Healing Israel/Palestine

Prediction: Israel and Palestine Will Reach Blue Heron Peace Agreement In 2016

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What didn’t happen at Camp David will happen at Blue Heron. But Palestinian and Israeli peace won’t happen before 2016: There are too many anarchists, terrorists, militarists, “sectarianists,” political apologists and lots of other “ists” — yes, even including journalists and columnists — that have too much vested in the Israel-Palestine blame recycling industries to allow peace to break out any sooner.

Healing Israel/Palestine

Emergency Committee For Israel Misrepresents Its Mission

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The Emergency Committee For Israel (ECI) seems to more closely mirror a right wing Super PAC than an organization sincerely interested in helping Israel respond to emergencies. Or maybe my definition of “emergency” just differs from theirs. You be the judge. Back in October, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the American Jewish Committee (AJC), two of the leading Jewish-American organizations in the United States, fearing the possibility that bipartisan support for Israel could become a political wedge issue, asked that Jewish and pro-Israel groups refrain from criticizing President Obama’s overall record on Israel. Specific points of policy disagreements are fine, they said, but to engage in an attack on Obama’s Israel record could risk Israel becoming a Democratic and Republican political football.

Judaism

Pro-Israel: What Happened When Supporters of AIPAC, J Street, AJC and the ADL (And All Points In Between) Were Invited To Meet (UPDATE)

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Last week, I wrote about my attempt to bridge the growing Jewish community divide over Israel. I thought (in my naivete) that I could bring supporters of seemingly disparate pro-Israel factions together. Those with tactical disagreements over how to best strengthen Jewish support for Israel would surely beat their verbal swords into plowshares and till the verdant Israel discussion soil. We might not agree on every policy, but we could certainly unite behind a shared pro-Israel goal. Or not.

General News

What Pro-Israel Means To Prominent American Jews (And One Too Prominent Israeli)

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Such a BIG TOPIC that pro-Israel is.Moment Magazine published a fascinating series of interviews in its January/February issue — so BIG no one issue could contain it! — asking prominent Jews to define “pro-Israel.” Some people had nothing to say, but they said it anyway. Some people had a lot to say and you may wish they hadn’t. Some even cast votes for who and what doesn’t belong on the pro-Israel island.

Healing Israel/Palestine

What Pro-Israel Means (Or Should Mean)

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The next several articles will focus on what has become an increasingly important issue within the Jewish community: What does pro-Israel really mean? For Atlanta Jewish Times publisher Andrew Adler, pro-Israel means calling for Israel’s Mossad to consider assassinating U.S. President Barack Obama. Thankfully, Adler’s addled response to Obama’s supposedly anti-Israel policies and actions was widely denounced within the Jewish community and resulted in a U.S. Secret Service investigation of Adler’s views. Hopefully that investigation will be more conclusive than the effort to define what it really means to be pro-Israel. Is AIPAC’s pro-Israel definition different from ADL’s, AJC’s, J Street’s or Christians United For Israel’s?

Healing Israel/Palestine

The Christians United For Israel-Tom Friedman-Obama Controversies And The Real Reason The Oil For The Menorah Only Lasted For Eight Days

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An Israeli threat. She acts and critics attack. Supporters defend. It is a “Rinse, Wash, Repeat” haiku that works in whatever sequence you want to place your emphasis, especially if you don’t care whether you violate the rules of haiku or the rules of stasis.But Israel and its difficulties can’t be condensed to simple English imitations of Japanese haikus. So let’s try imitation proverbs that nicely align with the imitation Israel-Palestine peace process.

Politics & Society

What Palestinians And Israelis Must Remember To Forget

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The stars of the Middle East’s longest running two state play features the reliably myopic Israeli and Palestinian leadership-amnesiacs and their supportive minions — always willing to remember what hasn’t worked and forget what has. Forty four years of off and on Israeli and Palestinian negotiations, surrounded by 63 years of battles with neighboring countries and the militant wings of various Palestinian groups, have contributed to inelastic memories and perceptions. Changes are seen as illusory or unsustainable. So even in the West Bank, where stronger and more moderate Palestinian political leaders have emerged, where those same leaders have clearly and repeatedly rejected violence as an instrument of policy, where the infrastructure is now seen by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations as capable of supporting a nascent Palestinian state, many Israeli leaders and supporters still cling to their corroded memory chips. Present day reality, to them, isn’t a much more effective Palestinian police force.

Healing Israel/Palestine

Are Pro-Israel Organizations Who Parrot The Israeli Government Really Pro-Israel?

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Representatives David Price (D-NC) and Peter Welch (D-VT) deserve accolades for theirCongressional letter encouraging President Barack Obama and Congress to work together to prevent cutting U.S. assistance to the Palestinians. They correctly note that aid to the Palestinians is not a favor to the Palestinians nor is it something that should be withheld as punishment for their statehood efforts at the United Nations. Continued assistance is actually in the strategic interest of the United States, Israel and Palestine because it bolsters security and strengthens Palestinian governance. Supporters of the letter are far from left wing anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian peaceniks. The Shin Bet, Israel’s F.B.I, has noted that U.S.-trained Palestinian Authority security forces are aprimary reason that 2010 was the most terror-free year in the last decade.U.S. and Israeli experts also connect the dots between U.S. assistance and improved security.

General News

Confessions Of A J Street Convert

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My self-discovery occurred on a drive to Austin two years ago. (It also occurred during my teenage years, but that’s a story for a different and possibly older audience.) After listening to a deeply unproductive discussion between several Palestinians and Israelis on a local radio station, one that was more the equivalent of a wrestling match than a debate, I had an epiphany. Well two epiphanies: My tire was definitely flat and I was going to need to summon my “inner mechanic” along the side of the freeway. Plus, several minutes after the tire epiphany, while contemplating what to do about AAA’s two hour wait time, my mind wandered — in an intellectual not an Alzheimer’s sense — to a recent conversation with a local Jewish organizational official. Not because he promised that he could change my tire whenever I needed him to, although offering to fix flats might be an ingenious way for Jewish organizations to get a few extra bucks, but because his wait time was similar to AAA’s, if only I added two more zeroes and substituted years for hours: Fixing my tire might be possible in two hours andIsrael-Palestine peace might be possible in 200 years.