Israel Palestine Blogs

Jiggity jig! Except not really.

Life, and the stuff of life, and the way that lives sometimes come to their conclusions — all these things have come together and will jointly keep me from doing much, if any, work this week. It is a week in which it turns out that, hey presto! Sometimes it’s good to be vastly underemployed.

It further turns out that being middle-aged is not all fun and games and reading good books and taking your kids to Disney World. Sometimes being middle-aged means finding yourself on the receiving end of heartbreaking phone calls that one could never have imagined two decades earlier; sometimes it just means that the bodies of those you love are falling into undignified decrepitude as rapidly as is your own. For me, this week, it also means surveying all that surrounds me every night when I go to sleep, and feeling an oceanic gratitude that I have so much of what too many have so little of.

I’m rambling, and this all sounds so vague and disjointed, in no small part because I’m writing from a hotel lobby in southwestern Wisconsin. This is where life brought me today. Tomorrow, it will bring me into the northern neighborhoods of Chicago; over the weekend, it will bring me back to Wisconsin, but to a different part. Unless I wind up back here, too. Shit happens, and right now, it’s happening all over my Middle West.

So this is a place-holder post. My hope is that I will post something a little more focused, with something akin to a point, tonight — but who can tell what the night will bring?

In the meantime, I will say this: Disney was a blast, and only in part because it was Disney. I am so lucky to be a part of my family.

I’ll be back as soon as I can.

Those who live behind its walls are still ruled by the Israeli state

From my latest in the National:

The former US president Jimmy Carter set off a firestorm in 2006 when he said that Israel would have to choose between maintaining an apartheid occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and …

Religion and State in Israel

February 8, 2010 (Section 1) (see also Section 2)

If you are reading in email or RSS feed, please click here to read ONLINE

Editor – Joel Katz

Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.

Court slams Katz for his approach to sex-segregated buses

By Ron Friedman www.jpost.com February 5, 2010

The High Court of Justice on Thursday criticized Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz’s decision to allow gender-segregated buses to continue operating, saying his suggestion to hang signs asking non-religious passengers to respect the haredi community’s sensitivities while explaining that the separation isn’t mandatory, was unsatisfactory.

“Perhaps you should put up signs against use of violence instead,” quipped Justice Yoram Danziger.

Anat Hoffman, director of the Israel Religious Action Center:

“I think the countdown started today about segregation as a religious expression in the Jewish state,” she continued.

“It’s a slippery slope. If signage makes it kosher, then next we are going to find segregated post offices, HMOs and sidewalks, all of which we already know examples of.”

Separate isn’t equal

Jpost.com Editorial www.jpost.com February 5, 2010

Public transport – regardless of the particular route – belongs to us all. Coercing any of us to capitulate to sectarian restrictions should be a non-starter in principle.

…A free society cannot countenance what amounts to a potential injustice to women. The rights of those who are liable to be wronged must override the rights of others to cause that wrong.

Resist Segregation

Forward.com Editorial www.forward.com February 3, 2010

The need to restrain the burgeoning power of Jewish fundamentalism in Israel grows ever more urgent. The latest flashpoint is public transportation.

…We fear that this continued diminishment of women’s rights will open up a dangerous wedge in the already fraught relationship between American Jews and Israel.

…Supporters of Israel must strongly protest Katz’s acquiescence to the segregationists. The right of Haredi men and women to live and worship as they please must be protected, of course. But Israel’s public sphere must be open to all. In a 21st-century democracy, no one should be relegated to the back of the bus.

Transportation minister OKs ‘mehadrin’ buses

By Ron Friedman www.jpost.com February 2, 2010

“The minister is trying to push a round peg through a square hole,” said Rabbi Uri Regev, director of Hiddush, a non-profit organization aimed at promoting religious freedom in Israel.

“What he’s saying is that the state won’t pass a law making the arrangement legal, but also wouldn’t do anything to stop it.”

“It’s not clear on what authority he rejected the committee’s determination that the separation involves violence and coercion against women.

How could such an arrangement be voluntary? How could verbal violence and pressure against a woman who boards the bus be prevented?” asked attorney Einat Hurvitz, who represented the plaintiffs in court.

