Category Archives: Israel/Zionism

“The International Delegitimization Campaign against Israel and the Urgent Need of a Comprehensive Two-State, End-of-Conflict Peace Agreement”

07 Wednesday Dec 2011

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

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“I decided to write this paper because I have of late been asked questions from both Jews and non-Jews that until recently I had never heard before, questions that call into question the very legitimacy of the State of Israel. I have seen nothing in print that can serve as a comprehensive primer, fact sheet, briefing and background paper that can assist rabbis, Jewish leaders, college and university students and faculty, and our friends in the interfaith community, in dealing effectively with the complexities and nuances that underlie the growing international movement to delegitimize Israel.”

So begins my article (CCAR Journal: The Reform Jewish Quarterly, Fall 2011, pages 90-109) that can be accessed on Temple Israel of Hollywood’s Web-site – See About Us – Then Clergy – Then Clergy Writings – Then Rabbi Rosove’s Writings (www.tioh.org – http://www.tioh.org/about-us/clergy/aboutus-clergy-clergystudy.)

In this piece I address the following questions and themes:

  • What Is the Delegitimization Movement and What Does It Seek to Do?
  • Why Israel Is Not an Apartheid State Despite Claims by the Delegitimization Network
  • The United Nations General Assembly: The Central International Arena of Delegitimization Efforts
  • Other Delegitimizing Actions (The UN Resolution on “Zionism as Racism”; The Protocols of the Elders of Zion; Palestinian school textbooks; Official Palestinian maps; The Israel Lobby by John Meersheimer and Stephen Walt; Israel’s security barrier; International boycott of Israel; Israel as the “greatest threat to world peace”; The UN’s Goldstone Report)
  • We Cannot Deny That Israel Is an Imperfect Democracy
  • The Settlements
  • Legitimate Criticism vs Delegitimization: Embrace Loving Critics and Distance Delegitimizers
  • Jewish Organizational Perspectives: Who Is Really In and Out of the Pro-Israel Camp (a review of 14 major American Jewish organizations and their respective positions Israel)
  • Why Settling the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Is Strategically and Morally Necessary Now Before It Is Too Late
  • What Do We do Now?

Conclusion of the article:

“An old UJA advertisement once read “We never promised you a rose garden.” Anyone with eyes wide open understands the truth of this statement. Indeed, the situation between Israelis and Palestinians and within their respective societies is complex and difficult. Nevertheless, unless this conflict is settled, I fear for the Zionist enterprise altogether. In the 1970s there was an American Zionist movement called B’reira (“There is an  alternative”) and that alternative is a two-state solution. That message is even more to the point today.”

Russian Jews Today Singing Their Hearts Out!!!

06 Tuesday Dec 2011

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

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I was a 19 year-old UC Berkeley sophomore when I first became involved with the Bay Area Council on Soviet Jewry. It was 1969 and in the middle of a very harsh era for the Jews of the Soviet Union. For the crime of identifying publicly as Jews, learning Hebrew in small groups in private homes and for applying to immigrate to the State of Israel, Jews were fired from their jobs, expelled from universities, arrested, charged with treason, tried, convicted, and imprisoned.

Many of us had become activists after reading Elie Wiesel’s The Jews of Silence. For me, the arrest of 11 Leningrad Jews at the airport as they attempted to hijack a plane out of the country drew me in. The leader was given the death penalty (later commuted because of world-wide reaction) and the others long prison sentences of hard labor in Siberia. The courage of these and many more people was extraordinary and an inspiration.

We in the west protested, marched, disrupted Soviet cultural events, painted “Let My People Go” on the side of docked Soviet vessels, agitated the established Jewish community to take this issue on publicly, and lobbied our Senators and Congressional Representatives urging them to pass the Jackson-Vanik Amendment tying favorite nation status with the USSR to open immigration policies for Jews wishing to leave.

I offer this remembrance as a preamble for your viewing the YouTube below. It shows thousands of Russian Jews singing openly in a concert led by a male Jewish choral group of 10 voices with an energetic back-up band somewhere in Russia.

