by Shalom Rav · Sunday, November 16th, 2008
Reps from eighty countries met this past Wednesday at the UN to discuss religious tolerance at a conference sponsored by Saudi Arabia. I’m sure many will invariably claim there is no small measure of hypocrisy when a Wahabi Islamic regime that outlaws all other forms of religion convenes a conference on religious tolerance. For their part, however, many of the speakers from Islamic countries decried the hypocrisy of Western nations preaching individual freedom of religion while promoting social and economic policies that bias against non-Western faiths.
I often wonder if our respective cries of hypocrisy really only mask our inability to break free of our own inbred biases. It’s just so complicated. As a Westerner, I make no apologies in my advocacy for individual civil and human rights - but I will also admit that I will too often stand in judgment of other cultures before trying to understand their cultural viewpoints and their profound frustrations with the prejudices of the West.
That’s why, though I’m sure many in the will be cynical about such a conference, I am heartened that it happened at all and I truly hope it will lead to yet more dialogue. And I am particularly heartened that Israeli President Shimon Peres, a participant in the conference, commented afterward Israeli President Shimon Peres that the event was “unprecedented,” adding that it would have been impossible just a decade ago:
“What we are witnessing today is a new beginning,” Peres said at a press conference. “What was today demonstrated was the will. We now have to work for the way.”
If you’re interested in further reading, check out these articles in Yahoo News and The Daily Star
by Justin Goldstein · Sunday, November 9th, 2008
For the times, they are a-changin’. Obama Schmobama, here’s some more change for you reported in Ha’aretz.
Ismail Hanyieh, yeah, that Ismail Hanyieh, the leader of Hamas has announced Saturday that the organization will accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. Uhm, what now? Come again?
More »
by Justin Goldstein · Sunday, June 29th, 2008
JERUSALEM (AFP) - Some 300 rare and valuable books confiscated from Iraq’s Jewish community by Saddam Hussein’s regime have been secretly spirited into Israel, an Israeli newspaper reported on Friday.
The books include a 1487 commentary on the biblical Book of Job and another volume of biblical prophets printed in Venice in 1617, the Haaretz daily said… Many volumes were damaged during the bombing of government buildings in the opening weeks of the war, and after the fall of Baghdad most of the books were sent off to be temporarily stored at the Library of Congress in Washington.
Full article after the jump… More »
by Shalom Rav · Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
Just returned from DC and an invigorating few days with Brit Tzedek v’Shalom’s Advocacy Days on Capitol Hill. Anyone who supports a Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace policy should take heart in knowing that more than 150 activists from all over the country devoted themselves to in-depth briefings and advocacy training before fanning across the Hill to visit the offices of House reps and senators, encouraging our leaders to redouble their efforts toward a two-state solution.
It currently is a time of tentative hope in the region. A fragile cease-fire has been brokered between Israel and Hamas, talks are continuing between Syria and Israel, and there are also encouraging signs of hope coming out of Lebanon. Sadly, the US is nowhere is be seen in these efforts. (The negotiations with Hamas, Syria and Lebanon were brokered by Egypt, Turkey and Qatar, respectively). On this issue, Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak was quoted recently in Ha’aretz regarding negotiations with Syria:
I don’t think we will have negotiations before the end of this year without the contribution of the Americans, who, alone, can help bridge the gaps.
The plain truth is that no lasting negotiation between Israel and its neighbors has ever happened without an active mediating effort by the US. Sadly, the Annapolis talks are barely limping along - and despite Bush’s rosy prognostications, no one in his/her right mind could claim that anything resembling a negotiated settlement will emerge before time runs out on the current administration.
Our message to our national leaders was simple: Congress needs to urge our new administration to make peace between Israel and Palestine a real priority from day one. Time is running out - and we simply cannot afford another President who waits until the waning days of his presidency to become actively engaged in the peace process.
Our Congressional visits were encouraging - but the true test is yet to come. The latest polls tell us that 87% of American Jewry support a negotiated two-state solution. If this is true, then American Jews need to be unflagging in our efforts to encourage our leaders to take the specific and painful steps to make this a reality.