Katz in favor of ‘voluntary’ bus segregation

By Kobi Nahshoni www.ynetnews.com February 1, 2010

Israel Religious Action Center criticized the Minister’s response to the court.

Attorney Einat Horowitz:

“The Minister’s stance also ignores the need to ensure a fitting alternative to anyone who wishes to travel in bus lines without segregation, and does not address at all the significant difference in prices that makes the Mehadrin bus lines much cheaper than what is offered to the secular public.”

Jerusalem city council member Rachel Azaria added, “The recommendation is purely political, and was written because Shas and Agudat Israel are strong in the government.

“A woman should not be forced to sit in the back of these lines because of the number of seats Shas has. Minister Katz has betrayed his constituents.

He is betraying the secular, traditional, religious, and even most of the haredi public – for the sake of haredi extremists. As a public representative he should remember that this is the public that is meant to vote for him when the time comes.”

‘Western Wall shouldn’t be a synagogue’

By Gil Hoffman and Rebecca Ann Stoil www.jpost.com February 4, 2010

The Western Wall should be a national site and not a synagogue, Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor said on Tuesday, in a revealing conversation in Tel Aviv about matters of religion and state with rabbis and leaders of the American and Israeli Conservative Movement.

Top American Conservative and Reform officials met this week with Meridor as well as with a number of other government ministers in separate and – according to the Reform Movement – uncoordinated meetings.

“The truth is that there is no equality between religious streams in Israel,” Meridor said. “There is no free market.

“What happened at the Western Wall bothers me. It doesn’t have to be a synagogue. It is a national site. I would change the status quo if I could, but it cannot be done with the current coalition.”

Regarding civil marriage, Meridor said it was “unacceptable” that Israeli couples who are unable or unwilling to marry in Israel via the rabbinate are forced to wed abroad.

Pushed from the Wall

By Rivka Haut Opinion www.haaretz.com February 5, 2010

Rivka Haut is co-editor with Phyllis Chesler of “Women of the Wall: Claiming Sacred Ground at Judaism’s Holy Site” (Jewish Lights, 2003), and co-editor with Adena Berkowitz of “Shaarei Simcha” (Ktav, 2007).

Many Haredim view public prayer and Torah reading as male activities. Women pray to God privately, not in groups.

The phenomenon of Women of the Wall conducting their own services in the absence of men, reading Torah, singing Hallel, threatens the Haredi way of life.

Rabbi Melamed: IDF chief rabbi’s rulings not binding

By Kobi Nahshoni www.ynetnews.com February 4, 2010

Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, who has recently angered the Defense Minister by promoting insubordination in the army, has come out with a new statement saying the Israel Defense Forces chief rabbi does not have the power to make halachic rulings binding to soldiers.

Speaking at a convention dubbed “The obligation of obeying a command and its limits”, held Tuesday at Efrat’s Shvut Israel hesder yeshiva, Melamed said military rabbis were swayed by wrongful considerations as well as army officers, and that this weakens the IDF rabbinate.

IDF: Religious Girls May Serve in Groups

By Gil Ronen www.israelnationalnews.com February 1, 2010

The IDF is offering a new service track for young religious women in the hope of attracting more of them to serve in the military.

The track will enable them to serve in groups of six or more girls who will remain together throughout their military service. The new option was presented this week before a group of 500 religious girls who are candidates for enlistment.

IDF to Remove ‘Jesus Gun’ Codes

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu www.israelnationalnews.com February 1, 2010

A Michigan company that supplies gun sights to Israel and other companies has agreed to provide a kit to remove the “JN8:12” code, a reference to the New Testament passage of John 8:12 that Jesus is the “light of the world.” Another type of the company’s gun sights is stamped with “2COR4:6,” a reference to part of the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians.

Former Shas Minister Aryeh Deri on Jewish identity and Heritage at the Herzliya Conference

Click here for VIDEO

February 2, 2010

Herzliya Conference panel on Jewish identity and Heritage

Former Education Minister Yuli Tamir and former Director, IDF Human Resources Directorate Elazar Stern in panel at Herzliya Conference on Teaching Jewish identity and Heritage

Click here for VIDEO

February 2, 2010

Former Shas leader: Secular Jews brought us ‘Big Brother’

By Yair Ettinger www.haaretz.com February 4, 2010

Secular Judaism “brought us Haskalah and maybe ‘Big Brother,’ but Jewish culture that provides a new Jewish language – this it did not bring,” former Shas leader Aryeh Deri said on Tuesday at the annual Herzliya Conference.

