דבריו החמורים של המועמד הרפובליקני לנשיאות בארה”ב, דונלד טראמפ, בגנות המוסלמים, מעוררת תגובות נזעמות גם בקנדה. (צילום: Gage Skidmore via wikimedia.org)
סערת דונלד טראמפ מגיעה גם לקנדה: פוליטיקאים קוראים להחרימו וחברי מועצות בערים קוראים להסיר את שמו מהמגדלים
דבריו החמורים של המועמד הרפובליקני לנשיאות בארה”ב, דונלד טראמפ, בגנות המוסלמים, מעוררת תגובות נזעמות גם בקנדה. טראמפ אמר השבוע במסגרת קמפיין הבחירות שלו שיש לאסור על המוסלמים להיכנס לארה”ב, בין אם כמהגרים או כתיירים. טראמפ מוביל עדיין בסקרים מול שאר המועמדים של המפלגה הרפובליקנית, אך הביקורת נגדו במפלגה ומחוצה לה, בארה”ב ומחוצה לה, רק הולכת וגדלה. טראמפ באימרותיו השנויות במחלוקת והפרובוקציות שלו נמצא במסלול הנכון להפוך לאחד האישים השנואים בעולם.
שר החוץ של קנדה, סטפן דיון, אמר בנוגע לטראמפ: “מעולם לא קרה בקנדה מה ששמענו כעת בארה”ב מטראמפ. אנחנו לא יכולים לקבל דבר כזה. אף מפלגה בקנדה לא תתקרב לדברים כאלה. אזרחי קנדה יתנגדו לנצח לאמירות שכוללות שנאת זרים כזו”. ראש ממשלת קנדה, ג’סטין טרודו, סירב להגיב ישירות על דברי טראמפ בטענה כי כל אחד בתפקידו אסור לו להגיב בנושאי פוליטיקה פנימית של מדינה אחרת, במיוחד כאשר מתנהלת בה מערכת בחירות. עם זאת טרודו ציין והוסיף כי: “אזרחי קנדה יודעים היטב היכן הוא עומד בנוגע לנושאים כאלה”.
מנהיגת האופוזיצה הזמנית מטעם מפלגת השמרנים, רונה אמברוז, דחתה את דבריו של טראמפ וטענה שהם מגוחחים. לדבריה: “זה בידי תושבי ארה”ב לבחור מי יהיה המנהיג הבא שלהם, אבל אני בטוחה שרבים ואפילו במפלגתו, חושבים שהתגובות שלו הן מגוחחות”. ואילו מנהיג המפלגה הדמוקרטית החדשה, טום מולקייר, טוען שהגיע הזמן לאסור על אנשים כמו טראמפ שמפזרים דברי שינאה, להיכנס לקנדה”.
במקביל חברי מועצה בעיריית טורונטו וונקובר גם הם יוצאים בחריפות נגד דברי טראמפ. מספר חברי מועצת העיר טורונטו דורשים להחליף השם “טראמפ” של מגדל המלון דירות בדאון טאון, בשם אחר. מגדל טראמפ בטורונטו פועל מאז ראשית 2012. גם חברים במועצת עיריית ונקובר דורשים אף הם להחליף את השם “טראמפ” של מגדל המלון דירות ברחוב ג’ורג’יה בדאון טאון, בשם אחר. מגדל טראמפ בוונקובר שבנייתו הולכת ונשלמת בימים אלה, יפתח בראשית שנה הבאה.
טראמפ מתכוון לבקר בישראל לקראת סוף השנה. במסגרת הביקור לפי מקורביו הוא ינסה לעלות להר הבית ואין ספק שפרובוקציה כזו מצידו, יכולה להצית את כל המזרח התיכון. ראש ממשלת ישראל, בנימין נתניהו, למרות שדחה את דבריו של טראמפ בגנות המוסלמים, כן הסכים להיפגש עימו כשיגיע לישראל.
ארגון או.אי.סי.די: ישראל וקנדה במקום טוב מבחינת נטל המיסים
ישראל וקנדה נמצאות במקומות מוכבדים מבחינת היקף נטל המיסוי בקרב שלושים וארבע המדינות, החברות בארגון או.אי.סי.די. ישראל הצטרפה לאו.אי.סי.די ב-2010 והחברות בו מחויבויות לערכי דמוקרטיה, שקיפות ודבקות בערכי כלכלת שוק ופיתוח כלכלי.
הארגון פרסם בשבוע שעבר את נתוני 2014 ונטל המיסים של חברותיו עומד על 34.2% בממוצע. המדינה עם נטל המיסוי הגבוה ביותר היא דנמרק עם 47.6%. אחריה: צרפת (45%), בלגיה (44.7%), איטליה (43.9%), פינלנד (43.7%), שבדיה (42.8%), אוסטריה (42.5%), נורבגיה (40.5%), לוקסמבורג (38.4%) והונגריה (38.4%) במקומות התשיעי והעשירי. גרמניה (36.5%) במקום השלושה עשר, בריטניה (32.9%) במקום השמונה עשר ואחריה ספרד (32.7%) במקום התשעה עשר. ישראל במקום העשרים ושלושה עם נטל מיסוי של 30.6%, ואחריה במקום העשרים וארבעה קנדה עם 30.5%. יפן (30.3%) במקום העשרים ושישה, אוסטרליה (27.5%) במקום העשרים ותשעה, אחריה במקום השלושים שוויץ (26.9%), ובמקום השלושים ואחד ארה”ב (25.4%). המדינה עם נטל המיסוי הנמוך ביותר היא מקסיקו (19.7%) במקום השלושים וארבעה.
