Tikun Olam-תקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

Condi’s back in Israel wheedling and cajoling in her usual fitful, unsuccessful way. In the process of her visit, Tzipi Livni made some darkly (unintentionally) humorous comments:

”The idea is to ease the lives of the Palestinians, to help, as far as we can, in order to improve their lives, to advance and have progress,” she said. ”Like always, the formula is to do whatever we can as long as it doesn’t affect our own security.”

Translation: Like always, the formula is to do whatever we can as long as we don’t have to do anything.

But both Rice and Livni said it was important to make progress on an overall agreement as soon as possible.

”Time is of the essence,” Livni said. ”Stagnation and stalemate is not the Israeli government policy, it doesn’t serve our own interest.’

Time is NEVER of the essence as far as Israel is concerned. Stagnation and stalemate is always the preferred government policy and it does serve their interest if you define such interest as maintaining the status quo of Israeli dominance and Palestinian subjugation.

We’ve also heard this “promise” at least fourteen times before:

Israeli defense officials said they would remove a major West Bank checkpoint and dozens of smaller roadblocks…and grant more permits to Palestinian merchants for access into Israel.

The officials said Israel will take down the military checkpoint controlling movement in and out of the West Bank city of Jericho, which would be the first time residents of the largely quiet city will enjoy unrestricted freedom of movement since violence erupted in 2000.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because there has not yet been an official announcement of the steps.

Translation: officials spoke on condition of anonymity because as soon as Rice leaves they have no intention of honoring their pledge.

Besides, calling Jericho’s a “major checkpoint” is like saying that Spokane is a hotbed of Muslim terror. Jericho is the most peaceful of all Palestinian cities and aside from Israel assaulting the city’s jail to kidnap imprisoned Palestinian militants last year, it has seen very little violence during the conflict. So what kind of sacrifice is it for Israel to remove a checkpoint from Jericho?

Let’s just stop this charade shall we? Neither Condi nor George Bush are going to come remotely close to a peace agreement before he leaves office. It’s just another of his empty, broken promises. We’re so cynical and jaded at this point how can we be disappointed? We never believed him to begin with when he said he would do so. He’s never achieved anything during his presidency, at least not anything constructive like a peace agreement. So why should (or could) he start now?

tags israeli checkpoints, Rice Pushes Meaningful Mideast Steps, tzipi-livni

This is AJC propaganda

My old friend and political ally from our days in New Jewish Agenda, Clare Kinberg, edits Bridges Journal.  She asked me and a number of others to comment on Ms Magazine’s recent rejection of an ad submitted by the American Jewish Congress.  This latest pro-Israel tempest in a teapot has been stirred up by Jack Rosen’s AJC, whose ad was ostensibly meant to sing the praises of Israeli women. The ad featured rather unflattering images of Supreme Court justice Dorit Beinisch, Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik (Kadima), and foreign minister Tzipi Livni (Kadima) alongside the rousing caption: “This is Israel.” This is typical pro-Israel PR fluff and signifies hardly anything worth talking about.

However, Ms decided that it was being used by AJC to do special pleading for Israel and refused to run the ad. Now, there is a PR war going on between the two and AJC has essentially won it before it started. It gets to frame the argument as: “we wanted to highlight Israeli feminism and you rejected us. In doing so you rejected all Israeli women AND violated our free speech rights.” AJC gets to claim Ms rejected the ad because it is “hostile to Israel.” All of which is utter dreck.

If I were Ms’ editor I would’ve happily taken the money. If Jack Rosen wants to pump money into Ms why should the magazine refuse it? But I would’ve told the AJC that I planned on either writing an editorial or commissioning an article that would’ve examined the premises of the ad and looked beyond it at the real status of women in Israeli society in the context of the ad’s flackery. I’ll bet the AJC would’ve withdrawn the ad in a heartbeat.

