America's chicken liberal Jewish leaders
NGO Monitor's Professor Gerald Steinberg blasts
America's liberal Jewish 'leadership' in this week's Jewish Week.
In blaming Israeli policy for the fact that on many U.S. campuses, the
classmates of Jewish students “shun them for identifying with Israel at
all,” perhaps American Jewish leaders are overlooking the failures at
home, particularly among liberal progressive diaspora Jewish leaders.
Many Jewish students are stuck entirely in an American bubble, with no
understanding of the centrality of Jewish self-determination (i.e.,
Zionism) to our survival as a people. So how can they even begin to
understand Israel, let alone give us advice?
For two decades, too many American Jews have ignored or downplayed the
gratuitous post-colonial Israel-bashing from the supposedly liberal
bastions such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and which
are echoed in the mainstream media. When Israeli soldiers are
repeatedly and falsely accused of being child murderers and war
criminals, where is the outrage from the mainstream American Jewish
establishment? A couple of years ago, the federations finally
established a fund to fight boycotts, but this group is also largely
invisible and very timid.
Instead, fringe Israeli voices that polarize and demonize our society
under the façade of human rights, democracy and peace are given
legitimacy and resources in America, and the Jewish leadership is silent
or in some cases complicit. Much of the BDS war — and make no mistake,
the goal is the elimination of Israel — involves bogus peace NGOs that
received their initial funds and public relations boost via U.S.-based
Jewish groups who thought they knew better than the Israeli public. Such
groups include the Coalition of Women for Peace, the Israel Committee
Against House Demolitions, Breaking the Silence, Jewish Voice for Peace,
and many others.
And now, when the Israeli public finally demands an effective response
to the NGOs that lead to this demonization, the American Jewish
leadership condemns Israel, repeating liberal pieties about free speech,
but without addressing the real issues. In all of the criticisms of the
proposed new NGO funding transparency laws, I have yet to see any
serious understanding of the threat or alternative strategies. On this,
as on so many issues, criticizing Israel from a distance is far too
easy.
When crying out for an Israeli peace plan, “any plan,” your
interlocutor makes it seem so simple. Like most Israelis, I also hope
for a peace plan, but not any plan, and certainly not one that will
bring us yet another disaster when it fails. The reality that I see not
far from the windows in my Jerusalem home includes Hamas, Hezbollah,
ISIS, Assad, Iran and others. Our only “peace partners,” led by Mahmoud
Abbas and his Fatah group, are corrupt and stuck in the rejectionist
dead-end of 1948. So no, “any plan” that helps Israel’s PR among liberal
students, but makes our security situation even worse, is not better
than the status quo.
On this and many other issues, I understand why American Jewish leaders
want us in Israel to take risks, and probably think that this is for
our own good. But we do not see many American Jewish leaders taking many
risks in terms of criticizing President Obama and Secretary of State
Kerry when they put all of the blame and responsibility on Israel, and
patronizingly give the Palestinians a free pass. And where are your
tough decisions to exclude BDS groups and Israel bashers from the big
“Jewish tent?”
So it is not only “that Israel’s leadership is moving in a direction at
odds with the next generation of Americans,” but that America’s liberal
Jewish leadership is moving in a direction at odds with Israel and our
realities.
Indeed.
Labels: American Jewish leadership, American Jewish support for Israel, American Jews, Breaking the Silence, Coalition of Women for Peace, Gerald Steinberg, Jewish Voice for Peace, liberal Jews
New Israel Fund cuts off BDS leader
I'm sure many of you recall the
Coalition of Women for Peace, which was in the news in Israel a couple of weeks ago in connection with the Jerusalem - Tel Aviv railway. And I'm sure you'll recall that NGO Monitor pointed out that
CWP was funded by the New Israel Fund, which claimed that it didn't fund BDS'ers and that the New Israel Fund claimed that NGO Monitor was
lying. Well, guess what:
NIF has been exposed as the liar.
Now, NGO Monitor's research has been confirmed by an unlikely source - CWP. In an open letter to NIF (March [Should be May. CiJ] 23, 2011), CWP wrote, "we have been informed of the NIF decision to stop acting as fiscal sponsor for the Coalition of Women for Peace...the last donation via NIF entered our bank account on May 16, 2011." This directly contradicts NIF claims that funding for CWP ended in 2008 (or 2009, according to other NIF officials).
