Category Archives: Israel and Palestine

Is the Two-State Solution Viable? 330 Reform Rabbis at the CCAR Conference in Jerusalem

23 Tuesday Feb 2016

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

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I had the privilege today of introducing two programs at the CCAR Conference in Jerusalem that convened 330 Reform Rabbis from Israel, the United States and Canada, Europe, Australia, and South Africa. Both sessions addressed the issue of the viability of the two-state solution.

The first was moderated by Dr. Reuven Hazan, the head of the Political Science Department at the Hebrew University, and included MK Hilik Bar, the Secretary General of the Labor Party and Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, and Elias Zananiri, the Vice Chairman of the PLO Committee for Interaction with Israel Society.

The second featured MK Benny Begin, a geologist and member of the Knesset (Likud) and the son of the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

I framed the program with these words:

No issue divides the Jewish people as much as the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. As tensions flare in this infantifada (as it is called with knife wielding Palestinian children attacking innocent Israelis) and hope seems dim for any kind of progress or negotiations, the Labor Party lead by Isaac Herzog decided in the last couple of weeks that it was officially parting with the two-state solution in the near term. Instead, MK Herzog recommended that Israel build a security fence that separates Palestinians from Israelis in Jerusalem and elsewhere.

This decision is a challenge to Labor MK Hilik Bar’s outline ,once supported by Herzog, for a final status, ‘end of all claims’ agreement between Israel and the Palestinians resulting in a two states for two peoples resolution of the conflict.

This proposal resulted from MK Bar’s two years as the Chair of the Knesset Caucus to Resolve the Arab-Israeli Conflict (otherwise known as “Two States Caucus”). Bar denied that Herzog had given up on a two-state solution and that his proposal to build the fence was purely a security measure to stop young Palestinians from attacking Israelis.

Though the Zionist Union still supports a two-state solution, the Palestinian Authority says it is too late and that it would refuse to sit down with any Israeli leaders without pre-conditions and without an outside mediator. However, serious Israeli and American Jewish critics of the Palestinians argue that on at least two occasions in the past fifteen years, the Clinton-Barak-Arafat Camp David negotiations in 2000 and the secret 36 meetings between former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas in 2007. Yassir Arafat backed out of the Camp David talks and Abbas backed out of his negotiations with Olmert saying that the gaps between Israel and the Palestinians were still too wide.

These critics claim that the Palestinians were never serious about an end of conflict agreement. All the while settlements continue to expand and new settlements dot the entirety of the West Bank. Jewish neighborhoods now surround the city. Taken together the establishment of a contiguous Palestinian state is increasingly more difficult to effect.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin rejects a two state solution and instead has suggested a confederation of two states, Israel and Palestine, with two governments, two constitutions, and all security overseen by the IDF extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

The questions before our speakers are these:

Is it too late for a two-state solution? Is a two-state solution still viable and the preferable option? Is there an alternative to a two-state solution? What happens to Israel’s democracy and Jewish character if the two-state solution does not come about in the near future or down the road?

The first panel of speakers all agreed that there is no solution other than a two-state solution because Israel will either cease t be  a democracy or it will cease to be a Jewish state.

The Palestinian representative claimed to want a state of Palestine living securely alongside Israel.

MK Begin argued that the Palestinian leadership can never and will never accept the legitimacy of the Jewish state of Israel in Eretz Yisrael, and that a two-state solution would be an existential threat.

The speakers represented the variety of opinion in Israel itself and among the 330 rabbis present. The CCAR affirms that a two state solution is the only way for Israel to preserve its democracy and its Jewish character.

The Two-State Solution is Not Yet Dead!

15 Monday Feb 2016

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

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Thomas Friedman’s NY Times op-ed (Feb 10 – link below) expresses his exasperation with Israel and the Palestinians and his conclusion that the two-state solution is dead. His piece stimulated a lot of debate and conversation this past week in American Jewish pro-Israel circles.

Friedman’s argument comes in the wake of the apparent break-down of the Oslo peace process, months of knife-wielding Palestinian children and teens against Israeli civilians, a new proposal to deal with the terror by Israeli opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog who advocates building a fence that would separate the populations, and a proposal by Israeli President Ruvi Rivlin to create a confederation of two states under Israeli sovereignty.

However, before everyone takes any of these proposals too seriously, I believe it is still too soon to hammer the final nail in the coffin of a two-state solution. Shaul Arieli argues this point in his recent Haaretz op-ed: “The Settlement enterprise has failed,” (link below). Arieli’s cites the facts that because Jews comprise only 13.5% of the West Bank’s population and occupy only 4% of the land in the West Bank, that “the settlers have failed to create the appropriate conditions for annexing the West Bank.”

Then there’s Isaac Herzog’s security proposal made in direct response to Israeli fears of Palestinians attacking them everywhere. Though his proposal is a short-term panacea (the number of attacks this last month are significantly fewer than previous months), it is not a long-term plan. Herzog has affirmed that he still believes that a 2-state solution is the only way Israel can remain democratic, Jewish and secure. He offered his plan as a way simply to control the violence.