It’s important to know something about AJC before judging the evidence in this case. It used to be one of the nation’s premier liberal Jewish organizations. Henry Siegman was once its national president. Then it fell into decline and financial difficulty. A white knight named Jack Rosen came along and offered it a life preserver in the form of financial subsidy. In return, Rosen took it over and turned it into a domestic version of AIPAC. Now, it is almost an arm of the Republican Jewish Coalition, with which Rosen is also affiliated. AJC’s politics are neocon through and through.

Clare Kinberg also points out that the AJC staff member behind the ad is Harriet Kurlander. Prior to working for AJC, she was Southeast regional director for AIPAC. All of which points to the fact that this ad has almost nothing to do with Israeli women or feminism and everything to do with pro-Israel politics. I can’t say whether Kurlander “set up” Ms and the magazine rather inartfully fell into the trap set for it; or a series of unfortunate actions and reactions led to this disaster for Ms and PR gold mine for AJC.

Another element entirely missing from the ad is any awareness of the real challenges faced by Israeli women. Just because three Israeli women hold position of legal or political prominence doesn’t mean that all’s well in this feminist paradise. Israel is a male-dominated society. As recently as a decade ago or so it was illegal for a woman to work at any job after dark. The incidence of rape and battering is quite high. In an armed forces that prides itself on democratically representing the society from which it originates, women play largely secondary roles. That being said, I have no problem with highlighting gains women have made as long as the full picture of women’s status is portrayed. And this the AJC had no interest in showing. All it wanted was to score propaganda points.

Ms has said in its defense that it does not promote political points of view and the fact that two of the pictured women were Kadima operatives made the ad politically partisan. That’s a hard one to swallow. Of course the ad IS partisan, but not in terms of party politics.

What AJC hopes to do is peel off some of the progressive elements of the feminist movement to attack Ms. This in turn, divides the progressive Jewish movement at a time when it is important that it stay focused on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict AND bettering conditions for women within Israeli society. The AJC ad is a side show to all of this. I would plead with any progressive speaking out for AJC that they consider some of the issues I’ve raised before doing so.

No doubt, Ms could’ve handled this better. But that doesn’t mean that anything the AJC is saying has any merit whatsoever.

tags dalia-itzik, dorit-beinisch, feminism, harriet-kurlander, israeli-women, Ms-magazine-rejects-american-jewish-congress-pro-israel, tzipi-livni

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni tried to make a big stir this week by announcing that global anti-Semitism was on the rise. While I’m not trying to minimize the issue or its significance, it is a long-running theme of the State of Israel to point out to Diaspora Jews how dangerous and hostile the world is for Jews outside Israel–with the intent of inducing them to make aliya. The strategy has had mixed results. A recent article in the Economist pointed out that only 120,000 American Jews had made aliya since the creation of the State in 1948. The low number shocked me I must say.

Livni made her announcement under the rubric of the Global Forum Against Anti-Semitism (I can’t seem to find a website). But along the way, it appears that the hasbara machine has stumbled once again. According to Haaretz, in the documents distributed to the press, the Forum noted that:

Montreal Mayor Stefane Gendron said in August that “Israelis are modern-day Nazis.”

To add insult to injury, the Forum spokesperson at the press conference publicly affiliated Gendron with Montreal, which by the way has a very large Jewish population.

The problem is that while Stefane Gendron may’ve made this statement, he is NOT the mayor of Montreal (that honor belongs to Gérald Tremblay) but rather of the small town of Huntingdon, Quebec. Oops. We’ve got to do a better job of keeping our anti-Semites straight.

Haaretz had a bit of egg on its face as it apologized today for its error. Will the Global Forum apologize to the real mayor of Montreal?

tags global-forum-against-anti-semitism, israeli-governement-accuses-montreal-mayor-of-anti-semi, tzipi-livni

When you’re an Israeli-Palestinian peace activist, you know you’re really rankling the powers that be when they plant outrageous smears against you in the mass media. Those of us working for Israeli-Palestinian peace already know about the vicious lies, smears and calumnies spread by the likes of David Horowitz, Alan Dershowitz, Mort Klein, and publications like Frontpagemagazine. But did you know that none other than the Israeli foreign ministry with the collusion of Yediot Achronot have joined the game? Yup. And boy, has the hasbara machine really run off the rails on this one!