As I watched it, I pinched myself realizing how much has changed in the 42 years since I was first active in the movement. Jews are now free to leave, and those who remain are able to live openly as Jews. Our own Reform movement is active in the FSU training leaders, establishing congregations and creating connections with Israel and American Jewish communities. Chabad is also very active there. Thousands have immigrated to America, and more than one million formerly Soviet Jews are living as citizens in the State of Israel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h1cPdbdZfw&feature=related

2011 Israel Religion and State Index – What Israelis Believe

05 Monday Dec 2011

Posted by in Israel/Zionism, Jewish History

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Following the Israeli “Social Justice” movement protests this past summer that drew 450,000 into tent cities throughout the country, Hiddush, Freedom of Religion for Israel, an organization led by Rabbi Uri Regev, published findings about what Israelis really believe about the secular-religious divide in the Jewish state.

Highlights:

64% view the tension between secular and ultra-Orthodox as the most or second-most acute domestic conflict in the country;

30% view the tension between rich and poor as such;

87% believe ultra-Orthodox young people should be obligated to do either military or national service;

79% favor reducing subsidies for students in yeshivot so as to encourage ultra-Orthodox men to join the workforce;

80% maintain that core curriculum studies should be mandatory in ultra-Orthodox schools as they are in other schools;

65% believes that yeshiva subsidies and the absence of ultra-Orthodox men from the workforce are some of the essential reasons for the heavy burden on the middle class;

83% support Israel’s Declaration of Independence’s promise of “freedom of religion and conscience;”

80% are dissatisfied with the government’s handling of religion/state matters;

62% support freedom of marriage and legal recognition of both civil and religious marriages of all streams in Judaism;

62% support equal recognition of all conversions to Judaism, whether Orthodox, Conservative or Reform;

60%-65% support allowing civil marriages, relaxing Shabbat restrictions, and more.

Two scholars reflect on the meaning and consequences of current trends in Israeli society:

Prof. Eugene Kandel, head of the National Economic Council, holds that Israel could be one of the 15 richest countries in the world, if only haredi men (i.e. ultra-Orthodox) and Arab women participated in the workforce relative to their size in the population.

Prof. Dan Ben- David, who heads the Taub Center, repeatedly reminds us that if we don’t address these issues, Israel faces the threat of slipping into the economic state of a developing country.

The full report – http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=242755

Mr. President: Commute Jonathan Pollard’s Sentence

01 Thursday Dec 2011

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

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It is time for President Obama to commute Jonathan Pollard’s life sentence to time served for his guilty conviction of spying for Israel. Not only has Pollard now spent 26 years in prison, but he is in failing health. The latter would not be reason enough to commute the sentence if the punishment really did fit the crime, but the sentence from the beginning was grossly unfair.

Long ago it was revealed that Casper Weinberger, the then American Secretary of Defense, bore such animus against Pollard for his leaking American security documents to Israel that the Defense Secretary wanted to make a severe example of Pollard for his treachery. Weinberger had submitted a letter to the judge in Pollard’s case incorrectly alleging that information from Pollard had reached the former Soviet Union, and it was on this basis that the judge made the sentence so severe.

All this information was recently repeated to Vice President Joe Biden when he met with seven American Jewish leaders about the Pollard case. Included in this meeting was Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, Dr. Simcha Katz of the Union of Orthodox Congregations, Rabbi Julie Schonfield of the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly, Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, Rabbi Steve Gutow of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and Michael Adler, a Miami community leader.

The meeting was called because two months ago the Vice President publicly condemned Pollard in the harshest terms provoking a strong response from many in the American Jewish community. The good news is that VP Biden welcomed a meeting at all. To date he is the highest-ranking American official ever to hold a meeting about Pollard, as was reported by Rebecca Anna Stoil, the Washington Representative of The Jerusalem Post. However, the Jewish leaders agreed to strict confidentiality as to what Biden’s response was or what he would advise the President to do in this case.

Pollard’s sentence is extreme relative to the sentences of other guilty foreign spies and agents. The average sentence in an American court given to others convicted of the same crime of spying for an ally as Pollard received has been two to four years. People convicted of treason also served far less time than Pollard. The Jewish leadership delegation cited to Biden the case of Hasan Abu-Jihad, who received only a 10-year sentence for spying for al-Qaida. American spies Aldrich Ames and Robert Hansen, convicted of spying for the former USSR, also were given less time. Other than Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were executed for passing top nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union in the early 50s (only Julius was likely guilty), no one has received a more harsh sentence than Jonathan Pollard – and again, his crime was passing secrets to an ally, Israel.

