fbpx

GET HOME DELIVERY! CLICK HERE »

ADVERTISE
pick up locations
HOME DELIVERY
donate

Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

December 3, 2012

Israel says it will stick with settlement plan despite condemnation

Leave a Comment / Palestinian Statehood Bid /

Israel rejected concerted criticism from the United States and Europe on Monday over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to expand settlement building after the United Nations' de facto recognition of Palestinian statehood.

Washington urged Israel to reconsider its plan to erect 3,000 more homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, saying the move hindered peace efforts with the Palestinians.

Britain, France, Spain, Sweden and Denmark summoned the Israeli ambassadors in their capitals to give similar messages.

An official in Netanyahu's office said Israel would not bend. “Israel will continue to stand by its vital interests, even in the face of international pressure, and there will be no change in the decision that was made,” the official said.

Angered by the U.N. General Assembly's upgrading on Thursday of the Palestinians' status in the world body from “observer entity” to “non-member state”, Israel said the next day it would build the new dwellings for settlers.

Such projects, on land Israel captured in a 1967 war, have routinely drawn world condemnation. Approximately 500,000 Israelis and 2.5 million Palestinians live in the two areas.

In a shift that raised the alarm among Palestinians and in world capitals, Netanyahu's pro-settler government also ordered “preliminary zoning and planning work” for thousands of housing units in areas including the “E1” zone east of Jerusalem.

Such construction in the barren hills of E1 has never been put into motion in the face of opposition from Israel's main ally, the United States. Building in the area could bisect the West Bank, cut off Palestinians from Jerusalem and further dim their hopes for a contiguous state.

Israeli television stations reported Jerusalem's district planning commission would soon approve plans for several thousand more housing units, including more than 1,000 Israel had shelved two years ago after angering Washington by publishing the plans before a visit by Vice President Joe Biden.

The settlement plan, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, would deal “an almost fatal blow” to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“We don't want to shift into sanctions mode,” French President Francois Hollande told a news conference with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti. “We are more focused on persuading.”

Washington made clear it would not back such Israeli retaliation over the U.N. vote, which Palestinians sought after peace talks collapsed in 2010 over settlement building.

“We urge Israeli leaders to reconsider these unilateral decisions and exercise restraint as these actions are counterproductive and make it harder to resume direct negotiations to achieve a two state solution,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told a briefing.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron played down what diplomatic sources said was the possibility of recalling Britain's ambassador in Tel Aviv, saying: “We are not proposing to do anything further at this stage”.

A French Foreign Ministry official, responding to reports Paris might bring its Tel Aviv envoy home, said: “There are other ways in which we can express our disapproval.”

Ahead of a Netanyahu visit this week, Germany, considered Israel's closest ally in Europe, urged it to refrain from expanding settlements, and Russia said it viewed the Israeli moves with serious concern.

RETALIATION

Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said Israel could not have remained indifferent to the Palestinians' unilateral move at the United Nations.

“I want to tell you that those same Europeans and Americans who are now telling us 'naughty, naughty' over our response, understand full-well that we have to respond, and they themselves warned the Palestinian Authority,” he said.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said building in E1 “destroys the two-state solution, (establishing) East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine and practically ends the peace process and any opportunity to talk about negotiations in the future”.

The United States, one of the eight countries to vote alongside Israel against the Palestinian resolution at the General Assembly, has said both were counterproductive to the resumption of direct peace talks.

In Europe, only the Czech Republic voted against the status upgrade while many countries, including France, backed it. Netanyahu plans to visit Prague this week to express his thanks.

In the Gaza Strip, Sami Abu Zuhri, spokesman for the governing Hamas Islamist movement, called Israeli settlements “an insult to the international community, which should bear responsibility for Israeli violations and attacks on Palestinians”.

In another blow to the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, Israel said it was withholding about $100 million in Palestinian tax revenues this month, arguing Palestinians owed $200 million to Israeli firms.

“These are not steps towards peace, these are steps towards the extension of the conflict,” Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said.