Indeed, there’s nothing novel about advocating for a two-state solution per se. What is needed now for leaders to be explicit on the steps needed to make this happen. A preliminary laundry list: the appointment of a special envoy for this exclusive purpose, an unequivocal demand for an end to Israeli settlements on the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and stronger Palestinian efforts to maintain security in the territories.
In the current political climate it will take real bravery for American politicians to take these kinds of public positions. But the strong majority of American Jews who are committed to a real and lasting peace must do what we can to give our leaders the cover to provide this kind of leadership. I’m enormously proud that Brit Tzedek is leading the charge in this effort.
by Justin Goldstein · Thursday, June 19th, 2008
**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.
I may be cynical, but I’m hopeful.
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Saturday, May 17th, 2008
Week Four, Day Six
Yesod of netzach
Week Four, Day Seven
Malchut of Netzach
Last week a group of rabbis - including two from Israel met in Qatar when that country opened its first scholarly center for interfaith interfaith dialogue as part of a broader push for interfaith relations throughout that region.
Ynet reports
Efforts at interfaith dialogue got one of their biggest boosts when Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah met with Pope Benedict XVI last November at the Vatican.
In March, the Saudi king then made an impassioned plea for dialogue among Muslims, Christians and Jews  the first such proposal from a nation with no diplomatic ties to Israel and a ban on non-Muslim religious services and symbols.
But someone tell the right not to let it affect their opinion of Islam as inherently a religion of all bad things.
by Josh Frankel · Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
So, here’s a different source for a news story on this blog. HaTzofeh, the national religious newspaper in Israel, reports on extensive abuse of the few remaining Jews in Yemen. The newspaper reports that recently many Jews have been attacked, including the Rabbi of the community whose home was recently destroyed. The article also mentions ongoing human rights abuse, including forced conversions, and a law that makes marrying a Jew punishable by death. Strangest though, the article reports that the only organization working to help these Jews is Satmar. The flat-hatted chassidim want them to emigrate, not to Israel of course, but to the UK and America.
Yikes. That’s scary stuff, happening to our own brothers and sisters, and I had no idea. I don’t know what to do to stop this, but the first step must be making sure that people know. It’s a shame that I heard about it first from a religious rag which I usually only read for laughs.
Update: I found a Christian Science Monitor article about the abuse.
by Eli · Sunday, April 6th, 2008
Honor Killings. Hayv Kahraman. Iraq/Italy/Sweden/USA. Kahraman’s work, inspired by Asian motifs, explores minority discourse in the Middle East and Kurdish and gender identity in a region wracked by war.
An extremely complicated policy of religious conservatism and cultural experimentation coexists in Dubai, where wealth allows the multinational population a unique ability to explore, experience and purchase postmodernity in a region long known for its old-fashioned ways. Hayv Kahraman, a Kurdish Iraqi artist living in the US, is currently showing her work in Dubai and Turkey.
Whatever you think about the 37 billion dollar economy in Dubai, the cultural flowering taking place in the Gulf is breathtaking. With galleries and museums sprouting by the day, the gilded emirate is becoming the place where young Middle Eatern artists show, and sell, their work. Jewschool will be introducing the work of artists working in the Middle East in the coming months. In an effort to expose our readers to contemporary Near Eastern visual culture we hope we can be a springboard for new Jewish imaging as well.
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Friday, August 3rd, 2007
Statement by HRH Prince Hassan bin Talal
President Emeritus
World Conference of Religions for Peace
2 August 2007
It is with great sadness and pain that I follow the ongoing captivity of the Korean hostages held by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The brutal and senseless murder of some of their number has shocked my family and me. The claims to righteousness of their captors has offended our Islamic identities and inspired me to write in appeal and in protest.
Many of us wonder what plea can reach the ears of those who are causing such suffering to innocents. How can we show these misguided men of war that our faith instructs them to put humanitarian considerations above all else? All true Muslims must realize that it is vital to recognize the humanity of the other in order to affirm our own humanity.
