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Sarajevo haggadah

Antaea Darom

Israeli women's art

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Torah as music

Ben Heine

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ceramic bowl

Mohammad Said Kalash, "Offering Reconciliation" exhibit (photo: Ilan Amihai)

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Punch and Judy/Pinchas and Jamila

Avi Katz

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David Grossman

Ben Heine

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Eldrige Street shul

Lower East Side

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Dove

Ben Heine

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Two birds

Hoda Jamal

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Israeli and Palestinian boys

from documentary, Promises

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Cat in the Hat

Yiddish version

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Daylight through the Wall

Banksy: graffiti art on Separation Wall

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Maurice Sendak's Brundibar set

New Victory Theater (photo: Nan Melville/NYT)

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Daniel Barenboim, West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

Palestinian-Israeli musical ensemble (photo: Kerstin Joensson/AP)

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Great Day on Eldrige Street

N.Y.'s klezmer greats celebrate shul rededication (photo: Leo Sorel)

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Joint Appeal for Peace

(Avi Katz)

Joint Appeal for Peace

Ketubah, Ancona, Italy (1772)

(Jewish Theological Seminary library)

Ancona ketubah

Posts Tagged ‘israeli foreign ministry’

Protesting Israeli Diplomat Joins Sheikh Jarrah Demonstration

Sunday, March 6th, 2011
ilan baruch sheikh jarrah

Former Israeli ambassador Ilan Baruch at Sheikh Jarrah protest (Solidarity Sheikh Jarrah)

Among those joining last Friday’s weekly Sheikh Jarrah demonstration was recently retired Israeli senior diplomat Ilan Baruch.  This offers the government a double whammy.  First Baruch resigns in protest over the government’s charade of a peace plan which “disgusted” him and drove him into retirement.  Then within days he attends the Sheikh Jarrah protest, one of the most visible and vociferous public protests against the government’s land grab policies in East Jerusalem.

Haaretz reports that this week’s demonstration was especially violent and pitted the Solidarity activists and Palestinians against security forces and right-wing goons itching for a fight.

Senior Israeli Diplomat Quits in Disgust, Can No Longer Support Government Policies

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011
ilan baruch

Ilan Baruch, veteran Israeli diplomat, could no longer defend the indefensible (Guy Raivitz)

An Israeli diplomat with over 30 years of foreign service experience has quit his job in disgust, saying he can no longer defend or interpret to a foreign audience the policies of his government under the leadership of Bibi Netanyahu or Avigdor Lieberman.  Ilan Baruch, a decorated IDF veteran, served in numerous major diplomatic postings including stints as ambassador to South Africa and the Philipines.  Several months ago, after one too many stiff diplomatic cables from Lieberman chiding his colleagues for braying insufficiently loudly on behalf of Israel, Baruch decided he’d had enough.  He put in his papers and retired though he was not scheduled to do so for several more years.

He wrote a letter to his colleagues in which he noted a few of reasons for ending his career prematurely:

“Over the past two years the political and diplomatic messages by the state’s leaders, which have grown more pointed, have infuriated me and given me no rest. I find it difficult to represent them and explain them honestly.”

…Baruch said there is a great deal of frustration brimming below the surface at the Foreign Ministry.

The veteran diplomat explained the genesis of his discontent:

…He sensed an initial warning sign, he added, the day Lieberman took office as foreign minister and gave a speech in which he rejected the possibility of peace with the Palestinians.

“Lieberman completely denied [Israel's] role in the failure of the peace process,” Baruch said. “The outcome is not good and it is not only because of the Palestinians’ conduct.”

Baruch is not alone is his “disgust” at the course Israel’s diplomatic efforts are taking:

“It has become impossible to explain Israel to others these days,” one ambassador said. “There is no clear policy and it is very difficult to respond to international criticism.”Another ambassador said: “The diplomatic impasse is dangerous to the State of Israel, and it doesn’t seem as if the prime minister has a solution in the form of a diplomatic initiative. Under such circumstances, the international community will simply force a solution on us.”

