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Hanging with Bush in Israel

By Ami Eden · May 12, 2008

President Bush's approval may be low, but he sure has a pretty big honorary entourage for his trip to Israel:

Statement by the Press Secretary

President George W. Bush today announced the designation of an U.S. Honorary Delegation to attend celebrations in honor of the 60th Anniversary of the State of Israel on May 14-15, 2008 in Jerusalem, Israel.

Members of the Honorary Delegation:

Dr. Miriam Adelson, Chairperson, Dr. Miriam & Sheldon G. Adelson Clinic for Drug Abuse Treatment and Research Mr. Sheldon G. Adelson, Chairman of the Board, Las Vegas Sands Corporation Mr. Moshe Aflalo, CEO of Aflalo Equities Mr. Neil Z. Auerbach, Managing Partner, Hudson Clean Energy Partners Mr. Kenneth Bialkin, Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLC Mr. Elliott B. Broidy, Chairman and CEO of Broidy Capital Management Mr. Matthew H. Brooks, Executive Director, Republican Jewish Coalition Mr. Alan I. Casden, Chairman and CEO of Casden Properties LLC Mr. Stanley M. Chesley, President of the National Jewish Fund Mr. William C. Daroff, Vice President for Public Policy and Director of the Washington Office United Jewish Communities Mr. Nathan J. Diament, Director, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations Rabbi David H. Ellenson, Ph.D., President of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Mr. Michael David Epstein, President of Sensormatic Security Corporation Mr. Donald Etra, Attorney, Law Offices of Donald Etra Ms. Nancy E. Falchuk, National President, Hadassah Ms. Selma J. Fisch, Founder, Fisch Properties Mr. David M. Flaum, Chairman, Republican Jewish Coalition Ms. Marilyn Fox, Chairman of the Fox Family Foundation and Former President of the St. Louis Jewish Community Center The Honorable Sam Fox, U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium Mr. Abraham H. Foxman, National Director, Anti-Defamation League Mr. Howard E. Friedman, President, AIPAC Mr. Tony B. Gelbart, Chairman and Co-Founder of Nefesh B'Nefesh Mr. Sander R. Gerber, Chairman and CEO, Hudson Bay Capital Management LP Mr. Marc S. Goldman, Farmland Dairies The Honorable Phil Gordon, Mayor of the City of Phoenix, Arizona Mr. Richard S. Gordon, President, American Jewish Congress Dr. Jeffrey Gunter, President, Beverly Capital Management LLC Mr. David Hager, President, Hager Pacific Ms. Cheryl Halpern, Member, CPB Board of Directors Mr. Uri Harkham, CEO, Jonathan Martin Fashion Group Rabbi Marvin Hier, Founder and Dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance Mr. Malcolm I. Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Mr. Murray A. Huberfeld, Chairman, Centurion Credit Management LP Rebbetizin Esther Jungreis, Founder and President of Hineni Dr. Henry Kissinger, Chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc. Dr. Richard Land, President, Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission Mr. Ronald Lauder, President, World Jewish Congress and Chairman, Jewish National Fund Mr. Eliot Lauer, Senior Partner, Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle Ms. Linda S. Law, Founder, Law and Associates Mr. Michael I. Lebovitz, Senior Vice President, CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. The Honorable Jay P. Lefkowitz, Special Envoy on Human Rights in North Korea Rabbi David H. Lincoln, Senior Rabbi, Park Avenue Synagogue, New York City The Honorable Linda Lingle, Governor of the State of Hawaii The Honorable Earle I. Mack, Senior Partner, the Mack Company Rabbi Isaac Neuman, Rabbi Emeritus of Sinai Temple, Champaign, Illinois Mr. Michael B. Oren, Senior Fellow, Shalem Center, Jerusalem; Professor Georgetown University Mr. Ronald Plotkin, Former COO, Monster.com Directional Marketing Steve L. Poizner, Insurance Commissioner, State of California Mr. Bruce M. Ramer, Attorney and Partner, Gang, Tyre, Ramer & Brown Mr. J. Philip Rosen, Attorney, Partner, Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP Mr. William Safire, Chairman, Dana Foundation Mr. Lee C. Samson, President and CEO, SNF Management Mr. Lenny Sands, Chairman, Alchemy Worldwide Mr. Richard H. Schneider, Managing Member, Bunker Capital LLC Mr. Fred Schwartz, Founder, The Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation The Honorable Melvin F. Sembler, Chairman of the Board of The Sembler Company Mr. Dan Senor, Founding Partner, Rosemont Capital Mr. Joe Shapira, Managing Partner, Java Equities LLC Ms. Florence Shapiro, Co-Chair of the Education Policy Taskforce for the National Council of State Government Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Director, Washington Office of American Friends of Lubavitch Dr. Robert J. Shillman, Ph.D., Founder, Chairman and CEO of Cognex Corporation Mr. Richard J. Sideman, President, American Jewish Committee Mr. Mark S. Siegel, President of ReMY Investors & Consultants, Inc. Rabbi Michael S. Siegel, Norman Asher Rabbinic Chairman and Senior Rabbi The Honorable Ned L. Siegel, U.S. Ambassador to the Commonwealth of The Bahamas Mr. Ron Silver, President Emeritus, Actors' Equity Association; Board of Directors, U.S. Institute of Peace The Honorable Martin J. Silverstein, Private Investor and Senior Counsel, Greenberg Traurig Mr. Paul E. Singer, General Partner, Elliott Associates, LP The Honorable Clifford M. Sobel, U.S. Ambassador to Brazil Mr. Jaime Sohacheski, Chairman, Crown Realty and Development Corporation Mr. Ronald G. Steinhart, Retired CEO, Commercial Banking, Bank One Corporation Rabbi Mordechai Suchard, Founder and Director, Gateways Organization Mr. Stephen J. Trachtenberg, President Emeritus, University Professor of Public Service, George Washington University Ms. June R. Walker, Chairperson, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Mr. Leslie H. Wexner, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Limited Brands Mr. Elie Wiesel, University Professor; Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities; Professor of Philosophy and Religion in the College of Arts and Sciences; President, The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity Mr. Fred S. Zeidman, Chairman, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Mr. Mark Zucker, Managing Member, Dorchester Capital Mr. Mort B. Zuckerman, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of U.S. News & World Report; Publisher of New York Daily News; Co-Founder and Chairman of Boston Properties Inc.

