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Film Fight

By Ami Eden · March 31, 2008

Here is the film by Dutch politician Geert Wilders in which he argues that Islam is a threat to the Western world (Muslims in Holland are suing him on the grounds that it falsely charges Islam with promoting violence)...

Wilders gave a lengthy interview to Fox News...

3 Comments | Share This | Islam, video |

Labor of love: Israel

By Ami Eden · March 31, 2008

Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Jewish Labor Committee and of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, argues in the Forward that the American labor movement must take its pro-Israel fight overseas:

Faced with an alarming growth of anti-Israel boycotts and divestment efforts among unions across the United Kingdom, last year the Jewish Labor Committee launched an aggressive campaign to protest the move by British labor leaders. In the space of two weeks, every major American union had endorsed the effort. In fact, the show of American labor opposition to Israel-bashing was so strong that unions in Germany followed our lead and took a similar stance.

The leadership demonstrated by America's unions last year ought to send a powerful message to Israel's allies at home and overseas.

First, it should remind American Jewish leaders that they have a vital stake in building and maintaining a strong alliance with organized labor. This is particularly true now that Israel's conservative Republican supporters are in the minority on Capitol Hill and seem well on their way to losing the White House. By this time next year it will likely be far more important for Jewish leaders to have a working relationship Change to Win's Anna Burger and the AFL-CIO's John Sweeney than with Pat Robertson, John Hagee and others on the right.

Second, it ought to embolden Israel's supporters in foreign unions and encourage them to make their voices heard. As German activists demonstrated, American leadership is fundamental to challenging Israel bashing within the labor movement globally — and there can be no effective campaign to build support for Israel on the left internationally absent labor support.

Historically, American progressives have been bit players in the global left. Some might say that our biggest contribution was creating May Day.

However, the continuing assault against Israel by the left in other countries demands that we make our voices heard. With the support of the American labor movement we can. I know this much: We owe it to the families living in Sderot to try.

0 Comments | Share This | Israel |

The other Frank girl

By Ami Eden · March 27, 2008

The New Jersey Jewish News reports on a new musical comedy that looks at life in the annex from the perspective of Anne Frank's little sister. (What's next – "Long Night," a comic romp on Auschwitz from the perspective of an inmate having to listen to Elie Wiesel moralize all the time?):

What if Margot, Anne Frank's big sister, also kept a diary? What if hers offered a different perspective on life in the annex?

What if her diary revealed different truths — that it was she and Peter who were in love, not Anne and Peter, or that Albert Dussel, really Dr. Fritz Pfeffer, was actually a lovely fellow and not the fat, bald, selfish man as portrayed in Anne's diary?

And what if Anne were actually, in Margot's words, "a conniving little [rhymes with witch]"?

Most of all, what if someone wrote a play based on the premise and turned it into a musical comedy?

9 Comments | Share This | Comedy, Culture, Shoah, Theater |

Ha’aretz: Israeli government turns to YouTube

By Ami Eden · March 27, 2008

Ha'aretz reports that the Prime Minister's Office in Israel recently posted three videos to YouTube showing images from the terror attack earlier this month at Jerusalem's Mercaz HaRav yeshiva:

The three videos were posted under the titles "Stop the Terror, Stop the Bloodshed," "Act NOW: Stop The Bloodshed - Stop the Terror," and "Emergency call, March 7, Jerusalem."

While the person named as poster, AtiyaRachel, was not identified as having any connection to the government, TheMarker has learned that the Prime Minister's Office was actually behind the uploads to the popular video site.

This is the first time that a government body has used the site in response to a terror attack.

Here are the videos (warning: graphic images)...

2 Comments | Share This | Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Terrorism |

J Street Project: Doves launch AIPAC alternative

By Ami Eden · March 27, 2008

James Besser reports in the New York Jewish Week about the launch of a new political action committee aimed at supporting dovish congressional candidates – and, in Britain's Prospect magazine, Gershom Gorenberg says that's a good thing.

