby Ben-Yehuda Street mall was bombed. When I draw an imaginary circle of a couple of miles around our neighborhood, it encompasses the sites of five bus bombings.

None of these atrocities cancel the thousands of heartfelt encounters I’ve had with Muslim Arab neighbors, friends, and tradesmen. When I hear the phrase “radical Islam,” I remember to say “Good morning.”

This has just been published at Talking Points Memo

Political paralysis and confusion in Israel – 3 articles worth reading

15 Wednesday Jun 2016

Posted by in Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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The following three articles describe well the paralysis in Israel relative to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the meaning  of the inclusion of Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party in the ruling Israeli government coalition, and Netanyahu’s failure to act on an agreement forged between the Reform and Conservative movements, Women of the Wall, the North American Jewish Federations, and the ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbi of the Western Wall.

  1. Forget Diplomacy. Both Netanyahu and Abbas Need Some Serious Therapy, Forward by Jane Eisner, June 14, 2016

Jane Eisner observes, “there is something deeply psychological happening here, a profound refusal to see the world as others see it, and to acknowledge the lasting harm that nearly a half-century of occupation is doing to both peoples. It’s painful to watch a nation I love rule a people who are suffering, and not to know how to persuade either of them to move beyond their state of entwined paralysis. The contours of a diplomatic solution have been known for years. What the United States, the Europeans and other advocates have not found is the effective psychological tool to ignite action. This is most true for the Israelis and especially Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has repeatedly found excuses to maintain and strengthen the occupation while denying the way it is diminishing Israel’s moral standing in the world and corroding the soul of its own people.”
http://forward.com/opinion/israel/342289/forget-diplomacy-both-netanyahu-and-abbas-need-some-serious-therapy/#ixzz4BYKTTHfv

  1. Bibi’s Gamble – Netanyahu’s double play in appointing an extremist defense minister may mobilize and unify the center, left, and soft-right against him – Jerusalem Report, by Leslie Suser, June 13, 2016

Leslie Suser, always a keen observer of Israeli politics, does not disappoint. This 2400 word analysis describes the ins and outs of the recent negotiations between the Prime Minister and Opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog resulting in a last minute Bibi switch from moderation to extremism in the appointment of Avigdor Leiberman as Defense Minister, a move which stunned Israel’s security and military establishment. Suser reviews not only the events leading up to the inclusion of Yisrael Beytenu in the government coalition thus making it even more right wing, but the political reaction by former members of the Likud who Bibi forced out of the government, and efforts to create a centrist block to bring down this government and run as a group against Netanyahu.
http://www.jpost.com/Jerusalem-Report/Bibis-Gamble-455255

  1. On the Western Wall Deal, Will Netanyahu Be a Hero or the Great Betrayer? Haaretz, by Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie June 06, 2016 – Israel’s prime minister hopes to escape a major confrontation with Diaspora Jewry over the Western Wall deal by using the same tactics that he always uses: Delay and deceit.

In light of the encroachment this week of the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem in the new Southern Kotel Plaza meant as an egalitarian prayer space for Reform and Conservative Jews and Women of the Wall, the Prime Minister has a choice, and Rabbi Yoffie (the former President of the Union for Reform Judaism and now a columnist at Haaretz) lays out that choice in strong words that Netanyahu will certainly understand.

“Let’s imagine that Israel had a prime minister with some principles. I am talking about a prime minister who cared about keeping his word; who had genuine respect for all of Judaism’s religious streams; who knew that the only way to deal with Jewish religious bullies and blackmailers is to call their bluff; and who understood that Israel’s task is to strengthen all Jews, whatever their religious outlook, who are fighting to keep the idea of Torah alive. 

