Earlier today, JTA correspondent Dina Kraft had the opportunity to speak with Stuart Eizenstat, who served as an adviser, undersecretary and ambassador under the Clinton and Carter administrations. Mr. Eizenstat discussed Holocaust restitution in Israel, the challenges posed by Iran’s nuclear program, and Jimmy Carter’s recent visit with Hamas.

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I bumped into Alan Dershowitz by the espresso bar earlier today and asked him how he was enjoying the conference so far. Here’s what he had to say…

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Nathan Englander today at the President’s Conference

JTA’s Israel correspondent Dina Kraft speaks with author Nathan Englander who participated in a panel discussion on Jewish literature today at the President’s Conference in Jerusalem.

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President Shimon Peres opens his conference Tuesday in Jerusalem

I’m in Israel for “Facing Tomorrow,” a conference hosted by President Shimon Peres on the future of Israel and the Jewish people.

3,500 attendees from around the world have gathered at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center for three days of panel discussions on subjects ranging from Jewish literature to the impact of globalization on Israel’s economy.

Guests include dignitaries representing 15 nations, among them the U.S., the U.K., Spain, and the former Soviet Union; Jewish business and organizational leaders, such as Google CEO Sergey Brin, News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, and World Jewish Congress president Ronald Lauder; as well as Jewish cultural figures, such as philosopher Bernard Henri Levy and author Nathan Englander.

(more…)

Ha’aretz reports on one community center’s quest to bring cheerleading to Israel:

It is afternoon in the large hall of the Kiryat Rishon Community Center, as about 20 high-school girls in tight leotards are practicing acrobatic exercises on the floor. As the music comes on, they break into dance steps that will be integrated into the somersaults and cartwheels. This is what a warm-up session looks like at the Cheer Dance Academy (CDA - Hamerkaz Hayisraeli Le’idud), the only place in Israel that trains girls in cheerleading - which combines dance, acrobatics and calisthenics.

Jay Lefkowitz, a onetime Bush adviser, argues in the New York Sun today that the president’s faith in democracy and belief in the sanctity of life have produced a revolutionary U.S. policy benefiting both Israel and the Palestinians:

But while Mr. Bush’s record on Israel surely has not been the product of any political debt he may have owed the Jewish community, he nonetheless proceeded to remake America’s Arab-Israeli policy in the most profound way. The signal event was his Rose Garden speech on June 24, 2002. The president called for establishment of a Palestinian state, but set reform and democracy and abandonment of terror as conditions for establishment of the state: “It is untenable for Israeli citizens to live in terror. It is untenable for Palestinians to live in squalor and occupation. … My vision is two states, living side by side in peace and security.”

Never before has a president articulated as forcefully that a Palestinian State was an objective of our foreign policy. As I listened to the president deliver the speech and heard him speak about it in the subsequent days, I realized that the president had turned United States policy on its head — in a way that was not only sympathetic to Israel, but also pro-Palestinian.

Over at the Washington Post, Michael Abromowitz reports on critics who say that despite Bush’s good intentions his policies have ultimately been bad for Israel:

Appearing at an Israeli Embassy reception last Thursday to mark the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state, Vice President Cheney voiced a sentiment that is common among many American Jews, evangelicals and others. “Israel has never had a better friend in the White House than the 43rd president of the United States,” he said.

Yet as President Bush prepares to return to Jerusalem this week to celebrate the milestone, that assessment is the subject of fierce debate both here and Israel. Few doubt the sincerity of Bush’s passion, which has translated into unprecedented backing for Israeli self-defense and the most clearly stated presidential commitment to protect Israel if it is attacked.

But from left to right, Bush also faces criticism for pursuing Middle East policies that, many diplomats and analysts believe, have left Israel more threatened than when he assumed office in January 2001.

President Bush’s approval may be low, but he sure has a pretty big honorary entourage for his trip to Israel: (more…)

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.

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.

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.