Leah Stern in Haiti, where she was helping orphaned and abandoned children. (photo from Leah Stern)
While London-based journalist and content producer Leah Stern was unable to be the guest speaker at this year’s Choices, the annual campaign event of Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s women’s philanthropy, the Jewish Independent had the opportunity to chat with her over the phone prior to her scheduled talk. Hopefully, she will have the chance to come to Vancouver on another occasion, as she is a fascinating and accomplished person.
Born and raised in Miami, Stern made aliya after graduating university. In her career to date, she has been the face of the evening news on the Israel Broadcast Authority and a correspondent for CNN, she has liaised with the Vatican on behalf of the Israeli government and worked with nonprofits in South America. She is currently communications director in London, England, for OurCrowd, a high-tech, crowdfunding platform created by venture capitalist John Medved, for which she travels to Israel every couple of months. This is only a partial resumé.
JI: You made aliya in 2002. What led to that?
LS: Growing up in Miami Beach, everyone was very materialistic, focused on clothes, cars, houses, etc., and I wanted to run away from it all. My brother went to Israel to serve in an elite military group during the Second Intifada and my mother and I decided to follow him there. She went first, I came after.
JI: How did you get into journalism?
LS: That started with a program I saw in Miami on CNN with coverage of Scuds falling in Sderot and I saw a woman running in fear along the street. Suddenly, I thought, I need to be there in the thick of it all. When I finally went, I was only 21. At first, when I arrived, I could not find a job, so I folded laundry, made pizza and worked as a housekeeper.
JI: What happened next?
LS: I decided to volunteer for the Magen David Adom (MDA). That consisted of a week indoctrination course and then riding in the back of an ambulance to callouts. My first call was to a bus bombing in Jerusalem on May 18, 2003. I remember riding in the back of the ambulance, going at 100 miles an hour, running through red lights and then we came upon the shell of the bus. My first memory is seeing the bodies of college students my age, all sitting exactly as they were in that last moment before the explosion, one was reading a book, one was eating a sandwich. That picture still resonates with me today.
JI: Did that experience have an impact on your career?
LS: I did the MDA job for about three months. I was so affected by it I decided to … blog about it. I sent articles back to Miami. I wanted to give a different view than the jaded coverage by CNN and Fox. I thought I could make an impact on people by reporting the truth of what was happening through my eyes, and not through the eyes of the foreign press that did not understand the contextual background to the story.
JI: You also worked for the Jerusalem Post?
LS: Yes. I applied and got an internship as the funeral reporter. I did that for awhile but I wanted to go to the next level. So, I applied to IBA, the Israel Broadcast Authority, the only government-run, English-speaking channel in Israel, to be a news anchor. I bombed the audition. I said, “Baby Netanyahu” instead of “Bibi Netanyahu.” I thought I would never get the job. But the bureau chief called me that night and said, “You were absolutely terrible but there is something about you. Come in tomorrow for another screen test.” So, I studied the names of all of the people in the Knesset and practised in front of the mirror, and I got the job.
JI: What happened at IBA and where did you go from there?
LS: I started off as a newsreader but eventually my boss let me go out in the field. I went out as a one-woman band. I went and bought a video camera and all the equipment. I would mic myself up and take my camera out on a tripod and do the interview, write the text and send it to my editor in three-minute news package format while sitting in the front seat of my Peugeot. These were some of the most incredible days of my life, being in the thick of things.
Leah Stern on a CNN mentorship program with Wolf Blitzer at the Republican National Convention in Florida. (photo from Leah Stern)
It was during this time that I came to realize that there were so many stories that were not being covered, i.e. co-existence, Israeli doctors working with injured Palestinians, stories that I felt would change the world’s perception of what was happening in Israel. So, I started to tell them and sent some to CNN and they must have liked them because I got invited to Atlanta and met with Ted Turner, who offered me a job as a correspondent. Wolf Blitzer sort of took me under his wing.
JI: What were some of the stories you covered for IBA and CNN?
LS: I was sent all over, to Ethiopia to cover the migration of the Ethiopian Jews to Israel … to the Vatican to cover the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005. I went to Baghdad and Kabul and all over the Arab world.
JI: Were you concerned about any danger in covering some of these assignments?
LS: No. I was a CNN producer, an American journalist on an American passport and did not at any time feel in danger. I was running on pure adrenalin, and was determined to tell the story for people who did not have a voice.
JI: You accompanied the Israel Defence Forces during the disengagement from Gaza in 2005. What was that experience like?
LS: For me, this was the first time that I found myself reporting on a big story alongside the major players of the world media…. I had just interviewed Ariel Sharon and was forming my own opinion on this. I was conflicted, lots of questions were running through my mind, like, was the government right? What were these people entitled to? [Stern ended up making a documentary about the experience, called Disengagement (2006).]
JI: Were you treated any differently for being a woman reporter?
LS: War reporting is a man’s world. Here I was a young, blond, American, female journalist with not great Hebrew, with an English accent, with very seasoned male war reporters, trying to be one of the guys. I had to earn the respect. It was not easy. It took time.