Deri lashes out at values of reality TV

By Gil Hoffman www.jpost.com February 2, 2010

Deri said that more haredim were quietly entering the work force, the IDF and universities. He joked that the secular would one day complain that haredim were taking over academia.

In thinly veiled criticism of Shas, he said he generally opposed religious coercion in legislation. But he praised Labor MK Shelly Yacimovich’s effort to promote greater enforcement of legislation banning work on Shabbat, which he said was important to prevent the exploitation of weaker sectors.

Rav Ovadia Yosef: A Woman Can Recite Kaddish for Parents in a Minyan at Home

By Ezra Reichman www.vosizneias.com February 1, 2010

Rav Ovadia Yosef has issued a trail-blazing if not original psak permitting a woman to recite Kaddish over her parents in a minyan at home. The psak is likely to arouse the chareidi rabbinical establishment against him.

The impending Haredi implosion

By Isi Leibler Opinion www.jpost.com February 4, 2010

Ongoing external threats have diverted us from confronting the burgeoning haredi crisis which is rapidly developing into a national disaster.

…We are now rapidly reaching the point in which able-bodied Haredim unwilling or unfit to join the workforce will comprise such a large proportion of society that the state welfare system will simply become unable to support them.

The other explosive issue is Haredi exemption from army service, which has no religious justification and continues generating enormous resentment.

…Another issue is the inclination of certain haredi rabbis to more stringently interpret the applications of Jewish ritual observance.

..in view of the explosive impending economic and political implications of the growing haredi population on the workforce and the IDF, haredim must be integrated into the mainstream and obliged to work and serve in the army or participate in national service.

Haredim return snatched body to police

By Efrat Weiss www.ynetnews.com February 3, 2010

A body of a woman snatched by a group of ultra-Orthodox men on Wednesday evening has been returned to the Jerusalem Police.

…”ZAKA commander in Jerusalem Bentzi Oring arrived to handle the body, but was also beaten and pushed by those violent people, although these actions contradict the Halacha and respect of the dead,” ZAKA spokesman Moti Bukjin told Ynet.

ZAKA officials said that Oring used his connections with the police and among extreme elements in the haredi sector in order to reach an arrangement with the body snatchers.

Are Haredi leaders losing their followers to the Web?

By Miriam Shaviv The Forward www.haaretz.com February 2, 2010

Are Israel’s Haredi religious authorities losing control of their followers?

In December, leading Israeli rabbis launched a new push to curtail Internet use among ultra-Orthodox Jews, emphasizing that their longstanding ban on Web surfing applied to sites geared toward the Haredi community as well.

Treasury chief: Boosting Arab and Haredi employment would make Israel rich

By Lior Zeno www.haaretz.com February 3, 2010

Israel would be among the world’s richest nations if Arabs and ultra-orthodox Jews could be brought into the economy, Israel’s top treasury official said on Wednesday.

“If two groups of people were left out of GDP calculations, Israel would rank among the foremost developed countries,” Ministry of Finance Director General Haim Shani said. “They are the Arabs and the Haredis.”

See also: Internal Popular Discourse in Israeli Haredi Society

By Kimmy Caplan, Zalman Shazar Center for Jewish History

Hanukkah parties, not chametz bills, will bring Jews closer to Judaism

By David Daman www.haaretz.com February 5, 2010

The writer is columnist for the ultra-Orthodox weekly Mishpacha.

It is time we let secular people know that we are taking our hands off religious legislation (except for laws with a direct bearing on the ultra-Orthodox public).

But at the same time we will explain that we don’t plan to give up on them, not even on one of them. We are determined to reach them everywhere they are.

We’ll bring them to lectures, seminars and symposia. We’ll see to it that every Jewish child knows about Shabbat, about the why of Passover and the how of Yom Kippur.

We will assist organizations that return people to religion, helping them reach the heart of every Jew. Agreeably, with authentic explanations, with great love, and with a warm welcome.

