Time to be put out to pasture?

When I turned 50, everything was fine, or so I thought, until that first mailing arrived from the American Association of Retired Persons inviting me to join.

Was it possible, despite a full-time job, kids at home, and a daily jogging routine, that I was now to be defined as part of America's elderly population? So it seemed. Those mailings just kept on coming, as if the AARP knew that sooner or later I'd overcome my resistance and sign up for their benefits. In fact, I didn't and went right back into my self-delusional, age-resistant bubble.

That strategy worked, or so I thought, until a more recent set of events happened to coincide with my 60th birthday. Suddenly, I found myself the target of several broadsides.

Now that in itself is nothing new. Not a week passes that I'm not attacked as a warmonger by someone on the Jewish left for daring to defend Israel's right to protect itself against those who would destroy it.

Similarly, not a week passes that I'm not attacked as an appeaser by someone on the Jewish right for daring to suggest that a peaceful outcome to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be based on a two-state settlement. But what was different this time is that the attacks were based on age.

Voices on the Jewish Left assailed me - and several communal colleagues - for being stuck in the past, paralyzed by "1942," unable to see beyond a self-imposed wall of doom and gloom. In other words, a historical artifact best put out to pasture.

Why this tack?

In order, I would assume, to underscore their carefully constructed view of a world divided between the voices of the past and future, between the retrogrades and progressives, between the obstacles and vehicles to peace, between the oh-so-blind and oh-so-sighted, between the hip-replacement candidates and just-plain-hip crowd.

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Reasons for hope? New Year's thoughts

Amidst the daily dose of depressing news, let's step back in this holiday season and reflect on how far we've come. 

Looking at the larger historical picture gives perspective, offers hope and provides inspiration. And these days, with all of the gloom and doom, it should be obvious that we need mega-doses of all three.
 
To think back over the postwar years is to realize how much has been achieved.
 
First, imagine what it must have been like to be a surviving Jew in the days and weeks after the war's end. It would have been easy enough, I suppose, to call it quits, to conclude that the price of maintaining a Jewish identity was just too high, as the Holocaust - and the world's largely indifferent reaction - seemed to demonstrate.
 
Yet Jews regained their footing, faith and fortitude, and a remarkable chapter in Jewish life ensued. Most striking of all was the breathless journey in just three short years from the lowest point in Jewish history to its highest, the establishment of modern Israel.
 
Second, not only was Israel created, but it survived. And not only did it survive, but it thrived - against all the odds and predictions.

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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."

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Taking stock of US policy toward Israel

The following is adapted from my remarks to a meeting of the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, attended by about 20 Democratic Senators, on Capitol Hill on July 22.

Thank you for the privilege of speaking once again before this distinguished group.

I represent AJC - the American Jewish Committee. We have been active for decades in supporting Israel and advancing peace. I would describe our outlook in the words of President John F. Kennedy, who said,"I'm an idealist without illusions."

We welcome President Obama's groundbreaking speech in Cairo on June 4th.

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Caveat Lector. Let the reader beware

Say you're a newspaper editor.

You have articles and analyses that merit inclusion in the next day's edition.

They include: "At Least 56 Killed as Islamist Groups Fight Over a Somali Town," from Reuters; "New Focus on Settlements," a news analysis from your Jerusalem correspondent; "Iran Has Centrifuge Capacity for Nuclear Arms," based on a new report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); and "US Charges Ex-State Department Official and Wife With Spying for Cuba."

Do any of the four warrant front-page placement? If so, above the fold, where they are sure to be noticed, or below, where they are less certain to catch the eye? If not, where should they be placed?

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What's the IOI - "If Only Israel" - syndrome?

It's the misguided notion, peddled in the name of Israel's best interests by some in the diplomatic, academic, and media worlds, that if only Israel did this or that, peace with its neighbors would be at hand. But since it doesn't, then Israel constitutes the principal, perhaps only, real obstacle to a new day in the Middle East.

Striking, isn't it?

Poor Israel. If only it had the visual acuity of these "enlightened" souls, then all would be hunky-dory. After all, according to them, Israel holds all the cards, yet refuses to play them.

The thinking goes: Why can't those shortsighted Israelis figure out what needs to be done - it's so obvious to us, isn't it? - so the conflict can be brought to a screeching halt?

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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?

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Tragedy masquerading as farce

It was tragedy masquerading as farce.

There was the Iranian president addressing the Durban Review Conference in Geneva.

Perhaps there was no better symbol of all that had gone wrong with a process originally designed to advance the anti-racism struggle than seeing the world's bigot-in-chief at the podium.

And the fact that the hall doubles as the venue for the UN Human Rights Council made a further mockery of his appearance - and of the institution itself.

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Durban Diplomacy, Durban Delirium

In a recent editorial, the New York weekly newspaper The Jewish Week applauded the Obama administration for doing "the right thing" by disengaging from the Durban II process in a way that could give our country "new clout in the struggle against pervasive anti-Israel bias in the international arena."

Moreover, the editorial chided those who "have insisted from the outset that Obama harbors animosity to the Jewish state and have pounced on every pronouncement, every rumor as proof," and noted "an element of sheer partisanship in the reaction."

We at AJC have been on the receiving end of some of these scurrilous attacks. Why? Because we understood that, with the decision on Durban II handed from the Bush to the Obama administration, the new team would necessarily assess the process before making a final decision on the US role.
When a five-member official US delegation was sent last month to Geneva to compile a set of recommendations, AJC's Felice Gaer was one of the participants. The group had over 30 meetings with key ambassadors and made crystal clear that any reference to Israel in the final document would be unacceptable to the US.

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Dear Prime Minister Erdogan

Dear Prime Minister Erdogan,

I write as a friend of Turkey.

These days, though, I'm finding it harder to feel well-disposed. I've been stunned by things I've heard, seen, and read in recent weeks. The outburst of animosity for Israel and the anxiety awakened in the Turkish Jewish community make me wonder what's going on and what the future holds.

If this only emanated from the "street" or from an extremist fringe, it would be worrisome enough. But it goes deeper - and higher. It starts at the very top. Yours has been the loudest voice, and you have used it to attack Israel in a manner that is not only vicious, but also disconnected from the facts.

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