JI: How did people react to you in the various areas you visited?
LS: Good reporters get people to open up to them and to trust them. You have to ask the tough questions, be relatable, get people to be real. I let people know I would tell their story … like they told it to me.
JI: Has your attitude towards covering the news changed over the years?
LS: I always remember the quote from Abba Eban, “To be a realist in Israel, you have to believe in miracles.” My time in Israel was one miracle after another. When I did my first stand up in front of the camera during the Second Lebanon War, a rocket landed near me and I was not afraid. I felt as if the camera would protect me and I was so dedicated to telling the story that I did not think of any danger. But one of my colleagues, Steve Sotloff, was beheaded by ISIS, and that was a wake-up call for me. I would not go back to some of those countries now even though I have been offered opportunities to report in Iran and Syria.
JI: In addition to reporting, you did a three-year diplomatic stint at the Vatican as a liaison for the Israeli government. What was that like?
LS: I studied Italian because I had to read 20 newspapers a morning and brief the Israeli ambassador on what Italians were saying about Israelis. Twice a week, I also got to sit in on meeting with Pope Benedict XVI and his cardinals…. I learned what it meant to be an Israeli diplomat in the Vatican. It was very interesting but it was also the first time I had to be careful about being open about my Israeli and Jewish status.
JI: What does your future hold?
LS: I am writing a book, but I am not sure what to focus on. I think writing a memoir is a bit egotistical at the age of 35. I have been roaming the world for 15 years, I am ready to put down some roots and I am getting married again next year.
JI: Do you have any advice for women considering career options like yours?
LS: I believe in tikkun olam, to make the world a better place. I think the best advice I can give is to be strong and to follow your dreams. Remember that small things make a difference. Don’t be afraid to try. Put yourself out there. Make an impact.
Tova Kornfeld is a Vancouver freelance writer and lawyer.
Jacob sheep Molly and Leah. (photo by Mustard Seed Imaging)
Chabad Rabbi Falik Schtroks of the Centre for Judaism of the Lower Fraser Valley delivered a lecture on the meaning of the Jacob sheep in conjunction with parashat Veyetzei during a visit to the flock in Langley on Sunday, Nov. 15. He was accompanied by his students and invited guests.
The rabbi explained how the sheep look just as they are described in the Tanach: they have spotted ankle bands (akudim), spotted and speckled patterns (nikud), patches (tiluyim) and bands (broodim), all of which are mentioned in the Bible.
“It is very likely that the animal we are looking at is the Jacob sheep, as there are no other sheep in the world that have all these characteristics. If I would have ever imagined Jacob’s flock, I wouldn’t have imagined them any different than the flock in your field,” he said.
Rabbi Falik Schtroks holds Moshe, while Isaac and Solomon look on. The Jacob sheep’s “shepherds,” Gil and Jenna Lewinsky, are trying to get their flock back home to Israel. (photo by Mustard Seed Imaging)
In his lecture, Schtroks taught that the patterns of the sheep have relevance for day-to-day living by comparing the patterns to the progression of human civilization, as well as to personal growth. The ankle bands represent the incubation phase or childhood. The speckles represent individualism, but the blotches represent our growth in this world, which allows us to recognize and include others. The goal is for the blotches to “bleed” into each other to form a band, for individuals to live in harmony with the outside world.
“It is not very often that one can be down to earth, mingling with sheep, and find there vivid clarity of mystical teachings. What is usually an obscure narrative comes bursting into life,” said Schtroks.
The rabbi was very excited to observe the sheep’s behavior. The sheep operate as a collective, he noted. If one sheep were to go missing, it would cause mass distress in the flock. “Take a look at how these sheep behave only as part of a herd and none act truly independently … it is comparable to the Jewish people who are compared to one flock.”
He continued, “Seeing the Jacob sheep as they have survived until this day, as an heirloom breed with the biblically described characteristics, seems to parallel the miracle of the Jewish people and their survival – despite all odds – for the duration of the past 4,000 years.”
Schtroks said he hoped that the sheep’s transition to life in Israel would be easy. The flock’s “shepherds,” Gil and Jenna Lewinsky have been lobbying the Israeli government to allow their Jacob sheep to return to the Golan Heights. The couple would like to establish a heritage park where this endangered breed of four-horned and speckled, spotted and ankle-banded sheep can be preserved, and put to their biblical and original use.
Rabbi Amram Vaknin, the rabbinical mystic from Ashdod, Israel, endorsed the Lewinskys’ Jacob sheep in October, telling Friends of the Jacob Sheep, later reported to Breaking Israel News, that the sheep do not belong in Canada but rather “in the land of Israel.” He told the news outlet and the couple that it is permissible for the sheep to return as long as the shepherds are G-d fearing.
Following the rabbinical endorsements, the Lewinskys are optimistic about the prospect of negotiating for the return of the Jacob sheep and feel that their flock will bring a tremendous blessing to the nation of Israel. “It’s the spiritual wealth of Jacob and the national animal of the Jewish people according to the Tanach,” they said.
Jonathan Pollard and his wife Esther in the first photograph following his release from prison. (photo from Justice for Jonathan Pollard via jns.org)
After spending 30 years in a U.S. federal prison, American-Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard was freed on parole on Nov. 20, one day ahead of schedule to allow him to observe Shabbat.