Besser:

Dubbed the J-Street Project — "K Street" has become a cipher for Washington's lobbying establishment and "J Street," missing from Washington's downtown grid, has become a local "in" joke — the new project kicks off with a hush-hush fundraiser next Monday hosted by former Clinton administration official Jeremy Ben Ami and Daniel Levy, director of the Prospects for Peace Initiative of the Century Foundation. The group will be publicly launched around the middle of April; organizers said they will not speak publicly about the group until then.

"For too long, the loudest American voices in political and policy debates have been those on the far right — often Republican neoconservatives or extreme Christian Zionists," according to the invitation. "J Street aims to change that. We are the first and only lobby and PAC (political action committee) dedicated to ensuring Israel's security, changing the direction of American policy in the Middle East and opening up American political debate about Israel and the Middle East."

While sources say the structure and initial goals of the new group are still in flux, it is expected to raise money for congressional candidates who advocate a stronger U.S. leadership role in ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and multilateral solutions to the region's problems.

The group will be headed by Ben-Ami, who served as deputy domestic policy adviser in the Clinton administration and later as a media consultant. Ben-Ami has worked with several Jewish peace groups, including the Center for Middle East Peace and the Geneva Initiative-North America.

Gorenberg:

So the first priority of a real pro-Israel lobby should be pushing for the most active possible US role in brokering a two-state solution. As Israeli strategic analyst Yossi Alpher has pointed out, the US has succeeded in advancing Arab-Israeli peace only when an emissary representing "the full prestige of the American president" has come to the region for extended negotiations, as Henry Kissinger, secretary of state, did after the 1973 war.

The negotiator has to propose compromises and then push hard for them. The US must also provide incentives. It should offer funds to resettle Palestinian refugees in the Palestinian state and to relocate Israeli settlers within Israel. But the offers should have tough conditions: for the Palestinians, giving up on resettling refugees within Israel; for Israel, evacuating settlements that it has heretofore insisted it has to keep. The liberal Israel lobby should work on Capitol Hill to support such funding for peace.

Diplomacy also means effective pressure on both sides and on the relevant Arab states. The US should insist that the Palestinian authority in the West Bank disarm all armed factions that remain in its territory. But the US will need to lean on Israel too. Right now, the Israeli public has no idea how much the state spends on settlement. American insistence on financial transparency as a condition for current aid levels would serve Israeli democracy and increase domestic backing for a settlement freeze. AB Yehoshua is right that the US should finally show real displeasure that outposts have not been taken down. That's an example of how Washington can help an Israeli government do what it knows it should, helping to beat domestic pressures.

Realistically, even a liberal Israel lobby will be more timid than progressive Israelis. Few US Jews will feel comfortable asking for American pressure on Israel. Publicly, the lobby's task will be to increase support for diplomacy and a two-state solution. But it will also allow more politicians—particularly liberal ones—to say what they really think about Israel/Palestine, safe in the knowledge that there is an alternative lobby to back them with money and votes. Quietly, it should counterbalance lobbying by Aipac for congress to tie the president's hands in negotiations. If a peace process really does get moving, expect an Aipac-backed congressional resolution on the need to keep Jerusalem united as the capital of Israel—an American position that would undermine the talks. The liberal lobby's task would be to push the pragmatic stance that the future of the Holy City must be agreed by both sides.

But a real pro-Israel policy extends beyond the Palestinian issue. Renewed peace talks between Israel and Syria are in both Israeli and American interests. If the talks succeed, they would lead to a cold peace—which is much better than the current cold war, in which Damascus uses Hamas and Hizbullah as proxies to bleed Israel. Alon Liel—the ex-director general of Israel's foreign ministry, who last year revealed that he had conducted unofficial back-channel talks with Syria—says that part of any peace deal would be Syria realigning itself with the west. That would weaken Iran's position in the region, and be a clear American victory. A liberal lobby would promote US backing for such negotiations.

