Submitted by James Besser on Fri, 07/09/2010 - 14:31
In a world where Israel has fewer and fewer friends, Jewish groups here increasingly face a choice: do they treat Israel's critics as implacable adversaries? Or do they look for ways to work with some critics and perhaps change their mind on some issues?
Increasingly, muscular pro-Israel groups take the first approach; the second, which defines the whole Jewish community relations movement, is in disfavor in many Jewish circles.
(JTA) — President Obama said he will not press Israel when it comes to nuclear issues.” The United States will never ask Israel to take any steps that would undermine its security interests,” Obama said Tuesday after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, referring to a conversation they had on Obama’s efforts to have more countries abide by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Critics of Israel’s Gaza blockade are too quick to ignore the harsh realities leaders in Jerusalem face in dealing with a Hamas government that has turned Gaza into a launching pad for new terrorist attacks — and which continues to hold kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
AJC event focuses on Israel’s relief work in Haiti and beyond.
07/06/2010
Merri Rosenberg
Special To The Jewish Week
Although it probably hadn’t been planned that way, the Westchester American Jewish Committee’s fourth annual “Israel…New Perspectives” gala, focusing on Israel’s humanitarian efforts around the world, offered a particularly timely counter-programming message to the fallout from the Gaza flotilla raid.
I’m a rationalist. I’m not into mysticism or spirituality or New Age stuff. An “intellectual,” I like to fancy myself. Yet there I was in Jerusalem one Saturday morning a few weeks ago, putting two kvitels, little notes, into the crevices of the Western Wall. One was a petition for a friend; the other a personal plea. I laughed to myself as I pressed them deep into the cracks, knowing that like untold others, I somehow ascribe special powers to that Wall and the missives it bears. I had done this before and will do it again. So much for rationalism.
The increasingly popular claim that Zionism and liberalism are incompatible misreads contemporary Israeli politics, modern Zionism and liberalism itself.
Zionism, like Americanism, is a form of liberal nationalism, one of the world’s most constructive, successful ideologies. Liberalism and Zionism remain not just compatible but mutually reinforcing.
Submitted by James Besser on Tue, 07/06/2010 - 12:04
U.S.-Israel summits are generally pretty predictable affairs, but today's Barack Obama – Benjamin Netanyahu meeting takes the honey cake.
A kiss-and-make-up session, we learned weeks ago. A chance for Netanyahu to demonstrate all the “unprecedented” things he's done to advance the peace process, to use a word that pro-Israel groups here can't seem to get enough of. An opportunity for Obama, chastened by the intense political reaction to his earlier dealing with Netanyahu, to show he's a nice guy who really likes Israel and can get along with Netanyahu.
Submitted by Jonathan Mark on Tue, 07/06/2010 - 09:55
Prof. Robert (Yisrael) Aumann, the 2005 Nobel Prize winner in economics for his work on "game theory" analysis (see his excellent accceptance speech here), was born in Germany only to have emigrated two weeks before Kristallnacht. He has often applied game theory to the Israel-Arab conflict, exploring the reasons why Israel seems to be negotiating its surrender rather than a serious and lasting peace.
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Some 120 young Jewish innovators have gathered in Israel for a global summit.
The ROI Global Summit for Young Jewish Innovators, which began Sunday and runs four days, has brought together Jewish business and social entrepreneurs, innovators, thinkers and artists from all over the world to discuss how to strengthen Jewish education and identity, Jewish arts and culture, environmental responsibility, and tikkun olam, repair of the world.
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Turkey's foreign minister has threatened to cut ties with Israel unless it apologizes for its deadly interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla, a Turkish newspaper reported.
“Israelis have three options: They will either apologize or acknowledge an international-impartial inquiry and its conclusion. Otherwise, our diplomatic ties will be cut off,” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Sunday.
