This two-night musical journey is put together by the team behind the award-winning Jewlicious Festival, which started in 2005 promoting independent rising stars with great success. Jewnfest’s first evening will be dedicated to sounds of the rising indie folk-rock revival made huge by Mumford & Sons. The second evening will be a high energy evening of local musical wizards.

Featured artists for Jewnfest include Independent Music Award Nominee Hyim , rising Indie Music sensation, Yael Meyer, and The Wellspring, fronted by Blue Fringe’s Dov Rosenblatt , passion & latin flavor of Klezmer Juice, and rising indie star Lauren Barth.[ more artists to be announced soon].

Tickets for Jewnfest can be purchased online or at the door, space permitting. Pre-sale tickets are $10 per night,or 2 nights for $15. Doors open at 7pm, with music from 8-11pm each evening. The Mint is located at 6010 W Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035. The shows are for adults 18+. Support for Jewnfest comes from The Jewish Community Foundation Los Angeles, Asahi Beer and JConnect.

JEWNFEST TICKETS

Both Nights $15.00 Tu. Jewn 14 $10.00 We. Jewn 15 $10.00

 

CAMP JEWLICIOUS TICKETS CLICK HERE

FEATURED ARTISTS AT JEWNFEST

HYIM

HYIM’s music is pop/rock world fusion with a twist of urban flavor, and sounds like Coldplay, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Manu Chao and Dave Matthews. His music influences include Bob Marley, Peter Gabriel, Chopin, Bob Dylan, Chris Martin and his Dad. Born in San Francisco and raised in Oakland, CA, HYIM is an acclaimed singer, songwriter, producer, pianist, performer, poet and activist. He is the next generation’s music “fusionisto,” and was called by the San Francisco Chronicle “a formidable talent…spellbinding.” HYIM began playing piano at age three and studied sitar in India, clave in Cuba, and classical guitar in New Zealand. He also studied Turkish rhythms, Persian poetry, and the Torah, and he “blends the rhythms of the world as chariots for his song.” His solo performances command the stage with a major party vibe, and he has performed at numerous charitable events around the world. Currently, he is nominated for the Oakland Soul Award at the 5th Annual Oakland Indie Awards. Sample some tracks and see what all the fuss is about at www.hyimvibe.com.

LAUREN BARTH

Lauren Barth is a singer-songwriter, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist currently living and creating out of Oakland, California. The California native performs intimate folk songs, country songs, and tunes in the traditional American style. She is currently playing mandolin, guitar, and singing in a folk-americana quartet called Grandville based out of San Francisco, CA. This lover of Bob Dylan, Gram Parsons, The Grateful Dead and Joni Mitchell can be seen pickin’ tunes from New Orleans to the Big Island of Hawaii.

Gustavo Bulgach of Klezmer Juice

Klezmer Juice

Klezmer Juice is the real thing – vibrant Yiddish soul combined with youth and musical style. Bringing together some of L.A.’s finest musicians from all walks of life. While many of us associate this music with European immigration to the United States, Jews at the turn of the century were settling all parts of the Americas, and they and their descendents have a rich history in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and many other Latin American countries. Klezmer Juice bandleader and clarinet player Gustavo Bulgach was born and raised in one such community in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A part of the large and active Jewish community there, he learned Klezmer music from his family at a young age. Inspired by the religious and secular life of the Argentine community, Bulgach, who now lives in Los Angeles, has traveled around the globe, finding that Klezmer music is the “soundtrack of the Diaspora.” Bulgach has managed to forge a new klezmer sound with one ear to tradition and the other locked on the now.

The Wellspring

Yael Meyer and her band

We have all seen the story.  In eighteen short days 30 years of Hosni Mubarak’s reign as president has come to an end. There is a deserved sense of triumph among Egyptians.  But this is just the first chapter of a developing saga.  Political stagnation, widespread corruption, economic inequality, abusive security forces, a 30% illiteracy rate, joblessness, and a litany of other legitimate grievances will not be addressed in Tahrir Square. Thee issues cannot be dealt with through slogans, populist rhetoric, religious salvation, or conspiracy theories. And they will not be resolved overnight, if indeed they are resolved.

A lot must occur to enable Egyptian reform. Democratic safeguards–free press, independent judiciary, protected constitution, independent political parties, protection of minority rights—are not yet present.  For example, deep seeded discrimination against minorities, such as Copts, remains.  Without minority protection and the rule of law, Egypt faces the prospect of either mob rule or exploitation of the democratic process by a new set of tyrants.

The army will soon retreat into the political background where it can maintain popularity while protecting its vast business interests. A nascent civil society will have to fill the political void. For now, the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood is the most organized political opposition.  This raises a few questions and concerns.  Will Egyptians build resilient democratic institutions that enable progress or will religious fundamentalism or populism reign the day? What will the inclusion of Islamist parties in the government mean for women, minorities, and the Egypt-Israel peace treaty?  Will elections infuse fresh blood into the political system or will the old guard remain under a new label?

How Egyptians deal with these issues will determine the fate of the Middle East.  Egyptian protests have bolstered the resolve of others in the region.  A disappointing outcome will serve as a harsh lesson. If democracy becomes synonymous with turbulence, indecision, and shattered hopes, the remaining tyrants will have evidence as to why oppressive stability trumps democracy.

Whatever government emerges, it must have space to craft its own policies.  At the same time, the US should unequivocally communicate that anti-Western populism will not be appreciated and stress how both sides benefit from close bilateral relations.  Respecting “the will of the people” does not mean acquiescing to developments that are detrimental to our national interest.

Trusted partners like the spy chief Omar Suleiman (a graduate of the US Special Warfare School in Fort Bragg) have been removed from their positions.  Cooperation on important international issues such as Iranian nuclear development will diminish. In fact, an emboldened Iran will jostle for input. Similar to what happened in Afghanistan after the Taliban and in Iraq after Saddam Hussein, Iran will aim to exploit the US freedom agenda to gain influence in a formerly hostile state. Already Egypt has let two Iranian war ships into the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal, the first such voyage since 1979.

While respecting the democratic process the US should not be naive about Egypt’s immediate limitations.  We must aim to influence reform in a positive manner before others fill that role to our detriment.  We already spend billions subsidizing Egypt’s army and government.  By also underwriting emerging civil institutions, something largely avoided thus far, we can increase the possibility that Egypt’s liberal revolution remains liberal.

One important consideration of US foreign policy is the American brokered Egypt-Israel peace treaty. The agreement looks safe for now, if only because $1.3 billion dollars a year of Egypt’s military aid is tied to it.  Egypt no less than Israel, wants to avoid war and border confrontations.  However, relations with Israel will undoubtedly worsen as strong anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiment is calculated into government policy. A 2010 Pew Poll found that 95% of Egyptians held an ‘unfavorable view’ of Jews (compared with only 35% of Israeli Arabs). And in a 2007 Pew survey, an overwhelming 80% of Egyptians said that the needs of the Palestinians could never be accommodated so long as Israel exists.  Protesters in Tahrir square were actively chanting “To Jerusalem we’re heading, martyrs in the millions.” In a democracy, this attitude will translate into action. For example, a new government may quit helping contain Hamas, a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot. Egypt’s role as an example of Arab-Israeli peace will cease if Egyptian hostility is reflected in government policy.

In conclusion, the jury is still out on the ultimate success of the Egyptian revolt.  How Egyptians define success will matter as much as whether they achieve it.

David Bratslavsky analyzes US foreign policy and the Middle East. He studied politics, language and religion in Washington, D.C., Tel Aviv, Cairo and Jerusalem. Become a Facebook fan of Street Smart Politics.  Follow on Twitter.

Charity is what you give to after you pay your bills, schedule your vacation, purchase the latest gadgets, and sock away retirement money. Charity is seen as something we do with our ‘extra’ money to ‘give back’ or in worst cases, as a way to reduce income tax.

Why don’t people want to own charity like they own an iphone? Why don’t people want to identify with an organization like they do with the Yankees? Why can’t nonprofits build connections with people like brands do?

They can.

