August 2007

On Tuesday night, August 21, CNN had a two hour “Special Investigations” piece called “G-d’s Jewish Warriors” hosted by Christiane Amanpour. The piece was repeated in it’s entirety on Sunday night. Rather than being a piece of investigative journalism it was, in fact, a smear campaign attacking Israel, American Jewish supporter of Israel, and Orthodox Judaism in general.

There is no doubt that Jewish extremism exists. It is, however, embraced by very few religious Jews and is unrepresentative of Judaism or Israel. You’d never know it from watching the piece. I would never complain about an objective or accurate report on Jewish extremists within the settler movement in Israel or anywhere else for that matter. There was nothing objective about this report.

Former President Jimmy Carter was trotted out and his now infamous book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” was touted. No mention was made of how many members of the Carter Center’s Board of Directors resigned over that book was made. No other former President with different views appeared other than in old film of speeches opposing Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Gaza was rarely mentioned and Israel’s unilateral withdrawals from Gaza and southern Lebanon were ignored. The terrorism that followed those withdrawals, the daily rocket fire on Sderot or Hibullah’s rain of thousands of missiles on northern Israel last year wasn’t mentioned either. Never mind that the fear of such attacks on Israel’s main population centers from Judea and Samaria was the reason Prime Minister Olmert’s plans to withdraw from the West Bank was scuttled. Watching the report one rather got the impression that all Israeli governments, including the current one, intended to hold onto all of Judea and Samaria forever.

Theodore Meron was trotted out to explain his view that settlements violate international law. Israel’s view that the territories are “disputed” rather than “occupied” and that Article 4 of the Geneva Conventions don’t apply since no prior Palestinian state ever existed was given exactly one dismissive sentence. The fact that borders have never been agreed by anyone was ignored. For the majority of the piece the idea that Israeli settlements, including any and all construction in east Jerusalem, are illegal was taken as an indisputable fact. It clearly is not. The fact that Kfar Etzion was Jewish before 1948 was mentioned as a reason for reestablishing the community was one of the very few bright spots in this abysmal program.

John Mearsheimer explained his view of how the American Jewish lobby unduly influences American foreign policy at length. No credible opposing view was given and the long list of distinguished academics who denounced the Mearsheimer-Walt report or claimed that it failed to meet any acadamic standards were not mentioned. The fact that Christopher Hitchens, a long time critic of Israel, claims that Mearsheimer and Walt overstated the influence of the pro-Israel lobby certainly wasn’t worthy of inclusion. It didn’t fit CNN’s agenda. American Jewish support of Israel was shown to be support of settlements, and by extension, support of extremism or Kach or terrorism.

Every time someone was shown as an avid supporter of Israel or someone was shown moving into the territories a point was made of telling the viewer that they were Orthodox. The impression the CNN report gave was that Orthodox Jews were unanimous, or at least nearly so, in support of settlement activity. One also got the impression that all settlers are religious, probably fanatically so. No mention was made of the fact that religious Jews cover the entire political spectrum. No mention was made of the fact that many who bought homes in Judea and Samaria did so because housing was inexpensive there. There was certainly no coverage of large communities in Judea and Samaria like Ariel, with it’s large Russian immigrant population that is overwhelmingly secular. You certainly would never know that most settlers are absolutely horrified by rare acts of Jewish terrorism just like everyone else from watching this program. Indeed, the report gave the impression that Jewish terrorism by settlers is common, widely supported, and a serious problem. After all, CNN is giving Jewish terrorism and Islamic terrorism equal coverage, aren’t they?

In the latter part of the two hour report the attack shifted to “G-d’s Christian Warriors” who support Israel. Christian Zionists were painted as extremists supporting other extremists. They too, it seems, have undo influence in Washington. Never mind that evangelical Christians make up somewhere around a quarter of the American population and are a truly huge voting bloc, unlike American Jews. Certainly no mention was made of the fact that a rather large majority of Americans, religious or not, support Israel according to every poll taken on the subject this century.

The program presented those who called President Carter or Dr. Mearsheimer antisemitic in a disparaging way. Yet, with it’s broad attacks and generalizations not only about Israeli settlers, but about Israel as a whole, about the American Jewish community, and about Orthodox Judaism I couldn’t help but feeling that the report was, indeed, truly antisemitic. This from someone who has never called President Carter or Dr. Mearsheimer antisemites.

