In Israel I met during my doctoral studies. Metevika there as a criminologist to study the phenomenon of women suicide vomvistrion (female suicide bombers).The inquiry extremely sensitive, but it gave me the opportunity three years to meet the area's problems two peoples over half a century, still not able to find peace.
In contrast to what many believe Greeks for Israel (and even more without ever having visited the country), I would like to illustrate and the following aspects of the country is very interesting.
1. Israel is a participatory democracy and state single type.The citizens take an active part in civic life and to solve problems is everyone. There is very socially conscious and caring for the needs and addressing them. The kibbutz-in community of property types to varying degrees, is a good example.Also remember that I learned with surprise that one day may not be illegal to join anyone on a farm, but he wants to eat the fruits and leaves, enough to not get off him.This measure, which stems from the principles of the Bible, is an example of an effort to avoid any exathlionetai if nothing else it can cover the basic need of food.
2.After military service (which they do and women) are reservists men regularly employed and used to posts that have to do with their skills .. So for example, lawyers who met certain days a month serving as military judges.The reservists citizens continue to climb in the military hierarchy and even at the highest grades, which is not the monopoly of military officials.This system ensures democratic army and prevent the militarization as the fear of the modern states, since it allows to create watertight and sacrosanct in the military (making it almost impossible for such a military coup).
3.At the same time a religious minority to avoid looking and the eyes follow a woman and burdensome formalism, the state and society in Israel is very tolerant. Freedom to practice, sexual orientation etc.If you do not bother the person next to you (usually not bothered with anything), nothing is forbidden. Events for the legalization of marijuana, gay clubs and events (and participation and the army) is common.
4.Few know about the judicial system of the country which gives legal protection to citizens of Israel, but also to Palestinians affected.The Supreme Court of Israel puts brakes Often the implementation of measures and policies deemed to violate the human rights of Palestinians (thereby earning the title of "obstruction" by some for the effective protection and security of the country).It is worth mentioning the Landau Commission which led to the prohibition of inhuman treatment and torture in questioning terrorism suspects.This option is particularly useful when countries in the west every day without the fear of terrorist attack, a long time, unfortunately, have begun discussions about the legitimacy of torture as an investigative method.
5.Unlike other countries ... where ever prime ministers do not sit in the dock and Liability Act to ensure that ministers get away with high members of the political life that damages the state ... in Israel are persecuted and put prison ministers, former prime ministers, presidents ....
6.The country has excellent health system with well-equipped hospitals, where nurses and Palestinians on the ground that enter with special permission. Unfortunately there have been cases of exploitation of entry permit to organize an attack.In general, medical and research centers conducting cutting edge research to treat diseases and patients from many countries (and Greece) are fleeing to Israel to deal with very difficult circumstances.
7. Academic freedom is protected.When I completed my dissertation, the third describing circumstances surrounding the death and socialization to violence in Gaza and the West Bank because of armed conflict.I mentioned reports and complaints about the Palestinian plight, problems children face serious problems in the psyche and the emotional world of their experiences as victims of a hard war with brutal conditions. We never have accepted any role and no control over what I wrote.Indeed, the supervisor me (I was set and Israeli supervisor) commented on the relevant chapter in «suberb» ...
8. Israel is a state of war. Well protected and does not inhibit the rights and freedoms of citizens. Even when they contradict the official state policy.At the same time took place the last conflict in Lebanon who disagreed demonstrating freely in the streets, accusing the then government involvement.Israeli organizations, directors, artists, academics at times are highly critical of the choices the country in relation to Palestine and beyond. And all this without incurring a penalty.Israel is neither Turkey nor Iran, which have seen writers and directors to be jailed because they have other opinions and raise through their works.
The purpose of what I said is not to present Israel as perfect and overlooked mistakes and bad or inappropriate policies and measures. Simply:All Arabs are not terrorists, all activists are not terrorists, but all Israel is wrong. The Israeli-Arab conflict in general and the Israeli-Palestinians in particular is a complex issue with no room for black and white.The roots are deep and issues related to historical, religious, economic, political requiring much attention.
As for the deliberate use of violence against civilians, children and society, should be ordered by anyone to exercise, Israeli and Palestinian.Suicide bombings aimed at pizzerias, restaurants, school buses are tragic phenomenon and have nothing to do with the right resistance to the military. When we see children victimized by a rocket directly condemn it because we think our child is in place.It is not surprising because we identify with the image of our children to be blasted and pieces while laughing and playing carefree in the school bus. Why are not we shocked the 16-year old child of an immigrant from Russia who goes have fun at the beach klampaki and suddenly torn to pieces.Innocent people are innocent ... and the two sides.
In Israel I met people who want peace, determined to live with a neighbor in two countries.My friends, my acquaintances, people I've worked scientifically moderates are people who love their country but do not want no trouble, or extermination of Palestinians. React even disapprove of the suffering. Seek security and are ready for compromises.Resist the voices of a few fanatics (which yes, they exist). The bad news however is that the contents of those few voices and so weaken the voices of people who want to go ahead and join hands with the other side.For example, few and hardliners warn that any concessions are exploited on the other hand, do not ensure peace. They bring such attacks by Hamas from Gaza with rockets now.The argument is "neither a forum nor a retreat" finds ground and vindicated.
Here lies our responsibility as Greek and international community. We welcomed Israel never positive.In solidarity with the Palestinians, should have welcomed the departure from Gaza and condemn outright fanatical views of type "to annihilate the State of Israel, who just Polish and render impossible any dialogue and a possible solution.Moreover should we support the progressive forces in Palestinian society.Why is society does not deserve poverty, violence and poverty, nor the fans that if prevail in the future will bring to persecute women's rights, religious tolerance, diversity, choice of life away from the Islamist doctrines .Rights as progressives and liberals want the Greeks for our friends with the Palestinians their freedom ....
Monday, June 7, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Rabbi Haskel Lookstein Shlita on the Flotilla crisis
June 2, 2010
Dear KJ Family:
Just a few hours ago at Mincha services in the Upper School, I spoke to the entire student body about the crisis in Israel and its implications for all of us in America. The below memorandum from AIPAC appropriately frames this crisis and reminds us of the need at times like these to stay in touch with our elected officials.
If you listen to the recording of my remarks at the Upper School (please click here for the recording), you will note that I essentially read to them an article written on the spur of the moment by Dr. Daniel Gordis. I believe it made a very big impact on the students. I hope it will have a similar impact on you.
I also spoke with Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice President of the Presidents Conference, to ask him what we can do to help. He suggested that we all watch and listen to as much media as possible and alert the Presidents Conference if we hear or see Israel maligned or described unfairly. Examples of such treatment should be sent to info@conferenceofpresidents.org and they will immediately contact the media source to correct the information and the perspective.
