Alan Dershowitz and the Politics of Desperation

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Written by Rabbi Brant Rosen Rabbi Brant Rosen

Published: 14 May 2010 14 May 2010

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I've noticed an interesting pattern in Alan Dershowitz's recent HuffPo columns.

On April 21 he smeared Jeremy Ben Ami and the pro-peace, pro-Israel lobbying group J Street, putting words in Ben Ami's mouth and saying that J Street has "gone over to the dark side."

On May 4 it was Rabbi Michael Lerner, a leading figure of the American Jewish left, and editor of Tikkun Magazine. Dershowitz accused Tikkun of "McCarthyism," disregarded the recent attack on Lerner's home, and characterized Lerner's criticism of Israeli policy as "blood libel."

In between the two, Dershowitz lambasted Judge Richard Goldstone, the highly regarded international jurist who prepared a UN report on Israel's Gaza War. He labeled the report as "evil" and attacked me and a group of American rabbis for having the temerity to find merit in Goldstone's work - we are "bigoted," apparently, and "ignorant," and are - yes - leveling a "blood libel" against the Israeli government. Most recently, Dershowitz hit a new low when he went on Israeli television and compared Judge Goldstone to Dr. Joseph Mengele.

When a Jew starts to accuse rabbis of blood libel; when an American shouts "McCarthyism" at an American magazine editor whose life is dedicated to dialogue; when a professional, highly experienced lawyer accuses a world-renown jurist of "evil," equating him with the Nazi "Angel of Death," and uses Star Wars terminology against a legitimate, widely-supported political lobbying group - well, it adds up, and it indicates one thing: Desperation.

Alan Dershowitz, and many of Jewish America's leading conservative lights, have seen the writing on the wall, and it frightens them. Their brand of Jewish chauvinism is fading from the world, and they are justifiably frightened that a different approach to both Israel and Jewish life is taking hold among American Jews.

The vicious personal attacks on Judge Goldstone, and what is by now a long list of centrist and liberal American Jews, are profoundly disturbing, and represent an attempt to escape the critical self examination that both the Goldstone Report and our own religion demand - what is perhaps more interesting, however, is the fact that so many in the American Jewish community are refusing to join the chorus.

Rather than unquestioningly follow the kind of conservative groupthink that Dershowitz exemplifies, American Jews - like the 37 rabbis who signed that recent letter in support of Judge Goldstone - are working to hold Israel to a set of Jewish values that are more important than any political ideology. Rather than accept that there can only one way to express solidarity with the Jewish people and only one line of thinking on the subject of Israel, American Jews are beginning to give true expression to the tradition of pluralism in both our faith community, and our nation.

Recent polling, alongside articles in both the New York Times and the Israeli paper of record, Ha'aretz, indicate that the American Jewish community no longer feels represented by our so-called representatives - if we ever did. Nearly two-thirds of the Jewish community feel that the War in Gaza in no way improved Israel's security, and 69 percent support Israeli negotiation with a joint Hamas-Fatah government. Perhaps most critically, younger Jews are increasingly frustrated at being labeled anti-Israel or even anti-Semitic for voicing their opposition to Israel's treatment of Palestinians. As a community, we are clearly beginning to step out from the shadow of those who still believe that the status quo is maintainable - or acceptable.

Judge Goldstone has upheld the principles of justice, compassion and truth that are the very heart of the Jewish religion. As rabbis, we are proud of the work he has done as chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, as a judge on the Constitutional Court in post-Apartheid South Africa - and on the Fact Finding Mission in Gaza.

We applaud his courage in upholding his belief in international human rights even when called to do so in a report on the Israeli government's behavior. International human rights apply to all, with no exceptions - and if the Israeli government and conservative American Jews like Alan Dershowitz are so confident that the report's findings are false, they should support the establishment by Israel of an independent, credible and transparent investigation to disprove them.

The sage Shimon Ben Gamliel said "the world stands on three things: justice, truth, and peace. As it says [in Scripture] 'Execute the judgment of truth, and justice and peace will be established in your gates'."