Even on Iran, a liberal lobby could encourage a shift. An Iranian bomb is certainly a serious danger to Israel. But US refusal to negotiate with Tehran means giving up in advance on means to reduce the threat. There are hard-nosed strategic analysts in Israel who advocate a quid pro quo: US acceptance of the Iranian regime in return for an end to uranium enrichment and support for terror groups.

Ultimately, Israel's goal is to be part of the middle east, not to be a garrison state in conflict with it. To support the most bellicose possible Israeli or US policies is to damage both countries. A liberal voice is needed in Washington to press that message. Perhaps this is another form of hope for a deus ex machina. If so, the winged figure is long overdue.

7 Comments | Share This | community, Iran, Israel, Jewish organizations, Politics |

Elders in Zion

By Ami Eden · March 27, 2008

The Forward reports that a new group calling itself "The Elders" is dispatching Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan and Mary Robinson to Israel to help make peace. Go figure, but officials in Jerusalem aren't exactly jumping for joy.

A little-known group of rather well-known former world leaders is trying its hand at Middle East peacemaking, with a contingent scheduled to visit the region next month on a self-proclaimed mission to "help people understand the urgency of peace." But as they attempt to help resolve one of the world's most intractable conflicts, The Elders, as the group is known, find themselves facing what is perhaps an equally difficult task: overcoming the deep-rooted suspicion on the part of Israel and its supporters toward several of its members.

The Elders are a group of 12 senior statesmen formed last summer by Nelson Mandela, and most of its members are household names in the international arena. What has raised eyebrows in Jerusalem are the individuals the group is dispatching to the Middle East. In addition to former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan, the contingent includes Jimmy Carter, former president and author of "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," and Mary Robinson, a former president of Ireland who was outspokenly critical of Israel when she served as the U.N.'s high commissioner on human rights.

Israeli officials were reluctant to discuss the upcoming visit on the record, arguing that they had yet to be formally approached by The Elders. But an indication of Jerusalem's concern about the group's effort could be gleaned from the response of one official when asked for Israel's views on the contingent's individual members.

"We have no problem with Kofi Annan," the official told the Forward.

6 Comments | Share This | Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict |

ZBT is Back

By Ami Eden · March 26, 2008

The student papers at the University of Kansas and the University of Arizona both have articles about the Jewish fraternity ZBT making a comeback. Who's their publicist?!

The University Daily Kansan:

A Jewish fraternity is going to join the 40 greek houses already at the University in the next few years.

Zeta Beta Tau, a fraternity based in Indianapolis, Indiana, is coming back to the University after being absent for around ten years. It closed its first house in the late 1990s because of a lack of general leadership in the chapter.

ZBT was invited to start a new chapter by the Interfraternity Council and the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life in September 2007.

Associate executive director Laurence Bolotin said the fraternity had begun to receive requests to start a new ZBT chapter on campus, so it has begun to reconnect with campus and alumni.

The Arizona Daily Wildcat:

After numerous bouts of failed leadership that led to Zeta Beta Tau's removal from the Interfraternity Council and the arrest of the president and vice president in 2005, the fraternity's future looked grim.

Now they're getting a fresh start in 2008.

"We were there for many years and we've come in and out but now we're starting again with a completely new group of guys and none of the old guys will have anything to do with it," said Matthew Tobe, national director of Zeta Beta Tau. "There was poor leadership at the time and now we have a group of freshmen and sophomore men who want to start fresh."

Tobe and his colleagues have spent time on campus recruiting students to become founding fathers of the new fraternity. They already have twelve and are hoping for about seven more, Tobe said.

1 Comment | Share This | Education |

Michael Drake in a ZOA constrictor

By Ben Harris · March 26, 2008

The much anticipated showdown with the University of California, Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake went down Monday afternoon at the Hillel summit in Washington. Hillel was criticized for inviting Drake, who presides over a campus with a history of inviting inflammatory, anti-Israel speakers, with some criticizing the chancellor for not denouncing specific acts of anti-Semitic and/or anti-Israel activity. Hillel defended the invitation as a chance to engage the chancellor and allow him to hear the concerns of the Jewish community.

