France is convening an international summit on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, but excluding Israeli and Palestinian leaders from the meeting. Egypt is seeking to host a trilateral peace summit with Israel and the Palestinians, following comments by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi that he would like to broker peace between rival Palestinian factions as a precursor to renewed Israeli-Palestinian talks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prefers the Egyptian track. But which proposed peace initiative is actually in Israel's best interests—France's, Egypt's, both, or neither? JNS.org asks an Israeli Knesset member, a former George W. Bush administration national security official, a former Mideast advisor to multiple U.S. secretaries of state, Israel’s former ambassador to Egypt, and the leader of the umbrella body for 50 American-Jewish organizations.
‘Israel Fellows’ work to counter threats by demystifying Jewish state on campus
There are numerous ways that Jewish advocacy groups advise students to counter anti-Israel activity on college campuses, ranging from holding demonstrations to simply ignoring the threats. Promoting a positive connection to Israel is instrumental in countering anti-Zionism, according to The Jewish Agency for Israel, which together with Hillel International created the Israel Fellows program—a network of 75 Israeli young professionals serving as “ambassadors” at more than 100 North American university campuses. The fellows—who come from Ethiopian, Middle Eastern, Indian, European, and central Asian backgrounds—work to demystify Israel for those who have little knowledge about the country. They seek to organize events in which students from different cultures can discover shared values, fostering a climate of mutual respect. While anti-Israel groups “try to separate people,” Israel Fellows “try to bring people together,” said Shachar Levy, an Israel Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin.
Israel’s U.N. envoy seeks to empower students to ‘fight and win’ against BDS
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel might be garnering the most headlines when it comes to college campuses and the business world, but the Israeli government is taking the battle against BDS to the United Nations. On May 31, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon is hosting an international conference that seeks to equip and empower more than 1,500 attendees—students, diplomats, academics, legal professionals, and others—to become “ambassadors against BDS.” Israel's Permanent Mission to the U.N. has decided that it “cannot ignore BDS anymore,” Danon told JNS.org. “I believe [the conference] will empower the students and the activists…to fight and win. I think we can win against BDS, but we have to fight back,” he said.
The ‘national security’ excuse spares terror sponsors
Ever wonder why it is that Congress passes so many strongly pro-Israel bills, yet they never seem to be implemented? For example, a bill was passed to move the Embassy of the United States in Israel to Jerusalem—but the embassy was never moved. Legislation was passed to restrict U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA)—but it was never restricted. Now a bill has been passed to permit families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia—but in fact, it will actually block such lawsuits. What all three of these laws have in common is a deceptive little tactic called a “national security waiver,” explains columnist Stephen M. Flatow.
Israelis and Americans: sincerity versus politeness
The cultural differences between Israel and America are substantial, reminding "Aliyah Annotated" columnist Eliana Rudee of a major reason why she moved to Israel 10 months ago. In the U.S., the interpersonal norm is "polite and insincere." In Israel, it's "impolite yet sincere." Yet Rudee writes that she wouldn’t characterize Israelis as "rude" as much as sincere and to the point, just as she wouldn’t characterize Americans as "insincere" as much as polite and friendly. There is a kernel of truth in both the Israeli and American perspectives, she writes.
Sykes-Picot at 100: Mideast chaos highlights the perils of drawing borders
One-hundred years ago this month, British colonel Sir Tatton Benvenuto Mark Sykes and French diplomat François Marie Denis Georges-Picot divided the Middle East loosely and arbitrarily between Great Britain and France. Following that division, which became known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement, a series of further treaties and conferences resulted in power battles, internal uprisings, coups, and revolts. A century later, the chaotic Middle East is still experiencing the aftershocks of the 1916 Sykes-Picot pact. “Sykes-Picot is the poster agreement for the poisonous legacy of European imperialism in the Middle East,” Richard Drake, a professor of history at the University of Montana, told JNS.org. “My conclusion on Sykes-Picot is that it really is the source of many of the ongoing evils in the Middle East.” James A. Paul—author of the 1991 book “Syria Unmasked”—said, “The drawing and redrawing of borders is not the way to go.”
At UC Irvine, Jews believe wrong students were escorted out of anti-Israel mob
After enduring an angry mob of 50 anti-Israel activists, Jews at University of California, Irvine were thankful for the protection they received from police, but were left wondering why they were escorted away from the scene while the anti-Israel protesters were allowed to remain there. “They can protest whatever they want, I understand that. But don’t we have the same rights? Don’t the Jewish students have freedom of speech?” said Israeli veteran Eran Izak, who answered the audience's questions about the Israel Defense Forces at the event that drew the protest, a May 18 screening of the film “Beneath the Helmet.”
Dalit Baum and BDS: corporate social irresponsibility
In an interview earlier this month with The Forward, Dalit Baum, a leading Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement activist, boasted about an increased focus on corporate social responsibility—the idea that companies and investors ought to make decisions based on ethical principles beyond legal requirements and business interests. In reality, however, Baum and anti-Israel BDS campaigners are attempting to manipulate the concept of corporate social responsibility to advance their highly discriminatory anti-Zionist ideology. Baum masks her single-minded agenda against Israel through loose language such as “universal human rights,” which, as seen through her actions, are far from universal, writes NGO Monitor researcher Robin Joshowitz.