Nonprofits should be utilizing the human desire to connect and be a part of something. They need to give people what they are looking for – a relationship, an identity. Working together, nonprofits and their supporters can accomplish amazing feats! Imagine the energy if people rallied around a cause like they rally around the superbowl. Look at what the young people did in Egypt. They destroyed a 30 year old regime in 18 days – without a penny.

I am not suggesting we riot in the name of causes. I am suggesting that we rally around change, that we focus energy and we make it personal.

Across the United States, conferences such as the Future of Jewish Nonprofit Summit [FOJNP], NextGen: Charity and NTen are providing opportunities for nonprofits to come together and learn branding from top marketers, engagement from social media professionals and opportunities in technology from technologists.

They are part of the increasing trend of the melding of the technological, nonprofit, media, marketing and corporate worlds. The idea of giving is changing from ‘charity’ to doing good. At these conferences, people come from all sectors looking to share their expertise in order to ‘do more good’.

We in third sector need to learn from them, to incorporate these skills to build our individual brands and that of the entire third sector- now is the time.

Join us at the Future of Jewish Nonprofit Summit Israel on Feb 28^th 2011 in Jaffa. If you work with a nonprofit or are interested to see how technology, media, collaboration, engagement, branding, social media and online tools can make or break an organization, or you want to meet the best and brightest people making the world a better place or you just want to have great food and hear from awesome people to great things – you must be at this conference.

Check it out here: www.fonsi.co.

With topics such as “How technology will save your organization”, “Get your org some press”, “Engaging your Audience”, “Corporate Social Responsibility”, “Is Social Media Overrated?”, “Collaboration in Nonprofit” and more, we will be showcasing concrete examples and best practice to give you skills to take with you.

By embracing a culture of personalization and collaboration, the Third Sector can properly engage its supporters and take its place along its brother and sister sectors -corporate and government- as leaders of change in Israel. Really hope to see you there!

10% to all you Jewlicious people — code at checkout Jewlicious

Guest Post By Shoshanna K Jaskoll and David Weinberg

This follows reports from a week ago in Der Spiegel that the US was helping arrange a “prolonged health check” in a German hospital as a possible exit strategy for Mubarak.  Mubarak is 82 and has health issues.  It is even rumored that he may have cancer.  But it remains difficult to believe his well timed coma.

Mubarak’s resignation was announced one day after he delivered a well articulated speech signaling his intent to stay until the September elections.  His abrupt departure was a clear sign of an internal military coup, not the result of a coma.

Had Mubarak understood the full extent of the opposition protests and reconciled with the fact that his time to leave had come, he could have still salvaged a decent exit.  He could have expressed understanding of the protesters’ wishes (which is what he did), but maintained that Egypt needs an orderly transition, which would be facilitated by his departure in a month’s time followed by military rule until elections were held.  He would have bowed out to pressure and given up transitional power to the military before the election, but done so on his own time table, thereby retaining a modicum of dignity.  Now he has to flee under the cover of coma.

Perhaps in response to this brave new world created by Egyptian protests, Mubarak is relying on Aldous Huxley’s formula for a graceful exit.  “Ignore death up to the last moment; then, when it can’t be ignored any longer, have yourself squirted full of morphia and shuffle off in a coma.  Thoroughly sensible, humane and scientific, eh?” suggests a character in Huxley’s Time Must Have a Stop. In a region that believes shark attacks to be evidence of a Mossad plot, a conveniently timed coma is hardly a stretch.  Or perhaps having left an impoverished country with $70 billion to his name (though I doubt this figure is accurate), Mubarak laughed himself into an actual coma.

In any case, Mubarak is out.  The people’s voice has been heard.   Of course the question remains, now what?  Let’s hope that in his supposedly dreamy state, Mubarak won’t have the last laugh.

David Bratslavsky analyzes US foreign policy and the Middle East. He studied politics, language and religion in Washington, D.C., Tel Aviv, Cairo and Jerusalem. Become a Facebook fan of Street Smart Politics.  Follow on Twitter.

Or enter this interesting video-based contest for your chance to win special VIP tickets!

What? How? Are you anywhere near UMD? Then start by watching this video:

Now all you have to do is E-mail seemarketing@umd.edu with the correct names of 5 of the 6 Matisyahu songs used in the video to be entered into a raffle! 3 lucky winners will have access to the floor of Cole Field House and get the chance to see Matisyahu up close! Winners will be contacted by 11/17.

Fun right? But if you don’t want to take a chance, just go to the ticket information page, register and then buy a ticket. There’s less than a week left so get going! And by the way, kudos to the crazy kids at JSU and UMD Hillel for making this happen SO quickly! The awesomely ridiculous video was made by the JSU and Ryan Solomon and the poor guy in the bear costume is Sam Blum. Seriously good effort guys. I’m a send Rabbi Yonah down there with some free Jewlicious t-shirts for y’all.

In what is going to be a culmination of a 6-month process, Jewlicious is about to embark upon an official presence the General Assembly of Jewish Federations in New Orleans, starting Monday. We were contacted about 6 months ago by a couple of Federation guys who thought it might be a good idea to inject a festive atmosphere into the General Assembly.

Now, for those of you who don’t know, the GA is THE gathering of Jewish community professionals in North America. Most of the attendants work for or are associated with local Federations. These Federations act mostly as the fund raising arm of the Jewish community, gathering donations and then dispersing them to local, international and Israeli charities. It’s a big deal and even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be there. I know, sounds like a big party, right? Uhm… yeah. It’s actually very serious business where a national policy is set and Federation people network with each other, learn from each other and try to better meet the many challenges faced by the community.

And then there’s us… We’ve organized a series of events and spaces, located within the main exhibit hall. You can see all that’s going on at GA at the New Orleans GA Web site. In the coming days we’ll write and blog about it and you can look from cross posts from other participating bloggers. You’ll also get to meet the Jewlicious contingent made up of artists, speakers, educators, one Torah yogi, bloggers, social network people and uhm, me. Stay tuned and Shabbat Shalom.

Women of the Wall

The Kotel is a holy Jewish site, and it should be a place that is comfortable for anyone who would like to pray there.  Yes, this includes the money-sucking, draft-dodging ultra-Orthodox who believe that women reading Torah is a chilul Hashem.  To do that, there needs to be a place where women don’t read Torah.

Women who want to read Torah should, of course, have a space to do that.  What the Women of the Wall fail to accept is that they do have a place to read Torah at Robinson’s Arch, the Masorti area of the Western Wall Complex.  Having worked for a Conservative program this past year, I davened there with an egalitarian minyan — albeit not my cup of tea to pray as such, it was a beautiful, intimate space where women were able to do whatever they pleased in terms of being involved in the service.  But for WoW, it’s not good enough.  They believe that it is their right to daven however they please, wherever they please, which by definition makes it a place that is unsuitable for many Orthodox Jews.  How does that promote tolerance? Where are the pluralist values here?  I’m not defending the disgusting human beings who react to the WoW with violence or bogus arrests, but the group itself shows absolutely zero respect for the non-egalitarian perspective, and it doesn’t help anyone. It doesn’t teach anyone anything, it generates further resentment, and it’s unfair to those who have differing interpretations of what constitutes appropriate methods of Jewish prayer.

By the same token, last I checked, Israel wasn’t akin to Saudi Arabia and the police were officers that ensure the safety and security of its people, not the puppets of religious extremists who take non-violent ‘protesters’ into custody.  The fact that a woman was arrested for opening a sefer Torah is a disgrace, regardless of how inappropriately she may be asserting her perspective.  The Israeli police should act with integrity, which by definition means refusing to succumb to pressure from Charedi extremists.

Frankly, it’s sad when everyone involved is a complete loser and contrary to the cause.

Yes, this pro-Israel video came out in April. Yes, it’s already racked up millions of views. Why are we only putting it up now? Because it’s in Spanish and thus did not come across our radar until recently. “En Tus Tierras Bailaré” stars Peruvians La Tigresa del Oriente, a cross between Charro and Cat Woman and La Pequeña Wendy, a 14 year old singing sensation who rose to prominence at age 8 when she sand an ode to breast milk. Also featured is Delfín Hasta El Fín, a stoic singer from Ecuador. None of these singers are conventional stars in their respective countries of origin, but they do have a popular following thanks to the interwebs. Read more in Tablet about how this video was created by a cosmopolitan trio of Argentine media professionals, one who was only quarter Jewish and two who had never even been to Israel and none of whom had ever met the singers. This is all so weird yet so oddly compelling:

The video has racked up millions of hits on YouTube and has spawned a whole series of imitators, and even a video featuring Iron Man.