Well, here's how it played out, in three acts:

Act I, Drake responds to a question put to him by ZOA President Mort Klein.

Act II, Klein confronts Drake after the forum directly (cutting me off in the process).

[audio:/images/archive/drake1.mp3]

Act III, JTA tries again to get Drake to say how he feels about comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany. Drake's response: the university must remain "content neutral."

[audio:/images/archive/drake2.mp3]

[Update] Leaders of four UCI Jewish organizations issued a release praising Drake and telling "off campus organizations" (read: ZOA) they don't know what they're talking about.

Download (Word Document)

5 Comments | Share This | Anti-Zionism, On Campus |

Anatevka, Wisconsin

By Ami Eden · March 26, 2008

The Wisconsin State Journal says that the recent wedding of a local Chabad rabbi's daughter is the closest most residents of Madison to experiencing "Fiddler on the Roof" (don't worry, she didn't marry a Cossack):

The marriage of Chanie Matusof, of Madison, and Nissi Gansbourg, of Montreal, was a deeply traditional Chasidic Jewish wedding.

It may have been the first of its kind here – the closest most Madisonians have come to experiencing anything similar may be watching "Fiddler on the Roof."

"It is rare, " said Rabbi Matusof of the Chabad House on Regent Street, the father of the bride, who officiated. "Just ask the staff here and they 'll tell you they 've never seen anything like it before."

"My parents have been here in Wisconsin for 40 years," added Rabbi Mendel Shmotkin, of the Milwaukee-based group Lubavitch of Wisconsin. "This is definitely the first Chasidic wedding that Madison has ever seen. This is historic."

1 Comment | Share This | community |

Praying for unity

By Ami Eden · March 26, 2008

The Jerusalem Post features two opinion pieces calling for greater displays of Jewish unity – Gil Troy asserts that Israel's secular leaders need to take a greater part in the public mourning of the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva and a Baltimore-based Orthodox rabbi says denominational leaders need to find a way to pray together in one sanctuary.

Troy:

The mass funeral on Friday March 7, outside the stricken yeshiva, was broadcast live on Israeli television, uniting the entire house of Israel in mourning. As the cameras showed one sobbing mourner after another, many viewers sitting comfortably in their own homes cried too. Alas, through the tears, one noticed something missing. In the clump of eulogizers at the front, not one leading secular politician stood, and not one secular leader spoke. That even Jerusalem's mayor, Uri Lupolianski, is Orthodox, added to the one-sided impression. The mourning for this national tragedy appeared on television as a funeral limited to the religious community.

President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and the cabinet ministers represent the entire country. All Israelis pay their salaries, whatever ideology the citizens may embrace. As part of the national mourning process, secular representatives of the government should have attended. Even if their security details advised against appearing, true leaders need to show leadership sometimes. Democratic leaders who fear their constituents are failing at an essential part of the job description and should consider early retirement.

The rabbi (Murray Singerman):

There is another path, one which could shore up the breach, slacken the flow of Jews deciding to opt out, and attract back those who have already left. Rabbis of different denominations should reach across the divide and find theological solutions to not only work together for the social betterment of the community, but most importantly for Jewish unity, worship together.

For the sake of the future of the Jewish people, it is time for our rabbinic leadership to reach out to other denominations and find the will to pray together in one sanctuary. This would create a new paradigm of worship, in which rabbis, standing before the Almighty, will show their congregants that a Jewish world can stand together, not just apart.

Students of history will scoff at such an effort. The pessimistic historian will cite millennia of Jewish theological rifts. The optimist, however, will ignore these precedents, if only because a Jewish optimist is committed to ahavat hinam, boundless love for other Jews.