Reason and precedent dictate that Jonathan Pollard be released with a commutation of his sentence soon, perhaps before Hanukah. Humanitarian concerns also recommend his early release. Pollard has been hospitalized 4 times in the last year and suffers from a number of maladies including diabetes, nausea, dizziness, black-outs, problems with his gall bladder, kidneys, sinuses, eyes, and feet.

Finally, the Jewish leadership delegation told the Vice President that there is virtual consensus in the American Jewish community that President Obama should commute Pollard’s sentence to time served. The Union for Reform Judaism and the Central Conference of American Rabbis both passed resolutions years ago calling for justice and commutation. I agree wholeheartedly.

There is a political consideration here for the President as well. Though his record is solidly pro-Israel (only the Republican Jewish coalition refutes this based on anti-Obama political enmity), his releasing Pollard would be well-received in Israel and would undercut the same Republican Jewish Coalition that loves to distort and lie about Obama’s pro-Israel credentials.

Mr. President – commute Pollard’s sentence now!

64 Years Ago Today – Now What?

29 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by in Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History

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On November 29, 1947, 64 years ago today, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by 33 votes against 13 (with 10 abstentions) the “Palestine Partition Plan” advocating a two-state solution to the Arab-Jewish conflict, one Jewish and one Arab. The Jews were exuberant. The Arabs rejected the plan. Nearly six months later Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel: “…AND ON THE STRENGTH OF THE RESOLUTION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, (WE) HEREBY DECLARE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A JEWISH STATE IN ERETZ-ISRAEL, TO BE KNOWN AS THE STATE OF ISRAEL.” The next day 7 Arab armies attacked Israel killing 6000 Jews, 1% of the entire Jewish population.

The borders proposed by the UN Partition Plan gave the Jewish minority 55% of the country, though half was the Negev desert, and in that portion 50% were Arabs.

Once the War of Independence began, Ben-Gurion promoted “Plan Dalet” as a strategic necessity and as a solution to two problems: it added 22% more land to the Jewish State and drove out much of the Arab population.

The myth that Arabs fled because their leaders told them that the Jews would rape and kill them is only partly true. The Haganah also drove out many thousands of Arabs. In the end only a small part of the Arab population remained in the new State of Israel and they became citizens. That number has now grown to 1.5 million inside the Green Line.

The question debated in Israel today concerns the meaning of a “Jewish State.” Israeli right wingers reject a two-state solution and claim that the “Jewish State” belongs exclusively to Jews regardless of the fact that thousands of Arabs have lived there for centuries. Most Israelis support a two-states for two-peoples solution, affirm the democratic character of the Jewish State and believe that all its citizens (Arabs included) have equal rights under the law according to the Declaration of Independence.

In a recent piece on this 64th anniversary since the UN Partition plan, the Israeli journalist and peace activist, Uri Avnery wrote:

“THE 1947 partition plan was an exceptionally intelligent document. Its details are obsolete now, but its basic idea is as relevant today as it was 64 years ago: two nations are living in this country [and] they cannot live together in one state without a continuous civil war. They can live together in two states. The two states must establish close ties between each other. Ben-Gurion was determined to prevent the founding of the Arab Palestinian state, and with the help of King Abdullah of Transjordan he succeeded. All his successors, with the possible exception of Yitzhak Rabin, have followed this line. We have paid – and are still paying – a heavy price for this folly. On the 64th anniversary of this historic event, we ought to go back to its basic principle: Israel and Palestine; Two States for Two Peoples.”

Such, of course, is more easily said than done. To shine a light on the essence of the problem I recommend three important articles:

[1] An opinion piece in Al Jazeera (September 30, 2011) by Sari Nusseibeh, Professor of Philosophy and President of Al-Quds University in Jerusalem entitled “Why Israel can’t be a ‘Jewish State’” – www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion (once on the site, type in the title of the article in “Search” and it will come up). Nusseibeh is considered a leading Palestinian “moderate” (after reading this peace one has to ask what “moderate” means!”

[2] A to Nusseibeh’s piece by his friend, Uri Avnery (noted above), an Israeli journalist, peace activist, former member of the Knesset, and leader of Gush Shalom, called “We are a People – A Response to Sari Nusseibeh” http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/we-are-a-people-a-response-to-sari-nusseibeh-1.389543. As a member of Israel’s left wing peace camp, Avnery is not hopeful for a settlement anytime soon not because of Israel’s right wing extremist government, but rather because the Palestinian identity and narrative has led them to regard Jews as nothing more than a religion and not a people.