No. I don’t get it at all. But I love it!

For a more intellectual take on this video, read the post titled “What is that Monkey Doing Behind the Rowboat?” and especially comments in the New York Times Review of Books. They got the producers of the video wrong (not the Israeli Tourism Board) but everything else is at least interesting.

Irritating enough, apparently – like the too-talented and bossy fame-hog Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) on Fox’s Glee – in our discovery of the written word, monotheism, modern physics, psychology, vaccinations, and the film industry, that every country that has ever “hosted” us has found it necessary to tell us to get the hell out, like Thomas did. (Ironically, the aforementioned Jewish character Rachel, in a particularly annoying moment in one episode, was told by classmates to move to Israel. I doubt the writers coordinated this telling joke – Jews do equal Israel in the eyes of the world, sorry J Street - with the State Department.)

Anywho. Helen, you know why we were in Germany and much of Eastern Europe in the first place? (And by the way, if I follow your advice, do you think the nice old ladies who got my grandmothers’ large houses and farms from the Nazis in what was once Czechoslovakia will kick the property back two generations? That would be cool because I’d love a vineyard and an agricultural estate.)

…We were in Germany and Hungary and Czechoslovakia and Russia (where we were regularly just plain killed by Cossacks), and also, for many centuries, Poland (ditto), cuz we were told to get the hell out of England, France, and Spain. (Or, you know, just plain killed by handsome and heroic fairytale knights.)

And you know why we were in Western Europe to begin with? Cuz we were told by the Greeks and the Romans – wait for it – to get the hell out of “Palestine,” where we had been living since the beginning of recorded history.

We also ended up in Babylonia (Iraq) and other Middle Eastern and North African countries, where we stayed as second class citizens for hundreds and hundreds of years, till the Arab world finally caught up with the pagans and the Christians in their hatred of the Jews. Amazing how the student has now far surpassed the teacher. But I digress.

(By the way, I am aware that the Arab narrative has us Ashkenazi Jews as descendants of the Khazars, but the actual facts have it different. See this new DNA study linking European Jews with their Middle Eastern counterparts, all stemming from one original population of Holy Land Jews predating Roman times. Never mind our own texts that say the same thing; I know they are inadmissible in the international courts of the mind.)

 In any event, there is no way around it: Jews being asked (usually not by old ladies on the White House lawn) to get the hell out of anywhere and everywhere is just the way it goes.

So it came to pass that about 200 years BCE the Macabees got sick of it and established a Jewish state in Palestine, within the Roman Empire, which lasted till about the time of Jesus (another Pesky Jew) and the destruction of the Second Temple.

And it also came to pass that Jewish settlers began arriving in Ottoman Palestine in the late 1800′s, after the Russians and the Poles made it clear that Jews were persona non grata in Eastern Europe. Palestine was as good a place as any to escape to, since it was the last place, about 2000 years before, that the Jews had a sovereign state (see above). Never mind Jewish liturgy and texts pining for Jerusalem, since I know these, too, are inadmissible in the international courts of the mind.

Anyway, nowhere else wanted European Jews any more than Russia did, not even America really, where there were very strict quotas, although the Americans, again politely, refrained from all the messy European killing, which was apparently in vogue until after Hitler. Besides, those Ottoman Turks, as now, were known around the world for their amazing human rights activism and the Jews were excited to see it first hand. (No, not really. But anyway…they were better than the Polish peasants. Unless you were Armenian.)

It is true that there were people in Palestine before the Jews arrived en masse (for there was always a handful of Jews that remained here….), not *A People*, but rather a group of assorted regional Arabs (think Native American tribes in North America…who by the way were treated much worse by the Colonialists…) who had settled the area with not much agricultural success and had endured various rulers over the millennia.

But when the *Jews* came back, it was suddenly necessary, once again, to tell them to get the hell out. There was no living side by side, even though that was an express Jewish desire right up until 1947/8, when the Partition Plan was summarily rejected by the Arab League, who started the war that Israel won. If keeping land you win in a war others provoke (when you wanted to make peace) is called occupation, Helen, the world’s axis of furious justice has a lot bigger fish to fry than shitty little Israel.

The Arab desire to kick the Jews the hell out of Palestine did not begin in 1967, and not in 1948. It began the moment the initial groups of Jews arrived and started to make the land flower and produce crops. That’s when the attacks on Jews began, and when the Arab world decided a new Jewish presence in the land would not do, back when there were about half a million Arabs and just under 100,000 Jews in the Holy Land, in the early 1900′s. 20% was too much, apparently, to bear. (The Hebron Massacre of 1929, where marauding Arabs killed nearly 70 Jews and wounded countless others, took place long before a single house was built over the Green Line.)  I can only imagine how awful it was – probably for both the Arabs and the British – when it became clear we were here to stay and grow to much further percentages. We are that annoying, what with trying to get rid of malaria and tuberculosis and everything.

At any rate, it seems that every time a Jewish minority starts to make a society too successful – so annoying!!!! – the indigenous people start to feel very uncomfortable, and tells them one way or another to get the hell out.

But now, alas, there is nowhere left for us to go, except the eternal place Ahmadinejad wants us to go, and Haniyeh and Nasralla, and Hitler before them, and Chemilniki before him, and Haman before him, and so on. And, I suspect, in her heart of hearts, perhaps Thomas and the likes of her, who, the pesky Jew Freud may have observed, seriously let her slip show.

Let me make it clear: I know that Israel has made mistakes over its 62 years, some clumsy and inept (was there no intelligence regarding the terrorists aboard the Mavi Marmara?!?), and some borderline immoral. But none worse than every other democracy on earth has also done, and most much better than the large majority of the UN rogue nations which condemn Israel daily have done…daily. There is MUCH to improve in the way we govern, I will be the first to say it. I will also be the first to say that various Jews of the Bernie Madoff and Greed-is-Good-Goldman-Sachs ilk make me want to crawl under a rock. I know that the world is only waiting for these guys to emerge in order to pin their crimes on all of us, even though everything they do is in direct contradiction of actual Jewish values.

But let’s be honest: the international community’s human rights crusades on behalf of the Palestinians are just the latest Crusades, and the ones who REALLY suffer are not the Jews or the Israelis but the poor occupants of the Third World who are ignored while the enlightened First World castigates the Jews… and yes, of course, the Palestinians, who are kept in misery *by their own leadership* in order to provide the polite Jew haters with a media club to beat them with.

So here’s the thing: We are not going anywhere this time, Helen. We totally get it: Ya’ll pretty much hate us. It’s just the way it is, like a natural law. Nothing we can do – not giving away pieces of Palestine / Israel (witness our evacuation of Gaza in 2005, and handing over the keys to army bases and greenhouses- a new economy! Food for the children! – which were summarily torched as property of the infidels); not donating billions annually to global charity,  nor discovering a cure for Polio or the Theory of Relativity, or writing revered legal and religious texts, or co-founding Google, or manufacturing the microprocessor in the majority of laptops that spew Jew hatred to the Internet, or founding Christianity itself, or championing women’s rights and gay rights in the US and helping to bring about a *human rights revolution* in America in the 60′s, …None of those things will absolve us of our real sin: Existing and overcoming.

I’m really sorry they told you to get the hell out of the White House, Helen. It really wasn’t your fault that you thought you could say what you said. It’s not like it’s a secret: That’s what people think.

But this time, seriously. Getting the hell out is not in the cards. We’re just sick of moving all the time.

I know. Irritating.

Editorial Note: Despite the expulsion of the Jews after the suppression of the Bar Kochba revolt, there was never a time when Jews did not live in Israel. Also, prior to the Zionist influenced immigrations, there were a number of smaller religiously motivated waves of immigration to Israel.

