As previous posts have mentioned, a recent Shalom Achshav report has charted the dramatic increase in Israeli settlements since Annapolis began. For me, these are most sobering words in a profoundly depressing document:
In recent years the trend has accelerated to eliminate the Green Line through intensive construction intended to create a territorial connection between the blocks of settlements and isolated settlements in the heart of the West Bank.
Whether Israel’s leaders are unwilling or simply unable to stem the settlements is moot at this point. The bottom line: the door is closing fast on a two-state solution. (Indeed, when a Palestinian moderate such as Sari Nusseibeh publically inclines toward a one-state solution, I’d say the peace process is approaching a point of reckoning.)
Please know that Brit Tzedek v’Shalom is circulating a Rabbinic High Holiday letter to Obama and McCain, urging the next President to make resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a top priority of the incoming administration. It’s already been signed by over 150 rabbis, cantors and rabbinical students. Check and see if your rabbi’s name is on it and if not, encourage her/him to sign on.
Reuters reports that individuals who make donations to organizations which assist in settlement expansions receive tax incentives. Many donations to many organizations are tax-deductible. The issue here is in the intent of the organizations and the nature of the allocation of funds–in other words, those who donate to organizations which are ‘humanitarian’ in nature receive tax breaks; those who donate to organizations which are ‘political’ do not.
So the question remains, is a group like the Brooklyn, NY based Hebron Fund, which raises money for the Jewish community in Hebron which has been known to, well, let’s say make international news, is the Hebron Fund then political or humanitarian? The Hebron Fund allocates money, according to their mission statement, More »
Israel-related mishegaas from the new (and renewed) pro-peace movement:
Israel trip for $125, plus $400 plane rebate: Ameinu is sending a delegation to Israel with steep subsidies for progressive young Zionists. Info below the fold.
Meanwhile, the official voice of J Street, Jeremy Ben-Ami, asks McCain to drop the smear attack on US Diplomats, “It’s not clear what John McCain gains by attacking both stated Israeli government policy and a leading American Jewish diplomat.”
Just read of the death of the prominent Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish in Houston following heart surgery. An incalculable loss for the Palestinian people and the world.
Speaking as an American Jew, Darwish’s poetry gave me an invaluable entry point into the Palestinian cultural soul. I do believe that in addition to his importance as the unofficial Palestinian poet laureate (he grappled publicly with the experience of his people’s exile long before it made the world headlines) he was an artist who transcended his own unique historical time and circumstance. Darwish was truly an artist whose art made a difference in the world.
The days from the fast of the seventeenth of Tammuz through the fast of the ninth of Av are known traditionally as bein hametzarim or “the narrow places,” from the verse in Lamentations (read on the ninth of Av): “Judah has gone into exile Because of misery and harsh oppression; When she settled among the nations, She found no rest; All her pursuers overtook her in the narrow places.” This period is traditionally one of moderate mourning (e.g. no weddings) which is racheted up with the beginning of the month of Av to a time of greater mourning (e.g. no wine, no live music) and finally the ninth of Av is a full-out 25 hour fast day.
The “historical” reason for the fasts is that on the seventeenth of Tammuz, in the time of the first Temple, the walls of the City of Jerusalem were breached and on the ninth of Av the Temple itself was destroyed. (According to the tradition, other things happened on these days, and there is even a dispute about what exactly happened. See Bavli Rosh Hashana 18b Soncino translation here in pdf files.) However, Maimonides writes in Mishneh Torah, (Taanit 5:1) the great thirteenth century codification of Jewish Law,
There are days when all Israel fast because of the troubles that happened to them, in order to awaken the hearts and open the pathways of repentance, … so that in the memory of these matters we will return to doing the good. As it says: (Leviticus 26) “and they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their ancestors.”
The point of these fasts, according to Maimonides, is not their historical referent, but rather that their historical referent should cause us to reflect upon the reasons that brought us to catastrophe. Tisha B’av (the ninth day of Av) is a fast which memorializes the breakdown of the polity, and forces us to confront the radical possibility that an ethical or just polity is itself impossible. For this reason the customs of the day, such as not greeting one another and sitting alone and not engaging in business or even in Torah study—all these are performances of the dissolution of society.
In this spirit I will be blogging the “nine days” starting on Rosh Chodesh Av (this Shabbes, August 2) and culminating on Tisha b’Av (August 10). (The first blog will hopefully be posted on Friday before Shabbes.) The point of these blogposts will be to remind us of the ways in which civil society is falling apart around the world, giving way to (or by way of) violence, injustice and various and myriad forms of oppression-some of which are well known to us and some that fly beneath the radar.