It's time for Jewish leaders in Israel, America, and around the world to grapple with the difficult truths of Israel's occupation and its treatment of the Palestinian people - rather than launching personal attacks against the messengers with whom they don't happen to agree.
 

US to fund Israel rocket system: Obama asks for another $200m for Israel

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Written by BBC NEWS BBC NEWS

Published: 14 May 2010 14 May 2010

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US to fund Israel rocket system

Barack Obama is to ask the US Congress for an extra $200m in military aid to help Israel get a short-range rocket defence system in place.

The system is designed to shoot down mortars and rockets from Gaza or Southern Lebanon with guided missiles.

The system, called Iron Dome, has gone through testing and installation will start later this year.

According to US State Department figures, direct military aid to Israel was $2.55bn in 2009.

This is set to increase to $3.15bn in 2018.

Easing tensions

A White House spokesman reaffirmed what he called the administration's "unshakeable commitment" to Israel's security - adding that Mr Obama recognised the threat posed by missiles and rockets fired by Hamas and Hezbollah.

Iron Dome was conceived and developed in Israel following the Lebanon war of 2006, during which Hezbollah launched about 4,000 rockets into northern Israel.

Southern Israel has also come under fire, with thousands of rockets and mortars fired by Palestinian militants.

Israel completed tests on the system in January. Officials say the next phase in its development is its integration into the Israeli army.

A BBC correspondent in Washington, Steve Kingstone, says Washington may be acting now to ease the recent tensions in its relations with Israel.

In March a diplomatic row erupted when approval was granted for new homes for Jews in occupied east Jerusalem. The decision came during a visit to the city by the US Vice-President Joe Biden.

The announcement on US funding for Iron Dome coincides with the resumption of indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/8681919.stm

Published: 2010/05/14 07:16:47 GMT

© BBC MMX

Israel's repression of its Palestinian citizens unites us in struggle

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Written by Ameer Makhoul, The Electronic Intifada Ameer Makhoul, The Electronic Intifada

Published: 13 May 2010 13 May 2010

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[PHOTO: Israel is increasingly oppressing Palestinian leaders in Israel, like Member of Knesset Mohammed Barakeh, pictured here at a Land Day demonstration in Hebron, March 2009. (Mamoun Wazwaz/MaanImages)]

Ameer Makhoul, director of Ittijah and chairman of the Popular Committee for the Defense of the Political Freedoms, was arrested by Israeli forces today during a raid of his home, two weeks after a travel ban was imposed on him by the Israeli Ministry of the Interior. Police have also raided the offices of Ittijah and confiscated equipment and documents. Makhoul, a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship, submitted the following op-ed to The Electronic Intifada prior to his arrest:

Last month, when I traveled from Haifa to the land border between Jordan and Israel, the Israeli border police prevented me from leaving my country. The police handed me an order issued by the Israeli Minister of the Interior Eli Yishai prohibiting me to leave Israel for two months. The travel ban imposed on me is part of an increased campaign to intimidate and to spread fear among Palestinian civil society. The repression is meant to divide us, but it has had the opposite effect. We Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and the diaspora are only more determined and united to claim our rights and to build a nation where we can live in freedom and have equal rights.

The Israeli minister of the interior holds the opinion that my travel outside the country "poses a serious threat to the security of the state," according to article 6 of the 1948 emergency regulations. I am the director of Ittijah, Union of Arab Community-Based Associations and the chairman of the Popular Committee for the Defense of Political Freedoms, which is a sub-committee of the High Monitoring Committee of Arabs in Israel. All three bodies unite Palestinian Arabs in Israel and we jointly decided not to appeal my travel ban at the Israeli high court.

Any meeting in the Arab world or with any Arab person anywhere in the world arouses the suspicion of the authorities. The accusations against me are made on the basis of secret evidence that I am not allowed to see, and the high court merely acts as an extension of the Israeli General Security Services (GSS), or the Shin Bet. Israel does not need to prove that there is reason for suspicion; instead, I have to prove that there is no need for their suspicion. The Israeli legal system is far from fair for Palestinians.

