VIDEO: Chanukah at the White House 2013
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December 6, 2013
Beinart, Suissa face off on Israel
Peter Beinart is no stranger to the accusation that for a self-proclaimed passionate supporter of Israel, he treats the Jewish state too harshly.
Since the release of his book “The Crisis of Zionism” in 2012, he has traveled the country debating ardent Zionists such as Daniel Gordis and Alan Dershowitz. On the evening of Dec. 5 in Los Angeles, his opponent on the stage at Sinai Temple was David Suissa, president of TRIBE Media Corp., parent company of the Jewish Journal, and a columnist for this newspaper.
Rabbi David Wolpe, Sinai’s senior rabbi, moderated the debate, which was co-sponsored by The Journal and Sinai Temple. Both Suissa and Beinart presented their positions in opening statements, then Wolpe addressed questions to the two before taking audience questions.
Beinart is the editor of Open Zion, a blog dedicated to “an open and unafraid conversation about Israel, Palestine, and the Jewish future.” He is also an incoming contributing editor for both The Atlantic and National Journal and will become a senior columnist with the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, in January.
Formerly on AIPAC’s speaking circuit, Beinart has, in recent years, become an outspoken voice from the Left on Israel, going so far as calling for a “Zionist B.D.S.,” a boycott on products produced in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
His basic argument, made in his book and in the Wednesday evening debate with Suissa, is that Israel is approaching a time where it will have to choose between becoming a non-democratic Jewish state, or a democratic state without a Jewish majority.
Beinart says the reason for Israel’s impending choice is its occupation of the West Bank and its policy of encouraging settlements by Israelis outside the pre-1967 borders.
Unless Israel acts soon to end its occupation of the West Bank and ceases to encourage the growth of Israeli settlements, Beinart argues, the Palestinians who support a two-state solution will turn to supporting one Palestinian state with a Jewish minority and Arab majority.
“If Israel makes permanent its occupation of the West Bank it will eventually be forced to choose between its Jewish and democratic character,” Beinart told the audience of about 250. “By supporting settlement growth, you are pushing Palestinians in exactly the direction we don’t want them to go.”
Suissa strongly objected to Beinart’s premise that settlements are the major obstacle to peace: “Settlements are an excuse for Palestinians to hide their rejectionism,” Suissa said, and he charged that by questioning the legality of Israeli settlements, Beinart appears to call into question the legality of the entire nation of Israel.
“As long as we keep maligning settlements and calling them illegal, we reinforce the false narrative that Israel stole the land from the Palestinians,” Suissa said. “If we stole the land, the Palestinians owe us nothing, not even negotiations.”
Although the evening was peppered with some boos and interruptions alongside a handful of applauses, Wolpe quickly silenced outspoken members of the audience in favor of the speakers, and also made sure both Suissa and Beinart stayed focused on the task at hand—clarifying where they differ on Israel.
“If every settlement were gone, would peace be possible?” Wolpe asked Beinart.
Beinart responded that while he believes “100 percent” of Palestinians wish Israel had never been created, he also believes most Palestinians would accept a neighboring Jewish state, “because they are suffering so much” under the status quo.
Suissa disagreed, arguing that even without Israeli settlements, the Palestinians are holding out for a right of return—a deal for millions of Palestinians living in the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the diaspora to reclaim property in Israel, including refugees from Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, and also their descendants.
“If they compromise on the right of return, that means they are accepting the legitimacy of the Jewish State,” Suissa said, adding that such acceptance is necessary for a peaceful two-state solution.
The debate winded down with a discussion of the Gaza Strip, the land Israel unilaterally withdrew from in 2005 only to see Hamas, a terrorist group, be elected to power and launch thousands of rockets at southern Israel.
For years, Israel and Egypt have enforced a blockade on Gaza, making movement and economic trade difficult, even with the numerous smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt.
“When you have an economic policy that destroys the individual business class in Gaza—that could’ve been the opposition to Hamas—and you allow Hamas to take complete control of the economy in Gaza,” Beinart said. “You play into Hamas’s hands.”
Suissa, responding with incredulity, said, “For Peter to sit here and blame Israel for the situation in Gaza is beyond unfair.”