I get it. Israeli fear is palpable. I felt it myself in October when I was there for the World Zionist Congress. Terrorism terrorizes. That’s the entire point. It’s brutal and indiscriminate. But, Herzog’s proposal isn’t a solution to Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It may even make a two-state solution more difficult to achieve because of the route the fence takes and what license it gives to settlers to build more settlements in areas that are contested, especially in Jerusalem. The benefit of his proposal, however, is that settlement construction outside the fence would cease.

President Ruvi Rivlin’s idea (he never believed in a two-state solution) is to create a confederation in which there would be two states, Israel and Palestine, with a defined border, two parliaments, two constitutions, security police in both, but one army, the IDF, that would control everything between the River and the Sea. There would be a shared infrastructure such as a common electricity grid and shared water resources.

Rivlin’s idea is, on the surface, appealing especially for many Jews and Israelis because it would eliminate the need to move large numbers of settlers from their settlements in the West Bank and maintain security over all the West Bank. Israelis living in the West Bank, wherever they are, would remain Israeli and vote in Israeli elections though living in Palestine, just as Palestinian Arabs would be citizens of Palestine and vote in Palestinian elections, but live in greater Israel under the complete sovereignty of the Jewish state.

President Rivlin’s plan is for an inherently unequal confederation. The problems in the plan include how to keep Jewish national zealots from building more settlements in the new state of Palestine, how to get agreement from the Palestinians to live under IDF control, what limitations would be placed upon returning Palestinian refugees, and what arrangements would be made in Jerusalem for Palestinians over their own population?

President Rivlin’s ideas, surprisingly, have attracted the support of the principle Oslo architect and left-wing former Deputy Prime Minister Yossi Beilin, among others.

There is also the position of the national religious settler movement led by Bayit Yehudi Leader Naftali Bennett. These people believe that Jews have the God-given right to settle anywhere in the land of Israel, that there is room only for one state between the River and the Sea, Israel, and that Palestinians can never be equal citizens of Israel.

There is no current viable solution on the table. The PA refuses to meet with Israeli leaders without international interlocutors. The Israeli government won’t meet with any Palestinian leader who demands agreement to preconditions.

What do we in the West do?

First, we have to continue to support the state of Israel, its people and its security needs. There are many Jews who are throwing up their hands and want to turn away. We can’t do it. Israel belongs to the entire Jewish people and what happens there effects us here. Israelis need us as we need them – we are one people!

Second, we have to continue to support Israel’s democracy and its commitment to equal rights for all its citizens, Jewish, Arab and other.

Third, we have to remind ourselves that anything that makes a two-state solution more difficult to achieve is a threat to Israel’s future viability, security, democracy, and Jewish character.

Hazak hazak v’nithazek! Be strong and let us strengthen one another!

The following articles discuss the various options confronting Israel and the Palestinians:

“The Many Mid-East Solutions” – Thomas Friedman, NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/10/opinion/the-many-mideast-solutions.html?_r=0

“Jeremy Ben Ami Responds to Thomas Friedman” – NY Times Letter to the Editor
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/opinion/the-only-mideast-solution-two-states.html?_r=0

“The Settlement enterprise has failed” – Shaul Arieli, Haaretz
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.685926

“Ruvi Seeks a Solution – The President stands up to the Prime Minister and charts a way out of the tribal morass engulfing Israel” – Leslie Susser, The Jerusalem Report
http://www.jpost.com/Jerusalem-Report/Ruvi-seeks-a-solution-443904

Confronting Anti-Semitism on American College Campuses Today

07 Sunday Feb 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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I remember as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley (1968 – 1972) that when I became active in anti-Vietnam and pro-civil rights protests I encountered a measure of anti-Semitism among fellow protesters that pushed me away from ever feeling at home with them despite our shared values about equal rights and justice.

Sadly, not very much has changed these past 45 years. Anti-Semitism in the student left has become worse.

In addition to my worries about the rise of anti-Semitism in campus left-wing groups, I’m worried also about what many young Jewish idealists are thinking who, on the one hand base their activism and involvement in these groups upon traditional Jewish values of justice and equality, but on the other are unsuspecting or ill-informed or naive or in denial about the anti-Semitism they are confronting as it manifests in anti-Israel activism, pro-BDS support and pure Jew-hatred.

A particularly disturbing article appeared this month that addresses the challenge that progressive proudly identifying Jewish activists are confronting on college campuses (“In the Safe Spaces on Campus, No Jews Allowed,” The Tower Magazine, February 2016).

We learn there of the experience of two progressive pro-Israel Jewish UCLA students who attended the Students of Color Conference (SOCC) at UC Berkeley in November. The SOCC is the UC Student Association’s oldest and largest conference that has a reputation as “being a safe space where students of color, as well as white progressive allies, can address and discuss issues of structural and cultural inequality on college campuses.”

Arielle Mokhtarzadeh and Ben Rosenberg discovered to their shock and dismay that though many of their fellow college students had risen up to fight racism on campuses across the country as they did, so often those very same students subject Jewish students to anti-Semitism.