Yediot reports in both Hebrew (interestingly, Yediot has not published the article online–I wonder why?) and English about an internal memo prepared by the Los Angeles consul general which accuses the current Combatants for Peace tour hosted by Brit Tzedek (see tour schedule) of being fronted by Palestinian groups. The Hebrew version is much juicier and slanderous so we’ll go there first (translation by Amir Tekel and myself):

Foreign ministry on offensive against Israeli refuseniks touring U.S.

PALESTINIAN ORGANIZATIONS IN U.S. BANKROLLING DRAFT REFUSERS

The activity of Israeli draft refusers in the U.S. against Israeli policies in the Occupied Territories is on the rise and is getting backing from Jewish and Palestinian organizations.

By Itamar Eichner

A foreign ministry report recommends acting quickly against Israeli refusnik groups active in the U.S. “Their negative impact on Israel’s image must be stopped” the report states.

The report was presented a few days ago to the foreign ministry in Jerusalem and all its representatives in North America. The Israeli consul general in L.A., Ehud Danoch and the communications and hasbara consul, Gilad Millo prepared it.

In the document, the consuls write that recently they’ve begun to witness a rising trend of Israelis, mostly reservists affiliated with the refusenik movement, who are touring campuses and Jewish communities across the U.S. and Canada and telling their hosts what is happening in the Occupied Territories from their perspective.

According to the report, tours by Breaking the Silence and Combatants for Peace are funded mainly by Jewish organizations. According the the foreign ministry, “The size of this phenomena requires proper response both in Israel and North America”. The support of American Jews for the refuseniks has become a controversial subject among Jewish organizations.

Among the Jewish groups who sponsored the events are the Union of Zionist Progressives and Brit Tzedek V’Shalom, a Jewish organization that supports removal of settlements and ending the Occupation.

According to the report, Muslim & Palestinian organizations are also among sponsors including the Islamic Council for Public Affairs and the Islamic Center of Southern California, whose leader, Maher Hatout, was quoted this summer calling Hizballah “an organized army fighting for freedom”.

The report notes that also Hillel, a Jewish student organization considered pro-Israel, recently hosted a lecture by representatives of Breaking the Silence. The document states that “for the average American student, these organizations speak in the name of Israel. The willingness by Jewish communities to host these groups and even fund them is painful. This is a phenomenon that must not be ignored. These refuseniks are cynically using their reserve soldier status and causing damage to the state of Israel.”

“It’s possible that these organizations aren’t aware that they have turned, over time, into tools in the hands of North American Muslim campus organizations and that they have crossed the line between their aspiration to be an influential force within Israel to becoming a clearly anti-Israel force causing Israel great damage in the world.”

A little demystification is in order along with a cold shower to wash off all the lies and distortions spewed in this article. First, this tour is not supported financially by “Palestinian organizations.” Just as almost any public event nowadays has multiple sponsoring organizations, so has each Brit Tzedek chapter hosting the tour reached out to local peace groups to co-sponsor their events. There are Arab groups, Jewish groups, universities, peace groups, etc. But sponsors are not hosts. Brit Tzedek is the sole producer and host of this tour. And it hasn’t taken any money from any Arab organization for the purpose of this tour.

Don’t you just love the breathlessness of this ominous warning: “”Their negative impact on Israel’s images must be stopped.” Reminds me of J. Edgar Hoover’s warnings about the Red Menace in the 1950s and 1960s. As if IDF soldiers who’ve laid down their swords and shields pose a mortal peril to the nation. Be real. Which poses a greater danger to the nation: a prime minister, defense minister and chief of staff who waltz into a war they cannot win causing terrible loss of Israeli life while not resolving the problem they went into the war to solve; or a few hundred former soldiers who’ve decided that endless killing won’t pave the way to peace?