[3] A blog by Bernard Avishai, an American-Israeli journalist and contributing Editor to the Harvard Business Review, taken from a much longer Atlantic article (November 23, 2011) (subscription only) called “The Return of ‘The Right.’” Avishai recasts the conflict based on the necessity for mutual understanding of the Israeli and Palestinian narratives – http://bernardavishai.blogspot.com/2011/11/return-of-right.html

As I ponder the complexity, intractability and politicization of this conflict I am reminded of what President John F. Kennedy said relative to the Soviet and American nuclear arms race – “This is not rocket science. These problems were made by human beings and they can be solved by human beings.”

Amen!

One more Reason the Israeli Reform Movement is so Important to Israel and World Jewry

28 Monday Nov 2011

Posted by in Israel/Zionism, Life Cycle, Stories

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The following letter was sent by Anat Hoffman, the Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (IRAC), the social justice arm of the Israeli Reform movement.

Anat is one of my personal heroines. She is not only brilliant but indefatigable in striving to fulfill the mitzvah – Tzedek tzedek tirdof (Justice justice shall you pursue – Deuteronomy 16:20). The injustice and indecency of this Orthodox Rabbi and this regressive and inhumane practice that is growing in Israel should outrage any one with a conscience.

Dear Friends of IRAC,

Rosie, a teacher who lives in a small town in the Negev desert, is a single mother who lost her father at the beginning of the year. The family decided to bury him in the nearby town of Ofakim. Rosie spent the night writing a eulogy for her father that she was going to read at the funeral

When they arrived at the cemetery there was a mechitza, a barrier, separating her from her brother and all the other men attending the funeral. When her turn came to speak, the officiating rabbi asked her brother to read the eulogy instead because he said “In our tradition women are not allowed to speak at funerals.” Rosie’s brother refused, saying that she should be the one to read it, since this is what their father wanted but the rabbi refused and suggested to read the eulogy himself. Rosie protested and cried from behind the partition “Are you going to say ‘My beloved father’?”

Rosie did not keep quiet and told her story at a Knesset conference on segregation this month. She wept sharing her pain and frustration at not being able to say goodbye to her father and at having her own words, written during one of the hardest moments of her life, taken away from her. Though missing a day of work was a financial burden for her, she came to testify because she never wants women to be humiliated like this again. With the help if IRAC’s lawyers she is suing the chevre kadisha, burial society, of Ofakim to show that this practice must stop immediately. This past Thursday Rosie went on the most popular radio show in Israel to talk about her upcoming court case. The broadcaster asked her to read her eulogy on air. Millions of Israelis got to hear her words and her voice.

Segregation and exclusion of women has spread like wildfire to many aspects of public life; post offices, buses, and supermarkets and now it has even reached the arena of public death. We at IRAC have been like firefighters, vigilantly putting out fires wherever they pop up. Unfortunately, Rosie’s story is not an isolated one. We have received complaints about segregation in cemeteries from Netanya, Petach Tikva, Tiberias, Yavne, and Jerusalem. Some of these women are not even allowed next to the gravesites of their loved ones because some rabbis see it as inappropriate. IRAC is collecting stories from other women so we can deal with this issue on a national scale. Segregation at funerals affects all Israelis and they are not willing to stand it anymore.

These new fires will not stop us. My helmet is on and my water hose is ready.

L’shalom,

Anat Hoffman

 

 

 

Israel at its Best!!!!!

21 Monday Nov 2011

Posted by in Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism

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This past week, as President of the regional board of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA) along with our ARZA Regional Director Jerry Krautman, we welcomed Alex Cicelsky from Israel who is on a national speaking tour sponsored by ARZA. That hour was so exciting and inspiring that I wanted to tell you about Alex and the ground-breaking environmental work being done on Kibbutz Lotan.

Alex is a senior staff member and founder of the “Center for Creative Ecology” (CfCE) and a founder of Kibbutz Lotan, one of two Reform Kibbutzim in the Arava about 60 miles north of the southern city of Eilat. The Kibbutz was founded in 1983, has 200 members with 60 children and is a cross-generational community. The Kibbutz has become a nationally and internationally recognized center for developing cutting-edge environmental technologies and projects.

Originally from New York State, Alex made aliyah in 1982. He studied international agriculture at Cornel University’s School of Agriculture and is an expert in soil and water sciences, desert architecture, and green technologies. He is engaged actively with the Global Ecovillage Network of which Kibbutz Lotan is a member.

