The “California-Israel Memo of Understanding” legislation, authored by assembly member Bob Blumenfield (D-San Fernando Valley), has inspired Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — visiting Israel this week for the annual Saban forum — to sign a letter of intent with Benjamin Ben Eliezer, Israel’s Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor.
Ask my wife — every week I come up with one sure-fire, world-changing, patent-worthy invention. My latest is an iPhone app that will tell me a person’s name when I hold the phone up to his or her face. Of course none of these inventions make it past the I-tell-her-and-she-rolls-her-eyes stage. The difference between me, a wannabe inventor, and a real high-tech entrepreneur is I don’t know the first thing about technology. The difference, in a word, is education.
In Rob Eshman’s homage to Amos Oz (“The Prophet,” Nov. 20), he wrote:
It’s one thing to know what to do; it’s another thing to be able to do it. We know we are supposed to be grateful for all of life’s blessings. We know that when hardship or tragedy strikes, we’re supposed to keep our chins up and try to transform tragedy into action — turn negatives into positives, move forward no matter what, and so on.
Human Rights Watch founder Robert L. Bernstein has been roundly criticized for arguing that his own organization, which by its repeated reports suggests that Israel’s human rights record is so reprehensible as to warrant heightened condemnation, has unfairly demonized Israel. To get a first-hand account of this ongoing argument, I arranged to accompany my son, a documentary filmmaker in Israel, on a recent appointment to tape an interview with Bassem Eid, the general director of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group.
This month marks two monumental events in the history of the Jewish people — the Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2, 1917, the first official recognition of Jewish national aspirations, and Nov. 29, 1947, the United Nations vote for the partition of Palestine, which led to the establishment of the State of Israel a year later. I have found no mention of these two miracles on the pages of this newspaper, nor a celebration, lecture or student gathering in the Center for Jewish Studies in my university. I therefore dedicate this column to Lady History, as a token of appreciation for the two milestones she has so graciously given our people in the past century.
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