It is always tempting in circumstances like this to read too much into the courageous act of one individual.  One wants to see a groundswell of opposition and hopes that this is but the beginning.  But the truth is that Israel’s Occupation regime is entrenched.  There are many others in the system waiting for their chance to replace someone of Baruch’s high rank.  His leaving may only be a blip on the screen.

Nevertheless, it is a cri de coeur that some will hear and heed both within the foreign ministry and perhaps outside it.

Russian Leader Visits Palestine, Recognizes New State

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011
medvedev recognizes palestine

'When two lovers woo, they still say: 'I love you.' (AP)

Israel has developed a truly innovative way to avoid bad news.  When the most prominent country in the world so far to recognize a Palestinian state sends its president to Palestine to do so, you can magically pretend the event never happened.  All you have to do is have a foreign ministry strike.  Then your foreign minister can’t rage about the insult as is his wont.  The country’s president can’t visit your country to get chewed out for his effrontery (no civil servants available to plan his visit).  Without the engagement of the political class, the Israeli media has a perfect excuse to downplay or not even cover the event.  Et voila–it never happened.

This is what a foreign ministry official told Ynetnews:

“We are utterly blind to what’s going on.”

I’d have thought blindness, both moral and political, was a chronic condition in the MFA.  But apparently it’s striking them particularly hard when the entire working foreign policy apparatus disappears.

I also rather like the MFA’s accusation that the PA is engaged in a “political intifada” to get the world to recognize the new state.  That’s a rather cool slogan which I think any Palestinian should be proud to wear on their sleeve.

Fortunately, the NY Times didn’t ignore the event, neither did Haaretz:

President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia met on Tuesday with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, in the West Bank oasis town of Jericho and reaffirmed his country’s support for a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem.

Palestinian leaders hailed the visit as historic, noting that this was the first time such a high-profile international figure had gone to Palestinian territory independently of a visit to Israel.

Mr. Medvedev, on his first trip to the area as president, was scheduled to visit Israel as well, but that part of his itinerary had to be postponed because of a strike by employees of the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Foreign Ministry officials, striking for more pay and better conditions, said this month that they were unable to prepare for the planned visit.

There are many important aspects to this declaration, among them that Russia is the first nations among the Quartet to endorse Palestinian statehood.  I wonder if China won’t be far behind.  Both countries enjoy taking opportunities to tweak American policies and this would give them a chance to do so, since the Obama administration has foolishly declared itself unalterably opposed to such “nonsense” (largely at the behest of Israel itself).

Russia’s message comes on top of announcements by a variety of South American nations that they too recognize such a state.  Rumors are flying that Spain, under its Social Democratic governing party, may be the first EU country to do so. After that, a number of other EU countries may follow suit.  Germany, of course, would be one of the most important and its chancellor’s relations with the Netanyahu government are none too warm.  But the Holocaust hangs over Germany perhaps too heavily for it to be an early adopter of this position.

Once a threshold of 40 or 50 countries endorse statehood for Palestine, including among them Russia, China, much of the EU, and virtually all of Latin America, can the Security Council refuse to deliberate the issue as the PA has requested?  It will be hard-pressed to refuse.  If it doesn’t, that will put the US in the awkward position of vetoing Palestinian statehood in the Security Council.  It will not look good for a mediating party to the conflict dousing water on the national aspirations of the Palestinian people.

There is a small chance that all of this is a development that Obama secretly endorses as a cudgel to use against Bibi in his own negotiations with him.  In that case, there is again a small possibility the U.S. would allow the Security Council to debate the issue and wouldn’t veto it if it came to a vote.  That would be interesting.

Another interesting aspect of Medvedev’s visit and endorsement is that Russia now plays a parallel role in midwiving Palestinian independence that the U.S. once played before the UN Security Council in 1948, when it led the international movement to recognize Israel.  We were on the right side of history once, but apparently no longer.  I know some of my readers will object to a portion of that last sentence, and with some justification.  We can discuss it in the comment thread.

