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Updated 11/20/09 @ 11:30AM EDT
- Canada's opposition Liberal Party is crying foul after the ruling Conservatives mailed out flyers extolling themselves as stronger supporters of Israel.
- Israel arrested five Palestinian Authority intelligence officers in the West Bank.
- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel is conducting secret negotiations with Hamas.
- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was welcomed Thursday in Brazil by a state governor who is Jewish.
- Prominent South African Jewish leader and philanthropist Mendel Kaplan has died at the age of 73.
- Canadian Liberals object after Conservatives say they’re stronger Israel backers
- Israel arrests five P.A. officers
- Abbas: Israel talking to Hamas
- Abbas welcomed by Jewish pol in Brazil
- South African Jewish leader Mendel Kaplan dies
- Israel will send ship to NATO anti-terror force
- Obama: New Iran sanctions coming within weeks
- What should we bring? Thanksgiving foods that travel well
- Female Orthodox scholars helping women talk about sex
- Obama half-brother has Jewish roots
- Lieberman: Fort Hood could be terror attack
- J Street confab shows generational divide on Israel
- What really happened at the Reform biennial in Toronto
- Rubashkin convicted on 86 charges
- Obama shifts to Israel’s corner, but tries not to show it
- Sniffing underwear and other high jinks in satire on intermarriage
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Posted in: Hidden memorials in Berlin
11/20/09 05:32 PM
My wife and I secured a guide through Milk and Honey a few years back. We had a terrific experience--the guide was highly educated and knowledgeable and worked carefully with us to plan an itinerary (several days worth) calibrated to our Jewish interests and my physical limitations. Our preconceptions of Germany and Berlin in particular (my father fought in the Battle of the Bulge) were transformed as a result. Berlin's "memorial culture" is utterly fascinating. We highly recommend Milk and Honey.
Posted in: Foxman blasts J Street on Palin, questions its 'pro-Israel' slogan
11/20/09 05:18 PM
Abe Foxman speaks for that part of the traditional Jewish establishment for whom bringing in folks like me (I'm 59) would constitute a youth movement. He, and they, are dinosaurs, unable to adapt to changing times and conditions. (No offense, Arthur--I recognize that folks even older than I can summon the wisdom of their years and remain connected to changing realities, unlike those I am talking about here.)They continue to roar, and are infuriated that fewer ears are inclined to listen. Hence they bellow louder, and nurse their sense of "lese majeste". So sorry, Abe--we hereby revoke whatever "authorization" you may feel to confer, or withhold "authority" on others. Re the substantive points at issue in Palin's Pander of the moment: There is plenty of room for thickening and additional Jewish population centers in the Galli and the Negev--parts of historic Eretz Israel (and traditional destinations for Zionist pioneering) that somehow don't appeal to those previously drawn to Gaza. Not to speak of luxury enclaves now expanding the existing footprint of Jewish settlement in Jerusalem and along the Mediterranean coast. The notion that any foreseeable American Jewish aliyah (which I would encourage, including in my own family) requires "living space" in territory critical to the creation of a Palestinian state living in peace with Israel is simply absurd, and should not be encouraged. I agree with the decision to call out Palin, and others spouting out such wrong and uninformed gibberish, on such counterproductive nonsense. Shabbat shalom, The Wise Bard
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.
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