Haredim in focus at Meseznikov’s tourism ‘kollel’

By Ron Friedman www.jpost.com February 5, 2010

The Israel Beiteinu minister met with Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) and other deputy ministers and committee chairs from haredi parties, to hear from them their constituency’s tourism needs.

The aim of the brainstorming session was to examine the characteristics of foreign and domestic haredi tourists, identify the difficulties facing them and zero in on obstacles to maximizing the sector’s potential.

Meseznikov also announced a NIS 30 million plan to upgrade infrastructure at Mount Meron that will be presented to the cabinet in the coming weeks. The tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai on Mount Meron is the most-visited Jewish holy site after the Western Wall, with hundreds of thousands converging on it on Lag Ba’omer.

Passion and Identity Crisis in a Pious Community

By A.O. Scott www.nytimes.com February 5, 2010

“Eyes Wide Open,” the quiet and confident feature debut of the Israeli director Haim Tabakman, explores the conflict between sexual desire and religious obligation.

Set in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Jerusalem, the film, written by Merav Doster, gives nearly equal weight to both sides in that struggle.

Click here for VIDEO Film Trailer with English subtitles

Raising the curtain

By David Brinn www.jpost.com February 5, 2010

“It’s a quiet revolution in the heart of the ultra-Orthodox community of Har Nof, as well as in broader Jerusalem and beyond,” says Shira Barzily, the young, energetic outreach manager of the conservatory, as she leads me into Har Nof’s Beit Ya’acov elementary school, where the conservatory exists after regular school hours.

There, some 500 female students, ranging in age from seven through adulthood, immerse themselves in the world of classical music.

Building a Haredi Carnegie Hall

By David Brinn www.jpost.com February 5, 2010

Fifteen years after its founding, the Ron Shulamit Music Conservatory in Har Nof has outgrown being housed in someone else’s school.

Rabbonim Shlita Question Jerusalem’s Policy to Promote Evangelistic Tourism

By Yechiel Spira www.theyeshivaworld.com February 2, 2010

Rabbonim are concerned, and voicing their protest over ongoing efforts by Jerusalem City Hall to encourage Evangelistic Christians to visit Jerusalem, setting its goal at 10 million visitors a year.

Harel Pension Fund Managers Visit HaRav Eliashiv

http://chareidi.shemayisrael.com February 4, 2010

Yossi Dotan, vice president of long-term savings at the Harel Group, and Motti Levy, vice president of Harel Gilad, received blessings from Maran HaRav Eliashiv shlita for an investment track in the Harel Gilad pension fund which has been granted halachic approval by the Eida Chareidis’ Oversight Committee for Financial Investments.

Gov’t to Take Action against Emanuel Parents

www.israelnationalnews.com February 4, 2010

The government will take legal action against parents of students at the Beit Yaakov School in Emanuel, a government official told the High Court Thursday.

The students have been striking and refusing to attend class, after the court ordered that girls from Sephardic families be integrated in classes with girls from Ashkenazi families.

Top Marks to teacher colleges in religious, Arab sectors

By Or Kashti www.haaretz.com February 3, 2010

Of the 25 teacher training colleges in the country, the one which scored the highest marks was Herzog College in Gush Etzion, which readies students to teach at state-run religious Jewish schools. On average, such colleges had higher admissions rates than those geared toward non-religious schools.

Nachman Ravers

Tel Aviv followers of Rav Nachman of Breslov

Click here for VIDEO

Chabad Children Handed Over To Non-Jewish Dad as Per High Court

By Yechiel Spira www.theyeshivaworld.com February 7, 2010

Israel’s High Court of Justice has […] ordered the return of two children, members of the Chabad community, to their non-Jewish father. In this case, the Hadera Family Court and the Haifa District Court which heard the appeal felt there would be “no significant harm” to the children by sending them to France, to live with the non-Jewish biological father. The High Court did not overrule the decision of the lower courts.

Israel bans import, export of furs for all nonreligious uses

By Yonatan Liss and Amiram Cohen www.haaretz.com February 7, 2010

The Ministers legal committee decided on Sunday to ban imports and exports of furs of any kind, unless they are designated for religious or traditional use.

The bill also excluded furs for religious purposes, mainly used by the ultra-Orthodox community for the manufacturing of Shtreimels – their traditional fur hat.

