David Stolow http://jta.org/user/profile/31641 en-us rcsillag@jta.org Copyright 2009 2009-11-20T;16:30:00-05:00 An Olmert offer? What Olmert offer? All Olmert's government did was to approve more construction in the occupied areas. The last commenter is correct however about Abbas and the Palestinians. They still have to accept that they will be living with a Jewish State and stop the teaching of hatred in their schools before a real peace will take hold. What Abbas calls security efforts are real, but also have the dual purpose of getting his fivals from hamas off the streets. Its like the security fence. Yes, it reduces terror attacks but also helps grab land for the settlers. In sum, no one has really honored past treaties and everyone still claims to somehow be a victim. Perhpas Obama will break the cycle with support from the US Jewish left. Or maybe not. But its worth a try. 2009-11-20T;16:30:00-05:00 The article neglects to include that Modiin Illit is built mostly on stolen land. Its not land taken in 1948 or 1967. Its, according to the Israel Supreme Court, private land owned by Arabs who never gave up their claims or signed what turned out to be falsified conveyances. I'll be very happy when neither my tax dollars nor my charitable contributions go to support "natural growth." 2009-11-20T;16:30:00-05:00 Who better than the RJC to recognize divisive language, as they rarely use anything else. Jews know who has vlues and who are the bigot. Thgat's why 80% of us vote for Democrats. With help from Matt Brooks and his Republican Party we can probably get that up to 90% in the next couple of years. 2009-11-20T;16:30:00-05:00 Since money going to Palestinian charities will, directly or indirectly, go to support terrorist activities (every dollar Hamas doesn't have to spend on health care they spend on qassams), I agree that the IRS should be fair. So, while pulling the tax exemptions from all the Jewish organizations that directly or indirectly aid the settlements, Congress and the IRS should do the same for all the Arab/Palestinian/Moslem organizations. Then when the Palestinians really give up terrorism and the Israelis start pulling out instead of expanding settlements, the tax exemptions can be phased back in. 2009-11-20T;16:30:00-05:00 Excellent commentary on Mr. Cohen. I agree that his problem is not that he's an anti-Semite but that he's just plain wrong. Of course, it is standard tactic for the self-styled Jewish mainstream in America (the usual American Friends of Likud like Dershowitz, Heonlein, the ZOA, AIPAC, the Republican Jewish Committee and the like) who freely label any critic of Israel as an anti-Semite, unless the critic is a Jew, in which case they are self-hating. Time for a real discussion of Israel among Americans. 2009-11-20T;16:30:00-05:00 Now here is an exemption that needs to be revoked. Israel uses settlements the way Hamas uses Qassams. The US has no hesitation about shutting down Moslem charities that raise money for Hamas. Even if that money doesn't go to buy missiles it frees up other money to buy the missiles. Same for settlements. The US would do everyone, but especially the Jews, a huge favor by shutting down the groups that raise money to buy West Bank land and build more settlements. 40 years of occupation has made Israel less, not more safe. Time to end the madness. 2009-11-20T;16:30:00-05:00 Wait. You got 50% of a group of Jews to show up to do Jewish stuff? And you're unhappy? Go get your meds changed. The old rule of thumb for those of us doing programming was 5% is successful and 10% gets you invited to give seminars at CAJE. 50% is great. I know the news feeds on the negative and the authors may have figured they'd get published by saying the glass is half empty but given what we're up against, half filled is fabulous. 2009-11-20T;16:30:00-05:00 Didn't Joel Grey do this in Cabaret? I'm shocked, shocked to discover that there is anti-semitism in Russia. 2009-11-20T;16:30:00-05:00 Lieberman's campaign slogan would be almost palatable to anyone without fascist tendencies if it was applied equally to all Israelis. Thus, a loyalty oath ought to be required from the settlers and their Rabbis who are telling IDF soldiers to mutiny, to disobey orders, if asked to clean out any settlements, no matter how illegal it may be. Let's strip some of their MKs of citizenship rights and then Lieberman can claim he's not a racist or fascist. But don't hold your breath for this. 2009-11-20T;16:30:00-05:00 The difference between Jews in Efrat and those in Tel Aviv is that the West Bank settlements violate the Geneva Convention, this according to the Israeli Defense Ministry's counsel. The harsh reality is that Israel uses settlements the way Hamas uses qassams. Since the end of the 1967 war when Israel was unsure what to do with the West Bank and the Arabs, those idiots, would not seriously discuss a peace deal, Israelis have been torn between the national religious imperative under which the area is ours from Biblical times and the reality of today's world in which everyone is going to have to give up their dreams in order to live together. The 60 Minutes report is accurate. You can read about this stuff any day you like in Haaretz and other Israeli newspapers. The existence and expansion of the settlements is one of the major impediments to peace in the region. The major impediment to peace is the Arabs' continuing refusal to accept a Jewish state of Israel takes the form of Hamas, an elected representative, lobbing missiles at Israeli school children and Saeb Ereket, a so-called moderate, telling the press at the Annapolis Conference, that no one has ever heard of a state founded on the principles of a single religion. So here we are. The Arabs won't give up violence and the Israelis continue to "change the facts on the ground." George Mitchell's problem is that both sides have yet to comply with the essential elements of any peace treaty - the Arabs have to give up violence and the Israelis have to give up the settlements. Until that happens we can all just sit around and wait for the next "Operation." 2009-11-20T;16:30:00-05:00 This article gives new meaning to the word "mendacity." After a constant barrage of hate, half-truths and outright lies, the RJC is now trying to pretend that they engaged in some sort of salon-room debate. What they did do is take a page from the Joseph Goebbels/Lee Atwater/Karl Rove txtbook of political discourse and make Israel into a wedge issue within the Jewish community. Now, if one doesn't toe the Likud line as promulgated in the US by AIPAC, The RJC, Malcolm Hoenlein and the like (let's just call them the "American Friends of Likud" or AFL) then you must be pro-Arab and willing to give up on Israel. This outrageous undermining of the Zionist project will do nothing but lose support for Israel among younger Jews while those of us who have been around a while are going, like me, to start asking how many members of the AFL are on the allocation committee before we write our next check to a Jewish organization. Obama got 78% of the Jewish vote because most Jews, no matter how much we earn or how much the AFL tries to scare us, still know the difference between right and wrong. A lesson the AFL has yet to learn and, based on this article, has no intention of learning.. 2009-11-20T;16:30:00-05:00