Are You a Pro-Israel Media Maven? HasbArianna Is

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010
arianna huffington

Arianna Huffington aka Hasbarianna, willing target of pro-Israel hasbara campaign

If you are, the Israeli foreign ministry (MFA) has a junket for you: it’a a real metzieh.  Israel has allocated $25-million for hasbara efforts of which $15-20 million will be dedicated to romancing the stones of the pro-Israel social networking and media world: Arianna Huffington, that means you, baby.  You’re the leading Hasbara target and you ponied up your journalistic probity in return for a good, long sip at the MFA trough.  If you don’t believe me look at this shameless bit of pandering to her Israeli Sugar Daddy.  Arianna, mazel tov to you:

The campaign will focus on hosting figures the ministry has identified as having significant influence on public opinion. The first step in that effort was seen in ministry involvement in coordinating Arianna Huffington’s visit to Israel…

The ministry says it will work to cover the visits of many other opinion makers next year. The focus will be on people involved in lifestyle issues, culture and art, as well as leaders of specific population segments such as the gay community.

The Foreign Ministry also plans to fund activities already underway online. For example the site “I am Israel,” which features video clips and articles about the average Israeli. The project, part of an effort to change the world conception of Israelis, was initiated by individual Israelis. While the ministry is not currently involved in this site, in the future it intends to fund such projects.

I’d like to recommend a Hasbara-related neologism: Ariannabara or Hasbarianna.  Frankly, I think it’s shameful for any journalist to accept funding from the MFA for such a trip and if I can get my hands on the names of those who join the dog and pony show, they’ll be up in lights here.  I have no problem, in fact encourage, bloggers to visit Israel and even, if they must, taking briefings at the ministry.  But to participate in such a bald-faced Hasbara project is unconscionable.  And if you’re thinking of joining up, I put you on notice.

Doubtless, there are those true blue and white uber-Zionists who will be proud to join and wave the flag.  They’ll boast about their participation.  David Abitbol and his groupies are an example of someone who will no doubt participate in such a fashion (maybe we can call Hasbara in his case, Abitbara or Hasbabitbol).  And Jeffrey Goldberg too.  These people either have no  shame or they’re already true believers and cannot be moved.  But others may still have a shred of a conscience or integrity and be interested in preserving their jounalistic integrity.  It is those who should be informed about this.

I’ll be waiting for my invitation.  But it may be a long time coming.  All I get instead are these Hasbarist commenters doubtless sent here by our good friends in the MFA.  Could they at least throw in a T-shirt?  Maybe one of those cool Operation Cast Lead IDF T-shirts?  The ones about which I submitted a Huffington Post post which they refused to publish?  (By the way, that was one of Uri Blau’s great stories for Haaretz.)

H/t Rebecca and Ofer N.

Twitter and Winning the Online War for Israel

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

Those valiant hasbara honchos in the Israeli foreign ministry are fighting the good fight on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people.  First, Danny Ayalon stood up to the Turkish ambassador by seating him on a kiddie chair and showing how to humiliate a true enemy of Israel.  Then Danny stiffed a U.S. Congress delegation, making clear that he’d have nothing to do with those anti-Israel, so-called Jews in J Street.  Next, to show Israel in a truly constructive light as a center of hot sex in the Middle East–the MFA, Canadian Jewish pro-Israel donors, and the Israel lobby funded a thrilling video that proffered oral sex in return for traveling to the land of hot beaches and bronzed bodies that is Israel.

Yuli Edelstein, settler, and minister of the newly created Hasbara (I kid you not) Ministry, created a devilishly witty website which makes fun of foreign journalists telling their audiences back home that the IDF uses camels to haul their ammunition and that standards of civilization are somewhere in the late 19th century.  He’s also deputized Israeli tourists and, why the hell not, the entire Jewish people to be ambassadors of hasbarist good will on Israel’s behalf.  I tell you, as a good Zionist, it just makes my heart pound and my body tingle.  We’re finally getting out the message.  With this, it won’t be long before we win this damn propaganda war with the dark Arab hordes.  Then Israel will stand with its foot atop the neck of those damn Palestinians, as it should be.