Kibbutz Lotan is a remarkable example of what can be done in Israel when smart, motivated, principled, courageous, and inspired people (backed by the Reform movement) join together in common cause. The Kibbutz grows dates, has a dairy of 250 cows and is developing a goat dairy. Most significantly, it is a center for eco-tourism, has a nature and bird reserve which offers rest and food for millions of annually migrating birds, and is constructing its own wetland in the middle of the desert for treating the community’s waste water. Lotan has developed numerous desert energy technologies, designed green architecture for the severe desert climate, water management systems, and desert agriculture. It is a center, as well, for environmental education and peace-building in association with “Friends of the Earth,” drawing together Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian youth in a regional network of natural builders and organic gardeners that include the Yesh Meayin Eco-Education Farm and the Marda Palestine Permaculture Education Center.

The Kibbutz built a youth center comprised of 10 desert dormitory structures (25 more units are planned at $25K/unit) that welcomed last summer 600 National Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY – the American Reform youth movement). Any American university student can earn 16 course credits for a semester of living and working at Lotan, and post-university green apprenticeships are available. Lotan has also developed materials on how to make “green” businesses anywhere in the world.

Lotan is internationally recognized as a leading ecological center and has received monetary support from the European Union (EU) for its water recycling systems, funds from the Jewish National Fund (JNF) for its “Bird Hide” structure built from recycled waste and the nature reserve giving food, shelter and water to migrating birds) and is recognized for its programs to build bridges between Arabs and Jews. For example, it led the building of the Bustan-Medwed Wadi El Naam Health Clinic that serviced the Bedouins living in unrecognized villages that lacked health care.

Alex explained that Kibbutz Lotan’s mission is to fulfill Judaism’s core values of “tilling and protecting” the earth citing the famous Midrash from Kohelet Rabba 7:28: “Upon presenting the wonder of creation to Adam, God said: ‘See my works, how fine and excellent they are! Now all that I created, for you I created. Think upon this, and do not corrupt and desolate my world; for if you corrupt it, there is no one to set it right after you.’”

I was deeply impressed, inspired and proud of what Alex and Kibbutz Lotan have created. It is but one example of how Israel’s Reform movement is breaking new ground and fulfilling the promise of the Jewish State and the Jewish people to be an or lagoyim, a light unto the nations.

For more information on Kibbutz Lotan and Alex’s work, you can go to Lotan’s website, www.kibbutzlotan.com, Facebook (lotan.kibbutz and lotan.ga), and Youtube (kibbutzlotan). If you wish to assist the Kibbutz, you can send contributions to ARZA (Association of Reform Zionists of America) and direct the gift to Kibbutz Lotan at ARZA, 633 Third Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10017 (212-650-4280).

Why I Declined to be on the Host Committee for AIPAC in Los Angeles

18 Friday Nov 2011

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

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I was invited to become a member of the Host Committee for a Gala Fundraising event sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Los Angeles in February, 2012. I have declined the invitation, with a heavy heart, and when the Southern Pacific Synagogue Initiative Director of AIPAC invited me to speak with him about why, I wrote this letter and welcomed a follow-up conversation with him. I wanted you to see an edited version of that letter.

Dear Judah:

I welcome the opportunity to meet and begin a conversation with you. Thank you for the offer and outreach.

By way of introduction, my involvement with AIPAC goes back to the 1980s. I was very friendly with Tom Dine (one of the first Executive Directors of AIPAC) who was a congregant when I served at Washington Hebrew Congregation in D.C. in the mid-80s. I have always been respectful and appreciative of AIPAC and its multitude of contributions to the security of the State of Israel through its advocacy in Washington.

One issue for me which keeps me from signing on as a member of the host committee is that too many people involved with AIPAC have become intolerant of American Jewish diversity and uncritical of Israel’s government policies that are undemocratic and reflective of extremist nationalism. For AIPAC (and for that matter, for any pro-Israel Jewish organization) to say nothing is essentially to give tacit support to those undemocratic forces within the government and Israeli society that run counter to the principles articulated in Israel’s own Declaration of Independence calling for a just, democratic society that includes all citizens of the Jewish State.

