JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Mahmoud’s rantings

By Uriel Heilman · October 3, 2008

If you thought what Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had to say about Zionists at the U.N. General Assembly was bad, you should hear what the Iranian president told Iranians:

The Zionists are crooks. A small handful of Zionists, with a very intricate organization, have taken over the power centers of the world. According to our estimates, the main cadre of the Zionists consists of 2,000 individuals at most, and they have another 8,000 activists. In addition, they have several informants, who spy and provide them with intelligence information.

“But because of their control of power centers in the U.S. and Europe, and their control of the financial centers and the news and propaganda agencies, they spread propaganda as if they were the entire world, as if all the peoples supported them, and as if they were the majority ruling the world.

More of Ahmadinejad’s rantings against Israel and the Zionists were translated by MEMRI, and the video can be seen here.

7 Comments | Share This | Iran, Zionism

An Israeli’s superiority complex

By Uriel Heilman · August 15, 2008

When American-born Israeli journalist Judy Siegel-Itzkovich returns to the U.S. for the first time in 26 years, she finds much to disparage – from the materialism to the assimilation to the supposed hypocrisy of American Zionism.

She notes that the American Jewish population is shrinking, while Israel’s is growing; she writes of her former neighborhood emptying of moderate Orthodox Zionists and becoming haredi; she finds much to scoff at in the Westchester suburbs of New York, with their gas-guzzling SUVs, Jewish parents who don’t send their kids to Jewish day schools and assimilation.

She writes in The Jerusalem Post:

US Jews have enjoyed a magnificent century of surging wealth, political and cultural influence and primacy in scientific research, medicine, the media and many other professional fields. But I fear they have passed their peak and entered an irreversible decline. If Hadassah is struggling, what about the future of smaller and much less influential Jewish organizations?

Siegel-Itzkovich’s visit may have reinforced her Israeli superiority complex, but her analysis is selective. Post a comment and tell us why.

18 Comments | Share This | Community, Israel, Zionism

Take me to N.Y.

By Uriel Heilman · July 22, 2008

As if there’s not enough evidence of Israeli disenchantment with their own country, the Israeli Interior Ministry’s spokeswoman greets you with the following song lyrics while you wait for her to pick up: ”Take me to NY; I’d like to see L.A.”

Irony, anyone?

1 Comment | Share This | Israel, Zionism

Rescued by an Israeli soldier

By Uriel Heilman · June 30, 2008

Glynis Ann Ritchie has a touching essay in The New York Times’ style section about how she, a starry-eyed American Jewish girl, fell for a hunky Israeli soldier on a Birthright Israel trip. Though the Israeli turns out to be part of the parade of callous men that Ritchie says “opened up my chest, scooped out the contents and tossed them into the trash,” he does leave her with something positive and long-lasting: a healthy self-image.

2 Comments | Share This | Dating, Israel, Sex, Women, Zionism

Sharansky’s identity problem

By Uriel Heilman · June 26, 2008

Former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, who now chairs the Shalem Center‘s Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies (yes, that Adelson), says all of Israel’s current problems can be traced to one core problem: the decline of Israel’s Zionist identity.

It is to blame for changes made in the 1990s to Israel’s code of military conduct, which hampers the ability of Israeli troops to defend themselves and the country; it’s to blame for the culture of political corruption in Jerusalem, where Knesset members are more keen on keeping their jobs than on guiding the country to where it needs to go; and it’s to blame for the persistence of the belief among Israel’s enemies that they can wear down the Jewish state and eventually destroy it, he says.

Sharansky, who sat down with me Thursday in New York, strikes the same theme in his new book, ”Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy.”

In a nutshell, Sharansky argues that ethnic identity, rather than threatening freedom, guarantees liberty and democracy. He was in the United States for a book tour (which, he noted wryly, is less lucrative than it used to be, given the decline of the dollar against the shekel).

In our conversation, Sharansky told me Israel’s enemies are becoming stronger only because Israel looks like it is becoming weaker.

Why does Israel look this way? Post-Zionism.

The cure? A Jewish, Zionist identity.

Sharansky sounds some of the same themes American Jews sound when speaking of the dangers of assimilation. Except whereas the price in America is the gradual watering-down or disappearance of Jewish identity among American Jews, in Israel the very survival of the Jewish state is at stake.

To promote the return of Zionist ideology to Israel, Sharansky is collaborating with the likes of Moshe (Boogie) Ya’alon, Martin Kramer, Michael Oren, Yossi Klein Halevi and others on researching the problems and suggesting possible solutions.

One of the things he’s not doing is running for Knesset, which he left in 2005 to protest Ariel Sharon’s withdrawal of Israeli settlers and troops from Gaza, which Sharansky insists was a big mistake.

Will Sharansky ever return to politics? “Nobody can leave politics in Israel,” he says.

1 Comment | Share This | Israel, Zionism

RFK and Israel

By Ami Eden · June 6, 2008

With the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Bobby Kennedy upon us, former AIPAC and Israeli embassy official Lenny Ben-David is highlighting a series of dispatches that RFK wrote during his 1948 visit to Israel.

