Arab lobby rules America/Lebanese attack on Israeli soldiers was unprovoked, UN confirms/other news
(Please remember that if you click on an individual article's link and get my personal yahoo email page, to click on the main link for that website in order to read entire article and see videos, and remember, it is the rich oil cartels that control the world, NOT the Zionists. If a specific article stands out for you, I ENCOURAGE you to copy and paste it in its entirety and send it to the groups, as many people do ignore my posts and it is THEY who should be reading some of these articles. Permission is granted to fwd and share any posts that I send. By the way, most people in yahoo groups are polite. I am certainly aware that my posts are long. What most of you don't know is that if someone isn't WHINING about my posts being long, many are WHINING that I send too many single articles. The bottom line is, I am sick of the whining no matter what I do, so I post in the manner most convenient for myself and that is allowed by the various group's owners.MBS)
I have a rant for today. In many of the yahoogroups, I get several , ahem, "anti-Zionists" whining that when are you Jews (notice that they did say JEWS) going to stop
playing the victim? I guess the only logical answer is when "You non-Jews stop hating us and making us victims, duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." MBS)
1. IDF Prosecutor Testifies, Defends Gaza Blockade by Maayana Miskin
IDF Advocate General Avichai Mandelblit testified Thursday before the Turkel commission. Mandelblit defended Israel's naval blockade on Hamas in Gaza, and explained why the blockade is legal.
Both the Attorney General and the Supreme Court have agreed that the maritime blockade is legal, he said. The blockade began in 2007 after Hamas, which rejects Israel's existence and supports armed terrorist conflict against the Jewish state, took control of Gaza.
The blockade was imposed for military, and not economic, reasons, Mandelblit told the commission. He also noted that supplies were never imported to Gaza by sea prior to 2007. Goods have always entered and exited the area by land due to the fact that Gaza has no port.
"There was never a free maritime route to Gaza," he stated.
The naval blockade remains necessary in order to ensure that Hamas does not import weapons for use against Israel, Mandelblit said. The IDF cannot know what is aboard Gaza-bound ships without boarding them, but cannot board ships for legal reasons, making a blockade the only way of keeping weapons out, he explained.
The Turkel Commission is examining the legality of the IDF blockade on Gaza and of the May 31 operation aboard the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish ship that, along with other foreign ships, attempted to break the IDF blockade. IDF commandos boarded the ship and were attacked by armed passengers, members of the Turkish pro-terrorist IHH group, leading to a violent clash in which nine passengers were killed.
Mandelblit defended the Mavi Marmara operation as necessary, but said that the ship had at no point been considered an enemy vessel. "This ship was not a target," he said. The IDF never considered sinking the ship, Mandelblit said.  Israel Pics Sunset on Nitzanim Beach View It! |  Political Cartoon Monday, August 23, 2010 View It! |
2. Wikipedia Battle Intensifies as PA Joins the Fray by Maayana Miskin
Following the opening of the first-ever Zionist editing group aimed at defending Israel on Wikipedia, a group of Palestinian Authority journalists plan to join the fray and create their own Wikipedia editing program.
Palestinian Journalists Syndicate head Abdul Nasser An-Najar told the Bethlehem-based Maan news agency that his organization plans to set up editing groups to counter attempts to present Israel's view on Wikipedia. He called on the PA to take part in the initiative.
An-Najar warned that the next regional war would be a "media war." Online information on the Israeli-Arab conflict shapes world opinion, he said.
Last week the Zionist "Yisrael Sheli" (My Israel) organization opened a course to address the problem of pro-Arab bias on Wikipedia. In a one-day seminar, lecturers taught dozens of participants how to ensure that Israel's view is presented on the online encyclopedia.
Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that provides information based largely on anonymous contributions. Many Israelis who have attempted to change information on Wikipedia that they believe is inaccurate have found that their edits were rejected; last week's course strove to change that by teaching would-be Wikipedia editors how to make changes last. 3. Iran: Dimona is in Our Crosshairs by Gil Ronen
An unnamed senior officer in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards warned Thursday that Iran would strike Israel if it is targeted, no matter who the attacker is.
According to the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai, the officer said, "Iran has thousands of surface-to-surface missiles, including improved Zelzal-2 and Al-Fatah 110 missiles, with which it will set alight all of the oil towns, facilities and infrastructures of the neighboring countries, if these serve as platforms for attacking it."
Any attack upon Iran will lead to a massive missile attack on Israel, he said, including the nuclear power plant at Dimona, no matter where the attack on Iran originated from. This is taken as referring to a possible attack by the United States.
The Iranian officer boasted that the Patriot missiles that Kuwait intends to buy from the US will not be able to protect it from the Al-Kaim 1 missile in Iran's arsenal. He added that the torpedo boats that the Gulf states received from the West will be useless against Iran's small submarines, which will deploy sea mines against enemy ships.
Ali Fazli, Deputy Commander of the Iranian Basij militia, warned this week at a Basij conference in Tehran that his country would destabilize security in the Persian Gulf if it is attacked. Meanwhile, Iran's ambassador to Russia told Hizbullah's Al-Manar television that an attack on Iran would cause American interests in the region to be damaged and will endanger the existence of the "Zionist entity."
Arab countries are as worried as Israel is by the Iranian nuclear weapons program. London-based A-Sharq al-Awsat reported Wednesday that Said Mashaal, Egypt's State Minister for the Security Industries, said that the nuclear weapons being developed by Iran pose a danger to the entire Middle East, and not just to Israel.
"Iran's push to develop missiles with a range of 3,000 km is causing all of the European nations to develop hostility toward it and to take action to prevent it from developing militarily," he added.
4. From Iran's Nuclear Ambitions to Online Hate by Dan Verbin
Rabbi Abraham Cooper was in Toronto last week to address members of the Simon Wiesenthal Center on a range of issues of importance to the Jewish community.
Speaking with Shalom Life, Cooper, the Associate Dean of the center, noted that Toronto has 24,000 Simon Wiesenthal Center members out of a total of 400,000 worldwide.
"Canada's grassroots support is very loyal. I wanted to give them a perspective and update," he said.
One of Cooper's biggest concerns at the moment is Iran's nuclear program. He recently met with a senior official of the White House's National Security Council to address a Congressional vote on the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty in which Israel was named for the first time, but Iran was not mentioned.
In terms of what to do to ensure Iran does not develop nuclear weapons, he said, "Everyone's hoping and praying that the sanctions that are in place, at least on paper, will have an effect."
He also believes that efforts have to "ratcheted up" to make sure that overseas subsidiaries of companies don't use loopholes to continue trading with Iran. For instance, there was a recent report that German firms are continuing to help the Iranian regime even though they are not supposed to.
It's perfectly understandable to focus on the existential threat of a "homicidal maniac like Ahmadinejad and the mullahs who want to do in Israel and the Jews," said Cooper. However, he and his colleagues have visited the United Arab Emirates twice where they met with top government officials and the UAE is just as worried about Iran as Israel is. He explained how from the Atlantis Hotel in Dubai, you can see the three islands of Abu Moussa, Greater Tunbs and Lesser Tunbs, which are currently are under Iranian control (the UAE believes that these Persian Gulf islands belong to them).
Just across the water, the "Iranian threat is an existential threat to [the UAE's] very nice world order where oil is an ATM machine to them and the United States has provided cover all of these decades."
