Israel Matzav

The beginning of the end of Leftist domination of Israel's Foreign Ministry?

First, she’s a novice who has never held any executive branch position before, yet will now exercise de facto control over one of the cabinet’s most important ministries. Technically, she serves under Netanyahu, who retained the foreign affairs portfolio for himself. But since Netanyahu already has a full-time job as prime minister, she will largely run the ministry.

Second, she’s one of the most hawkish members of Netanyahu’s coalition and an outspoken opponent of Palestinian statehood. As The Jerusalem Post’s diplomatic correspondent, Herb Keinon, put it, “Hotovely represents the opposite of everything much of the world...wants to see in Israel.”

Third, in contrast to appointees like Miri Regev or Haim Katz, whose power bases within Likud were simply too strong for Netanyahu to ignore, Hotovely’s support inside the party is tenuous; in the last primary, she barely scraped into the 20th slot. Nor is she known as one of the premier’s own loyalists. Thus he was under no political compulsion to reward her with such a lofty post.

Finally, there were plenty of other candidates who would seemingly have been more suitable, including the one many American Jews undoubtedly hoped to see there: former ambassador to Washington and current Kulanu MK Michael Oren.

Indeed, Hotovely’s main qualification for the post – aside from being pretty, personable and reportedly speaking excellent English – would seem to be that she constitutes no threat to Netanyahu, who notoriously squelches anyone he does consider a potential political threat.

That’s why so many ambitious Likudniks eventually quit the party to run their own parties (see Moshe Kahlon, Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Liberman).

 

Gold, a former ambassador to the United Nations and currently head of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, will be working under Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely, who was told about the appointment just prior to it being made public. He replaces Nissim Ben-Sheetrit, a veteran ministry employee who started out in its administrative track and then moved to the diplomatic side. 

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[Former Foreign Minister Avigdor] Liberman commented on the appointment, saying that while it was Netanyahu’s prerogative to appoint his own man to this post, appointments at the ministry are not ways to give out favors or settle scores. He also said that “it needs to be clear that new appointments or changes are not a replacement for clear policy.”

In that regard, one government source said, Gold was the perfect candidate because he had a direct line to Netanyahu, and his interlocutors would know that when he speaks, he is speaking for Netanyahu and with authority.

“This will give him power and make him relevant,” the official said, noting that Ben-Sheetrit never enjoyed that status.

The American-born Gold is considered one of Netanyahu’s top foreign policy advisers. He served as one of his foreign policy advisers starting in 1996, during the prime minister’s first term in office, being appointed the following year as ambassador to the UN, where he served until 1999. In 2014, he became an “outside” consultant in the Prime Minister’s Office.

In recent years, Gold has accompanied Netanyahu on many of his trips to Washington and the UN, and over the years has been one of Israel’s foremost unofficial spokesmen, speaking in the media and at conferences around the world on Israeli policy. He is often sought out by journalists and diplomats because of his knowledge of the issues, and because he is considered to be close to Netanyahu, thus reflecting his thinking.

He has also been very active in lobbying policy-makers on behalf of “defensible borders” for Israel.

Hotovely spoke with Gold after the appointment and issued a statement, saying that with his rich experience in the international arena, the former UN ambassador could contribute to furthering Israel’s position in the world.

Dore Gold has done the State of Israel a great service by forcing us to focus on concrete things that we want out of the 'peace process.' Dore is fond of pointing out that when you ask a 'Palestinian' what he wants from the 'peace process,' he will tell you that he wants a 'Palestinian state' in the areas that are outside Israel's '1967 borders' (for now), whose capital is Jerusalem. If you ask an Israeli Jew what he wants from the 'peace process,' he will tell you 'peace.'

Dore is changing that paradigm. One of the things he believes that Israeli Jews can and should be demanding from the 'peace process' is defensible borders. His organization, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, has put together a collection of essays that sets out in concrete terms what defensible borders mean. The collection is called Israel's Critical Security Needs for a Viable Peace. It's reviewed by Lee Smith in Tablet Magazine.

The book Israel’s Critical Security Needs for a Viable Peace is a collection published this year under the auspices of the JCPA with essays about security and diplomacy by leading figures in Israel’s security establishment, like Maj.-Gen. Aharon Ze’evi Farkash, former head of IDF intelligence, and Maj.-Gen. Uzi Dayan, former IDF deputy chief of staff and a former national security adviser to Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon. The volume’s findings represent a broad consensus across the Israeli political spectrum, and the fact that Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon—former IDF chief of staff and currently the vice prime minister—wrote the introduction is evidence that the ideas have won approval at the highest political levels.