Cuban-Jewish women visit Israel in latest effort to ‘light up their souls’
Dr. Sara Bedoya was raised in a small Cuban town. She was a member of the town’s only Jewish family. Though she knew of her faith and heritage, she was raised without access to a Jewish education or resources. When her mother passed away 12 years ago from cancer and her family moved to the city of Camaguey, where there are more Jews, she decided to honor her mother by learning more about her religion. Soon, Bedoya began to observe Shabbat and take part in community events. Three years ago, she was elected president of the Camaguey Jewish community. Last week, she and nine other Cuban-Jewish women visited Israel for their first time on a trip sponsored by the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project and Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. “I have so much love for this country. It was so perfect,” Bedoya told JNS.org regarding Israel on the final day of her nine-day trip.
Christian organizations gambling with Jewish safety in secret
Earlier this month, Ben Rhodes, a national security official in the Obama administration, admitted in a New York Times profile that he used non-governmental groups to create an “echo chamber” to garner cover for the nuclear deal with Iran. Rhodes stated that his efforts to manipulate media coverage of the deal were made easier by the youth and ignorance of journalists who cover foreign policy. But Journalists are not the only people who were implicated as a result of Rhodes’s stunning admission. Christian churches and para-church organizations were an important part of the echo chamber that Rhodes created. By behaving in such a manner, these institutions did harm to the civil society in which they operate and to their own reputations, writes Dexter Van Zile, a Christian media analyst for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA).
Gaza rebuilding falls by the wayside as Arab states leave Palestinians hanging
Since the end of the latest Israel-Hamas war in 2014, both Israel and the international community have taken steps to rebuild Gaza in order to ease the humanitarian situation there and prevent another conflict. But chaos in the rest of the Middle East has put the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the back burner of regional priorities. An April 2016 World Bank report revealed that leading Muslim nations have failed to live up to their pledged donations to Gaza. At a 2014 conference in Cairo, the international community pledged roughly $3.5 billion for Gaza, but so far only $1.4 billion has been delivered compared to the scheduled $2.7 billion. Qatar, which promised $1 billion, has donated $152 million. Saudi Arabia has delivered 10 percent of its promise of $500 million, and the United Arab Emirates has sent 15 percent of its $200 million pledge. By contrast, the U.S. has sent all of its pledged $277 million and in May announced a new $50 million aid package for Gaza. Arab states’ support for the Palestinians “has often been generous but unpredictable,” said Ghaith al-Omari, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former Palestinian Authority official.
A message to Donald Trump’s Jewish supporters
Nobody has given Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump an incentive to disavow, explicitly and unreservedly, the semi-literate Klan-like rabble that is riding his coattails. That incentive can, realistically, only be provided by Trump’s Jewish supporters, since he never listens to his adversaries. If these Jews are going to give him legitimacy, writes JNS.org columnist Ben Cohen, then their voices need to be heard on the following developments that have further marred Trump’s appeal to Jewish voters: anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish critics, “as a Jew” apologetics, and the rise of the “alternative right.”
Does poverty motivate Palestinian terror? Examining perception and reality
Israel has endured terrorism for decades. But ever since 9/11 and subsequent major terrorist attacks worldwide, more countries are starting to ask the same question: What motivates terrorists? It’s a question that is as pertinent as ever for Israelis amid the current months-long Palestinian terror wave. The immediate answer on the question of motivation is often one that many politicians like to give: Terrorists are poor and don’t have anything to live for. But according to a series of studies, that premise is wrong. Instead, the studies reveal, terrorists tend to be better educated and more financially stable than the casual observer would expect. Research conducted by Prof. Claude Berrebi, a public policy scholar at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, found that among a group of 285 Palestinian terrorists, 16 percent—compared to 31 percent of Palestinians in general—were characterized as poor. “Political activity is mainly the work of better-educated individuals and people of a higher socioeconomic status. If you start to think of terrorism as a political move, it makes more sense,” Berrebi told JNS.org.
Palestinian terrorists and their accomplices
Palestinian terrorist attacks that result in only a few casualties vanish quickly from the headlines. The victims are hospitalized, the politicians issue condemnations, the Palestinian Authority praises the attacker, and then the episode is quickly forgotten. It’s rare that anybody is still paying attention weeks later, when the attacker appears in court. That’s a shame, because sometimes what comes out during the legal process can be very revealing—such as the actions of accomplices who sheltered the terrorists, laughed at the victims, or refused to call an ambulance, writes columnist Stephen M. Flatow.
Filmmaker Eyal Resh embraces the challenge of telling Israel’s story
Telling Israel’s story. It’s the specific title of a short film directed by Eyal Resh. It’s also the theme behind the 27-year-old Israeli filmmaker’s broader body of work. “Telling Israel’s Story” seemingly begins as a promotional tourism video, but quickly evolves to offer a multilayered perspective. Spinning shots depict the natural beauty of Israel’s geography and landmarks. Viewers glimpse the religious passions underlying the society; the business and artistic ventures for which Israelis are known; and the violence that all too often puts Israel in the news. Sirens blare as a rocket streaks across the night sky. But when the rocket is later revealed to be part of a festive fireworks show, the music and montage resume with renewed vigor, depicting the celebration of life that underlies Israeli existence. “I see it as my responsibility to use my abilities to change Israel’s image in the U.S. and the world,” Resh tells JNS.org.