Important Reads/Videos

I am indebted to our member, Martin Carus, for sending me this video of the Judo championships awards ceremony in Abu Dhabi earlier this year. The very emotional woman is Israel's Minister of Culture and Sport, Miriam "Miri" Regev, a former Brigadier-general in the IDF.

The Case for Israel (5:28)  

Video: Mahmoud Abbas Contradicts the 'Traditional' Palestinian Narrative on Refugees        

Part 1 - Israel and the Arab States  (4:19)
"We found enormous common language with Sunni Arab states against the danger of Iranian encirclement."
Part 2 - Does the Palestinian Leadership Want Peace?  (2:33)
"Mahmoud Abbas is going to have to do a lot of work to convince people that he is in the deal-making business."
Part 3 - Diplomacy Means a Search for Common Ground  (2:16)
"It's important to give people an ideological basis for talking to you, to find common ground. It's not enough to offer them a new water desalination system at a bargain price."
Part 4 - Bipartisan Diplomacy and American Jewry  (3:19)
"You reach out to Democrats, you reach out to Republicans, and you don't get caught playing partisan politics in the United States....Part of our problem with our American Jewish brothers is that they may not be fully informed about what Israel does."

 

I initially had this grouped with the Women's March articles under Anti-Zionism, but then I re-read it. IT IS A VERY IMPORTANT, IF CONCERNING, READ!!

The Stars of the New American Left: Israel-Hating Women

How a group of charismatic, female Democratic Socialists is changing American political culture                                    

 

It Would Be Foolish for Israel to Make a Deal that Weakened Its Security                    

There aren't a lot of Costa Rica's in this world-and even Switzerland has a military...

Poll: 68 Percent of Palestinians Want a State Armed with Tanks and an Air Force                                              

Jewish Members of Congress-from Both Parties-Get Together to Support Israel                                                      

One of the very few bi-partisan issues that Congress embraces        

A month or so after an election where everyone played rough, including on the Jewish field - Republicans and Democrats exchanged allegations of anti-Semitism - Jewish Democrats and Republicans met in the Capitol to discuss getting along, at least when it comes to Israel.  The setting was a conference convened by the American Zionist Movement. The umbrella group brings together around 30 groups that span the Zionist spectrum.

Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Long Island Republican who beat Perry Gershon in hard-fought race between Jewish candidates (Zeldin battered Gershon for accepting an endorsement from J Street; Gershon said he saw parallels between the rise of fascism in the 1920s and 1930s and the rise of Donald Trump), was all about building bipartisan support for Israel. He praised pro-Israel Democrats present, like Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., who will chair the House Foreign Relations committee in the incoming Congress. "Eliot Engel is right," said Zeldin, who spoke after Engel did. "Bipartisanship is critical to standing with Israel." (Zeldin also revealed that he and Engel are distantly related.)

Democrats were similarly conciliatory. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., acknowledged that Jewish Democrats and Republicans tend to use Israel as a cudgel. "We need you to have a watchful eye and admonish those of us who take it too far," she told the assembled group leaders.  Speakers for both sides tended to use the flaws of the other side to illustrate their point: Zeldin dinged the Obama administration for waffling over its position on Jerusalem. Halie Soifer, the director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, decried what she said was the partisan rhetoric of Trump's ambassador to Israel, David Friedman.

The Republican Jewish Coalition's congressional affairs director, Noah Silverman, was an exception, laying out in a thoughtful presentation the flaws of each side. He worried his party was developing "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez derangement syndrome," hyper-focusing on the 29-year-old New York Democratic congresswoman-elect and her alleged missteps.  Ocasio-Cortez could one day be an ally, he said, despite having accused Israel of a "massacre" of Gazan Palestinians attempting to breach the border with Israel. "Our today adversary might be our friend tomorrow," he said. "We need to avoid painting with a broad brush."

He urged Democrats to acknowledge the erosion of support for Israel in the party's ranks, which has shown up in recent polling, and which he said could be accelerated by Democrats' reflexive rejection of everything Trump does, including moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. "Don't let your frustrations with the president take you away from strong pro-Israel positions you have taken in the past," he said.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the minority leader, spoke of shmoozing Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who is holding up an Israel defense assistance bill, while they pedaled stationary bikes at the Senate gym.  "I lobbied him today," Schumer said, adding that he sensed that he made headway. (Schumer said he likes to work out early in the morning, in part because that's when Republicans show up and he can make deals; Democrats, he said, tend to work out in the afternoon.)

Schumer said there was fault on both sides in weaponizing Israel. "Friends of Israel do not look for outliers on either party and make this a wedge issue," he said.

Centrist, Free Market Financial Times Names George Soros Person of the Year