The book pushes three common ideas, some likely to add to the friction between Washington and Jerusalem: First, Israel, must not withdraw to the 1949 armistice lines; second, Israel needs defensible borders; third, Israel must rely on itself to defend itself and not on foreign forces as proposed by U.S. national security adviser Gen. James Jones, who has talked openly about replacing the IDF with international forces in the West Bank.

The insistence that Israel must retain the ability to defend its own borders—a basic attribute of national sovereignty—is the least controversial element of Gold’s blueprint. The issue is not merely the inglorious record of U.N. peacekeeping forces—from Sinai to Bosnia and Lebanon—but also the fact that the international community rarely sends its blue helmets into the middle of a real shooting war, which is what the West Bank would become if an IDF withdrawal left Hamas and Fatah at each other’s throats and eager to gain credit for launching terror attacks on Israel.

The concept of defensible borders is closely tied to the drawing of 1949 armistice lines, commonly and incorrectly known as the 1967 borders. As Gold explains in his contribution to the volume, successive U.S. administrations since Lyndon Johnson’s have all recognized the danger in Israel withdrawing to those borders. George Shultz, one of President Ronald Reagan’s secretaries of State, explained that “Israel will never negotiate from or return to the 1967 borders,” and the Clinton Administration reaffirmed the Reagan White House’s concept of defensible borders. However, it was during Clinton’s Camp David negotiations that then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak abandoned the idea of defensible borders in the hope of a radical breakthrough with Yasser Arafat. With the outbreak of the Second Intifada and peace nowhere in the offing, the George W. Bush Administration pledged not to hold the Israelis to the Clinton parameters and returned to the traditional U.S. position. “It is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949,” reads an April 14, 2004 letter from Bush to then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The UJA-Federation’s top brass have been twisting the arms of Israel’s diplomatic corps to provide cover for supporting the New Israel Fund marching in the Israel Day Parade, according to emails obtained by JCCWatch.

The strategy to use the Foreign Ministry as their beard came to an uncomfortable public end last week, when the Spokesman for the Israeli Consulate in New York had to make a statement to deny what UJA-Federation CEO Eric Goldstein had told Talkline Communications radio host Zev Brenner on March 30. In an appearance on the show, Goldstein said, twice actually, that “the government of Israel, the Consul General’s office, very much, emphatically, want us to allow these groups to continue to march.”

The consulate spokesman told Arutz Sheva last week that at “no point did any of the parade’s organizers consult with the Consulate or with someone acting on its behalf regarding the New Israel Fund’s participation.” The newspaper quoted the spokesman directly as saying, “never, ever, did the Consul-General, or someone on his behalf, or any of the Consulate’s employees, say anything favoring the NIF’s participation, either explicitly or implicitly, in a hinted manner or in public, in secret or openly.”

The oddly worded distancing of the Consul-General’s office from the UJA-Federation comes as emails obtained by JCCWatch show Goldstein and former UJA-Federation president Jerry Levin, indeed, reaching out to Israeli ambassadors for exactly that kind of cover.

The email trail leading up to Goldstein’s foot-in-mouth routine, and reproduced below, casts a dark shadow on UJA-Federation leadership who were able to co-opt important Israel diplomats to publicly boost their cause of defending the New Israel Fund.

Labels: Avigdor Lieberman, Binyamin Netanyahu, defensible borders, Dore Gold, Israel's Foreign Ministry, Israeli Left, New Israel Fund, New York Jewish Federation, Salute to Israel Day Parade, Tzipi Hotovely

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:46 PM 0 comments

American Jewry's gutless 'leadership' is afraid to say 'NO' to the 'New Israel Fund'

Since writing an article in the Observer urging the New York Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) and the UJA-Federation to refuse the New Israel Fund (NIF) participation to the annual “Celebrate Israel Parade,” I have been inundated with calls and e-mails from people supporting – and attacking – my position.

So much panic has been caused that Israel’s Former Ambassador Danny Ayalon – who was aware of and supported my position before I wrote of it – received calls in the last 48 hours from Michael Miller, the head of the JCRC; Eric Goldstein, President of UJA; and Jerry Levin, UJA’s past President pressuring him to silence the voices condemning the NIF.  They have a Monday meeting set to discuss this issue.

Clearly, mass concern remains over the parade’s decision on allowing the the participation of the extremist New Israel Fund (NIF), a group that hurts the Jewish State, funds legal efforts that seek to place the rights of the terrorists over victims who were killed while praying in Jerusalem, and has called Israel “racist” and “murderous.”