If Israel had such a prime minister, we might imagine him saying in a statement, following his meeting last week with leaders of the Reform and Conservative movements, that enough is enough: The compromise that his government had endorsed on prayer arrangements at the Western Wall would be implemented immediately and in its entirety.” 
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.723440

 

Bullshit – In Defense of Israel – The internal threat to the Zionist dream – Adelson in bed with Trump

30 Monday May 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Ethics, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity

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I recommend the following articles and videos

“On Bullshit” – A video of Harry Frankfurt – a professor of philosophy at Princeton university who has written extensively on such matters as “bullshit” and “truth.” Here he makes a convincing 5-minute argument that bullshit can be neither true nor false; hence, the bullshitter is someone whose principal aim—when uttering or publishing bullshit—is to impress the listener and the reader with words that communicate an impression that something is being or has been done, words that are neither true nor false, and so obscure the facts of the matter being discussed. In contrast, the liar must know the truth of the matter under discussion, in order to better conceal it from the listener or the reader being deceived with a lie; while the bullshitter’s sole concern is personal advancement and advantage to their own agenda. https://vimeo.com/167796382

“Why We Fight” – A video of Rabbi Ammi Hirsch of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, in New York of his sermon on May 20, 2016 – “Why We Fight” is an eloquent defense of Israel. Rabbi Hirsch is American born who made aliyah with his family in the 9th grade. He served in the IDF as a tank commander, then became a lawyer at the London School of Economics, and was then ordained a rabbi at HUC-JIR. For a number of years he served as the Executive Director of the Association of Reform Zionists of America. https://vimeo.com/167505737

“The Zionist Dream Is Threatened From Within. Here’s What What Israel Must Do to Save It” – By Ari Shavit- Haaretz, Sunday, May 29, 2016.

“Next year, Israel will mark landmark anniversaries of some of its greatest political, diplomatic and military milestones. It’s time for the reasonable majority to reject the people and forces bringing calamity upon us…. Israel is a land of seemingly limitless human treasures and lodes of goodwill. Israel is a small nation, whose small number of dedicated people can make a real difference, enact real change. If we stand together, shoulder to shoulder, we can save the Jewish democratic state. If we stand together, shoulder to shoulder, we can renew our sense of nationhood, secure our sovereignty – and at long last define our borders. With a loving heart and a common purpose, we can return Israel to its rightful role – an admirable, enlightened nation.” Ari Shavit is a journalist and the writer of the powerful ‘My Promised Land.’” http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.721627

“Adelson’s Money Puts Us All in Bed with Trump” – by Jane Eisner – The Forward, May 19, 2016
Now that Sheldon Adelson, one of the richest Jews on the planet, has endorsed Donald Trump and pledged to spend lots of his considerable fortune to elect the presumed Republican nominee for president, how should the Jewish community react?
http://forward.com/articles/340975/adelsons-money-puts-us-all-in-bed-with-trump/#ixzz4A6u71beM

Donald Trump and the Jews

27 Friday May 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Ethics, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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We Jews are an intense and nervous people. We feel our politics deeply, this year being no exception.

It’s safe to say, I think, that the vast majority of the American Jewish community has been rattled by the thought of Trump reaching the White House.

I’ve been asking myself for some time (I’ve posted two blogs on this theme in the last week alone, indicative of my anxiety), what does the Trump candidacy mean for us Jews?

First, the positive – yes, there’s a positive.

Not in some time have I sensed Jewish communal solidarity against Trump. From a Jewish values perspective, Trump represents the worst of our people’s values concerning justice, compassion, welcoming the stranger, and concern for the most vulnerable in our community. His is a dog eat dog world of ego and power, of immodesty and braggadocio. Yet, having said all this, it’s possible to feel a measure of gratitude to The Donald for his bringing most of us Republican and Democratic Jews together. And so, as Shabbat falls shortly, let us sing – Hineh mah tov u-ma nayim shevet achim gam yachad!

Now the bad news – In a recent Huffington Post article, it was revealed that American Nazis and the KKK regard Trump as their standard bearer, just as do some right wing Jews and many members of the ultra-Orthodox community.

I don’t know whether Trump is an anti-Semite. One might think that given his roots in New York, his years in real estate, his second home in Palm Beach, a converted daughter and a Jewish son-in-law, that we have nothing to worry about, that he loves the Jews. He said so! Yet, Trump brings up old anti-Semitic canards left and right, such as saying a few months ago to a room full of wealthy Republican Jews that they probably won’t like him because they’re used to buying candidates and he doesn’t need their money.

