Jacob, Bart, and Homer seek salivation in Israel

In other news of the week:

Jason Horowitz, writing in The Washington Post, profiles Senator Al Franken of Minnesota. The freshman Senator with the least seniority in the U.S. Senate came to DC and tried to be very serious and squelch his comedy. It backfired. He was seen as nasty and sarcastic, and this is no way to make friends and inflience people in the Congress. Now, six months later, he has learned from his errors, and has become more jocular. In the words of the late Gerald Boyd, you have to “bring your whole self to the job.”

In The New York Times, Israel’s Ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, writes that this is NOT the lowest point in Israel US relations, and lays out Israel’s POV on the recent events.

Rory Fitzgerald, in the UK Jewish Chronicle, writes about Irish and Jewish solidarity, James Joyce, and Bloom, in time for Saint Patrick’s Day.

And speaking of James Joyce, Rabbi Michael J. Broyde and Rabbi Shlomo Brody, leaders in the American Orthodox Jewish community write in The Jewish Press about “Homosexuality And Halacha: Five Critical Points.” While too long to paraphrase it, they do end with, “…The Orthodox community currently faces two incredibly serious problems: heterosexual promiscuity and financial misconduct. We live, alas, in an era of scandals, an era in which chassidic rebbes go to jail for money-laundering and rabbis are arrested for selling organs, while blogs accuse rabbis who are running conversion courts of manipulations and sexual vices with candidates for conversion. These scandals reflect larger trends within our community of widespread betrayal and disloyalty: to the other gender, including spouses; to business associates; to the greater Orthodox community; and, ultimately, to Torah and mitzvot. Halacha condemns homosexual acts, but the phenomenon of “Orthodox homosexuals” does not represent a major threat to the integrity of our community. Ultimately, we are afraid that disproportionate condemnation of this phenomenon gives unproductive focus to a red herring, leading to inappropriate responses to individual struggles and distracting us from the central problems truly plaguing our community….”

Speaking of red herrings, the Jewish Museum in London has reopened this week in Camden Town after a major facelift and 10 million pound (4.2 million from lottery funds.) A fun visit if you are in town. Try the Yiddish karaoke.

In closing, last week, it was mentioned the there was a big party to rededicate one of Cairo’s synagogues, restored by Egypt’s government. This week, the ministry announced that the “inauguration” of the Ben Maimon synagogue has been canceled due to insulting behavior by Jews (there was toasting with alcohol at the earlier party on March 7), and because Israel provokes Muslims. Egypt’s Jewish community numbered 80,000 in the 1940s and numbers about three dozen, currently.

And the worst part is you didn’t even send over any Michal Negrin as an apology.

A little while back, I had the bitter pleasure of criticizing the J Street student division for having a challenging time describing themselves – and ultimately they rejected the description – as “pro-Israel.”

It turns out the J Street students were prescient. They were merely expressing publicly what J Street, the organization, would demonstrate a few months hence.

Today, J Street went on the offensive.

…The Obama administration’s reaction to the treatment of the Vice President last week and to the timing and substance of the Israeli government’s announcement was both understandable and appropriate.

As Vice President Biden said, “Sometimes only a friend can deliver the hardest truth.” That is what he, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod have done in recent days – and J Street, along with many friends of Israel, stands solidly behind them.

Um, false.

It’s true that only a friend can deliver the hardest truth. However, when the friend starts frothing at the mouth yelling at his junior friend and then after a year of obvious failure, falls right back into his previous pattern of undermining the possibility of negotiations by creating undue expectations that he will deliver the friend on a platter to his nemesis, then the friend’s behavior is neither understandable nor appropriate. In fact, it harms the peace process while undermining Israel and unfairly laying the blame for any failures at its feet.

Then J Street offers their recommendation for an agreement:

We urge the United States to take this opportunity to suggest parameters to the parties for resuming negotiations – basing borders on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed land swaps, with the Palestinian state demilitarized and on territory equivalent to 100% of the area encompassed by the pre-1967 Armistice lines.

Hmmmm, where have I heard that before?