Click here to read the actual dispatches, which appeared in the now-defunct Boston Post.

The Jewish people in Palestine who believe in and have been working toward this national state have become an immensely proud and determined people. It is already a truly great modern example of the birth of a nation with the primary ingredients of dignity and self-respect.

Ben-David has an essay in the Jerusalem Post arguing that RFK was a genuine friend of Israel, who paid for this support of the Jewish state with his life.

And this from Sasha Issenberg in the Boston Globe:

The shooting of Robert F. Kennedy is widely remembered as part of the wrenching domestic turbulence of the 1960s. But some scholars are beginning to see it as something quite different yet no less significant: America’s first taste of the political violence of the Middle East.

Marty Peretz offers an amen on his blog.

And over at the Forward, Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin, writes:

Kennedy’s assassin was a Palestinian resident of Silwan in East Jerusalem, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan. He chose to kill Kennedy on that exact date because it coincided with the first anniversary of Israel’s stunning victory during the Six-Day War. Sirhan hated Kennedy because he had supported Israel; in fact, that was exactly what Sirhan said when he testified at his own trial. He remains in prison, serving a life sentence for the murder.

Why is it important that we remember this barely-remembered historical tidbit about the death of Kennedy? Because one man’s hatred of Israel utterly re-directed American political life and the story of the presidency.

0 Comments | Share This | Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Politics, Terrorism, Zionism

CUFI united for Hagee

By Ami Eden · May 26, 2008

David Brog, the executive director of Christians United for Israel, has sent out a mass e-mail to followers urging support for Pastor John Hagee and the organization. The money line: “Make no mistake about it, many who attack Pastor Hagee seek not only to hurt him, but to silence all Christian friends of Israel. We need to give a bold and unified response!”

He also did a Q & A with Shmuel Rosner of Ha’aretz. [UPDATE: Sorry, I had the wrong link up for a while.]

Here’s Brog’s full e-mail:

As a supporter of Christians United for Israel, I want to provide you with an opportunity to show your support for our founder and chairman, Pastor John Hagee.

As I’m sure you’ve seen, Pastor Hagee has come under an angry attack by many in the media.  They have ignored his fifty years of ministry.  They have overlooked his lifetime of loving-kindness and charity.  And they have horribly twisted his decades of zealous support for Israel and the Jewish people.

And make no mistake about it, many who attack Pastor Hagee seek not only to hurt him, but to silence all Christian friends of Israel.

We need to give a bold and unified response!

Now is the time when all of us who appreciate Pastor Hagee’s leadership and heart should step forward to help set the record straight.

First, I recommend that you read the attached statements from Pastor Hagee and Rabbi Scheinberg explaining Pastor Hagee’s views on the latest controversy.  I encourage you to forward these statements to your friends, families, and colleagues so they too can know the truth.

Secondly, we ask that you keep Pastor Hagee and his family in your prayers during this difficult time.  If you are moved to share your prayers and thoughts with Pastor Hagee please email them to .

Finally, the best way we can respond to these attacks is to turn out in record numbers for our Washington, DC summit this July 21-23.  If you have not already registered, please do so today. IT’S IMPORTANT!  If you have already registered, please ask a relative or friend to join you.  You can click here for more information.

When we are together in July, we can give this good man and his wife the warm welcome and display of respect that they so richly deserve.  More importantly, we can stand together in support of Israel and the Jewish people as never before.

Let’s demonstrate to all the critics that their attacks will only strengthen our determination to do what is right.

David Brog
Executive Director
Christians United for Israel

1 Comment | Share This | Christianity, Politics, Religion, Zionism

Progressive Jews get ‘Righteously Indignant’ at Boston conference

By Daniel Sieradski · May 7, 2008

Earlier this week I attended the Righteous Indignation Conference, a three-day forum and workshop which provided a forum for progressive Jewish activists to share best practices, discuss current strategies and build community among each other.  The event, which took place at Hebrew College in Newton Centre, Massachusetts, brought together over 100 Jewish activists from around the U.S., representing dozens of social action organizations, from the American Jewish World Service to J Street.

Among the various panel discussions and workshops which took place during the course of the conference, the two sessions which caused the greatest stir were the keynote panel, “Building a Progressive Jewish Movement,” and the Israel panel, “Talking About Israel.”

“Building a Progressive Jewish Movement,” which took place Sunday evening, featured Alana Alpert of Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, Michael Brown of the Jewish Organizing Initiative, Jane Ramsey of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, Jaime Rapaport of the Progressive Jewish Alliance, and Rabbi Sid Schwartz of Panim.  The conversation focused on why previous efforts to organize a national progressive Jewish movement have failed and what the progressive Jewish community has learned from these experiences.

The discussion took an interesting turn when Rabbi Schwartz suggested that what the progressive Jewish community needs is to not build a “movement,” which he felt was marginalizing, but rather to alter the concept of Jewish identity itself so that being progressive could be seen as being synonymous with being Jewish.  The remark set off a fevered response from the audience, which took turns at the microphone addressing Rabbi Schwartz’s assertion.