The message Cooper heard from UAE officials: If the bomb isn't stopped, they are going to have to make a deal with the devil.
"They are not sleeping at night; this has nothing to do with Israel," he said. "In fact, they are hoping that the United States and Israel and others will get together to take out that threat."
According to Cooper, many American diplomats, journalists and experts are way off course when they say, "What would be so bad if Iran gets the bomb? It will make Israel behave and make the Arabs thank us so what's the big deal?"
"This is an issue that much more profound because when they go nuclear, so does Egypt, so does Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE will have no problem with their chequebook to do the same. Can you imagine a Middle East in which every zip code has nuclear weapons? Nobody there who we spoke to wants to do it, everyone there will do it. So the stakes are much higher and go far beyond our concerns for our families and friends in Israel. It's the whole region."
He would have liked to see President Barack Obama up the pressure on the Ahmadinejad government a lot earlier. Right now, however, he "seems to be on it."
He also mentioned that the US government needs to do much more to support the pro-democracy movement in Iran, saying that in the past the American government has always used its power to support dissident movements – for example, with Voice of America broadcasts –in places like the former Soviet Union.
Cooper also touched on digital hate crime. Each year, the Simon Wiesenthal Center puts out a report on Digital Terrorism.
"The online battle between pro-terrorists and pro-democracy activists is raging," said Cooper. "It may be a silent war but it's a very real war."
Cooper, who meets with Internet corporations such as Yahoo, Google and Facebook, explained that in the U.S. because of freedom of speech, they approach online hate by asking companies to take down offending sites citing violations of terms of usage.
"We've generally been very successful at that, taking offline thousands of websites and other hateful postings," he said. "You and I both know that that doesn't mean these groups and individuals don't try to re-organize and find another way to come right back on, through another service. That's a kind of ongoing guerrilla warfare."
As far as he is concerned, Canada has the best approach in the world to such matters, especially with our anti-hate laws. Cooper, who deals with Canada's IP association, said that it takes usually no more than a phone call or an email to a Canadian ISP for a hate site that has crossed the line to be removed.
He said that "Canadians reach for their best instincts" while Europeans are mired in bureaucratic minutia of the sort that generally makes dealing with the removal of anti-Semitic or racist content very tricky.
Social networking seems to be the new battlefront, with many serial haters using Youtube postings to spread their vile messages.
That said, Cooper is quick not to blame the Internet or technology for "spreading the poison." It's the other way around, with the hatemonger responsible, from the days of the mimeograph up to today with Facebook."When we talk about Canada, we hold it up as an example because it's really a combination of the private sector, law enforcement, the media and the public," Cooper commented. "Overall, it works really well. I'm sure there is a lot of frustration about the offshore addresses that these people end up using. It's a struggle."
(Reprinted with permission from Shalom Life)
5. Peace Now Holds Freeze Rally in 'Frozen' Town by Maayana Miskin
Peace Now held a rally on Thursday afternoon, calling to extend the prohibition on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria. The location selected was Neria, a small Jewish town in the Binyamin region.
Neria, like other Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria, has been affected by the freeze. The hundreds of thousands of Israeli Jews living in Judea and Samaria have been unable to add to their homes, or build new classrooms for their schools, for several months. Families interested in building permanent homes in the area have also been unable to realize their goals.
The situation has exacerbated a national housing shortage that has seen prices rise by 15% in just one year.
The Peace Now protesters suggested that towns like Neria are the reason that the Palestinian Authority and Israel have not yet signed a peace accord, saying, "Build Peace, Not Settlements." They argued that renewing Jewish construction would undermine chances to create a PA state in Judea and Samaria.
Israel announced a 10-month construction freeze last year in an attempt to draw the PA to the negotiating table. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas agreed to hold negotiations in August of this year, in the ninth month of the freeze, but has now demanded that the freeze continue or he will withdraw from talks.
Earlier in the week a local guard attempted to block Peace Now from entering Neria to tour the site in advance of its planned rally. He informed police accompanying Peace Now that he would not open the town's gate for their van.
The guard was arrested. Police said they had suggested alternatives to arrest, but that the guard had refused. The guard does not have the right to refuse entrance to people who do not pose an immediate security threat, they argued. 6. US Sends Ross to Talk Freeze by Maayana Miskin
United States diplomat Dennis Ross was in Israel Thursday, reportedly to discuss the Judea and Samaria construction freeze. The Palestinian Authority has demanded that Israel continue the freeze, while Israeli leaders say they will stick to their commitment to renew construction on September 26.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas sent letters to U.S. President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, and European Union Representative for Foreign Policy Catherine Ashton earlier this week and insisted that Israel continue to ban Jewish building after the current 10-month freeze ends.
Israel activists have called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu not to give in to Abbas's pressure.
Israel and the PA are to begin direct negotiations next week. Teams of Israeli and PA negotiators are scheduled to head to Washington.
Israel's team will be headed by Yitzchak Molcho. Another team member is Foreign Ministry official Yaakov Hadas. Sources close to Netanyahu say he is working with advisors to finish assembling the delegations.
Abbas is assembling his team as well. The PA leader faces challenges beyond selecting diplomats: Abbas is facing strong objections from minority PA political groups, including the DFLP, the PFLP, and Hamas, which reject talks and say any negotiations conducted by Abbas will not be legitimate. He also must deal with the topic of PA elections, which have been repeatedly postponed, leaving Abbas in the fifth year of a four-year term as Chairman, with opponents questioning his legitimacy. 7. 'Near Pogrom' at Shiloach by Gil Ronen
Dozens of Arabs went on a rampage for over 90 minutes Thursday morning at Shiloach (Silwan), near Ir David, the site of King David's Jerusalem in ancient times.
Ir David resident Rabbi Amir Ben David called the event "a near-pogrom."
"The event began at 4:20 AM when I was on my way to say Selichot prayers at the Kotel," he said. "The mosques called on everyone to come out and within seconds there were dozens of Arabs at the entrance to the Pool of Shiloach, blocking the roads and setting Jews' cars on fire."
The rioters pelted a Border Police truck with fire bombs and rocks, Ben David said – and the truck drove away. This behavior caused the Arabs to become more confident, he explained. "They began to draw near to my house and threw dozens of rocks at it, breaking the external roof and the solar collector panels."
"I called the police and told them to send their forces in quickly because I do not want to have to use my weapon. So the policewoman asked me – 'How did you come to have a weapon at home?' This is what bothered her. I understood at that point that I was talking to a wall."
"Rocks were thrown at all parts of the house. At that moment you are not sure what to do. We took the kids inside into a more internal room. The security guard was wounded in the head and taken to hospital."
A full thirty minutes passed before Border Police arrived on the scene, Ben David recounted. They used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the mob, at about 6:00 AM.
Ben David and other residents said the levels of violence were unprecedented in the neighborhood in the past 15 years.
Jewish residents said it was not clear what sparked the rioting. There was unrest before 2:00 AM, one said, but Border Police managed to quiet things down. Then, at 4:20, the large scale rioting began.
Website News Briefs: sheikyermami.com jihadwatch.org http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/ - Assad threatens UNIFIL
- Why bother with yet another 'peace process'?