Israel is intimidating Ittijah and the Popular Committee for the Defense of Political Freedoms because we are reasserting our community's stake in the Palestinian struggle. Twenty years ago few considered the Palestinians in Israel as a part of the Palestinian people or the Palestinian cause. During the Oslo process of the 1990s, we were considered an internal problem for Israel to deal with, but our networking, advocacy and lobbying has changed this. Israel is increasingly repressing us to divide Palestinians from each other and isolate us from the outside world.

The repression and persecution of Palestinians in Israel is not new. Since 1948 Israel imposed a policy of control under the guise of security. In 2007, Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin introduced a new policy targeting the whole Palestinian community as a security risk to thwart democratic efforts such as the issuing by Palestinian civil society in Israel visions of a state for all its citizens.

Repression has increased dramatically since then and more than 1,000 Palestinian youths in Israel were interrogated by the Shin Bet after the Gaza massacre of winter 2008-09. Leaders of the Palestinian civil society, like myself, are under attack. Sheikh Raed Salah, the leader of the Islamic movement, is being persecuted for his involvement in the protection of Jerusalem from ongoing Israeli colonization and extremist settlers. Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament (Knesset) Mohammed Barakeh was shot in the leg with a sound bomb when he tried to protect protesters from the aggression of Israeli forces in the West Bank village of Bilin. MK Said Nafa was stripped of parliamentary immunity because of his visit to Syria, while former MK Azmi Bishara found himself in an imposed exile since three years for the same reason. One year ago, the Shin Bet ordered me to come to their offices and they interrogated me for one day in an attempt to silence my protest of the Israeli massacre in Gaza.

Israel applies a multi-track approach to attack our struggle: the authorities repress and persecute Palestinians while they prohibit foreign solidarity activists, organizations and journalists from visiting the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Additionally, right-wing groups within Israel commit public violence against Palestinian families in places like Acre and Jaffa, with total impunity. One week ago the right-wing group Im Tirtzu published posters inciting violence against individual members of Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights.

Palestinian civil society protests Israel's repressive policies of intimidation but at the same time resolves to continue our struggle. We have achieved unity, and it is important for us to protect this. We will not allow Israel to isolate members or parts of our community. We have become more influential in the Arab media and we will use this influence. We have built our international networks and we call on them to support us. The attacks that are meant to divide us have had the complete opposite effect. Injustice unites us; we are all together in this struggle.

Jerusalem residents attack writer Elie Wiesel over appeal to Barack Obama

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Written by Chris McGreal in Washington Chris McGreal in Washington

Published: 12 May 2010 12 May 2010

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Holocaust survivor accused of ignoring anti-Arab discrimination in Jerusalem

The writers accused Wiesel of being blind to history and the realities of life in Jerusalem today, including systematic discrimination against the Arab population and the efforts of "crafty politicians and sentimental populists" frantically trying to Judaize the Arab areas of the city "in order to transform its geopolitics beyond recognition".

An extraordinary row has broken out between Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor, author and Nobel peace prize winner, and a group of Jewish residents of Jerusalem over who speaks for the future of the disputed city.

Wiesel prompted the argument with an open letter to Barack Obama appealing for him not to "politicise" differences over Jerusalem by pressing Israel to stop Jewish settlement construction there. In a reflection of the divisions that sometimes exist between Jews who live in the city and those who idealise it from afar, 100 Jewish residents have responded with their own open letter expressing "outrage" at Wiesel's call, and accusing him of sentimentality and falsely claiming that there is no discrimination against Jerusalem's Arab population.

Wiesel, who lives in the US, made the appeal to Obama in adverts in American newspapers last month.

"For me, the Jew that I am, Jerusalem is above politics," he wrote. "It belongs to the Jewish people and is much more than a city, it is what binds one Jew to another in a way that remains hard to explain. When a Jew visits Jerusalem for the first time, it is not the first time; it is a homecoming. The first song I heard was my mother's lullaby about and for Jerusalem. Its sadness and its joy are part of our collective memory." He went on to appeal to Obama not to press Israel on the issue of Jerusalem.