In response to my op-ed, the JCRC crafted a statement, which reads “JCRC-NY has for years required that all Parade groups must identify with Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. This year, JCRC-NY, for clarification purposes, added a new rule that ‘all groups must oppose, not fund, nor advocate for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) against Israel, which seeks to delegitimize the State of Israel by not recognizing it as a Jewish state.”

However the JCRC will not address the fact that on NIF’s own website the group clearly supports BDS.  Even though the NIF states that it ” will not fund global BDS activities against Israel” a paragraph later it apologizes for exactly those activities, stating “NIF will thus not exclude support for organizations that discourage the purchase of goods or use of services from settlements.”

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Instead of owning up to their mistake, the JCRC is digging its heels in and calling in favors to quiet pressure. Wealthy donors and Jewish leaders have called on former Israeli Ambassador Danny Ayalon to try and stop those of us nay-sayers.  Ayalon is active against NIF, yet they have summoned him for a Monday meeting to appeal to his sense of the “importance of the parade.”

This is not an issue of the right versus the left; it is an issue of the right versus the wrong.

In private appeals, the most senior executives from these Jewish organizations, whom I know and like personally, talk about their families in Israel, their love for Israel, and of course, how long and hard they have worked for the Jewish people. They had a prominent JCRC board member and professional colleague ask me to stop writing. While many of these people tell me privately they abhor NIF, they will not speak out publicly.

Labels: American Jewish leadership, BDS, Danny Ayalon, JCC Watch, Manhattan JCC, New York City, Salute to Israel Day Parade

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:51 PM 2 comments

Anti-Israel New Israel Fund says 'of course we're marching' in the Celebrate Israel Parade

However, it isn’t so clear that the New Israel Fund’s application will be rejected, based on the JCRC document defining the delegitimization of Israel.

“Regarding Israel, delegitimization includes questioning the validity of Israel’s founding, demonizing Israel and equating its policies with Nazism, apartheid and racist ideologies, holding Israel to double standards, and promoting a one-state solution (Israel’s demographic dissolution),” reads the document.

According to another Israeli watchdog, NGO Monitor, the New Israel Fund is indeed guilty of funding organizations that delegitimize Israel by approaching international human rights organizations to investigate the Jewish state for alleged crimes against humanity.

But the JCRC document leaves room for interpretation there as well, in discussing the differences between criticism and delegitimization: “Criticism is a natural function of any democracy. Its purpose is to strengthen democracy by questioning leaders and holding them accountable for their actions. In contrast, the purpose of delegitimization is to destroy a country.”

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The New Israel Fund, for its part, said that of course it would be marching in the Celebrate Israel Parade this year.

“Im Tirtzu is, as usual, wrong. NIF looks forward to joining the parade this year since none of the guidelines excludes us. Although we and our partners sometimes strongly criticize Israeli government policy, no one except hard-right extremists thinks that equals delegitimization,” said Naomi Paiss, the spokeswoman for the New Israel Fund.

Paiss said that NIF principles state Israel is the Jewish homeland and that the parade BDS policy “exactly mirrors that of NIF — we too will not fund any organization participating in the global BDS movement,” she said.

Labels: BDS, JCC Watch, Manhattan JCC, New York City, Salute to Israel Day Parade

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:30 AM 0 comments

Celebrate Israel Parade bans BDS groups

Labels: BDS, New York City, New York Jewish Federation, Salute to Israel Day Parade

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:00 PM 0 comments

Diaspora Affairs ministry reconsidering funding to Salute to Israel parade

[S]ome in Jerusalem have begun to question their affiliation with the parade, with a government source telling the Post that “due to the ongoing controversy that has now erupted, the Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs Ministry will review its funding of the parade for future years, [although] not this year.”

The source, who asked not to be identified, said that while future funding was being reconsidered, reports that the Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs Ministry cut funding to the parade due to the controversy were incorrect and that the cuts had been planned for almost a year. The funds, he explained, had been reallocated to Minister of Religious Serices Naftali Bennett’s new strategic initiative for the Diaspora and the shortfall had been made up by a grant by the Prime Minister’s Office.

Bennett, he added, never intended to attend, and reports that he canceled a trip in response to the NIF’s participation were incorrect.

Labels: BDS, New Israel Fund, Salute to Israel Day Parade

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:24 PM 0 comments

100 shofars to be blown in Manhattan

100 Shofars to be blown in Manhattan 

A Demonstration/Rally

April 29, 2014

UJA-Federation Building

130 East 59 Street (Between Park & Lex)

New York City, 5pm to 7pm : Shofars to be blown at 5:30 pm

The largest number of Shofars ever blown in Unison to take place in Manhattan by  a Coalition of Jewish groups; to protest the inclusion of Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions against Israel in the Israel Day Parade. 