- UN's former chief inspector calls Iran a threat
- Overnight music video
- 'Palestinians' raise the ante
- The F-35 sale and Obama's relations with Israel
- Gazans: 'Make us happy'
- Good news: Iran and Russia to make nuclear consortium?
- IDF to distribute new chemical warfare manual
- Amnesty and Finnish newspaper try to flush blog post down the memory hole
- That other Middle East lobby
- 'Queers for Palestine' anyone?
- UNIFIL concludes investigation: IDF did not cross the blue line
- Waxman blames Republicans for Obama's Israel problem
- Another Ground Zero victory mosque-supporting imam who can't call Hamas terrorists
- Oh yes there is a freeze in Jerusalem
- The 'peace process' mirage
- 'An issue between friends'?
- Obama is a Muslim
- Would anyone take a threat from the French seriously?
- How the BDS movement hurts 'Palestinians'
- 'Palestinian Authority' deals with opposition to talks
- Z Street sues the IRS
NEWSREALBLOG.COM Aug 27, 2010 06:00 am | NewsReal Blog
A Grim Teaching (
Read our daily feature at www.jewishideasdaily.com)
 |
Every first-year law student knows that hard cases make bad law. In Israel, a particularly hard case lies in the ongoing controversy around an inflammatory Hebrew-language volume of Jewish religious law (halakhah) that offers justifications for violent treatment of non-Jews in general and of Israel's foes in particular. The debate has highlighted longstanding divisions within Israeli society; now that the courts and the police have gotten into the act, it has also highlighted the difficulties of drawing meaningful lines between free speech and incitement. |
The Week in Review
August 21-27: Download Jewish Ideas Daily's Week in Review, a digest of our daily features and most important picks. (3 pages, PDF)
The Weekly Portion
Ki Tavo: The Mystery of Goodness (Deuteronomy 26:1 – 29: 8),
David Hazony. Nearing the end of his farewell address to the
Israelites, Moses describes a peculiar ceremony they are to perform after entering Canaan.
Today's Picks
- Triple Play Tarek Heggy, Hudson New York. Egypt, like the rest of the Arab world, has many problems, of which the three most immediate are identity, education, and democracy.
- Mountain Jews Sarah Marcus, Tablet. Two-and-a-half millennia ago, a band of Jews passed through Persia and settled in the Caucasus mountains, where amid growing hardship they maintain their culture today.
- Arrested Development Renee Ghert-Zand, Forward. Today, adulthood comes later and later. Why should the age of bar mitzvah stay the same?
- Unknown Homeland Lina Sinjab, BBC. Multi-generational Palestinian "refugees" are not necessarily eager to return to their ancestral homes.
- Do I Forget Thee, O Jerusalem? Theodore Sasson, Benjamin Phillips, Charles Kadushin, Leonard Saxe, Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies. A June 2010 survey finds the majority of American Jews still attached to Israel, with those under forty-five somewhat less so; political ideology is not a factor. (PDF.)
- To Be Self-Fruitful and Multiply Gilit Chomsky, Ynet. Orthodox women who find themselves single at a certain age are having children on their own, absent a unified rabbinic position.
http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com AFL-CIO Pres. Bashes Palin, But He's The One With a Record of Violence
http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/
Which Side Are You On?: The "Moderate Muslim" Litmus Tests
Leo Strauss, Back and Better Than Ever New book: Arab lobby rules America New book by Mideast expert Mitchell Bard claims Arab lobby, headed by Saudis, 'has unlimited resources to try to buy what they usually cannot win on merits of their arguments' Yitzhak Benhorin WASHINGTON - The Arab lobby and most particularly the Saudi lobby, one of the strongest in America—even stronger than Israel's, according to a controversial new book penned by an American expert on the Middle East.
Mitchell Bard's "Arab Lobby" was written as a sort of response to those who warn of AIPAC's influence over Washington. Bard, who serves as executive director of the nonprofit American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE), claims that "one of the most important distinguishing characteristics of the Arab lobby is that it has no popular support. While the Israeli lobby has hundreds of thousands of grass root members and public opinion polls consistently reveal a huge gap between support for Israel and the Arab nations-Palestinians, the Arab lobby has almost no foot soldiers or public sympathy. It's most powerful elements tend to be bureaucrats who represent only their personal views or what they believe are their institutional interests, and foreign governments that care only about their national interests, not those of the United States.
"What they lack in human capital in terms of American advocates, they make up for with almost unlimited resources to try to buy what they usually cannot win on the merits of their arguments," he writes in the book.
Due to this lack of support, according to Bard, "The Saudis have taken a different tact from the Israeli lobby, focusing a top-down rather than bottom-up approach to lobbying. As hired gun, J. Crawford Cook, wrote in laying out his proposed strategy for the kingdom, 'Saudi Arabia has a need to influence the few that influence the many, rather than the need to influence the many to whom the few must respond.'"
Attorney Alan M. Dershowitz wrote about Bard's book in The Daily Beast: "The primary means by which the Saudis exercise this influence is money. They spend enormous amounts of lucre to buy (or rent) former state department officials, diplomats, White House aides, and legislative leaders who become their elite lobbying corps. Far more insidiously, the Saudis let it be known that if current government officials want to be hired following their retirement from government service, they had better hew to the Saudi line while they are serving in our government.
"The former Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar, who was so close to the President George H.W. Bush that he referred to himself as 'Bandar Bush,' acknowledged the relationship between how a government official behaves while in office and how well he will be rewarded when he leaves office. "If the reputation then builds that the Saudis take care of friends when they leave office, you'd be surprised how much better friends you have when they are just coming into office," the lawyer wrote.
Bard concludes that "given the potential of these post-retirement opportunities, it would not be surprising if officials adopted positions while in government to make themselves marketable to the Arab lobby."
(Sorry, no table of contents but this site has the same kind of articles, that I send; US News, International News, Israel News. MBS)
http://grendelreport. posterous.com/
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=79
Lebanese attack on Israeli soldiers was unprovoked, UN confirms UN probe confirms Israeli soldiers did not cross border before being shot by Lebanese troops; no apology from Beirut
more» Israel opens flotilla investigation to the public Israel's internal investigation into Gaza flotilla incident now has its own website
more» 'Israel a scum state,' says top Amnesty Int'l official Venomous remarks by head of Finnish branch shows why Israel has so little trust for Amnesty and other NGOs
more» Palestinian stonethrowers wound Jewish baby Family attacked while driving south of Hebron; media ignores the incident
more» Confirmed oil find in central Israel After years of exploration, umbrella firm tells investors that large, commercially-viable oil field has been found
more»
Two people assaulted in France for eating during Ramadam. One was not even Muslim(France)
Jewish Woman Among Two Beaten for Eating During Ramadan...
http://vladtepesblog.com/?p=25211
This is a machine translation from the French article here. I will try and get a better translation done later. Still, you get the jist.
A man who was lunching on the terrace of a restaurant in central Lyon was assaulted for not respecting Ramadan
He breakfasted on the terrace of a restaurant in central Lyon, the weekend of Aug. 15, when three youths pounced on him because he does not respect the fasting month of Ramadan. The father of Senegalese origin, living Venissieux, was struck in the head with a glass bottle, then hit with a chair.
Transported to the hospital with a fractured skull at the back, the victim has been trépanée. The attack was filmed by a CCTV camera, but the bad images do not identify the attackers. The Lyon prosecutor’s office opened a preliminary investigation. According to our information, the manager of Kebab, fearing reprisals, would testify under X.