Only three weeks ago, Netanyahu won strong European and U.S. support for a Gaza offensive that Israel said was aimed at curbing persistent cross-border rocket fire.

Favored by opinion polls to win a January 22 national election, he brushed off the condemnation and complaints at home that he is deepening Israel's diplomatic isolation.

Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday that his government “will carry on building in Jerusalem and in all the places on the map of Israel's strategic interests”.

But while his housing minister has said the government would soon invite bids from contractors to build 1,000 homes for Israelis in East Jerusalem and more than 1,000 in West Bank settlement blocs, the E1 plan is still in its planning stages.

“No one will build until it is clear what will be done there,” the minister, Ariel Attias, said on Sunday.

Israel froze much of its activities in E1 under pressure from former U.S. President George W. Bush, and the area has been under the scrutiny of his successor, Barack Obama.

Most world powers consider Israel's settlements to be illegal. Israel cites historical and Biblical links to the West Bank and Jerusalem and regards all of the holy city as its capital, a claim that is not recognized internationally.

Additional reporting by Crispian Balmer, Dan Williams, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Jihan Abdalla in Ramallah, Steve Gutterman in Moscow, Gareth Jones in Berlin, John Irish and Elizabeth Pineau in Paris and Tim Castle in London; writing by Jeffrey Heller; editing by Philippa Fletcher

Israel says it will stick with settlement plan despite condemnation Read More »

Webcast: UANI’s Ibsen highlights economic pressure on Iran

Leave a Comment / Blogs, California, Mobile, Mobile Sections, News /

On November 29th David Ibsen, executive director of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), spoke to a large group of individuals at the Los Angeles based Unviersity Synagogue about the growing threat of Iran’s nuclear weapons program and what average Americans can do to stop Iran’s pursuit of these weapons. UANI is a nonpartisan advocacy group that seeks to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to obtain nuclear weapons by pressuring multi-national corporations from doing business with Iran’s regime and the regime’s infamous revolutionary guard. Their various campaigns against giant corporation worldwide has resulted in countless companies pulling millions of dollars in investments and business from Iran–  a move which UANI’s leadership believes will weaken the regime’s economy and ultimately halt their nuclear weapons program.

I had a chance to chat with Ibsen recently about his organization’s efforts to “name and shame” those multi-national corporations who do business with Iran. The following are clips from my interviews with him…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Webcast: UANI’s Ibsen highlights economic pressure on Iran Read More »

Gordis vs Brous: Impressions from a sermon and a Torah Slam

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Is Featured?, Mobile, Mobile Sections, Mobile-Homepage, News, Worldwide /

Like many Jewish Journal readers, I have followed the rather personal exchange between Rabbis Daniel Gordis and Sharon Brous over Israel. Since I have never met Rabbi Gordis, and have had only a few personal interactions with Rabbi Brous, I had intended to sit this one out. However, a Gordis vs Brous: Impressions from a sermon and a Torah Slam Read More »

Chanukah & Miracles

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Holidays, Judaism, Mobile, Mobile Sections, News /

Chanukah is fast approaching.  I know it because my kids are excited and my wife is leaving more frequently for evening runs to Toys R Us and Target.  I love Chanukah.  If you ask my Rabbinic (Student) opinion, if young Jewish families are set on the “three day per year” synagogue experience—Please make it Simchat Torah, Chanukah and Purim.  You and your children will enjoy the services and probably end up returning to sample more days.

My family’s tradition is to light the Chanukah Menorah and sing about a dozen Chanukah songs from traditional to especially silly.  I loved it growing up, my kids love it and I hope someday their kids will enjoy the silliness too.  So much of the holiday mentions the Hebrew word Nes or Miracle in English.  As a matter of fact, the Halachic foundation of Chanuka (and similarly Purim) is Pirsuma Nissa in Aramaic or to publicize the miracle. So what was the miracle?