Hassidim infiltrate Joseph’s Tomb, break through checkpoint

By Efrat Weiss www.ynetnews.com February 5, 2010

A number of Breslav Hassidim entered unauthorized into Joseph’s Tomb and fled the area. They then broke through an IDF checkpoint in the area, and the soldiers fired warning shots in the area following the incident.

Rabbi Eliyahu’s Condition Worsens

www.israelnationalnews.com February 7, 2010

The condition of former Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu worsened considerably overnight Saturday. Sources told Arutz 7 that he was currently being aided in his breathing by a respirator and in critical condition in the emergency ward of Shaare Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem. Doctors are working to stabilize his condition.

Netanyahu risks Muslim wrath over Jerusalem holy site

By Akiva Eldar www.haaretz.com February 2, 2010

Will Netanyahu use a court decision to forgo a plan to alter the Mughrabi Gate?

The Western Wall Rabbi, Shmuel Rabinowitz, is a man of action: He never for a moment hid his intention of exploiting the repair of the ramp to turn the unused space below it into an extension of the women’s prayer section.

He would joke that the Lord had answered his prayers by putting cracks in the ramp, which would make it possible to reduce the crowding at the Western Wall Plaza. The rabbi also used his connections in earthly Jerusalem – namely, in the office of then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Samaritans mourn their high priest

By Ben Hartman www.jpost.com February 5, 2010

Snow flurries drifted to the ground on Mount Gerizim overlooking Nablus on Thursday, as mourners gathered to bury the spiritual leader of the Samaritans, who passed away the previous day.

High Priest Elazar ben Tsadaka ben Yitzhaq was born during a snowstorm 83 years ago, one mourner said. On Thursday, as he was being laid to rest at the holiest site in the Samaritan religion, the snow began to fall again.

Religion and State in Israel

February 8, 2010 (Section 1) (see also Section 2)

Editor – Joel Katz

Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.

All rights reserved.

Anyone who knows much about Israeli politics knows the kind of white-hot far-right anger displayed in this astonishing video. But it’s good to have one’s sense of outrage refreshed every so often to see such Israeli fascism in full eruption.

A word of context: make no mistake, this is not the view of the majority of Israelis, not nearly. But it is the view of enough that it is deeply frightening and poses a real danger for Israeli democracy. These are the Jack Teitels of Israel and seeing them on video reminds us of the real violence of which they are capable. You’ll also learn some choice tidbits of Hebrew curses and scatology from the ranters.

These charming gentlemen are harrassing one of the weekly Friday demonstrations by Israeli peace activists in Sheikh Jarrah against the evictions of long-time Arab residents of that neighborhood from their homes.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Let’s Not Forget About the Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah (josephdana.com)

Related posts:

1. UK Christian Zionists: Hitler ‘Hearts’ Sizer CORRECTION: Joseph Weissman and his right-wing blogger choir note that…
2. If Bibi Wants to Ban Foreign Funding for Israeli NGOs, Start With Moskowitz’s $100-million One of my readers just conveyed to me a brilliant…
3. Israeli Rightists Blame New Israel Fund for War Crimes Charges Against Israeli Leaders The incitement against the New Israel Fund just keeps coming….

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

BACK TO DAMASCUS?
by FREDERICK DEKNATEL in The Nation”
February 5, 2010

Washington has nominated Robert Ford, a career Foreign Service officer, as its ambassador to Syria, a post that has been vacant since the United States withdrew its envoy in 2005 to protest alleged Syrian involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. (Syria denied any involvement.)

Ford, currently deputy ambassador to Iraq, was ambassador to Algeria from 2006 to 2008. He ran a Coalition Provisional Authority office in Najaf in 2003, and from 2004 to 2006 he was a political officer at the US Embassy in Baghdad, where he helped draft Iraq’s new Constitution, establish the transitional government and oversee elections in 2005.

The appointment of a career officer who speaks Arabic represents a shift for Obama, who has often chosen well-heeled friends and contributors for ambassadorial posts. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, as of November twenty-four nominees were high-profile campaign “bundlers” who corralled more than $10 million for Obama. About half of all ninety-nine nominees either donated to Obama, other Democratic candidates or the Democratic Party.