The Israeli hasbaraniks claim the speaking tours have become “controversial subjects.” This obscure reference is to a dispute among campus pro-Israel groups when a progressive member of the coalition sponsored a Breaking the Silence tour. Another member, the hardest of hard-right Zionist Organization of America threatened to leave the group unless the Union of Progressive Zionists was ejected. The board of the coalition voted unanimously not to eject UPZ.

The Forward also reports that the Los Angeles director of the American Jewish Congress sent a letter to the coalition resigning from the group. Then the national director rescinded the resignation, sort of. Turns out they’re not resigning now. But they may resign later. Go figure that one out. And while you’re at it figure out whether there could be any connection between L.A.’s consul general penning this bit of trash and a resignation letter sent from AJC’s L.A. office regarding the UPZ incident. That wouldn’t be a bit of collusion on their parts now would it?

But there you have it. That’s the entire “controversy.” Talk about making a mountain out of a mole hill.

The Israeli foreign ministry flacks are shocked, I say, SHOCKED that Hillel sponsored individual events for several of the tours. Of course, they neglect to mention that Hillels also sponsor right-wing nationalist events as well. Here at the University of Washington, the Hillel hosted a talk by supposed former PLO terrorist Walid Shoebat, the darling of Christian Zionists and the pro-Israeli wingnutosphere. I try not to hold it against Hillel. ‘Let a thousand flowers bloom’ to quote Reb Mao. But to try to orchestrate a campaign to vilify peace groups and prevent their use of Jewish communal spaces like Hillel for events is dastardly.

Then Danoch and friend lament: “To the average American student these organizations speak in the name of Israel.” What do they take college students for? Idiots? If I went to England and heard Cindy Sheehan speak would the average Brit believe she spoke in the name of the U.S. government? C’mon. What do you take them for? This is just more of the hysterical hasbara machine at work.

Now here’s an interesting accusation: “The willingness by Jewish communities to host these groups and even financially sponsor them is unfortunate.” I don’t have a clue what they’re talking about in claiming that “Jewish communities…financially sponsor” the tours. As far as I know, this is absolutely not so. If there were communities funding these events I’d be delighted. But alas, spurious campaigns like this one make such a possibility extremely remote.

And here’s the real capper: “These organizations [i.e. Brit Tzedek, Combatants for Peace, Breaking the Silence] don’t know that they have become a tool in the hands of Muslim groups…” That’s right. The report notes that TWO Arab groups, count ‘em two, sponsored events on these two national tours. That, ipso facto, makes said Israeli and American Jewish groups out to be a dupes of the anti-Israel Islamofascist crowd. Leaving aside what’s wrong with a legally incorporated Arab organization sponsoring an Israeli peace program, this charge is beyond outrageous. Last I checked both America and Israel were democracies. Dissent was permitted even encouraged. And if I hear one more time that ridiculous canard that Israelis are not entitled to criticize Israel outside of Israeli because of the damage it could do–I’ll scream.

So, what we have here is a campaign to drain support for peace groups within the Jewish community. They’d like to cut off all financial support coming from the organized community or even individual Jewish donors (at least that’s how I read this). Good luck. What do they take our community for? A bunch of frightened conspiracy theorists like they are?

I know if I took this passage to Elik Elhanan or Shimon Katz, the Combatants for Peace leaders speaking on the current Brit Tzedek tour, they’d laugh till their sides ached: “These refuseniks are cynically using their reserve soldier status and causing damage to the state of Israel.” How is it cynical to speak out for peace with your neighbors? What is wrong with saying you were once a soldier and now don’t believe your weapons can solve anything? How do you damage the State of Israel by saying talking is better than shooting, a peace treaty is better than a declaration of war?