It started when I read about a song medley by acapella group six13. The song is made up of rewritten snippets from various pop songs. “Heartless” by Kanye West becomes “Latkes.” “I have a Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas becomes “I Got Teffilin.” And it all started with “Kosher Plate” a remake of “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga. You can hear the song and read the lyrics on the YNet article but because it isn’t embeddable I couldn’t put it on here. So I figured it might be on YouTube and I started searching when I eventually found this video:

But that’s not all I found. Apparently the Jews, they like Lady Gaga. More after the bump!

Here’s one Ashley Faith doing “Kosher Face.” The video quality is poor as is audio but, well, the Jews will uhm, relate to the lyrics…

Then there’s this gem by “sheer music” also called “Kosher Face” which presents a very liberal interpretation of who is a Jew.

Finally there’s this horror which I may have already posted, I don’t know, but I keep trying to forget this production by a Haredi wedding band:

This doesn’t help those rumors that Lady Gaga is Jewish. She isn’t by the way.

ck’s comment: Just wanted to add a little context. The latest episode of South Park featured a somewhat convoluted plot line that included Mohamed. This was Mohamed’s second appearance in South Park. The first time Mohammed appeared was in season 5 in 2001 in an episode called Super Best Friends. Since this was before the Mohamed Danish Cartoons controversy in 2005 (which led to world wide protests, rioting and over 100 deaths), no one seemed to care that Mohammed was depicted in a cartoon.

However, in the post Mohammed cartoon controversy world, the characters in the latest episode of South Park were concerned about how to depict Mohamed without starting riots. Initially, Mohamed’s image was merely blacked out. Then Mohamed was transported in a U-Haul and finally it was decided that it would be ok to put Mohamed in a Bear costume so that he could walk around but not be seen – in deference to the sensibilities of Muslim rioters. Now obviously the creators of South Park were making a statement about free speech and all that. The Super Best Friends are made up of prophets and deities of all religions (as well as a Super Hero, Sea Man – no idea why) but it is only the depiction of Mohamed that is likely to cause rioting and… death threats. Which brings us back to TM’s original post… was this video a death threat against Trey Parker and Matt Stone as well as all the other Islamic critics and dissidents listed in the video? Go to the comments section!

Let’s help them out…

Last year we launched Save Passover, a campaign of informal giving aimed at helping impoverished Jews out during Passover. I know for most of you, Passover is a time of family gatherings and abundance. But for others, especially many of my Jerusalem neighbors in Nachlaot and the Shuk neighborhoods, Passover is a time of stress as resources are stretched to their limits. I’ve been trying to do my part to help a number of families get through Passover proudly and with joy. I’m asking the members of the Jewlicious community, as it were, to donate funds which will be used to purchase Matza and maybe even some wine to help out local families who could use the assistance.

See, it’s a big scam. I pretend I have way more Matza and Kosher for Passover food than I need and ask them to help me out by taking it off my hands. I tell them that over zealous relatives have showered me with an abundance of this stuff that has thus become a nuisance, is taking up space and won’t otherwise be consumed. It’s a good trick and worked great last year. No one was the wiser and we all got together and thanks to our individual modest contributions, managed to help out a good number of families. So… if you want to help, and I know it’s cliched, but no donation is too small, click on the link below which will allow you to make a donation using your credit card or PayPal account.

Alternatively, if you need a tax invoice and you’re in Canada, the UK or the US, or in addition, because you’re not into informal type grass rootsy things, you may want to make a donation to Leket (formerly known as Table to Table), Israel’s national food bank, by clicking here. Either way, whatever you can do to help would be greatly appreciated. Have a great Passover people!

Haaretz gives us Reut Institute’s take on the international campaign of delegitimization of Israel that we have been covering on Jewlicious for years. Reut, a think tank, considers this a strategic threat to Israel.

Reut says the campaign is the work of a worldwide network of private individuals and organizations. They have no hierarchy or overall commander, but work together based on a joint ideology – portraying Israel as a pariah state and denying its right to exist.

Um, yeah. Good morning!

Reut lists the network’s major hubs – London, Brussels, Madrid, Toronto, San Francisco and the University of California, Berkeley. The network’s activists – “delegitimizers” the report dubs them – are relatively marginal: young people, anarchists, migrants and radical political activists. Although they are not many, they raise their profile using public campaigns and media coverage, the report says.

The “delegitimizers” cooperate with organizations engaging in legitimate criticism of Israel’s policy in the territories such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, blurring the line between legitimate censure and delegitimization. They also promote pro-Palestinian activities in Europe as “trendy,” the report says.

What is Really Going on and Who is Leading it?

Reut Institute is obviously late on the uptake, but at least they have figured it out, unlike most of Israel’s leadership. Unfortunately, they misunderstand both the nature of the threat and its source.

First of all, they misunderstand the nature of the opponents. While it’s true that they have individuals acting without an apparent central hub, most of the organizing is done by a small number of people and they are almost always affiliated with Palestinian or Muslim groups, often non-profit, that exist in their respective markets. We’ve seen this in Toronto, where Jewlicious was able to show a number of things (there are a number of posts on our site that will provide this information – look up search terms like “Toronto” and “York University”):

* An organization or members of an organization called Palestine House were in some way related to the disruptions against the Toronto Film Festival.
* According to the National Post in Canada, Palestine House also became involved with Palestinian claims over the Dead Sea Scrolls in Toronto only 4 days after the PA wrote a letter to the Canadian government and the museum hosting the scrolls.
* Organizers of the film festival protest in Toronto, like Naomi Klein, had only months earlier visited the West Bank as honored guests of the Palestinians.
* There was behind the scenes involvement of a Palestinian law student who had previously served as an adviser to the PLO, mother organization of the PA.
* That same former adviser to the PLO had organized a one-state-solution conference at a Toronto university just weeks earlier.
* Among the speakers at that conference was an Israeli Arab who studies at Tel Aviv University and is a leader of the “boycott and divestment” movement. He subsequently went on a multi-city tour of North America to promote the divestment and boycott movement. Wherever he appeared, local university groups promoted the event.
* One of the key movers behind the protests in Toronto, John Greyson, was a board member of the Toronto Palestine Film Festival, which is also affiliated with Toronto pro-Palestinian groups.
* On various campuses across North America, the Apartheid Week and related campaigns are usually organized by the campus’s Muslim Student Union, as we saw at UC Irvine in previous years and in the disruption to the Michael Oren talk.
* When it’s not the Muslim Students Union, it’s some sort of Palestinian group (Peace in Palestine; Peace and Justice in Palestine; Students for Peace and Justice in Palestine, etc.) that takes the lead.
* Often, there is a direct connection between the student government on campus and the pro-Palestinian or MSU groups. It is not unusual to see activists run for student leadership roles, as we’ve seen at York University in Toronto and Concordia in Quebec.
* When they acquire those powers, it is typical to see them lead anti-Israel campus activities. It helps them in the elections that they are often affiliated with Left-wing groups on campus.
* There appear to be funds for many of these groups’ activities, such as a recent North American tour by Norman Finkelstein, promoted by Muslim, pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel groups.

Along with plenty of financing to bring out speakers, organize activities, events and travel, the the level of sophistication of some of these attacks indicates that fairly knowledgeable sources are providing assistance.

There are two possibilities. One is that the Palestinian Authority is behind this and the other is some Arab government with connections to MSU organizations on campuses is driving this. It could also be that both are happening. Money appears to be coming from somewhere and I don’t believe the Muslim community in North America is established enough at this point to be driving these programs – they will be in a few years, however, thanks to the groundwork that is being laid and has been laid over the past couple of decades.

We have seen substantial infusions of Saudi money to various top-quality universities in the past couple of decades, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that part of their budget includes sponsorship of Muslim campus groups. With respect to disruptive events like the Toronto Film Festival protests or the anti-two-state-solution conference, it is very reasonable to assume the PA was indirectly or directly involved (as I mentioned above, Naomi Klein visited the West Bank months before the film festival protest of which she was one of the leaders and the anti-two-state-solution conference was led by a former adviser to the PLO).

