Halevi
This Sunday a Jewish school in Westchester County, N.Y., will be hosting a “Day of Learning… Engaging with Israel: Advocacy in a Complex World.” It is clear from the offerings that the program is extremely defensive. The brand is tanking. I am most curious about what Fern Oppenheim of the Brand Israel Group regards as the “great divide” in American views of Israel. I’m guessing she means the country’s changing image among the young. The event features Yossi Klein Halevi, who lives in occupied East Jerusalem, a representative of AIPAC, and someone from the rightwing David Project. Excerpts of the program:
9:30 a.m. Keynote: “The Middle East at a Crossroads: Forecast for the Jewish State” Yossi Klein Halevi, Shalom Hartman Institute
[concurrent workshop] American Views of Israel: The Great Divide and How To Overcome It Presented by Fern Oppenheim, Brand Israel Group
The Media’s Portrayal of the Middle East Presented by Gary Rosenblatt, Editor and Publisher, The Jewish Week 10:30 a.m.
Workshop / Session 1 (Attendee Choice) What’s Happening on the College Campus Presented by Dr. Andrew Sklover, National Board Member of Hillel and Chair of its Israel Advocacy Committee 11:30 a.m. Workshop / Session 2 (Attendee Choice) The Progressive Case for Israel Presented by Rebecca Neuwirth, Director of Special Projects, American Jewish Committee
12:30 p.m. Lunch Responding to Anti-Israel Sentiment Presented by Matthew Ackerman, The David Project 12:45 p.m.
Panel Discussion: Yossi Klein Halevi Fern Oppenheim Gary Rosenblatt Israel & the Changing Politics in the Middle East Presented by Elliott Mendes, Northeast Deputy Director of AIPAC
So it’s not biased enough?
interesting, i was just reading on AIC :
this is from today. they are scrambling.
Yossi Klein Halevi is nuts. The days when people like him decided the fate of the Middle East are over.
http://www.tnr.com/article/world/95020/un-palestine-israel-security-council-statehood
“Israel is not to blame for the absence of peace…a settlement freeze, however essential for our own integrity, will not bring the Palestinians back to the negotiating table…But in truth the question of what Netanyahu would concede is irrelevant. The Palestinians were offered the equivalent of the 1967 borders by former Israeli prime ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert. Yet Palestinian leaders rejected the offers because they refused to concede the “sacred” right of return, as P.A. head Mahmoud Abbas calls it—that is, the sacred right to destroy the Jewish state through demographic subversion. The Netanyahu government isn’t the cause of the breakdown of the peace process but its result.
The temptation for Jewish self-recrimination is deeply rooted in Zionist psychology. Zionism, after all, was a revolt against Jewish fatalism. If the Jewish situation is untenable, then clearly the fault lies with a lack of Jewish initiative. If you will it, said Zionist founder Theodore Herzl, it is no dream.
Israeli rightists and leftists agree, in effect, that Israel can unilaterally determine its own reality, regardless of outside circumstances. If Israel lacks security, insists the right, that’s because we haven’t projected enough power and deterrence. And if Israel lacks peace, insists the left, that’s because we haven’t been sufficiently forthcoming in offering concessions.
Both right and left, then, implicitly dismiss the Arabs as an independent factor, with their own wills and agendas. But what if the Arab world doesn’t accept Israel’s legitimacy? What if the Middle East is undergoing transformations that have little if anything to do with what Israel wills?
This Rosh Hashanah I will ask forgiveness for my own sins and for the collective sins of Israel, as the liturgy insists. But I will withhold my political apologies for a time when those confessions won’t be manipulated against me. There is no religious obligation to collaborate in my own demonization. I will not be seeking forgiveness from those who deny my right to be.”
phil, i just thought i would mention donniel hartman himself of the Shalom Hartman Institute played a very well publicized gig last night at marin jewish community center called Engaging Israel. my friend invited me last week but i passed it up. then she actually called and begged me to go right before she left the house last night wanting me to ‘ask important questions’. they also hosted a special opening talk on “The History of the Map of Israel” which you can read about at the link.
it appears they are circling the wagon on both coasts. both events were Shalom Hartman Institute affiliated.
Donniel Hartman is a legend. “We must wait for Moshiach by beating the shit out of the Palestinians. In that we can can achieve perfection” is more or less his worldview