"Pressure will not produce a solution. Is there a solution? There must be, there will be. Why tackle the most complex and sensitive problem prematurely?" he asked. "Jerusalem must remain the world's Jewish spiritual capital, not a symbol of anguish and bitterness, but a symbol of trust and hope."

The 100 Jewish Jerusalemites, who include academics and political activists, responded in a letter in the New York Review of Books this week that expressed "frustration, even outrage" at Wiesel's claims and at being "sacrificed for the fantasies of those who love our city from afar".

"We cannot recognise our city in the sentimental abstraction you call by its name," they wrote. "Your Jerusalem is an ideal, an object of prayers and a bearer of the collective memory of a people whose members actually bear many individual memories. Our Jerusalem is populated with people, young and old, women and men, who wish their city to be a symbol of dignity – not of hubris, inequality and discrimination. You speak of the celestial Jerusalem; we live in the earthly one."

The writers accused Wiesel of being blind to history and the realities of life in Jerusalem today, including systematic discrimination against the Arab population and the efforts of "crafty politicians and sentimental populists" frantically trying to Judaize the Arab areas of the city "in order to transform its geopolitics beyond recognition".

"Your claim that Jerusalem is above politics is doubly outrageous. First, because contemporary Jerusalem was created by a political decision and politics alone keeps it formally unified. The tortuous municipal boundaries of today's Jerusalem were drawn by Israeli generals and politicians shortly after the 1967 war," they wrote.

The writers added that by grabbing Palestinian land and villages and incorporating them into a greatly expanded Jerusalem, the Israeli government created "an unwieldy behemoth" larger than Paris.

"Now they call this artificial fabrication 'Jerusalem' in order to obviate any approaching chance for peace," they said. The writers tartly noted that Wiesel chooses not to live in the city he claims such attachment to.

"We prefer the hardship of realizing citizenship in this city to the convenience of merely yearning for it," they said.

Last month, a former Israeli cabinet minister, Yossi Sarid, responded to Wiesel with an open letter in which he said the author had been "deceived" into believing that all the city's residents live freely and equally. He took Wiesel to task for claiming that Arabs were free to build anywhere in Jerusalem. The city's Arab residents face routine obstacles to obtaining planning permission to build in the east and almost never receive authorisation for the west. "Not only may an Arab not build 'anywhere', but he may thank his God if he is not evicted from his home and thrown out on to the street with his family and property," Sarid wrote.

He pointed to Arabs forcibly removed to make way for Jews.

"Those same zealous Jews insist on inserting themselves like so many bones in the throats of Arab neighbourhoods, purifying and Judaizing them with the help of rich American benefactors, several of whom you may know personally," Sarid wrote. "Barack Obama appears well aware of his obligations to try to resolve the world's ills, particularly ours here. Why then undercut him and tie his hands?"

Extract from open letter to Obama from Elie Wiesel

"For me, the Jew that I am, Jerusalem is above politics. It is mentioned more than six hundred times in Scripture – and not a single time in the Koran. Its presence in Jewish history is overwhelming.

"Today, for the first time in history, Jews, Christians and Muslims all may freely worship at their shrines. And, contrary to certain media reports, Jews, Christians and Muslims ARE allowed to build their homes anywhere in the city. The anguish over Jerusalem is not about real estate but about memory."

Extract from open letter from 100 Jewish Jerusalemites to Wiesel

"Your letter troubles us, not simply because it is replete with factual errors and false representations, but because it upholds an attachment to some other-worldly city which purports to supersede the interests of those who live in the this-worldly one.

"We invite you to our city to view with your own eyes the catastrophic effects of the frenzy of construction. You will witness that, contrary to some media reports, Arabs are not allowed to build their homes anywhere in Jerusalem. You will see the gross inequality in allocation of municipal resources and services between east and west."