“The people of Israel welcome the release of Jonathan Pollard,” Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said in a statement. “As someone who has raised the issue for many years with American presidents, I have dreamt of this day. After three long and hard decades, Jonathan is finally reunited with his family. I wish Jonathan a quiet and joyous Shabbat.”
Pollard was the only person in U.S. history sentenced to life in prison over spying for an American ally (Israel). Advocates in the Jewish community as well as experts in the U.S. intelligence community had long called for his release both due to the severity of his sentence and on the humanitarian grounds of his failing health.
The National Council of Young Israel (NCYI) said on Nov. 20 that it is “extraordinarily grateful that Jonathan Pollard is now out of prison and reunited with his family.”
In the winter, the Yellow Submarine hosts a collection of shows, many of them jazz, as part of the International Music Showcase. (photo from itraveljerusalem.com)
This article was written several months before the daily terrorist attacks began against Israel. While tourists may be understandably hesitant to visit Israel right now, the country needs support, and a visit is one of the tangible ways in which to give that support. (Editor)
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Jerusalem may be better known for its religious and historical context than its music scene but, below the surface, a burgeoning jazz scene featuring some of the best musicians in the country delivers a steady diet of under-the-radar concerts in Jerusalem that frequently wow unassuming tourists and locals alike.
“A lot of the best jazz musicians for a couple of generations have come out of Jerusalem,” commented Steve Peskoff, a jazz musician who has lived in Jerusalem for 30 years and teaches jazz guitar and music workshops at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. “This is the only school in the country granting a degree [in jazz] at the college level,” said the former New Yorker.
Ask around town about jazz, and you’ll typically hear about three mainstays of the scene that are constantly providing a platform for local and international jazz musicians to put their considerable talents on display for the patrons of the Holy City – Birman, Barood and the Yellow Submarine.
If you’re just visiting Jerusalem and don’t have time to wait around for concert dates, then Birman Musical Bistro is your most likely destination.
The popular “musical bistro” located just off the bustling Ben Yehuda Pedestrian street hosts local musicians every day for free-of-charge live concerts. Jazz is the music of choice at least four nights of the week, and the bistro boasts the atmosphere of an old-school music club, with a clientele made up of local musicians, students and music-lovers eager to take advantage of the live music and tasty, yet reasonably priced, food and drinks.
Jerusalem-born Dan Birron opened Birman’s about 10 years ago with live music every night, four of which are usually reserved for jazz, including the Saturday night jam session.
“All musicians in Jerusalem, especially jazz, know my place,” said Birron, who also takes the stage himself on some nights to serenade the crowd with his styles on the accordion. “I’m totally booked for months.”
The performers at Birman are a mixed bag of some of the city’s most established jazz musicians and the younger crop starting out after finishing the army or graduating from the Academy of Music. The city’s jazz scene is “very interesting, with many very talented musicians,” Birron said. “The best ones are coming to my place.”
Not far away from Birman in the picturesque Feingold Courtyard, Barood Bar and Restaurant is one of the most talked-about jazz institutions in the city. Owner Daniela Lerer remembers as a young child hearing jazz and feeling that it spoke to her more than any other genre. It would be another 30 years before she opened Barood in 1995 but, ever since, jazz records have dominated the background music at Barood. These days, you can regularly catch live shows on Saturday afternoons or evenings – in the courtyard during the summer and in the restaurant when the cold weather comes.
After working as a TV producer and at other jobs, she said, “I knew for sure I would have jazz in my bar and restaurant. I began to play jazz here all the time, then I started to bring [other] musicians.”
For many years, well-known American saxophonist Arnie Lawrence, who moved to Israel in 1997, played at Barood once a week until he died in 2005. For the past year, Israeli saxophonist Albert Piamenta, has been playing at Barood one Saturday every month, while other local musicians perform two to three times a month. You won’t find a lot of promotion for the concerts, but most of the hotels in the area keep up to date with Barood’s schedule.
While the jazz community in Jerusalem is relatively small, Lerer has nothing but praise for the local musicians, students at the academy and the small but growing scene. “Jerusalem is very open to jazz now,” she said. “The scene is growing and the young people are really good.”
In addition to the music, Barood also boasts a unique Sephardi kitchen with a Greek influence, where Lerer’s son is chef, featuring pastelicos, a special meat pie made by Lerer, as well as appetizers, salads, main courses, vegetarian dishes, stuffed vegetables, and desserts, all from her Sephardi background.
No list of Jerusalem music institutions would be complete without the Yellow Submarine, one of Jerusalem’s première music venues. For the past seven years, it has offered free weekly jazz concerts.
The weekly night dedicated to jazz is designed to give local musicians the opportunity to be heard, said manager Yaron Mohar, a talented musician, as well as being a sound technician and the director of the School of Engineering and an instructor in the music education department. He explained that the Yellow Submarine is more than just a venue – it is a multidisciplinary music centre, where musicians can rehearse, record and attend programs and performances. It also offers aspiring musicians in high school the chance to earn credits toward graduation through Yellow Submarine courses.
The Yellow Submarine is where you are most likely to catch international jazz acts. Recently, it hosted Austrian jazz guitarist and songwriter Wolfgang Muthspiel and Swedish cellist/bassist Svante Henryson as part of the Israel Festival. In the winter, the Yellow Submarine hosts a collection of shows, many of them jazz, as part of the International Music Showcase.