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Keep your money

By Ami Eden · May 12, 2008

Gideon Levy of Ha'aretz uses the Olmert-Talansky scandal to raise concerns about the role of Diaspora money in Israel:

Revealing the identity of the primary witness, Morris Talansky, in the lastest Ehud Olmert affair raises questions that go beyond the prime minister. Serious questions need to be asked about the relationship between American Jewry and Israel.

Granted, Talansky is a mere individual, but he is not the only one. Jerusalem is full of wheeler-dealers, functionaries, lobbyists, donors and philanthropists. There are rich men and middlemen, envoys and delegations, many of them with good intentions, but some without.

They wheedle and schnorr and contribute to various causes. It's the kind of schnorring that begins with Shaare Zedek Medical Center and could end in court. The question here is why did Talansky, or any other Jewish American, invest, allegedly, in Olmert? What do they receive in exchange for this pot stirring?

His conclusion:

No thank you, we're doing all right. No thank you, some of you are causing us great damage. If you want to wield influence, do it in your own country. You have a lot of power and influence there. Perhaps too much; it's none of our business. You are American, not Israeli citizens, and no amount of money can or should change this fact. War and peace, social justice and government, education and religion in Israel are a matter for its citizens alone.

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Two-state solution, RIP

By Ami Eden · May 12, 2008

Saree Makdisi, professor of English and comparative literature at UCLA and the author of "Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation," says the two-state solution is dead – both sides must share the land, equally:

There is no longer a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Forget the endless arguments about who offered what and who spurned whom and whether the Oslo peace process died when Yasser Arafat walked away from the bargaining table or whether it was Ariel Sharon's stroll through the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem that did it in.

All that matters are the facts on the ground, of which the most important is that – after four decades of intensive Jewish settlement in the Palestinian territories it occupied during the 1967 war – Israel has irreversibly cemented its grip on the land on which a Palestinian state might have been created.

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Now or later

By Ami Eden · May 12, 2008

The New York Times had an article on Sunday suggesting that time might be just about out on President Bush's plans for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal:

When Israeli and Palestinian leaders committed themselves to peace talks after meeting in Annapolis, Md., last November, Mr. Bush had hopes of ending his presidency on a foreign policy high note, with a deal for the contours of a Palestinian state. But with Mr. Bush headed to the region this week for the second time in five months, peace seems as elusive as ever — and some are looking to his successor.

But in a lengthy interview with the Washington Post and Newsweek, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert argues that the best time to make a Syrian deal is with Bush still in office:

My personal view is that no one can be of better help to this process than President Bush. Because any new president in America, if confronted with this issue, will have to wait two years at least until he learns enough and finds the appropriate time to devote to this, while Bush knows, Bush is familiar, and Bush understands. Therefore, if one is interested in a [Syrian-Israeli] process that ultimately leads to a public endorsement by the United States of America, then he has to hurry up.

I believe, for reasons that I don't want to go into, that for Syria, the road to Washington must cross Jerusalem. I know what I'm talking about.

Click here for the full Q & A with Olmert.

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