Category Archives: Israel

Flotilla Follies

Posted on June 1, 2010 | Comments Off

The only mistake Israel made was not issuing the following statement last week (or, to be more precise, four years ago): “Due to the hostile deeds and bellicose words of the government of Gaza, a state of war exists between Israel and Gaza. The government of Gaza has engaged in relentless and unprovoked attacks on Israel’s sovereign territory and citizenry. For years, Gaza has unhesitatingly fired rockets and mortars that have killed, wounded and terrorized civilians in Israel. For four years, Gaza has held hostage – in defiance of international law – an Israeli soldier named Gilad Schalit, and has deprived him of his freedom and human rights. We hold Gazans – who overwhelmingly elected a Hamas government explicitly dedicated to Israel’s destruction – responsible for all aggressive actions emanating from their territory. Therefore, anyone seeking to enter Gaza without the authorization of Israel, or anyone seeking to provide Gazans with any material support without the express authorization of Israel, will be considered to be aiding and abetting the enemies of Israel and will be treated with the appropriate severity customary in wartime.”

Such a statement would have clarified at the outset Israel’s position, and put the world and the “activists” on notice that any attempt to strengthen Gaza in its war against Israel would be dealt with harshly. Instead, Israel minces words, preferring the illusions of the “peace process” to the reality of persistent conflict. The rhetoric of international protest should not be taken seriously, as it is all part of the game, and with the proper and pointed Israeli response – without apologies, regrets or offers of compensation – will recede within days. Indeed, if Israel’s response – now, properly direct and blunt – becomes limp, flaccid and remorseful, that will only prolong this manufactured crisis. And manufactured it was.

Obviously, the whole point of the charade was not to supply Gazans with “humanitarian aid” (they don’t need it, and Israel in any event offered to unload, search and then deliver whatever was appropriate) but rather to goad the Israelis in killing some “activists.” In that sense, nine dead, for Muslims, is a very small price to pay for a public relations triumph. Sad to say – but unsurprisingly – Muslims do not value life the same way Westerners do. They gladly die for a cause. Those who don’t believe that should ponder a few phrases – suicide bomber, 9/11, jihad – and consider the dozens of countries across the globe that have been victimized by Muslim suicide terror. As a Hamas parliamentarian said several years ago, taunting Israel and the West: “We love death the way you love life.” If so, these terrorist sympathizers not only got what they deserved, they got what they wanted. Spare me the crocodile tears and soppy rhetoric about the “tragic loss of life.”

The only botched part of the raid seemed to be that the Israeli commandoes allowed themselves to be assaulted by these “peaceniks” for almost an hour before they responded in kind. That was an operational failure. Otherwise, there was much good that came out of the raid:

1) Israel’s blockade of Gaza was upheld, and the enemy is on notice that these stunts will not succeed. If tried again, the reaction should be even swifter and less merciful.

2) Since Israel can reiterate to the world that a state of war exists between Israel and Gaza, it should restrict any aid – even humanitarian – until Gilad Schalit is released alive and well.

3) PM Netanyahu had to cancel his scheduled meeting with President Obama. As noted here several days ago, this session would have redounded to Israel’s detriment. My, this new crisis is so serious that perhaps Netanyahu will be unavailable until after the summer, and maybe not even until after the Jewish holidays in the late summer. If he comes earlier, he is foolish.

4) This morning, the UN Security Council passed a resolution stating in part: “The Security Council deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries resulting from the use of force during the Israeli military operation in international waters against the convoy sailing to Gaza”… and… “condemns those acts which resulted in the loss” of lives. And the Obama administration supported this resolution, claiming that it was watered down from an even harsher condemnation of Israel. Result: Israel can no longer count on this US government to defend it from the tendentious and obsessive hatred of the UN towards Israel. Clarity is always beneficial, and so much for the Obama “charm offensive” that is trying to lure liberal US Jews back into the Obama corner.