Then there’s Sheldon Adelson who plopped down $100 million for Trump’s campaign (I guess he needs the money now!) after deciding that Trump will be a right-wing advocate for Israel like himself, and there are also many members of the Republican Jewish Coalition who prefer Trump over Hillary.

I don’t believe that history necessarily repeats itself so much as themes reverberate that are disturbing to the Jewish memory of the rise of Nazism in the 1930s. Times are different. We have a state of Israel today and we aren’t victims nor vulnerable as we were in Germany eighty years ago.

Yet, Trump’s call to indiscriminately bar all Muslims from our country, calling Mexicans rapists and criminals, sending 11 million non-documented Hispanic immigrants out of the country, his uber-testosterone-locker-room misogyny and sexism, his condescension to the disabled, to prisoners of war, and his cavalier and dismissive reductionist assaults on the accomplishments and lives of his opponents calling them Pocahontas, Lyin’ Ted, passive Zeb, little Mario, crazy Bernie, and crooked Hillary, would be ridiculous if it weren’t so insulting and disturbing.

What does Trump’s candidacy mean relative to the state of Israel? He said that he will be a neutral deal maker between Israel and the Palestinians because, after all, he’s a businessman and makes the best deals. Of course, he doesn’t understand the complexities of the Middle East, its history and challenges, being the Grand Marshal of New York’s Israel Day parade notwithstanding.

The Clintons, on the other hand, have proven themselves to be great friends of the people and state of Israel. In critical biographies of Hillary and in her most recent memoir “Hard Choices,” it’s clear that she knows Israel’s leaders well, considers them friends, respects, understands and supports the state of Israel as few American leaders can claim to do.

A nechemta (a word of comfort) – If history is a guide, Hillary will earn upwards of 80 per cent of the Jewish vote in November, and in that sense the election will be good for American Jews, assuming she wins, which I expect. Additionally, our overwhelming support for Hillary Clinton could isolate Adelson and the Republican Jewish Coalition who have revealed themselves to be out of step with the dominant Jewish values held by American Jews and with the vast majority of the American Jewish community.

* The Jewish vote has gone with the Democratic party in all presidential elections in the past 92 years by significant majorities: 1924 (51/29), 1928 (72/28), 1932 (82/18), 1936 (85/13), 1940 (90/10), 1944(90/10), 1948 (75/10), 1952 (64/36), 1956 (60/40), 1960 (82/18), 1964 (90/10), 1968 (81/17), 1972 (65/35), 1976 (71/27), 1980 (45/39), 1984 (67/31), 1988 (64/35), 1992 (80/11), 1996 (78/16), 2000 (79/19), 2004 (76/24), 2008 (78/22), 2012 (69/30)

Note: The views I have expressed here are my own and do not represent the views of my synagogue or any other organization.

“Calling Israel an apartheid state is an insult to black South Africans” – Leon Jamaine Mithi

15 Sunday May 2016

Posted by in Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Social Justice

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Leon Jamaine Mithi is a law student at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He grew up under what he called the “strictest regime of apartheid in South Africa.”

This week he wrote in The Oregonian:

“… I used to support the BDS movement [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions], but I withdrew my support after I visited Israel and Palestine (the West Bank). Having been there, having seen what the BDS movement calls “apartheid,” I have to say that calling Israel an apartheid state is an insult to black South Africans who suffered under the now defunct system of strict racial segregation… I feel a terrible loss of the true black South African apartheid narrative, because the term has been appropriated to wrongly label Israel when referring to [its] conflict with Palestine. Apartheid was colonialism on steroids. For Israel to be an apartheid state, it would have to be a colonial entity. The comparison of Israel to South Africa, from the view of a South African, is not correct. It would require us to ignore the archeological history of the Jewish people. … It is ahistorical to consider a people with ties stretching over thousands of years to an area as a colonizer … Israelis are not some colonizers from Europe. They are a community that is nation building in an area where they have always lived.” http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/05/calling_israel_an_apartheid_st.html

Six years ago in a response to the charge by South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu that Israel is an “apartheid state” Warren Goldstein, chief rabbi of South Africa, wrote “An open letter to Archbishop Desmond Tutu” (International Jerusalem Post – November 12-18, 2010):