I offer below three important articles that survey anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment on American college campuses today:

1. In the Safe Spaces on Campus, No Jews Allowed, By Anthony Berteaux, The Tower Magazine, February 2018 – http://www.thetower.org/article/in-the-safe-spaces-on-campus-no-jews-allowed/

Arielle Mokhtarzadeh and Ben Rosenberg shared the following:

[the conference participants] said that Israel was poisoning the water that they sell into the West Bank, and raising the price by ten times. Any sane person knows that this is not true. They also said that when Jewish-American students go on Birthright trips, the Israeli government offers you money to live on a settlement. A number of things like that…. There was also no mention of the Holocaust when talking about the history of Israel. They said that in the late 19th century, Jews decided to move into this land and take over it. They completely white-washed our history as a people… Over the course of what was probably no longer than an hour, my history was denied, the murder of my people was justified, and a movement whose sole purpose is the destruction of the Jewish homeland was glorified. Statements were made justifying the ruthless murder of innocent Israeli civilians, blatantly denying Jewish indigeneity in the land, and denying the Holocaust in which six million Jews were murdered. Why anyone in their right mind would accept these slanders as truths baffles me. But they did. These statements, and others, were met with endless snaps and cheers. I was taken aback.

2. Anti-Semitism On Campus: Most Jewish Students Feel Discriminated Against, New Study Finds By Jackie Salo, July 7, 2015, International Business Times – http://www.ibtimes.com/anti-semitism-campus-most-jewish-students-feel-discriminated-against-new-study-finds-2027557

Nearly three-quarters of Jewish college students have described experiencing anti-Semitism in the last year, and about one-third have been verbally harassed at one point because of their religion, according to a survey…. More than one-quarter of the Jewish students reported seeing hostility against Israel on campus from peers as a “very big” or “fairly big” problem, and nearly 15 percent felt the same level of animosity towards Jews. Nearly one-quarter of respondents said they have been blamed in the past year for the actions of Israel because they were Jewish….The study also found that Canadian universities and Midwest and California state schools had the highest rates of students reporting hostility on campus towards Jews and Israel. 

3. National Demographic Survey of American Jewish College Students 2014 – ANTI-SEMITISM REPORT, By Barry A. Kosmin & Ariela Keysar – https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/trinityantisemreport.pdf

The following appears in the report’s Forward:

…we have learned much more about the problem [of anti-Semitism on college campuses], which has worsened at many institutions …. Significantly, we did not know, until the completion of Barry Kosmin and Ariela Keysar’s important work on this report, the startling fact that more than half of Jewish American college students personally experienced or witnessed anti-Semitism during the 2013-2014 academic year…. It should be obvious that campus anti-Semitism deserves a strong response… governmental officials, university administrators, civil rights groups, and communal institutions, activists, and funders, all of whom need to decide what resources to dedicate to addressing campus anti-Semitism and how to deploy these resources. …

This report offers what responses ought to be made to anti-Semitism as it manifests on campuses. The most important defense, in addition to governmental, administration, faculty, and student responses, is a well-educated Jewish student body about Judaism itself, the history and nature of anti-Semitism, and the history and nature of the state of Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people. Young people need to know their own Jewish history. They need to understand the significance and nature of the state of Israel in all its complexity, and they need to be prepared to identify anti-Semitism when they encounter it and how to effectively confront it for what it is really is. And finally, they need to be able to stand proudly as Jews.

“Israel’s Creeping Annexation of West Bank Speeds Up” by Alan Elsner – Huffington Post – Plus Area C Map

02 Tuesday Feb 2016

Posted by in Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Social Justice

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I normally do not post entire articles written by others, but this one is so important that I am doing so. It appears on January 29’s edition of Huffington Post and was written by veteran Israeli journalist Alan Elsner who serves as Vice President of Communications at J Street.

Here is a link to a map showing Areas A, B and C in the West Bank. Should Area C be annexed by Israel, a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would become impossible.

https://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_area_c_map_2011_02_22.pdf

As is is well known, many members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government are strident opponents of a two-state solution and would like to annex at least a major portion of the occupied West Bank.

Until recently, many in the international community assumed that Netanyahu would block such moves and continue his policy of paying lip service to the goal of a two-state solution, while blocking any meaningful negotiations with the Palestinians and allowing the Israeli settler population of the West Bank to slowly but steadily expand.

But recent developments may indicate that Netanyahu has decided to take his foot off the brakes. Construction within the settlements has accelerated significantly while more and more members of the Cabinet are calling for Israel to officially annex the 60 percent of the West Bank known as Area C. Within the settlements, giant placards are springing up reading, “Sovereignty! Now is the time.”

Under interim agreements signed in the 1990s with the Palestinians, the West Bank was divided into three zones. In Area A, comprising about 18 percent of the land including the major Palestinian cities, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is supposed to run things without Israeli interference — although the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security service frequently mount raids inside this area.