Oh wait, I know!! First I heard Israel offer that to the Palestinians at Taba and then I heard Israel offer it to the Palestinians in 2008. The first time, it led to nothing but more violence, and the second time it led to nothing and a couple of months later we had Cast Lead.

The Obama administration will find vast support among American Jews and other friends of Israel for a bold new approach that aims to advance that interest and guarantees Israel a secure, democratic and Jewish future.

Yes it would.

Which is why most sane supporters of Israel realize that Obama has just stumbled again, just as he did when he first came to power and gave the Palestinians a reason to do nothing for an entire year, by demanding that the Israelis unilaterally stop all settlement construction and including east Jerusalem, part of Israel’s capital. They anticipated more pressure on Israel and did nothing while it was pending.

Now we are back to square one. It’s easy to blame it on Israel, especially if one rejects Netanyahu’s explanation that he had no idea that new construction in Ramat Shlomo would be announced on the eve of new talks with Biden visiting as a gesture of goodwill. However, even if this is true, and chances are it is NOT true, the last thing the US should have done is go on the warpath with Israel.

Ramat Shlomo is a Jewish neighborhood in a part of Jerusalem that will remain in Israeli hands. Building there is certainly part of the consensus of Israeli society both on the Left and the Right. If you’re offended about the timing of the announcement, that is fair. However, an apology was made at the highest levels and making a big stink over construction there is inappropriate, particularly since it plays into the hands of the Palestinians who are on the other side of these negotiations.

It also interferes, in a fundamental way, with Israel’s sovereignty. Contrary to the opinion of some commentaries out there, Israel is not a child and does not require hand-holding or scolding. The complexities of Israel’s existence are perhaps difficult to comprehend these days where the primary opponent has become the Palestinians, not so much other Arab states, and where the “settlements” have become the perceived stumbling block and not Palestinian refusal to compromise or negotiate. However, Israel is a sovereign state, and it has the right to govern itself.

In fact, as we watch Hillary berating Netanyahu like he’s a five year old dipping his hand into the cookie jar, and Oren being treated by the Administration as Israel treats the envoy of a country whose leader goes around the world accusing Israel of war crimes and intentional murder of Palestinian children, one wonders what the Americans expect to happen. Do they think the Palestinians will now negotiate in good faith? Or do they think the Palestinians will realize they’ve now bought another year or so? Do they think the Palestinians will offer any significant concession, or gain brazenness and complacency – as we’ve already seen with their subsequent commemoration of a square to a terrorist who murdered Israeli civilians? Do they think the Israeli public will trust the Americans to be honest brokers, or that they will come to view this administration with wariness and distrust, thus undermining any concessions Israel could have made that now will appear to be forced upon Israel and against its best interests?

One thing is certain. If Obama would apply to his Iranian problem the same vigor he applies to castigating Israel, insulting its leaders and undermining the prospect of bringing the parties to the negotiating table by weakening Israel’s position, Iran would have stopped or at least slowed its nuclear plans long ago.

I guess we have our own amateurs running the place.

Which is all to say that once again J Street is in the wrong and as a friend to Israel the best thing it could do is reject the US administration’s misplaced full-court press on Israel and try to bring the two countries back to the equilibrium which existed before Obama came to power. That will enhance the already remote prospects for peace faster than any other approach.

Thoughtful piece on how to direct our energies on Israel.

Engaging Israel: Beyond Advocacy By Donniel Hartman(09/03/2010)

Since Operation Cast Lead and the subsequent Goldstone Report, there has been an increasing sense that anti-Israeli opinion has moved beyond criticism of some of Israel’s actions and policies to the delegitimization of the Zionist project as a whole. ….

In Israel and throughout the Jewish world there has been a marshalling of forces to develop materials, programs, and new advocates to make the case for Israel. The aim of these programs is to combat distortions and present Israel’s side of the facts. However important and valuable these efforts are, they often fail to achieve their end. When the case for Israel is grounded only on a factual narrative it is often unconvincing to those who hold a counter factual perception. In general, positions are rarely formed purely around facts, but rather by ideological, moral, and psychological propensities which then construct factual narratives to reinforce the preexisting commitment.