Finally, watching the terrifying video clips of Israeli soldiers being beaten makes me all the more grateful to be participating in a very special dessert program taking place on Saturday afternoon, June 12th, at our sister synagogue, Congregation Orach Chaim, 1459 Lexington Avenue (between 94th & 95th Streets). Please join me there from 5:00 – 6:45 p.m. in meeting and thanking 10 Israeli Soldiers who were severely injured in Israel's Operation “Cast Lead.” I will be among the speakers at the program, which will feature ample time to meet with the soldiers and personally express gratitude for their valiant efforts on behalf of our people and our homeland. The event is part of a Chabad Israel Center and Chabad Terror Victims Project effort to bring these heroes to the United States to receive our heartfelt love and admiration. I hope to personally greet you at what will certainly be a most memorable afternoon. Please invite your friends and family so that we as a community can stand and proudly say Todah and Kol Hakavod.
Very cordially yours,
Haskel Lookstein
Please contact your Member of Congress and ask them: (1) To speak out on Israel's right to self-defense ; and (2) to oppose one sided condemnations of Israel
June 1, 2010
Flotilla Sought Provocation, Not to Provide Assistance
The primary aim of the Gaza flotilla was not to provide humanitarian relief; it was to cause a provocation with Israel. Its top organizers and some of its participants are radicals with ties to terrorist groups that sought a violent confrontation. In contrast, the Israeli navy had worked hard to plan a peaceful interception of the six ships and its personnel only used force when their lives were at risk. Israel has legitimate self-defense reasons to inspect the cargo going into the Hamas-controlled area, where the U.S.-designated terrorist group has smuggled in thousands of munitions and rockets for use in attacks against Israeli civilians.
The flotilla’s primary aim was not to provide humanitarian relief; it was to cause a provocation. Its top organizers and some of its participants are radicals with ties to terrorist groups.
The flotilla's organizers willfully ignored repeated warnings that they would be denied entry—including messages from the European Union—and rejected offers by Israel to transfer humanitarian goods through the Israeli port of Ashdod.
One of the flotilla’s leaders, Greta Berlin, stated that “this mission is not about delivering humanitarian supplies, it’s about breaking Israel's siege on 1.5 million Palestinians,” the AFP reported on May 27.
The head of the group that organized the flotilla, Bulent Yildirim (left), is closely linked with Ismail Haniyeh’s U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas.
The main organizer of the flotilla—whose members led the assault on the IDF—was the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), which has publicly affirmed its links to Hamas, maintains an office in Gaza and has ties to other terrorist organizations.
IHH has also been linked to al-Qaeda and played a role in al-Qaeda’s failed Millennium bombing of Los Angeles International Airport, according to French counter-terrorism magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguière, who testified during the trial of failed bomber Ahmed Ressam.
The Israeli navy had worked hard to plan a peaceful interception of the six ships and the soldiers only used force when their lives were at risk.
Individuals aboard the vessels had clearly prepared for violence, chanting an Islamic battle cry recalling the killing of Jews and calling for martyrdom, according to an Al-Jazeera report.
While intercepting six ships attempting to break the naval blockade of Gaza after frequent warnings not to proceed, Israeli soldiers were attacked immediately upon boarding one of them.
The outnumbered soldiers were immediately and brutally attacked with crowbars, clubs and knives and shot at with guns stolen from soldiers, seven of whom were injured. One soldier was thrown to a lower deck 30 feet below and sustained a severe head injury.
Israeli soldiers reacted with the utmost restraint. Only when their lives were in danger did they seek and receive permission to open fire. Regrettably, nine flotilla participants were killed and others injured. Seven Israeli soldiers were injured.
Israel has a legitimate right to self-defense and reason to be concerned about cargo going unchecked into Hamas-controlled Gaza.
The charter of Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist group that seized Gaza in an armed coup from the Palestinian Authority in 2007, calls for the destruction of Israel.
Israel’s actions are aimed at blocking arms and explosives shipments to Hamas, which is at war with the Jewish state. Hamas has fired more than 7,000 rockets and mortar shells into Israel since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
Hamas continues to operate a vast network of tunnels under Gaza, which it uses to smuggle in weapons from Iran and Syria for attacks against Israeli civilians. It also has repeatedly sought to smuggle weapons through the sea.
According to international legal experts, it is legitimate for a state to impose an embargo on international waters during wartime. Israel’s detention of the flotilla ships—and its use of force to defend its soldiers when attacked by some of the radicals—is acceptable under international law.
Egypt also has imposed a blockade on Gaza to protect its own internal security by constructing an underground steel wall along the Sinai-Gaza border to help stymie the flow of illicit goods.
Israel continues to facilitate a vast operation to provide humanitarian goods and medical services to the people of Gaza.
Since the end of the Gaza war in 2009, Israel has facilitated the transfer of more than a million tons of humanitarian supplies to Gaza and 133 million liters of fuel. Israel is now in the process of unloading the items from the flotilla and is transferring legitimate humanitarian items into Gaza via established mechanisms.
To handle the delivery of humanitarian aid and other civilian issues related to Palestinian life in Gaza and the West Bank, Israel has a special unit in the Ministry of Defense—the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).
The U.N. issued a presidential statement condemning the events leading up to the incident, which some have interpreted as a criticism of Israel.
It would have been preferable if the U.N. and Obama administration had blocked any action implying criticism of Israel for defending itself. Nonetheless, intervention by the United States prevented passage of a Security Council resolution condemning Israel.
The administration continues to express its confidence in Israel’s ability to conduct its own investigation of the incident despite calls for an international inquiry.
During the Security Council deliberations, Alejandro Wolff, deputy U.S. representative to the U.N., said the “direct delivery by sea [of humanitarian supplies] is neither appropriate nor responsible” and criticized Hamas’ “continued arms smuggling and commitment to terrorism.”
The United States must now maintain its longstanding position not to allow the Security Council and other U.N. organs such as the U.N. Human Rights Council to exploit unfortunate incidents by passing biased, anti-Israel resolutions that obscure the truth and accomplish nothing.
Dear KJ Family:
Just a few hours ago at Mincha services in the Upper School, I spoke to the entire student body about the crisis in Israel and its implications for all of us in America. The below memorandum from AIPAC appropriately frames this crisis and reminds us of the need at times like these to stay in touch with our elected officials.
If you listen to the recording of my remarks at the Upper School (please click here for the recording), you will note that I essentially read to them an article written on the spur of the moment by Dr. Daniel Gordis. I believe it made a very big impact on the students. I hope it will have a similar impact on you.
I also spoke with Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice President of the Presidents Conference, to ask him what we can do to help. He suggested that we all watch and listen to as much media as possible and alert the Presidents Conference if we hear or see Israel maligned or described unfairly. Examples of such treatment should be sent to info@conferenceofpresidents.org and they will immediately contact the media source to correct the information and the perspective.