Area B is around 22 percent of the West Bank and is mainly rural. Israel retained security control of the area but the PA is supposed to control civil affairs.

Area C comprises over 60 percent of the territory and is under almost total Israeli military control, including control of all land-related civil matters. That means Israel controls land allocation, planning and construction and infrastructure.

The size of the Palestinian population of Area C is disputed. Right-wing Israeli politicians like Education Minister Naftali Bennett claim there are only 50,000 Palestinians living there and therefore Israel could easily annex the territory and grant them Israeli citizenship without altering significantly the demographic balance within Israel.

However, the United Nations says there are 300,000 Palestinians living in Area C. Israeli civil rights organizations like B’Tselem put the number at around 200,000. The dispute arises because many Palestinian towns and villages fall partly in Areas A or B and partly in Area C. Area C also holds virtually all of the Israeli settler population of the West Bank – now around 350,000 plus.

For many years, the Israeli authorities have been behaving as if Area C will one day become part of Israel. Obviously, there can be no Palestinian state if it does. The Israeli Civil Administration has methodically blocked virtually all Palestinian construction and attempts at economic development and systematically taken over more and more land and brought it under Israeli control and ownership.

According to B’Tselem:
— 36.5 percent of Area C land is defined by Israel as “state land”.
— 63 percent is within settler local and regional councils.
— 20 percent is under examination by the authorities with a view to retaining them as government property.
— 30 percent is defined as “live fire zones.”
— 14 percent has been declared nature reserves or national parks.

The Civil Administration almost never grants Palestinians living in Area C building permits, forcing them to build illegally. According to a UN report last September, more than 11,000 demolition orders are currently outstanding in Area C. These orders – which affect an estimated 13,000 Palestinian-owned structures, including homes – are among the over 14,000 demolition orders issued by the Israeli Civil Administration between 1988 and 2014.

Israel’s civil administration deputy head Uri Mendes said earlier this month his office is cracking down on illegal Palestinian building and destroying all such structures, save for those that are the subject of legal cases or are protected by a court injunction.

The EU is fighting back against this policy, providing funds for Palestinians to build even without permits, believing this is crucial for their economic development. Thus, a serious clash is developing on this issue between the Europeans and the Netanyahu government.

The future of the two-state solution is playing out in Area C, which has most of the land of a future Palestinian state. This area should be designated for developing and expanding existing Palestinian communities. They are also crucial for building and locating infrastructure such as waste treatment facilities and industrial zones, which cannot be placed in cities. This land has vital mineral and water resources. To give just one example, Human Rights Watch recently reported that Israel gets 25 percent of its quarrying materials from the West Bank and that 94 of the stone quarried in the West Bank goes to Israel.

Israel’s policy in Area C of creeping de facto annexation is now turning into galloping annexation. The world, led by the United States, should start paying more attention before it is too late.

 

 

Click to access ocha_opt_area_c_map_2011_02_22.pdf

The Knesset NGO Transparency Bill is not what its backers say it is!

31 Sunday Jan 2016

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

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Israel’s Justice Minister, 39 year-old Ayelet Shaked of the right-wing Jewish Home Party that represents the powerful settler movement, is the primary advocate behind the Knesset bill that would require NGOs (non-governmental organizations) that receive 50% or more of their funding from foreign governments to publicly detail those sources as a means, Shaked says, to protect the state of Israel from the undermining and delegitimizing efforts of the Jewish state by foreign governments.

This bill, however, has nothing to do with what its backers claim because the bill is superfluous. Israel already has many regulations in place for NGOs that receive money from foreign governments, and their budgets are published and sources of income are known.

What is the real intent behind passage of this NGO Transparency bill?

To target Israeli human rights and left-wing organizations such as “B’tzelem,” which monitors human rights violations against Palestinians by settlers and the Israeli military administration in the West Bank, “Breaking the Silence,” a group of former IDF soldiers who are speaking out about army violations of  human rights in the West Bank, and the American based “New Israel Fund,” a pro-Israel human rights organization that funds projects not funded by the Israeli government or American Federation dollars.

It is noteworthy that many right-wing NGOs that are not transparent are left untouched by this Knesset Bill.

According to a Peace Now survey issued in September, 2015 that examined the reports for 2006-2013 of nine NGOs identified with the Israeli right-wing, it was found that there is no way of knowing where the funding of hundreds of millions of shekels to these organizations that deeply affect policy and Israeli public opinion comes from (see http://peacenow.org.il/eng/RightWingNGOs).

For example, 2% (160,000 NIS) of the extremist right-wing organization “Im Tirtsu’s” funding is secret. Last week Im Tirtsu launched a slanderous campaign targeting some of Israel’s most respected left-wing literary icons including Amos Oz, A.B Yehoshua and David Grossman calling them “moles in culture” and insinuating that they are treasonous.

The anti-left “NGO Monitor” does not reveal 23% of its funding. The settlement movement’s powerful “Yesha Council” does not reveal 99% of its funding. The right-wing organization “Ir David Foundation” (Elad) that has led the way in building and developing East Jerusalem Palestinian neighborhoods for Jewish settlement, does not reveal 100% of its funding.