Three days later, a young Jewish woman who wore a complaint after being assaulted in a large area of Toulouse. . The victim claimed to have been taken to task by two teenagers who accused him of buying food during fasting.
The young woman would then argued that she was Jewish, which would only intensify the anger of his attackers, who, after having called a “dirty Jewâ€, allegedly hit on the head, by the heavy fall.
A vigil attended the scene without intervening. When questioned by investigators about the reasons for its passivity, the man explained that he respected Ramadan and so was anxious to leave in order to eat, from the sunset.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3939336,00.html
(Good article. I have nothing negative to say, however, Messianic Jews are Christians. They are NOT Jews. The biggest clue is that they worship Jesus as the Messiah and that is NOT a very Jewish thing to do. Its not a bad thing. MBS)
Jesus lives on in Jerusalem
Thousands of Messianic Jews reside in Israel, perform Jewish ceremonies and
serve in IDF By Yoaz Hendel Published: 08.19.10 YNetNews
Some 15,000 Messianic Jews currently live in Israel, but if you saw one on the
street you would almost certainly fail to recognize any difference. They honor
Jewish circumcision, bar-mitzvah, and wedding ceremonies, but believe Jesus is
the messiah.
The small community of Yad Hashmona, near Jerusalem, is home to a number of
Messianic-Jewish families. They believe in Jesus – or Yeshua, as they call him –
and in the teachings of the New Testament as well as the old. They are Jews in
every sense, but for the most part keep this side of their faith to themselves.
When these families gather for the Shabbat meal, however, Jesus is the guest
star at their table.
Around 350,000 Messianic Jews live in the US, and one would be just as
hard-pressed to recognize them there as in Israel. Some are Orthodox, and dress
as the haredim do, while others are traditional and wear a yarmulke or no
religious symbol at all. They are for the most part Zionists, and see IDF
service as a top priority. In the army they serve as pilots, commanders, and
elite unit members, but usually make sure to keep their messianic beliefs under
wraps.
The fact that Jesus was Jewish is generally agreed upon, but what happened after
his death is subject to rancorous theological debate. History books tend to
recall the first century as a time of rebellion and prophets in Jewish
antiquity, and this was also Christianity's first chapter, bringing about
pre-historic inter-religious quarreling and anti-Semitism.
But in separating between Jews and Christians, history largely ignores the story
of those Jewish people who believed Christ was the messiah and continued this
tradition well after his death – the ancestors of the Messianic-Jewish faith in
modern times.
'Faith in Yeshua is personal'
Jonathan Bar-David is a 30-year old Messianic Jew. He attended secular Israeli
schools, served as a paratrooper in the IDF, and then went on to travel before
settling down to study engineering at the Technion in Haifa. But before all
this, he was educated on the teachings of Christ in Yad Hashmona.
"When I was little only my closest friends knew I was a believer," he says. "But
in high school, when I was ready, I revealed it to my entire class."
Bar-David married a non-Jewish member of his community, so according to the
halacha his children are not Jewish. He says that if he could he would have them
converted, "but the rabbinate will never agree".
Bar-David explains how he is able to maintain his faith while living in secular
Israeli society. "We don't exactly have secular and religious people (in our
community)," he says. "Faith in Yeshua is personal. If you decide to be secular,
that's a very significant statement. It's a disconnection. As a child growing up
in a messianic family, one of the main missions is to understand that Yeshua is
the messiah who came into being according to prophecies in the Torah. We are
Jews. The Torah is a basic principle for us."
Nevertheless, he says, there are many daily tasks required by the messianic
religion. "There are a lot of prayers – before a meal, before traveling, before
bed," he explains. "A messianic family has some ten prayers thanking Yeshua the
messiah."
The Jewish rites, or mitzvahs, Bar-David performs are also plentiful, and do not
always conform to those of religious Jews. He doesn't work on Saturday, but can
light a fire. He attends prayers at his community and even teaches the Bible to
younger members. He fasts on Yom Kippur, but doesn't keep kosher.
"Yeshua says human beings need to pay more attention to what comes out of their
mouths than what goes in," he explains. "There are those who want to maintain
Jewish identity through symbols, but I, like many Israelis, don't feel the need.
I am a Jew who lives here, rejoices and laments Jewish and Israeli occurrences.
I don't need any proof."
Despite his faith, Bar-David adamantly rejects the label of a missionary. But,
he says, "Just as God wanted others to know of his glory, I want to tell others
about my faith. There is controversy among Messianic Jews about the spreading of
our religion, but many do not like the idea of missionaries."
'Faith is more important than religion'
Lihi Einav is a 52-year old student of Second Temple Literature at Bar-Ilan.
Until the age of 35 she was totally uninterested in religion, and busied herself
with the healing profession. But then she met a British couple who gave her a
copy of the New Testament, and she was immediately captivated by Christ's powers
as a healer. Later she became interested in the Old Testament as well, and her
path to Messianic-Judaism became clear.
Einav immediately came face-to-face with the lack of female leadership in her
newly-acquired faith. But she visits one of the community's centers in Jerusalem
once every two weeks.
"Faith is more important than religion," says Asher Interter, a 57-year old
messianic rabbi in Jerusalem. Interter grew up in a haredi family in Washington,
and studied Asian philosophy and religion at Harvard.
When he came of age in the '70s, Interter decided to delve into every religion
he could think of, "aside from Christianity, which didn't interest me," he says.
He finally decided Messianic-Judaism was most suitable for him.
Now he performs all of the Jewish Orthodox rites but, he says, as he sees them.
Interter perceives Messianic Jews as the followers of first-century Jews who
dispersed after the destruction of the second temple, and Christianity as the
erroneous development of the messianic faith among non-Jews. "They were wrong
and we must now lead the movement to fix this mistake," he says. "It is our
global mission."
Interter describes a growing population conforming to these values in Israel,
with 120 new community members and counting. "The new members are secular people
looking for God without the need for rites, or members of the religious
population who want to be free but still maintain God's presence in their
lives," he says.
In Interter's eyes, the prophecy of the messiah came true in 1967, with the
Jewish conquering of Jerusalem. "The New Testament talks about the destruction
of the temple, a long exile, and finally the return to Zion, and that is exactly
what happened," he explains. This may seem a political view to some, but
Interter rejects this. "We have no political view," he says. "But we read the
Bible and see Jerusalem as our sacred city." This perception leads inevitably to
Zionism, and Interter's sons are products of this, having all served in elite
army units.
For a community living under the perpetual wrath of the haredim, who for the
most part alienate and discriminate against them, Messianic Jews remain
inexplicably optimistic. Perhaps it is because they still follow in the
footsteps of that Galilee-born Jew who wandered into Jerusalem 2,000 years ago,
the one who believed in turning the other cheek.
www.dailyalert.org
Subscribe | | DAILY ALERT | Thursday,
August 26, 2010 |
In-Depth Issues: UNIFIL Confirms IDF Account of Lebanese Border Attack - Nessim Boucai ( Israel Defense Forces) UNIFIL announced Wednesday that it had completed its investigation of the August 3rd incident between the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Israel Defense Forces, and verified that Israel had operated within its own borders when Lebanese sniper fire targeted Israeli soldiers, killing Lt. Col. (res.) Dov Harari and severely injuring Capt. Ezra Lakia.