What this means is that the delegitimization campaign against Israel is almost certainly being run by the the PA and one or more Arab governments.

However, the support is often indirect, or provided in a hands-off fashion which also permits for denial of any connection and the perceived sense that these are grass-roots activists. That does not change the fact that this is part of the war against Israel (put “endgame” into our search to read more about the PA’s war against Israel) and as Reut notes, a strategic threat to Israel.

The Wrong Solutions

With this in mind, Reut’s prescribed solution seems right, but it is in fact the wrong approach to fighting and solving this problem.

“The Foreign Ministry is built for the challenges of the ’60s, not the 2000s,” the report says. “There are no budgets, not enough diplomats and no appropriate diplomatic doctrine.”

Reut recommends setting up a counter-network, in which Israel’s embassies in centers of delegitimization activity would serve as “front positions.”

The report says the intelligence service should monitor the organizations’ activities and study their methods. The cabinet should also confront groups trying to delegitimize Israel but embrace those engaged in legitimate criticism.

That is the wrong approach, at least in North America. In Europe, the problem is so deep that rising up from the grass roots is going to be extremely challenging and any fighting needs to be on a governmental informational level. However, in North America any Israeli governmental activity should involve nothing more than monitoring and maybe every one in a while sending an informative helping hand to real grass roots activists.

Israel’s solution needs to be no less sophisticated than that of the Palestinians, and giving diplomats and the Foreign Ministry authority to handle this is NOT the way to go, because it will become – as everything in Israel always does – part of some public debate, and then even those of us who are really grass roots will be attacked for being part of Israeli propaganda. In addition, it is also very likely that the Foreign Ministry won’t know how to handle these sorts of situations. Israelis can be ham-handed when it comes to defending their positions, as we well know – the debacle with the Turkish ambassador to Israel, conducted by one of Israel’s most experienced diplomats, proved that conclusively.

A different possibility lies with organizations such as Stand with Us and CAMERA, both of which do excellent work and which already advocate for Israel. They represent one model of counter-activism against those who attack Israel. The problem these groups face is that they are large and have also taken a ham-handed approach to defending Israel. There is little in the way of nuance in their approach. For example, if a newspaper publishes an attack on Israel or even a mildly unfair article, these groups will send out an email blast to their members and the newspaper editor is then bombarded with dozens or hundreds of emails that sound very much like each other. On CAMERA’s site, virtually every major publication in the US comes under attack at one point or another.

The editors’ responses are not hard to imagine: they assume their critics are organized and therefore not as authentic as the lone voice or small group that created the protest or wrote the op-ed in the first place. The underdog gets sympathy while the well-organized complaints are deemed to be the bullies.

These groups can be effective in providing a knowledge base to activists and to spreading information to a broad range of people. It is hard for them to lead a grass-roots movement, however, because they have grown beyond that.

The Right Solution

What, then, is the solution? The solution is not complicated but will require some effort to implement. It is to answer grass roots with grass roots.

Fighting back effectively is often a function of knowledge combined with activism conducted by a small group of dedicated individuals. The knowledge part is critical because this conflict is extremely complex with endless data points, a confusing history and ongoing events that continue to shift the lay of the land. Acquiring knowledge isn’t enough. One has to predict how the other side will respond and then how the other side will response to our response to theirs. It is chess, in a way.

How do we get there? Every city and every campus with a Jewish population of any size can do this. It is a function of finding a person or two who are heavily invested in defending Israel and motivated by a desire to see justice done in relation to Israel and who can lead others.

That local Jewish community needs to set aside some funds to cover that individual’s time – not much money, but enough to make a part-time effort make sense – as s/he begins to find opportunities to meet people who care about Israel, to provide classes about the Arab-Israeli conflict and to identify both the types of people who can offer support and those who can lead. The goal of such an organization would be to grow, but not too large, to monitor local anti-Israel activism and combat it in creative, grass-roots ways.

You will notice that the Israeli government plays no role in any of this scenario.

That’s because the way to fight small groups of activists who appear to be independent is to fight with small groups of activists who are independent. The foreign ministry can assist by having some sort of expertise office where the group leaders can call to get information about historical and political matters that are hard to research or whose nuances can be confusing. They can offer help by ensuring the local groups know what the PA is up to or what the latest activities or disputes are about. However, they have to remain a passive resource and nothing more.

One way to ensure this is to create a closed website that would serve as a a knowledge repository for any activist who wants to participate. Such a resource would only be open to the local leaders and would provide answers to pertinent questions and issues along with links and resources and a knowledge base of the other side’s debating points and responses.

How does all of this get started? Simple. If you’re somebody who thinks you can lead a group like this and you care enough about it that you would be willing to face this sort of challenge for the next couple of years…then just get started.

What do you need?

* You need to find some local like-minded people. Ask your local rabbis – most will know members in their congregation who care deeply about these issues.
* You need to find a place where you can offer classes.
* You need to acquire as much knowledge as you can about the conflict.
* As you get going, you will need to find some benefactor in your town who can provide some financial assistance.
* Pay yourself a little, but use most of the money to offer classes.
* Hook up with local Hillels or universities that have professors who deal with these issues and who appear to be friendly to Israel. Get them to offer a class here or there.
* Attend every pro-Palestinian event in your area and observe. What are they saying, what are their claims, how do they go about promoting themselves.
* Sit with some of the smarter members of your group and figure out how to compete with these events and presentations.
* Learn to respond and beat them at their own propaganda.
* Expect that most of the time these days, you will be playing defense, but,
* After you become more confident, start thinking about how to play offense: how can Israel’s need and desire for peace be presented to the public; Are there speakers you can bring to your town; Can you get them publicity in your local papers?

Grass roots against grass roots. That’s the only way to fight back.

Back by popular demand - buy tickets to see the concert portion of Jewlicious Festival 6.0 while supplies last!
$25 Online Concert Tix Sat or Sunday / $30 at the door.

2/20 Saturday Night Bands (9 p.m.- 1 a.m.)
Kosha Dillz Band (NY)
Rinat (Jerusalem)
Electro Morocco (NY)
Moshav (LA)
and other special guests

2/21 Sunday Acoustic Series (11 a.m. – 3 p.m.)
Basya Schechter (of Pharaoh’s Daughter) (NY)
Rav Shmuel (NY)
Yael Meyer (LA)
Adam Weinberg (Miami)
And other special guests

Season 8 Episode 2 of Family Guy, titled Family Goy had a very notable plot line wherein Lois, the mother on the show, discovers that her own mother is a holocaust survivor and that her and her children are in fact Jewish. Lois confronts her parents and her mother Barbara Pewterschmidt (née Hebrewberg née Hebrewbergmoneygrubber) explains:

Lois: Mom you’re Jewish?
Barbara Pewterschmidt: I’m sorry I never told you dear. When we were married your father made me conceal the fact so that we could get in to country clubs.
Carter Pewterschmidt: It was the right thing to do.
Barbara Pewterschmidt: It was the right thing to do dear

Indeed. In a similar vein, Culture Shuk revealed the story of Denise Brown, the founder of Dallas’ City Ballet who had kept her Judaism hidden for nearly 70 years. A French Jew, she had worked in the Resistance, survived the Nazi occupation and then married an American enlisted man who, according to the Dallas Morning News, insisted she not let his racist/anti-Semitic parents know she was Jewish.

Denise honored her husband’s request. His father and mother went to their graves never knowing that Gene’s wife is Jewish. “My father-in-law had some very weird ideas,” Denise says, managing a wry smile. “He told me that all the Jewish people have crooked toes…Denise kept her Judaism hidden from the larger community as well. She and Gene spent years raising their children at University Park United Methodist Church. A CPA who spent 35 years working as finance director for the city of University Park, Gene died in 1991. “I remember as a teen Dad going on about the ‘damn Jews,’ ” Evelyn says. “I said, ‘If you hate them so much, why did you marry one?’ And he said, ‘I was going to make damn sure she never acted like one.’ “”

Hobbled by the fear she felt under Nazi occupation, Denise never publicly acknowledged her Judaism until a grand daughter Madison’s Bat Mitzvah where Denise presented her father’s tallis, last worn during WWII, to Madison. Denise is still kind of scared:

“I am not ashamed of the fear I felt. I knew I didn’t want my children to live through another Germany, which could happen again.” She pauses, and says with a sigh, “To be honest, I still haven’t stopped worrying … that it could happen again.”

