Why the U.S. should support Israel-Syria talks
With the Bush administration seemingly reticent to wholeheartedly endorse Israel-Syria peace talks, the Israel Policy Forum offers a paper – crafted by former U.S. ambassadors to Middle East countries, among others – focusing on what the United States stands to gain from Israeli-Syrian détente.
The importance of bringing America into the talks is no small thing, the authors write. Only the U.S. can offer Syria the incentives and western embrace it requires to drop its position within Iran's sphere of influence – just as only the U.S. could offer Egypt an alternative for Soviet backing at the time of the Israel-Egypt peace accord.
The authors write:
By setting aside the diplomatic "tool box," however, the Bush administration seems to be signaling a preference for defeat over dialogue when it comes to the prospect of engaging the regime of President Assad.As a practical matter, therefore, the question of what to do about Israeli-Syrian peace talks may well fall squarely on whoever occupies the Oval Office on the afternoon of January 20, 2009. We think the following factors are worth considering:
* As Iraq shows signs of gradually stabilizing, American-Syrian talks might yield agreements producing substantial benefits for the government in Baghdad while helping to relieve Syria of the enormous Iraqi refugee burden it is carrying.
* If there is a degree of genuineness in this Turkish-Syrian-Israeli initiative, the parties can conduct their respective "due diligence" processes and tackle some technical negotiating details without American assistance between now and early 2009. While we would like to see the Bush administration convert an apparent demand for American facilitation services into a gain for U.S. foreign policy objectives, we suspect the president prefers a different course.
* Contrary to the apparent beliefs of the Assad regime, a new American president—Republican or Democrat—will not automatically sign up to the proposition that the United States should dive into Israeli-Syrian talks forthwith and approach the bilateral relationship with Damascus with a blank slate. Iraq and Lebanon will be inherited issues. If Syria wants a positive relationship with Washington, cooperation over Iraq and an accommodation over Lebanon are essential. The new administration would do well to define what it wants, when it wants it, and what it is prepared to give in return. In short, tough-minded and disciplined diplomacy should come back into vogue—it is a tool of American power that no American commander-in-chief should be reluctant to use.
* If Damascus proves unwilling to be helpful with Iraq and determined to restore its suzerainty over Lebanon, it will be difficult for any American administration to obtain the requisite domestic political support to play an active role in helping Syria, through facilitation and mediation, recover the lands it lost to Israel in 1967.
* The dilemma for which Damascus holds an important key is that notwithstanding its bad relationship with Washington, a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace is essential to American national security interests. As the United States tries to rebuild its image, influence, and prestige in the Arab and Muslim worlds, the quality of its efforts to bring about a comprehensive peace between Israel and all of its neighbors will be of transcendent importance. While no American need ever apologize for the special relationship between the United States and Israel and while no one need ever doubt the depth and permanency of America's commitment to Israel's security, it is important that the United States be seen as striving for peace and justice in the Arab-Israeli context. Without sacrificing any legitimate national security interest, Syria—if it wants a good relationship with Washington and if it wants a vital American role in its discussions with Israel—can help make it possible for the next president (and even this one) to pursue a peace whose achievement would disappoint only Osama bin Laden, his disciples, like-minded extremists, and Iran.
Therefore, success of the Turkey mediated Israeli-Syrian talks would promote vital US interests in the region. If the current US administration is not prepared to facilitate and join them, we urge the next president to do so as soon as possible after he takes office.
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Agriprocessors: We’re immigrants too!
Two days after immigrants and their advocates marched in Postville, Agriprocessors released this statement:
The founders of Agriprocessors, the Rubashkin family, are a Jewish refugee family that escaped the clutches of Communism decades ago. Aron and Rivka Rubashkin fled Soviet Russia after experiencing oppression in the anti religious regime. Mrs. Rubashkin's uncles were imprisoned in Siberia due to their religious beliefs. Mr. Rubashkin noted: "As immigrants in America we found freedom and opportunity. We fully understand the pain and suffering which immigrants are going through in building better lives."Agriprocessors is dedicated to providing economic prosperity, quality jobs and a safe environment for all its employees. Chaim Abrahams, a company spokesman, explained: "We are committed to follow all federal, state and local regulations in our plant." In reiterating the company policy, Mr. Rubashkin pointed to the hiring of Jim Martin, a former US Attorney in the state of Missouri, as the chief compliance officer of Agriprocessors. " He is insuring that our company excels in the area of compliance to government regulation" noted Abrahams. Among other things, Mr. Martin established a 24-hour anonymous hotline for any complaints of workers.
Since the plant opened in 1988, it has created a new era of prosperity in the region. The plant has created jobs, and given a boost to the area. Our plant is modern, clean, and consistently focused on food safety and the safety of our workers.
Agriprocessors is deeply concerned about the plight of the immigrant families in Postville. The Rubashkin family feels that it can help others. Aron Rubashkin explained "As an immigrant family we want to provide our workers with the opportunity to share in the American dream. In recent weeks we have been helping the local families with their daily needs".
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Hebron’s new settlement
Jewish settlers in the West Bank city of Hebron apparently have found a new location for expansion of Jewish settlement in the city: an IDF base.
