A Cri de Coeur from two Jewish generations
I've never visualized myself as a matchmaker, but in this particular case, I'm more than happy to give it a try.
Last week, AJC held its 102nd Annual Meeting. Among the more than 1,200 registrants, we had large contingents of Jewish leaders from literally dozens of countries. Similarly, we were blessed by the presence of young Jewish leaders, many representing student and youth groups from around the world.
In the interstices of the five-day meeting, I met privately with as many of these individuals and groups as possible. It's important to know what's on their minds and to see where, if at all, we might be in a position to help.
Comments (25)Israel at 60: reasons to celebrate
Israel is about to mark its sixtieth anniversary.
Some friends say they're in no mood to celebrate. The timing isn't right, they complain. The country's political circuitry is overloaded. Danger lurks on the Gaza and Lebanon borders. Iran's nuclear ambitions - and annihilationist threats - loom large. Disputes over the current peace talks with the Palestinian Authority are daily fare. Israel continues to take a beating in UN forums. The drumbeat of anti-Zionism grows louder. A fractious social climate creates long-term and seemingly insoluble fissures between Arab and Jew, not to mention Jew and Jew. And global market volatility spells trouble for the Israeli economy.
All true, perhaps. But the story mustn't end there. Milestone anniversaries offer the chance to step back, however briefly, from the news of the moment and take stock of the larger picture.
What happens when the shoe's on the other foot?
A small but influential chorus of American voices has made a mantra out of the notion that criticism of Israel is stifled by the pro-Israel community.
Indeed, when NYU professor Tony Judt's lecture at the Polish Consulate in New York was canceled in 2006 by the consul general, because Poland did not subscribe to Judt's view of a one-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a group of intellectuals rushed to his defense.
In a widely-publicized petition, they asserted that "We are united in believing that a climate of intimidation is inconsistent with fundamental principles of debate in a democracy. The Polish Consulate is not obliged to promote free speech. But the rules of the game in America oblige citizens to encourage rather than stifle debate."
A Tale of Two Leaders
What a week!
Two European leaders made headlines. As it happened, both were women, born in the postwar era. Both led pathbreaking visits to the Middle East. But they couldn't have struck a greater contrast.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel traveled to Israel. It was not her first visit, but it was surely her most historic. She was accompanied by eight Cabinet ministers, an unprecedented number. She planned the visit in connection with the celebration of Israel's sixtieth anniversary. And she left no doubt that Germany was committed to elevating its special relationship with Israel to a still higher level.
Hamas: words and deeds
There's the story of the mother determined that her five-year-old wunderkind should be well-educated and one day headed for a top university. She decided to pump him with new vocabulary words each day. When little Charlie came home from school, his mother promptly said, "Charlie, what's the difference between ignorance and indifference?" To which he, totally uninterested in the exercise, shrugged his shoulders and muttered, "I don't know and I don't care."
At times, that's the sense I get from the world about Hamas.
It's as if there is an ignorance, perhaps a willful ignorance, about what Hamas, which rules Gaza, really means.
'Give me a break, please'
Not a day passes that I don't encounter another Israel-directed lecture on the imperative of peace.
Sometimes it comes from diplomats. Or from editorial writers. Or from columnists. Or from scholars. Or from human-rights groups.
Frankly, it makes my blood boil.
First, it assumes that Israel wants peace for itself less than others do.
Second, it displays an arrogance that what may not be immediately apparent to Israel is abundantly obvious to those on the outside sitting in their ministries, offices, ivory towers, or vacation spots.
Israel and Gaza - fact and fiction
It's hard to believe, isn't it?
Israel is facing daily violence from Gaza and yet the way some governments and media outlets view it, you'd think it was nothing more than an avoidable neighborly conflict. You know, if only both sides would step back and take a breather, maybe we could sort this all out, is the manner in which the editorial writers at the Financial Times and such serial op-ed contributors as Robert Malley appear to see it.
And, actually, that's pretty benign compared to the recent handling of the issue by the UN Human Rights Council, where thirty of the forty-seven members ritualistically condemned Israel yet again, while blithely ignoring the relentless terror attacks from Gaza. Only Canada had the conviction and courage to stand up to this lynch mob, while the European Union nations sought refuge by abstaining. (The United States is not a member of the Council.) But how can one adopt such a morally bankrupt middle position between Hamas the arsonist and Israel the firefighter, between Hamas the terrorist entity and Israel the democratic nation?
Six lessons of Jewish activism
A few days ago, a moving event took place in New York marking the 40th anniversary of the Soviet Jewry movement. Hosted by the American Jewish Committee, it brought together former refuseniks and prisoners of conscience, elected officials who had pressed the Kremlin, veteran American Jewish activists, and, by design, as many young people as the hall could fit.
Why the focus on young people? Two reasons. First, few, it seems, know much about the history, the players, or the achievements. In fact, the absence of teaching about this period to Jewish youngsters was decried at the event. And second, there are important lessons to be drawn from what turned out to be one of the most successful human rights campaigns in modern history. Those lessons surely have applicability today.
What are they?
Top ten good news stories of 2007
Amidst all the Sturm und Drang, some positive things did happen in the past 12 months. They're worth recalling, if only to remind ourselves that the landscape is not unremittingly bleak.
Here's my top ten list:
First, at long last, the United States Congress passed, and President George Bush signed, a comprehensive energy bill. In this case, better late than never. The bill may not be perfect, but it's a big step in the right direction. America's dependence on imported oil from hostile countries is the nation's Achilles' heel. It undermines national security big time, because our addiction inevitably leads us to kowtow to someone and send massive sums of petrodollars into the wrong hands. This bill alone won't solve the problem, but it serves as a wake-up call for a nation that slept far too long. Its provisions for increasing fuel economy standards and other measures are designed to help wean us from that addiction.
'Intelligence? Or lack thereof?'
When the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran was released earlier this month, I was in Israel. Without exaggeration, it caused an earthquake there that registered a nine on the political Richter scale.
The questions were many: How could US intelligence have come up with such an implausible assessment, reversing years of confident assertions that Iran was hell-bent on acquiring nuclear weapons? Were President George W. Bush;s hands being tied by those who feared a US confrontation with Iran, just weeks after he referred to the possibility of "World War III" if Teheran didn;t heed the will of the international community? Why the emphasis on the reported end of weaponization, and not on the more critical findings of continued uranium enrichment and missile development? And why wasn;t there a more prominent acknowledgment that it is impossible to know everything going on in a country as large and closed as Iran?
Israelis felt abandoned, their own intelligence findings rejected. Many concluded that they would be left to face the Iranian threat alone, having earlier allowed themselves to believe that the world, led by Washington, embraced its own assessment that Iran was a global, not just an Israeli, challenge.
About this blog In the Trenches
American Jewish Committee (AJC) Executive Director David Harris assesses challenges to Jewish security worldwide.
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