Sending Ford to Damascus is part of the administration’s effort to back up Obama’s fleeting Cairo oratory. The London-based Arabic daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat quoted an unnamed American official saying, “Washington wants to help in launching direct peace negotiations between Syria and Israel in the next few months.” But Joshua Landis, a regional expert who runs the popular Syria Comment blog, is not so sure. “The Syrians I have spoken to are skeptical that [negotiations] can lead to anything but frustration,” he said. “Netanyahu is not giving any ground to the Palestinians and there’s no reason to expect him to give ground to the Syrians.”

Reopening the ambassador’s residence is a step, not a solution. After all, last year Obama renewed harsh economic sanctions on Syria that were imposed by George W. Bush. And Syria holds the dubious distinction of being Washington’s oldest designated state sponsor of terrorism–since 1979.

Washington has called on Israel and Syria to curb recent tensions that might make it more difficult to resume stalled peace negotiations, the London-based A-Sharq Al-Awsat reported on Friday.

State Department sources told the Arabic-language daily that the U.S. was determined to see Israel re-enter the peace process, both on the Palestinian and Syrian track.

The sources said that the new U.S. envoy to Syria was dealing with a number of issues challenging the resumption of talks, and that Washington was making efforts to see the obstacles overcome.
Advertisement
A top aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel wants to start talks that would culminate with a permanent peace agreement with Syria, but would continue to react against any threats to its safety.

Nir Hefetz, head of the National Information Directorate in the prime minister’s bureau, said after a meeting with Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman that the two wished to emphasize their commitment to peace with Israel’s neighbor to the north.

FM on Syria feud: Grave issues in Mideast require a response
By Haaretz

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Friday defended his controversial comments warning Syria not to attack Israel, saying that grave issues in the Middle East cannot go without response. Lieberman on Thursday said “Assad should know that if he attacks, he will not only lose the war. Neither he nor his family will remain in power.” His remarks came after Syrian President Bashar Assad on Wednesday told Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos that Israel was pushing the Middle East toward a new war.

Lieberman’s comments drew harsh criticism on Thursday from a range of Knesset members, some of whom urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to rein him in or dismiss him. However, the Foreign Minister dismissed the criticism on Friday, saying, “I don’t work for the media or for public opinion.”

“My response, which I made in order to clarify that the situation [with Syria] is unbearable, was immediately met with a hysterical reaction in Israel of ‘how dare we anger the nobleman,’” Lieberman said on Friday in an interview with Channel 2 news. He went on to say that he finds it unfortunate the Israeli left has adopted this reactionary habit and added, “I think that in the Middle East, we cannot let grave things go without a response.”

Lieberman also denied that behind-the-scenes meetings have been taking place between Israeli and Syrian officials.

Walid Jumblatt vows solidarity with Syria in the face of what he calls ‘a frenzied Israeli attitude.’

“Amid the Israeli madness and radical threats, I tell the Syrian people and leadership that we are with you above all else,” he said in a statement issued by the PSP and quoted by pan-Arab A-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, the Lebanese portal Naharnet reported on Friday.

He said, “We took our decision a long time ago on who is the enemy and who is the friend … Syria is our strategic depth.”

China throws kink into U.S.-led push for sanctions on Iran
(By Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post)

China on Thursday threw a roadblock in the path of a U.S.-led push for sanctions against Iran, saying that it is important to continue negotiations as long as Iran appears willing to consider a deal to give up some of its enriched uranium.

“To talk about sanctions at the moment will complicate the situation and might stand in the way of finding a diplomatic solution,” Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said at a conference in Paris.

After months of spurning the proposed deal, which would provide Iran with fuel for a medical reactor, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad showed a suddenly renewed interest in it this week just as France, a strong advocate of sanctions, assumed the rotating presidency of the U.N. Security Council. French Prime Minister François Fillon said Wednesday that he would ask the United Nations to adopt a resolution imposing “strong sanctions” against Iran because of its nuclear program.

Lebanese fear stall in tribunal on Hariri slaying
By BASSEM MROUE
The Associated Press
Saturday, February 6,

The head of the international tribunal on the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister sought to reassure Lebanese this week that the investigation is on track, but there are growing concerns here that work is languishing in the case…..