The concentration on the above form of Israel advocacy, while valuable in educating the completely uninformed, overlooks an audience which in my mind needs to be a major focus of our efforts, and for whom current Israel advocacy either is unnecessary or ineffective. I am referring to the mainstream Jewish community itself, which has been raised to care about Israel and is now finding that the foundations of its connection is being undermined.

The reality is that the majority of committed Jews, for the most part, lack a language to understand or articulate their feelings about Israel and their desire to continue to support it. This leaves them vulnerable and exposed by the campaign of delegitimization, for they do not possess a framework from which to combat it.

The reason for this predicament is the fact that since its inception the standard arguments for support of Israel amongst world Jewry no longer resonate with most Jews, especially those 50 years and younger. These arguments can be divided into three. We must support Israel either because:

1.
Israel is necessary as a safe haven in the event of a new Holocaust;
2.
The survival of the State of Israel is in danger;
3.
Israel is a central ally in the West’s war against the “Axis of Evil.”

Besides being mutually contradictory, a common feature of all three as stated is that are increasingly irrelevant. Most Jews in North America feel increasingly at home in their societies and do not feel called to combat the urgency of the threat of a potential Holocaust. Secondly, their political consciousness regarding Israel was not formed by the angst preceding the Six Day War, or by the precariousness of Israel’s existence exposed in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Their first war as adults was the war in Lebanon in 1982 and then there was the Intifada. They were raised on the story of Israel’s power and military might. Protecting Israel from its “stronger” neighbors is not a meaningful or persuasive argument. Finally, as voting patterns in the Jewish community in North America have revealed, most do not see the war against the “Axis of Evil” as either central or compelling to their lives and an enterprise to which they want to contribute.

It is time for us to recognize that the Jewish community in general and Israel in particular have failed to develop a new Jewish narrative for the Jewish people around the world on which to base their relationship with Israel. Jewish organizations and Israel have held steadfast to the three arguments above for they were successful in creating a crisis-centered relationship with Israel which was effective in raising money. These actions, however, have mortgaged our future on the altar of immediate and short-term institutional needs. Repayment is now due, and the resources are lacking.

The Jewish community is not in need of an Israel advocacy campaign of facts and figures alone, but also of a new Jewish narrative based on Jewish ideas and values for engaging Israel in a way that will help integrate Israel into a modern Jewish identity. Jews today need to be able to address crucial questions for which they currently do not know the answer. For example: What is the role of “peoplehood” in modern Jewish identity? What is the meaning and purpose of Jewish sovereignty connected to territory rooted in the land of Israel to modern Jewish life? What are the requirements of morality of war, and how can Israel use its power in a way that is consistent with the highest standards of Jewish morality and values? How does Israel balance its legitimate right of self defense with the rights of others? Can a Jewish state be reconciled with the values of Jewish pluralism and freedom? Does the aspiration for a Jewish state automatically define Israel as a racist, apartheid state?

These are just some of the questions that need to be addressed and answered by this new Jewish narrative of Israel and Zionism. If one cannot answer them, there is neither a foundation for connecting to Israel nor the ability to sustain a viable and meaningful relationship. We need to educate and empower the Jewish community to engage Israel in a meaningful way before we can even think about asking them to advocate on its behalf.

Israel has been formed under almost impossible conditions and is still a young and deeply imperfect democracy. Not only are we not beyond criticism, we are in dire need of committed voices within our community who will lovingly challenge Israel to not accept the status quo and to continue to strive higher. If engaging Israel will be successful it will be so only because we will find a way to integrate commitment to Israel within a larger Jewish value conversation and invite people of all political and religious sensibilities to be engaged and participate in thinking about and shaping the unfinished experiment which is modern Israel.