The reason these groups are not required to reveal their funding sources is that their money either comes from Israeli individuals and Foundations or from wealthy American Jews and American Foundations. There is no requirement in Israeli law to name the names of individuals or non-government foundations. The Shaked NGO Transparency Bill only addresses funding from foreign governments.

Shaked’s bill is similar to policies in Egypt after the revolution that banned all NGOs and to Putin’s Russia that bans free speech. MK Shaked dismissed criticism by comparing the Israeli bill with the American Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), but US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro publicly refuted her comparison last month saying:

“As a general matter, US law imposes no limits, restrictions or transparency requirements on the  receipt of foreign funding by NGOs operating in the United States, other than those generally applicable to all Americans…the draft Israeli law would target NGOs simply because they are funded principally by foreign government entities….FARA requires individuals or organizations to register as foreign agents only if they engage in certain specified activities at the order, request or under the direction or control, of a foreign principal – not simply by receiving contributions from such an entity. As a result, it does not create the chilling effect on NGO activities that we are concerned about in reviewing the draft Israeli NGO law.”

Shaked’s NGO Transparency bill does not expose anything new. Organizations in Israel that receive funds from private donors, as such as Sheldon Adelson, are far less regulated as opposed to those organizations receiving money from foreign governments, even governments such as the EU, Germany and the Netherlands that have excellent relations with Israel.

What it comes down to is that MK Shaked’s law focuses upon organizations she and the right-wing government of Israel do not like.

There seems to be a misconception by the bill’s advocates about the important check and balance role that NGOs play in democracies. In a proper democracy, the government does not get to decide what are the good NGOs and what are the bad NGOs. Rather, people decide what they wish to fund or not fund.

Shaked acknowledges that this NGO law does not shut down any NGO nor does it require changes in operating left-wing NGOs. The purpose of the bill is symbolic. Its intent is to sow suspicion about Israeli human rights NGOs, to insult their integrity, to challenge their pro-Israel credentials, and to prime the Israeli public to accept further limitations on what NGOs can do and not do down the road.

This bill ought to be defeated but it is expected to pass, which does not augur well for Israeli democracy.

West Bank Settlements are neither “illegitimate” nor “illegal” – But that’s NOT the issue

20 Wednesday Jan 2016

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

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Even though a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems very far away, it is still the only solution that preserves Israel’s democratic and Jewish character, and it is the only solution that will restore Israel’s international standing.

Everything good that Israel is and does, however, is being eclipsed by terror, violence and the contentious issue of West Bank settlements.

The Times of Israel reported this week (“US backs European move to distinguish Israel from West Bank,” January 20) the following:

“Our longstanding position on settlements is clear,” [US] State Department spokesman John Kirby said at the department’s daily press briefing Tuesday.

“We view Israeli settlement activity as illegitimate and counterproductive to the cause of peace,” he said. “We remain deeply concerned about Israel’s current policy on settlements, including construction, planning, and retroactive legalizations.

“The US government has never defended or supported Israeli settlements, because administrations from both parties have long recognized that settlement activity beyond the 1967 lines and efforts to change the facts on the ground undermine prospects for a two-state solution,” Kirby added. “We are no different.”

A few historical points:

  1. West Bank land after World War I became part of the British Mandatory Authority. Before that it was controlled by the Ottoman Empire and over the past millennia by a number of  different sovereign powers going back to Biblical days;
  2. After the 1948 Israel-Arab War, Jordan conquered the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Old City of Jerusalem. Egypt took the Gaza Strip. Syria occupied the Golan Heights;
  3. During the 1967 Israeli-Arab War, Israel conquered those five areas;
  4. No nation, not the Ottomans, Great Britain, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, or Israel was necessarily entitled to the West Bank by treaty because there never were any treaties. In every instance, occupation came about as a consequence of war and armistice agreements;
  5. The UN Security Council and General Assembly unilaterally conferred upon these territories legal status as belonging to the Arabs/Palestinians, and Israel’s occupation as “illegal”;
  6. In 1979, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 446 by a vote of 12-0 with 3 abstentions from Norway, the UK and the US that determined: “… the policy and practices of Israel in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”
  7. With the passage of Resolution 446, the UN determined that territories administered by Israel are subject to the Fourth Geneva Convention (adopted in 1949) requiring Israel to refrain from taking any action that would change the status or demographic composition of those territories including moving civilians onto this land.

In other words – all West Bank settlements are “illegal” and “illegitimate.” But, is it true?

I agree with the Israeli government position that they are not illegal. The Israeli position is that since none of this land ever “belonged” to any nation by treaty Israel is not “legally” constrained by Resolution 446 or the Fourth Geneva Convention.

However, Israel’s policies of settlement and expansion are hardly politically smart, constructive, wise, or helpful if a two-state solution is ever going to become a reality.