One of my goals these days is to support the New Israel Fund in its fight to promote democracy and human rights in Israel. I do so because even though it tends to overlook apartheid conditions in the West Bank, NIF has done great things: it has supported the demonstrations …

Meet our friend, Hanan, a fabulous new peacemaker, a cool mother,  a deeply progressive and courageous Muslim woman, one of a legion that we are discovering around the world. This is the hope of the Middle East.

For one Israeli Arab woman, peace begins within
By Karin Kloosterman

Real peacemakers are often the quiet ones, like Hanan Gaffaly – who works at the NGO Kids Creating Peace and volunteers for Sulhita, an NGO that brings together Palestinian and Israeli youth. Thousands of peacemakers like Gaffaly are not high profile activists like Ghandi and Martin Luther King were. They work from deep within, starting with themselves and their communities, and move on to take small, bold steps to influence the ‘big picture.’

ISRAEL21c first met Gaffaly, a 34-year-old Israeli Arab woman from the city of Jaffa near Tel Aviv, while at a San Francisco-based United Religions Initiative conference. At the annual meeting, held in Madaba, Jordan in December, which brought together different faiths from the Middle East-North Africa region, she sat with Elad Vazana, director of the Sulha Peace Project, an Israeli-Arab peace organization that also runs the Sulhita youth NGO, and proffered her personal story.

Palestinians, Israelis and the world at large fail to comprehend how uncomfortable it is for Gaffaly a “Palestinian Arab Israeli” who feels wedged in a major cultural rift in the Middle East. On one hand she identifies herself strongly as an Israeli, but at the same time she has Palestinian relatives with whom she empathizes.

Read the entire article from ISRAEL21c here.

Today, J Street Executive Director Jeremy Ben-Ami released the following statement:

As the Goldstone Report returns to the agenda of the United Nations, J Street remains opposed to one-sided and biased action at the United Nations based on the Report. Specifically, we reiterate our position that the United States government should exercise its veto if the Security Council considers a resolution referring charges against Israel and Israelis to the International Criminal Court.

The United Nations and other international bodies such as the Human Rights Council have a demonstrable history of bias against Israel and have focused disproportionate attention on Israel at the expense of numerous other serious human rights crises around the globe.

We believe the best way for Israel to deal with the Report and to address charges of misconduct during Operation Cast Lead is to launch its own credible, independent investigation as it has at several critical points in its history. In this, we echo the position of many leading Israelis in and out of government, notably including Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor, outgoing Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, and former Supreme Court Chief Justice Aharon Barak. We also share the sense of many in Israel that problems cited with the Report could have been better addressed had Israel cooperated with the Commission in the first place.

In recent days, we have also witnessed renewed attacks and campaigns that personally demonize both Judge Goldstone and Israeli human rights advocates and their supporters. There is ample room in a vibrant democracy for disagreement over matters of principle without the need to resort to ad hominem attacks. Civil and human rights activists are vital to the health and vibrancy of a democracy. They deserve far better than to have to endure shameful mudslinging and name-calling.

We urge those who oppose the report to confine their attacks and critiques to the substance and methodology of the Report and the appropriate measures that should and should not be taken going forward, and not the character of the people who created it or who have brought the violations to light.

A disappointed salesman of Coca Cola returns from his Middle East assignment. A friend asks him: “Why weren’t you successful in Saudi Arabia? The salesman explained, with a sigh: “When I got posted in the Middle East, I was very confident that I would make a good sales pitch as our cola is virtually unknown there. But, I had a problem. I didn’t know how to speak Arabic. So, I planned to convey the message through three posters, like this:

(more…)

If today’s New York
Times was reporting accurately, you should be very skeptical of anything
that Afghan commander General Stanley McChrystal says. Not because he’s inherently
dishonest, mind you, but because misleading everyone about the situation in
Afghanistan may be part of his strategy for victory.

To be specific, today’s Times
also contains an article with the headline "Top U.S. Commander Sees
Progress in Afghanistan." It
quotes McChrystal as follows: "I am not prepared to say that we have turned the
corner. So I’m saying the
situation is serious, but I think we have made significant progress in setting
the conditions in 2009, and beginning some progress, and that we’ll make real
progress in 2010."