5) Another proof (as if another was still needed) that the UN is a joke, and a waste of valuable real estate in New York City. The North Korean sinking of a South Korean submarine several months ago killed five times as many human beings as died in the flotilla follies, with no response. Muslim-Arab terrorists have killed in recent years 1000 times as many human beings as died off the Gaza coast, with no response. Rhwanda. Darfur. If the UN has condemned the rockets into Sderot, I do not recall it. I do recall that Noam Schalit this past March asked the UN Human Rights Commission to intervene on behalf of his captive son; he stills waits for their response.

6) Perhaps it will stop people from mindlessly spouting the utter nonsense that Turkey is Israel’s closest ally in the Middle East. That was true for many years. It is no longer true. That was true when Turkey was governed by secular leaders. It has not been true since PM Erdogan – a rabid Islamist – took power in 2003 and shifted policy away from Israel and the West and closer to the Arab-Muslim world. Turkey sponsored this flotilla and dispatched it from its shores. It is today part of the Muslim axis against Israel. It is anti-Israel. That doesn’t mean it will always be anti-Israel; it does mean that today it is anti-Israel, and pretending it is not is misguided. Side note: would that the Turks could muster a fraction of the passion and outrage it feels about the Israeli raid and the loss of nine lives here for the 1,500,000 Armenians that Turkey massacred in 1915 and still refuses to acknowledge.

7) Another blow to the “peace process,” currently in the guise of the George Mitchell proximity talks. All these efforts are doomed to fail, because they all are designed to facilitate Israel’s demise rather than create a lasting peace. The riots across the world are a timely reminder to Jews and Israelis – many of whom suffer from a peculiar form of amnesia – that a visceral, religious-based hatred of Jews and Israel is alive and well, and prospers whenever Israel shows any weakness. Much of the world has not reconciled itself to Israel’s existence or to Jewish nationalism, and all the Oslo agreements, treaties, signing ceremonies, retreats, surrenders, concessions, compromises, good-will measures and handshakes have not changed that one iota. Almost inarguably, Israeli weakness in the last 20 years has exacerbated Jew-hatred and Israel-hatred across the world, especially the Arab world.

8) PA “President” Mahmoud Abbas (whose term expired long ago but in the comical world of Arab “democracies” will serve as long as he wishes) accused Israel of “state-sponsored terrorism.” Well, isn’t that rich (in the sense of cloying) ? Of course, Abbas is an expert on “state-sponsored terrorism,” so he must know it when he sees it.

Jews and people of good will everywhere must remain resilient – physically and psychologically – against the onslaught that has started and will continue for several days. Be strong. These PR battles are not incidental to the war against Israel but one of the major battlegrounds. The enemy has in numbers what it lacks in truth, justice and morality – and the latter are always stronger. Do not parrot the trite and wrong-headed sound bites about the “botched raid.” On the contrary: the raid was not botched at all. The raid was a success. Soldiers go into battle ready to kill and be killed. Israeli soldiers killed so that they should not be killed. Gaza and Israel are at war. That is the nature of war. Israel’s vital interests were protected by its military forces. And Jewish blood is no longer cheap.

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Posted in Contemporary Life, Israel, Jewish History

Invitations

Posted on May 28, 2010 | Comments Off

President Obama’s friendly outreach to PM Netanyahu strikes me as primarily an appeal to a domestic Jewish audience – whose liberal component is deeply troubled by Obama’s tone and substance toward Israel – rather than a genuine attempt to mend fences with Israel and conduct himself as one would expect from a friend and ally. With Obama’s poll numbers declining, he needed to shore up his Democratic Jewish support that had bottomed after he was misled into believing that the leftist Jews with whom he surrounds himself are representative of the Jewish – even liberal Jewish – community. They are not, despite their protestations.

The attempted “charm offensive” began several weeks ago. It included reaching out to US Rabbis for private meetings and the exchange of clichés and platitudes, meetings that – unlike President Bush’s outreach – did not actually include a meeting with the president himself, and now has culminated in what is being billed as a “friendly” meeting (as if that is something unusual), that will even include the presence of a photographer, perhaps a flashy smile, and, if Netanyahu plays his cards right, an entrance through the front door of the White House in daylight instead of the standard (for Israel’s prime minister) rear door entry in the dark of night.