Remember the names Ehud Danuch and Gilad Miloa. They should live in infamy. And let’s ask Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni whether this is the standard of service provided by her ministry to the Los Angeles Jewish community. Doesn’t Los Angeles deserve better?

Let me make clear that I don’t expect anyone to accept the views expressed by Combatants for Peace as halacha l’Moshe mi’Sinai (God’s Word). Let us argue over them. But why lie? How does that give your side an edge up in the debate? I can only wonder whether this nadir of Israeli demagoguery marks the desperation of the current Israeli government, and its minions like AIPAC, ZOA and American Jewish Congress, to silence debate. Remember that movie slogan: “Be afraid, be very afraid.” I think they are. Times may be a-changin’.

tags breaking-the-silence, combatants-for-peace, ehud-danuch, gilad-miloa, israeli-foreign-ministry-smears-israeli-peace-activists, los-angeles-israeli-consul-general, tzipi-livni

Just as I was celebrating a remarkable Democratic victory in Congressional elections, this horrible incident occurred. An IDF artillery unit has murdered 19 Palestinians, all civilians, including 10 children and 7 women and destroyed the homes of four families in the process:

Israel Defense Forces artillery shells struck a residential area in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun early Wednesday, killing at least 19 Palestinians and wounding dozens of others. Ten children and seven women were among the dead, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, adding that 18 of the victims were members of the Athamna family. Khaled Radi, a Palestinian Health Ministry official, said all of those killed were civilians. According to witnesses, the victims were sleeping when the 15-minute barrage of shells first hit. Radi also said at least 40 people were wounded, all civilians. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni expressed regret for the deaths, saying that Israel did not set out to harm innocent civilians. The IDF confirmed that an artillery battery containing 12 shells had aimed at a site from where Qassam rockets were fired at the southern city Ashkelon on Tuesday. The artillery fire had been intended for a location about half a kilometer from the Beit Hanun houses. At this stage it is unclear whether the incident was caused by a technical or human error. The initial assumption is, however, that the wrong coordinates were fed to the artillery unit.

Pray, in this day and age of technological sophistication how does an artillery shell miss its target by one-quarter of a mile?? And why was Israel using artillery anyway to interdict Qassam rocket assaults:

The army has reduced the amount of artillery fire into Gaza in recent months, saying it was ineffective against the Qassam cells and inaccurate. Nevertheless, the army decided to continue firing artillery shells sporadically, in specific instances.

Yet, Tzipi Livni has the chutzpa to say Israel did not set out to harm civilians. When you use a weapon you know to be inaccurate and then kill innocent civilians you can no longer make such a claim credibly. You are guilty of woeful negligence at least. And did the shelling accomplish the desired effect of eliminating the Qassam fire? No, of course not:

Eight Qassams were fired at southern Israel from Gaza following the shelling.

I’m sure you’ll be reassured as I was to know who is investigating this outrage:

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz appointed Major General Meir Kalifi to head an investigation into the shelling.

For those who don’t remember, he’s the same jackass general who “investigated” the Gaza beach massacre (that also involved artillery shelling) and gave the IDF a clean bill of health.

I’m sure he’ll conduct a thorough and impartial investigation letting the chips fall where they may. And this is the bitter fruit of such criminal military offenses:

Rahwi Hamad, 75, who lives across the street, said he woke to the sound of shells exploding and people screaming. “I opened my window and I looked out and I saw a shell hit a neighbor’s house … When I came out, another shell had hit the house,” he said. “There was a stench of blood and (burned) flesh.” Large holes had been punched in
the fronts of the houses and their balconies had collapsed. Surviving relatives sat weeping in front of the buildings. One man dipped his fingers in a puddle of blood and daubed it on his face. “God avenge us, God avenge us,” he cried.

Another survivor said this:

“It is the saddest scene and images I have ever seen. We saw legs, we saw heads, we saw hands scattered in the street,” 22-year-old eyewitness Attaf Hamad told Reuters news agency. “I saw people coming out of a house covered in blood. I started screaming to wake up the neighbours.”