That is not the only difficulty I have, however. The refusal of AIPAC leadership to meet with J Street leadership, to join together as two pro-Israel organizations when there is consensus on a particular issue, or even to enter into a public debate with J Street President Jeremy ben-Ami about the differences between AIPAC and J Street in their respective approaches to American Jewish politics in Washington, D.C. vis a vis Israel does not serve the cause of Israel as a vital democracy and adds fuel to the flames of many Republican leaders in Congress and their Jewish pro-Israel supporters who seek to make Israel a wedge issue in American politics for political gain. This has never before happened in the 63 year history of the State of Israel vis a vis the American Jewish community.

I believe AIPAC could do much to change this negative and divisive atmosphere by addressing these undemocratic and intolerant trends directly and publicly, but it declines to do so. Remaining quiet is not good for Israel or for the American Jewish community.

Having said this, please understand my own Zionist and pro-Israel background and thinking. I am a national Vice President of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA), supportive of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ), am a member of the Advisory Board of the Daniels Center of Tel Aviv, and have assisted as a congregational rabbi at my own synagogue in helping our Israeli Reform brothers and sisters build two Reform synagogue centers in Israel (Kehillat Mevasseret Zion and Congregation Darchei Noam in Ramat Hasharon). I take missions of my congregants to Israel every two or three years. My synagogue Day School has a 3 year exchange program with the Tzahalah Elementary School (in north Tel Aviv) as part of the LA-Tel Aviv partnership. I have raised millions of dollars for State of Israel Bonds. And I am an active member of the Rabbinic Cabinet of J Street, though I have not always agreed with every position that J Street has taken.

J Street, in my view, is essentially correct in its approach to Congress and Israel, that we American Jews have both a duty to support Israel as a pluralistic democracy that champions human rights and civil liberties, as well as supporting all efforts that will bring about an end-of-conflict solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that results in two-states for two-peoples living side by side in peace and security. I agree with J Street’s position, as well, that pro-Israel American Jewish supporters must be free to criticize Israel’s government (arguably the most right-wing extremist government in the history of the Jewish State) without fear of being placed in cherem (excommunication and pariah status) when it acts in ways that we, as American Zionists and lovers of the Jewish State, believe do not support a peaceful and secure two-state resolution and compromise with the Palestinians.

If you are interested, please read my Rosh Hashanah morning sermon this past High Holiday season which is posted on my synagogue’s web-site (www.tioh.org) to learn what is behind my thinking about Israel, her security and liberal Zionist values.

This is why I have declined to be an active supporter of AIPAC, though again, I am grateful and appreciative of AIPAC for its many years of past advocacy for Israel in our nation’s capital. If you feel comfortable I ask that you share this letter with AIPAC leadership in Washington, D.C.

L’shalom,

Rabbi John Rosove

The Dogs of War? Will the US and NATO Attack Iranian Nuclear Sites in the Next Year?

14 Monday Nov 2011

Posted by in American Politics and Life, Israel/Zionism

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This may be nothing more than speculation, but this piece from Aryeh Sullivan of Media Line is worth reading. Aryeh is a veteran newsman with particular expertise on the Middle East who I met last year in Israel. He escorted my Temple Leadership Mission to Bethlehem to meet with the head of Ma’an, the Palestine News Agency.

WEST, NOT ISRAEL, LIKELY TO STRIKE AT IRAN

http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=33697

Release Marwan Barghouti – By Avinoam Bar-Yosef – International Herald Tribune

09 Wednesday Nov 2011

Posted by in Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism

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Last week I wrote about two photographs I have in my drawer – one with former President George W. Bush who I met in 2000 in the run-up to the Presidential “selection” and the other with jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti who I met in Ramallah in 1998. I will never hang my photo with Bush on my wall as the blood on his hands in Iraq to me is a source of profound shame to the United States. The one with Mr. Barghouti, also with blood on his hands from his leadership in the 2nd Intifada, I may hang one day – and hopefully will be able to do so if his release from prison eventually leads to a two-states for two-peoples final resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with him as President of Palestine. Here is an excellent piece published yesterday on Mr. Barghouti in the International Herald Tribune.

Op-Ed Contributor

Release Marwan Barghouti

By AVINOAM BAR-YOSEF
Published: November 8, 2011

When Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas recently called on Israel to release more Palestinian prisoners in advance of any possible negotiations, he was setting a condition that he probably knew Israel would balk at. One of the prisoners on his list, Ahmed Saadat, is accused of killing an Israeli minister. More significantly, another one, if released, would most likely soon take Abbas’s place.