Never you mind Denise! In the diaspora, let alone in Dallas, jack booted thugs are always just around the corner. Hiding in fear of imminent anti-Semitism, hiding your Jewish identity, to quote Carter and Barbara Pewterschmidt, is “the right thing to do.”

It was the right thing to do dear.

Seeking the best in Jewish themed short films!

Have you already made that masterpiece? Do you have a great idea a film that you want to make? Want your name to join the ranks of Spielberg, Allen & Coen?

Enter a short film on a Jewish subject and you could win $500.

This nationwide film competition is for young, “amateur status”* filmmakers . All films will be eligible for the the Grand Prize, 2nd place and 3rd place. Winners will be chosen by a panel of veteran filmmakers from Hollywood and New York. Selected films will be shown at Jewlicious Festival and Jewish Film Festivals around the world.

COST: FREE! – limit one film per filmmaker.

ELIGIBILITY: Films up to 30 min. in length.

* Principal filmmaker must not be a working professional in the field.
* Entrant must be aged 18-26 during the Jewlicious Festival.
* Film’s subject must pertain to Judaism, Jewish Identity or the “Jewish Experience”

PRIZES: $500 prize for winner or trip to festival, plus 2nd and 3rd Place prizes

ENTRY: Submissions will be accepted until Midnight, February 11th, 2010.

‘TO ENTER:

1.Send an email to JewishFilmCompetition [at] gmail.com with “REGISTER” in the headline.

2.In the body of the email, put your name, email address and film title.

3.Attach Registration Document.

Have questions? Contact: jewishfilmcompetition [at] gmail.com

The sadness we all felt at the news that Rabbi Yonah had not won the Jewish Community Heroes contest was significantly mitigated today with news that our Hero had been selected as a member of this year’s Forward 50 (!!). The exclamation points are there because I had no clue this was even a possibility. I had to find out about it after receiving a cryptic IM from Dan Brown of e-Jewish Philanthropy who then pointed me to his post on the subject.

In the decade and a half since, the dramatic shift in Jewish leadership mirrors larger trends in our society. Just as we no longer go one place for our news, we no longer look to only one powerful person in a position of authority for leadership. This year, in particular, we’ve seen some of the most established organizations questioned from the outside and challenged from within, while those who are creating and innovating seem to have history’s wind at their backs.

Neat-o.

I was going to call this piece “Abbas Plays Poker” but then Khaled Abu Toameh wrote a piece in the J Post called Abbas’s Big Bluff in which he argues that Abbas has called for Palestinian elections now with the knowledge that Hamas won’t participate. Khaled doesn’t quite make the point that this is a way for Abbas to stay in power, but that’s exactly what it is.

That touches on the big bluff. The bluff is not the one directed at Hamas, but the one directed at the international community and especially the Obama administration. For years and years American foreign policy has been built around the premise that there is a Palestinian partner for peace. After Arafat died and Abbas became the new leader of the Palestinians, the word came out from American diplomatic circles and parroted by the media, that Mahmoud Abbas was a moderate and sympathetic to the West.

Well, Abbas has now told the world that he is planning to quit. He is so darned frustrated with the non-progress of the peace talks, and especially with the Americans’ inability to “freeze” all Israeli building activity not only in the West Bank/Judea and Samaria, but also in east Jerusalem. He’s had enough of this and now he’s going to leave. Unspoken in the threat is that there isn’t anybody else who is “moderate” and of a leadership capacity to replace him. Salam Fayyad, for example, the current PM of the Palestinians is considered capable, but a technocrat who is not particularly beloved among the Palestinians. Others like the young guard, Dahlan and Barghouti are either not ripe yet or in prison. Abbas is the only known quantity and since the conventional wisdom places him as a moderate, losing him would spell the end of the known and entry into the unknown. Chaos is sure to follow, is the assumption among many diplomats in the West.

Let’s call this Bluff #1.

At the same time this news is coming from the Palestinian leader, there is now a news-leak published today in Ha’aretz, that Salam Fayyad’s decision to create the infrastructure of a state may have actually received such a warm reception in the West, that not only EU countries are receptive to taking the next step and actually permitting the declaration of a Palestinian state but even the Obama administration has secretly consented to support the creation of such a state.

The plan specifies that at the end of a designated period for bolstering national institutions the PA, in conjunction with the Arab League, would file a “claim of sovereignty” to the UN Security Council and General Assembly over the borders of June 4, 1967 (before the outbreak of the Six-Day War, during which Israel took control of the West Bank and Gaza).

Fayyad is also seeking a new Security Council resolution to replace Resolutions 242 and 338 in the hope of winning the international community’s support for the borders of a Palestinian state and applying stronger pressure on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank.

Let’s call this Bluff #2.

A good set of bluffs deserves a third bluff that isn’t of the same order, but helps to define the critical importance of the key bluffs it is supporting. Let’s call it Bluff #3:

Following Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ announcement that he would not run for another term, a senior Fatah official told Ynet that if serious progress was not made soon in peace talks, the organization would consider reverting to popular warfare.

The source said Saturday that more and more Fatah operatives were calling for a return to violent resistance.

“We are not talking about terror attacks and weapons, but we are talking about protests and (throwing) stones, like the anti-fence protests, and about strikes and protests by the people, so that the world understands that the next step will be unpleasant and we go back to the way things were before Oslo.”

Wanna bet that senior official is Saeb Erakat?

UPDATE: The day after this post was written, it was reported that Abbas was threatening to dissolve the Palestinian Authority and declare the peace process dead. Bluff #3a, anybody?

Okay, back to my first post about the Palestinian endgame – wherein I propose that in this upcoming period which is supposed to last several years has the Palestinians entering a new stage in their war against Israel, one where they continue to delay a peace deal until they end up with a world that supports a single state solution. In the discussion that followed, I was asked why Fayyad would propose a state if I was right. My response was that it’s a win-win threat to make. It scares the Israelis and may get them to make additional concessions to avoid this outcome, and if it doesn’t scare the Israelis and somehow a Palestinian state comes into being, the manner of its coming into being will ensure that they can proceed to demand the rest of Israel. The process of seeking to make Israel into part of Palestine continues in one way or another.

Well, here we are and things are moving apace, certainly faster than I predicted. Let’s review:

**Across the world, Palestinian groups are teaming up with scholars, unions and other leftists to push hard on an academic, cultural and economic boycott movement. They are garnering minor successes, some failures as well but mostly a ton of publicity much of which depicts Israel in hideous terms.

**The same groups have come to use the language of apartheid to attack Israel.

**These groups are parading Jewish sympathizers as the face of their movements.

**The Sixth Fatah Congress voted not to come to peace with Israel unless all of Jerusalem is Palestinian. In the same Congress they voted to keep refugee camps open for propaganda purposes, they voted to incorporate into Fatah one of the most violent groups in the West Bank/Judea and Samaria and they voted to continue to push against Israel internationally using the apartheid model. They also informed the world through statements by people like Dahlan that contrary to previous Palestinian claims, the Fatah charter had never been changed to remove the paragraphs calling for elimination of Israel and denying the Jewish connection to Israel.

**Throughout the years during which Arafat and then Abbas ruled over the Palestinian Authority, the hysterical Israel bashing in the schools and Palestinian media has continued unabated.

**There has been no positive response to any Israeli actions towards the Palestinians. For example, about 25% of checkpoints have been removed, an entire PA army has been subsidized and armed and Israel protected the PA government from Hamas in Judea and Samaria/West Bank. The rhetoric against Israel remained aggressive and negative.

**Last year, Mahmoud Abbas said “no” to an offer of peace and a state by Israel that included the Taba Plan based on the Clinton Parameters and additionally addressed the complex problem of coming to a settlement on Jerusalem by offering to internationalize it.