Finally, watching the terrifying video clips of Israeli soldiers being beaten makes me all the more grateful to be participating in a very special dessert program taking place on Saturday afternoon, June 12th, at our sister synagogue, Congregation Orach Chaim, 1459 Lexington Avenue (between 94th & 95th Streets). Please join me there from 5:00 – 6:45 p.m. in meeting and thanking 10 Israeli Soldiers who were severely injured in Israel's Operation “Cast Lead.” I will be among the speakers at the program, which will feature ample time to meet with the soldiers and personally express gratitude for their valiant efforts on behalf of our people and our homeland. The event is part of a Chabad Israel Center and Chabad Terror Victims Project effort to bring these heroes to the United States to receive our heartfelt love and admiration. I hope to personally greet you at what will certainly be a most memorable afternoon. Please invite your friends and family so that we as a community can stand and proudly say Todah and Kol Hakavod.
Very cordially yours,
Haskel Lookstein
Please contact your Member of Congress and ask them: (1) To speak out on Israel's right to self-defense ; and (2) to oppose one sided condemnations of Israel
June 1, 2010
Flotilla Sought Provocation, Not to Provide Assistance
The primary aim of the Gaza flotilla was not to provide humanitarian relief; it was to cause a provocation with Israel. Its top organizers and some of its participants are radicals with ties to terrorist groups that sought a violent confrontation. In contrast, the Israeli navy had worked hard to plan a peaceful interception of the six ships and its personnel only used force when their lives were at risk. Israel has legitimate self-defense reasons to inspect the cargo going into the Hamas-controlled area, where the U.S.-designated terrorist group has smuggled in thousands of munitions and rockets for use in attacks against Israeli civilians.
The flotilla’s primary aim was not to provide humanitarian relief; it was to cause a provocation. Its top organizers and some of its participants are radicals with ties to terrorist groups.
The flotilla's organizers willfully ignored repeated warnings that they would be denied entry—including messages from the European Union—and rejected offers by Israel to transfer humanitarian goods through the Israeli port of Ashdod.
One of the flotilla’s leaders, Greta Berlin, stated that “this mission is not about delivering humanitarian supplies, it’s about breaking Israel's siege on 1.5 million Palestinians,” the AFP reported on May 27.
The head of the group that organized the flotilla, Bulent Yildirim (left), is closely linked with Ismail Haniyeh’s U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas.
The main organizer of the flotilla—whose members led the assault on the IDF—was the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), which has publicly affirmed its links to Hamas, maintains an office in Gaza and has ties to other terrorist organizations.
IHH has also been linked to al-Qaeda and played a role in al-Qaeda’s failed Millennium bombing of Los Angeles International Airport, according to French counter-terrorism magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguière, who testified during the trial of failed bomber Ahmed Ressam.
The Israeli navy had worked hard to plan a peaceful interception of the six ships and the soldiers only used force when their lives were at risk.
Individuals aboard the vessels had clearly prepared for violence, chanting an Islamic battle cry recalling the killing of Jews and calling for martyrdom, according to an Al-Jazeera report.
While intercepting six ships attempting to break the naval blockade of Gaza after frequent warnings not to proceed, Israeli soldiers were attacked immediately upon boarding one of them.
The outnumbered soldiers were immediately and brutally attacked with crowbars, clubs and knives and shot at with guns stolen from soldiers, seven of whom were injured. One soldier was thrown to a lower deck 30 feet below and sustained a severe head injury.
Israeli soldiers reacted with the utmost restraint. Only when their lives were in danger did they seek and receive permission to open fire. Regrettably, nine flotilla participants were killed and others injured. Seven Israeli soldiers were injured.
Israel has a legitimate right to self-defense and reason to be concerned about cargo going unchecked into Hamas-controlled Gaza.
The charter of Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist group that seized Gaza in an armed coup from the Palestinian Authority in 2007, calls for the destruction of Israel.
Israel’s actions are aimed at blocking arms and explosives shipments to Hamas, which is at war with the Jewish state. Hamas has fired more than 7,000 rockets and mortar shells into Israel since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
Hamas continues to operate a vast network of tunnels under Gaza, which it uses to smuggle in weapons from Iran and Syria for attacks against Israeli civilians. It also has repeatedly sought to smuggle weapons through the sea.
According to international legal experts, it is legitimate for a state to impose an embargo on international waters during wartime. Israel’s detention of the flotilla ships—and its use of force to defend its soldiers when attacked by some of the radicals—is acceptable under international law.
Egypt also has imposed a blockade on Gaza to protect its own internal security by constructing an underground steel wall along the Sinai-Gaza border to help stymie the flow of illicit goods.
Israel continues to facilitate a vast operation to provide humanitarian goods and medical services to the people of Gaza.
Since the end of the Gaza war in 2009, Israel has facilitated the transfer of more than a million tons of humanitarian supplies to Gaza and 133 million liters of fuel. Israel is now in the process of unloading the items from the flotilla and is transferring legitimate humanitarian items into Gaza via established mechanisms.
To handle the delivery of humanitarian aid and other civilian issues related to Palestinian life in Gaza and the West Bank, Israel has a special unit in the Ministry of Defense—the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).
The U.N. issued a presidential statement condemning the events leading up to the incident, which some have interpreted as a criticism of Israel.
It would have been preferable if the U.N. and Obama administration had blocked any action implying criticism of Israel for defending itself. Nonetheless, intervention by the United States prevented passage of a Security Council resolution condemning Israel.
The administration continues to express its confidence in Israel’s ability to conduct its own investigation of the incident despite calls for an international inquiry.
During the Security Council deliberations, Alejandro Wolff, deputy U.S. representative to the U.N., said the “direct delivery by sea [of humanitarian supplies] is neither appropriate nor responsible” and criticized Hamas’ “continued arms smuggling and commitment to terrorism.”
The United States must now maintain its longstanding position not to allow the Security Council and other U.N. organs such as the U.N. Human Rights Council to exploit unfortunate incidents by passing biased, anti-Israel resolutions that obscure the truth and accomplish nothing.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Protest against Turkey
Pls note the NYPD requested we move locations as the Muslim Arabs have a permit for Israeli Consulate, and a sound device (We don’t).
AMERICAN JEWISH COMMUNITY TO RALLY IN SUPPORT OF ISRAEL ’S FLOTILLA SELF-DEFENSE
- RALLY MOVED TO TURKISH MISSION TO UN -
June 1, 2010 - NEW YORK, NY – RAJE, together with other American Jewish organizations will gather outside of the Turkish Mission to the UN, located at 821 First Avenue (46th & 1st) at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, June 1 to stand in support of Israel ’s self-defense.
Hundreds will gather waving American & Israeli flags, and bearing signs which read: “Peace Activists Don’t Attack Soldiers,” “Hamas & Al Qaeda Support the Flotilla”, and “We Stand with Israel .”