14 Israeli Policemen on UN Mission in Haiti ( Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs) 14 Israeli police officers are about to leave to join a multinational policing force in Haiti under the command of UN forces. The delegation will become the first Israeli contingent to serve on active duty under UN command.
Gaza Will Be the Ghost at Mideast Talks Banquet - Douglas Hamilton ( Reuters-ABC News) Even if Israel and the Palestinians can scale a mountain of skepticism and reach a peace treaty in the next 12 months, 40% of Palestinians would be part of it in name only, because they live in Gaza. This unwelcome fact is ignored as direct peace talks resume under U.S. auspices in Washington.
Mexico Buys Israeli Drone Aircraft ( Reuters) Mexico's defense ministry said it bought an unspecified number of Hermes 450 drones last year from Israel's Elbit Systems Ltd. for $23.25 million. Javier Oliva, a security analyst at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said the military was likely using the remote-controlled drones, which can fly for 20 hours and are equipped with cameras, to locate remote drug fields, as officials fight powerful cartels.
U.S. Funds Restoration of Global Islamic Sites ( AP) This year, the Obama administration will spend nearly $6 million to restore 63 historic and cultural sites, including mosques and minarets, in 55 nations, according to State Department documents. The Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation also will fund projects to restore Christian and Buddhist sites as well as museums, forts and palaces.
Palestinian Rocks Injure Israeli Baby ( JTA) An Israeli infant was injured when Palestinians hurled rocks at a car traveling in the West Bank on Tuesday near Karmei Zur, north of Hebron. Also Tuesday, Palestinians threw a firebomb at an Israeli car traveling near Maale Shomron in the northern West Bank.
Wireless in Gaza - David Tafuri ( Wall Street Journal) Internet penetration is estimated at 40% in the West Bank and as high as 60% in Gaza, higher than in many Arab nations.
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| News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia: - Abbas Breaks Up Anti-Negotiations Meeting in Ramallah - Maher Abukhater
Crowds had started to arrive at the Protestant church hall in downtown Ramallah in the West Bank on Wednesday to attend an anti-negotiations conference called by local Palestinian leaders opposed to plans by PA President Mahmoud Abbas to start direct negotiations with Israel, when dozens of young Palestinians, believed to be members of Abbas' Fatah movement and his security forces, moved in waving pictures of Abbas and chanting his name, disrupting the meeting even before it had started. Their purpose was to make sure the conference would not be held.
When the organizers, mainly leaders of left-wing Palestinian factions, realized that it would be impossible to proceed with their conference, they took to the streets of Ramallah in a protest march. Palestinian police then intervened to stop the march, charging that the protestors did not have a permit. The organizers of the conference, some of them members of the PLO Executive Committee, then held a news conference at a local TV station where they accused the PA of preventing freedom of expression and called for a commission to investigate what had happened. Abbas quickly agreed. (Los Angeles Times) - Iran: Who's Afraid of Ahmadinejad's New Drone? - Mark Thompson
Iran's weapons-development efforts have long had a wisp of The Wizard of Oz about them. When Iranian President Ahmadinejad unveiled Iran's first armed drone, it showed the world, if not his fellow Iranians, just how threadbare Tehran's arsenal is. According to Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with the Teal Group, an aerospace-consulting firm near Washington, Iran lacks the ability to guide its drone over long distances, nor does it have the sensors to make it any kind of a threat. Adds Kenneth Katzman, an Iranian-military expert with the Congressional Research Service: "It is likely to have virtually no actual military value."
But Iran isn't concerned about reality, just making the right impression, especially among its home audience. "Iran has no defense against an Israeli or U.S. first strike," John McCreary, a veteran U.S. intelligence analyst, said Tuesday. "The leaders want to camouflage that fact by showing off weapons, without admitting that they have little value in protecting Iranians." (TIME)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast: - Foreign Minister Lieberman: We've Made Gestures, But Palestinian Incitement Continues
From an interview with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Israel Radio on Wednesday:
Q: What do you think Israel should say if the American president asks Israel to make "a gesture of good will, to freeze building in Judea and Samaria for as long as possible."
Lieberman: "We did make the gesture. For ten months we were waiting for the Palestinians to deign to come negotiate. They came during the last month. That's their problem. And on the contrary, we expect the Palestinian side to cease incitement, stop naming streets and plazas after various [terrorist] 'engineers.' Stop inciting and working against the State of Israel in all sorts of international forums or the OECD, stop the boycotts and all the opposition to us, filing lawsuits in The Hague."
"We've made enough gestures and seen nothing in return....We shouldn't have to pay for the pleasure of sitting at the table with the Palestinians, like we always have to pay. They should also have to pay. And first off, to get to the starting point, they should stop their rampant incitement against Jews and against Israel." (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs) - Development Minister Shalom: Transfer of Goods to Gaza Fully Meets Demand - Ron Friedman
Regional Development Minister Silvan Shalom toured the Kerem Shalom crossing to Gaza on Wednesday. He said, "Operations have been increased dramatically. We are talking about 250, and sometimes even 280, trucks that cross over here every day, compared to 80 or 100 a day beforehand. We often reach a point when there is no longer any demand from the Gazan side."
"There is a cognitive dissonance where on one hand we give and on the other we still hear abusive statements, but we will continue giving as long as the help goes toward public needs. We will not allow goods to be used for terrorist activities," Shalom said. "Today everyone in the international community knows that there is no shortage of goods in Gaza." (Jerusalem Post) - Islands of Coexistence in the West Bank: Palestinians and Jewish Settlers Work Side-by-Side - Akiva Novick
134 employees arrive at the Rami Levy supermarket in Shaar Binyamin every morning, some from Jewish towns in the West Bank and 60 from Arab villages. In one of the departments, Halef from Jab'a and Avi from Adam sit next to each other. Ever since the supermarket branch was opened five years ago, Palestinians and settlers work there in a near idyllic state.
Their friendships continue even after work hours, though it is usually the Palestinians that visit their Jewish friends and not the other way around. Recently, the employees have felt unease as rumors have started that a prohibition will soon be issued against working for Jews. "I have worked with Jews for 17 years," said Sofian, manager of the grocery department. "I can't believe this will stop."
In the Barkan industrial zone, 5,000 people are employed in 120 factories. About half of them are Palestinian. Yusuf, from Kifl Harith, is in charge of production at the Shamir Salads factory. "We don't believe it will happen," he said. "These are just empty declarations....There are very good relations between us. We have been working together for years, since the previous intifada....What is more peaceful than working together?" he said. (Ynet News)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel): - Islamophobia? Not Really - Jonah Goldberg
According to the FBI, there were 28 anti-Islamic incidents in 2000. That number climbed to 481 the year a bunch of Muslim terrorists murdered 3,000 Americans in the name of Islam on Sept. 11. Now, that was a hate crime. The following year, the number of anti-Islamic hate-crime incidents dropped to 155. The number has hovered around the mid-100s or lower ever since. Even one hate crime is too many. But does that sound like an anti-Muslim backlash to you?
