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April 3, 2003

UJ Students SupportIsrael, Mixed on Iraq

Tom Tugend April 3, 2003

\”President Bush has the best interests of the United States and the world at heart … if push comes to shove, I would fight with the American Army,\” said Jacob Proud, a 20-year old freshman in bioethics at the University of Judaism (UJ).\n\n\”I question the real motives for this war… I want my country and Israel to be as just and righteous as possible,\” observed Mark Goodman, 26, a second-year student in the UJ\’s Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies. The opinions, expressed in separate interviews during the first week of the war in Iraq, illustrate an obvious and a more subtle point.\n\nFor one, not all students think alike, not even in a university whose students are, by self-selection, dedicated to Judaism. Secondly, even within the UJ, undergraduates and rabbinical students sit largely on opposite sides of the fence.

War Marks Defining Moment for Jews

Joel Kotkin April 3, 2003

The current war with Iraq marks a defining moment in the lives of American Jews and their lives in this country. For generations, Jews have lived, for the most part, on the left-wing edge of the American commonwealth.

They have been — in Hollywood, in the political world, academia and the media — generally hostile to the idea of the projection of American power and the idea of a new American empire.

This may soon be changing. Although initially somewhat less supportive of the Iraq invasion than other Americans, Jews are far more behind the projection of American power, arguably, than at any time since World War II. Over half of Jews strongly supported the Bush policy before the outbreak of hostility, according to the Pew Research Center; that percentage has likely increased more recently, as has occurred in the rest of the population.

Note to AIPAC: ‘Road Map’ Is Alive

Matthew E. Berger April 3, 2003

The Bush administration is calling out the heavy hitters to convince the American Jewish community that it won\’t ignore Israel\’s concerns as it mounts a renewed push for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Five Bush administration officials addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee\’s (AIPAC) annual policy conference this week, including Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

They Also Serve Who Wait and Worry

Joe Berkofsky April 3, 2003

Besides limiting the TV viewing of his girls, ages 5 and 9, Finley said, \”I tell them, \’I\’ll let you know when it\’s time to worry.\’\”

\”When there\’s been a big battle,\” the rabbi continued, \”I tell them the next day, \’It was time to worry, but I forgot to tell you, so now you don\’t have to worry.\’\”

And so each day goes for the Finleys and thousands of American families like them, who desperately hope to learn something about the fate of their loved ones and try somehow to deal with knowing very little.

Kayitz is one of approximately 1,000 Jewish men and woman serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. They represent a fraction of the estimated 20,000 Jews among the 1.5 million in the U.S. armed forces.

‘Forgotten’ Jews Address Injustice

Joshua Brandt April 3, 2003

The conference, \”Forgotten Refugees: Jews Expelled From Arab Countries,\” was sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council, JIMENA and the Jewish Community Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Federation. Support came from the World Jewish Congress and other local and national Jewish organizations.

About 300 people attended the four-hour event, hearing and sharing testimonials detailing imprisonment at internment camps, mass deportations, rape and ethnic cleansing. The stories were interspersed throughout the conference, which also featured panels on community activism, the role of the United Nations in the Middle East and a keynote address by Algerian-born Jew Eric Benhamou, the chair of 3Com Corp.

World Briefs

Jewish Journal April 3, 2003

The World Brief, news, media, info, updates from around the world.

Dialing for Peace

Helen Schary Motro April 3, 2003

In the past two years, a soundproof curtain has descended on dialogue between individuals in Israel on the one hand and Gaza and the West Bank on the other. Without the possibility of interchange, it is but a small step to collective demonization of the other.

If Palestinians and Israelis are linked by anything, it seems to be fear and mistrust.

Now a one-of-a-kind social experiment has stepped into the void, attempting to pierce the soundproof curtain. Not between politicians. Not between delegations. Not between professional groups. Not between celebrities.

With supreme — and perhaps naive — faith in the common man, a local group has come up with a scheme to allow Palestinians and Israelis a first step in one-to-one contact: giving them the opportunity to talk.

Fearful Assad Places a Risky Bet on Saddam

Leslie Susser April 3, 2003

Judging from his public statements, Assad seems convinced that the Bush administration will not stop at Iraq, and that after a U.S. victory in Baghdad, he could be next on the regime-change agenda.

Therefore, when Assad vilifies the United States and openly aids the Iraqi war effort, he believes he is fighting for his life. In late March, buoyed by what he saw as initial Iraqi success in resisting the U.S.-led invasion, Assad explained the basis of his thinking in a fierce diatribe against Israel and the United States.

The war in Iraq, he told the Lebanese newspaper, As-Safir, was an Israeli-American conspiracy \”designed to redraw the political map of the Middle East.\” In Assad\’s view, the United States would take Iraq\’s oil, and Israel would become the dominant regional power.

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