I talked about “G-d’s Jewish Warriors” with a friend this morning. Her response: “What did you expect?” Regarding Christiane Amanpour she added: “Her views are well known.” Indeed. If you want a horribly biased report send a truly biased reporter.

I know the blogosphere, expecially Jewish bloggers, are writing extensively about the CNN attack on Israel. I haven’t read any of it yet. I wanted this piece to be based solely on my own impressions of the program. I didn’t want to be influenced by anyone else’s views before I wrote this.

I guess I have to once again add CNN to the BBC as an organization hopelessly biased against Israel. This report was something I would have expected of Al Jazeera. I had hoped CNN had learned from it’s past mistakes and repeated apologies and would have tried to really have given a balanced report. Silly me.

Yesterday Human Rights watch sharply criticized Hezbollah for it’s deliberate rain of thousands of missiles on civilian targets in Israel during the war last summer. Many of the missiles were packed with ball bearings designed to kill or maim innocent people. HRW correctly termed this a “war crime”. This follows on a Human Rights Watch report last October citing Hezbollah’s use of cluster bombs.

Human Rights Watch deserves credit for finally deciding that a war crime is a war crime no matter which side commits the act. Of course both Hezbollah and the Lebanese government reacted with outrage and tried to silence the report.

There was a time I would have accused Human Rights Watch of anti-Israel bias but lately they have been remarkably balanced and fair in their reporting. Perhaps it’s time they took a good long look at what the various and sundry Palestinian terrorist groups are doing. As I posted earlier another rocket landed near Sderot today. How many people have died from Qassam rocket fire aimed at the innocent civilians of Sderot? How many have fled their homes? How long has this been going on? Isn’t it time Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the various other Palestinian groups who indiscriminately attack Israel civilians be held accountable?

IDF troops from the Golani Brigade arrested a 15 year old Palestinian boy in Gaza. The teenager had two large explosive devices strapped to his body. Thankfully soldiers convinced this would-be 15 year old suicide bomber to surrender and nobody died.

In 2005 Amnesty International did take up the issue of the constant use of child soldiers by virtually all of the Palestinian terrorist groups to little or no press coverage. If an Israeli soldier sneezes in the wrong direction it seems there is an international outcry. Why is there no outrage at this clear and repeated violation of international law? Why isn’t the sending of Palestinian children to their death une cause célèbre?

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Gaza, Palestinian terrorists launched a Qassam rocket which landed near Sderot.

We’re just under a week away from the release of the expanded version of Walt and Mearsheimer’s “The Israel Lobby,” and just as most of us anticipated, publications across the board are prepping for the fall-out. Regardless of your opinions of this paper, I think it is clear that it has very important repercussions for the American Jewish community and a tremendous impact on the public debate regarding America-Israel relations. I myself join those who think Walt and Mearsheimer’s paper is not only shoddy research, but a really weakly-supported argument with the potential for disastrous consequences. That is why I was profoundly relieved to read this editorial in the liberal paper, The Forward. Check it out.

I was reading a recent article on yahoo about life expectancy in the United States and around the world. The U.S. Census Bureau published recent statistics on the subject, and while the life expectancy continues to rise, the US is losing ground to other countries quickly. It has fallen from 11th place to 42nd place in just a couple of decades. I decided to look up the most recent statistics, and lo and behold, Israel ranks higher than the U.S. For the year 2007, the average baby in the US will live 78.0 years, while in Israel the baby will live 79.6 years.

This got me thinking: how does Israel compare to the countries with the highest aliya numbers? So I made a little chart, with countries, the number of olim from 2006, and life expectancy:

Russia   -   4121  -  65.9

Ethiopia -   3595  -  49.2

USA      -   2861  -  78.0

France   -  2837  -   80.8

Ukraine  -  2048  -  67.9

U.K.      -  738    -  78.7

Canada  -  340   -  80.3

Argentina- 318  -  76.3

Brazil     -  259  -  72.2

Peru      -  227  -  70.1

S. Africa -  157  - 42.5

Columbia - 149  - 72.3

Venezuela- 144 -  73.3

Germany -  128 -  79.0

Belgium  -  120 -  78.9

Australia -  99  -   80.6

Switzerland-99 -   80.6

Mexico   -   90 -   75.6

Uruguay -  77  -  75.9

In short, it’s no surprise that we are higher than Ukraine or Peru, but there are a few shockers - U.K, Germany, Belgium… Not too shabby for our little country. So for all of you out there (who aren’t from Switzerland, Australia, Canada, or France, and to paraphrase Rav Kook), Come to Israel and save your souls and the souls of your children.  