Within Jerusalem’s community of young, aspiring musicians, there is certainly an appreciation that bodes well for the future.
Ami, a 17-year-old, attends a high school that offers a music major. Beginning in ninth grade, the program concentrates on jazz.
“Jazz is a language,” said Ami, a second-generation pianist. “I’ve been in the program three years but I’ve only actually learned what it means to be part of a jazz community now.”
Ami’s father has a doctorate in music and had a musical career in the United States before he moved to Israel, where he plays jazz piano on a freelance basis at weddings and other venues – and, not surprisingly, frequents jazz nights at Birman.
Sybil Kaplanis a journalist, foreign correspondent, lecturer, food writer and book reviewer who lives in Jerusalem. She also does the restaurant features for janglo.net and leads weekly walks in English in Jerusalem’s market. A longer version of this article was originally published on itraveljerusalem.com.
Teachers at CHW Hadassim with the new computers. (photo by Amir Alon)
Last month, the Athena Fund announced that three Israeli youth villages – CHW Hadassim Children and Youth Village, Mosenson Youth Village and Ayelet Hashachar Youth Village for Girls – have joined the Laptop Computer for Every Teacher in Israel program. The program provides laptops and 120 hours of professional training to teachers across Israel, with the aim of empowering teachers and improving student learning.
Uri Ben-Ari, president and founder of Athena Fund, left, and Zeev Twito, director of WIZO Hadassim. (photo by Amir Alon)
Athena’s Laptop for Every Teacher in Israel program has so far distributed laptops to more than 11,000 teachers in 939 schools and kindergartens in 430 towns, cities and small communities in regional councils, together with professional training courses. The laptop distribution is made possible by contributions from Athena Fund’s various partners, including United Jewish Appeal, Bank Massad, the Israel Teachers Union’s Fund for Professional Advancement, WIZO, local authorities and others.
CHW Hadassim is located north of Tel Aviv and has 1,300 students. It is one the largest youth villages in Israel. Local area students attend the school, in addition to 200 from difficult or new immigrant backgrounds, who reside in campus dormitories.
Hadassim High School offers a full academic course of study in preparation for university. The youth village also provides a wide range of specialized studies tailored to the interests and needs of outstanding students, as well as those who are experiencing scholastic difficulties. Among the subjects offered are criminology, natural sciences, agriculture, horse breeding, therapeutic horse riding, art and sculpture, and photography. There is also a musical group called Ethiopian Sun, which performs all over Israel.
Mosenson Youth Village is in Hod Hasharon, north of Tel Aviv, with more than 800 students, nearly 130 of whom come to study in Israel from North America and countries around the world. The youth village consists of a high school and a boarding school where about 220 students live. The high school is known for many special programs, including one in agro-ecology that deals with environmental issues; a sports program that is ranked in the top five in Israel; a film and communication class; and an excellence class that studies science subjects such as math, chemistry, physics and biology at the highest levels.
Ayelet Hashachar, located on the Golan Heights, is a religious boarding high school, where about 100 girls live and study. In addition to standard subjects such as math, English, history and science, students also have an opportunity to focus on special subjects, such as communications, film and agriculture. The girls also attend a variety of enrichment classes, including nutrition, consumerism, the environment and art.
“The impact of computer use on the quality of teaching and learning in classrooms that participate in the Laptop for Every Teacher in Israel program can be clearly seen,” said Uri Ben-Ari, president and founder of Athena Fund. “Athena’s approach is to bring teachers to the digital world in which their students live. The fund believes that the computer and the accompanying training will help teachers cope with the information revolution and become mentors highly appreciated by their students.”
Ambassador Dennis Ross was in Winnipeg as part of the city’s Tarbut Festival to promote his new book. (photo by Rebeca Kuropatwa)
Ambassador Dennis Ross was in Winnipeg earlier this month to promote his latest book, Doomed to Succeed: The U.S.-Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). He was one of the participants in the city’s Tarbut Festival.
Ross is the William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, as well as a Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown. He has been very involved in American peace efforts in the Middle East, especially during the administrations of presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Among other accomplishments, he helped Israel and the Palestinians reach an interim agreement in 1995, helped broker the Hebron Accord in 1997 and facilitated the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty.
In his new book, Ross explores the attitudes and approaches of every U.S. president toward Israel, and the Middle East in general. He highlights some of the lessons that could have been learned from leader to leader, but were not, and how American presidents have shaped their country’s policies toward Israel.
Ross’ Nov. 15 talk in Winnipeg sold out a week in advance, with more than 200 in the audience at Rady Jewish Community Centre’s Berney Theatre. He began with a few words about the Paris terrorist attacks, describing them as “a sobering event.”
“This was an intelligence failure,” he said. “You had three terrorist cells that were able to operate, to acquire a substantial amount of weaponry, to wear suicide vests with explosives – to orchestrate, plan, and carry it out. My guess is they did rehearsals before they did this.”
Ross then discussed the spate of terrorist stabbings that has been occurring in Israel, referring to this as “a new normal” that we will need to get used to for the next while.
According to Ross, every administration, from Harry Truman to Barack Obama, has had people in the back office advising their president against siding with Israel. As such, to varying degrees, every president has considered Israel a problem, and not a partner.