Now, Danny and his friends in the Australian Zionist Federation have discovered a truly nefarious enemy within our very own Jewish people.  These are those Jewish-born individuals who should be ashamed to call themselves Jews (we certainly don’t), because they hate, I say HATE, Israel and all it stands for.  People like those nasty Twitterers who mock magnificent specimens of Jewish manhood like Gerald Steinberg of NGO Monitor, and deputy minister Ayalon himself.  And how do these so-called Jews disseminate their hate?  Not through the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.  No they’re far too crafty and hip for that.  They seek ever newer ways to promote their bile.  They do it using the tools of the young people on whom they prey: YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.  Yes, I said Twitter.  Is nothing sacred?

And who do we have to thank for this Paul Revere-like early warning of the impending peril to Israel?  Something called the Community Internet Engagement Project of the Australian Zionist Federation.  You see, many of our leaders are the white-haired Old Guard.  They’re used to dictating to cute secretaries a la Mad Men.  They barely know how to type, let alone tweet or “friend” someone on Facebook.  They’re the dinosaurs.  But the future belongs to the CIEP which aims to teach Australian Zionists how to fight for Israel in the perpetual online war waged by Islamofascists and their anti-Zionist fellow travelers.  All I can say is thank God for this veritable firewall, or should I say mechitza, on behalf of all that is good about the Jewish people.

We should thank them for all they do on our behalf (cut out that sniggering you in the back, this is serious work we’re engaged in):

Israel has been attached [sic] in Wikipedia, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr. Eventually it had to happen… and in messages of 140 characters of [sic] less, now Twitter too is being used in public diplomacy against the Jewish state….In Israel MKs, such as Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, are also making use of Twitter. So is the IDF’s spokesperson and the Israeli Foreign Ministry. What’s new…are efforts to use Twitter to attack, satirise or demonise. Two fake profiles demonstrate the potential. The first, is a FakeDannyAyalon profile on twitter, [sic] is an example of political attacks. Using his real picture and a string of 79 posts, the profile spreads over-the-top messages in the Deputy Foreign Minister’s name. One expounds the rights of protestors to express themselves in Iran, going on to say those who do so in Israel should be shot. Another suggests a Palestinian Mandela must be found… so that he can be locked up. The second fake profile of interest is for NGO Monitor. NGO Monitor is the watchdog organisation that reports on human rights NGOs active in the Arab Israeli conflict.  This profile likewise makes over the top and self defeating statements. “‘Telling the truth is less important than defending Israel.’ Yes, EXACTLY! When will you learn?!” it reads. Another comment says “Remember: Everything we say = democratic debate, legitimate criticism. Everything they say = exploiting democracy for a political agenda”.

Ashley Perry and advisor to Danny Ayalon responded to our enquiries saying they were aware of FakeDannyAyalon on Twitter and that “imitation is the highest form of flattery”…Despite the interest from imitators, Danny Ayalon apparently soon launch a blog and an interactive website. One wonders if FakeDannyAyalon will be left by the wayside.

The fake profile for NGO Monitor is less blatant than that for Danny Ayalon. IT differs from NGO Monitor’s real account by only an under score. The posts also link to articles that debate and respond to NGO Monitor reports. The profile itself lists the Palestinian Propaganda [!] site Electronic Intifada as its home page. Electronic Intifada was previously exposed as being behind efforts to manipulate the Wikipedia community after they infiltrated and exposed efforts by CAMERA to encourage more people to become Wikipedia editors.