Oh Condi and George…is it time for a ceasefire yet? Remember Lebanon where the same duo refused a ceasefire in order to allow Israel to “soften up” Hezbollah? Or should Israel continue killing scores or even hundreds more such civilians before you’ll get off your goddamn butts and do what you should do to knock heads and make things happen here. Oh the shame of it. Bush fiddles while Gaza burns. George, if you want to redeem your God forsaken presidency after today’s ignominious election defeat, you’ll gird yourself and do the right thing. Help bring peace between these two self-destructive peoples. Create a legacy. To paraphrase John Prine: just give us one thing that we can hold on to and be proud of in your presidency.

UPDATE: Haaretz initially reported that 19 had died. Most other media publication only noted 18 deaths at the time. But since then, 2 other vicitms have died bringing the total to 20 dead as of November 19th).

tags 18-gazans-killed, artillery-accidents-kill-civilians, Athamna-family, beit-hanun-massacre, gaza-invasion, haaretz, new-york-times, qassam-rocket-attacks, tzipi-livni

Finally, the day we've been waiting for is here..well, sort of. Mahmoud Abbas told the world today that after month's of fitful negotiations with his Hamas partner, Ismail Haniye, the two have hammered out an agreement (or they've come close to hammering out an agreement) on forming a national unity government: The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, said Monday that he had reached a tentative agreement with Hamas to form a national unity government in an attempt to end the Palestinians’ international isolation and the cutoff in Western assistance to their government. In a speech on Palestinian television, Mr. Abbas said it would take several days to finish the deal, and provided no details of how his Fatah faction and ...

All I can say is thank God for Romano Prodi's Italian government. It appears to have almost single-handedly saved the UN's Lebanon peacekeeping mission from imploding. After Jacques Chirac's "now you see 'em, now you don't" performance in which he seemed to offer to lead the new UNIFIL force and supply it with thousands of troops; only to see the offer practically evaporate before the world's eyes--we now have a country that has shown courage and vision in taking the lead on this issue. Chirac was shown up pitifully by Prodi when the latter made his offer to contribute substantial troops and to lead the force. Only then did the former decide to make a serious commitment ...

I know, I know. Israel destroyed almost an entire country and here I'm asking whether Ehud Olmert got religion when he saw the IDF strategy wasn't working in Lebanon and pulled the plug on it. That may be giving the man too much credit. But no less an esteemed Israeli journalist than Haaretz's Akiva Eldar said precisely this on today's To the Point (audio stream) radio show. The following is from Eldar's column in today's Haaretz: ...His courageous decision to buck a large majority of the public, as well as the generals and pundits who argued against the cease-fire, makes up for all those mistakes, as well as for a long list of [war] failures... Two ...

Yesterday, 24 Israeli boys were offered up on the altar of political expediency. As of this time today, another five boys are dead fighting in south Lebanon: Five Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed in south Lebanon on Sunday, as troops and Hezbollah guerrillas engaged in heavy fighting, hours before a UN cease-fire resolution was expected to go into effect. Two of the slain soldiers were captains, the IDF said. As far as I can see, the only reason they died is so Ehud Olmert will have cover on his right flank from the attacks of Likud and other gung ho militarists. They are assaulting him mercilessly since he supposedly refused to fully unleash the IDF in its efforts to ...

The Bush Administration continues its ghoulish support for the ongoing Israeli assault on Lebanon. We're in favor of pounding the shit out of the country for another week until Hezbollah is supposedly vanquished or else weakened. Only then, will we be in favor of peace. This comes from the NY Times: President Bush has brushed aside calls for an immediate cease-fire both by defending Israel’s right to defend itself and by seeking to shift the pressure for action to Syria and Iran, who are Hezbollah’s prime sponsors. Earlier this week, in remarks to Mr. Blair picked up by an open microphone, Mr. Bush said that the United Nations should be focusing on getting Mr. Assad to “make something ...