In every year since 9/11, more Jews in the U.S. have been hate-crime victims than Muslims. In 2001, there were twice as many anti-Jewish incidents as there were anti-Muslim. In 2002 and pretty much every year since, anti-Jewish incidents have outstripped anti-Muslim ones by at least 6 to 1. Why aren't we talking about the anti-Jewish climate in America? Because there isn't one. And there isn't an anti-Muslim climate either. (Los Angeles Times) - Book Review: How the Arab Lobby Rules America - Alan M. Dershowitz
Yes Virginia, there is a big bad lobby that distorts U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East way out of proportion to its actual support by the American public. But the offending lobby is not AIPAC, which supports Israel, but rather the Arab lobby, which opposes the Jewish state. The Arab lobby is one of the strongest in America - even stronger than Israel's, says Mitchell Bard in How the Arab Lobby Rules America.
Bard puts it this way: "While the Israeli lobby has hundreds of thousands of grass root members and public opinion polls consistently reveal a huge gap between support for Israel and the Arab nations/Palestinians, the Arab lobby has almost no foot soldiers or public sympathy. It's most powerful elements tend to be bureaucrats who represent only their personal views or what they believe are their institutional interests, and foreign governments that care only about their national interests, not those of the United States....[They have] almost unlimited resources to try to buy what they usually cannot win on the merits of their arguments."
Saudi Arabia has virtually no support among Americans. Yet, as Bard demonstrates, the Saudi lobby has beaten the pro-Israel lobby over and over again in head to head conflicts, such as the sale of sophisticated weapons to a regime that doesn't even have the technical skills to use them, and the conflict over whether to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. (Daily Beast)
Observations: - Talk about the crisis between Israel and "the Arab world" is anachronistic. Israel has treaties with two Arab nations, Egypt and Jordan, and Israel's most lethal enemy is Iran, which is not an Arab state.
- Israel has changed what it can, its own near neighborhood. Faced with unrelenting Palestinian irredentism, withdrawal from the West Bank would bring Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion Airport within range of short-range rockets fired by persons overlooking the runways. So, the feasibility of such a withdrawal depends on how much has changed since 1974, when Yasser Arafat received a standing ovation at the United Nations when he said Israel had no right to exist.
- Thirty-six years later, Israelis can watch West Bank Palestinian television incessantly inculcating anti-Semitism and denial of Israel's right to exist. Cigarette lighters sold on the West Bank show, when lit, the World Trade Center burning.
- The biggest threat to peace might be the peace process - or, more precisely, the illusion that there is one. The mirage becomes the reason for maintaining its imaginary "momentum" by extorting concessions from Israel.
- Palestinian officials are demanding that the 10-month moratorium on Israeli construction in the West Bank be extended as the price of their willingness to continue direct talks with Israel - which begin Sept. 2 - beyond Sept. 27. If this demand succeeds, the "peace process" will be sustained by rewarding the Palestinian tactic of making the mere fact of negotiations contingent on Israeli concessions concerning matters that should be settled by negotiations.
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Subscribe | | DAILY ALERT | Friday,
August 27, 2010 |
In-Depth Issues: Israel, U.S. Seek to Block French Anti-Tank Missile Sale to Lebanon ( Jerusalem Post) Israel and the U.S. are attempting to prevent a French-Lebanese arms deal, the Arabic daily Asharq al-Awsat reported Friday. French Defense Minister Herve Moran offered to sell Lebanon 100 HOT anti-tank missiles for the Gazelle helicopters already in use by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). Washington has grown increasingly skittish over arming the Lebanese military amid concerns that the LAF may become engaged in a fight with Israel, an American ally, or be co-opted by the terrorist group Hizbullah. See also European Anti-Tank Missiles Effective Against Explosive Reactive Armor ( army-technology.com) HOT is a long-range anti-tank missile that can be operated from a vehicle or helicopter. The HOT 3 has a 6.5 kg. tandem charge warhead which is effective against Explosive Reactive Armor (ERA), penetrating up to 1,300 mm. When the missile reaches the target, the forward charge is ejected, which explodes, detonating the ERA. After a delay, the main charge then explodes.
Israel Working to Thwart Russian Arms Deal with Syria - Barak Ravid ( Ha'aretz) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to stop the sale to Syria of advanced anti-ship missiles. Israel considers the sale of P-800 Yakhont supersonic cruise missiles to Syria a significant danger to its navy vessels in the Mediterranean Sea. Netanyahu told Putin that missiles Russia had delivered to Syria in the past were then transferred to Hizbullah and used against IDF troops during the Second Lebanon War. The highly accurate P-800 has a maximum range of 300 km., carries a 200-kg. warhead, and can cruise several meters above the surface, making it difficult to identify on radar.
Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood Seek World Islamic State - Art Moore ( WorldNetDaily) As the son of a Hamas co-founder who became a Christian and a spy for Israel, Mosab Hassan Yousef offers a rare perspective on the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood - the spawn of nearly every major Islamic terrorist group. Yousef, who recently was granted asylum in the U.S., said in an interview Americans must understand that the ultimate goal of the Brotherhood is not terrorism but to establish a global Islamic state over the entire world. "They are required by the Quran to establish this global Islamic state on the rubble of every civilization, every constitution, every government." The Holy Land Foundation trial in Dallas in 2008 presented evidence of the Muslim Brotherhood's "100-year plan" to gradually destroy the U.S. and Western civilization from within. "Hamas is the Muslim Brotherhood," Yousef said. "It's the same organization."
Report: "Shiite Zarqawi" Returns to Baghdad from Iran - Bill Roggio ( Long War Journal) An Iranian-backed terrorist known as the "Shiite Zarqawi" is reported to have returned to Baghdad to carry out attacks in central and southern Iraq. Abu Dura, the notorious former Mahdi Army commander whose group was behind the butchering and execution of thousands of Sunnis in the capital during the height of the violence in Iraq, is said to lead a unit of the Asaib al-Haq, or the League of the Righteous, in Sadr City. "Our strategic information indicates that he stayed in the city of Qom and that he received further training at the hands of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to carry out terrorist attacks against the Iraqi and U.S. forces, and Sunni civilians," an Iraqi intelligence official told Asharq Al-Awsat. Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the Mahdi Army, also shelters in the city of Qom in Iran.
Britain Faces New Terror Wave - Duncan Gardham ( Telegraph-UK) Over the next 5 to 10 years, about 800 prisoners - in jail for non-terrorism offenses - are due to be released after having been radicalized in jail, says Prof. Michael Clarke, head of the Royal United Services Institute, in a report published Friday. They will be joined by convicted terrorists serving short sentences who, once freed, are likely to be just as committed to the cause of jihad as before they were jailed, the report claims. The report serves as a stark reminder that the threat from Islamist terrorism remains "severe," indicating a terrorist attack is considered "highly likely." The level was raised from "substantial" in January.
Canadian Postal Workers vs. the Israeli Navy - Matt Gurney ( National Post-Canada) The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has endorsed a plan to join with the "Canadian Boat to Gaza" organizers to deliver mail to Gaza. Union bosses want to send postcards to Gaza, right through the Israeli Navy, if necessary. Israel enforces an embargo of weapons and potential weapon-building material on people who have repeatedly fired rockets blindly at civilian targets. Thanks so much, Canadian postal workers. Nice to know where your priorities lay.