It’s taken a while, but finally twitter too has become a tool of online warfare. While Facebook bans the use of fake names, Twitter only prohibits Impersonation and Trademark violations. It remains to be seen how far satire can be used as a cover, and how good the satire must be to qualify. One this [sic] is certain, the online world is only growing in impact when it comes to politics and the international reputation of countries. Israel is starting to get online, but there is a long way still to go.

And with starke Yidn like Prof. Dr. Oboler on our side, we’ll get there in no time.  Who is this fellow, you ask?

Dr. Andre Oboler is a social media expert and Director of the Community Internet Engagement Project. He…spent a year as a Post Doctoral Fellow focusing on Online Public Diplomacy at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

Phew, I feel better already.  One thing you should know, by the way, is that that wonderful sounding name “public diplomacy” is another phrase for hasbara when it comes to Israel.  It’s selling Israel, selling its story (as conceived by the pro-Israel right), selling the good, and dismissing the bad with the wave of a hand.

Psst, Dr. Oboler, use that PhD in computer science to buy yourself a good grammar check program, lest the anti-Semit’n out there start thinking all of us Jews are semi-literate.

To enjoy the wonderful satire of NGO_Monitor and FakeDanny Ayalon, visit their profiles and be ready to laugh your head off.  Some of this has to be written by writers for Eretz Nehederet, it’s that good.  By the way, Prof. Dr. Oboler missed a few other hilarious ones as well that would throw him into fits of righteous indignation: Fake_Bibi, FakeShimonPeres, DanHalutz, M_Ahmadinejad, SalamFayyad and MohammadDahlan.  Please let us know about others in the comment thread below.

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Settlers Campaign Against Size Doesn’t Matter Video

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

It looks like there’s a definite split in the pro-Israel community about the Size Doesn’t Matter soft-core video promoting Israeli student tourism.  I wondered why Vimeo, which originally hosted it took it down for “explicit sexual content.”  I blamed the company’s editors for being prudish.  Little did I know it was radical Orthodox settlers who objected to it.  A reader points me to this report in Arutz Sheva bragging erroneously that it got the video pulled:

The Foreign Ministry has taken down a video promotion for Israel that used sexual innuendo after Arutz-7 exposed the campaign on Tuesday. The film was sponsored by the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA).The video shows a young couple in bed and uses sexual terms in comparison with Israel. The exposé noted that the video was vulgar and could also be used by anti-Semites in their campaign to discredit Jews and Israel.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levi told Israel National News that the government workers involved in the promo are located in Toronto. “The idea did not come from Jerusalem,” he said.

This story completely contradicts this claim from another MFA spokesperson and the student who claims ownership of the tourism promotion that the MFA had nothing to do with it:

Maya Kadosh, spokesperson at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem…said that a conversation with the Israeli consulate in Toronto “indicated that the Consulate had no part in the movie, did not initiate it and did not participate in its planning or its distribution.”

Make up your minds guys. Did you or didn’t you? Is it possible that two different Israeli consular officials could’ve given diametrically opposite statements to the same question? It makes you wonder whether the confusion is based on a lie or simple incompetence. Either way, it isn’t terribly impressive.

Just as important, Arutz 7′s report is simply wrong. The website is up. The video is up. The only way I can justify their claim is that perhaps the MFA was making this available on its own website and it no longer is. But I’d guess it’s simply another lie or bit of incompetence from MFA officials in Israel who haven’t even bothered to check whether what they claim is true. What a way to run a country, eh?

I want to make crystal clear to anyone reading this that my criticism is not of all Israelis nor of the country, Israel.  It is of the twisted policies and world view of the current Israeli government (and any government that would pursued similar policies perpetuating Occupation).  That is why I am so disdainful of the kind of hasbara represented here.  It papers over problems and attempts to hide reality rather than expose it.

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Canadian Jewish Tourism Ad Uses Oral Sex to Promote Israeli Tourism

Sunday, February 21st, 2010


UPDATE: The video was originally hosted by Vimeo, which removed it after a complaint that it featured “explict sexual content.” Bad taste, for sure. But “explicit” content? It is instructive though, at least in a symbolic sense, that Vimeo finds such Israeli hasbara is video pornography. H/t Robin.