Yet, even this invitation was muffed by the White House. Note the contrast in the invitations of Netanyahu and PA ex-president Abbas (who still functions as ra’is despite the fact that his term lapsed more than a year ago, but who’s counting anyway ?). Netanyahu was “invited” in a throwaway line by Rahm Emanuel who was visiting Israel: “Since you’ll be in Canada next week, stop in…” or something to that effect. The Abbas visit, in two weeks, was announced in a formal statement issued from the White House, with pomp and solemnity. There was no such formal White House statement for Netanyahu.

The Prime Minister should have said “no, thank you… not this time, perhaps in a few months.” He should have deflected this invitation by saying: “Mr. President, your invitations are always welcome and our friendship is strong, sincere and true. But it is not right for me to impose myself on you for a third visit, while you – a world traveler, including across most of the Arab world – have yet to visit me in my humble and holy land. So let us plan a date for your visit, and we shall talk then…” He should not come because the Obama administration is locked into a mindset that is detrimental Israel’s survival: “peace” is on the horizon and it will only be won through Israeli concessions. However that sentiment is couched and colored (the Arabs will renounce terror, incitement, or the wearing of white robes), the bottom line is all tangible concessions must come from Israel. And every new concession is just the prelude to the next round of concessions.

Israel could benefit from some benign neglect, at least until the harmful dynamic is halted or reversed. An interesting commentator wrote (http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=176586) that Netanyahu’s primary goal today should be domestic stability (especially including that of his government) and that Israel would do well to avoid any diplomatic initiatives for the foreseeable future. Every Israeli diplomatic initiative in the last thirty years has left Israel in an impaired strategic posture at its conclusion, as if often winds up negotiating with itself and against itself. Passivity has its place, and even words matter.

Be careful what you say. Surrender begins insidiously, with words that Israel interprets as innocuous even as the enemy and its acolytes invest them with great significance. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 102a) states that “brit keruta lasfatayim” – there is a covenant made with the lips. Whatever people say will be fulfilled in some form, and not always as they intended. In 1978, Menachem Begin agonized over accepting one phrase in the Camp David Accords, acknowledging the “legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.” He didn’t believe they had any rights to the land of Israel, much less legitimate ones. He was convinced to sign (foolishly), likely by advisor Aharon Barak, who later became the irksome President of Israel’s High Court of Justice, who told him that the phrase “legitimate rights,” absent any real definition, meant nothing, and were just empty words.

Not quite. The phrase was almost universally perceived to reflect the “national” rights of an Arab people to the land of Israel, and the rest is inglorious history. Within twenty years, the idea of a Palestinian state went from being anathema to the civilized world and synonymous with a wish for Israel’s destruction to Israel’s being anathematized by the civilized world (and the uncivilized) for its failure to create a Palestinian state, even though it is still synonymous with a wish for Israel’s demise.

Therein rests the danger as well in Netanyahu’s embrace of a conditional Palestinian state last June. Not many remember or care what his conditions were; all people consider is that there few credible leaders in Israel now – right or left – who oppose a Palestinian state. The natural question then becomes: why is Israel obstructing the creation of a Palestinian state that they themselves have endorsed ? That question is difficult to answer convincingly to a world that has tired of Israel’s security laments, and that question – sure to be raised by Obama to Netanyahu next week – weighs like an albatross around Israel’s neck. So why go to a White House altogether ? To coordinate a joint attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities ? That’ll be the day.