“We will gather to stand united with the State Of Israel , and to let President Obama, and the world know that we will not sit silently as Israel is attacked by her enemies. We stand with Israel in their battle against terrorism. Israel has the right to stop terror at its door, and we condemn the United Nations for standing with terrorists. These so-called peace activists used knives, clubs and fire from weapons stolen from soldiers, and attacked soldiers who were seeking to enforce international law. The boats were warned to change course multiple times, and we as the American Jewish community will not stand silently as Israel is attacked,” said Rabbi Mordechai Tokarsky, Chairman of RAJE (Russian American Jewish Experience).
Further information on the event is available by calling Ronn Torossian at 212-999-5585, or by visiting:
AMERICAN JEWISH COMMUNITY TO RALLY IN SUPPORT OF ISRAEL ’S FLOTILLA SELF-DEFENSE
- RALLY MOVED TO TURKISH MISSION TO UN -
June 1, 2010 - NEW YORK, NY – RAJE, together with other American Jewish organizations will gather outside of the Turkish Mission to the UN, located at 821 First Avenue (46th & 1st) at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, June 1 to stand in support of Israel ’s self-defense.
Hundreds will gather waving American & Israeli flags, and bearing signs which read: “Peace Activists Don’t Attack Soldiers,” “Hamas & Al Qaeda Support the Flotilla”, and “We Stand with Israel .”
“We will gather to stand united with the State Of Israel , and to let President Obama, and the world know that we will not sit silently as Israel is attacked by her enemies. We stand with Israel in their battle against terrorism. Israel has the right to stop terror at its door, and we condemn the United Nations for standing with terrorists. These so-called peace activists used knives, clubs and fire from weapons stolen from soldiers, and attacked soldiers who were seeking to enforce international law. The boats were warned to change course multiple times, and we as the American Jewish community will not stand silently as Israel is attacked,” said Rabbi Mordechai Tokarsky, Chairman of RAJE (Russian American Jewish Experience).
Further information on the event is available by calling Ronn Torossian at 212-999-5585, or by visiting:
Monday, May 31, 2010
Moshe Feiglin column
The Gaza Flotilla and the Gallant Rapist: By Moshe Feiglin
Do you remember the gallant rapist? The criminal who would offer his victims a ride home after the rape? He apparently thought that his "good manners" would make his crime seem less reprehensible. In the end he was apprehended and sentenced like all the other rapists.
Today, Israel is the gallant rapist. We declared to the entire world that Gaza is not ours, but theirs. The world was not particularly convinced, so we expelled all the Jews from Gush Katif in Gaza and destroyed their homes. We even dug up their dead for reburial "inside Israel." Let there be no mistake, dear world, Gaza is not ours. Look, we have even retreated from there - with sensitivity and determination, of course.
Now, the world is convinced. Gaza is really not ours. But just a minute: If Gaza is not really yours, why are you blockading it from the sea and the air, allowing entry only from your territory following your security checks? What are you trying to do? To gallantly rape the "Palestinians" and convince us that they consent?
If Gaza is yours - stay there and fight! If it is not yours, get out of there and do not interfere in their lives! You can't do both. You can't simultaneously rape and be well-mannered. Oh, you say that they are trying to smuggle weapons into Gaza? Well, what's the problem with that? Who are you to tell them what to bring into their territory? Aren't you constantly arming yourselves as you please? If the state of Gaza will declare war on you, then defend yourselves. But don't tell us that you left while you are still ruling there by remote control. What right do you have to prevent them from building their own army?
What? They actually did start a war and they are constantly shooting at you? OK, then re-conquer Gaza and administer a military government, like the Allies did in Germany. What? That's impossible because you convinced your citizens that it is good to disengage from Gaza? Hmmm.
We tried to fool the world, and first and foremost- ourselves. Now the entire house of cards is collapsing on our heads. The question is not who is more well mannered, us or them. The question is not how much violence was used to stop the flotilla. The question is who is the rapist. The question is who is just, who is the good-guy and who is the bad-guy in this story. Israel in flight from its identity lost justification for its existence - not just in the Land of Israel but on the face of the entire globe. It maneuvered itself into the position of the most despised nation on earth. Achmadinijad can travel Europe freely. Tzippy Livni and Bogi Ya'alon dare not land there.
If we would have adopted the stance of the just, we could have acted according to the maritime international laws that were determined by Great Britain when it ruled the seas. Call to stop. First shell in front of the ship's nose. Second shell into the ship, and the story is over. But this law is for legitimate ships, not pirate ships, like us. It will not help us to base our justness on good manners. We will always turn out to be rapists in the end. It won't work even if we enlist the most professional soldiers in the world for the mission.
"I don't see Israel as a Jewish state, but rather as a state of all its citizens," said former Chief Justice Aharon Barak, and we lost the most important weapon of all - our sense of justice. The problem is that the other side did not lose its sense of justice. For the Arabs, the Land of Israel is not merely real estate or some sort of security shelter. For them, this Land is holy and they are fighting for it (and rightly so!). But you cannot fight for a land that by your own admission is not yours.
The only option open, then, is self-defense. Even rapists are allowed to defend themselves. And that is how Israel has become the state of roadblocks, barbed wire, security guards at the entrance of every café, iron domes, cement blocks, concertina, atomic detectors and mobile bomb shelters. We outfitted our elite units with tear gas and other ridiculous toys. Now we can explain to the parents of the naval commando how the best fighter in the world was injured by a club to his head.
We have cloaked ourselves in a gown of cement and barbed wire to preserve the lie that Jews can return to their ancient homeland after 2000 years with a false identity: Israeli instead of Jewish. They can forget who they are and the dreams of their ancestors and be just a normal nation - a nation like all the nations. Just like in the Gulf of Mexico, we are trying to bottle up the murky reality that is gushing to our surface with an iron dome. But we cannot cover up for the sense of justice that we have lost.
If we had retained our sense of justice, we would not be waiting for Turkey to expel our ambassador, being portrayed as the guilty rapist along the way. On the contrary, we would have recalled our ambassador from Turkey and expelled its ambassador for its declaration of war on our sovereignty. But we cannot do that, because the Turks are right. After all, we declared that Gaza belongs to the Arabs, didn't we? So what right do we have to blockade a Turkish ship outside our territorial waters?
When, in the last 20 years, have you heard an official Israeli representative - the prime minister, our ambassador to the UN or our Foreign Minister utter the simple words, "This is our land?" You can't remember? That is because it simply didn't happen. Israel is fleeing its Jewish identity and cannot even say this simple sentence.
We must return to our basic sense of justice - the justice that sustained us during our long exile and the only factor that explains why we are not rapists and why this entire Land - including Gaza, is ours and only ours. When we return to that point, we will be able to truly establish our sovereignty in this Land. As long as we continue to attempt to escape our identity, Israel will continue to slowly crumble as it hides behind its barbed wire, road blocks and most advanced defense technology in the world.