Unfortunately my MP3 recorder’s batteries had died earlier in the session unbeknownst to me, and so after checking the recorder and replacing the batteries, I was only able to get the tail end of the discussion.  You can, however, listen to the discussion, beginning from the near-end of Rabbi Schwartz’s remarks, below.

[audio:/images/archive/righteous_indignation_050408_keynote.mp3]

The other panel, “Talking About Israel,” which took place Monday evening, featured Dr. Dianne Balser of Brit Tzedek V’Shalom, Joseph Gindi, a Hornstein Fellow at Brandeis University, Dr. Leonard Fein, a seasoned liberal activist and writer, Rabbi Brian Walt of Rabbis for Human Rights, and Rabbi Melissa Weintraub of Encounter, a new program which brings American Jewish leaders to visit with Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.

Each speaker lauded the importance of liberal pro-Israel activism and explored the challenges posed by right-wing pro-Israel groups which often cast progressive politics as harmful to Israel’s interests.  They also debated what was described as the “narrowing window of opportunity” that will allow for the success of the two-state solution, warning that if action is not taken quickly, a one-state solution will become inevitable.

In what would be seen as the most controversial presentation delivered that evening, Joseph Gindi spoke about what he considers the incompatibility of ethnic nationalism and civil democracy, and lamented what he sees as the damage to diaspora Jewish communities’ sense of self-worth wrought by the primacy given to Zionism. Gindi’s advocacy of the reinvigoration of diaspora nationalism over Zionism set off rancor among some panelists and audience members, with Leonard Fein noting that, in response to Gindi’s presentation, he had fought the urge to walk off stage as an act of political theatre. Others in the audience would later tell me that they were glad that Gindi was there to express what many of them have been afraid to say publicly.

You can listen to the full panel discussion, along with the audience discussion, below.

[audio:/images/archive/righteous_indignation_israel.mp3]

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5 Comments | Share This | Israel, Podcast, Politics, Zionism

Debate on Israel prayer moves to blogs

By Ben Harris · April 17, 2008

An interesting spat has broken out over my recent article about how a Brooklyn minyan, Altshul, is grappling with how to pray for Israel.

In one corner, wearing the blue and white shorts, is Ariel Beery (of Blogs of Zion, PresenTense Magazine).

In the other corner, wearing the shorts of many colors, is Daniel Septimus, the force behind Mixed Multitudes, the blog over at My Jewish Learning.

A quick recap:

• Beery fires the opening salvo with some harsh words about how those falling out of love with the prayer (and, one assumes, with Israel generally) are moving away from identification with the Jewish people and becoming more like Protestants.
• Septimus comes back with a post more incredulous that substantive, and the conversation moves to the comments. Beery: Judaism (in its Zionist incarnation) sees the Jews as a corporate body first, then a religious group. Septimus: How can you expect all Jews to relate to the collective in the same way?
• Altshul arrives at a resolution: They will have a moment of silence during which people can say either the traditional prayer for the state or an alternative version (it’s the first one on this page) or presumably none at all. Beery: That’s the worst solution of all, sacrificing “collective purpose for individual comfort.” Septimus: There will be no Jewish peoplehood if it requires that we all agree.

What I don’t get about Beery’s view is this: He has a problem with Judaism as religion because it’s too narrow and limiting ("acts to tear apart our historical community"), but on the prayer for Israel he wants one version for everyone. Why no parallel worry that a prayer for Israel serves to separate the Zionistically Jewish from the spiritually/culturally/religiously/humanistically Jewish?

2 Comments | Share This | Israel, Religion, Ritual, Zionism

Would you send your parents on a Birthright trip?

By Ami Eden · April 7, 2008

In honor of Israel turning 60, Taglit-Birthright Israel is looking to send someone’s parents to the Jewish state:

The “Let My Parents Go!” contest was open to all North American Taglit-Birthright Israel alumni whose parents have never been to Israel. Over 60 video entries were received, and the 18 finalists have been posted on the Taglit-Birthright Israel website. ...

Entrants submitted links to online postings (YouTube, Google Video, etc.) of a short video describing why their parent or parents should visit Israel on a free, first-time, educational trip.  The over 60 entries were narrowed down to 18 by a panel of independent judges based on guidelines such as incorporating the “let my parents go” theme, creativity and making a strong case for what they hoped their parents would get out of the Taglit-Birthright Israel experience. Nine winners will be selected by the general public.

What will the old folks be doing?

The winners of the contest will be sent together on an official Taglit-Birthright Israel trip, where they will have the opportunity to share in the experiences that made such an impact on their children.  They will visit Tel Aviv and Jerusalem; they will hike Masada, swim in the Dead Sea and visit the kotel.

Sounds like a regular Birthright trip. Which makes you wonder: What sort of person would want to send their parents on a Birthright trip? (If you don’t get the question, then read this?)

Anyway… Check out the finalists and click here to see how to vote.

2 Comments | Share This | Israel, Zionism