Israel’s policies in the West Bank since 1967 have effectively blurred the “Green Line” (the 1949 Armistice line following Israel’s War of Independence) to such a degree and enmeshment has become so extensive between the West Bank Palestinian Arab population and Israeli Jewish settlements that no contiguous Palestinian state will be possible in the West Bank if new settlements and settlement expansion do not stop. At some point fairly soon, what will be left is a nightmare situation of a one-state solution that will be in a perpetual state of terror, violence and war.

Many observers believe that it is not yet too late to reverse the slide towards a one-state reality. Only an agreement negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians can bring the kind of peace and security both Israelis and Palestinians crave.

 

 

2 Articles and an Invitation to Hear Daniel Sokatch, CEO of the New Israel Fund

14 Thursday Jan 2016

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

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“Is it too late to bring us back from the brink?” by Gershon Baskin and “Another Step Towards Stifling Dissent in Israel,” by Don Futterman paint ominous but honest and thoughtful pictures of the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians on the one hand and on efforts by Israel’s right-wing political parties to diminish Israel’s democracy on the other.

For those who love Israel and want her to remain Jewish and democratic, these two articles address core concerns  regardless of whether we hold differing perspectives on what Zionism and the state of Israel mean today – see links below.

With this in mind, I invite Los Angeles residents to join my congregation (Temple Israel of Hollywood) on Friday, January 22nd at 6:30 PM when we will welcome Daniel Sokatch, CEO of the New Israel Fund, to speak to us following services and before an open communal Shabbat dinner. He will speak on the theme “The Current State of Democracy in Israel.”

For those interested, please RSVP to RA@tioh.org, and let us know how many will join you so that we can plan dinner accordingly, which we offer to all who attend.

The following are snippets of each article with links:

“Is it too late to bring us back from the brink?” by Gershon Baskin, Jerusalem Post

“As Israeli society moves further away from supporting a deal with the Palestinians, Palestinian society is also moving further away. The voices of moderation on both sides of the conflict are dissipating and the belief that peace is even possible is all but disappearing. I have always said that what each side of the conflict says and does impacts the other. Neither side lives in a vacuum and each side’s discontent with the other has a direct impact across the conflict line. Each side also has the ability to positively impact the other. Recalling Egyptian President Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem, one can easily remember how public opinion in Israel on the question of returning Sinai to Egypt changed 180 degrees almost overnight. Both sides have the potential ability to positively impact the public opinion of the other, albeit given the current reality and the leaders in power, it seems very unlikely that even a very dramatic and unexpected act could change the course of negative events that we are facing. But it might be the only thing that could right now…..

It is not too late the turn the course – to make the shift that will bring us back from the brink.”

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Encountering-Peace-Looking-into-Palestinian-political-realities-441436
“Another Step Towards Stifling Dissent in Israel,” by Don Futterman, Haaretz

“The External NGOs Law (aka the “Transparency Law”), a draft bill now making its way through the Knesset, is just the latest volley in a campaign to strangle funding sources of civil and human rights organizations in Israel…

The bill is framed in an attempt to insure that it applies primarily to leftist and human rights organizations, but not to right wing organizations, or to entities that receive massive foreign corporate funding…

The underlying strategy is simple; in the guise of promoting transparency, the bill’s sponsors want to convince the public that critics of the government’s settlement and occupation policies, or advocates for greater equality for Arab Israelis, are not patriotic citizens like themselves but rather foreign agents who are not be trusted…

The brilliance of this tactic is that by smearing their critics, right wing leaders never have to engage with the criticism, let alone change their policies. If they can raise doubts about the messenger’s patriotism, the public won’t even listen to what the rights activists are saying…

Transparency already exists. All Israeli NGOs are required by law to list their funders at the Registrar of NGOs, which is open to the public, and most NGOs share this information on their websites…

[Likud MKs] Shaked and Smotrich know this, of course, but their bill has little to do with transparency and everything to do with delegitimization. Their goal is to gut the funding from organizations which criticize their cause – settlement normalization and expansion – or which might strengthen Arab citizens within Israel. And it’s nothing new. …

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.687183

When Religion Turns People into Murderers

12 Tuesday Jan 2016

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Book Recommendations, Divrei Torah, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Jewish-Christian Relations, Jewish-Islamic Relations, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Social Justice

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“When religion turns [people] into murderers, God weeps.”

So begins Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in his important new book (publ. 2015) “Not in God’s Name – Confronting Religious Violence.”

This rich volume is a response to those who believe that religion is the major source of violence in the world, that when humankind abolishes religion the world will become a more peaceful place.

Not everyone, of course, interprets religion this way. Yes, there are violent streams to be found in each of the fundamental texts in Judaism (Tanakh), Christianity (New Testament) and Islam (Qoran), but he writes: “Religion itself teaches us to love and forgive, not to hate and fight.”

He challenges all faith traditions to rethink their respective truths: “As Jews, Christians and Muslims, we have to be prepared to ask the most uncomfortable questions. Does the God of Abraham want his disciples to kill for his sake? Does he demand human sacrifice? Does he rejoice in holy war? Does he want us to hate our enemies and terrorize unbelievers? Have we read our sacred texts correctly? What is God saying to us, here, now?”