President Barak Obama, prior to being elected, stated, at the 2008 AIPAC Conference, “Jerusalem will remain the capitol of Israel, and it must remain undivided.” (Watch his full speech here. This statement occurs at 18:58). So, if Jerusalem is the undivided capitol of Israel, how is building in the eastern half of the city any different than building in the western half? Its all part of the same undivided capitol, is it not?. Yet, the Obama administration has been all in an uproar regarding Israel’s announcement of its approval of the building of 1,600 housing units in Ramat Shlomo, a neighborhood in east Jerusalem. Recent comments by the Obama administration have been called “especially troubling” by the ADL and “very worrying” by AIPAC. So what is it? Did Obama mean that Jerusalem is, and ought to be, the undivided capitol of Israel, or not? Or was he merely pandering for the “Jewish [and Zionist] vote?”

In that same speech (at 25:11), Obama, also, said, “I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon – everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Everything.” Did he mean that, as well? Or does be plan on “flip-flopping” on that as well? Only time will tell. But, let us hope that, on this, the Obama administration does not intend to have a change of heart.

It’s about time, no?

The Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, (the “Malam”), headed by Colonel (Res). Reuven Erlich, has released a 500 page report refuting the Goldstone Report. In a summary published in the Jerusalem Post, the report is described to mostly focus on Hamas’ activities during Operation Cast Lead, including its use of humanitarian and/or civilian structures, such as “mosques, hospitals, ambulances and schools,” as shields and launch sites. For example, over 100 mosques and hospitals were used as Kassam launch sites. A video, also, shows the use of children as human shields by Hamas.

Rather than tell you all about it, and give you my opinion on it (since I don’t really have time to read and fully analyze it at present), you can find the English version of the document here.  Below is the table of contents:

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Main Findings I

2. Part One: An examination of how the Goldstone Report relates to Hamas and the terrorist threat to Israel from the Gaza Strip before Operation Cast Lead 1

Section I –The historical-security context of Operation Cast Lead 10

Section II – The nature of Hamas and the other terrorist organizations operating in and from the Gaza Strip 13

Section III – Hamas-governmental support for terrorism: the de facto Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip 32

Section IV – The Hamas-led military buildup in the Gaza Strip 45

Section V – The increase in terrorism from the Gaza Strip and the events leading to Operation Cast Lead 56

Section VI – Rocket and mortar shell fire during and after Operation Cast Lead 95

Section VII– External support for terrorism: Iran and Syria support the buildup of the military infrastructures 103

3. Part Two: The Use of Civilians in the Gaza Strip as Human Shields during Operation Cast Lead 108

Main Findings 110

Section I – Hamas’ combat doctrine for urban areas and its implementation in Operation Cast Lead 117

Section II – Hamas’ military use of public and administrative institutions and facilities during Operation Cast Lead 143

Section III – Hamas’ combat tactics of fighting in densely-populated areas during Operation Cast Lead 195

4. Part Three: Integrating the Hamas police and internal security services in military-terrorist activity both routinely and during Operation Cast Lead 262

Main Findings 265

Section I – Integrating the police and other internal security services into the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades 268

Section II – Cooperation between the police, other internal security services and the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades during Operation Cast Lead 288

Section III – Police and other internal security operatives with double identities killed during and after Operation Cast Lead 297

Section IV – Sayid Siyyam as a case study: Portrait of the interior and national security minister of the de facto Hamas administration, killed by the IDF in Operation Cast Lead, an example of the double identities of senior security figures 309

5. Appendix I: Analysis of the Ratio between the Military Operative and Civilian Casualties

during Operation Cast Lead 312

Section I: Main findings of a statistical study carried out by the Israeli defense establishment compared with data from Hamas and Palestinian NGOs in the Gaza Strip 315

Section II: Reasons for the statistical divergences 317

Section III: Operation Cast Lead vs. Other Areas of Asymmetric Warfare 323

6. Appendix II: A selection of Intelligence and 325

Terrorism Information Center Bulletins Issued in recent years on issues relevant to the

Goldstone Report Overview 325

Links to Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center Bulletins on key issues 326

The Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip and its significance 326

Hamas’ essential nature and its military buildup 327

The Gaza Strip as focal point for anti-Israeli terrorist activity 327

The lull in the fighting and its unilateral termination by Hamas and subsequent deliberate escalation (June –December, 2008) 330

Using the civilian population as a human shields 331

The military use of administrative and public buildings 332

The police and other internal security services integrated with Hamas’ military terrorist wing 333

Palestinian Casualties during Operation Cast Lead 334

Documents Containing Basic Relevant Information 334

Serial publications 335

This is not an easy post to write.

