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Updated 11/06/09 @ 01:12PM EDT
- The Union for Reform Judaism passed a resolution urging equal services for Israeli Arabs.
- The International Atomic Energy Agency has evidence that Iran may have tested an advanced nuclear warhead design, according to a British newspaper.
- The United States vetoed an Israeli plan to attack a ship bearing weapons allegedly from Iran to Hezbollah, according to a report in an Arabic-language newspaper.
- The Obama administration expects to keep working with Mahmoud Abbas despite his planned resignation as Palestinian Authority president.
- U.S. Jewish groups blasted the U.N. General Assembly for its endorsement of the Goldstone report into last winter's Gaza war.
- Reform endorse qual treatment for Israeli Arabs
- Iran may have tested secret nuclear warhead design
- Report: U.S. stopped Israeli attack on weapons ship
- U.S. sees Abbas in continuing role
- Groups blast UNGA Goldstone vote
- Israel delivers swine flu vaccines to Palestinian Authority
- Abbas announces he won’t run for re-election
- IAEA head: No worries about Iran nuclear site
- Mideast peace push cited in Obama Nobel
- Obama’s Nobel, Israel’s problem?
- Jews of color come together to explore identity
- FBI: Alleged spy wannabe asked for Israeli citizenship
- Family likely murdered by professional killer
- New signs that Ethiopian aliyah will resume
- U.S. appetite for Israeli food grows
- Female Orthodox scholars helping women talk about sex
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Posted in: Goldstone's motivation
10/20/09 01:12 PM
Israel's failure to engage with the Goldstone mission was a calamitous failure. Israel chose neither to respond to contestable claims of its own alleged abuses, not to fully document abuses against its own population and legitimate sovereign concerns. Nor did it adequately challenge the mission, or the world's human rights community, to consider the dilemmas posed by a democratic state engaged in asymmetric warfare, in which its adversaries act from within population centers in an obvious effort to elicit Israeli military responses that can then be used in public relations and propaganda efforts. Israel missed what is probably the best opportunity it will have to get its own story out and considered. Most of the Israeli responses to the Goldstone Report have been attacks on Judge Goldstone's character and the biases of the world community, often designed to obscure the findings of the report itself. Surely some of the report's findings are contestable on the merits; some information has begun to emerge on some of the particulars. But Israel is now well along toward forfeiting its second opportunity for a fair hearing among those potentially willing to listen, by blaming the messenger and ignoring the message. Israel can and must do (much) better if it is to counter the increasingly successful efforts to delegitimate the state on the world stage. An independent, comprehensive investigation of the findings of the Goldstone mission would constitute an important first step. Showing further contempt for the world community--at least some of which is potentially open to a fact-based examination of difficult issues and behaviors on both sides (even if all, clearly, are not), does Israel no favor and no benefit. --The Wise Bard
Posted in: Founder says Human Rights Watch wrong on Israel
10/20/09 12:55 PM
Mr. Bernstein's comments surely come with a heavy heart. Human rights organizations play an important role in the contemporary world. As President Obama's regrettable decision not to meet with the Dalai Lama at this time suggests, considerations of realpolitik will always constrain the behaviors of big powers whose interests are necessarily complex and, sometimes, contradictory. (Israel's precarious course on maintaining its currently frayed relationship with Turkey while responding to claims regarding the Armenian genocide is another example.) Ideally, human rights organizations should be less compromised by conflicting political agendas. Sadly, that is often not the case. As one who has been publicly critical of some of Israel's actions on the human rights front, both domestically and internationally, I share Mr. Bernstein's frustrations that the organization he founded with high hopes, as well as a number of other human rights NGOs, have focused their criticisms hugely disproportionately on Israel, by far the region's most democratic polity and most open and vibrant civil society, and have averted their eyes from far worse transgressions elsewhere in the region and around the world. This disproportion severely reduces the credibility of these organizations among fair minded observers sensitive to human rights concerns, reduces their ability to effect positive change within Israel's imperfect but nonetheless democratic system, and aids efforts to delegitimate Israel on the international