“…Israel has no Population Registration Act, no Group Areas Act, no Mixed Marriages and Immorality act, no Separate Representation of Voters Act, no Separate Amenities Act, no pass laws or any of the myriad apartheid laws. To the contrary, Israel is a vibrant liberal democracy and accords full political, religious and other human rights to all its peoples, including its more than one million Arab citizens, many of whom hold positions of authority including that of cabinet minister, Member of Parliament, and judge at every level, including that of the Supreme Court. All citizens vote on the same roll in regular, multiparty elections. There are Arab parties and Arab members of other parties in Israel’s parliament. Arabs and Jews share all public facilities, including hospitals and malls, buses, cinemas and parks, universities and cultural [venues].” https://blimpdeflator.com/tag/apartheid/

The BDS movement insists otherwise and has persuaded unsuspecting sympathizers to believe the apartheid slander.

What is the aim of the BDS movement?

BDS is led by the international Palestinian Solidarity Movement whose aim is to end Israeli occupation of Palestinian land including both the occupied West Bank and the state of Israel itself. These people are not only anti-Israel but most likely also anti-Semitic.

There are, however, supporters and sympathizers of BDS who restrict BDS to Jewish West Bank settlements only, and not to the state of Israel. These people, many of whom are Jews and believe that the state of Israel has a right to exist within the Green Line, are not anti-Israel nor anti-Semitic. The problem is that they are allied with people who are. It is debatable whether BDS is a tactic that can work. I believe it can’t and won’t.

All this being said, it’s true that Arab citizens of Israel within the Green Line don’t enjoy the same benefits and rights that Israeli Jewish citizens enjoy including equal access to government funds and services and the right to live anywhere in the state of Israel. To his great credit, Israeli President Ruvi Rivlin has called upon the government of Israel to address these inequities out of his belief that all citizens of the state, Arab and Jew, are entitled to equal rights and privileges.

At a special Cabinet meeting last December 30, PM Netanyahu promised after a contentious vote that over the next five budgetary years, the Arab sector of Israel would receive a total of 15 billion shekels ($3.8 billion) to develop its infrastructure, housing and construction, employment, education and public transportation as a corrective to past discriminatory policies against the Arab sector. However, despite the PM’s promise, he set preconditions for its implementation. See http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/01/israel-arab-sector-development-plan-buried-netanyahu.html#ixzz48jRgHWdV

Palestinian Arabs living in the West Bank are different in status from Israeli Arab citizens. They are not Israeli citizens and don’t enjoy the same protections, rights and privileges as those living in Israel. For them, their fight is and has always been against occupation. We Jews may not like that claim, but it’s true.

While the case can be made that Israel’s often harsh security measures imposed on Palestinian Arabs living in the West Bank are a necessary evil in light of Palestinian terrorism, we can’t ignore the truth that Israel’s holding onto this territory for nearly 50 years has had an oppressive impact upon Palestinians and a corrupting moral influence on Israelis.

David Ben Gurion recognized the dangers of the occupation on Israeli democracy and the soul of Israel when he said in 1967 following the Israeli-Arab Six-Day War: “Return [the captured territory] immediately, even if no one wants it back; return it.”

The foundational Zionist principles articulated in Israel’s Declaration of Independence that was signed exactly 68 years ago today (May 15, 1948) did not envision the Jewish people becoming military occupiers, nor did Israel’s founders anticipate the corrosive effects that occupation would have upon both Arabs and Jews.

BDS is no answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and calling Israel an ‘apartheid state’ is a lie. The only adequate response Israel can make is to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority a two-state solution in which all claims are settled and two peoples can live side by side in peace, security and mutual cooperation. The Palestinians will have to transcend their historic knee-jerk rejectionism and compromise on its maximal positions to do this, and Israel will have to compromise and show that it can meet the Palestinians half-way.

