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Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Israeli Activist Leibler and New York's Israel Policy Forum Give Advice to Netanyahu About Peace Talks

Nadene Goldfoot
Pressure is on Prime Minister Netanyahu once again.  The following are some of 100 prominent Leftist Jewish Leaders that are urging Israel to again make painful territorial sacrifices to attain peace.  Nothing is said by these pro-Peace Israel Policy Forum members who live in the USA about the Palestinians making any concessions;  such as their desire to wipe out Israel or to recognize her.  Just to give up land seems to be their only known path to peace which Israel has done time and again .  Gaza is an excellent example of giving up land for peace and getting hit with rockets, mortars and missiles within a few meters away.  Israel has said that they won't make that mistake again.  They gave up the Sinai  to Egypt for peace and that lasted a little while, but look at what a mess Egypt is in now, with a regime bent on wiping out Israel.  The Muslim Brotherhood wants to do just that.  Only American money is keeping them at bay momentarily.

  "The well-known philanthropists  of IPF are New York based, such as Charles Bronfman, Danny Abraham, Lester Crown and Stanley Gold; former U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Dov Zakheim; former U.S. Congressman Mel Levine; former AIPAC executive director Tom Dine; Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt; President of United Reform Judaism Rabbi Rick Jacobs and his predecessor Rabbi Eric Yoffie; Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson; Warner Eisenberg co-founder of Bed, Bath and Beyond; Peter Joseph, Chairman of IPF; former UJA Chairman Marvin Lender; Richard Pearlstone, former chairman of the Jewish Agency and Marcia Riklis, Campaign Chair of the UJA Federation of New York, bright American Jews."

This rather presumptuous group  that started in 1993 was quite active during the Oslo Accords on the 90's and then waned.  They see themselves as a centrist and pragmatic think tank and advocacy group.  I would love to see these 16 austere leaders travel to Israel for 10 days to really see the situation first hand right now.    No doubt they all have visited Israel for vacations, but there is so much to check out in this little area that depends on security matters.  Included with this tour should be some audio-visual-lectures covering the history of our homeland.  Even rabbis could benefit from all the legalities uncovered by our international lawyers  that most people are unaware of.  

Perhaps this has come about  because Abbas has consented to giving Kerry 8 to 12 weeks to restart the peace process.  Abbas is suspending the UN recognition of Palestine for this.   If they do not come to an agreement to start the process, the UN recognition will resume, so he really loses nothing by granting this time.    Though Obama returned to Washington, Kerry remained behind for this work.  

Or is it because the ICC rejected the Palestinian bid to investigate "Israel War Crimes during Cast Lead's Gaza Operation.   Israel's Cast Lead started December 27, 2008 after being shelled for 3 years.  Hamas Palestinian terrorists don't see it as a crime to shell defenseless civilians  with thousands of mortars, rockets and missiles, but it's a crime to them to finally call "uncle" and defend yourself.  I don't see Israel ever being that patient again as they have reacted quickly to the latest 3 rockets that were shot in southern Israel from Gaza in the last few days.  

Isi Leibler calls the IPF "Jews against Zion."  He said they promote  their idea that Israel should make "unilateral concessions to the Palestinians."  Members of the IPF responded that Mr. Leibler's attack was "offensive and deplorable"  Isi, born in 1934 in Belgium and luckily had parents who moved to Australia, made aliyah  to Israel in 1999.  Since settling in Jerusalem,, Leibler has emerged as one of the leading global English language commentators on Israel and Jewish affairs. He is a prolific writer, publishing weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post,  the Hebrew daily Israel Hayom, and on his blog Candidly Speaking from Jerusalem.   "Leibler has been accused of de-legitimizing liberal Jewish supporters of Israel.  Leibler responded that "I stand by my view that those whose primary goal is to delegitimize and demonize the Jewish state should be marginalized from the mainstream Jewish community. That is not fascism. It is common sense."

When I lived in Israel from 1980 to the end of 1985, I was amazed as I checked with my mother in Eastern Oregon and learned that she never received the news about us in Israel that was going on.  I came to the conclusion that Oregonians knew nothing, so tried to convey matters in my letters, and in those days there were no computers and email, just snail mail by the postman.  In fact a letter took about 3 weeks to get to its destination.  In fact, she lived in Ontario, on the border with Idaho and didn't even know what was happening in Portland, let alone Israel.  So I wonder just how much these august persons keep up with the current events of Israel.  It's almost an all day process for me!

What I'm pointing out is that it is stressful to read that New Yorkers are telling Israelis what to do.  Are they Israeli citizens?  Do they vote?  I saw life through very clear glasses when I lived in Israel, not rose-colored ones, and took out citizenship.   There's a difference in knowing a bomb landed in the back yard 2 weeks ago in Israel and walking around a suburb in Portland, and heavens knows what New York is like.  What's that old saying, "walk in my shoes to know the whole story?   By writing 3 blogs myself about Israel, I'm living, breathing and loving Israel every minute and learning more and more of our history as I do this.  There's no end to the learning, it seems.  So I really wonder how these wonderful but busy people find the time to learn and understand.  There's more to it all than hear snatches in a meeting.  I do hope they're doing lots of reading.

Resource:  http://www.haaretz.com/  http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/100-american-jewish-leaders-urge-netanyahu-to-show-readiness-to-make-painful-territor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Policy_Forum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isi_Leibler
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/Gazaincursion.html
Letters From Israel by Nadene Goldfoot, found on amazon.com  

1 comment:

Nadene Goldfoot said...

Nadene,

It was Bronfman who around 2002 tried to prevent Israel from building the Wall that kept out flood of Suicide bombers. He even contacted President Bush to assist in preventing the wall. Israel judged him in “perfidy” which in this sense, he is a Traitor to Israel. President Bush replied that the wall is Israel’s decision, not the left wing traitor Bronfman’s decision.

I don’t think Bibi will allow these these dumb, arrogant b------s to tell him what to do.