At its core, Rabbi Sacks affirms that religion links people together, emotionally, behaviorally, intellectually, morally, and spiritually so as to develop a sense of greater belonging, group solidarity and identity. Most conflicts have nothing to do with religion when understood this way. Rather, conflicts are about power, territory, honor, and glory.

Rabbi Sacks describes dualism as the primary corrupting idea within the three monotheistic traditions. It’s easier, he says, for people to attribute suffering to an outside evil force and not as something inherent within God and basic to the human condition. Seeing the world as “Us” vs “Them” and Good vs Evil may resolve inner angst and complexity, but it’s a false resolution of conflict. Taken to its extreme, fear of the “other” leads to hatred and violence, and when justified by faith results in “altruistic evil.”

“Pathological dualism does three things. It makes you dehumanize and demonize your enemies. It leads you to see yourself as victim. And it allows you to commit altruistic evil, killing in the name of the God of life, hating in the name of the God of love and practicing cruelty in the name of the God of compassion. It is a virus that attacks the moral sense. Dehumanization destroys empathy and sympathy. It shuts down the emotions that prevent us from doing harm…. Victimhood deflects moral responsibility. It leads people to say: It wasn’t our fault, it was theirs. Altruistic evil recruits good people to a bad cause. It turns ordinary human beings into murderers in the name of high ideas.”

Rabbi Sacks reflects on the history of the Jew as scapegoat and the role that antisemitism has played as a reflection of the breakdown of culture: “The scapegoat is the mechanism by which a society deflects violence away from itself by focusing it on an external victim. Hence, wherever you find obsessive, irrational, murderous antisemitism, there you will find a culture so internally split and fractured that if its members stopped killing Jews they would start killing one another. Dualism becomes lethal when a group of people, a nation or a faith, feel endangered by internal conflict.”

Rabbi Sacks sites the bizarre story of Csanad Szegedi, a young leader in the ultra-nationalist Hungarian political party, Jobbik, which has been described as fascist, neo-Nazi, racist, and antisemitic. One day, however, in 2012, Szegedi discovered he was a Jew and that half his family were murdered in the Holocaust. His grandparents were survivors of Auschwitz and were once Orthodox Jews, but decided to hide their identity.

Upon learning of his Jewish past, Szegedi resigned from the party, found a local Chabad rabbi with whom to study, became Shabbat observant, learned Hebrew, took on the name Dovid, and underwent circumcision.

Szegedi’s understanding of the world changed completely. Rabbi Sacks explains that “To be cured of potential violence towards the Other, I must be able to imagine myself as the Other.” Before Szegedi’s conversion, he could not empathize with the “other,” the stranger. Now he had become the stranger, the despised Jew.

Rabbi Sacks looks carefully at all the stories of sibling rivalries in the book of Genesis, and explains that God appreciates each child differently and for each has a blessing. The world as conceived in the Hebrew Bible is not a zero-sum game. The struggle for power, position and ultimate Truth is false. Whereas love characterizes relationships within a tribal unit, justice is the demand for humanity as a whole – and both can and must co-mingle thus allowing for individual/group identity and the greater human family.

Rabbi Sacks addresses his book to all the faith traditions, but most especially, he says, to the moderate Islamic world that shares with us our Jewish religious values, and he calls upon them to stand up against ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and other purveyors of fear, intolerance, hatred, and violence.

It would have been worthwhile for Rabbi Sacks to ask moderate Israelis and the liberal Jewish community abroad to imagine what it is like for Palestinians to live under the Israeli military administration in the West Bank on the one hand, and to ask Palestinian moderates to imagine living with the constant threat of extremist Islam to destroy the state of Israel and the Zionist enterprise on the other. Perhaps, if more would do that, to step into the shoes of the “other,” a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict might come about more quickly.

North American Reform Rabbinate Passes Strong and Visionary Resolution on Israel

04 Monday Jan 2016

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

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In advance of the annual meeting of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv at the end of February 2016, the CCAR Board passed a superbly balanced, nuanced and comprehensive statement representing the broad consensus of the American and Canadian Reform Rabbinate.

The CCAR represents 2300 Reform Rabbis serving communities mostly in North America, but also around the world. Reform Judaism is the largest North American religious stream of Jews numbering close to 1.4 million individuals.

This resolution affirms the Reform Rabbinate’s strong support for and bond with the people and state of Israel as a Jewish and Democratic state. It strongly supports equal rights for all Israeli citizens (Jew, Arab and other) according to the principles of the Israeli Declaration of Independence, religious diversity and equal rights for all individuals and religious streams in the state, and a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The resolution demands that Palestinians recognize that Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people and that Israelis recognize that the to-be established state of Palestine is the nation state of the Palestinian people. The resolution opposes the occupation of the West Bank and expansion of Israeli settlements there and calls upon the Palestinian leadership to cease all provocation and incitement against Israelis.