Although most of the crowd appeared to support Suissa’s point of view, there was a diversity of opinion throughout the evening.
“I felt like I was in some sort of Alice in Wonderland,” said Yigal Arens, likening the plight of the Palestinians to black Americans living under Jim Crow. “The closest thing to this would have been white leaders in the southern U.S. during the fight for civil rights arguing about what was the best way to preserve white privilege.”
“I’m probably more of a Suissa person,” said Mark Mendelsohn. “This is the first time I heard Beinart.”
“I actually thought he came across more Jewish and supportive of Israel than I thought he would,” Mendelsohn said.
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Chanukah at the White House
My new favorite way to celebrate Chanukah is lighting candles with Barack Obama.
The White House Chanukah Party was held Dec 5, a day after Chanukah. It was my first time attending the annual event, which President George W. Bush began in 2001. I don’t expect it’s one of those experiences I’ll ever get used to.
This year the White House held two Chanuka parties, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, each for about 400 invited guests.
Why in this year did Obama dip twice?
“Frankly,” one long time guest, a well-known pundit, told me, “he needs Jewish support,”
The evening party began at 6 pm. We lined up outside the East Wing and proceeded slowly through three stations of security.
The doors to the East Wing were ringed in gold wreaths. A Marine guard greeted us, and we made our way down a hallway lined with family pictures of Christmases past—the Clintons, the Bushes, the Obamas– those families.
The rooms inside were a Christmas fantasy. The first tree was decorated with gold stars, to honor service men and women killed in the line of duty. Guests stopped and wrote personal holiday notes to soldiers.
As we entered, the a capella group Pizmon, composed of students from Columbia and Jewish Theological Seminary, sang Hebrew songs. Large oil portraits of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson looked down.
Story continues after the video.
Inside, more trees — so many trees! — and bunting and crèches. The effect was warm and festive, not gaudy. Each room was a small museum of presidential portraits, American art, rare books.
In the two larger rooms, four buffet tables bore endless platters of grilled vegetables, tabouli salad, chicken galantine, pastries and of course crisp latkes, each the size of a Kennedy half dollar. Rabbi Levi Shemtov supervised the White House kitchen for the event, making it kosher. Lamb was specially butchered to produce thick, lollipop-sized chops, each seared until just pink, and exquisitely tender.
“I think I ate a whole flock,” said one guest.
Rabbi Shemtov also oversaw the installation of the giant menorah on the Mall. We stood in front of the curved bay window in the Red Room and the bearded Lubavitch rabbi pointed it out to me, shining in the distance. Two feet behind us in the center of the room rose a massive decorated Christmas tree.
Most Jewish events are fundraisers, heavy on donors, or conferences, heavy on professionals, or services, heavy on rabbis. At the White House Chanukkah, they all come together. I spotted journalists (Jeffrey Goldberg and David Makovsky), academics (Norman Ornstein and Dr. Arnold Eisen), rabbis (Capers Funnye, Shmuely Yakelovitz, David Ingber, Noah Farkas, Sharon Brous), Jewish professionals (Rachel Levin, Malcolm Hoenlein), professional atheletes (Craig Breslow of the Boston Red Sox, the Houston Rockets’ Omri Casspi), Israeli Americans (Adam Milstein), cookbook author Joan Nathan, consultant Steve Rabinowitz, all four Jewish Supreme Court Justices, Congressman Henry Waxman and Brad Sherman, former congressmen Robert Wexler and Howard Berman, and White House staffers (Special Assistant to the President Jonathan Greenblatt and Matt Nosanchuk, the new Director of Jewish Outreach as well as many lay community leaders and donors.
There were rabbis of all denominations, from Lubavitch to Reconstructionist, and Jews of all political stripes. To get such a diverse group of Jews together and celebrating under one roof you’d have to be, well, President of the United States.
“You’re not exactly a fan,” one woman said to her husband as they posed in the Obama’s entryway.
The husband took a few steps until he was beneath a portrait of former First Lady Laura Bush.
“Here,” he said, “now take the picture.”