**Abbas came up with a new demand once Netanyahu came into power: no negotiations until total settlement freeze. A few months earlier he rejected a generous offer by Olmert. An aide to Abbas told the Washington Post that the delay was intended to bring down Netanyahu’s government within two years. The apparent basis for this thinking is that Obama will not stand for an Israeli government that isn’t offering peace.

**Abbas has now announced that he is tired of the games and since Israel won’t play along with him, he is not running in the Palestinian election he called for January.

**A warning trial balloon is floating higher and higher now with the claim that the Palestinians will not only declare a state, but will get the UN Security Council to vote for acceptance on such a state that includes all of east Jerusalem, 1949 armistice lines and superseding UNSC resolutions 242 and 338 which effectively means that all of the West Bank/Judea and Samaria up to the Green Line becomes the new Palestine.

Whew.

Well, the bluffs here are as follows: #3, returning to low ebb civilian violence against Israel; #2 declaring a Palestinian state; #1 Abbas going away.

#3 may happen, but is unlikely to happen because the Palestinian economy is doing well right now and people are tired of the fight. They’ll get some good demonstrations in there, but a full-blown society-wide civil insurrection seems highly unlikely. The Palestinians also need to be careful not to start using suicide bombings again because it worked against them last time.

#2 may happen, but everybody must know that there is absolutely no way that Israel would ever again leave the Western Wall or the Temple Mount. Since the trial balloon floated here provides the Palestinians with everything the Jordanians and Egyptians held in 1949, including the Temple Mount and the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem, there is no way Israel would ever permit this to happen. In other words, the world would be signing off on an interminable war. I doubt that any serious thinking western diplomat would ever let their governments go that route.

#1 Abbas wants sympathy and to achieve this he is striving to look like the underdog while underscoring how important he is to the peace process. He wants to be courted back to the dance by the powers out there because it gives him further leverage in any future peace discussions. It’s called playing hard to get.

It is plain to see that the Abbas/Fayyad duo are a pair of shrewd operators. Despite the heartwarming calls of “moderates” by European and American diplomats, however, the entire panoply of Palestinian activities over the past several years points to a different type of campaign against Israel. This time they are using supposed moderate stances in public while ensuring that their anti-Israel activities abroad and with their own population become more robust.

What is most worrisome is that they appear to be following the “stages” plan in which the idea is to move forward against Israel in stages, as circumstances permit, using every new stage as the starting point of a new cycle of doing whatever needs to be done to get to the next stage. The ultimate goal has not changed and that’s the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state in favor of an Arab-led Palestinian state.

So I say, let Abbas go. Drop him like a hot potato. So much for bluff #1.

Tell Fayyad that Jerusalem will have to be negotiated in good faith because even if a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood takes place, or especially if one takes place, then there won’t be any chance of a settlement, just a war. So much for bluff #2.

Low-ebb intifadahs are not an existential threat to Israel. Violence will rebound against the Palestinians. So much for bluff #3.

Finally, tell Israelis not to panic. Ignore the bluffing. Get Iron Dome and other anti-missile systems into place; continue to build the neighborhoods ringing Jerusalem but keep the upper hand by stopping contruction in Judea and Samaria/West Bank anywhere outside of the 3% envelope near the Green Line offered by Barak at Taba; put on a diplomatic counter-offensive informing the western powers that the red line is the Jewish part of east Jerusalem – a red line that leads to inevitable war.

Then, offer the Taba plan to the Palestinians again. Do it publicly and loudly.

Repeat this loud offer of peace and a Palestinian state every time somebody complains there isn’t peace. Because there could be peace tomorrow…if the Palestinians would stop believing and being led to believe by naive American administrations and pro-Arab European diplomats that their endgame will lead to either 1949 armistice lines with the right to pursue the rest of Israel, or a single state from the river to the sea.

UPDATE: Two days following this post, it was publicized that Abbas was angry at Fayyad for proposing a two state solution to world leaders as the Ha’aretz article reported. Fayyad’s office sent a denial to the media, claiming that no secret arrangements had been made with world leaders about a two state solution. Bluff? Truth? Delaying tactic?

Follow up: More About the Palestinian Endgame, where I include evidence about Palestinian intentions from Fayyad’s own two year plan…

The Anti-Hate Declaration: An Open Letter to the Toronto Palestine Film Festival
September 25, 2009

Let me state for the record that I am merely expressing my opinions and I do not advocate a boycott against TPFF. This is merely a protest letter.

I have been inspired by the letters of protest and boycott against the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival and have come to realize that as a member of the international internet, film, culture and media arts communities, I am deeply disturbed by the Toronto Palestine Film Festival’s decision to host a celebratory film festival in 2009 with an emphasis on certain types of Palestinian films. I protest that TPFF, whether intentionally or not, has become complicit in the Palestinian propaganda machine.

In 2009, Hamas, the ruling party in Gaza, was accused by the UNHRC’s Goldstone Report of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. In response, a Hamas minister announced to the press that the Palestinians were using “primitive rockets” and were actually aiming at army bases. This disingenuous response after the launching of 8000 rockets at Israeli civilian centers, including towns as far as Ashdod and Beersheva is clearly unsatisfactory and serves as no defense.

Not to be outdone, Fatah, the main party behind the Palestinian National Authority headed by Salim Fayyad and Mahmoud Abbas, held their Sixth Congress, in which they voted to maintain the right to “armed struggle:”

“The Fatah movement clings to the Palestinian people’s right to resist the occupation by all legitimate means, including the right to implement the armed struggle”

and especially to implementing:

“activities for escalating the international campaign for boycotting Israel, its products, and its institutions, utilizing the experience of South Africa.”

Fatah also voted to confront Israel if negotiations failed by

“the development of the struggle against apartheid and Israeli racism.”

Conveniently, the Palestinians are refusing to hold negotiations with Israel, as per the statements of a senior Palestinian official who divulged that Abbas plans to freeze talks with Israel because the Palestinian leadership believes this will cause a crisis with the US and bring down Netanyahu’s government within 2 years.

Perhaps even more disturbing than this intended campaign to equate Israel with South African apartheid as part of a strategic propaganda push at a time when both sides should be negotiating for peace, is Fatah’s vote to keep Palestinian refugee camps open. These are camps that have been around for 62 years and have seen 3 generations of people living in destitution and to a large extent on UN funds and donations. Importantly, this is also the only group of refugees on the planet whose refugee status extends beyond the first generation as per the UN’s own UN High Commission for Refugees. As the vote shows, these camps could be shut down, but they are not going to be and Fatah explained why: propaganda.

“Fatah considers it essential to preserve the refugee camps until the [refugee] problem is resolved, so that they will serve as fundamental political evidence…”

Using “refugee camps” and claims of “apartheid,” it is evident that Fatah and its political child, the Palestinian Authority, intend to pursue an international strategy of using propaganda modeled after the struggle against South African apartheid to attack Israel and promote the Palestinian cause. This will certainly deflect valid criticism of the Palestinian refusal to accept Israel’s offers of peace in 2000, 2001 and 2008 and continued reluctance to negotiate. Instead the idea seems to be to refocus the media and public opinion on “refugee camps” and “apartheid”- even if the refugees could move elsewhere and Israel has no apartheid.

Infuriatingly, this propaganda plan could well be a mere stop-gap in a larger endeavor to destroy Israel as Fatah spokesman Fahmi Al-Za’arir stated recently:

“It is not possible to rule out or to marginalize the military option…We know that every warrior has a [period of] rest – and also we know that this does not mean the end of the national battle, but only a wait to obtain the goals, and to give the leadership sufficient opportunity for political activity.”

Fatah violence against Israel was endemic after Israel’s peace offer of 2000 and aborted peace offer of 2001. Some reports at the time indicated that Fatah was responsible for more attacks against Israelis than all other Palestinian groups combined.

It needs to also be noted that the recent allegations by the United Nation’s Human Rights Council’s Goldstone Report that the attacks from Gaza against Israel may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity may also refer to Fatah since many of these attacks took place under Fatah rule of Gaza.