“This mindset that tends to look at Palestinians and Arabs as something we have to be careful around … if we are going to be criticizing them, it will create a backlash against us … this is a mindset that has existed in every administration,” Ross said.
In his book, Ross conveys that the only American president who did not listen to these back-office advisors was Clinton, who saw the United States as Israel’s only friend.
“Because of that, we can have differences with Israel, but he [Clinton] believes that if we create a gap between us and Israel, it will give encouragement to Israel’s enemies,” said Ross. “With Clinton, the constituency existed, but it had no influence.”
Jumping from one president to the next, Ross provided glimpses of the eras and issues covered in his book. For example, Ross said, Ronald Reagan was “the only one to suspend [the supply of] F-16s to Israel as a punishment … because the Israelis bombed a [nuclear] reactor in Iraq. Reagan later acknowledges that it wasn’t a bad thing,” meaning Israel’s actions.
“Reagan goes back to his roots of being a very strong friend of Israel,” said Ross. “He feels a deep moral obligation to the state of Israel … going back to who he was, to his instincts. He believes the U.S. has a moral obligation to Israel.”
With the Reagan administration, Ross said, “For the first time, you have a constituency that arises with expertise that counters the other constituency, and sees Israel as a partner and not a problem … sees Israel as someone the U.S. should be working with.”
In Ross’ view, the constituency that views Israel as a problem has been guided by a set of assumptions that have endured since before Truman to today. In Doomed to Succeed, he lists three assumptions: “If you create distance from Israel, you’ll gain with the Arabs; if you cooperate with Israel, you’ll lose with the Arabs; [and] you cannot transform the Middle East unless you solve the Palestinian problem.”
Ross provided supporting evidence for each of these assumptions. “I’ll give you some examples from the book,” he said. “The most outrageous example was [Richard] Nixon. In March of 1970, Nixon decides to suspend F4 Phantoms to Israel. Now, I said that Reagan suspended F16s as a punishment. Nixon doesn’t do it as punishment. He’s trying to reach out to [Egyptian president Gamal Abdel] Nasser. He thinks if he suspends arms to Israel, he’ll gain with the Egyptians, gain with Nasser. What makes this an outrageous example is that he did it at the very moment that the Soviet Union was sending military personnel to Egypt.” While Nixon expected to be rewarded by Nasser, Nasser instead demanded more.
About the title of his book, Ross said, “Fundamentally, we [America] and Israel share interests and threats. That has always been true. It’s especially true now, as you look over the next 10 to 20 years, the struggle with ISIS and also Iran. We have two proxy wars. Who will dominate the region? The fighting is over identity. You fall back on the fundamental instincts.
“You have the Arab state system itself under threat now. Against that backdrop, there’s one state that actually has institutions – a rule of law, a separation of powers, independent judiciary, elections where the loser accepts the outcome, where there is freedom of speech, of assembly, and where women’s and gay rights are respected. Israel is the only democracy in that region and that’s why the title of the book is called Doomed to Succeed.”
The talk concluded with a few questions from the audience. Ross was asked about the Iranian nuclear deal and how he felt about it. Ross said he felt the deal needed tweaking to ensure a positive outcome.
“Sanctions would erode, eventually,” he said. “I still wasn’t prepared to favor the deal because, after 15 years, Iran gets treated as if it’s Japan or the Netherlands. They can build as large a nuclear infrastructure with no limitations at all. So, I identified, for me, five conditions that need to be met before I could support the deal. These conditions have to deal with how to bolster deterrents. I felt you can’t wait for 15 years to say, ‘Now, we are serious.’
“I wanted a firewall now if we see them moving toward a weapon. If we don’t do that, I can’t support it. I wanted us to make our declaratory policy much blunter, to make it clear they can’t use enriched uranium after 15 years. I wanted us to spell out now what happens if there are violations along the margins. For every transgression, there’s a price. They don’t escape. I wanted us to target new sanctions.
“I’ll tell you, the Iranians will cheat around the margins. They will test the verification. When they do, there has to be a price. If you buy 15 years, what do you do with it? I laid it out publicly before the deal was done. I wasn’t shy about this.”
In thanking Ross at the event’s conclusion, attendee Howard Morry said, “You asked the question, ‘Who has been the best friend to Israel for the past 30 years?’ It could be argued that you’ve been Israel’s best friend in the White House.”
The continuing terrorist attacks in Israel against Jewish Israelis are becoming more frequent and more deadly. Palestinian political leaders, religious officials and media have applauded the attackers as “martyrs,” spread anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and called for more attacks against Jews. In response, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) has launched a campaign to mobilize community members to take action.
The objective of the campaign is to raise awareness among Canadians about the ongoing threat of Palestinian terrorism and the incitement that fuels it. CIJA is asking the community to take a number of actions, including sharing content in social media, signing a petition that will be presented to Canada’s leaders when Parliament returns and writing Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion asking him to speak out against Palestinian terrorism.
“Like many around the world, we are extremely concerned about the rising tide of violence against Jews in Israel, perpetrated by terrorists who are incited to violence by the Palestinian leadership,” said Shimon Koffler Fogel, CIJA chief executive officer. “We want to provide our community with a meaningful way to stand up for our extended Jewish family in Israel who are living under constant threat.