As our readers know, I am a dedicated Zionist and strong supporter of Israel. It is with a heavy heart, then, that I must report a development today that will probably make the life of one Palestinian a truly living hell.

Earlier today, Israeli forces in Ramallah captured a Hamas terrorist by the name of Maher Ouda. Ouda is in his mid-forties and accused of being involved in the murder of at least 10 Israelis and possibly as many as 70 Israelis.

Well, tough luck for Ouda because now he’s really going to suffer. In an Israeli prison.

How do I know this?

Because today, Marwan Barghouti, the Fatah terrorist leader widely held to be the “Nelson Mandela” of the Palestinians who will apparently merely need to be released in order to bring them to some sort of, uh, holy land, showed the world what it means to be incarcerated in an Israeli jail for the murder of four Israeli civilians and the attempted murder of one.

Yes indeed. Today, Marwan Barghouti completed his doctorate.

He has finished his thesis and other obligations!! He is going to be considered by a faculty committee at an Egyptian university as to whether he has completed all of his obligations towards a Ph.D.

Now at this point, you’re thinking, “Those horrid, vicious Israelis must have broken his thumbs so that he had to type with eight fingers.” Nope, it doesn’t say that in the story.

Maybe you’re thinking, “Surely some NGOs financed by Naomi Chazan’s New Israel Fund are planning to sue the Israel prison system for “shaking” Barghouti until all his knowledge spilled out.” Nope, as far as I know, the NGOs are busy undermining Israel with important accusations.

Your mind is telling you, “Well, hell, of course he had time to finish a doctorate, what else is he going to do?” Well, Israeli prisons permit conjugal visits, just ask Samir Kontar, the Lebanese terrorist and murderer who killed a little girl after murdering her dad in front of her and forcing her to watch. Yup, Samir got married and had conjugal visits during his horrendous stay in an Israeli prison.

Now you’re thinking, “Get outta here!”

Nope. It’s all true and I’m staying.

How did Barghouti get his degree?

Barghouti, 50, is one of several hundred Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons who enroll in studies at universities around the world, including in Israel.
…
Barghouti was able to complete his thesis with the help of hundreds of books and documents that Israeli authorities allow inmates to bring into prison.

Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are currently enrolled as students with the Open University of Israel, which facilitates their studies by allowing them to sit exams in jail.

You’re thinking, “Sure, only ‘hundreds’ of prisoners are enrolled in university studies, but there are thousands of Palestinian prisoners. Ha!”

Maybe so, but some are still completing their high school studies. They’ll have opportunities in future arrests, especially if murder is involved.

That’s right, all you need to do is murder or plan to murder some Israelis and then you get to study for a number of years, generally uninterrupted except for the pesky conjugal visits or management duties for your in-prison political machinery that influences Palestinians outside prison.

And you don’t really need to worry about the 4 life sentences imposed upon you by the dastardly Israelis because at some point a live or dead Israeli soldier will be traded for your release and that of a thousand or so others. It’s not a question of “if” but “when?”

The sweetest part of the story is that it’s obvious that Israel wants to help the international community support the Palestinians as much as possible. Sure, the Palestinians get billions of dollars in aid from UNWRA and other bodies, but they don’t need to waste that money on things like education. After all, the Israelis will take care of any gaps. You didn’t believe me about the high school studies, but now you will:

Barghouti, who is also a Fatah member on the Palestinian Legislative Council, completed his high school exams while in Israeli prison in 1980.

See? I told you this was a painful post to write. I can only imagine the pain Maher Ouda is going through right now as he decides whether to apply for an MA degree. Poli Sci or Sociology? If only the Zionist occupiers would stop with the newspapers, television and radio available in Arabic, Hebrew and English and start offering cooking and yoga classes!