stage, a development contrary to efforts to induce Israelis to take necessary risks for peace. It also perpetuates a failure in the West to hold Palestinian and other Arab (and Iranian) regimes to international standards of human rights performance, and patronizes their leadership and populations as somehow "beneath" what is expected of others. My own belief is that those who love Israel and seek a positive democratic and peaceful future for the State and (all) its people should hold Israel to high standards of behavior. But this must be done with some understanding and compassion for the situation Israel finds itself in (for which both Israel and its adversaries bear responsibility), and with balanced and proportionate recognition of other human rights failures, both by those in Israel's neighborhood and by other far less democratic regimes around the world. I thank Mr. Bernstein for his statement, and his devotion to the cause of human rights over the decades. --The Wise Bard
Posted in: Debating J Street and the Jewish vote at the Hudson Institute
10/13/09 04:51 PM
Cheryl, I posted a response to the substance of your comments elsewhere, where I first saw them. Thanks for a very thoughtful and well considered post (except, perhaps, for your first paragraph above, which was not included in your other posting). Mr. Bilek, thanks also to you for a thoughtful response. Please note that i was very careful NOT to accuse you personally of any inconsistencies; my comments were directed specifically at Mr Schoenfeld's behavior, and that of his intellectual compatriots who did, in my view, behave both inconsistently and, frankly, in bad faith, during periods of more dovish Israeli governments. On the substance of your remarks, I would only note that several of your propositions go both ways. That is, if American Jews who favor more dovish (I prefer "owl-like"--that is, far-seeing and wise--but that phrase in not in common use) positions keep quiet with their concerns, and the result is a tragedy for Israel's long term interests, status as a vibrant Jewish community, democratic status, and long term well being (which depends in no little part on its relationships with America and the democratic world and their economic, political and military support)--then an "oops, sorry" would hardly be of much solace, whether coming from those with my opinions or from those with your opinions. South Africa did not last as an apartheid state (in my view, properly so) once it lost its political legitimacy and the support of the West. The same could happen to Israel if it persists as an expansionist, occupying force in the face of worldwide political opposition and inexorable demographic changes. I do not want that to happen. Iran is a very complicated question, and I do not necessarily agree with positions taken by some of the organizations we are discussing. I'm not sure anyone (including me) has figured out a good set of options there. I would note that the situation there worsened considerably under Bush's watch, and that poorly calculated decisions on Iraq and Afghanistan have diminished the willingness of much of the American public to consider military steps (by the US or by Israel) against the despicable current government of Iran. I am withholding judgment on how President Obama's diplomatic initiatives (including complex maneuvers with Russia) regarding iran will work out; I hope a combination of carrots and effective sticks can result in ending the nuclear threat, but that is far from a foregone conclusion at this point.
Posted in: If AIPAC ain't broke...
10/13/09 04:26 PM
Cheryl, let me compliment you on a thoughtful, well composed post. I don't agree with some of your critical points--for example, I fear that Jewish lives are today more at risk in Israel than in North America, and I would note that it took generations, not years, for favorable conditions in Muslim Spain to deteriorate, under both islamic and Christian regimes. But this approach is both nuanced and conducive to intelligent discussion and debate conducted in a civil fashion. Thank you. --The Wise Bard
Posted in: Debating J Street and the Jewish vote at the Hudson Institute
10/12/09 01:42 PM
Do others find "blackie's" comments on this or other threads a positive contribution to intelligent discourse? For what it is worth, my late father fought the Nazis at the Battle of the Bulge, winning a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and Purple Heart(s). He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. I do not live up to his achievements on the battlefield, but at least someone in my family fought and sacrificed for his ideals, and for his country. How about you, blackie? Any evidence of making the world a better place, other than through insulting others without any basis in fact while hiding behind a pseudonym? Talk about a horrible existence...
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