Understanding Israel
Almost every responsible political leader today expresses a desire to contribute to peace in the Middle East. Easier said than done. A real effort to promote peace requires an understanding of what motivates the parties to the conflict. I can't say I quite get what makes the Palestinians tick. Like the late statesman Abba Eban, I haven't grasped why Palestinian leaders never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. But I do believe that anyone who genuinely seeks peace, or who aspires to be a friend of the Israeli people, should consider four key factors that inform the Israeli worldview. First, geography. The throwaway line these days is that geography no longer matters in an era of long-range missiles. Not so fast. As the late Sir Isaiah Berlin famously quipped, "The Jews have enjoyed rather too much history and too little geography." Israel is a small country, about the size of New Jersey or Wales, and barely two-thirds the size of Belgium. To put it into context, Egypt is approximately fifty times larger than Israel, Saudi Arabia a hundred times. And there's more. Until its 1967 war for survival, Israel's borders, which were nothing more than the armistice lines from the 1948 War of Independence, were nine miles at their narrowest point, near the country's midsection and most populous area. When President George W. Bush first saw that narrow width from the vantage point of a helicopter, he was reported to have said, "There are some driveways in Texas longer than Israel is wide." Dear President Lula
Dear President Lula, Why? Why would such a respected world leader welcome an international outcast like Iranian President Ahmadinejad to Brasilia on May 6? Why would you confer your considerable international legitimacy on such an individual - within weeks, no less, of a walkout by dozens of nations during Ahmadinejad's hate-filled speech in the halls of the UN in Geneva? Back in the USSR
In 1974, I traveled to the USSR for the first time, part of a US-Soviet teachers' exchange program. I was sent to School No. 185 in Leningrad. Shortly after arriving, I was walking in the hallway when a young girl passed by and quietly put a piece of paper in my hand. When I was alone, I read the note. It said: "David Harris, I feel you are a Jew. If I'm right, please know that my family are refuseniks. Won't you come visit us?" I did. It was one of several such families I eventually met. Why did they want to leave? Her father, an engineer, explained that his children had no future in the Soviet Union. The barriers were too high, anti-Semitism too endemic. So why were they denied the right to emigrate? The father told me a joke which was then making the rounds: Shapiro was called into KGB headquarters and told he would never be allowed to leave. "But why, comrade major?" he pleaded. "Because you know state secrets." "What state secrets, comrade major? In my field, the Americans are at least ten years ahead of us." "Well," said the KGB major, "that's the state secret." When America let down Europe's Jews
I recently testified before a subcommittee of the US Congress on a topic of immense historical importance that continues to resonate - and haunt us - to the present day. This text is taken from the full testimony submitted to the congressional record. Time does not permit more than a brief review of US immigration policy from 1933 to 1945, the years that coincide with the rule of the Third Reich. Fortunately, there are many scholarly works on the subject, as well as personal testimonies, which fill out the picture. Upon assuming office in 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was immediately confronted with two daunting challenges - one domestic, the other foreign. At home, President Roosevelt faced the devastating impact of the Great Depression and the pressing need to rebuild the economy and restore confidence in the nation. Abroad, President Roosevelt took office just weeks after Adolf Hitler ascended to power in Berlin. Dear Chancellor Schroeder
Dear Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, You billed it as a private visit to Iran. But, as a media-savvy former chancellor of Germany, Europe's largest and most powerful country, you had to know that your recent trip to Teheran wouldn't go unnoticed, especially when you opted to meet with Iran's notorious president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Hypocrisy!
Dear Ms. Trine Lilleng, You were an unknown Norwegian diplomat till this month. No longer. As first secretary in the Norwegian Embassy in Saudi Arabia, you recently sent out an email on your office account in which you declared: "The grandchildren of Holocaust survivors from World War II are doing to the Palestinians exactly what was done to them by Nazi Germany." Accompanying your text were photos, with an emphasis on children, seeking to juxtapose the Holocaust with the recent Israeli military operation in Gaza. Clearly, you are miscast in your role as a diplomat, all the more so of a nation that has sought to play a mediating role in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Targeting Jews - again
Once again, Jews have been targeted simply for being Jews. This time, the victims were in Mumbai. Though some in the media were slow to identify what should have been obvious - the New York Times speculated that it might have been an "accidental hostage scene"- they weren't killed randomly. They were sought out in a carefully planned operation. The jihadist murderers were looking for Jews, and found them. A Jewish political platform
It's election season. So it's the perfect time to set forth my political platform. It's the platform I'd present if we had, let's call them, Jewish elections. First, let's get really serious about seeking to engage young Jews. Birthright has been an extraordinary success. But alone, it can't carry the Jewish future. We need to retool from top to bottom. We need to find language with which to speak to young Jews, too many of whom are drifting off the reservation. Strikingly, many are seeking community, spirituality and connection, yet claiming they can't find it in the Jewish world. How unfortunate! It's all there, but sometimes too opaque, too unreachable, too diluted. |
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