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| News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia: - Former Top UN Nuclear Official: Iran Has Material for 1-2 Atom Bombs
Olli Heinonen, the former chief of UN nuclear inspections worldwide, told Le Monde newspaper Thursday Iran now possessed three tons of low-enriched uranium, "enough to make one or two nuclear arms." "But to reach the final step, when one only has just enough material for two weapons, does not make sense," Heinonen said, suggesting this was not sufficient to constitute a serious bargaining chip. "But this constitutes a...threat," he said. (Reuters) - Iran Clamps Down on Reporting on Protest Leaders - William Yong and Robert F. Worth
Iranian authorities have issued a ban on any news relating to the leaders of the protest movement that arose after the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year, opposition Web sites reported. Editors of all domestic newspapers and news agencies have been told to refrain from publishing the names, photographs and statements of two defeated presidential candidates, Mir Hussein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi, as well as former President Mohammad Khatami, because of the "probable negative influence" this would have on the public mind.
The government has shut down at least 10 newspapers and magazines since the presidential election in June 2009, including major reformist dailies and magazines critical of the government. The publications have been accused of infractions like "printing news contrary to reality," "disturbing public opinion" and "casting doubt on the elections." (New York Times)
News Resources - Israel and the Mideast: - Netanyahu Proposes Bi-weekly Meetings with Abbas - Barak Ravid and Jonathan Lis
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed to the U.S. administration on Thursday that he hold a face-to-face meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas every two weeks. Netanyahu explained that "serious negotiations in the Middle East mean only direct, quiet and consecutive talks between the two leaders on the key issues." (Ha'aretz)
See also U.S. Wants Agreement Now, Peace Later - Shimon Shiffer
The Obama administration plans to present Israel and the Palestinian Authority with a new outline aimed at ending the Middle East conflict. Yediot Ahronot has learned that the Americans will pressure the parties to sign a framework agreement for a permanent settlement within one year, but that the agreement itself would be implemented within 10 years.
A protocol summarizing a conference call between leaders of American Jewish organizations and Daniel Shapiro - the National Security Council's top Middle East expert; Dennis Ross, and David Hale - deputy to U.S. special Middle East envoy George Mitchell, provides a fascinating peek into the administration's plans in the near future. According to the American plan, the Israeli and Palestinian negotiation teams would hold intensive talks in isolated sites to discuss the core issues of the permanent agreement: Jerusalem's future, borders, settlements and refugees. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would be required to hold frequent meetings in order to solve concrete problems and advance the negotiations' stages.
If the talks reach a deadlock, American officials would intervene and attempt to bridge between the sides. In addition, the U.S. would try to convince the Arab states to offer goodwill gestures to Israel and influence the Palestinians to compromise. (Ynet News) - IDF Advocate General: Gaza Blockade Entirely Legal - Anshel Pfeffer
Military Advocate General Brig. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit testified Thursday before the committee investigating the Gaza flotilla, saying that Israel's blockade on Gaza was entirely legal. Mendelblit told the panel that the naval blockade, imposed by Israel in 2007, after Hamas violently seized power over the territory, was in keeping with international law and was imposed due to "pure military considerations" and not as part of "economic warfare" against Hamas. Mendelblit added that even before the blockade was imposed, all supplies were transferred by land because Gaza has no port.
"We want Hamas to stop launching rockets at our citizens. We have no desire to punish the civilian population [in Gaza]," he said. He stressed that the suffering of Gaza civilians did not constitute a humanitarian crisis, since Israel allows supplies to enter. Mendelblit explained that the blockade was imposed "long before anyone ever heard of flotillas" and that no one in the IDF would think to violate international law. (Ha'aretz)
See also The Legal Basis of Israel's Naval Blockade of Gaza - Ruth Lapidoth
The writer is Professor Emeritus of International Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. (Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel): Peace Process - For Once, Hope in the Middle East - Martin Indyk
Now that President Obama has finally succeeded in bringing the Israelis and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table, the commentariat is already dismissing his chances of reaching a peace agreement. But there are factors that distinguish these direct talks from previous attempts - factors that offer some reason for optimism. Violence is down considerably. Today, the PA is policing its West Bank territory to prevent violent attacks on Israelis and to prove its reliability as a negotiating partner. Hamas - mainly out of fear of an Israeli intervention that might remove it from power - is doing the same in Gaza.
The simple truth is that most people in the Middle East are exhausted by this conflict, and if Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas can reach a viable agreement, the public on all sides will likely support it. The writer, director of the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution, was the U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Clinton administration. (New York Times) - Palestinian-Israeli Direct Talks: The Case for a Regional Approach - Marwan Muasher
The history of Palestinian-Israeli peacemaking has shown that incrementalism a la Oslo has exhausted its possibilities. The Israeli public is skeptical of continuing to offer what it believes to be open-ended compromises without a clear picture of the end result, and doubt that their Arab partners can deliver on their commitments.
The requirements for a separate peace agreement between Palestinians and Israelis are no longer attainable and are unattractive to the public on either side. It is difficult for the Israelis to accept painful compromises on their part in return for peace with "half of the Palestinians." The Palestinian Authority, on the other hand, is unable to make painful compromises (for example, on the refugee or Jerusalem issues) without Arab cover.
Given the shortcomings of the incremental approach in the Palestinian-Israeli arena, efforts should focus on a comprehensive accord between Israel and the entire Arab world. The writer, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment, served as foreign minister (2002-2004) and deputy prime minister (2004-2005) of Jordan. (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) - The President and the Peace Process - Lexington
Why, you have to wonder, do they bother with the "peace process." The present conflict between Arabs and Jews in Palestine has been going on for about a century. Yet every American president is implored upon entering office to bring the quarrel swiftly to an end. Most have a go - or at least go through the motions. Jimmy Carter owes his Nobel peace prize in large part to the peace deal he brokered between Israel and Egypt in 1978 (and has never let the world forget it). Bill Clinton got Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat to shake hands on the White House lawn, but no peace, and no prize, followed the unhappy Camp David summit of 2000. After his own election in 2000, George Bush took one look at the blood and muddle and decided that America had better things to do.
After the dinner Mr. Obama intends to host at the White House on September 1 for Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, the two sides are supposed to start talking directly again, relieving George Mitchell, Mr. Obama's envoy, of the need to shuttle between them. That is progress of a sort, albeit not the sort that poses the slightest danger of raising high expectations. It merely restores matters to where they stood after Mr. Bush inaugurated a previous set of direct talks in Annapolis at the end of 2007. These were expected to fail, and lived up to expectations. This next lot of talks is expected to fail, too. (Economist-UK) - Israeli-Palestinian Direct Talks and the Art of Low Expectations - Shmuel Rosner
The time may be right for the Obama administration, but it is hardly right for the parties involved. Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, think Iran is a more urgent priority. They believe the Palestinian problem can wait a little longer, and they see no Palestinian leaders they can make deals with. The Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, were dragged to these talks kicking and screaming, they don't seem to intend to give an inch, and they have a hard time dealing with criticism from Hamas, Syria, and other regional belligerents. "There's clearly a trust deficit that we're going to have to find a way to overcome," longtime special envoy Dennis Ross explained. When direct talks were finally announced, not all the Israeli newspapers bothered to carry the news on their front pages. Been there, done that. (Slate) - The Need for Reciprocity at the Negotiation Table - Abraham Foxman
The more Palestinians conclude they can get concessions from Israel without making their own concessions, the less inclined they will be to make the fundamental leap of fully accepting the Jewish state. It is therefore important to frame the upcoming negotiations in a way that it truly will be one of mutual compromise - and this must happen early on in the process. Short of that it will seem like deja vu, with Israel making unilateral moves, as it did in its withdrawal from Gaza, and Palestinians feeling no obligation to do anything. The writer is national director of the Anti-Defamation League. (Jerusalem Post) Other Issues - Reassessing U.S. Military Assistance to Lebanon - David Schenker
In the aftermath of the Lebanese Armed Forces' (LAF) August 3 cross-border shooting of two Israeli officers, one fatal, U.S. military assistance to Lebanon has come under increasing scrutiny. The State Department and congressional appropriators should work out clear, transparent, measurable, and verifiable benchmarks by which all sides - including the Lebanese - can evaluate the merit of maintaining assistance to the LAF.