And yet…

“Dr. Marwan Barghouti.”

It has a nice ring to it.

Dr. Marwan Barghouti Thanks His Jailers for Their Kind Offer to Subsidize His Education

I don’t love Hanania, but I find that he’s necessary. There are few bridges between the two sides in the Arab-Israeli conflict and as a writer, I believe he has positioned himself as a bridge. For evidence of this, consider that both Arab and Jewish readers tend to consistently criticize his editorials.

I think today’s editorial by Hanania, touching on the issue of apartheid week, may be one of the better articles I’ve seen by him and it deserves a full read. Yes, it’s flawed, and yes, there are debatable points that are raised by him. However, there is also a great deal of truth and it’s worth thinking about. Here is some of it, but it’s worth a full read.

THE WORD apartheid does not really apply accurately to the Palestinian-Israel conflict. The word occupation does. But the rejectionists no longer like the word occupation. Apartheid symbolizes the creation of one state, while occupation fuels the movement to create two.

In misusing the word apartheid, the rejectionists and their angry, blind followers are pushing toward reenacting the transformation of South Africa in Israel and Palestine.

Palestinians who support “apartheid week” do so either out of sinister hatred of Jews, or out of blind, unreasoning anger that simmers because they can’t properly vent. The inability to release pent up anger empowers the rejectionist minority but stems from the failures of Palestinians and Arab leadership.

When Arabs couldn’t defeat Israel, they turned toward demonization. And when demonization didn’t work enough, they simply exaggerated the truth. Exaggeration is a common trait among Arabs and Israelis, too.

It’s not easy for Israelis to deal with. Israelis also come in two categories, those who hate Arabs and those who are angry with Arabs but don’t know how to deal with the issue of justice and compromise.

Most Israelis simply denounce anyone who uses the word apartheid as anti-Semitic – another abused word used as a bludgeon for those who criticize Israel.

The word anti-Semitic is to Palestinians what apartheid is to Israelis.

I could ask Palestinians, won’t it make the creation of a Palestinian state that much harder to achieve if they put all their bets onthe word apartheid? I could ask Israelis, doesn’t it show a weakness in your beliefs if you are so afraid of one simple word?

Maybe the answer is that both Palestinians and Israelis live in the dark shadows of one real truth – that they have done terrible things to each other over the years.

We all knew that Biden had a serious life-long case of foot-mouth disease. The man cannot help but make guffaws. But this trip to Israel was to be a make nice party, a chance for the US and Israel to rekindle their strong friendship and worry about BIG PROBLEMS like Iran.

Israel announced on the eve of his visit that it was halting the project that was causing so much fuss in East Jerusalem – Sheik Jarrah hood. (Remember that fake Purim video purporting to be Jews celebrating with songs in praise of Baruch Goldstein?)

UPDATE – Apparently the remarks were in response to 1600 homes in Ramat Shlomo, Wiki writes :Ramat Shlomo was founded in 1995. As of 2000, it had a population of 18,000, mostly Haredi Jews. Ramat Shlomo borders Ramot to the west, Har Hotzvim to the south, and Shuafat to the east.

Apparently, that is the “provocation” that was needed for Biden to dump a ton of rotten shwarma on Israel.

Leave it to Joe. This from the JTA:

Biden says Israeli housing starts ‘undermining’ trust

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Vice President Joe Biden denounced a decision to authorize new Jerusalem housing starts as “undermining the trust” that he needs to advance peace while in Israel.

“I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem,” Biden said in a statement issued Tuesday, the second day of a visit that had been aimed at underscoring the closeness of the U.S.-Israel relationship. “The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel.”

In the long-standing Russian/Soviet/socialist tradition, don’t forget to wish your woman a Happy March 8th today-International Women’s Day.  The best way to celebrate this holiday is by cleaning the house in order to surprise her.

My favorite Jewish women?  Rachel Ben-Zvi. And Dr. Ruth, who was a Haganah sniper. And Samuelson. And, obviously, Rebecca Rubin.

Your favorite Jewesses?