Join Us and Bring Your Shofars!

Labels: B'Tselem, BDS, JCC Watch, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, Manhattan JCC, New Israel Fund, New York Jewish Federation, progressives, Salute to Israel Day Parade

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:06 AM 1 comments

Caroline Glick: American Jews have forgotten what freedom means

More and more, every day we see American Jews embracing intellectual bondage. We see American Jewish leaders embracing the intolerant, who seek to constrain freedom, and shunning those who fight for freedom and the rights of Jews and other threatened peoples and groups.

To a large degree, this rejection of the lessons of the Exodus among the American Jewish community reflects the growing intolerance and tyranny of the political Left, to which most American Jews pledge their allegiance.

With increasing frequency, leftist groups and leaders in the US are openly acting to deny freedom of expression to their political and ideological foes, and to destroy the lives of people who oppose their dogma.

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In Israel, the public understands that boycotts are about mainstreaming hatred and bigotry just as much as they are about economic strangulation. That is why in 2011 the Knesset passed the anti-boycott law which allows all Israeli entities to sue groups calling for boycotts against them for civil damages, and bars such groups from participating in state tenders.

But in the American Jewish community, these groups are defended and legitimized.

Disgusted at their community leadership’s double standard of tolerance and support for foes of Israel and intolerance for supporters of Israel, a consortium of organizations and synagogues organized a protest against the inclusion of anti-Israel organizations in the Israel Day Parade.

After weeks of protests in the press and on social media sites, on Tuesday some 200 people demonstrated outside the UJA-Federation building in New York and demanded that the boycott supporters and abettors be shunned.

It was an important act of defiance.

The group includes such stalwart organizations as Americans for a Safe Israel, Americans for Peace and Tolerance, the Endowment for Middle East Truth, JCC Watch, the National Conference on Jewish Affairs, and the National Council of Young Israel.

These groups have joined together in the past to protest against UJA-Federation funding of institutions such as the 92nd Street Y and the New York JCC, which have provided platforms for Jew-haters and BDS supporters.

Their protest was vital. It would be a tragedy if the thuggish behavior of the Jewish community leaders went unopposed. But it is hard to see how the protesters can change the situation.
The rot runs deep.

Consider Brandeis University’s craven and intolerant administration.

Brandeis was founded as a traditionally Jewish university in 1948, the year that Israel was established.

But whereas Israel has remained faithful to its sovereign duty to cultivate and defend Jewish freedom and engender a liberal democracy, over the years, Brandeis has largely abandoned its mission of standing up to intolerance, and protecting Jewish rights and those of other threatened groups.

Case in point is its obscene treatment of Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Hirsi Ali is a former Muslim who suffered genital mutilation as a child in Somalia and at age 21 fled to Holland to avoid a forced marriage.

After liberating herself, Hirsi Ali could have settled into a quiet European life. Instead, she dedicated her life to championing the rights of women and girls in Islamic societies.

For the past decade, Hirsi Ali has lived under an Islamic death sentence for her work. She can go nowhere without bodyguards. 

In 2006, despite her membership in the Dutch parliament, Hirsi Ali was forced to flee to the US, when the Dutch government refused to continue to protect her. 

In the US, as in Holland, she continues to campaign for the rights of women and girls in Islamic society. 

Most recently, she was the executive producer of a new documentary film called Honor Diaries, which describes the plight of Muslim women and girls living in societies where they risk murder at the hands of their family members if they refuse to live in abject humiliation and submission to the misogyny of Islamic law. 

Several months ago, Brandeis offered to confer an honorary doctorate on Hirsi Ali for her work on behalf of women and girls. 

When the leftist and Muslim thought police in the Brandeis student body and faculty got wind of the university’s plan to honor her, they joined forces with the Council on American-Islamic Relations to force the administration to cancel the honorary degree. 

CAIR claims to be a Muslim civil rights group. And yet, the group that purports to care about the civil rights of Muslims is waging a nationwide campaign to bar screenings of Honor Diaries, at universities around the country. 

When Fox News’s intrepid host Megyn Kelly asked CAIR leaders this week how they can object to a film that seeks to help Muslims, they said they don’t have a problem with its content. They object to the fact that it was produced by Jews (also known as “Islamophobes”). 

Far from being a civil rights group, CAIR is a pro- Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood organization. It was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Hamas financing trial against the Holyland Foundation. 