Perhaps others will be moved to pick up on the other side, the weeks of comfort between Tisha b’Av and Rosh Chodesh Elul, with blogs of hopeful activism.
To start off, since the seventeenth of Tammuz marks the breach of the walls of the City of Jerusalem. I want to recall an anniversary which slipped by unnoticed by most (though noted in an article in Haaretz by the always vigilant Gershom Gorenberg). June 16 marked the forty first anniversary of the settlement movement. On that day in 1967, a kibbutznik drove up to the Golan Heights in his jeep and set up camp in an abandoned Syrian army base. This settlement ultimately became Marom Golan, which is situated close to the Syrian border near Quneitra. The first breach in the wall was made by a secular kibbutznik with the backing of the Labor government. There are now (as of 2006) thirty two settlements on the Golan Heights with upwards of 18,000 settlers and 121 settlements in the West Bank (with a constantly changing lineup of so-called hilltop outposts).
One reason this anniversary is not marked or mourned, as opposed to the anniversary of the settlements in Sebastia or Hebron in the Palestinian territories, is a general schizophrenia. Settlers in the Golan are called “mityashvim” while those in the Palestinian territories are called “mitnahlim”. The latter term has an overtone of occupation while the former is tied back to the early twentieth century Zionist settler movement. Even Peace Now’s settlement watch does not track settlements in the Golan.
It is, however, the settlement movement in both the Golan and the Palestinian territories that blocked the possibilities of compromise and peace (”facts on the ground”). Let us hope that the moment where a two state solution is possible has not passed.
After Israel released convicted Lebanese murderer, Samir Kuntar, from prison last week, immediately Hamas began extortionist demands, citing that they would “stick to its demands, which includes the release of 1,000 prisoners, many of whom were sentenced to life in prison for their role in suicide bomb attacks,” Ha’aretz previously reported.
A Gulf newspaper reported Monday that Israel is willing to include jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti in a list of 300 Palestinian prisoners to be freed in exchange for abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
Marwan Barghouti is a very important member of Fatah who was implicated in dozens of terrorist attacks and is considered responsible for the deaths of scores of innocent Israeli civilians. Mr. Barghouti is a the source of a very famous quote regarding Palestinian tactic; “We have spent seven years of intifada without negotiation, then we spent seven years of negotiation without intifada. Maybe it is time we try both.” While Mr. Barghouti has never denounced violence or terrorism, many hope that upon leaving prison he will join legitimate, moderate politics. There were inklings of this following Yasser Arafat’s death in 2004 when Barghouti considered a presidential bid from within prison, but dropped out at the last minute.
It should come as little surprise that Marwan Barghouti will be included in the deal to release captive soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Hamas in the summer of 2006.
So, for some unknown reason, I am on the email list of the “Jewish community of Hebron”. As a result of this good fortune I receive an email two or three times a week from David Wilder, the spokesperson of the community. This morning my inbox brought me Mr. Wilder’s response to Nicholas Kristof’s column in today’s New York Times (mentioned here). I won’t rehearse Wilder’s “arguments” (which seem to consist of repeating a version of “x is exaggerated” or “y is a fairy tale”) which are available here.
The telling thing about his response is his opening paragraph:
Nicholas D. Kristof called me a few days ago and we spoke for a while on the phone. Obviously he visited Hebron, but did not see fit to interview me at the time, preferring a phone conversation. That fact, in and of itself, is unfortunate, for had he spent some time with me on site, seeing Hebron through Jewish-Israeli eyes also, perhaps his column would have been written differently.
“Seeing Hebron through Jewish-Israeli eyes.” Since Kristof seems to have spent time with many apparently Jewish Israelis, it seems that Wilder does not consider people who care about Palestinian human rights, or who work for or with B’Tzelem, or who volunteer at checkpoints to help Palestinians to be Jewish-Israelis.
This brings to mind a Shabbat I spent in Hebron in the mid-80s. It was pre-first Intifada Hebron and therefore Jewish settlers could swagger through the Arab markets brandishing AK-47s with impunity. I spent Friday night with the Levingers. Over Shabbat dinner, Moshe Levinger told us that Israel should, in fact, invade Jordan since it was Eretz Yisrael but that the time was not right. This was just a few years before he was arrested and convicted of shooting towards shops in the Arab market at random, killing Khayed Salah, a 42 year old Hebron shopkeeper, after Palestinians threw stones at his car.
The Jewish settlers in Hebron have created a religion which is foreign to the traditions of our ancestors. The open question is, as Jeffrey Goldberg asked in an important 2004 New Yorker piece, will they destroy Israel?