Before the President and First Lady Michelle Obama entered and after they left, the most well-known face in the room was the man standing by a Christmas tree in the State Dining room, surrounded by a admirers: Larry David. The other celebrity in the crowd was Joshua Malina, who came with his wife Melissa Merwin. Malina currently stars in the White House centered-drama Scandals.
“You must have been here before,” a guest asked Malina, who rose to fame in another White House drama, “The West Wing.”
“No,” he said, “I only get to meet fake Presidents.”
A Marine guard stepped away from her official duties, broke out a big smile and asked for a photo beside Malina.
The biggest celebrities entered the Grand Foyer at about 8 pm. Between the first celebration and the evening one, news came that Nelson Mandela had died, and Obama’s remarks quickly moved to remembering his personal hero.
“Tonight our thoughts and prayers are with the Mandela family,” he said. They mourn a moral giant who sought to bring about justice, not only in South Africa but he inspired people around the world to do that. The idea that every human being deserves dignity and the notion that justice shall prevail.”
“Yes!” — an audience member interjected.
“A Supreme Court justice just said that,” the President pointed out.
“Over the last eight days Jews around the world have gathered with friends and family to light the menorah and tell the story of a miracle, of a people who surmounted overwhelming odds, to reclaim their homeland and the right to practice their religion. …We light these candles tonight to remind us we’re still writing the chapters of that story today.”
Obama tied the spirit of Chanukah to the need to remain vigilant in the face of oppression.
“We need to partner with our allies that share those values, including the state of Israel,” Obama said. “Together with our Israeli friends we’re determined that Iran will not get a nuclear weapon.”
The crowd greeted this with cheers and applause, and the President continued.
“For the first time in a decade we have stopped the progress of Iran’s nuclear program,” he continued. “The toughest of our sanctions will remain in place, that’s good for us, that’s good for Israel. Over the next months, we’re going to continue our diplomacy, to reach a comprehensive solution. And through it all, as always, our commitment to Israel and its security will remain ironclad and unshakable.”
The President then introduced the brass menorah. It was rescued from a synagogue destroyed by Nazis in the former Czechoslovakia. Surrounded by the ornate Christmas decorations, it looked especially humble.
A rabbi who is also an army chaplain led the Shechechyanu and a Chanuka blessing that did not include the traditional words for the actual lighting of the candles. A conclave of Orthodox rabbis meeting in an adjacent room had earlier decided on the best way to approach the post-Chanuka candle-lighting.
Two Holocaust survivors joined the President in lighting the candles. The crowd spontaneously began singing “Maoz Tsur”—Rock of Ages. The President beamed.
In a lighter mood afterwards, he showed off a turkey-shaped menorah that had been given to him at the afternoon ceremony. He explained that Chanuka and Thanksgiving won’t coincide for another 70,000 years.
“We call this a ‘Menurkey,” he said.
At his Chanukah parties, President Bush would stand two hours in an actual receiving line, and each guest got a picture. In years past, Obama came down for the blessings, said a few remarks and left—ten minutes tops. The feedback from the crowd that made the pilgrimage-slash-schlep to shake his hand was that this did more harm than good.
“Obama got the message,” said one repeat guest.
This time, after the ceremony, Obama descended the podium and shook hands with guests who crowded toward him from behind a cordon. He spent a half hour making his way around a semi-circle, disappeared behind some doors for a few minutes, then reappeared and crossed the room, speaking with more guests, shaking more hands.
The political reasons aren’t hard to fathom. The President needs the Jewish community on his side to back him on his current talks with Iran, and on whatever negotiations he may still attempt between Israel and the Palestinians.
And if his drive to reduce rising inequality in America is his professed rest-of-term agenda, he will find natural allies among the mostly well-heeled Chanuka celebrants who traditionally vote liberal on social justice issues.
Earlier that day I toured the Newseum, which had an exhibit on newspaper coverage of the Freedom Summer, when black and white students went South to register black voters and encountered vicious beatings and racism together. Now, I thought, look who’s President. And look who is singing “Maoz Tsur” in the White House, just few feet from Bess Truman's piano.
I suppose nothing in Washington operates in a politics-free zone, but it would be cynical, too cynical, to write that evening off as just politics. There was true hospitality, true thanksgiving, and a bit of the miraculous.