Israel at 68 – Today’s test of leadership

12 Thursday May 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Ethics, Holidays, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity

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I’m reminded every Independence Day of how blessed we Jews are, how privileged we are to be able to do what my grandparents never did – to walk on the soil of the Land of Israel, to build a nation there and be rebuilt through her, to plant and harvest there, to build great cities, communities, universities, and hospitals, to gather in the exiles from the four corners of the earth, and to offer safety and an enriched Jewish life to children who then speak the ancient tongue and carry on what Israel’s pioneers began more than a century ago.

For the Jewish people, the state of Israel is a miracle of our history, and a continuing source of gratitude, fulfillment and joy. The Zionist movement and the Jewish state have restored the Jewish people not only to our homeland but to sovereignty after 2000 years of exile. Israel has returned our people to history.

It has not come easily. We Jews are schooled in both the idealism of the Biblical prophets and the realism of Israel’s pioneers and leaders. With sovereignty has come difficult ethical challenges. We’ve had to weigh competing moral claims and make sacrifices that 2000 years of exile never demanded; how to remain moral despite the compromises that come with sovereignty.

I live and breathe Israel. My family helped to found Petach Tikvah, one of Israel’s first settlements in 1880. My second cousin is now the President of the State. I am always worried about Israel’s security and the safety of our people there, and for many years I’ve also worried about the negative impact that the exercise of power, including the occupation of 1.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, has had on the state’s Jewish and moral character.

Saying this, I know that Palestinian rejectionism is the primary reason that there’s no peace between Israelis and Palestinians today. I know too that there can be no dignity for Israelis if there’s no dignity for the Palestinians. It should be clear that how this conflict is resolved matters, that our fate as a people is dependent upon the fate of the Palestinian people.

In an op-ed in Haaretz this week, Rabbi Eric Yoffie challenged Israel’s Prime Minister to do what he has so far failed to do, become the leader that Israel so desperately needs:

“Great leaders shape their reputations by making tough calls on big issues. Prime Minister Begin withdrew from Sinai, Rabin committed to Oslo, and Sharon pulled out of Gaza. Right or wrong, they were risk-takers and big-picture leaders. But Netanyahu, a shrewd and calculating politician, likes to put off dealing with the big questions. What is his position on preventing a bi-national state, or on dealing with Hamas, or on stopping the third intifada? We don’t know because he refuses to tell us. Netanyahu is not only cautious but careful to the point of paralysis, usually a hostage to his rightwing base.

But the problem is that his strategy is backfiring. It is true that Israel should not be blamed for the current diplomatic impasse, and Hamas thirsts for Israel’s blood. But absent an Israeli initiative, it is too easy to believe that Israel does not really want peace. Anyone who has spent even a week on an American college campus knows that the problem is not only the Israel-haters in BDS but the anguished questions of Israel-lovers who want to know why Netanyahu continues to build settlements if he really wants a Jewish and democratic Israel. Why, young Jews ask, does the prime minister not put a peace plan on the table? Why does he not tell us what he envisions as Israel’s borders? Why does he not talk of the need to separate from the Palestinians, negotiate with the Palestinian Authority, and, when security can be assured, create two states for two peoples? How can it be in that in Netanyahu’s fourth term as Prime Minister we do not know where he is going or what exactly he wants?”

These are tough questions and serious demands. It is time that the Prime Minister explain himself. If he does, that could be the greatest gift he gives to the Jewish people on this 68th anniversary of Israel’s independence.

8 Articles Worth Reading

19 Tuesday Apr 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Ethics, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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If you are like me, you are overwhelmed by the commentary and news on the US Presidential election, Jewish affairs in the United States, and events taking place in Israel. I read a great deal (usually between 5 and 7 AM)– and as a “service” to you, I offer the following 8 highlights of items I have read in the last week.

The first two are by Deborah Lipstadt and Tom Hayden respectively. They explain why they are supporting Hillary Clinton. I have known both for 35 and 25 years, respectively, and though I’m not surprised by Deborah’s position, I am by Tom’s – he explains why, though he respects Bernie, he must support Hillary.

The next piece (#3), by Uri Avnery, a 90+ veteran left-wing Israeli journalist and a guru to those of us who want his clear-headed thinking, explains why he likes the right-wing President of Israel Ruby Rivlin (my 2nd cousin once removed), and specifically, why he thinks there are possibilities in Ruby’s confederation idea embracing both a Jewish state and an Arab state.