Words matter. Words create psychological realities that are often then translated into physical realities. Sure, Netanyahu relieved US and some domestic pressure by this concession, but at what cost? When words are used as concessions, to thwart the relentless pressure coming from our enemies and their supporters, the consequences are profound. The only answer is not to become tired, not to become so fatigued that surrender seems like the only reasonable option. In this, the Talmud guides us as well (ibid 104b): “kal hamaitzik l’Yisrael eino ayaif,” whoever oppresses Israel does not become weary. The enemy is inexorable, and is emboldened when he sees that Jews are tired (as Ehud Olmert infamously said five years ago). But knowing that their relentlessness is a given – and that our passion must exceed theirs – means that we must be vigilant in giving no quarter practically or even verbally. “No” (or “no, thank you”) is also an answer.

So, you are always welcome here, Mr. Netanyahu, but you need not jump just because Obama tells you to jump. He is busy anyway cleaning up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that his daughter Malia has been hectoring him about (shades of Amy Carter’s youthful obsession with “nucular proliferation” that bedeviled her father). Let Obama clean up the mess in the Gulf, and when those waters are again pristine, he can try to clean up the mess in the Middle East. Otherwise, there are hazardous and choppy waters ahead for Israel.

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Posted in Contemporary Life, Current Events, Israel, Machshava/Jewish Thought

The Pariahs

Posted on May 17, 2010 | Comments Off

Two men, whose public conduct vis-à-vis the Jewish people have branded them in many circles as undesirables, have now had their private lives suffer as a consequence. Is this a healthy sign of public discourse or a poor reflection on the shallowness and intolerance of certain Jews ?

The first is Richard Goldstone, the erstwhile Apartheid-era South African judge whose penance before the liberal elites centered on his issuance of the tendentious, anti-Jewish “Goldstone Report” at the behest of his masters at the United Nations. The report detailed Israel’s alleged war crimes during last year’s Gaza War, Operation Oferet Yetzuka (“Cast Lead;” who chooses these names anyway, and why?), especially including the loss of civilian life – but did not seem to take issue with Hamas rockets falling on Israeli civilian heads or Hamas’ use of civilians as shields for their malevolent and violent deeds. It did not distinguish between aggressor and victim, nor did it seem to accord any substantive right of self-defense to Israel – as if only Jews are not allowed to defend themselves. Of course, to have such a report issued by a “Jewish” judge grants it even more “legitimacy” in the eyes of both those who seek to do Israel harm, and those who don’t know any better.

Goldstone’s grandson is soon celebrating his Bar Mitzva in South Africa, and the Jewish community of South Africa first “disinvited” the grandfather – who no longer lives in South Africa – informing him that his presence there would create a disturbance and that he himself is unwelcome. After a brief flurry, the SA Federation relented, and Goldstone is being permitted to attend.

The second putative pariah in the dock is White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who this week is celebrating his son’s Bar Mitzva in Israel. Emanuel, known to his friends as a contentious, tempestuous vulgarian – not to mention his enemies – has reportedly been the catalyst for at least part of President Obama’s ongoing humiliation of Israel’s Prime Minister and his contempt for Jewish nationalism. Emanuel has repeatedly threatened Israel’s leaders, and supporters in the US, with the most dire consequences if Israel does not kowtow to Obama’s dictates and make “peace,” and “now.” Reportedly, Emanuel decided to move his son’s Bar Mitzva away from the Kotel – where it was originally planned – in the face of expected protests from individuals who resent the fact that Emanuel wished to celebrate his son’s milestone at a national holy site that his – and his bosses’ – policies – would lead to the denial of that right to other Jews. His opponents feel, I suppose, that one should never let a good simcha go to waste. It’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before…

Are these protests fair ? Should we conflate and commingle someone’s public and private lives ?

There are logical arguments to be made on both side, but, on balance, I think – in most cases – not. My yardstick is the Ba’al Simcha (celebrant) himself – does the young man wish to have his grandfather or father present, does he desire to celebrate his Bar Mitzva as “normally” as possible ? If, in the latter case, the boy wishes a bar Mitzva at the Kotel, it would be grossly unfair to him to deprive him of that right. We should not visit the sins of the father, such as they might be, on the son (or grandson). Indeed, and it pains me to say it, there is something laudable about a public figure like Emanuel wanting to celebrate his family smachot in Yerushalayim, a point certain to be noted by Jew-haters of the “dual loyalty” stripe. It even makes a statement about the centrality of Israel to Jewish life that we can only wish will be internalized at some point by Emanuel himself and his boss.