When we’re children we’re taught that the miracle was the oil—When Judah Maccabee entered the Holy Temple, after defeating the Assyrian Greeks, he and his brothers found enough oil for one night but it actually burned for eight nights.  That’s the miracle?  We observe Chanukah to celebrate a magic trick?

If that’s true, then why did the Rabbis hold Chanukah (and Purim for that matter) in such high regard?  One of my teachers, Rabbi Aaron Alexander, teaches the Halachah of Chanukah and Purim together, as similar post-Biblical holidays created by the Rabbis to mark “miracles”.  He taught (Talmud Shabbat 88a) that in the Torah the Jews received the Torah “under the mountain” (Exodus 19:17) or with little choice in the matter, but in the story of Purim, the Jewish People finally stand up for Torah and prove itself deserving of Torah.  I think that if that's true for Purim where the Jews of Persia stood up and saved themselves from destruction; all the more so it should be true for Chanukah where the Jews of the Land of Israel not only stood up and saved their way of life but also redeemed the land and the Holy Temple.

While it’s a beautiful explanation, I find myself wondering whether the Maccabees considered their victory to be a miracle?  After watching his friends and brothers get killed in battle, I think Judah would have probably sensed that they had defeated the Assyrian Greeks with courage, will, strength and intellect.  While G-d bestows all of those things, I don’t believe he witnessed the type of Biblical miracles one would expect by all of the Chanukah miracle talk.  Same with Purim, just read Megillat Esther and point to the part where G-d defeats Haman or the Persians for the Jews?

My mind immediately races to the modern Jewish “miracle” of the State of Israel.  Go to Israel (I mean it, go!) and visit Mount Herzl.  On any given day, you will find the military cemetery filled with mothers crying for children buried there—lost while defending the state.  G-d help the person who asks that mother if the State of Israel exists because of a “miracle”.  Simply put, it exists because there are Jewish teenagers who are willing to fight for the Jewish ideal.  They are willing to fight for this new self-determined Jewish reality.

And the truth is that the Rabbinic age between the Maccabees and the State of Israel thought that this Jewish reality was impossible.  That is why they called Chanukah a time of miracles.  From Pumbadita to Bagdad to Warsaw and Paris, Rabbis experienced wave after wave of anti-Semetic hostility and could not find any answers in their Gemoras.  They looked back at the miraculous times of the Maccabees (and Esther) with awe.  Imagine, Jews fighting for what they believe in?

Jews do fight.  Thank G-d we do.  And over the last month, Jews all over the world watched their TV’s and their computer screens to see how Israel would defend herself against the Palestinian hostility in Gaza.  Now that there is a cease-fire, everybody has an opinion of what they would do different.  I would argue that it is easy for Jews in Los Angeles and New York to play Monday morning quarterback and insist that they know better than Prime Minister Netanyahu or the IDF Generals.  It is difficult to show unwavering support for the State of Israel.  But that is what is required of us.

This Chanukah there will be children in Sderot and Ashkelon who light their candles thinking that nobody is concerned about them any longer.  They’re right.  Nobody is glued to their TV’s or reading the Internet stories about Sderot and Ashkelon anymore.  But we have to.  They can be right about the rest of the world who only tunes in during times of absolute crisis, when rockets are falling, but they can’t be right about the Jewish People.

This Chanukah we must remind our children about the Jewish children who live on the border with Gaza and who are forced to live everyday with courage and strength and the Jewish will to live the Jewish ideal of determining our own destiny.

For a brief moment two thousand years ago, a group of brothers embodied this strength for the Jewish people.  And maybe the miracle is that sixty-four years ago, another group of Jews decided to fight once again—To own our tradition once again.  May we teach our children here in the Diaspora to honor that tradition in the State of Israel and all those who live that tradition every day.  And may we all pray that this brief moment last forever and ever…

Happy Chanukah!

Chanukah & Miracles Read More »

State Dept. warns ‘E-1’ construction would damage two-state prospects

Leave a Comment / Is Featured?, Israel, Lead Story, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News /

Building in the E-1 area between eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim would be “especially damaging” to efforts to reach a two-state solution, the State Department said.