I am proud of the rabbinic leadership of my rabbinic association for its strong, just, compassionate, wise, fair, visionary, and comprehensive resolution.

https://ccarnet.org/rabbis-speak/resolutions/2015/ccar-expression-love-and-support-state-israel-and-/

Over the course of decades the CCAR has issued 322 resolutions on the state of Israel. They can be accessed here:

http://ccarnet.org/search/?q=Resolutions+on+Israel

Six Articles You Need to Read Right Now

30 Wednesday Dec 2015

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

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I have compiled these important six articles addressing trends in Israel and the American Jewish community as a passionate ohavei am u-medinat Yisrael (a lover of the people and state of Israel). Even in light of all the good, creative, decent, and progressive things that continue to pour out of Israel in every field of endeavor, there are nevertheless anti-democratic trends in the Knesset and among segments of the population in Israel and West Bank that are ominous and threatening to the democratic Jewish state that I and so many of us love.

I highlight these six articles with you in this spirit and wish all of you and the people you love a healthy, happy, productive, and peaceful secular New Year.

1. The Unraveling of Israeli Democracy, Times of Israel
Naomi Chazan, former Israeli Deputy PM and Head of New Israel Fund argues, “… the continuous assault on the pluralism of the public domain reflects the insecurity of those in office and directly serves their interests by allowing the present leadership to shirk responsibility for Israel’s precarious situation and, by shifting the burden to those who disapprove of its course….”
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/speak-truth-to-power/

2. We’ve Entered the Final Decade to Save Israel, Haaretz
Ari Shavit argues, “Israeli democracy in recent years has become seriously ill. The Supreme Court is under attack, the media have been weakened, and the system of checks and balances has been neutered. An evil wind is blowing that silences criticism and condemns differing opinions. If this aggressive populist and ultranationalist attack on Israel’s democratic institutions and values continues until 2025, we are liable to find ourselves with a benighted political system that is no longer committed to freedom, equality, fairness and progress.”
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.693502

3. Why Liberals Gave Samantha Power the Cold Shoulder — and the Point They Missed, Forward
On December 13, the liberal Israeli daily Haaretz and the New Israel Fund sponsored a “new Israeli American discussion” in NYC addressing Palestinian rights, religion and state, U.S.-Israel relations and grass-roots organizing power. More than 70 speakers appeared — Israeli, Palestinian and American lawmakers, journalists, academics and activists… In session after session when the topics of Palestinian statehood and Israel’s occupation of the West Bank came up, they were framed in terms of Palestinian rights and interests. Israel’s needs — even the basic argument that separating from the Palestinians would make Israel safer — came as an afterthought if at all.
http://forward.com/opinion/israel/327162/how-liberal-zionists-ignored-samantha-power/#ixzz3uP6VmlXO

4. Why Adelson’s Campus anti-BDS Group Will Be a Bust, Haaretz
Rabbi Eric Yoffie writes, “Coalitions of Israel supporters are the key to pro-Israel advocacy… I don’t agree with J Street on everything, but they are an essential part of the Zionist family. And they are exceedingly effective pro-Israel advocates and anti-BDS organizers on campus, especially with students on the left. …the Maccabee Task Force regards as allies only those who refrain from criticism of Israeli government policies. … It is madness to think that a no-criticism litmus test can be applied in building pro-Israel and anti-BDS coalitions.”
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.693300

5. Israel now has its very own Jewish Hamas, Rabbi Eric Yoffie
… Israel now has its very own Jewish Hamas, fanatics motivated by extremist religious ideology who kill, maim and justify the mayhem they have committed by blaming their enemies. They have religious leaders who encourage them in their extremist actions. Rather than take responsibility for the death of children and other innocents, Hamas chieftains change the subject: Their victims are the oppressors, indifferent to justice and God’s will.  Jewish terrorists do and say exactly the same thing, with the same fervor, cruelty, and conspiratorial cunning.
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.694245

5. Ruvi Rivlin is my man of the year, Times of Israel
Who would have guessed, a decade ago, that Reuven “Ruvi” Rivlin, would be the source of optimism in Israel of 2015 and a clear voice of sanity amidst the rhetoric of polarization and extremism?
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/ruvy-rivlin-is-my-man-of-the-year/

6. Netanyahu agrees with haredim not to allow Women of the Wall to read Torah at Western Wall – Jerusalem Post
Prime Minister Netanyahu has come to an agreement with the haredi political parties not to allow the Women of the Wall prayer rights to read from a Torah in the women’s section of the Western Wall. The PM promised the General Assembly of Jewish Federations of North America in November that a pluralist third section at the Western Wall was soon to be created. The Reform, Conservative movements and WOW are holding him to his promise.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Netanyahu-agrees-with-haredim-not-to-allow-Women-of-the-Wall-to-read-Torah-at-Western-Wall-438728

Note #1: My gratitude extends to J Street’s Daily Round-up of Israeli Press and Opinion for items 1,2,3, and 4 above.

Note #2: Three of the above articles are from Israel’s daily newspaper Haaretz. Haaretz is the NY Times of Israel and you must subscribe to read its English version. I urge you to do so.