The defense establishment is concerned at intensifying legal campaigns in foreign courts that aim to deter Israel from using force against Hamas and Hizbullah.
Reeling from four damning reports in one week from human rights organizations about the IDF’s conduct in Operation Cast Lead, the sense among senior defense officials is that the “legal front” against Israel is growing at an alarming rate.
There is also a palpable urgency within the legal and defense establishments to thoroughly and professionally investigate allegations of war crimes against the IDF, not only because this has been standard practice, but also in an effort to ward off foreign lawsuits, investigations and arrest warrants against officers. Continue Reading »
Peace has always been our people’s most ardent desire. Our prophets gave the world the vision of peace, we greet one another with wishes of peace, and our prayers conclude with the word peace.
We are gathered this evening in an institution named for two pioneers of peace, Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat, and we share in their vision.
Two and half months ago, I took the oath of office as the Prime Minister of Israel. I pledged to establish a national unity government – and I did. I believed and I still believe that unity was essential for us now more than ever as we face three immense challenges – the Iranian threat, the economic crisis, and the advancement of peace. Continue Reading »
In May 2002 Netanyahu gave a speech to the Likud Central Committee. Half of the speech was devoted to the issue of a Palestinian state. You can read the whole speech here. I’m copying just the section that deals with the issue of a Palestinian state. It will be interesting to compare this speech with what Bibi says next Sunday.
“We are promising Palestinian terror the greatest prize of all – the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Today most of the Israeli public realizes that a Palestinian state under Arafat would be a bastion of terror directed at the destruction of the State of Israel. Continue Reading »
Bibi’s upcoming speech at Bar Ilan: Obama gave a big speech that almost everyone in the world loved. Obama’s Cairo University speech was seen live by hundreds of millions of people. How many people will watch Bibi live? Bibi is to deliver his speech at Bar Ilan University’s BESA Center in Ramat Gan. Bar Ilan University is the bastion of the center right, and Bibi should find an adoring audience there, just as Obama found in Cairo. Bibi will be tailoring his message to the Likud, Bar Ilan is closely associated with the Likud, with the moderate National Religious and secular Right. He wants to be interrupted by applause – when he says Israel wants peace with the Palestinians, but a peace that will not jeopardize Israeli security. He doesn’t want to be interrupted by catcalls from the Knesset plenum. In Bibi’s mind, if anyone can match Obama for rhetorical prowess, for delivery, it’s Bibi. All that’s necessary is a solid stage, a sturdy podium, good air conditioning [that he doesn't sweat], and a receptive audience [definitely not the Knesset]. In 2002 Netanyahu gave a speech to the Likud half of which was devoted to the issue of a Palestinian state. You can read it here. It will be interesting to compare that speech with what Bibi says next Sunday. Continue Reading »
Meet America’s first black female rabbi, Alysa Stanton.
CINCINNATI (AP) — Describing herself as the “new face of Judaism,” Alysa Stanton became the first black female rabbi in the country during an ordination in Cincinnati.
Stanton, of Blue Ash, was among 14 rabbis ordained Saturday at the Plum Street Temple. She will serve as rabbi of the predominantly white Congregation Bayt Shalom in Greenville, N.C., beginning this summer.
The Cincinnati Enquirer reported on its Web site that Stanton said her goals are to break down barriers, build bridges and provide hope.
A native of Cleveland, she studied at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the oldest institution of higher Jewish education of Reform Judaism in the United States.
“Not to excuse the behavior of those in the video, I don’t believe this idiocy reflects the values of young American Jews or their opinions on Obama, but rather the way that Israel, in particular Jerusalem, can radicalize the young to the left or the right. It also proves (once again), that fools and alcohol and camcorders do not make a good match.”
I am honored to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable institutions. For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt’s advancement. Together, you represent the harmony between tradition and progress. I am grateful for your hospitality, and the hospitality of the people of Egypt. I am also proud to carry with me the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country: assalaamu alaykum.
We meet at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world – tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate. The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam. Continue Reading »
Maybe if they’d posted billboards showing Iranian missiles on parade with the headline: “Coming to your neighborhood soon. Do you know where your shelter is?” someone here would have paid attention to the siren. Maybe if IDF Homefront Command opened a shiny new store, placed naked mannequins wearing only gas masks behind its windows, and handed out flyers advertising a party-in-a-bomb shelter, it may have gotten people to ask directions to ‘the bomb shelter’. Had it said that the party in the shelter, to be held on Tuesday June 2 at 11:00 sharp, would be kicked off by a specially arranged nation-wide siren followed immediately by the internationally renowned DJ Kid Koala, the IDF would have passed the Sheinkin Street test. Continue Reading »
In about 12 hours from now a siren will sound signaling the high point of the nationwide Homefront Command war preparedness drill. At 11:00 Tuesday the sirens will go off across the country and civilians are supposed to take shelter in safe rooms, bomb shelters, building stairwells, or simply lie flat on the ground near their cars. And just like every previous time, tomorrow’s siren will find most Israelis without the faintest clue of what they’re supposed to do when the sirens go off. A very large number of people in coffee shops, restaurants and in the streets will simply stand to attention thinking the siren represents either Remembrance Day, Holocaust Day, or some other day they forgot was today. Others will run in panic searching for a safe room. Some motorists will stop on the highways, get out of their cars and bow their heads in respect. Some buses and cars will stop, others won’t, and hooting will drown out the sirens in many places. Haredim in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem won’t have a clue what’s going on because nobody has prepared them for any of this, they don’t watch TV, they don’t listen to Army or Israel Radio, and their closed-circuit Kosher Internet has no mention of the drill. And besides, the rabbis have promised no missiles will fall on their areas.