An Israeli Channel 10 report, translated by Ha'aretz, shows residential caravans complete with backyard playgrounds set up inside an Israeli military base. In the video, little girls can be seen slipping in and out of the base.
Meanwhile, Ha'aretz has an editorial slamming the government's lax treatment of settler scofflaws:
The generations come and go - settlers, lawbreakers, yeshiva students, soldiers who guard them and get treated contemptuously, teachers drawing salaries from taxpayers, settlers' sons and grandchildren who do whatever they like. And some of them constitute an infrastructure for Jewish terrorism in the territories. Palestinian generations, meanwhile, also come and go as the settlers, their children and grandchildren rampage and plunder unhindered in a state that has seemingly given up...Evacuating a mobile home gives the right-wing activists a chance to exercise their forces. The extremist yeshiva students gather by means of a communications network, they block roads, beat up passing Palestinians, snatch soldiers' weapons, burn orchards and plantations and throw stones - faced by defeatist, helpless defense forces.
This absurd spectacle is everyday routine in the West Bank - one in which illegal yeshivas, operating in illegal settlements, whose teachers' wages are paid by the state, halt studies to enable their students to engage in illegal activity. No Israeli government has even tried to deal with the settlers' violence.
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Iran’s president, railing again
Just a day after NBC's Brian Williams pronounced Iran's president as having a "new stance ready for further engagement," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the world's "big powers" for the global AIDS problem.
Speaking in Tehran to ministers from the Non-Aligned Movement, which represents about two-thirds of U.N. member states, Iran's president said of the spread of diseases like AIDS: "If we are serious about finding the root causes of such scourges, we must first of all admit that they are the result of the economic framework devised by the big powers and the inefficiency of the political and economic systems currently dominating the world."
Ahmadinejad also criticized the indictment of Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir on charges of genocide in Darfur, called for the lifting of sanctions against Iran and predicted that the "big powers" are going down.
Yesterday, Brian Williams said of Ahmadinejad: "It was clear to all of us watching and listening he brought with him a new approach." What will Williams say today?
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Syria’s peace dividends
Mired in economic woe, Syrians see economic benefits to pursuing peace with Israel, The New York Times reports:
Mr. Zayat, a 35-year-old television cinematographer, says he views a peace deal with Israel as necessary and inevitable — not just for political reasons, but because Syria's vulnerable economy needs all the help it can get."We are tired, the country is suffocating," he said, as he played backgammon with a friend at a cafe here, the sweet smell of apple-flavored tobacco drifting around him. "We have suffered a long time from the political boycott and the sanctions."
That sentiment is echoed by many others. Prices soared here after the Syrian government cut fuel subsidies in May, deepening the gulf between rich and poor in this nominally socialist state. It had little choice. The oil reserves Syria has relied on for so long are rapidly disappearing. The hefty budget surpluses of a decade ago have turned into multibillion-dollar deficits. A country that could once afford to be serenely indifferent to Western sanctions is now being forced to liberalize and open its economy.
None of this has changed Syria's conviction that any peace agreement must include the return of the Golan Heights, the area captured by Israel in 1967. But a profoundly uncertain economic future has created additional incentives for peace, which could help lure foreign investment by ending Syria's pariah status in the West.
A settlement with Israel "would lift a huge weight from our shoulders," said Ghimar Deeb, a Syrian lawyer and economist who works with the United Nations here. It would lead to the lifting of sanctions, which would give Syria access to new investment, high-tech supplies and training opportunities, he said.
"Poverty is increasing, inequality is increasing, and I believe the street is frustrated," Mr. Deeb said. "They need peace with all our neighbors."
Meanwhile, senior Israeli officials told Ha'aretz that Syria is taking its talks with Israel seriously:
Senior officials in Jerusalem confirmed Monday that Syria has carried out a number of measures in recent weeks that reflect that it is taking talks with Israel seriously.The sources refused to say whether they were referring to such measures as lowering the alert levels of the Syrian army or stemming the flow of arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon through its territory, but they did say that the effects of the measures were "tangible."
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The News Shticker
- A growing number of Hispanics are discovering their Jewish roots, and one organization, Aliyah Sepharad International, wants to help them make aliyah, the Fort Myers, Fla., News-Press reports.
- Meanwhile, The Oregonian reports, more Chinese adoptees and other non-whites are being raised as Jews. "But – you don't look Jewish," they're often told.
- And in Israel, the Jerusalem Post features a group of 22 Polish youth who recently discovered their Jewish roots and arrived in the Jewish state for a three-week seminar in Jerusalem organized by Shavei Israel, a non-profit that strengthens ties to Israel among descendants of Jews around the world.
- Gregory Levey, the author of "Shut Up, I'm Talking: And Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned in the Israeli Government
," writes in The New Republic about what happens when a member of the Israeli delegation takes Arabic classes at the U.N.
- The Chicago Tribune has a piece on how some younger Jews are reclaiming the ancient rite of immersion in the mikvah, seeing it as a way to honor and nurture women in times of transition.
- Jonathan Freedland has a new novel out on the Jewish avengers who tracked down and executed their Nazi tormentors after World War II.
- A new "wiki" helps educators design curricula for Torah teaching, thanks to Lubavitch.
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