This is nicely hedged, but McChrystal went to describe the
war in a way that leads me to question virtually anything he might have to say
now or in the future. According to
the Times, the general also said that "The
biggest thing is in convincing the Afghan people … This is all a war of
perceptions. This is not a
physical war in terms of how many people you kill or how much ground you
capture, how many bridges you blow up. This is all in the minds of the
participants" (my emphasis).

[[BREAK]]

On the one hand this statement is something of a truism, in the sense
that resolve, morale, and expectations about the future can be critical factors
(though what is actually happening on the battlefield is hardly irrelevant). But McChrystal’s statement invites us to doubt anything he might choose to tell us about the progress of the war
either now or in the months to come. 
Why? Because if he believes it is "all a war
of perceptions," then spinning the war in the most favorable possible light has
to be part of his strategy, in order to try to persuade both Afghans and
Americans that we are winning. And that means we can’t accept anything he says at face
value, because we can’t know if he’s giving us an honest appraisal or just
deploying a lot of blue smoke and mirrors in order to influence perceptions
(which he thinks are key).

It is worth noting, by the way, that the Times published two articles that
suggested that the U.S. effort in Afghanistan was not going particularly
well. The first, by Ron Nordland,
described the obstacles to our effort to train adequate Afghan police forces,
and offered a gloomy assessment of progress-to-date. The second, which appeared in today’s paper (along with McChrystal’s
somewhat upbeat account), described how the Afghan-Pakistan border remains
incredibly porous, despite widespread awareness that this is a serious issue. I don’t know who is right here, but by
his own account General McChrystal has somewhat greater incentive to play fast
and loose with the facts. 

Haaretz reveals today that following the rightwing campaign against the New Israel Fund, Jerusalem Post’s editor-in-chief David Horovitz informed president of the NIF Naomi Chazan that the paper will stop publishing her op-eds. The story, by Jonathan Lis and Dimi Reider, appears in the front page of today’s English Edition.

Yesterday Chazan received an e-mail from Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief David Horovitz, informing her the newspaper would cease publishing her column.

Chazan had provided the daily with one of its few leftist voices in recent years. Horovitz declined to respond to questions from Haaretz last night.

This is just one of several recent cases of self-censorship in the Israeli media: Both Maariv and Yedioth Ahronoth, two of the leading tabloids in Israel, have decided recently not to publish major articles which were critical of Israel and the IDF.

Meanwhile Chazan, who was the target of a Der-Strumer style ads in the Israeli media, commented on her personal feelings following the rightwing Im Tirzu movement’s campaign against her:

“I don’t know why they chose me – I can think of plenty of human rights supporters they could pick on. But I’m ever so proud to be a symbol of Israeli democracy. No doubt about it.”

Earlier this week it was published that the Jewish community in Melbourne canceled a scheduled event with Chazan.

Americans for Peace Now and J Street joined five other groups in a letter that urges Obama to “use America’s unique relationship with Israel to persuade it to lift the closure of its border crossing with Gaza now.” Bravo, folks!

Excerpts:

Israel’s closure policies, rather than weakening Hamas as Israel had hoped, have helped Hamas tighten its authoritarian grip over Gaza and its economy. While many Gazans are unhappy with Hamas, there is no evidence that Gazans will overthrow Hamas to end their suffering. Instead, their anger is directed at Israel, the U.S., and the international community…

As for the alleged benefits to security from Israel’s closure policy, the opposite has proven true. As you said in your Cairo speech, “Just as it devastates Palestinian families, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza does not serve Israel’s security.” In recent months, sporadic rocket fire into southern Israel has resumed. A generation of jobless Gazan youths – 70% of Gazans are under 30 – lacking any hope for the future, are ripe for further radicalization and violence. Already, more-extreme Al Qaeda-type elements are challenging Hamas, and Al Qaeda is effectively exploiting the plight of Gazans throughout the Arab and Muslim world. The prospect for renewed major violence is real.

In addition to Americans for Peace Now and J Street, the organizations were the Foundation for Middle East Peace, Arab American Institute, Churches for Middle East Peace, B’Tselem and Rabbis for Human Rights.

…that forcibly establishing a Jewish state in Palestine against the wishes of its pre-existing non-Jewish majority – a state which would be surrounded by 200 million Arabs and one billion Muslims who are overwhelmingly sympathetic to the plight of the…