Item #4 is  about the Women of the Wall and a novel action planned for April 24 that will help keep the pressure on the government to stick to its agreement to create an egalitarian prayer space at the Southern Wall of the Kotel.

The remainder of the articles include a NY Times report on Joe Biden’s speech yesterday at the J Street National Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. , as well as two pieces by left-wing American and Israeli journalists (Peter Beinart and Chemi Shalev) on the controversy surrounding Simone Zimmerman, an outstanding young pro-Israel activist who was hired and then fired within two days by the Sanders Presidential campaign.

Happy reading!
John

1) Why I’m for Hillary (and Not for Him), by Deborah Lipstadt, The Forward, April 17

http://forward.com/opinion/politics/338754/why-im-for-hillary-and-not-for-him/#ixzz46BcpYin1

2) I Used to Support Bernie, but Then I Changed My Mind – Tom Hayden, The Nation, April 12, 2016 – “I have a variety of concerns about both candidates’ campaigns. But I intend to vote for Hillary Clinton in the California primary for one fundamental reason.”

http://www.thenation.com/article/i-used-to-support-bernie-but-then-i-changed-my-mind/

3) Squaring the Circle, by Uri Avnery, April 15, 2016 – Jewish Business News – “I like the President of the State of Israel, Reuven (“Rubi”) Rivlin. I like him very much…he is a very humane person. He is kind and unassuming. His family has been rooted in Palestine for many generations. He sees himself as the president of all Israelis, including the Arab citizens…This week, President Rivlin published a peace plan…based on a federation of two ‘entities’ – a Zionist-Jewish entity and an Arab-Palestinian one…In present-day Israel, ideas are frozen…a (con)federation can …allow both peoples to be free in their own states, with their own identities, national flags and anthems, governments and soccer teams, while at the same time saving the unity of the country and solving their joint problems in unity and close cooperation…”

http://jewishbusinessnews.com/2016/04/15/uri-avnery-squaring-the-circle/

4) Israel Public Radio Rejects Women of the Wall Ad, April 13, 2016 – Israel public radio rejected a Women of the Wall ad that included a woman chanting parts of the priestly blessing for being “controversial.” Read more here. http://forward.com/video/338622/israel-public-radio-rejects-women-of-the-wall-ad/#ixzz46D8Kqfvt

5) US feels ‘overwhelming frustration’ with Israeli government: Biden, The New York Times, April 19 – U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Monday acknowledged ‘overwhelming frustration’ with the Israeli government and said the systemic expansion of Jewish settlements was moving Israel toward a dangerous ‘one-state reality’ and in the wrong direction.”

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2016/04/19/world/middleeast/19reuters-usa-israel-biden.html?_r=2

6) As Dems Push Boundaries of Israel Debate, J Street Exults, and Worries, Forward, Nathan Guttman, April 19 – “J Street was born just as Barack Obama took over the White House and has since positioned itself as a group willing to give the administration, as well as members of Congress and candidates, the backing they need in order to take positions on Israel that may be unpopular among the more established American Israel Public Affairs Committee. J Street, through its political action committee, endorsed candidates for the House and Senate willing to voice liberal views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and recently pushed back forcefully against AIPAC’s massive drive to defeat President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. Now, the administration is returning the favor with a series of public gestures meant to send a clear signal to supporters of the lobby, and to AIPAC. President Obama invited a group of J Street student leaders to a meeting in the Oval Office on April 15. Then he sent Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry to deliver remarks at the group’s April 18 gala dinner. AIPAC, by contrast, got a detailed, and at times critical, speech by Biden, but no other senior administration officials.”

http://forward.com/news/national/338902/as-dems-push-boundaries-of-israel-debate-j-street-exults-and-worries/#ixzz46GsEEdd2

7) If You Lose Simone Zimmerman, You Lose the Best of Jewish Millennials, Peter Beinart, Haaretz, April 18 – “Simone Zimmerman cares about Israel. She cares about the Jewish people. She even cares about American Jewish organizations. And she believes there should be a space in those organizations for moral opposition to Israeli policies, the kind of moral opposition once offered by communal leaders like Nahum Goldmann, Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg and Rabbi Arthur Schindler. Treat people like her as the enemy and you make enemies of the best of the younger American Jewish generation. Exile those progressive young American Jews who genuinely care about the American Jewish community and watch who follows in their wake. I’m not worried about Simone Zimmerman. She’ll do fine. I’m worried about a community that punishes its children for challenging its lies.”

