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Tuesday, September 28, 2010
October Philadelphia Aish HaTorah Discovery, Home Groups, Music Ima
October Colorado Jewish Genealogical Society Lectures
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Thursday, September 16, 2010
The Sobering Words of Retired, Aging or Dying Leaders
The Sobering Words of Retired, Aging or Dying Leaders
By Dovid Efune
Many glanced twice last week, when headlines declaring Fidel Castro's sympathy to the Jewish cause graced a number of news outlets. The story also stood the true test of newsworthy material by becoming a widely shared link on Facebook.
The far-from-saintly Castro has not been known in the past as being particularly friendly towards Jews or Israel, but according to testimony from Jeffrey Goldberg, a reporter for "The Atlantic" who interviewed Castro, the aging and frail 84 year old communist leader seems to be reconstituting his worldview to some small degree. The discussion followed an invitation to Cuba that was sparked by a recent article written by Goldberg on the topic of Iran, Israel and the possibility of nuclear confrontation.
It is often refreshing to hear the reflections, confessions and retrospective thoughts of retired or ageing political leaders, who with less party allegiances weighing them down, are often less restricted in revealing their real thoughts and accumulated wisdom of experience. Although they all too often come at a time when we are no longer paying attention to them, perhaps there is much to be learned from their revelations.
There is much speculation as to Castro's intentions, but perhaps the aging man's desire to depart this world going on record with a stance for justice and morality, may have been a motivation.
Sometimes, as with the case of Jimmy Carter, who has exposed himself as a rabid hater of Israel in his retired life, we can catch an insightful glimpse into the allegiances that motivated a leader's policies while in office with many of these policies still affecting us today.
It was only following his twenty year stint in the State Department that veteran negotiator Aaron David Miller compiled his widely discussed five thousand word essay entitled 'The False Religion of Peace.' He confesses to being an ardent follower of that 'theology' yet warns that there are fundamental flaws with the concept of a 'Peace Process' that needs to be reexamined.
Diplomatic patriarch Henry Kissinger was largely responsible for orchestrating Israel's land for peace deal with Egypt and presented his "Gaza-Jericho First" plan in 1976 which called upon Israel to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and Jericho first in any overall peace plan with the PLO. It was this plan that was incorporated into the Oslo Agreements in 1993 which resulted in the first Israeli redeployment from the Gaza and Jericho.
Although I have not seen it documented, I have heard first hand that Kissinger declared recently at a public talk at the Park East Synagogue in New York, that it is now clear that a withdrawal to the pre 1967 borders will not bring about peace.
It is recorded that Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin who suffered from depression and became notoriously reclusive in his retirement, spent his later years embroiled in deep regret over his decisions to cede Israeli territory while in office.
Although these insights are usually incomplete as it takes a certain heroic amount of intellectual honesty to publicly admit fully to misguided policies while in a position of power, nevertheless even these glimpses can provide great insight and have much contemporary value.
Wouldn't it be valuable if we were able to extract the lessons that could be included in the honest reflections of people of experience, and apply them to our daily striving for world betterment? It would no doubt take extreme humility and moral courage, but the value of these gems would make the endeavor worthwhile.
The Author is the director of the Algemeiner Journal and the GJCF and can be e-mailed at defune@gjcf.com
Wednesday, September 08, 2010
Why TIME Magazine Doesn’t Know About Israel
Why TIME Magazine Doesn't Know About Israel
By Dovid Efune
For those of you who haven't already seen it, the cover of this week's TIME magazine depicts a Star of David made out of daisies, with the prominent story by Karl Vick entitled, 'Why Israel Doesn't Care About Peace.'
There is so much wrong with his article that one would need to write a book to adequately address all the factual inaccuracies, misunderstandings and misrepresentations that are incorporated in the full two pages that the story takes up. However I will do my best with the limited time and column space that is available to me.
While Vick may be correct that there is an overwhelming sense of numb indifference that seems to have settled on the Israeli populace, and it is true that Israelis have made great strides economically, to claim that Israelis don't care about peace is downright libelous. Vick portrays Israel as a utopian beachfront paradise and references the fact that the sun happens to be shining as well as quoting the ramblings of a disillusioned real estate salesgirl as evidence of his warped theory.
If anyone has any doubts about the Israeli desire for peace, let them ask the parents of Gilad Shalit and their many thousands of supporters as well as the families of many other captured or killed soldiers who suffer the agony of their loss on a daily basis. Vick truthfully points out, there have been no suicide bombings in the past two and a half years, but speak to the parents and relatives of the Mercaz Harav victims, inquire from the friends, neighbors and communities of the six young orphans of Talia and Yitzhak Ames who were mercilessly riddled with bullets in last week's shooting attack if they care about peace. Check with the victims of the bulldozer attacks, and rocket trauma in Sderot and Ashkelon and listen to what they have to say about their desire for peace.
Did Mr. Vick ask the countless Israeli mothers whose sons serve in the IDF and suffer continuous sleepless nights as they patrol borders and dangerous checkpoints? Does he genuinely think that the good weather compensates the agony of losing a loved one?
Prayers for peace are recited by Jews three times a day, and the more secular Israeli declaration of independence includes the following paragraph:
'We extend our hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.'
The fact is, that Israelis want peace more than anything else, and as for Vick, he has made the elementary mistake of confusing 'peace' with the 'Peace Process.'
Vick may be correct that many Israeli's don't care about the 'Peace Process', as Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman pointed out this week, they have been experimenting with land for peace deals for way too long, the result every time, is more lives lost, more war, more suffering and more Palestinian Arab demands.
With other issues to contend with, such as threats from Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, Israeli's have more immediate problems to deal with than an American President's egotistical refusal to acknowledge the concrete lessons of history. Yes, they may not care about Obama's 'Peace Process,' but they certainly do care about peace.
Israelis know that the 'Peace Process' can't possibly solve the Arab Palestinian problem, as Vick himself points out in the last column of his article, that Jews were being attacked by their Arab neighbors when the Western Wall was still buried under a pile of rubble, long before the Six Day War and the term 'occupation' was coined.
Israelis know that the 'peace process' is a sham when the Fatah ('moderate Arab') constitution, under the title 'Goals' reads as follows:
Article (12) Complete liberation of Palestine, and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence.
And under a section entitled 'Methods':
Article (19) Armed struggle is a strategy and not a tactic, and the Palestinian Arab People's armed revolution is a decisive factor in the liberation fight and in uprooting the Zionist existence, and this struggle will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished and Palestine is completely liberated.
Israeli's are happy, as Vick quotes a poll, because they have learned to value life in a place of the world where so many glorify death. Israeli's are happier because they are learning how to dream and how to live despite the daily hardships, through sheer resilience and love of life.
Israelis are merely making the best of a bad situation while waiting for new leaders to arise with new solutions for peace. In the meantime, Karl Vick should go the way of Octavia Nasr and Helen Thomas and bow out of the world of journalism for good.
The Author is the director of the Algemeiner Journal and the GJCF and can be e-mailed at defune@gjcf.com
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