Do you remember the gallant rapist? The criminal who would offer his victims a ride home after the rape? He apparently thought that his "good manners" would make his crime seem less reprehensible. In the end he was apprehended and sentenced like all the other rapists.
Today, Israel is the gallant rapist. We declared to the entire world that Gaza is not ours, but theirs. The world was not particularly convinced, so we expelled all the Jews from Gush Katif in Gaza and destroyed their homes. We even dug up their dead for reburial "inside Israel." Let there be no mistake, dear world, Gaza is not ours. Look, we have even retreated from there - with sensitivity and determination, of course.
Now, the world is convinced. Gaza is really not ours. But just a minute: If Gaza is not really yours, why are you blockading it from the sea and the air, allowing entry only from your territory following your security checks? What are you trying to do? To gallantly rape the "Palestinians" and convince us that they consent?
If Gaza is yours - stay there and fight! If it is not yours, get out of there and do not interfere in their lives! You can't do both. You can't simultaneously rape and be well-mannered. Oh, you say that they are trying to smuggle weapons into Gaza? Well, what's the problem with that? Who are you to tell them what to bring into their territory? Aren't you constantly arming yourselves as you please? If the state of Gaza will declare war on you, then defend yourselves. But don't tell us that you left while you are still ruling there by remote control. What right do you have to prevent them from building their own army?
What? They actually did start a war and they are constantly shooting at you? OK, then re-conquer Gaza and administer a military government, like the Allies did in Germany. What? That's impossible because you convinced your citizens that it is good to disengage from Gaza? Hmmm.
We tried to fool the world, and first and foremost- ourselves. Now the entire house of cards is collapsing on our heads. The question is not who is more well mannered, us or them. The question is not how much violence was used to stop the flotilla. The question is who is the rapist. The question is who is just, who is the good-guy and who is the bad-guy in this story. Israel in flight from its identity lost justification for its existence - not just in the Land of Israel but on the face of the entire globe. It maneuvered itself into the position of the most despised nation on earth. Achmadinijad can travel Europe freely. Tzippy Livni and Bogi Ya'alon dare not land there.
If we would have adopted the stance of the just, we could have acted according to the maritime international laws that were determined by Great Britain when it ruled the seas. Call to stop. First shell in front of the ship's nose. Second shell into the ship, and the story is over. But this law is for legitimate ships, not pirate ships, like us. It will not help us to base our justness on good manners. We will always turn out to be rapists in the end. It won't work even if we enlist the most professional soldiers in the world for the mission.
"I don't see Israel as a Jewish state, but rather as a state of all its citizens," said former Chief Justice Aharon Barak, and we lost the most important weapon of all - our sense of justice. The problem is that the other side did not lose its sense of justice. For the Arabs, the Land of Israel is not merely real estate or some sort of security shelter. For them, this Land is holy and they are fighting for it (and rightly so!). But you cannot fight for a land that by your own admission is not yours.
The only option open, then, is self-defense. Even rapists are allowed to defend themselves. And that is how Israel has become the state of roadblocks, barbed wire, security guards at the entrance of every café, iron domes, cement blocks, concertina, atomic detectors and mobile bomb shelters. We outfitted our elite units with tear gas and other ridiculous toys. Now we can explain to the parents of the naval commando how the best fighter in the world was injured by a club to his head.
We have cloaked ourselves in a gown of cement and barbed wire to preserve the lie that Jews can return to their ancient homeland after 2000 years with a false identity: Israeli instead of Jewish. They can forget who they are and the dreams of their ancestors and be just a normal nation - a nation like all the nations. Just like in the Gulf of Mexico, we are trying to bottle up the murky reality that is gushing to our surface with an iron dome. But we cannot cover up for the sense of justice that we have lost.
If we had retained our sense of justice, we would not be waiting for Turkey to expel our ambassador, being portrayed as the guilty rapist along the way. On the contrary, we would have recalled our ambassador from Turkey and expelled its ambassador for its declaration of war on our sovereignty. But we cannot do that, because the Turks are right. After all, we declared that Gaza belongs to the Arabs, didn't we? So what right do we have to blockade a Turkish ship outside our territorial waters?
When, in the last 20 years, have you heard an official Israeli representative - the prime minister, our ambassador to the UN or our Foreign Minister utter the simple words, "This is our land?" You can't remember? That is because it simply didn't happen. Israel is fleeing its Jewish identity and cannot even say this simple sentence.
We must return to our basic sense of justice - the justice that sustained us during our long exile and the only factor that explains why we are not rapists and why this entire Land - including Gaza, is ours and only ours. When we return to that point, we will be able to truly establish our sovereignty in this Land. As long as we continue to attempt to escape our identity, Israel will continue to slowly crumble as it hides behind its barbed wire, road blocks and most advanced defense technology in the world.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Moses Montefiore
Fortune's Ambassador
A folk hero to the persecuted, a man of fortune who helped the less fortunate.
By WALTER LAQUEUR
Moses Montefiore, a world-renowned figure in the 19th century, was virtually forgotten by the 20th and is remembered today, at times, simply by the resonance of his name. A hospital in the Bronx is named for him, another in Pittsburgh, and a Jewish quarter in Jerusalem just outside the Old City. The accomplishments of some of Montefiore's descendants—including a pugnacious Anglican bishop—may remind us the progenitor's renown, but his story certainly needs to be retold. It is a remarkable one.
Born in Livorno in 1784 to an Italian-Jewish family with British connections, Montefiore moved to London with his family when he was a small child. He began his working life in London's merchant world and then becoming a broker at the stock exchange. He had a most spectacular career, marrying into the Rothschild family and eventually joining its banking enterprise. By an early age he had acquired a great fortune. He was accepted by the best social clubs and even became a member of the Royal Society. He was knighted at the age of 51 and made sheriff of the city of London, a largely ceremonial position but a highly prestigious one.
As Abigail Green (herself a descendant of the family) tells us in her thoughtful biography, Montefiore had a reputation for the utmost probity. There may have been, it is true, a darker side to his character—he seems to have been guilty of occasional philandering—but we know virtually nothing about it, in part because his private correspondence was burned after his death.
Montefiore was a man of probity in a larger, public sense. As much as he liked making money, he liked even more giving it away to those who needed it more than he did. And so, at what will now be considered early middle age, he retired from business and devoted the rest of his life (he died in 1885, at the age of 101) to acting as a one-person first-aid flying brigade, donating his money to worthy causes and traveling to places where his brethren in faith were persecuted—from Morocco to Palestine, from Russia and Rumania. He became a folk hero of the persecuted, who attributed to him extraordinary powers. He traveled everywhere at a time when travel was often difficult. He went Jerusalem for the last time at age 91, braving cholera and pirates.
It is a little hard for us to imagine Montefiore's public role, since there is no equivalent today. He was roving foreign minister and emissary of a people without a state. In many places they called him "sar"—a Hebrew word for minister, a person of great influence. People attributed to him almost magical powers.