It pains me to see the religion of Islam once again being exploited in a way that is wholly at odds with its historic message. Perhaps we can understand how this comes about in certain circumstances. When people are afraid, when they are broken and powerless, they sometimes lash out violently. However, it is both tragic and ironic that in their rage and fear, they destroy the beautiful tradition they claim to defend.
This is indeed a time of great crisis in our world. Violence has overtaken dialogue, and compassion has lost out to hatred and revenge. Now, as anger threatens to escalate out of all control across the world, we must remember that peace is not just the absence of violence; it is the active nurturing of trust, respect and empathy.
As a Muslim, I call for my co-religionists to work together so that our faith may be elevated above politics; so that church, mosque, synagogue and temple may regain their moral authority outside the political realm. We must consider the damage being done to Islam by those who act out of anger and aggression. Religions for Peace, representing the world’s diverse faiths, reaffirms the sanctity of human life and calls for a respect for human dignity and common standards for all.
Our religion of peace commands us to take positive action amid mounting hostility and mistrust and to make a substantial contribution to peace-building in a polarized world. Our communities need an urgent call for responsible religiosity among Muslims. We must move away from the polarities of truth that have come to drive the international agenda.
The violence in Afghanistan, Palestine and Iraq, along with the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment which has developed since 9/11, have caused real pain and suffering to millions of Muslims around the world. Vicious calumnies delivered by a minority of Christian Evangelists and Western politicians have created the impression of a religious “crusade†against Islam. To this, many Muslims around the world have reacted with indignation and anger.
But the actions of a misinformed minority in the West and the objectionable policies of some governments must not lead any Muslim to forget the centrist and humanitarian message of the Qur’an. Muhammad’s life is clearly not being implemented by so-called fundamentalists but perverted into a driving force for their own highly politicized agendas.
Some years ago I was saddened as a Muslim to see the wanton destruction of places of worship sacred to the Buddhist faith in Afghanistan. I am more dismayed that the precious terra media, the middle ground of dialogue, which has existed for centuries between faiths, is being destroyed by politicians and warlords who claim to speak for our faiths.
Once again, I would wish for Muslim delegations to travel to Afghanistan to represent the United Nations and the families of the captives. As a Muslim and a descendent of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), I can claim cultural and religious affinity with those who would act in my name and say to them: “What you are doing is unconscionable for Muslims.”
As President Emeritus of Religions for Peace, I call for dialogue to resolve this moral and humanitarian crisis. Religions for Peace is well-placed to mediate any discussions that might hopefully arise in the coming hours and days.
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Thursday, July 26th, 2007
Slate magazine has a video which begins with the flap over the Farfour/Mickey Mouse-look-alike who advocates violence etc. We all know that story by now, but the video goes on to spend the bulk of its time on a more positive - at least signs of positive possibilities, if it isn’t quite there, anyway- Sesame Street in Israel and the Territories.
by aaronf · Thursday, June 21st, 2007
While in Israel with the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour, fellow comic Ray Hanania and I visited the west bank town of Ramallah. This guy honors his coreligionists as Machsom Watch and B’Tselem honors ours.
by Eli · Thursday, April 5th, 2007
Shimon Ballas is an important Hebrew writer. Born in Baghdad in 1931, he moved to Israel in 1951, and ever since, has been a prolific and effective, if underrepresented, Arabic and Hebrew writer. In an essay by professor and poet Ammiel Alcalay, Ballas remarks:
I’m a Jew by chance — the realm of ideology, ideology as a world view, of Judaism, of Israel, of Hebrew, and the total identity between Hebrew and the Jews — none of that plays that much of a role with me. Zionist ideology is essentially an Ashkenazi ideology that developed in a different culture, in different surroundings, in a different world and which came to claim its stake here in the Middle East through alienation and hostility towards the surroundings, with a rejection of the surroundings, with no acceptance of the environment. I don’t accept any of this, this is all very different from what I am. I am not in conflict with the environment, I came from the Arab environment and I remain in constant colloquy with the Arab environment. I also didn’t change my environment. I just moved from one place to another within it. The whole project of a nationalist conception, of Zionist ideology, of the Jewish point of view, the bonds between Jews in the diaspora and Israel, all of this is quite marginal for me and doesn’t play a major role, it’s not part of my cultural world.