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.715096

8) Sorry: As Presidential Contender, Sanders Was Right to Dismiss Simone Zimmerman, Chemi Shalev, Haaretz, April 18 – “Sometimes one suspects that mainstream Jewish leaders would prefer to see the many thousands of J Street supporters and other critics of the occupation get sucked in by BDS and turn into anti-Zionists. That would justify their pigheaded refusal to look at the Jewish community in the mirror and would leave the occupation-denying, Israel-is-always-right crowd of yesteryear in their splendid isolation. Nor does Zimmerman’s dismissal detract from the validity of her views on the occupation, on Netanyahu and on the Gaza war. These are shared by many thousands around the world, including, I assume, the vast majority of Sanders’ own supporters. Running for president, however, involves compromise, a concept that sometimes seems alien to many of Sanders’ and Zimmerman’s fans. To quote a famous Israeli slogan, they would rather be right than smart, but that’s not the way one wins the presidency.”

http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/u-s-election-2016/1.715158

4 Articles and 1 video you ought read and see right now

13 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Ethics, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Social Justice

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By all measures, Israel is the strongest nation in the Middle East and the only democracy. This strength, however, is compromised by the fear-mongering of Israel’s right-wing government, continued settlement building in the West Bank, its anti-democratic attack on NGOs and free speech, its growing exclusionary militant Jewish nationalism, and its resistance to all attempts to reach a compromise resulting in a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These trends have not served Israel’s best interests as a democracy and majority Jewish state. Though the Palestinians certainly must share the blame for a lack of progress over the last two plus decades, they are the weaker party. Despite legitimate fear and distrust of both sides towards each other, it is the stronger party that has the least to lose by initiating serious peace proposals.

Here are four important articles describing not only the depth and breadth of Israel’s strength, development and ingenuity, but also the threats against it. These articles offer a sober and clear-sighted view of the reality in which Israel finds itself, as well as showing how President Obama has been one of the greatest friends Israel has ever had in the oval office (item #3 from the NY Times).

1. A Wake-up Call: Celebrating Half a Century of Israeli Occupation – Ari Shavit, Haaretz, April 7, 2016

“At the end of 50 years, it will be clear what our revealed choice has been: We prefer the Land of Israel over the values of Israel. …

Clinging to the places where the prophets walked has caused us to lose touch with the prophets’ vision. The fanatical zeal for mountains, hills and land of Israel has caused us to abandon the precious breastplate of the Jewish heritage. The idolatry of the land cult and the idolatry of power and the idolatry of the tribe have worn away the commitment to universality, which was the foundation stone of our culture. The land has blinded us and has dulled our senses and has caused us to betray what we are. Half a century is a milestone. Half a century is also a wake-up call. There are no more excuses and justifications and there is no more “tomorrow.” The permanency of the occupation is becoming an integral part of our life and our identity. Thus it is endangering the State of Israel, the Jewish people and the Jewish heritage. Before the Palestinians embark on the 50th-year intifada and before the international community imposes the 50th-year sanctions on us, it is incumbent upon us to find the courage to end the 50-year curse by ourselves, for ourselves.”
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.713117

2. Will Israel Reach age 100? Aaron David Miller (RealClearWorld), April 12, 2016

“Having worked the Israel issue for half a dozen secretaries of state, I’m more convinced than ever that Israel is here to stay….

The region in which Israel lives is melting down at a rate no one would have anticipated. Yet if any states disappear, these may be on the Arab side….