Moses Montefiore
By Abigail Green
Belknap/Harvard, 540 pages, $35
The belief in Montefiore's omnipotence was of course exaggerated. Not all his missions were successful. He could hardly influence harsh czarist policy toward Russia's Jewish subjects, and there were narrow limits to what he could achieve in the Ottoman Empire even in its weakened state in the 19th century. But even symbolism was important. That Montefiore had been received for an audience by Czar Nicholas I, not known as a philo-Semite, did matter. The czar had given orders, on the occasion of Montefiore's visit to the Russian capital, that the guard in front of his palace be constituted of Jewish soldiers, whom he praised as being as brave as the ancient Maccabeans.
Montefiore's intervention did help at the time of the Damascus scandal (1840), when local Jews were accused of blood libel (slaughtering Christian clergymen to use their blood for Passover) and some of them were tortured and killed. Montefiore alleviated the misery in Palestine, Morocco and other places by generously financing new initiatives aimed at providing better health services and better education and curtailing the abuses of a hostile bureaucracy in Eastern Europe and parts of the Ottoman Empire.
To what did he owe his success? He was a man of imposing stature and great dignity. Britain at the time was a great power, and he was known to have influential friends in the highest circles. But there must have been in addition some personal qualities that made him likable and persuasive—a person not to be ignored or trifled with.
Montefiore had not been particularly religious in his younger years but became more observant later on, and Jerusalem was closest to his heart. On his four-poster bed in Ramsgate, the English town where he lived for part of his life, there was the inscription: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem" (Psalms 137). Jerusalem was a miserable place at the time—and remained so for years after. The situation of the Jews there, existing in abject poverty, was certainly miserable—the great majority lived from handouts from their more fortunate and pious co-religionists in Europe. Montefiore tried to help in many ways. He built alms houses and, perhaps most important, bought farm land to encourage young Jews to engage in productive labor. At one stage there seems to have been a chance for obtaining from the Ottomans something approaching political autonomy for the Jews, provided that European Jews would come with their money and help in the development of the country. But Montefiore ruefully admitted that he did not know a single Jew in Britain who would settle there.
Ms. Green writes deftly and tells Montefiore's story with a admirable thoroughness. (She is herself a professional historian.) "Moses Montefiore" is mercifully free of academic theory. It is exactly what a good biography should be—fair and illuminating without ever descending to hagiography. Still, it is clear that Montefiore was a genuinely good man. Their number in history is not substantial, and praise should be given where it is due.
Mr. Laqueur is the author, most recently of "Best of Times, Worst of Times: Memoirs of a Political Education" (University of New England Press, 2010).
A folk hero to the persecuted, a man of fortune who helped the less fortunate.
By WALTER LAQUEUR
Moses Montefiore, a world-renowned figure in the 19th century, was virtually forgotten by the 20th and is remembered today, at times, simply by the resonance of his name. A hospital in the Bronx is named for him, another in Pittsburgh, and a Jewish quarter in Jerusalem just outside the Old City. The accomplishments of some of Montefiore's descendants—including a pugnacious Anglican bishop—may remind us the progenitor's renown, but his story certainly needs to be retold. It is a remarkable one.
Born in Livorno in 1784 to an Italian-Jewish family with British connections, Montefiore moved to London with his family when he was a small child. He began his working life in London's merchant world and then becoming a broker at the stock exchange. He had a most spectacular career, marrying into the Rothschild family and eventually joining its banking enterprise. By an early age he had acquired a great fortune. He was accepted by the best social clubs and even became a member of the Royal Society. He was knighted at the age of 51 and made sheriff of the city of London, a largely ceremonial position but a highly prestigious one.
As Abigail Green (herself a descendant of the family) tells us in her thoughtful biography, Montefiore had a reputation for the utmost probity. There may have been, it is true, a darker side to his character—he seems to have been guilty of occasional philandering—but we know virtually nothing about it, in part because his private correspondence was burned after his death.
Montefiore was a man of probity in a larger, public sense. As much as he liked making money, he liked even more giving it away to those who needed it more than he did. And so, at what will now be considered early middle age, he retired from business and devoted the rest of his life (he died in 1885, at the age of 101) to acting as a one-person first-aid flying brigade, donating his money to worthy causes and traveling to places where his brethren in faith were persecuted—from Morocco to Palestine, from Russia and Rumania. He became a folk hero of the persecuted, who attributed to him extraordinary powers. He traveled everywhere at a time when travel was often difficult. He went Jerusalem for the last time at age 91, braving cholera and pirates.
It is a little hard for us to imagine Montefiore's public role, since there is no equivalent today. He was roving foreign minister and emissary of a people without a state. In many places they called him "sar"—a Hebrew word for minister, a person of great influence. People attributed to him almost magical powers.
Moses Montefiore
By Abigail Green
Belknap/Harvard, 540 pages, $35
The belief in Montefiore's omnipotence was of course exaggerated. Not all his missions were successful. He could hardly influence harsh czarist policy toward Russia's Jewish subjects, and there were narrow limits to what he could achieve in the Ottoman Empire even in its weakened state in the 19th century. But even symbolism was important. That Montefiore had been received for an audience by Czar Nicholas I, not known as a philo-Semite, did matter. The czar had given orders, on the occasion of Montefiore's visit to the Russian capital, that the guard in front of his palace be constituted of Jewish soldiers, whom he praised as being as brave as the ancient Maccabeans.
Montefiore's intervention did help at the time of the Damascus scandal (1840), when local Jews were accused of blood libel (slaughtering Christian clergymen to use their blood for Passover) and some of them were tortured and killed. Montefiore alleviated the misery in Palestine, Morocco and other places by generously financing new initiatives aimed at providing better health services and better education and curtailing the abuses of a hostile bureaucracy in Eastern Europe and parts of the Ottoman Empire.
To what did he owe his success? He was a man of imposing stature and great dignity. Britain at the time was a great power, and he was known to have influential friends in the highest circles. But there must have been in addition some personal qualities that made him likable and persuasive—a person not to be ignored or trifled with.
Montefiore had not been particularly religious in his younger years but became more observant later on, and Jerusalem was closest to his heart. On his four-poster bed in Ramsgate, the English town where he lived for part of his life, there was the inscription: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem" (Psalms 137). Jerusalem was a miserable place at the time—and remained so for years after. The situation of the Jews there, existing in abject poverty, was certainly miserable—the great majority lived from handouts from their more fortunate and pious co-religionists in Europe. Montefiore tried to help in many ways. He built alms houses and, perhaps most important, bought farm land to encourage young Jews to engage in productive labor. At one stage there seems to have been a chance for obtaining from the Ottomans something approaching political autonomy for the Jews, provided that European Jews would come with their money and help in the development of the country. But Montefiore ruefully admitted that he did not know a single Jew in Britain who would settle there.