While NIF should apologize for its behavior, NGO Monitor welcomes the end of funding for CWP, and urges NIF to end its relationship with other NGOs engaged in delegitimization. This will help counteract NIF's previous support, which provided a "seal of approval" that allowed CWP and others to obtain funding from European governments. Furthermore, we are prepared to meet with NIF officials to share our research in a manner that helps NIF meet its funding guidelines and principles.
Heh.
Labels: Coalition of Women for Peace, New Israel Fund, NGO Monitor
NIF fights dirty, smears NGO Monitor
You will recall that last Monday I reported that
Deutche Bahn, the German national railway, was withdrawing from consulting role in the high speed railway that is under construction between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The withdrawal came about as a result of pressure from something called the Coalition of Women for Peace.
On Tuesday, I reported that - surprise! - the Coalition of Women for Peace is funded by the
New Israel Fund with help from hostile European governments and liberal American Jews, many of whom may be clueless about what they are funding.
On Thursday, NGO Monitor issued a
report on the funding and activities of the Coalition of Women for Peace. Among other things, it showed:
- Israeli NGO, the Coalition of Women for Peace (CWP), describes itself as a "feminist organization against the occupation of Palestine and for a just peace." It has ten constituent member organizations.
- Funded directly and indirectly by the governments of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Germany; the New Israel Fund; aid organizations such as Oxfam Novib, SIVMO, and Kvinna Till Kvinna; and private individuals.
- This funding is used by CWP to promote global campaigns to de-legitimize Israel under the Durban strategy, including "Israel Apartheid Week," anti-Israeli rallies, the "Free Gaza Movement"; targeting Israel in the UN; lobbying the British Government on prosecution of "Israeli War Criminals" (lawfare); and hosting related events and lectures.
- CWP is a leader in the boycotts, divestments, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. With radical allies such as "Code Pink," it advocates boycotting products from all of Israel, not restricted to the "occupied territories." Campaigns include the UC Berkeley divestment effort (2010), the Norwegian Government's Pension Fund which led to divestment from Elbit, and targeting of banks, security companies, civil infrastructure facilities, and private firms.
- CWP's flagship BDS project "Who Profits?" is an online database initiated "in response to the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) on Israel," and "a key asset to the global movement of economic activism and BDS."
For its troubles, NGO Monitor was accused by the New Israel Fund of '
knowingly publish[ing] false information."
The most recently available public NIF grant information shows CWP received nearly $300,000 from 2006-2009. In addition to this grant, CWP's website continues to state that NIF accepts tax-exempt donations in the U.S., UK, and Switzerland on their behalf and on behalf of the "Who profits?" project. NIF still has not published its 2010-2011 grant information.
If you go
here, you can also see that donations to CWP are directed through the New Israel Fund.
If you look around CWP's web page, you will find that much of its activity relates to boycotting Israel (and seeking to break the 'siege' on Gaza, which prevents at least some weapons from being brought in to there). A bunch of
useful idiots.
Labels: BDS sewer system, Coalition of Women for Peace, New Israel Fund, NGO Monitor, useful idiots
Guess who funded the Coalition of Women for Peace
On Monday, I reported that Deutche Bahn, the German national railway, was
withdrawing from its supportive role in a project to construct a high speed rail line between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. I also reported that the withdrawal was brought about through the efforts of an organization called Who Profits, which I described as
an on-going grassroots investigation effort by activists in The Coalition of Women for Peace, a leading Israeli feminist peace organization, dedicated to exposing companies and corporations involved in the occupation so as to promote a change in public opinion and corporate policies and eventually lead to an end to the occupation.
I'm sure you folks will all be shocked to hear
who funds the Coalition of Women for Peace.
Surely they are funded by Iran or Saudi Arabia? But here’s what NGO Monitor tells us: In 2006-2009, the New Israel Fund (NIF) authorized grants worth $294,129 to CWP (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009).
“Major donors” since 2000 include the European Union, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (587,189 NIS from the German government), Heinrich Böll Stiftung (from the German government), the Moriah Fund, Aaron Back and the Ford Israel Fund, and SIVMO. (This funding does not include support for individual NGOs in the coalition.)
So in addition to the hostile Europeans, liberal American Jews have unknowingly been supporting this viciously anti-Israel organization!
A prominent member of the NIF, chair of its “Pluralism Grants Committee,” is the Union for Reform Judaism’s nominee for its new President, Rabbi Richard Jacobs, who describes himself as “proudly and strongly pro-Israel.”
And you thought rabbi rick was
opposed to BDS.
Read it all.
Labels: BDS, Coalition of Women for Peace, high-speed rail line, New Israel Fund, rabbi Rick Jacobs, Who Profits