Dimi Reider has discovered one of the stranger of Israel’s tourism promotions.  This one is sponsored by the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA) undoubtedly in close collaboration with the foreign ministry.  The video is in indescribably bad taste, portraying an attractive couple in bed with the woman telling the man she can’t possibly “do it” because it’s “too small.”  The dialogue is so lame that it simply must be quoted to be believed:


Girl: Uhhh…
Boy: What?
G: Don’t be mad…It’s just that it’s small…
B: Small?!
G: I don’t know if I can go there.
B: I consider this a spot of worship. It may be small, but it’s brought the driest places to life. Baby, this is paradise. [camera pans to show map of Israel and tourist guidebooks covering boy's crotch].
G: OK, but if I go down there for you, you have to promise you’ll down south for me next winter.

I’m simply flabbergasted that Israel would use the promise of fellatio and cunnilingus to promote itself. This also puts into proper perspective the blandishments of Birthright Israel and its former premier trip vendor, Shlomo Momo, who hold out to trip participants the possibility of great Jewish sex and meeting potential Jewish mates on their trips.

There are just way too many strange, odd places to go with this evocative video. Do you notice the phallic outline of Israel in the video’s opening image? What does it say about the creator’s fixation on the symbolic size of Israel’s, er member? Maybe Israel is compensating for this sense of sexual inferiority with its “muscular” Occupation (h/t to Ali Gharib)?

The website devised to promote this tourism campaign portrays Israel as a hipster paradise full of models, beaches, bronzed bodies, and beautiful modern metropolises. If I caught it correctly, there’s an image of a dread-locked Idan Raichel thrown in for good measure. Yes sir, Israel is nothing but sun and fun. Not a hint of politics. Not even culture, art or music. And certainly not an Arab in sight. In fact, here are some factoids of which the hasbara machine wants you to be proud:

Did you KNOW?

* On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotechnology startup companies in the world
* Israel is a world leader in water conservation and reforestation
* Arab Israelis have served as elected representatives of the Knesset (Parliament) since Israel was founded

Israel is a welcoming and inclusive country

* In 1999, an Arab woman was named as “Miss Israel”
* Israeli Arabs serve on the Israeli Supreme Court
* Israel is at the forefront of promoting equality for LGBT communities, as well as promoting women’s rights
* In 1969 Golda Meir was elected as Israel’s Prime Minister – the third elected woman leader of any other country in the world

Speaking of Israel’s technological innovation, did you get a load of those Mossad killers talking into their wrists with that cool gear that communicated with their Austrian command center? Now that’s innovation! Not to mention the cool floppy hat worn by the Mossad babe who was stalking the victim. If that isn’t fashion sense, what is? And how ’bout targeted assassinations in general? What a neat innovation Israel has perfected and given as a gift to the Palestinians and the rest of the world.

How ’bout those claims about Israeli Arabs? Holy shit, Batman! There are Arab Israelis who’ve been elected to the Knesset! I bet you thought they were all dishwashers, daily laborers and maids. No kidding. Of course, this “fact” omits the real fact that Arab political parties are excluded from governing coalitions, and rarely are individual Arab Knesset members named government ministers and so have almost no political power.

And yes, Israel is an inclusive and welcoming country if you’re a Jew. If you’re not, not so much.

Regarding Arabs sitting on the Supreme Court, this neglects the fact that the daughter of Israel’s Arab justice was treated like an Arab terrorist by the Shin Bet when she attempted to leave Israel. Israel is at the forefront of gay rights…except when crazy haredim stab gay marchers in Gay Pride parades, when haredi rabbis denounce gays as evil Sodomites, and when Tel Aviv gay community centers are attacked by crazed gunmen. As for Golda, that’s very nice except that the percentage of women in the Knesset is miserably low and women hold almost no major cabinet portfolios.