“The United States opposes all unilateral actions, including West Bank settlement activity and housing construction in East Jerusalem, as they complicate efforts to resume direct, bilateral negotiations, and risk prejudging the outcome of those negotiations,” Mark Toner, the State Department deputy spokesman, said in a statement. “This includes building in the E-1 area, as this area is particularly sensitive and construction there would be especially damaging to efforts to achieve a two-state solution.”

The statement Monday came after Israel leaked plans to build in the area, in apparent retaliation for the Palestinians' success last week in winning non-member state status at the United Nations General Assembly.

The first State Department reaction on Friday, by Toner's boss, Victoria Nuland, expressed concern over E-1 while also noting U.S. opposition to enhanced U.N. status for Palestine.

“We’re going to be evenhanded in our concern about any actions that are provocative, any actions that make it harder to get these two parties back to the table,” Nuland said.

Toner's statement on Monday was focused only on the proposed E-1 building, suggesting that the Obama administration would be aggressive in opposing E-1 development.

“We have made clear to the Israeli government that such action is contrary to U.S. policy,” Toner said. “The United States and the international community expect all parties to play a constructive role in efforts to achieve peace. We urge the parties to cease unilateral actions and take concrete steps to return to direct negotiations so all the issues can be discussed and the goal of two states living side by side in peace and security can be realized.”

Israeli governments have long planned such building, which would link the bedroom community of Maale Adumim to Jerusalem, but successive U.S. administrations have opposed it, saying that developing the corridor would cut off Palestinian populations centers from each other in a future Palestinian state.

E-1 was a flashpoint of tensions between the administration of President George W. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

State Dept. warns ‘E-1’ construction would damage two-state prospects Read More »

Letter to the Editor: It’s a demographic cliff; not a fiscal cliff

Leave a Comment / Letters to the Editor /

Last week, (16-22 Kislev) Mark Pearlman wrote an erudite proposal for minding the Jewish communal coffers.  He asks how we can adequately fund an engaging and vibrant Jewish community.  Eight causes are given for the fiscal deterioration of the community.  Unfortunately he missed entirely the main and intractable cause: not enough Jewish children.

To illustrate this case, please look at the weekly obituary pages of the Jewish Journal   It’s actually very much the same story each week; one that’s almost unnoticed, while it screams about our Jewish demographic crisis.

The Nov. 23rd issue, for example, reported thirty Jewish deceased over the age of 70.with a total of 99 reported grandchildren. That’s 3.03 grandchildren per person.  Remember though, that the numbers surely include some Orthodox families, bringing up the grandchild total significantly. Now those 99 not only represent one decedent’s grandchildren; but two grandparents.  So the news is this: Jewish L.A. now seems to average about 3 grandchildren per Jewish couple.

But wait. There’s an extra. Don’t forget to look at the names listed. There are some decidedly non-Jewish sounding names of spouses and grandchildren.  This is not a subtle reminder that not all those 99 grandchildren may actually be Jews.

The implications should be self-evident, but for those who don’t get it, I’ll be explicit: Those in generation now passing have been the prime financial stalwarts of our community.  As they depart, they leave behind few Jewishly committed children and grandchildren.

In desperation, some temples are making a survival effort by sort of rearranging the chairs in their gradually emptying Sunday schools. (L.A. Hebrew High went from 500 to 200 students in the last decade.)  Today, the JFC is attempting some heroic initiative to make up for generations of massive non-affiliation by creating shallow ‘on-ramps’ for Next-Gens to enter the Jewish community. They’ve created a proliferation of programs serving the needs of non-Jews in Los Angeles.. What’s the ‘Jewish’ link?  Of course, it’s ‘Tikkun Olam’., as if the United Way isn’t already in that business.  Our few and Jewishly illiterate youth are saving seven billion people on earth, while they disappear as Jews.