Are LAF officers who share intelligence with Hizbullah disciplined or congratulated? Does the LAF play a role in preventing the import of weapons from Syria or their flow south of the Litani or in facilitating it? Do officials of Hizbullah's militia transfer directly into the LAF? Does LAF weaponry end up under Hizbullah control? Do LAF units follow Hizbullah guidance in obstructing the operations of UNIFIL? Will the LAF arrest and transfer Hizbullah officials that may be indicted by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on the assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri? (Washington Institute for Near East Policy) - Israel Through European Eyes - Yoram Hazony
Every few months, Israel is publicly pilloried in the international media and on university campuses around the world for some alleged violation of human rights, real or imagined. Whatever the ostensible subject, we know for certain that there will be another campaign of vilification in the media and on the campuses and in the corridors of power - a smear campaign of a kind that no other nation on earth is subjected to on a regular basis. We will again see our nation treated not as a democracy doing its duty to defend its people and its freedom, but as some kind of a scourge.
Israelis and friends of Israel can reasonably be divided on the question of whether the withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, or the parallel withdrawal from the security zone in South Lebanon in 2000, was really in Israel's interests. But one thing about which we can all agree, I think, is that these withdrawals did nothing to stem the tide of hatred and vilification being poured on Israel's head internationally. Whatever it is that is driving the trend toward the progressive delegitimization of Israel, it is a trend operating more or less without reference to any particular Israeli policy on any given issue.
The modern State of Israel was founded, in terms of the understanding of the international community, as a nation-state, the state of the Jewish people. And the birth of Israel was followed by the establishment of dozens of additional independent states throughout the Third World. But now the nations of Europe have established a new paradigm in which the independent nation-state is seen by many intellectuals and political figures in Europe as a source of incalculable evil. Thus the new paradigm understands Israel, and especially the independent Israeli use of force to defend itself, as illegitimate down to its foundations. The writer is founder and provost of the Shalem Center in Jerusalem. (Jewish Ideas Daily) Weekend Features - Free Israel Tours Bolster Ties with Young U.S. Jews - Lisa Wangsness
Michael Silverman, a 21-year-old Northeastern University student, had not thought about Israel much before this spring. An electrical engineering major, he was not interested in the political situation there, and he had not regularly attended synagogue through most of his adolescence. When he got the chance to travel there for free, he signed up; it sounded like fun. But he never anticipated that the trip would transform him into someone who cares deeply about Israel. "Before the trip, I didn't feel anything; I just knew this was a place where Jewish people lived," he said. "Since going there, I feel connected to the people that live there. It felt like family."
Over the last decade, Taglit-Birthright Israel has given more than a quarter-million young Jews 18 to 26 years old the opportunity to experience Israel first-hand in a 10-day educational tour funded by Jewish philanthropists and the Israeli government. "A generation we thought was going to be so distant now has the opportunity to feel closer to Israel, closer to their heritage, and closer to being Jewish, and that is the miracle of the Birthright program," said Barry Shrage, president of Combined Jewish Philanthropies, which has raised millions for Birthright.
A Brandeis study which surveyed more than 1,200 U.S. Jews found that American Jews' sense of connection to Israel remains strong - 63% felt either very much or somewhat connected to Israel, and 75% saw caring about Israel as an important part of their Jewish identity. The study also found that travel to Israel is highly correlated with Jews' sense of attachment to the country and that younger Jews were more likely to have traveled to Israel than their middle-aged counterparts. (Boston Globe) - A Film Unfinished - John Podhoretz
"A Film Unfinished," directed by Yael Hersonski, is a provocative work centering on a film crew sent by the Nazis into the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942 to take extensive footage of life inside the three-square-mile walled-off area inside the Polish capital into which Hitler's minions had crammed half a million Jews whom they then systematically proceeded to starve before systematically sending them off to their deaths later in the year in Treblinka. In addition to the Nazi propaganda film titled "The Ghetto," Hersonski reveals outtakes cut from the film which show the extent to which the events in the film were staged.
What the footage truly reveals is half a million people being purposefully starved to death. Typhus-riddled children stagger through the streets on canes; Jews rifle through garbage in the dump in search of any scrap of food; the mass graves of people who have simply died on the streets, sent down a chute into a vast pit, and covered over with paper. (Weekly Standard) - Jews Still Emerging from the Woodwork in Poland - Benny Mer
Traveling in Poland by train earlier this month, I met Ewa, a woman who worked as a translator guiding French tourists in Krakow interested in the Holocaust. She told me that her mother had been Jewish. After the war, when she realized she was almost the only person from her family who had survived, she decided to stick to the false identity she had assumed and was baptized under that name. Only when Ewa was 18 did her mother reveal the secret.
I had heard many other tales about Jews who remained in hiding after the Holocaust. It is well known that Poles did not welcome the survivors. About 1,000 Jews who sought to return to their homes were murdered. The Kielce pogrom, in July 1946, in which Poles murdered 42 Jews, drove home for many people that there would be no revival of Polish Jewry. It was obvious that the Communist regime, too, was not interested in encouraging a renewal of Jewish life.
A change began in the 1980s with the labor movement Solidarity and gained momentum after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. "Poles who did not tell their children that they were Jewish decided to tell their grandchildren," explained Yale (Yechiel) Reisner of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. (Ha'aretz)
Observations: - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week announced a new round of peace talks, setting a one-year deadline for the talks, amid pessimism on both sides that the bitter Israeli-Palestinian stalemate could truly be broken in that time. In discussing the talks beginning September 2, all the parties spoke in incomprehensible diplomatic code. Here's a Politico translation of what Secretary Clinton really meant:
- Listen: These talks are going to happen because we insist on it. The Israeli settlement moratorium was about to expire, and then things really could have gotten out of hand. So we had to move quickly, and sure, we may not have worked out all the details yet. But we've pressured you into sitting down for the first time since President Barack Obama took office. We've averted a crisis, and those are small victories.
- And let's be honest: neither of you is being all that cooperative - and particularly you, Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas], with your foot-dragging and threats to drop out if somebody puts a concrete block down in the wrong place. So we're going to lock you into a summit before either of you changes your mind. Once you're at the table, the dynamic changes. You'll become more invested in making the process a success and creating a public climate in which peace is imaginable and even popular.
- We all know we're not going to resolve this in a year. But I had to throw the Palestinians a bone - they're always going on about deadlines - and the Israelis don't want this process to just be an endless pretext for slowing their growth either.
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A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
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