And yet, on Wednesday, Brandeis sided with CAIR and the thought police, against Hirsi Ali. Brandeis canceled its plan to confer its honorary doctorate on her.

Labels: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, BDS, Brandeis University, New York Jewish Federation, Salute to Israel Day Parade

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:25 AM 0 comments

Rally at UJA-Federation headquarters takes BDS issue to the door of the American Jewish establishment

NEW YORK, April 8, 2014 – A rally held today at the headquarters of the UJA-Federation spoke truth to Jewish power in no uncertain terms.

Speaker after speaker called on the UJA and JCRC to disallow three BDS-supporting Jewish organizations to march in the upcoming Celebrate Israel Parade, and brought forth compelling evidence that the three offending organizations deserve not only to be barred from marching in the parade, but also deserve to be kept out of the “big tent” of Jewish communal life.

Organized by JCC Watch, National Conference on Jewish Affairs, and Americans for a Safe Israel, the days leading up to the event sparked discussion and controversy that has spread from New York to Los Angeles, London and Tel Aviv. Helen Freedman of Americans for a Safe Israel introduced many of the speakers.

She spoke about the fact that all of the protesters respect and admire the humanitarian and social service work of the UJA and JCRC, but that it is also vital to Israel's survival and the well-being of the Jewish People that the BDS issue -- including Jewish support for BDS -- be addressed publicly.

Mark Langfan spoke of his respect and admiration for the protesters who came out to the rally. He discussed many of the security concerns of Israel, and how the BDS movement harms the Jewish State and puts Jews in jeopardy.

Rabbi David Algaze spoke at length about the skewed values of those in the Jewish community supporting anti-Israel activities and the Hamas-backed BDS movement, and also strongly took to task those in major Jewish organizations who are not vocal enough to speak out publicly and clearly against the BDS movement. "The decision by the JCRC and UJA is neither democratic nor Jewish. It is not democratic because the organizers in allowing these boycotters to March they are ignoring the feelings of the predominant majority of those who participate and attend the Parade. It is not Jewish because Judaism has many values but suicide and self hatred are not among them."

Beth Gilinsky, president of Jewish Action Alliance and founder of the National Conference on Jewish Affairs, an umbrella of pro-Israel, pro-America Jewish leaders, gave a rousing speech about not just the parade controversy, but also about the BDS movement in general. She addressed the real-life impact of BDS here in the United States and England on college campuses, across Europe where Jews are being targeted in violent attacks, and in Israel.

She asserted that while some people believe BDS is just a grassroots effort of a few Arab activists who desire a Palestinian Arab state, in reality it is linked to and driven by radical Islamist organizations such as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood that are bent on Israel’s destruction. After asserting that BDS attempts to denigrate and demonize Israel and is, in fact an anti-Semitic movement aimed at dehumanizing Jews, she addressed establishment accusations that opposition to Jewish BDS groups in the parade was pitting Jew vs. Jew, firing back with: “Jewish participation in the Hamas-backed BDS movement is the epitome of Jew vs. Jew! “

Responding to assertions that criticizing the establishment organizations creates “disunity” in the community and hurts Israel, Gilinsky stated: “In the name of unity, we are being asked to allow destructive forces to threaten our fellow Jews. NO, we are Jews FOR Jews. We are here to proclaim that we stand in solidarity with Israel, and that includes Judea and Samaria, and we are here to fight FOR the victims being targeted by BDS aggression.”

A Member of the Israeli Knesset was present, MK Nissim Zeev, and he spoke with full support for all of Yehuda and Shomron and spoke of the Yehuda and Shomron being the heart of the Jewish people and Eretz Yisrael.

Richard Allen, founder of JCC Watch, took on the UJA directly, calling out “DO NOT SUPPORT BDS!” to UJA-Federation employees and leaders as they left the building, and saving particular criticism for John Ruskay. “Under John Ruskay’s leadership of the UJA-Federation, the Celebrate Israel Day Parade has invited groups to march that actively call for a Boycott of Israeli Companies. Under front names like Partners for Progressive Israel, New Israel Fund and B'Tselem these groups organize and work against the Jewish State.

"It is shameful that the UJA Federation and the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) are supporting the New Israel Fund in their efforts to delegitimize and fund Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel," continued Allen, an active member of the Pro-Israel Parade Committee. "It's time the UJA Federation stop supporting radical groups that work for BDS against Israel. If the BDS supporting groups are allowed to march, we will call for posters and leaflets on the day of the parade.”