“Not to worry” once declared a Jewish Journal demographer as he suggested that a great many of the Orthodox will become Reform and Conservative just as happened with immigrants 70 years in the past. They, according to the theory, will replenish the lost numbers of secular Jews. Anyone who’s ever seen the inside of an Orthodox day-school today has to laugh at such a farcical hope. It’s not going to happen.

No discussion of solutions to the ‘Jewish fiscal cliff’ should ignore the issue of the Jewish fertility crisis. No matter how much you slice and dice budgets, there will soon be too few liberal/secular Jews to support the temples, Federations and all the other secular Jewish organizations. Who’s going to pay staff and support their pension plans? Oh, yeah, I forgot, the Koreans:

Now, we must give credit for creative efforts: One mega-temple is investing over $100 million to rebuild their neglected edifice and establish a free medical / dental clinic for local Koreans. Perhaps their plan is that in 30- 40 years the Koreans will help support the Temple?

Ask any president of a smaller Reform or Conservative Temple.  If they are growing, it’s because they have attracted Jews from other temples. But for many, current discussions about potential mergers are critical for survival.  Welcome to the beginning of a steep slope.

Some have said: “Well that fertility rate just reflects what’s going on in all of American society today.”  True. It’s one of the ‘benefits’ of assimilation.  But “Non-Jewish” is not a People; Jews are.  It’s a demographic fact that any People wishing long-term survival culturally and fiscally, must rear enough progeny to repopulate and carry on their culture. It now appears that the Boomer generation mostly opted to be Americans first and Jews, well maybe 25th.?

Now I fervently wish someone had a happy solution for this predicament. The solutions offered by Mr. Pearlman last week are a possible a band aid. But of the many liberal rabbis I’ve consulted in this matter, not one had any realistic solutions to offer about the demographic cliff. 

One main reason is that rearing children as ‘Jewish’ may require painful life-style changes, leaving some assimilated non-Jewish baggage behind: like the joys of bacon and eggs in the morning, a Christmas tree in the living room or golf and mall hopping on Saturdays.  A Chanukah-bush, just doesn’t cut it.

This is the price of a ticket to secure the American Jewish future. Another expensive Federation program or more gold-leaf on a painting doesn’t come close. The real cause of the Jewish fiscal crisis is the fact that today’s American Jews of parenting age have not produced enough Jewishly educated children for a future ‘vibrant’ secular/liberal Jewish community.

Unless more secular/liberal Jewish parents are willing to pay the price of having more children indelibly indoctrinated into Jewish culture, the liberal Jewish enterprise of the past 200 years will indeed roll off a cliff. 

What is the solution?  The fact that this might sound crazy to most, further reveals the problem, but there is like 3,400 years of experience with this:  Let every Jew turn Saturdays into Shabbat. Then, as surely as Spring follows the Winter, more babies and funding will follow, naturally.   Simple.  Right?

Gary Dalin

Letter to the Editor: It’s a demographic cliff; not a fiscal cliff Read More »

Letter to the Editor: Rabbi Sharon Brous vs. Rabbi Daniel Gordis: Betrayal or compassion?

Leave a Comment / Letters to the Editor /

To the editor,

Equating Rabbi Brous with Rabbi Gordis is almost laughable – if it weren't so sad.

Brous is soft on Israel. Read her LAJJ article after the pro-Israel (Flotilla) rally organized by the Israeli Consulate a few years ago, where she equated the rally with a Lakers rally, and expresses her sympathy for the 'Peace Now' speaker. She is quick to criticize Israel from her comfortable and secure rocking chair here in the States.

Jeffrey Goldberg put it best when he tweeted, “Rabbi Daniel Gordis asks Rabbi Sharon Brous to love Jews a little more than she loves Palestinians.” That was the point, plain and simple.

On the other hand, Rabbi Gordis is a true lover of Israel, a true role model. When he criticizes Israel (and he does – often) he has the moral right (unlike Brous) and his criticism is credible (unlike Brous).