His latest novel, Outcast, is about a Iraqi Jewish convert to Islam. It will appear in English translation on May 1st. Does the quote above convince you to read the book? Why or why not?
Source.
by Mobius · Wednesday, March 28th, 2007
Haaretz reports,
Arab leaders gathering for a two-day summit in Saudi Arabia unanimously approved Wednesday the Saudi peace initiative originally launched in 2002.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas voted in favor of the initiative, although Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas abstained in the vote.
The plan offers Israel recognition and permanent peace with all Arab countries in return for Israeli withdrawal from lands captured in the 1967 Six Day War. It also calls for setting up a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and a just solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees.
***
The Telegraph reports,
As leaders began gathering in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, for today’s summit of the Arab League, Prince Saud al-Faisal told The Daily Telegraph that the Middle East risks perpetual conflict if the peace plan fails.
[...]
Prince Saud said Israel should accept or reject this final offer.
“What we have the power to do in the Arab world, we think we have done,” he said. “So now it is up to the other side because if you want peace, it is not enough for one side only to want it. Both sides must want it equally.”
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Friday, March 23rd, 2007
In these times hope springs eternal. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Professor Mohammed Dajani, director of Al-QUds University in East Jerusalem, has begun a new religious political party. His hope is to build a movement like Hamas in the sense that it will have both a social and a political wing, creating jobs and economic opportunities, and fostering volunteerism. He is attempting to woo votes from those who will not vote for a secular political party, but who are tired of violence.
Wasatia — Arabic for “moderation” — is the first Islamic religious party to advocate a peaceful, negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a tolerant, democratic society at home.
In common with the mainstream Fatah movement, the Wasatia platform calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital. But in contrast to all other major Palestinian parties, it does not endorse the return of the estimated 4 million Palestinian refugees to their homes in what is now Israel.
“I would say to the refugees: ‘Move on with your life.’ We cannot let the past bury the future, even though it should always be remembered,” said Dajani.
Among the founders of Wasatia is Bashar Azzeh, a doctoral student in conflict system management who spent seven years studying and working in Kentucky before returning to the West Bank to work for a Palestinian development organization.
“The image of Islam in the United States is that it is extremist, but we have found that hardliners are not the majority among Palestinians,” Azzeh said. “I have been to the villages and talked to people. There is a feeling that people have tried violence, they have tried everything, and this is what we need now. People want a moderate political culture and an end to violence and ignorance. They want a reflection of what we are.”
Full story here
by Y-Love · Sunday, March 11th, 2007
I was introduced to a blogger today who might have forever gone unnoticed in the Jewish blogosphere. A blogger who, honestly, may have lived and died, without so much as a blurb in the news media.
Avraham lives in Mogadishu, Somalia. A 19 year old young man who lives with his mother, he paints out a picture of what his daily life is like as a “Yahud” in Mogadishu where, in his words, 99% of the people are Muslim.
He speaks nostalgically of back when “the government used to have control” of the Islamic courts, and daydreams sometimes about returning to Yemen — where there are at least “more Jewish people”. But he knows, he could never leave his mother (presumably, alone) in Mogadishu.
A blog from a point of view I have never heard before, which really puts words like “exile” and even the entire holiday of Purim into a new perspective for me. I only hope Avraham can keep blogging.
Meet Avraham and his mother. Visit AvrahamShanshi.blogspot.com.
by Aliza · Thursday, March 8th, 2007
In the past few weeks, I heard words and music from several wonderful folks promoting action on the genocide in Darfur, both sponsored by different segments of the Boston Jewish community. The first was a benefit for AJWS at the Kavod House, advertised in the first “Raise your Voice Against Darfur” post,where the wonderfully talented and inspiring Minna Bromberg sang a collection of her own works and mostly Pete Seeger- folk songs. The concert also included teaching about our responsibility to act on Darfur from Rabbi Or Rose of Hebrew College, and a brief column about supporting targeted divestment from Sudan by Nicholas Kristof of the NYTimes.