Ms. Green writes deftly and tells Montefiore's story with a admirable thoroughness. (She is herself a professional historian.) "Moses Montefiore" is mercifully free of academic theory. It is exactly what a good biography should be—fair and illuminating without ever descending to hagiography. Still, it is clear that Montefiore was a genuinely good man. Their number in history is not substantial, and praise should be given where it is due.
Mr. Laqueur is the author, most recently of "Best of Times, Worst of Times: Memoirs of a Political Education" (University of New England Press, 2010).
Monday, April 26, 2010
Great lecture at Columbia University
DATE: May 3, 2010 TIME 6:30-9pm PLACE: Earl Hall Auditorium, Columbia University FREE Dinner SPONSOR: Campus Media Watch TOPIC Relativism and Reporting On The Arab-Israeli Conflict RSVP contact@campusmediawatch.org CO-SPONSORS: SPME, Lionpac, Koleinu, Campus Watch, CPU
DATE: April 27, 2010 TIME 9am-5pm PLACE: Fordham University School of Law, 140 W 62d St, NYC LAWFARE : THE UN'S GOLDSTONE REPORT: THE DEFAMATION OF ISRAEL AND THE THREAT TO AMERICAN NATIONAL SECURITY IN THE AGE OF TERRORISM; THE DEMONIZATION OF ISRAEL AND HUMAN RIGHTS DISTORTIONS; THE GOLDSTONE REPORT: UNDERMINING SELF-DEFENSE IN THE AGE OF TERRORISM; LEGAL WEAPONRY: THE PERVERSION OF INTERNATIONAL JURISPRUDENCE AND INSTITUTIONS; INTERNATIONAL AND DOMESTIC LEGAL RECOURSES: RESPONDING TO 'LAWFARE.'
SPONSORS: American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, and Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, along with The New York Legal Assistance Group, B'nai Brith, The Lawfare Project, The American Jewish International Relations Institute, The International Council of Jewish Women, World Council of Conservative/Masorti Synagogues, Women's League for Conservative Judaism, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, The Endowment for Middle East Truth, Jewish Law Students Association of Fordham Law School
LUNCH PROVIDED : SEATING IS LIMITED AND PARTICIPANTS MUST PRE-REGISTER PLEASE RSVP TO kvboyko@gmail.com
CLE Credit: 1.5 credits for each of the 4 panel sessions or a total of 6 credits for the full program.
PREMISE: International law and legal institutions are being used to pursue strategic and political goals as a corollary to modern warfare. In the case of Israel and the threat posed by terrorism in the 21st century, "lawfare" can be as biased and lethal as any other form of weaponry. Attacks on the legitimacy of actions taken in self-defense by democratic states, in the halls of the UN and international and domestic courts, radically undermine the ability to protect the welfare of Israel, the United States and all democracies from the scourge of terrorism. This assault empowers and emboldens the enemies of democracy and encourages the intolerance and antisemitism at the root of the terrorist agenda. The Goldstone Report and the lawfare strategy it embodies, erode the legitimacy of international law and pose a clear and present danger to the right of all democratic states, including the United States, to defend themselves. This program will explore, examine and expose the fallacies of the Goldstone Report, and other manifestations of lawfare, as well as suggest strategies for fighting back.
SPEAKERS INCLUDE: William C. Banks, Director, Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism, Syracuse University, College of Law; Anne Bayefsky, Director, Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute; Abraham Bell, Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law and Bar Ilan University Faculty of Law; Lt. Col David Benjamin, former Director of the Strategic and International Branch, International Law Department, Israel Defense Forces; Laurie Blank, Director, International Humanitarian Law Clinic, Emory Law School; Elizabeth Defeis, Professor of Law, Seton Hall; Samuel Edelman, Executive Director, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East; Allan Gerson, Chairman, AG International Law, PLLC; Brooke Goldstein, Director, The Lawfare Project; Stephen Greenwald, President, American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists; Peter J. Haas, President, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East; Malvina Halberstam, Professor of Law, Cardozo School of Law; Martin Kramer, Senior Fellow, Shalem Center; Wexler-Fromer Fellow, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy; Richard Landes, Professor of History, Boston University; Nathan Lewin, Partner, Lewin and Lewin, Washington DC; Herb London, President, Hudson Institute; Kenneth Marcus, Ackerman Visiting Professor of Equality and Justice in America, Baruch College; David Matas, Senior Honorary Counsel, B?nai Brith, Canada; Ed Morgan, Professor of Law, University of Toronto; Trevor Norwitz, partner, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; Adjunct professor, Columbia Law School; Nicholas Rostow, University Counsel and Vice Chancellor of the State University of New York; Gabriella Shalev, Ambassador of Israel to the United Nations; Shmuel Trigano, Professor, Paris X University Nanterre.
DATE: May 3 PLACE: Columbia University TIME: 6:30-9:00 pm TITLE: Relativism and Reporting on The Arab-Israeli Conflict
DATE: April 27, 2010 TIME 9am-5pm PLACE: Fordham University School of Law, 140 W 62d St, NYC LAWFARE : THE UN'S GOLDSTONE REPORT: THE DEFAMATION OF ISRAEL AND THE THREAT TO AMERICAN NATIONAL SECURITY IN THE AGE OF TERRORISM; THE DEMONIZATION OF ISRAEL AND HUMAN RIGHTS DISTORTIONS; THE GOLDSTONE REPORT: UNDERMINING SELF-DEFENSE IN THE AGE OF TERRORISM; LEGAL WEAPONRY: THE PERVERSION OF INTERNATIONAL JURISPRUDENCE AND INSTITUTIONS; INTERNATIONAL AND DOMESTIC LEGAL RECOURSES: RESPONDING TO 'LAWFARE.'
SPONSORS: American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, and Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, along with The New York Legal Assistance Group, B'nai Brith, The Lawfare Project, The American Jewish International Relations Institute, The International Council of Jewish Women, World Council of Conservative/Masorti Synagogues, Women's League for Conservative Judaism, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, The Endowment for Middle East Truth, Jewish Law Students Association of Fordham Law School
LUNCH PROVIDED : SEATING IS LIMITED AND PARTICIPANTS MUST PRE-REGISTER PLEASE RSVP TO kvboyko@gmail.com
CLE Credit: 1.5 credits for each of the 4 panel sessions or a total of 6 credits for the full program.
PREMISE: International law and legal institutions are being used to pursue strategic and political goals as a corollary to modern warfare. In the case of Israel and the threat posed by terrorism in the 21st century, "lawfare" can be as biased and lethal as any other form of weaponry. Attacks on the legitimacy of actions taken in self-defense by democratic states, in the halls of the UN and international and domestic courts, radically undermine the ability to protect the welfare of Israel, the United States and all democracies from the scourge of terrorism. This assault empowers and emboldens the enemies of democracy and encourages the intolerance and antisemitism at the root of the terrorist agenda. The Goldstone Report and the lawfare strategy it embodies, erode the legitimacy of international law and pose a clear and present danger to the right of all democratic states, including the United States, to defend themselves. This program will explore, examine and expose the fallacies of the Goldstone Report, and other manifestations of lawfare, as well as suggest strategies for fighting back.