When my turn came to face Obama amid the crush, we shook hands and I said, “Thank you, Mr. President.” And I meant it. I really did.
Rob Eshman is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Tribe Media Corp. Follow him @foodaism.
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Pro-Israel groups backing away from confrontation with Obama over Iran
When it comes to the deal between Iran and major powers, Israel and the pro-Israel community are retreating from a strategy of confrontation and working instead to influence the contours of a final agreement.
In a conference call last week, Howard Kohr, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s executive director, advised pro-Israel activists and leaders not to confront the Obama administration directly over the “difference of strategy” between the United States and Israel on Iran. Instead, Kohr said to focus on passing new sanctions as a means of shaping a final deal.
AIPAC would not comment on the call, which was first revealed Dec. 3 in a Zionist Organization of America news release criticizing AIPAC’s approach. But Kohr’s advice comports with a recent rhetorical pivot by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who initially excoriated the interim deal with Iran reached last month in Geneva as a “historic mistake.”
This week, meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Jerusalem, Netanyahu significantly downplayed his unhappiness with the interim deal and said he was focused instead on the outcome of the six-month period established to reach a final accord over Iran’s nuclear program. Netanyahu is sending a team to Washington in the coming days to consult with U.S. officials on how best to influence a final deal.
“We believe that in a final deal, unlike the interim deal, it’s crucial to bring about a final agreement about determination of Iran’s military and nuclear capability,” Netanyahu said.
The interim deal rolls back some sanctions — although not the central ones targeting Iran’s banking and energy sectors — in exchange for some freezes in Iran’s nuclear development.
Israel, along with some pro-Israel groups and members of Congress, decried the deal for not dismantling Iran’s nuclear capability and said the rollback of any sanctions, however marginal, reversed the momentum that has helped bring Iran to the negotiating table. U.S. officials recoiled at the rhetoric, telling Jewish leaders in off-the-record phone calls that it made more sense for Israel to try to shape the outcome of a final deal than to trash the interim deal.
In a talk Thursday with the American Jewish Committee, Robert Einhorn, a former Obama administration policy official on Iran, said Netanyahu’s “very aggressive” tone “was surprising to me and to many others.”
“Stop this megaphone diplomacy,” said Einhorn, now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “Work with the Americans privately.”
Abraham Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League’s national director, agreed with Kohr’s strategy and called for working with the Obama administration.
“It’s not enough to be critical, even though the critique brought about some changes,” Foxman said. “What makes sense now is to work with the major player, the United States, the president and his staff. To flay and to continue to be critical is not productive and is not smart.”
The ZOA, which has often been outspoken in its criticism of the Obama administration’s approach toward Israel and Iran, signaled that it would not abide by calls to back away from confrontation.
“The Obama Administration Iran deal is a very dangerous act of appeasement that leaves intact all the vital elements of Iran’s illegal nuclear weapons program,” the group said in a statement.
Tactical questions aside, major differences remain between what Israel and the United States are prepared to accept with respect to a final deal. U.S. officials this week for the first time said they could countenance a final deal in which Iran continues to enrich uranium at low levels. Israel is unlikely to budge on its demand for a complete dismantling of Iran’s enrichment capability.
But officials in both governments say Israel and the United States do agree on two endgame bottom lines: Iran must dismantle the underground nuclear reactor near the holy city of Qom, and it must dismantle its nascent plutonium facility at Arak.
Meanwhile, the pro-Israel community, backed by Netanyahu, will continue to press for enhanced sanctions against the wishes of the Obama administration. Pro-Israel insiders say they expect top lawmakers, led by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, to press for enhanced sanctions before year’s end. The sanctions likely would kick in in six months, allowing the Obama administration time to come to a deal with Iran.
Responding to a reporter’s question about Israel’s push for new sanctions, Kerry said Friday it was natural to expect a degree of pushback from Netanyahu.
“Look, the prime minister has every right in the world to make his views known with respect to his concerns about the security of his country, and we would expect him to do that,” Kerry said. “But the prime minister has also been extremely constructive in working with us on the next steps and where we need to go now. He understands that we are now in the real negotiation.”
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