Just for context’s sake, my world has always been one of strange co-existent dualities. I have been known to take the same train as a family member to a pro-Israel rally, disembark, hug good-bye-see-you-later, and proceed in two different directions: they, to the rally itself, and I, to the protest on the green across the way.
I come to my identity as a proud, anti-Zionist Jew through this lens – I stick close to my roots and love going home to the gantze mishpocha for Shabbos, Modern Orthodox style, and at the same time, I am fueled forever by my past and by my present with a love for Judaism that is fierce and deep and that has justice at its core.
For these last couple of months, basically spanning the Passover-to-Yom Ha’atzma’ut festival season, there have been lots of public celebrations, media coverage all over the city of Jews-being-proud-of-being-Jewish in the one way most media often solely represents it - on pro-Israel floats, Seders, parades, trips and public forums.
There was another layer of frenetic activity marking this season, too – a side of Jewish New York that most people didn’t - and don’t, generally – see: anti-Zionist Jewish New York. No Time to Celebrate, just one example of the response to the plethora of Israel’s 60th celebrations, is a campaign organized by anti-Zionist Jews from around the U.S. to protest Israeli Independence Day celebrations and to commemorate the Nakba (Arabic for “catastrophe”).
For me, as someone who spent years in and around parades celebrating Israel, it never gets less powerful to remind the community that the anniversary of the Nakba is not a thing to celebrate. And to remind the community that there is a big, vibrant and growing community of Jews who are enraged by Israel’s actions, and by 60 years of occupation and dispossession, the continuing effects of 1948. And finally, to remind the community that there is not – and never has been – consensus on Zionism in the Jewish community. This in and of itself makes me extremely proud to be Jewish.
**This just in : BBC News clip of Olmert interview broadcast today on BBC Arabic Television (I’m looking for the full interview). Longer BBC clip, more detailed article.
The New York Times reports that Israel has offered Lebanon talks on peace negotiations and land exchange. These talks are referring, of course, to the disputed Shebaa Farms.
Part of the negotiation, according to the New York Times, will include Israel releasing maps of land mines and cluster bombs left behind from the 2006 summer war.
This news follows reports that talks have started with Syria, via Turkish mediators, and it seems that talks with Lebanon might be a result of those negotiations.
The news comes the same day that a truce in Gaza sets in.
And read below for Reb Yudel’s post on last year’s unofficial peace deal offered as a way to solve the stalled talks on Golan.
Is this Olmert struggling to convince his people and the world that he’s not a corrupt, incompetent buffoon? Is this the US exerting back room pressure so Bush’s legacy can be secured? Or, is this, maybe, perhaps, possibly even real? (unlikely, but I hope so).
If I learned anything from reading A Missing Peace, Dennis Ross’ major work on his experience as the lead US negotiator from 1987-2001, it is that a huge chunk of what happens in these negotiations is over-dramatized jockeying and a whole lot of PR and acting.
So, whether or not this is real, it clearly sends a message to Israel’s people, its neighbors and the world that perhaps there are partners with whom to negotiate. Likewise, it shows a willingness of Israel’s neighbors to be more comfortable making diplomatic meetings, and perhaps even ties.
B’tselem has begun a program called “Shooting Back” in which they have given out about 100 video cameras to Palestinians over the past year so that when settlers attack them, they can show footage of the attack, instead of just giving a statement to the Israeli police or army.
According to the BBC news,
“The difference is amazing,” says Oren Yakobovich, who leads the Shooting Back project.
“When they have the camera, they have proof that something happened. They now have something they can work with, to use as a weapon.”
We asked a spokesman from the Susia settlement for a comment on Sunday’s incident. He declined.
This video is being claimed by the BBC to be footage from an elderly shepherd and his wife of four masked men who are beating them for grazing their animals near a settlement (Susia).
I hope that this tool will offer a non-violent way for what’s going on to be brought out into the open and taken seriously. Of course, I know that naysayers will claim that it’s staged, or payback, or heaven knows what, but there’s enough evidence out there that, hopefully, we will start to see the necessity to stop denying the truth: that the violence of the settlers is a problem unchecked and vile.
Pop on over to South Jerusalem to check out Gershom Gorenberg’s latest tale of civility. In the midst of the insanity that is the occupation, Gorenberg has become one third of a team of friends that has been occasionally venturing forth to commit acts of kindness in the wake of this or that insidious act of quotidian cruelty committed by the Israeli forces of occupation.