From a quick look at the Homefront Command’s English website, I’ve gathered together the following tips on how to behave during a rocket attack. The instructions however, leave a few open questions:
From Homefront Command:
If you are in a building when the siren sounds immediately enter the Residential Secure Space (MAMAD), and close the steel door.
Q: What if others didn’t make it in time? Do I open the steel door for them and thus risk exposure to rocket shrapnel? Surely they should have run faster, no?
If there is no MAMAD in the building, enter the room that is farthest from the direction from which the missile fire threat is coming,
Q: How do we find out which direction the missile is coming from? What if several countries or terrorist groups rocket us from different directions simultaneously? What room do we then choose? In any case, how do we figure out what direction are we facing at any given time? And what if we’re outside, say, walking the dog, and we hear a siren. How do we know a) which direction we’re facing? b) which direction the missile is coming from? c) what if the siren totally messes with the dog and he starts running in every direction? And d) what about those new missiles that can change direction in mid-flight that we’ve been hearing about lately? Are we to move around to a different room every time the missile zigs? Maybe IDF Homefront Command should give us all compasses or GPS devices. Wouldn’t it be great if we were given GPS machines so that we could track the route of the missiles from their point of origin in real time, AND we could also figure out which direction we’re facing so that we could dodge the rockets?
The Foreign Ministry is gradually placing more importance on diplomacy with Russia as the relationship with Washington undergoes a reformulation under the Obama administration.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, in his trip to Moscow this week, will try to balance out Israel’s overriding reliance on American diplomatic, financial and military support by strengthening its ties to Russia.
The thinking is that while there is no replacing the importance of the strategic ties to Washington, Russia does have a constructive role to play – and since the Kremlin is seeking a renewed role in the region, now is a good time to discuss where Jerusalem and Moscow’s mutual interests lie. Continue Reading »
No longer a purely guerrilla organization, Hizbullah is engaged in a huge political battle that culminates in the June 7 elections. “The Party of God” is in the pro-Iranian and Syrian camp facing off against the Hariri camp supported by America, Saudi Arabia and France.
The assessment in Israel is that Hizbullah will win the election and put “acceptable faces” in the cabinet to consolidate its rule. This will be another political victory for the radical Muslim axis following Hamas’s victory in the 2007 Palestinian elections. Continue Reading »
The most important advice a communications and PR consultant can give a client is: Choose a message that works for you, and stick to that message.
So what would a communications consultant advise the Israeli government now? Would it be that on Iran, Israeli spokespeople should stick to the message formulated under Ariel Sharon, that “Iran is not only Israel’s problem, but rather a challenge for the entire world”? Or should the message be “Iran is seeking nuclear weapons to perpetrate a second Holocaust on the Jewish people”? Continue Reading »
It’s German-Israel time again, and I’m currently attending the Bertelsman Stiftung German-Israel Young Leaders Exchange Program Reunion 2009 at the Dead Sea.
How coincidental that, just a few days ago as I was arriving at the Latrun base near Jerusalem for my miluim [reserve duty] the IDF marching band was practicing the German national anthem, for a ceremony later that day in honor of some German military delegation.
One of the guys in my unit took this video, I believe it’s quite interesting:
Several of us, Jewish soldiers performing reserve military duty, stood amazed at what we were seeing and hearing: this is the Israeli army performing the German national anthem, quite surreal. I’m sure it’s been done many times before, and vice versa too, but for the 30 or so soldiers watching, it was the first time. I don’t know what all the others thought about it, but I felt it was a special moment.
Some of the younger soldiers at the base who were also looking at what was going on thought the band was playing the American anthem…
Wrote this interview together with David Horovitz for the Jerusalem Post Magazine:
He’s only been in the job for a month, but already the foreign minister is fed up with the ’slogans’ he keeps hearing from his international counterparts: occupation, settlements, land-for-peace, two-state solutions… His favored key words? Security (for Israel). A stronger economy (for the Palestinians). And stability (for all). Bringing peace to our region is more complex than sloganeering would allow, he tells The Jerusalem Post in this interview, his first with an Israeli newspaper. And it’s time we all faced up to the inconvenient reality. Continue Reading »
Everybody wants to know about Lieberman. What’s he like, this “Russian King” as a friend called him [actually he's Moldovan]. When I posted photos of our interview on Facebook, I got comments and questions ranging from disgust [try get the stain off your hands Lady Macbeth!; ewwwww!; when is he going to be indicted?; shame you didn't barf on him; did you ask him if he really believes the bullshit coming out of his mouth or does he just like the perks? why doesn't the jpost punch people in the stomach anymore?]. “How bad is he,” another concerned friend asks. Continue Reading »
On Thursday David Horovitz and I interviewed Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. The story appeared in Friday’s Jerusalem Post:
The international community has to “stop speaking in slogans” if it really wants to help the new Israeli government work toward a solution to the Palestinian conflict and help bring stability to the Middle East, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, in his first interview with an Israeli newspaper since taking the job.
“Over the last two weeks I’ve had many conversations with my colleagues around the world,” he said. “Just today, I saw the political adviser to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Chinese foreign minister and the Czech prime minister. And everybody, you know, speaks with you like you’re in a campaign: Occupation, settlements, settlers…” Continue Reading »
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