“The Take Action campaign is designed to raise awareness about the violence and what drives it,” continued Fogel. “Questions we are asking Canadians to consider include ‘What would we do if this were happening in Canada?’ and ‘What would we expect our allies to do if Canadians were being run down, stabbed and shot in the streets?”
Campaign components include the video at youtube.com/watch?v=cMYS1qSKQTs called What Would We Do? The video is a series of news clips that take real events that have happened in Israel, such as stabbings and car bombs, and put them into a Canadian context, as having happened in Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg.
At takeactionisrael.ca, there is the petition to sign, which condemns Palestinian terrorism and incitement. As well, there is a link to a template email that can be personalized and sent to Dion that reflects the person’s concerns and asks Dion to speak out against Palestinian terrorism.
As well, people can donate to help spread the word: 100% of donations will be used to educate Canadians about the reality of the situation in Israel, the dangers posed by Palestinian terrorism and incitement, and the real obstacles to peace.
The fourth component of the campaign is a request that people forward the call to action to a friend, share it on Facebook, Twitter or other social media, and encourage friends and family to visit the website takeactionisrael.ca, as well as to learn more about the situation in Israel at learnmoreisrael.ca.
The campaign will run as long as the current wave of terror continues.
As hot as things have become in Israel and the West Bank over the last many weeks with escalating violence, here in North America a chill is palpable. It comes in the form of silencing within and across communities – in private homes, on university campuses and in community institutions. It’s coming from both sides: those who call themselves “pro-Palestinian” and those who call themselves “pro-Israel.” While the Palestinian solidarity side uses boycott and silencing, the Jewish community has its own internal conversation watchdogs.
Recently, a speaker at the University of Minnesota was shouted down, his talk delayed by 30 minutes. The invited scholar was Moshe Halbertal, a philosopher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a professor of law at New York University. It was a scholarly talk: the Dewey Lecture in the Philosophy of Law, sponsored by the university’s law school. Halbertal is also a noted military ethicist who helped draft a code of ethics for the Israel Defence Forces. The Minnesota Anti-War Committee took credit for the stunt; Students for Justice in Palestine endorsed it.
If you’re concerned by the extent to which civilians have born the brunt of violence and destruction in the Israeli-Palestinian context, Habertal is someone you’d want to speak with, especially in an academic context, where the point is the free exchange of ideas. But it’s hard to pose tough questions if you’re trying to silence the person.
This blocking of Halbertal’s speech is a trend that gets its fire from the academic and cultural boycott of Israel organized by the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement, along with the more general push against what many Palestine solidarity activists call “normalization,” meaning ordinary engagement with Jews and Israelis and their ideas. Activists argue that the target is institutions, not individuals. But the effects on individuals and open speech, as they were at the University of Minnesota, are clear.
Continuing in this vein, producers of Dégradé, a film about Gaza told from the perspective of clients at a hair salon, pulled it from the Other Israel Film Festival sponsored by the JCC Manhattan because it’s a “Jewish” festival. While it seems that the producers’ decision was their own, it suggests a dangerous precedent: fortifying the silos between acceptable audiences and unacceptable ones in the world of art, ideas and culture.
Meanwhile, while the Jewish community doesn’t talk in terms of boycott and anti-normalization, it has its own troubling rules of engagement.
There are the narrow speaker guidelines for those with whom campus Jewish groups allow their members to publicly engage in dialogue. The guidelines for Hillel International, the world’s largest Jewish student organization, exclude anyone who “delegitimize[s], demonize[s] or appl[ies] a double standard to Israel, or supports the boycott, divestment and sanction movement.” While it’s natural that Israel supporters would bristle at those things, the rules effectively preclude Hillel students from inviting for debate and dialogue any Palestinian solidarity activists, almost all of whom, unfortunately, have jumped on the BDS bandwagon.
When my seven-year-long columnist post was cut from my local Jewish community paper last summer, I was told that it was to “make room for new voices.” Since then, it’s become clear that the publisher wanted only one angle on Israel. The columnist who focuses almost exclusively on the failings of Israel’s adversaries remained in place, while my replacement is steering clear of Israel altogether.
And then there are the corners of quiet shunning. I recently organized a Jewish community youth project involving rotating hosts. One of the participants pulled out, citing the fact that her husband “didn’t want me in his home.” He was appalled by my last Globe and Mail piece. When it comes to “support for Israel,” they said, “there is only one side.”
But some – young Jews in particular – are pushing back against this narrowing of discourse. First there was Open Hillel, a grassroots organization devoted to opposing the speaker guidelines mentioned above. (Disclosure: I am on the group’s academic advisory council.) And now there’s the Jewish People’s Assembly, which has launched in Washington. The group is demanding that Jewish federations – the main funding body of local Jewish communities – “not condition support for Jewish institutions and organizations on these institutions’ adherence to red lines around Israel.”
One might fantasize about casting all the silencers into a room where they can sit in silence with each other to their heart’s content. Meanwhile, the rest of us can continue to try to talk, to write and to publicly grapple with the dilemmas of the day, trying to search for bits of common ground wherever they might be.
Mira Sucharov is an associate professor of political science at Carleton University. She blogs at Haaretz and the Jewish Daily Forward. A version of this article was originally published by the Globe and Mail.
The Hellenistic/Hasmonean excavation at Nebi Samwil. (photo by Anthony Bale)
Just over 10 kilometres north of the Temple Mount, the Old City and east Jerusalem, where terrorist attacks continue, Muslims and Jews both go up to Nebi Samwil, to what they consider to be the holy burial place of Samuel the Prophet.