Coalition for Israel founder Howard Weber, spoke eloquently about BDS and the peace process. “For those passers by asking what "BDS" stands for, it means "Blind, Deaf and Stupid’--"Blind to the fact that the reason Mr. Kerry can't obtain a peace agreement has nothing to do with the Jews living on less than 3% of the West Bank, but rather, as Mr. Abbas bluntly put it, the non-recognition of Israel as a Jewish State. "Deaf" to the pleadings of the Palestinian Authority and Mr. Abbas who urge BDS not to boycott Israeli goods since the factories producing them employ West Bank Arabs who enjoy much higher wages and standard of living than their Arab brothers. And finally, "Stupid" because they have decided the best way to put forth their political ideology is by economically crippling Israel.

He continued: “Is this the ‘Celebrate Israel Parade’? or is it the ‘Denigrate Israel Parade’? ”

Dr. Paul Brody of the Great Neck-based Jewish Political Education Foundation (JPEF), said that there is a difference between "opinions and destruction." "Our group is opposed to Israel's relinquishing sovereignty over any of our Biblical Land. But, in terms of marching in the parade, there are individuals and groups who support all sorts of solutions with which we disagree. However, calling for boycotts, divestments and sanctions should be a redline."

Buddy Macy, a founder of Never Again is Now, spoke of his family’s involvement with raising funds for Federation, and stated, “It is called the Celebrate Israel Parade. However, 364 days a year, Partners for Progressive Israel, B’Tselem and the New Israel Fund not only do not celebrate Israel, they lambast and work against her by promoting the boycott of products produced by Israeli companies and/or fund organizations that boycott Israeli products. In other words, these three organizations embrace the narrative created by Israel’s enemies, who are intent on destroying the Jewish State.

What is equally absurd and potentially more dangerous, is that the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, under the watchful eye of the UJA-Federation of New York, provides a platform for those organizations to gain respect and esteem among the hundreds of thousands of parade goers. Make no mistake about it: we will not permit enemies of Israel to become role models for the Jewish people…especially, for our youth.

Julian Rapaport, from the Russian Jewish community, stated: “We are joining the voices of protest against the participation of BDS-connected groups in the Celebrate Israel Parade. We know from history that the Nazi Holocaust began with the boycotting of Jewish stores. Our group sticks tightly to the principle: NEVER AGAIN! We are calling on the UJA to modify and clarify its controversial policy and guidelines to make sure that participation in the Israel Day Parade, as expected, means to strengthen the State of Israel and the Jewish community, not weaken them.”

Rabbi Aryeh Spero, whose two hard-hitting articles in Jewish newspapers created a stir this past week, stated today in response to the rally: “Promoters of BDS do not love Israel, and through their boycotts wish to harm Israel and its people. And the acceptance by the establishment Jewish community of these groups reflects a perverse form of Jewish suicide. “

The rally organizers expressed special thanks to the National Council of Young Israel for their endorsement of the rally. A representative of Endowment for Middle East Truth addressed the crowd, emphasizing the importance of continued activism and pressure on the UJA and JCRC to do the right thing, as well as the importance of bringing the community’s attention to the truths about BDS in America and abroad.

Endorsing organizations of this rally were: JCC Watch, Jewish Action Alliance, AFSI, Z Street, National Conference on Jewish Affairs, Endowment for Middle East Truth, Americans for Peace and Tolerance, Ha-Emet, Coalition for Israel, National Council of Young Israel, International Committee for the Land of Israel, Jewish Political Education Foundation, IsraelLives.org, Amcha Initiative, and Never Again is Now.

Labels: B'Tselem, BDS, JCC Watch, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, Manhattan JCC, New Israel Fund, New York Jewish Federation, progressives, Salute to Israel Day Parade

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:45 PM 0 comments

What if they had a Salute to Israel parade and no supporters of Israel showed up?

Several groups are organizing a protest rally for April 8 as part of a campaign to have the parade sponsors remove their invitations to the controversial groups. Further, unless the groups are pulled, several local rabbis, including day school and yeshiva principals, are considering boycotting the event, thereby significantly reducing the number of participants.

"Partners for Progressive Israel" lists Israeli products to boycott on its website; the New Israel Fund (NIF) has supported BDS and reportedly been encouraging Arab riots; volunteers with B'Tselem have taken part in Arab riots. NIF and B'Tselem have also been implicated in pro-BDS activities, including via subsidiaries, videos and statements. All three are currently set to march in the parade under their own banners.

"Boycotting is an action that far exceeds disagreement. At its core, it is a public venue designed to demonize, ultimately to make something, in this case, the State of Israel, illegitimate. It is a form of anti-Semitism,” the rabbi noted.