All of this is relevant to Toronto in September 2009 when the second Toronto Palestine Film Festival is scheduled to launch. On the Festival’s Advisory Board are Richard Fung and John Greyson who protested and boycotted (respectively) the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. Their reasons, stated in separate letters and interviews, strangely echo Fatah’s propaganda efforts. Specifically, comparisons between South Africa and Israel are made, as is the charge of apartheid against Israel.

Also on the TPFF board are members of CAIA, the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid, at least two of whose publicly listed members, Mazen Masri and Jenny Peto, have been involved in the protest and boycott against the 2009 TIFF and its City to City program which highlighted Tel Aviv cinema. CAIA has been active for Palestinian causes in Toronto, often with another organization called Palestine House which “conceived” the TPFF. Both appear to advocate or at least support a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict which would likely eliminate Israel’s identity as a Jewish state.

On its website, TPFF states that it,

“welcomes audiences of all backgrounds to experience the vibrant heritage, resilience and culture of the Palestinian people, while celebrating film as an art form and means of expression.”

Yet surface claims such as this are contradicted by John Greyson, who, in his Open Letter to the TIFF, gave an entirely different explanation of the intent of a screening which he helped organize for TPFF. He wrote,

“I’m helping organize a screening in September for the Toronto Palestinian Film Festival…that profiles Ezra Nawi, the queer Israeli activist jailed for blocking army bulldozers…a strategic, specific choice, and one that has triggered many productive discussions.

What kind of conversations would those be? Are those the conversations that would make Israel into a state that has no Jewish identity? In the same letter, Greyson stated that the fight against Israel reminds him of the fight against South Africa. A filmmaker who boycotted a film festival for showing Israeli films as part of a program about an Israeli city, and who earlier boycotted a gay and lesbian film festival in Tel Aviv because of its location, makes a “strategic, specific” film selection for TPFF that depicts Israel critically. This is the same individual who writes in his letter that he is moved to act against Israel because of similarities to South Africa. Isn’t this exactly what Fatah sought in voting to “escalat[e] the international campaign for boycotting Israel…utilizing the experience of South Africa.”

TPFF’s mission statement states that the festival seeks to “celebrat[e] film as an art form and means of expression,” but this seems to be an empty statement given the absence of certain types of films. Films boycotted and protested by TPFF Advisory Board members at this year’s TIFF’s City to City program presented views critical of Israel, Israeli society and the conflict between Arabs and Israelis. However, there appear to be no films presented at TPFF that present Palestinian violence against Israel from a critical standpoint or that positively show or depict Israeli peace efforts and offers of a state to the Palestinians.

Also seemingly absent are films that seriously depict challenges faced by minorities in Palestinian society, unless the blame is placed on Israel, and despite the thousands of terrorist attacks by Gazan Palestinians against Israeli civilian communities over a period of the last 8 years, attacks that have been accused by the UNHRC’s Goldstone Report of allegedly amounting to severe human rights violations including war crimes and crimes against humanity, the films at TPFF that discuss Gaza are almost exclusively critical of Israel.

The TPFF states that it was “conceived to introduce Toronto audiences to the richness and diversity of Palestine and Palestinians” and yet this frame for its films ignores not only the suffering of thousands of Israelis who have endured thousands of rocket attacks for many years, but its 2009 program seems to also avoid films about Palestinians inside Gaza who were made to suffer severely – including torture and death – by Hamas, or films about the tragedies of many Christian and gay Palestinians who live in challenging conditions or have left to other countries because of intimidation or violence directed at their own communities by other Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank. There also appears to be no mention of the Jordanian decision to revoke the citizenship of their Palestinians citizens. At TPFF there is apparently only one enemy to the Palestinians: Israel.

The TPFF’s programming emphasis on films that attack Israel while minimizing or eliminating films about topics such as challenges for minorities in Palestinian society, Palestinian actions against Israeli civilians, Palestinian demonization of Israel and its supporters, and the harsh realities for some Palestinians because of Hamas rule in the Gaza strip, is like rhapsodizing about the beauty of the beaches or the superb cuisine in Cuba without acknowledging the corresponding despotic and sometimes brutal regime that governs the island.

I do not protest the individual Palestinian filmmakers included in TPFF, nor do I in any way suggest that Palestinian films should be unwelcome in Toronto. However, especially in the wake of the past 8 years of brutal assaults and alleged war crimes on Israel from Gaza and the West Bank, as well as dozens of successful suicide bombings (and many more attempted ones that failed) against Israeli civilians from Fatah-affiliated groups, as well as the intense international demonization of Israel which often blends into demonization of Israel’s supporters, particularly Jewish ones, and the ongoing efforts to ignore serious peace overtures that have been made to the Palestinians by Israel, and especially the glossing over of the difficulties facing Palestinian minorities in their own society, it would appear that the frame TPFF has created for Palestinian films knowingly or unknowingly has politicized its entire festival and is playing Fatah’s and the Palestinian Authority’s propaganda cards.

That is disturbing because it makes me think that they are forcing audience members to cross an imaginary line that hovers between authenticity and integrity on the one side and propaganda on the other. TPFF, by selecting films that reveal only a segment of Palestinian life, by putting on a face of that society that selectively exposes only part of a larger picture, and by having advisory board members who have attacked the Tel Aviv program at TIFF while promoting films for TPFF (John Greyson’s mention of the Nawi film in his first Open Letter) has made their festival into a political forum mere months after Fatah voted to keep the refugee camps open and Hamas conducted operations continuing attacks against Israeli civilians culminating in a war launched by Hamas (Operation Oil Stain) against Israel that drew an inevitable and expectedly strong Israeli response.

What comes to mind are the words of Mahmoud Dahlan who protested the death of a 5 year old Palestinian boy killed by errant Palestinian rockets aimed at Israeli civilians, “What took place…is a national scandal… We should put an end to this by any means, by force, or by pursuing and convincing.” Force or pursuit may be appropriate for a Palestinian strongman but not for people who seek peace and justice in North America. Convincing is the way to act! The TPFF must be convinced through this protest to present an even-handed depiction of Palestinian society and the violence it has used against Israel and sometimes even other Palestinians in furtherance of its own goals.

[Based on the "protest" and "boycott" letters to the Toronto International Film Festival]

For more Jewlicious.com reading about this:

The original investigative post connecting the Palestine House Media to the “protest” letter writers to the Toronto Film Festival

National Post in Canada reports about our inquiries regarding the strange phone number used for Palestine House activities

Palestine House and an Activist respond to the question of their involvement in the protest and boycott against the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival.

The Daily Lie

Exposing Naomi Klein’s Boycott Denial

Response to the “protest” letter against TIFF, 2009

Response to John Greyson’s letter to TIFF, 2009

Olmert’s offer to the Palestinians

Abbas choosing to stall on peace talks. Again.

The PA did not change its charter as per their Oslo obligations. This was recently publicly confirmed before the Fatah conference by two of Fatah’s leaders including Dahlan.

Israel’s peace offer at Taba.

Six Day War Anniversary Post

Nope. This isn’t about a free Birthright Israel trip (although registration for winter begins Sept. 8th and you can go with us – more info here), or any kind of flashy contest with cool prizes. The Ticket to Jerusalem Project is a simple concept, really. All you have to do is create any kind of artwork called “Ticket To Jerusalem”. Do it on a thick horizontal piece of paper, 8×3″ (20×8 cm), the size of conventional airplane ticket or boarding pass. Attach a stamp, add a return address and mail it WITHOUT an envelope to: Radik Shvarts, PO Box 245614, Brooklyn, NY, 11224, USA. The project deadline is January 1st, 2010 and all entries will posted online. Most of them will also be exhibited internationally and featured in a book titled “Ticket To Jerusalem” that will be published in 2010. Every person, whose artwork is featured in the book will get a free copy.

That’s it! So far the site features a pretty eclectic collection of 41 pieces of ticket art and, and… I don’t know what to say. It’s kind of sweet because there seems to be no underlying political message. No one’s trying to sell you anything, it’s just this very whimsical thing that is a pure celebration of creativity. OK so it is sponsored by the UJA Federation of New York, and COJECO (a central coordinating body in the Russian Jewish community of NY that works towards successul integration of Russian Jews into American Jewish life) but so what? Good on them for being involved in something that’s this much… fun!