The first outing (involving a washing machine and an abuse of power) can be found here. The latest chapter is here.
Three men in a battered station wagon do not a revolution make. And yet… it is the blatant crossing of boundaries and the acceptance of responsibility for evils which one did not commit—yet were perpetrated in one’s name—which will, in the aggregate, undermine the ability to wage endless war.
Its good to know that with all of Ehud Olmert’s corruption troubles and shaky political future, his government still has the time and energy for the petty cruelties of the occupation. As the New York Times reports today:
The American State Department has withdrawn all Fulbright grants to Palestinian students in Gaza hoping to pursue advanced degrees at American institutions this fall because Israel has not granted them permission to leave.
The policy has, however, managed to piss off the center left
“This policy is not in keeping with international standards or with the moral standards of Jews, who have been subjected to the deprivation of higher education in the past. Even in war, there are rules.” Rabbi Melchior is from the Meimad Party, allied with Labor.
and the right
“We correctly complain that the Palestinian Authority is not building civil society, but when we don’t help build civil society this plays into the hands of Hamas,” said Natan Sharansky, a former government official.
And it seems that the Bush administration has thrown in its own perfected brand of incompetence.
The State Department and American officials in Israel refused to discuss the matter. But the failure to persuade the Israelis [to allow the Gazan students to leave] may have stemmed from longstanding tensions between the consulate in Jerusalem, which handles Palestinian affairs, and the embassy in Tel Aviv, which manages relations with the Israeli government.
Today, May 14, 60 years since the founding of the State of Israel, Rabbis for Human Rights – North America (RHR-NA), placed an ad on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times in support of the rights of Israelis and Palestinian and launching a year long campaign, In Pursuit of Justice, to support the work of Rabbis for Human Rights in Israel .
The ad begins, “On this day, 60 years ago, the founders of Israel declared the State of Israel …will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel “, a quote from Israel ’s Declaration of Independence . More »
It’s not necessarily funny, but it is a President talking about Israel-Palestine relations to a Jew.
As to Stewart’s question — I’ve always wondered the same thing. It doesn’t get the Palestinians anything to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state (i.e., the occupation won’t end) but why the hell not?
It is fairly well known that, in Israel, many recognize and observe seven days of pesach and a single seder whereas, outside of Israel, many recognize 8 days of pesach and two seders as proper observance.
Where did the extra day come from?
A piece over at my jewish learning does a good job explaining:
The Jewish calendar is lunar. Over 2,000 years ago, a council of rabbis from the Sanhedrin, the ancient legislative and judicial body, held special sessions in Jerusalem at the end of each lunar month to receive witnesses to the first sliver of the new moon. Because a lunar cycle is approximately 29 days long, it was no mystery when the new moon should appear, but the Sanhedrin still declared months and holidays only on the basis of these witnesses. …
Once the sighting was legitimated, the rabbis declared the next day Rosh Hodesh, the beginning of the new month. Originally, beacon fires would be set on mountaintops to spread the word to distant Jewish communities already living in far away places such as Egypt and Babylon. Watchers on faraway hills set their beacon fires as soon as they saw them, continuing the relay “until one could behold the whole of the Diaspora before him like a mass of fire” (Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 2:4)… Celebrating festivals for an extra day would ensure that, regardless of whatever confusion reigned about the exact start of the new month, at least one day of their celebration would be on the correct day.
Okay, that makes sense but we started to switch to a rule-based fixed-arithmetic lunisolar calendar system after the destruction of the second temple. That made the days designed to prevent error obsolete since everyone everywhere in the world used the same system and derived the days similarly. It no longer mattered how close one was to the Sanhedrin so why keep the extra days?
At the end of Beitzah 4b that issue is addressed. “Now that we know the fixed new month, what’s the reason for doing two days?” The answer there is hizaharu b’minhag avoteichem (be careful about your ancestors’ minhag), because in the future there might be a decree preventing us from keeping the calendar…And we can even agree on the value of minhag avoteinu (see Beitzah 4b), and you can follow the minhag of your ancestors who kept 2 days, while I’ll follow the minhag of my ancestors who have been Reform for at least five generations.
The other common answer is given by a Rabbi from Aish here:
So why was a second day Yom Tov added? In order to make a distinction, to add to the Jewish awareness that one is living in the Diaspora and does not claim permanent residence in the Holy Land.
BZ’s answer to Minhag Avoteinu is compelling as is the issue that there has ceased to be a consistent mihag in the diaspora. The Reform, Renewal, Reconstructionist, and Conservative movements have all offered decisions permitting the use of a 7-day pesach. Here is some CCAR (Reform) analysis. The Cons and Recon movements both provide flexibility for local congregations but the result is that a majority of American Jews, and nearly all Israeli Jews fall under a 7-day authority. Many have been in such a situation for generations.