“These BDS groups work every day to isolate Israel and make her a global pariah, announcing to the world the names of specific Jewish-owned companies operating in Judea and Samaria that they want punished," charged Rabbi Spero.

Rabbi Spero adds that "these ‘Jewish’ groups are being invited to infiltrate the Parade, either because of agreement with their tactics or as a way of affirming what the UJA-Federation calls ‘an open tent.’ UJA’s desire for an ‘open tent’ should not devolve into the destruction of the tent."

Referring to the BDS claims that they target only areas east of the 1949 Armistice line, the rabbi noted "to the world, a boycott is a boycott, east of the Green Line or west of it. Approving one leads to the other. Boycotting Israel will spur future boycotting of those ‘bad’ Jews, for example, in Brooklyn or London."

The rabbi added that the boycotting groups "never boycott Arab or Muslim businesses, despite the ubiquitous terrorism coming from PA neighborhoods and their violations of human rights. Their outrage is only against the Jewish state and its Jews."

Showing the widespread fallout the groups' opposition to the parade may bring about, Rabbi Elie Abadie has threatened to pull the support and float of his Edmond J. Safra Synagogue. He also represents the Moise Safra Community Synagogue, Congregation Magen David of Manhattan, and the Sephardic Academy of Manhattan.

Rabbi Abadie warned he would be “urging every rabbi and leader of every Sephardic organization—as well as many others—in our community" to boycott the parade if the BDS groups were not pulled.

The rabbi decried the BDS-supporters for harming a fellow Jew's ability to earn a livelihood, citing the Jewish legal precept from the Torah "not to stand idly by the blood of your brother."

Jeff Wiesenfeld, a member of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) which organizes the parade, revealed the decision process that led to the groups' inclusion.

While a majority of JCRC's leadership would have opposed the "detestable" BDS groups, according to Wiesenfeld, "there was no debate. It was a decision handed down from ‘above’ because, I think, it was determined that, financially, the UJA stood to lose more from the left if the BDS groups were excluded than they would gain from the right."

Organizers of the rally against the BDS groups' inclusion call on those who cannot attend the protest rally, which will be held on Tuesday, April 8, between 4:00-7:00 pm, outside the UJA-Federation headquarters at 130 E. 59th St. in Manhattan, to send protest letters to the UJA and JCRC.

Peter Kohlmann, executive producer of the parade can be reached at 212-983-4800 ext 162 (kohlmannp@jcrcny.org), while Michael Mittelman, director of the parade, can be reached at 212-983-4800 ext 487 (mittelmanm@jcrcny.org).

“Let the directors of the UJA and other Jewish organizations know of your concerns," called Rabbi Spero. "Real Jewish leaders should not be indifferent, silent, nor lend support to boycotters and others wishing to tear us down."

The rabbi added "directors of our Jewish organizations proved their fallibility during the 1930s and ‘40s, teaching us that blind obedience is foolish and leaving our destiny and safety to those who claim they ‘know best’ can be devastating. This time in history, we must not make the same mistake."

Labels: B'Tselem, BDS, JCC Watch, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, Manhattan JCC, New Israel Fund, New York Jewish Federation, progressives, Salute to Israel Day Parade

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:30 AM 8 comments

'Make a l'Chayim to BDS'?

The Seattle Chapter of the radical Israel hating Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)  invites you to a very special Passover Seder.  They will be using their own one of a kind Passover Haggadah.  Highlights of the JVP Haggadah include many helpful tips, like a reminder not to confuse Egypt with “Egypt” or Israel with “Israel”.

You will be especially moved and inspired by the Ten Plagues of the Israeli Occupation (Page 10). With a flair for the original, JVP adds an orange and a bowl of olives to their seder plate.... 

The ADL notes that “the introduction to the JVP Haggadah compares Moses’s famous declaration to Pharoah, “Let My People Go!” to the efforts of the Gaza Flotilla to “free” the Palestinian people by breaking Israel’s blockade of Gaza. According to JVP, the third cup of wine, which is traditionally consumed after the meal portion of the Seder, represents the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction  (BDS) of the Jewish state and Seder participants are encouraged to “make a L’Chayim” to BDS.”

“The constant supremacy of the Palestinian cause is also startling. When the text, for example, reaches Yachatz, the breaking of the middle matzah, the text reminds participants to acknowledge the “break that occurred in Palestinian life and culture with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948″.”

Labels: BDS, JCC Watch, Jewish Voice for Peace, Manhattan JCC, New York Jewish Federation, Pesach, Pesach seder, Salute to Israel Day Parade

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:19 PM 0 comments

Why have a Salute to Israel day parade at all?