Then, a week ago Tuesday, Tufts Hillel sponsored a dinner with and lecture by Nicholas Kristof, who has been a lone passionate voice in the public sphere on Darfur.
Although I was at the May 2006 DC rally and have remained [very] marginally informed on the issue, these two events marked a more specific mental engagement with the issue on my part. Nick Kristof presented footage of some individuals he had met in recent trips to Darfur and neighboring Chad, which, coupled with his commentary about their situations, seemed difficult for the audience to take. My initial reaction to the lecture, was that it was overall pretty good but not stunning. Kristof alluded to the regret we would feel, as Americans, in the future, if we looked back and saw that we had done nothing. In the same vein, he seemed to list future reflection as a primary reason for which we should act and encourage action by others on Darfur. To me, this seemed pat at best, and disconcerting at worst– I couldn’t imagine that this was his primary reason for continuing to visit and write about Darfur, in a way to which nobody else has come close.
I remembered some things he had said at the dinner, when he was asked how he has the courage to return to such dangerous situations knowing he has a family and a life back home. More »
by Mobius · Monday, December 11th, 2006
The Independent reports,
Mr Ahmadinejad has been condemned on the eve of the conference by Mahmoud al-Safadi, who was sentenced to 27 years by Israel for throwing Molotov cocktails during the 1988 intifada. In an open letter to the Iranian president, he says that Mr Ahmadinejad’s stance is a “great disservice to popular struggles the world over”.
“Perhaps you see Holocaust denial as an expression of support for the Palestinians,” he writes. “Here, too, you are wrong. We struggle for our existence and our rights, and against the historic injustice that was dealt us in 1948.
“Our success and our independence will not be gained by denying the genocide perpetrated against the Jewish people, even if parts of this people are the very forces that occupy and dispossess us to this day.”
Mr Safadi says that reading the works of Arab intellectuals helped convince him that the Holocaust was a historical fact.
Full story.
by EV · Wednesday, December 6th, 2006
From the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, released today:
The United States will not be able to achieve its goals in the Middle East unless the United States deals directly with the Arab-Israeli conflict.
There must be a renewed and sustained commitment by the United States to a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace on all fronts: Lebanon, Syria, and President Bush’s June 2002 commitment to a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. This commitment must include direct talks with, by, and between Israel, Lebanon, Palestinians (those who accept Israel’s right to exist), and particularly Syria—which is the principal transit point for shipments of weapons to Hezbollah, and which supports radical Palestinian groups.
The United States does its ally Israel no favors in avoiding direct involvement to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict. For several reasons, we should act boldly:
• There is no military solution to this conflict.
• The vast majority of the Israeli body politic is tired of being a nation perpetually at war.
• No American administration—Democratic or Republican— will ever abandon Israel.
• Political engagement and dialogue are essential in the ArabIsraeli dispute because it is an axiom that when the political process breaks down there will be violence on the ground.
• The only basis on which peace can be achieved is that set forth in UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 and in the principle of “land for peace.â€
• The only lasting and secure peace will be a negotiated peace such as Israel has achieved with Egypt and Jordan.
This effort would strongly support moderate Arab governments in the region, especially the democratically elected government of Lebanon, and the Palestinian Authority under President Mahmoud Abbas.
There’s more in the full Report, including some quixotic recommendations on Syria (that it persuades Hamas to recognize Israel’s right to exist, that it stops funding and arming Hamas, that it stop murdering Lebanese leaders, that it orders Hamas and Hezbollah to free the IDF soldiers — in return for which it would receive the Golan Heights).
Full report (pdf).
Reps from eighty countries met this past Wednesday at the UN to discuss religious tolerance at a conference sponsored by Saudi Arabia. I’m sure many will invariably claim there is no small measure of hypocrisy when a Wahabi Islamic regime that outlaws all other forms of religion convenes a conference on religious tolerance. For their part, however, many of the speakers from Islamic countries decried the hypocrisy of Western nations preaching individual freedom of religion while promoting social and economic policies that bias against non-Western faiths.