By the same token, if the Goldstone grandson desires his grandfather’s presence, it should be permitted (how one denies a person the right to daven in a shul is a separate question), unless it would cause such a distraction that it would detract from the Bar Mitzva itself. That should be the rule of thumb – keep the personal personal, and the public public.

Certainly, one can conjure a scenario in which an individual is so loathed by the public – a Madoff leaps to mind – that his mere presence is considered odious. That, of course, begs the question: why is (even massive) financial impropriety worthy of public ostracism, and causing (potentially massive) political harm to the Jewish nation brushed aside to allow for a joyous event ?

Perhaps because the deeds of the former were definite crimes, and the deeds of the latter – although potentially more devastating – are indefinite, subject to interpretations, intentions, motivations and other forces in the future. Or, perhaps because the deeds of the latter are not “crimes” technically, as distasteful as they were to supporters of Israel, they should not be treated with the opprobrium we reserve for real criminals. And banning people for their loathsome political opinions is a very slippery slope.

Of course, Goldstone should recognize that if his presence impairs the simcha, he would do wise to stay away. It is not about him, nor should he use the occasion to mount a defense of his perfidy. And, perhaps, we can only pray, an Emanuel Bar Mitzva at the Kotel will arouse something in Rahm’s Jewish spirit that will prompt him to serve as an advocate for the Jewish people in his current position, and not as an adversary. His Israeli father, as is well known, was briefly a medic in the Irgun many years ago – not that necessarily means anything to the son. But maybe being in Yerushalayim – seeing, for example, Ramat Shlomo on the ground – and experiencing its vibrancy will cause him to re-think his political course, and guide his master to a more sensitive policy.

That would be an effective confluence of one’s public and personal lives. But, in the interim, let the boys enjoy their smachot with their families.

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Posted in Contemporary Life, Current Events, Israel

Yom Yerushalayim 5770

Posted on May 12, 2010 | 1 comment

This Yom Yerushalayim – Jerusalem Day, celebrating the liberation and reunification of the Holy City by Israel in 1967 – finds Israeli sovereignty over its capital in its most precarious state since the Six Day War, owing to two causes: the hostility of Barack Obama and the weaknesses of Binyamin Netanyahu.

Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu boasted Wednesday evening that Jerusalem will never be divided again. “We cannot divide or freeze a city as vibrant and creative as Jerusalem – we will continue to build and be built by it.” He insisted at Yeshivat Mercaz Harav on Tuesday night that Jews are building and will continue to build in Yerushalayim. The statement is truthy, but not completely true, and note its ambiguities: Jews will continue to build in Yerushalayim, but, left unsaid, not in every sector of Yerushalayim despite all protestations to the contrary.

Netanyahu’s assertion that there is no building freeze in Yerushalayim is contradicted by two sources. The spokesman for the US Department of State announced last week that there is a building freeze – this after all the uproar over the 1600 apartments approved two months ago for Ramat Shilo and the subsequent deterioration in US-Israeli relations that led to the Hillary Clinton rage against Netanyahu and his snub at the White House. (It is a shame that Netanyahu is not perceived to be as decent a fellow or as reliable an American ally as is Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, who is being feted in Washington this week after announcing last month that he may join forces with the Taliban if Obama doesn’t back down in his criticisms of the Karzai regime. Obama backed down.) Now it seems that Netanyahu backed down, to his shame and that of his right-wing coalition partners.

Or did he ? He denies it, but then again his own Housing Minister confirmed in the Knesset earlier this week that building in Yerushalayim has indeed been halted, and for some time. So what gives ?