Since the start of my tenure at UIAC, I’ve had the opportunity to make several visits to Sderot – once, not 24 hours before the most recent round of tragic attacks.  So when I think of Sderot, the first thing to come to mind is the pained faces of residents – now colleagues and friends - who have suffered constant tension and repeated heartbreak.  Which is why I was surprised, last week, when my visit to Sderot left me with a different impression altogether – one of promise, and of hope.

The “Youth of Sderot” choir is comprised of eight local youth, teens between the ages of 14 and 19 with a passion for music matched only by their dedication to their community and their home town.  With original arrangements of familiar Israeli melodies, their voices fill the halls of the Sderot community center with energy, and infuse traditional Jewish and Israeli folk music (ranging from Hava Nagila to HaTikva and Yerushalyim Shel Zahav) with new vigor.

So too do these youth – most of whom will be enlisting in the Israeli Defense Forces next year – bring new meaning to these familiar messages, so much so that the words of Uzi Hitman and Naomi Shemer resonate anew with prophecies of old.  I’ve grown up with the songs “Al Kol Ele” and “Bashanah HaBa’ah.”  But somehow, the words are suddenly truer, and more urgent – eerily so – as the youth of Sderot sing in hauntingly beautiful harmony, “Protect my home, my garden…protect me from sudden fear and from war.  Protect what goodness I have, and don’t lose hope,” and “Next year we’ll sit outside on the porch counting birds flying by, and watch children playing tag in the fields and in the spaces between our homes.  You’ll see, how wonderful it will be – next year.”

Sderot has suffered constant terror and uncertainty for many years now, and its residents have felt utterly abandoned by the local and international community.  When I ask them what it is like to grow up under these conditions, the singers look a bit bewildered.  Some of them remember – distantly – an idealized time when all was quiet; or, as others might say, normal.  But they don’t know how to answer my question because for them, tension, uncertainty, and constant alarm are the norm; it is all they know.

Then, I press a bit deeper.  “I want to be a fighter,” says Nastia, who will be enlisting in the Israel Defense Forces next year.  “When I was younger, I didn’t want to enlist,” she explains.  “Now, I want to be a combat soldier so that I can pay them back for what they’ve done to us.”  And with that, suddenly, I’m not talking to children anymore.

“My family wants to leave, but I won’t let them,” declares Lidor.  “This is my city, this is my home, and I will fight for it until the end.”

And then I can’t stop them, and the stories begin pouring out: of neighbors missing limbs and of neighbors who are simply missing; of sirens that didn’t sound and of missiles that barely missed; of turning left and being spared at the expense of the friend who turned right; of hugging a tree because there was nowhere else to run, and of standing still because there was no reason to try.

“But at least we don’t need alarm clocks,” quips Ran, the youngest of the group, and undoubtedly, the one with the brightest grin.  “That, the municipality readily supplies!”

Before I leave, they sing a piece by a contemporary pop group, whom, to my surprise, I discover also hails from Sderot.  Once again, as the youth of Sderot sing, they show a dedication, perseverance and talent beyond their years.  Impressed by their commitment, I naively ask what makes all the hours of practice, several times a week, worth it.  Again, they look utterly bewildered, incapable of understanding what I thought was a rather obvious inquiry.

Saliyor, a 19 year-old soldier in the IDF with special leave for choir rehearsals speaks for the group:  “Everyone who is in the choir is here because they love music; otherwise, what would be the point?”

His friend Lidor, aged 17, adds, “You know, some people say music is the fuel of life.” But before I express awe at his insight, they all break into a fit of laughter, so I decide to play it cool.

“Can you repeat that?”  I ask.  “I mean, for the donors.”