Is this any way to promote a country? You bet it ain’t. But one thing I have to say–this is yet another ‘brilliant’ manipulation brought to you by those boys, Yvette and Danny, and their most excellent adventure at the Israeli foreign ministry. At the rate they’re going, there may not be much of an Israel left to promote before too long.

This advertising campaign is part of a joint Israel rebranding effort organized by the Israeli consulate in Canada and Canadian Jewish business leaders including the Asper family and Jason Reitman, who also chairs CIJA. An earlier effort at this type of rebranding included the Toronto Film Festival’s honoring Tel Aviv’s 100th birthday in an effusion of pro-Israel glitz and hasbara that Israeli film artists and Naomi Klein objected to strenuously.

Students at 20 Canadian universities will have the pleasure of dreaming about oral sex in Israel when this tourism campaign comes to a campus near them in the coming weeks. I bet they just can’t wait.

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Oren Smears J Street–Again

Friday, December 11th, 2009

Israeli ambassador Michael Oren has had an awkward relationship with J Street.  Despite much tender wooing by the group’s director, Jeremy Ben-Ami, Oren stayed away from its first national conference.  This was viewed as a something between a slap in the face and a slap on the wrist for the Jewish peace lobby, which often disagrees with the views of the current rightist Israeli government.

Writing in The Forward, Josh Nathan-Kazis reports that Oren has not only taken the gloves off, he’s taken leave of truth:

Addressing a breakfast session at the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism’s biennial convention December 7, Ambassador Michael Oren described J Street as “a unique problem in that it not only opposes one policy of one Israeli government, it opposes all policies of all Israeli governments. It’s significantly out of the mainstream.”

…This is not a matter of settlements here [or] there. We understand there are differences of opinion,” Oren said. “But when it comes to the survival of the Jewish state, there should be no differences of opinion.

This is patently a lie.  And Oren certainly knows this.  But the fact that he somehow believes that American Jews interested enough in J Street or what he has to say about it will not know it is a lie, indicates he is beyond cynical.

We should add to this that an inside source informed me that Israel’s consul general in San Francisco, Akiva Tor, told a prospective major local donor they should not give to J Street because it is supported by Arab extremists.  When I queried him, the consul general flatly denied the charge and told me anyone making it was lying.  Which is interesting because the person who informed me, heard this directly from the prospective donor.  So in effect, Tor is accusing the prospective donor or his confidant of lying.

On a different subject, Oren again engaged in sophistry when asked his opinion about a Conservative Jewish woman arrested at the Kotel for removing a Torah scroll from the handbag she was carrying.  The Orthodox mafia controlling the Kotel insisted that she be arrested for violating an agreement that found women could not read Torah or carry it at the Kotel.  Here is Oren’s response:

“It is not a perfect situation.” Oren said. “We in Israel have to strike a balance between our respect for pluralism and our respect for tradition.”

What is disingenuous in this response is that the Conservative movement represents Jewish tradition just as much as the Orthodox mafiosi do.  So to presume that “tradition” is only represented by the Orthodox sets up a false dichotomy between the latter and Conservative Judaism.

In this statement as well, Oren dissembles:

Oren said that original reports stating that Frenkel had been arrested were mistaken, and that she was simply led away from the Kotel area.

Actually, Haaretz (and Nathan-Kazis in this article) confirms she was detained by Israeli police and taken to a police station and questioned there for an extended period.  Frenkel herself wrote in The Forward of her detention at a police station.  She may not have been arrested.  But much more was done to her than leading her away from the Kotel.

How does it look when the Israeli ambassador, supposedly a well-respected academic expert on Israel-U.S. relations before his appointment, has such an elemental disdain for truth and facts?  To me, this signifies his basic disrespect for American Jews and our intelligence.  I have no problem with an Israeli diplomat disagreeing with my views or those of liberal groups I support.  But I expect at the very least an accurate depiction of what those views are before expounding on our differences.  Oren can’t even give us that respect.