Now to respond to the idea that we should have an extra seder to remember we aren’t in Israel…
Was anyone really confused? In case you were here are ten ways to conclude you are in the US rather than in Israel that have nothing to do with extra days of passover.
10:The falafel is overpriced and underspiced.
9: Municipal services are transparent and efficient.
8: Sunday is for football not school.
7: Teacher strikes are generally limited to a few days, max.
6: People talk slowly and get uncomfortable with interruptions (supreme court excepted).
5: Holocaust jokes are rare and usually generate discomfort.
4: People have difficulty making political and religious assumptions based on the type of kippah a person is wearing. Many can’t remember the word and use “beanie” or “skull cap” instead.
3: Though people talk about God non-stop in government there aren’t religious parties associated with single religious approached.
2: Nation’s founders where individual rather than collective farmers.
1: Look around. No occupations and settlements for miles in any direction? You probably aren’t in Israel.*
More specifically, he explains how the notion that Israel is a Jewish democratic state is like baklava. When you first taste it, its feels sweet, but after a few minutes, things get sticky, and you are left with a lump in your stomach.
Burg says a lot more than that. The interview is 90 mins long. He talks about love conquering hate, the place of the holocaust in the Israeli psyche, the place of minorities in Israel, and the end of the zionist myth.
Please tell me yes! It may well have been true in the past that the Arab nations missed opportunities for peace with Israel, but now the ball is more and more in Israel’s court. How does the oft-parroted line about Israel being the beleaguered peace seeker amidst the Arab warmongers survive since the Arab League in 2002 offered Israel full recognition throughout its 22 member states in exchange for a peace settlement? The offer was renewed yesterday by a re-ratification of the Arab League’s assembly of foreign ministers.
But I shouldn’t be eager to condemn any side for perceived intransigence because Gerson Baskin and Hanna Siniora, co-directors of the Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information have been traveling the country touting their middleman position in not-so-secret negotiations between Israel and Hamas for the return of Gilad Shalit, for a Hamas-Israel one-year ceasefire, and between Israel and the PLO for a final settlement. Read it in JPost.
What lacks on both sides, the two say, is political chutzpah. And it’s almost certainly true, despite whether they’re really said shuttle pigeons.
Either way, the mantra that the Arabs resist peace at every turn should be shucked by the wayside. It’s just as incumbent on Israel to not blow these opportunities — and on Americans to do our part too.
You might not call this direct support of Breaking the Silence, but you can call it standing up against right-wing blowhards like Mort Klein. This I can definitely respect. Rabbi Bernie was distraught by the “lack of context” to the exhibit but nonetheless stood by his students’ decision to bring the exhibit into a Jewish space. He, like many others, disagree with the soldiers on many points. But thank the Lord this doesn’t mean he’s like some of the people who’ve come to exhibit simply to tell the soldiers that they should be shot as traitors. Or even attack them (and Hillel International at large) for being anti-Israel, as Mort did in a press release.
The highlights here, the full open letter below the fold.
On the ZOA:
I do not know the mission of the ZOA. If, however, your mission does include working with young Jews, you have done a grievous disservice to the ZOA. If it is not part of your mission, you should not intrude clumsily and aggressively into the Harvard campus, and undermine the good work of young Jews…
…Truth from a skyscraper in New York City looks different than on the ground of a campus in Cambridge. Every campus and every Hillel has its own unique culture.
On the student body:
Many students feel inconvenienced by the presence of the exhibit in the building. Many more criticize the presentation of the exhibit itself. Some feel that it humanizes the soldiers and they come away with a more positive feeling about Israel. I myself did not anticipate this response. It is more widespread than I would have thought.
On what Mort’s press release did:
…As a result of your actions, our students are receiving hate emails [from ZOA members]. In light of what you have said and have not said, this is a totally predictable response. If you intended to injure and hurt young Jews, your recent actions and words are a success. If your goal is to inflame and to defame Harvard Hillel, you should justly feel a sense of pride – mission accomplished.
Whether you’re into Breaking the Silence or otherwise, you can also tell Mort to fuck off here.
to check out Gershom Gorenberg’s latest tale of civility. In the midst of the insanity that is the occupation, Gorenberg has become one third of a team of friends that has been occasionally venturing forth to commit acts of kindness in the wake of this or that insidious act of quotidian cruelty committed by the Israeli forces of occupation.