If Brous wants to criticize the way Israel handles the Palestinian situation, she needs to follow Gordis' example – make aliyah,  pay Israeli taxes, send her kids to serve in the IDF. Until she does she needs to understand that her criticism is meaningless, and worse, it only strengthens those trying to deligitimize and destroy Israel.

Paul Jeser

Letter to the Editor: Rabbi Sharon Brous vs. Rabbi Daniel Gordis: Betrayal or compassion? Read More »

A Total Misunderstanding of Symbolism

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized /

Perhaps it’ll turn out to be a positive step on the way to peace. Who knows? There was something relatively pleasing in seeing Mahmoud Abbas – a man who can’t be accused of religious zeal and insanity – on the UN podium.

But the Palestinian celebration at the UN was not a historical victory for the spirit of freedom and peace, neither was it a poetic moment of justice.

“There was no need for another devastating war” Abbas told the General Assembly, relating to the last violence around Gaza. Indeed, there was no need for any of the wars in the past 65 years: In 1947 the UN accepted resolution 181, which divided the British Mandate over what’s now Israel, the West-Bank and Gaza into the 2-states everybody’s talking about. It could’ve ended there: The Zionists agreed and established Israel, but the Arabs refused to compromise; Jordan annexed the West Bank; Egypt took over Gaza, and that’s where the roots of the “State that is lacking”, as Abbas put it, are laid.

Anticipating the UN vote in 1947, Palestinian leader of the time, Haj-Amin Al-Husseini, said that “Blood will spill like water in the Middle East” if the partition is accepted, and the Lebanese PM clarified that “No Arab government would accept the proposition”. Lobbying trends at the UN were clearly recognizeable: the Zionist diplomats were aggressively promoting the acceptance of the compromise, while an inter-Arab campaign lobbied for its dismissal. Meanwhile, on the ground, Arab political and military leaders were “…Each trying to demonstrate a more radical stance than their peers”, as reported by Dr. Paul Mohn, a member in UNSCOP, the UN committee that led to the partition resolution. (Quote from “1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War” by Benny Morris).

Sorry to bring such a decisive conclusion after 1:17 minutes of reading, but trust me – this goes back 65 years and change back: The refusal of the Palestinians and Arabs in general to see a Jewish state in the Middle East – even at the corner of their eyes – is at the root of this conflict.

The UN itself woke up the next morning with a horrible feeling of having had a drunk moment, and is since, it seems, trying to undo it. As Abbas noted, the day of the partition vote itself (29-November), was later designated by the UN (the body which carried out the vote) as “A day of international solidarity with the Palestinian people” (The people who rejected to compromise even after the vote). Sym….bolic…?

So when Abbas calls voting in favor of his bid “A most valuable voice for courage”, he forgets that the delegates – who must have had a subtle sense of déja-vu -had already cast their courageous votes 65 years ago.

When he calls for “A birth certificate for the state of Palestine”, he omits that the certificate had been given 65 years ago by the very body he addresses, but refused delivery.

And when he calls the General Assembly’s attention to a “Moral duty which it must not hesitate to undertake”, he should at least feel a tad uncomfortable, since it was him – symbolically of course – who refused his moral duty to compromise, back when this conflict was still just a little ugly.

Indeed, Abbas shows a total lack of understanding of symbolism. What was resolution 181, the resolution he’s making a symbolic statement about by showing up 65 years later, on the day? Did 181 grant sovereignty and statehood to the Jews only, and ripped off the Arabs? If it had – Abbas would have been right to proudly appear at the UN and demand to correct history. But 181 didn't do that, it granted sovereignty and statehood to both, it was a peaceful compromise, but that was too much: As put by Azzam Pasha, head of the Arab League in 1947, “The Arabs will never accept a Jewish state”.

The cause-and-effect aspect of the real history has always been omitted from the Palestinian narrative, and is now banned internationally. A truth-lover prohibition. At this point I should totally save this blog entry from appearing to be nothing but a whining session, and clarify that this is not just an issue of patty accusations (or historical injustice – depending who you ask). No, the issue at hand is whether the rejection at the root of the death, destruction, suffering, violence and war of the past 65 years is changed, or does it persist.