It is true that duplicity is diplomacy without the mask of niceties. There is a certain skill in diplomacy, in speaking equivocally in order to avoid escalations or inflammations of delicate political situations. But Israel – whose diplomats have long snatched defeat from the jaws of victory – has always suffered from both the appearance and reality of duplicity – of saying one thing, and doing another. That tactic works with a rogue like Arafat, but as Israel is part of the civilized world, its interlocutors who are treated with such disdain rightly protest. An Abbas can promise – again – to crack down on terror and incitement in exchange for this new freeze, but few believe him, or should. (He is not even the legal authority in the PA anymore; his term expired almost 15 months ago in that joke of a political entity.) But Israel is held to account, as it should be, and should not – for a variety of reasons – acquiescing to another freeze, a tacit admission that the land is not theirs and that they are doing something illegal or ignoble building on it.

For Netanyahu to play this double game is shameful. For Israel’s prime minister to forego attendance at the re-dedication of the Hurva synagogue in the Old City (a most magnificent facility that was destroyed twice by marauding Arabs, and in which I was privileged to pray a few weeks ago) so as not to seem “provocative” by entering the Old City is disgraceful. Is Israel’s Prime Minister effectively barred from the Kotel, because his appearance there might create an international incident ? That type of pusillanimity does not bode well for the future.

Israel’s PM has a checkered past; his first term ended in ignominy and he became a political exile once it became clear that his values were for negotiable, his word meaningless, and his principles fluid. He vowed that he had learned from his mistakes. In one sense, he has – he has become a cleverer politician, neutralizing the left and the media by incorporating both secular right-wing and left-wing elements in his government, dangling before them portfolios and the sinecures of high office. But in another sense, he has not: he still lacks a backbone that enables him to tell critics – whether domestic or foreign – to stuff it. He can proclaim his love of Yerushalayim from the rooftops, but the facts on the ground do not nourish those convictions. Those who know him personally have told me that he – like many politicians – has a desperate need to be liked, and will do anything to avoid criticism and to be perceived as popular. Would that he had the audacity of a Hamid Karzai; if he did, he might not be heading to a second disastrous failure.

How unsuccessful has he been, and how much has the political culture in Israel changed during his term ? Consider: there have been two staples of Israeli diplomacy for decades – one, the indispensability of direct talks between Israel and the Arabs, so as to impress upon them the permanence of Israel; and, two, the refusal to take any concrete steps – such as building freezes – that pre-judge the outcome of the negotiations. This was policy for decades, and upheld recently by even a lightweight such as Ehud Olmert (with whom, it seems, the law has finally caught up). And yet, under the “staunch” right-winger Netanyahu, all that has gone by the boards. Israel conceded, for the sake of inducing the Arabs to join in “proximity” (i.e., indirect, not direct) talks, that it will freeze building in Judea, Samaria and Yerushalayim.

That is unprecedented, sheer madness, as well as gross incompetence: Netanyahu has skillfully navigated Israel into a weaker diplomatic position that it had even under the far-leftist Olmert. Not to mention his endorsement of a Palestinian state (in utter disregard of his party’s platform) and his inability to win international acceptance of Israel’s right of self-defense. It is a puzzle why his failures have not won more attention, except for the obvious facts that his rivals are perceived as even more inept, and the strong Israeli economy lulls people into complacency. Terror is also down, but how long that will remain if Israel pulls its forces from the Arab cities it patrols – and when it opens major Route 443 (Modiin to Jerusalem) to Arab traffic – remains to be seen. The surface is calm, with great turbulence rising up from the underground.

So this Yom Yerushalayim had its customary pomp and pageantry, its heartfelt prayers and wistful recollections. But there is an air of uneasiness. Netanyahu’s glib talk does not at all complement his actions. Trying to appease Obama so he will thwart Iran is foolhardy in the extreme. And duplicity eventually turns on its practitioners. People without core values become absorbed with self-preservation as their only value. Once again – again – a right-wing leader is guiding Israel down a path of concessions and defeat masquerading as strength and triumph. When will we wake up ? Better, will we wake up ?

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Posted in Contemporary Life, Current Events, Israel, Jewish History