Related in News

·         Times Topic: Marwan Barghouti

That has not escaped Israeli leaders. In fact, freeing Marwan Barghouti, who is regarded as the sole Palestinian leader who enjoys the full trust of Fatah and the Palestinian public, is said to have figured prominently in high-level Israeli consultations as a means of retaliating against Abbas for his bid for Palestinian statehood at the United Nations, and as a way of ushering in a new and less corrupt generation of Palestinian leaders.

The Israeli peace camp has often called for the release of Barghouti, but the security establishment has strongly opposed it. The 52-year-old, life-long activist is held responsible by Israel for directing many attacks and suicide bombings against Israeli civilians, and he was sentenced in 2004 to five life sentences.

But in his earlier years as a Palestinian student leader and then member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, he also opened channels not only with the Israeli left, but also with the Israeli center-right, because he believed that an agreement could not be achieved with only the “peaceniks.”

I knew him well in those years, before he turned militant. He speaks Hebrew, and never denied the right of the Jewish people to a Jewish state. And while he always made clear to his counterparts that a Palestinian state would have an Islamic character, and was proud of being a Muslim, he also expressed contempt for Islamic fundamentalists.

Above all, he has never been associated with the corruption of the Palestinian establishment that formed around Yasser Arafat. While a student at Ramallah’s Birzeit University, his main efforts were invested in the refugee camps: social work, aid to the ill and the poor, cleaning the streets.

In 1987 he was deported by the late Yitzhak Rabin, then minister of defense, because of his role in preparing the first, less violent, intifada. Barghouti spent seven years in exile, keeping his distance from Arafat’s corrupted entourage in Tunis. He was allowed back in 1994, under the Oslo Accords signed by the same Rabin, and in 1996 elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council, where he was a strong critic of the corruption in Fatah. In 1995 he was among the founders of Tanzim, an armed, grassroots offshoot which played a significant role in the second intifada, far more violent than the first.

So why would Israelis, including some from the intelligence community, seriously consider releasing Barghouti?

For one thing, he and Tanzim represent the next generation of secular Palestinian leaders. One of the biggest mistakes of the Israeli establishment and American envoys over the past two years has been their failure to open back channels to Tanzim, a group also ignored by Abbas and his officials.

Barghouti would also form a powerful leadership team with Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Like Barghouti, Fayyad is regarded as being above any dirty dealings. He has structured an impressively efficient bureaucracy. He is rightly courted by the Obama administration and many Israelis. It is well known that there is no love lost between him and Abbas, but the Palestinian president needs Fayyad to ensure a flow of funds from the West.

The trouble is that Fayyad is regarded by the Palestinians as a professional, as the C.E.O. of the Palestinian Authority, but not as its leader. Many experts believe that Israeli and Western negotiators should encourage cooperation between Fayyad and Barghouti. The endorsement of Tanzim would bring Fayyad and his reforms critical support from the Palestinians.

This may be why some in the Israeli leadership, those who are interested in achieving a two-state solution to the conflict, see Barghouti as a possible partner, even if his sins are not forgiven. At least he is honest, and has the trust of the Palestinian people. Abbas, after all, is Arafat’s former deputy, and hardly a saint in Jewish eyes, and at 76 he appears largely concerned now with his legacy.

To hold the peace process hostage to Barghouti’s release raises an impossible hurdle for any Israeli politician. Abbas and his associates understand this well. But even if the Israelis cannot release him now, at least they should immediately initiate a back channel to Tanzim, and allow its representatives unencumbered communication with the jailed Barghouti.

The world should understand that there is a new Israeli phenomenon: most Israelis have moved to the left when it comes to the peace process and are ready for compromise even if, for tactical reasons, they vote for the right. A majority of Israelis would support a two-state deal if it included a Palestinian state that recognized Israel as what it is, a Jewish state, and the Palestinian right of return was limited to the new Palestine, while the Jewish right of return was limited to Israel proper. They do not believe that Abbas is ready at this point to accept this.

If such an understanding could be reached with Tanzim and Fayyad, then Barghouti could be released to take his place in the landscape of Palestinian leadership.

Avinoam Bar-Yosef is the president of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute and a former chief diplomatic correspondent for the daily Maariv.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on November 9, 2011, in The International Herald Tribune with the headline: Release Marwan Barghouti.