The region’s three non-Arab states – Israel, Turkey, and Iran – are probably the most highly functioning polities in the region. All are domestically stable, have tremendous economic power, and are capable of projecting their power in the region. Of the three, Israel by far has the best balance of military, economic, and technological prowess and brain power. By any significant standard – GDP per capita; educational assets; share of Nobel prizes; even the global happiness index – Israel leads the region, and much of the rest of the world, by wide margins…Compare the situation Israel faces in 2016 with any other period since the founding of the state 68 years ago, and there is little doubt the country is stronger, more secure, and holds a more pronounced qualitative military edge than it ever has. Furthermore, with the exception of Iran, its traditional adversaries are weaker and are falling further behind…

The situation, of course, is far from perfect. Israelis face a rash of attacks by Palestinians, as well as more substantial threats from Hizbullah, Hamas, and ISIS wannabes in Sinai. But these aren’t existential security threats to the state, and Iran’s putative quest for a nuclear weapon has been constrained for now…

Functional cooperation with Jordan, improving ties with Turkey, close relations with Egypt, and an emerging alignment of interests with Saudi Arabia against Iran, all suggest a certain lessening of the Arab state allergy to Israel…

In a region with not a single Arab democracy, a rising Iran, and threats from transnational jihadists, Washington will almost certainly continue to look to Israel as an ally in the region. Indeed, the threat of significant terror attacks on domestic soil from a Middle East in meltdown will provide the best set of talking points for the continuation of the U.S.-Israel special relationship…

Israel is a highly functional state that has powerful agency, extraordinary human resources, a demonstrated capacity to deal with its security challenges, and neighbors who seem to be growing weaker, not stronger.”
http://www.realclearworld.com/blog/2016/04/will_israel_reach_age_100_111810.html

3. Israel’s Unsung Protector: Obama – By Lara Friedman, NY Times, April 10, 2016

“With the Obama administration in its final year, several officials have said that the president has grown so frustrated with trying to revive Middle East peace talks that he may lay down his own outline for an Israeli-Palestinian two-state peace agreement, in the form of a resolution in the United Nations Security Council…

If that happens, count on two reactions: Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will oppose it, and a chorus of American politicians and commentators will suggest that it would be unprecedented — even unthinkable — for an American president to support a Security Council resolution that Israel opposed, rather than veto it…

Over seven years, Mr. Obama has not permitted passage of any Security Council resolution specifically critical of Israel. But a careful examination of the record shows that, since 1967, every other American president allowed, or even had America vote for, Security Council resolutions taking Israel to task for actions and policies toward the Palestinians and other Arab neighbors….

President Obama, in contrast with his predecessors, has completely shielded Israel from such resolutions. This fact is all the more striking given that his presidency has overlapped with governments that have been among the most right-wing in Israel’s history — governments that have continually and openly defied American-led peace efforts and American policy opposing settlement expansion.

The two-state solution is the only path to preserving Israel’s security and its character as a Jewish state and a democracy, while delivering freedom, dignity and sovereignty to the Palestinians. We can hope that President Obama may now recognize that preserving this solution for the future is the most important legacy he can leave in this arena. But to accomplish that, he must be willing to resist, rather than court, the anti-peace bullies in Israel and the United States; he must be willing to stand up for American interests in obtaining a Middle East peace, and to stand with America’s allies in the Security Council in supporting a two-state solution.

If he does that, President Obama will not be betraying Israel. He will be Israel’s true friend. And he will walk in the footsteps of all eight other presidents since 1967, Democrat and Republican alike.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/12/opinion/international/israels-unsung-protector-obama.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share

 
4. Israel School Scraps Death Camp Trips Amid Fears of Right Wing Radicalization, Forward, April 13, 2016

A Tel Aviv high school principal will no longer send pupils on an annual educational trip to former concentration camps in Poland because of its perceived “ultranationalist” influence on the students.
http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/338485/israel-school-scraps-death-camp-trips-amid-fears-of-right-wing-radicalizati/#ixzz45eLibGpp

5. Skunk Spray!  – You Tube

A degrading form of abuse – or a safe, ingenious, effective, non-lethal, and non-toxic crowd control method that smells indescribably foul? The Palestinians want it banned. What’s your opinion? An Israeli creation (2 minutes 41 seconds).
https://www.youtube.com/embed/H4_XZE3r3oU?rel=0