SPEAKERS INCLUDE: William C. Banks, Director, Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism, Syracuse University, College of Law; Anne Bayefsky, Director, Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute; Abraham Bell, Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law and Bar Ilan University Faculty of Law; Lt. Col David Benjamin, former Director of the Strategic and International Branch, International Law Department, Israel Defense Forces; Laurie Blank, Director, International Humanitarian Law Clinic, Emory Law School; Elizabeth Defeis, Professor of Law, Seton Hall; Samuel Edelman, Executive Director, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East; Allan Gerson, Chairman, AG International Law, PLLC; Brooke Goldstein, Director, The Lawfare Project; Stephen Greenwald, President, American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists; Peter J. Haas, President, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East; Malvina Halberstam, Professor of Law, Cardozo School of Law; Martin Kramer, Senior Fellow, Shalem Center; Wexler-Fromer Fellow, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy; Richard Landes, Professor of History, Boston University; Nathan Lewin, Partner, Lewin and Lewin, Washington DC; Herb London, President, Hudson Institute; Kenneth Marcus, Ackerman Visiting Professor of Equality and Justice in America, Baruch College; David Matas, Senior Honorary Counsel, B?nai Brith, Canada; Ed Morgan, Professor of Law, University of Toronto; Trevor Norwitz, partner, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; Adjunct professor, Columbia Law School; Nicholas Rostow, University Counsel and Vice Chancellor of the State University of New York; Gabriella Shalev, Ambassador of Israel to the United Nations; Shmuel Trigano, Professor, Paris X University Nanterre.
DATE: May 3 PLACE: Columbia University TIME: 6:30-9:00 pm TITLE: Relativism and Reporting on The Arab-Israeli Conflict
Emanuel told Jewish organizations to stay away from rally for Israel
'Break the Silence' Speaker: Obama's 'Alice-in-Wonderland' Gov't
by Hana Levi Julian
A former aide to New York State Governor George Pataki slammed the Obama administration's treatment of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the State of Israel in a prelude to Sunday's “Break the Silence' rally, set to begin at 1:00 p.m. (EDT) outside the Israeli Consulate in Manhattan.
The event will take place rain or shine, according to organizer Beth Gilinsky, head of the Jewish Action Alliance.
Among those on the podium will be Jeff Weisenfeld of Bernstein Global Wealth Management, a long-time leader in New York's “mainstream” Jewish community who for years was also active in the National Committee for Jewish Education. Weisenfeld spent four years as chief of staff in the city administration of former Mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat before becoming an aide to Governor George Pataki, another Republican.
Speaking late Friday afternoon in an interview with Israel National News, Weisenfeld called the current diplomatic crisis “the biggest accidental or deliberate miscalculation in American-Israeli relations made by any American president.” He added that the Obama administration's overtures to the Muslim world, and the contrast with its hostility to the State of Israel, had transformed the U.S. executive branch into a “complete Alice-in-Wonderland government. I don't want to make light of it here,” Weisenfeld said with some sarcasm, “but it's like Purim, when Mordechai becomes Haman, and Haman becomes Mordechai.”
He reserved special criticism for White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Special Presidential Adviser David Axelrod, both traditonal Jews in the Obama administration who are among the president's closest aides. “I had positions like theirs, I worked for a governor, a senator... I always made sure that I was representing the Jewish community to the governor, and the governor to them. But there are some who see their power as an end in itself. They don't want to tell the boss when he's wrong. And they are the worst kind of people to have in government,” Weisenfeld said.
“Islam has evolved backwards, has become more violent than perhaps it was even in its inception, since they did not have the weapons then, that they have today. And you have Emanuel and Axelrod, who have bad judgment, and who do not see the need to fight this moral equivalency.”
Weisenfeld also noted that most “mainstream” Jewish community organizations did not – and could not – officially sign on to sponsor Sunday's rally for fear of retribution from the Obama administration. “The mainstream groups are about access and response to a direct threat from the White House.
“The [Jewish] Federations and their beneficiaries and subsidiaries have been warned by Rahm Emanuel to stay away from public criticism of the president on Israel. But unless the weather is horrendous,” he added, “there will be an abundance of “establishment-affiliated” people. Maybe we can wake up this president and pull him back from the abyss.”
by Hana Levi Julian
A former aide to New York State Governor George Pataki slammed the Obama administration's treatment of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the State of Israel in a prelude to Sunday's “Break the Silence' rally, set to begin at 1:00 p.m. (EDT) outside the Israeli Consulate in Manhattan.
The event will take place rain or shine, according to organizer Beth Gilinsky, head of the Jewish Action Alliance.
Among those on the podium will be Jeff Weisenfeld of Bernstein Global Wealth Management, a long-time leader in New York's “mainstream” Jewish community who for years was also active in the National Committee for Jewish Education. Weisenfeld spent four years as chief of staff in the city administration of former Mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat before becoming an aide to Governor George Pataki, another Republican.
Speaking late Friday afternoon in an interview with Israel National News, Weisenfeld called the current diplomatic crisis “the biggest accidental or deliberate miscalculation in American-Israeli relations made by any American president.” He added that the Obama administration's overtures to the Muslim world, and the contrast with its hostility to the State of Israel, had transformed the U.S. executive branch into a “complete Alice-in-Wonderland government. I don't want to make light of it here,” Weisenfeld said with some sarcasm, “but it's like Purim, when Mordechai becomes Haman, and Haman becomes Mordechai.”
He reserved special criticism for White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Special Presidential Adviser David Axelrod, both traditonal Jews in the Obama administration who are among the president's closest aides. “I had positions like theirs, I worked for a governor, a senator... I always made sure that I was representing the Jewish community to the governor, and the governor to them. But there are some who see their power as an end in itself. They don't want to tell the boss when he's wrong. And they are the worst kind of people to have in government,” Weisenfeld said.
“Islam has evolved backwards, has become more violent than perhaps it was even in its inception, since they did not have the weapons then, that they have today. And you have Emanuel and Axelrod, who have bad judgment, and who do not see the need to fight this moral equivalency.”
Weisenfeld also noted that most “mainstream” Jewish community organizations did not – and could not – officially sign on to sponsor Sunday's rally for fear of retribution from the Obama administration. “The mainstream groups are about access and response to a direct threat from the White House.
“The [Jewish] Federations and their beneficiaries and subsidiaries have been warned by Rahm Emanuel to stay away from public criticism of the president on Israel. But unless the weather is horrendous,” he added, “there will be an abundance of “establishment-affiliated” people. Maybe we can wake up this president and pull him back from the abyss.”
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