BDS, as it’s affectionately known by proponents, is a fiercely effective legal-economic strategy in the ongoing effort to demonize, delegitimize and, ultimately, destroy Israel. Its supporters say it’s peace they want, and no doubt this is true: peace by way of warfare, albeit warfare of a different kind.

The question we have to ask today is why the UJA, the organizer and funder of the parade, is displaying such equanimity in the face of such strident anti-Israel antipathy, especially given that the majority of US Jews utterly reject ideologies like those of the NIF and its anti-Israel grantees and affiliates.

When the pro-Israel parade becomes a moment for actively anti-Israel groups to vent and propagandize, you have to ask, why have an Israel day parade at all?

Labels: BDS, New Israel Fund, Salute to Israel Day Parade

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:10 AM 0 comments

The new Israel Day Parade

Labels: BDS, Salute to Israel Day Parade

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:25 PM 0 comments

No BDSers in the Israel Day Parade

Labels: BDS, Salute to Israel Day Parade

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:30 AM 2 comments

Israel Day Parade: Have your say

As I hope you already know, the “Jewish leaders” who put together the annual NYC Israel Parade (Sunday, June 3) have invited nominally Jewish anti-Israel BDS organizations to march this year. My belief is that the leftist Jewish quislings who made this decision have consolidated their hold on the Jewish organizational world, making them next to impossible to dislodge. But still, there’s no downside to telling them where real friends of Israel stand. Below is a list of parade officials, name, email address, and phone number with extensions. I suggest you email them now and flood them with phone calls during business hours on Monday. For more information about this disgrace click here.

Peter Kohlmann, Executive Producer
kohlmannp@jcrcny.org - 212.983.4800 x162

Michael Mittelman, Director, Celebrate Israel
mittelmanm@jcrcny.org – 212.983.4800 x487

Gianna Bergman, Director, Sponsorships
gianna@celebrateisraelny.org – 203.918.6780

Noam Gilboord, Israel & Internat’l, Program Director
gilboordn@jcrcny.org – 212.983.4800 x489

Karen Ostrove, Parade Creative Director
ostrovek@jcrcny.org – 212.983.4800 x482

Akiva Roth, Israel Engagement Initiative
rotha@jcrcny.org – 212.983.4800 x488

Labels: BDS, Salute to Israel Day Parade

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:42 AM 0 comments

Under the big top, BDS supporters to march in Israel Day Parade

JCCWatch.org, a NY based group created to hold Jewish community organizations accountable to their mission, condemns the local Jewish Community Relations Council - JCRC (A Beneficiary of UJA-Federation of New York) for permitting groups that fund or support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel to officially march in the New York City Israel Day Parade.

Richard Allen, founder of JCCWatch.org said:

"It is irresponsible for the New York Jewish Community Relations Council to allow groups like Partners for Progressive Israel, BTselem, New Israel Fund and Rabbis for Human Rights to march under official authorization of the JCRC in the Israel Day Parade. "

Partners for Progressive Israel has called upon Jews to boycott Israeli companies such as Ahava, an Israel cosmetics company, SodaStream, an Israeli soda machine manufacturer, B&B Baking Company and nine Israeli Vineyards. New Israel Fund has funded groups that support or call for the boycott and sanctioning of Israel. BTselem supported the misinformation and deception which led to the infamous Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead. Rabbis for Human Rights is identified, by the well respected organization NGO Monitor.org, run by Professor Gerald Steinberg of Bar Ilan University, as a group which supports anti-Israel incitement.

These groups have been given official recognition in the Israel Day Parade under the so called "Big Tent" policy of John Ruskay, the CEO of the UJA - Federation of New York. The UJA-Federation is the major funder and greatly influences the JCRC. This so called "Big Tent" policy is allowing Jewish communal funds to be used for purposes that are against fundamental Jewish interests. The Israel Day Parade, a celebration of the democratic Jewish State of Israel, should not be allowed to be used by groups with a political ideology opposed to Israel. The Israel Day Parade is organized to support Israel, the policies pursued by the above named groups are inimical to Israel's long term survival.

In addition to allowing these groups to march in the parade, John Ruskay has made other questionable moves as Chief Executive Officer of the UJA - Federation. For example, under John Ruskay, the Federation gave a $1,000,000.00 (One Million Dollars) grant to a George Soros funded group, Jewish Funds for Justice, which received notoriety for their public attack against Glenn Beck.

Why are Jewish communal funds used to support a blatant one-sided political agenda?

Labels: BDS, New York Jewish Federation, Salute to Israel Day Parade

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:37 PM 1 comments