On the Thursday between Yom Kippur and Sukkot and the first day of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice, I visited this archeology site located in the West Bank. It was quite a scene.
A young Muslim family in Western holiday dress entered the Muslim part of the joint prayer site. They were followed by a young ultra-Orthodox couple who climbed to the roof for photo-taking. Close on their heels, a group of young adult Chassidic males piled out of a mini-van.
Walking by the Muslim cemetery, along the northern perimeter of the archeology site in the direction of the spring, I nearly bumped into a glitzy-dressed bridegroom, clad from head (kippah) to toe (pointy shoes) in silvery white. Continuing on my way, I glimpsed Bratslav Chassidim scurrying into the trees on their way to hitbodedut or seclusion. At the edge of the spring named after the Prophet Samuel’s mother, Chana, North American yeshivah students were drying off following immersion in this natural mikvah, ritual bath. (If you visit, consider equipping yourself with a bullhorn or whistle to announce your upcoming presence to anyone who might be in this open mikvah.)
Special religious experiences are not new to the site. For example, some 500 years earlier, Christians were having mystical experiences at Nebi Samwil. In 1413, Margery Kempe, an English mystic, traveled from the coastal plain toward Jerusalem. When she passed Nebi Samwil, she was so overjoyed by the view and by her reported heavenly contact, she nearly fell from her donkey. Two German pilgrims broke her fall. “One of them was a priest, and he put spices in her mouth to comfort her, believing her to have been ill. And so they helped her onwards to Jerusalem.” (The Book of Margery Kempe)
And, speaking of “joy,” earlier on when the Crusaders first looked south to Jerusalem from this point, they were so enthralled that they named the area Mount of Joy or, in French, Mont de Joie. In between combating those they considered pagan, heretical or politically inexpedient, the Crusaders happily settled in at Mont de Joie. They established a cistern, church, monastery (apparently commemorating Samuel the Prophet), pilgrims hostel, stable, quarry (drinking troughs and hewn stones are clearly visible today) and a fort. Before they began construction, they razed the area upon which they built. Crusader joy was relatively short-lived, however, as a generation later, in 1187, Salah ad-Din pushed them out and ushered in the Mamelukes. Curiously, the remains of one Mameluke building have an arch displaying a Star of David. While it looks like a Magen David, back then it was not a Jewish symbol.
Like the earlier Umayyads and Abbasids (638-1099), the Mamelukes went into pottery production. Archeologists have uncovered the large kilns they used, as well as pottery with place-identifying Arabic seals. Oddly enough, during this same period, the site became a holy place for Jews from Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia and elsewhere. In 1730, however, Jerusalem’s Mufti Sheikh Muhammad al-Khalili called a halt to Jewish pilgrimage, by what Yitzhak Magen terms “appropriating the tomb from the Jews” and forbidding Jews to pray there. The mufti erected a mosque at the site.
Some Jewish sources have identified Nebi Samwil as the biblical Rama, the burial place of Samuel. Others have identified it with Mitzpah, a site connected to Samuel, and later to the Hasmoneans.
Speaking of the Hasmoneans, the well-built structures from the Hellenistic period were not destroyed by natural disaster or by fighting. It appears that the community was simply abandoned. One theory maintains that the Hasmoneans did not want competing places of worship, as there apparently was a tradition of worship at both Mitzpah and neighboring Givon (see Maccabees I: 3,46 and Kings I: 3,4). That is, they wanted to centralize worship and power in Jerusalem.
In being at the site, you see how people have protected their holdings. One way has been to build a fortress, equipping it with soldiers and weaponry. Another way has been to declare a place a holy site. While we cannot actually prove that Samuel the Prophet was buried at this site, neither can we totally disprove it. So the tradition stands for Jews, Muslims and Christians. Today, the site houses both a Wakf-run mosque with its tomb of the Prophet Samuel and an Orthodox synagogue with its separate tomb for the Prophet Samuel.
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If you visit Nebi Samwil, don’t be fooled into thinking that you are going to the original citadel and mosque. The British destroyed it while fighting to take Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks. During the Mandate, however, they rebuilt the structures.
The visiting hours for the archeology site are 8 a.m.-4 p.m. (winter) and 8 a.m.-5 p.m. (summer). Visiting hours for the prayer sites are Sunday-Wednesday continuously, with the exception of two hours between 2-4 a.m.; and Thursday-Friday, from 4 a.m. until an hour before Shabbat begins. More on the site, including a map, can be found at parks.org.il/sigalit/DAFDAFOT/nabi-samuel_eng.pdf.
At the time of my visit, there was no checkpoint, and apparently only one guard on the premises. Originally located among the archeology ruins, Israeli authorities moved the village called Nebi Samwil to its current setting in 1971, with some controversy. (For example, see alt-arch.org/en/nabi-samuel-national-park.)
Nebi Samwil is partially accessible to wheelchair users. If readers wish to get further details on the subject, they can contact the park curator, Avivit Gara, at 972-2-586-3281.
Deborah Rubin Fieldsis an Israel-based features writer. She is also the author of Take a Peek Inside: A Child’s Guide to Radiology Exams, published in English, Hebrew and Arabic.