It could have been different last week at the UN, with just a bit of humility. Recognize your historic refusal as a means to correct it, and finally accept the partition – for real. If Abbas had done that, the Israeli Prime Minister Office would have taken no longer than 1 day to get over the shock (I hope) and issue a statement showing compassion for the Palestinian suffering, or even apology for the suffering Israel caused throughout the conflict.

Boom! Restart.

Hope…!

But the Palestinians always restart from the same drive – maybe it’s a Windows thing. Abbas did check all the required expressions: “2-states”, “Peace”, “Justice” – so how come his speech still had that UN-inspired air of Israel delegitimization (aka: undoing that drunk moment):

“Racism” –  3 times.
“Apartheid” – check.
“Colonialism” – a staple in delegitimizing – multiple checks.
“War Crimes” – totally.
“Ethnic cleansing” – you betcha.

A smart song once suggested that “You can't jump head-on to the pool if it’s empty, and you can’t cook your spaghetti if the stove is off.” You also can’t achieve peace through the language of hate and delegitimization; Ask the Irish, ask Aung San Suu Kyi, ask the Dalai-Lama. These are, in fact, the very elements of conflict, not of resolution – as seen 65 years ago. 

Will the UN resolution lead to positive results? In the long run – maybe yes, I hope so. I want to believe that today’s Palestinian leader has more to show for in the way of peaceful attitudes than his predecessors 65 years ago. Whatever ends up happening, the selective, unfounded history the world has so easily accepted last week, the one that disregards intent, cause-and-effect, proportion and context, is no step forward to any decent person.

And than there’s the International Court issue. And Hamas. But that’s next time.

=======

Follow me on Twitter: @LostRoadToPeace

A Total Misunderstanding of Symbolism Read More »

J Street hires Alan Elsner, late of The Israel Project, as spokesman

Leave a Comment / United States /

Alan Elsner, a veteran journalist whose last job was helping to helm The Israel Project, joined J Street as its top spokesman.

Elsner was executive director of The Israel Project until September, when Josh Block, the former spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, was named TIP president.

Elsner, a longtime Reuters journalist and a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, is J Street's latest hire from a centrist pro-Israel group, and probably the highest profile.

The statement announcing Elsner's hire on Monday said there was no contradiction between his strong pro-Israel credentials and the group, which advocates a more assertive U.S. role in bringing about Israeli-Arab peace and an Israeli retreat from settlement building.

“J Street is committed to a two-state solution and wants to encourage a discussion in the American Jewish community about the settlements and the occupation and what is crucial to preserve Israel’s democracy,” Elsner said in the statement. “There should be room in the discussion for those who want to pursue a real peace process and who value dialogue above settlements.”

Since its founding in 2008, J Street has come under fire from the Israeli government and from some pro-Israel figures in Washington — not least among them Block — for some of its postures critical of Israel.

J Street hires Alan Elsner, late of The Israel Project, as spokesman Read More »

Plan to build in eastern Jerusalem neighborhood is resurrected

Leave a Comment / Israel, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News /

A building plan for eastern Jerusalem that stirred a furor when it was approved during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden has been resurrected.

On Dec. 17, the Jerusalem District Planning and Construction Committee will discuss the plan to build more than 1,600 apartments in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, according to reports. The Jerusalem municipality had approved the plan in March 2010 during a visit by Biden, causing a diplomatic uproar, after which the project was frozen.

Israel's interior minister gave his final approval to the project in August 2011.

Discussion of the Ramat Shlomo project was moved up as a way to punish the Palestinians for the approval last week by the United Nations General Assembly of their enhanced statehood status, Haaretz reported Monday.

It comes on the heels of the announcement of plans to build 3,000 new housing units in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem that has raised the hackles of the United States, a number of European countries and the United Nations.

Plan to build in eastern Jerusalem neighborhood is resurrected Read More »