Depending on one's perspective, Haim Ramon is either a naughty boy or wise man of Israeli politics. Currently 60 years old, he has been prominent since he took one of the conventional routes to national affairs via leadership of student politics. He was secretary of the Labor Party youth wing when he was first elected to the Knesset at the age of 33. He has served as the chair of important Knesset Committees, and as a minister in several governments. He was a leading figure in the Labor Party until he joined with several colleagues and individuals from Likud to create Kadima. His most recent post was Justice Minister in the government of Ehud Olmert, which he resigned in the process of being charged and found guilty of indecent conduct in 2007. His infraction was to impose a French kiss on a female soldier who had come to his office to be photographed with him. A peck on the cheek would have been more acceptable.
His most notable achievement came in the mid-1990s while serving as Secretary General of the Labor Federation. He did what policy analysts had been advocating for years: breaking the linkage between the country's largest HMO and the Labor Federation, and setting in process a health reform that established other HMO's, depoliticized the HMO linked to the Labor Federation, and required every citizen to enroll in one of the HMOs whose fees and benefits would be regulated by the Health Ministry. For this, Ramon was pilloried by Labor Party aparachniks who lost their source of funding, but gained wide praise from others.
Ramon resigned from the Knesset in 2009, but has continued as chair of Kadima's Council. He appears frequently on Israeli media, articulate and forceful as he explains one of his current proposals, typically at odds with the government of the day.
Now he is in the headlines for a lunch meeting with the Palestinian official known as the chief negotiator with Israel. They met in the dining room of the American Colony Hotel, an upscale boutique facility in an Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem that is a favorite of visiting journalists, Palestinians, and Israelis who appreciate the setting and its atmosphere. Another diner, who sat near them, has reported what is claimed to be a word by word.report of their discussion. Both participants deny the details, but the report is credible for those who know Ramon, and his criticisms of Benyamin Netanyahu. Shimon Peres also denies his role in the event, but those who know Peres' record may consider that element to be credible.
According to the report, Ramon said he was acting on the Peres' advice, and urged the Palestinians to reject the prospect of direct negotiations with Netanyahu. Ramon said that the Prime Minister would not give them anything. The implication was that they could get more from Kadima Party leader Tzipi Livni and Ramon, backed up by the urging of the Obama White House and ranking Europeans..
One can quarrel about the substance of Ramon's comments. I doubt that there are many Israelis who genuinely believe that it will be possible to achieve an agreement with the Palestinians in the near future, or if Netanyahu is prepared to make the kind of effort requiring him to wrestle with his party colleagues, settlers, and a broad swath of Israeli public opinion.
Leaving that aside, however, it appears that Ramon has broken the rule about undercutting a national leader involved in delicate international maneuvers. In Israel as in a number of other countries, the informal rules allow severe criticism of domestic policy moves, but expect a minimum of restraint on major issues of foreign policy. In this case, the details concern not only the most prominent item on the national agenda, but also one that involves the governments of the United States and Western Europe.
If Ramon's conversation was indiscreet, and may prove costly for him, his Kadima colleagues, and Shimon Peres, the Palestinian leader, Mahoud Abbas has been reported as saying something no less damaging to the prospects desired by Barack Obama and others. Speaking at a Cairo conference of the Arab League, he said that while he would accept NATO troops to keep the peace between a Palestinian State and Israel, he would not accept any Jews among the NATO contingent. He also said that he would not allow any Jews to live in the Palestinian State.
The comments received some coverage on Israeli radio news, but may have been removed from subsequent broadcasts in an effort to preserve at least some semblance of an ongoing process. However, the details are being sent around by Israeli bloggers, which may be enough to keep them alive and to kill any chances of reaching an accord. http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/2561251/posts
Those who see Abbas as the only hope of extracting something from the Palestinians that will contribute to peace may deny that he was quoted accurately, or attribute the comments to Zionist disinformation. They gain credence in the light of widespread, and vicious comments about Jews among his constituents..
Peace lovers of the world wake up. You have work to do.
.
--
Ira Sharkansky (Emeritus)
Department of Political Science
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Tel: +972-2-532-2725
Fax +972-2-582-9144
irashark@gmail.com
One of the consequences of Israel's demonization is the incidence of young people who participate in demonstrations against one or another of what they perceive as the abominations created by the oppressor of Palestine.
Revolution and justice are powerful attractions, but they do not always appear together. Justice is elusive, and likely to be contentious.
While some view Palestinian aspirations as the greatest cause of the 21st century, others see them as appealing fictions, perpetuated by political leaders unable to settle their differences with Israel due to Palestinian extremists.
Rachel Corrie is among the most prominent victims of this excitement. Prodded by her own contemplations from afar, or incited by others, she appeared on an active battlefield in Gaza during the height of the latest intifada in 2003, dressed in a bright vest, carrying a poster, and yelling that Israeli soldiers must stop their activity. She was killed by an armed bulldozer in the midst of noise and dust, whose driver could see only from a small window that was most likely dirtied by what he and others were doing. While her parents continue a campaign of blaming the driver, the IDF, and the whole of Israel, an official investigation determined that their allegations were without foundation. A civil case continues in Israeli courts, whose characteristic slowness may keep it going for several more years.
The most recent instance involves Emily Henochowicz, an American Jewish student who came to Israel for a period of study, and was attracted to the Palestinian cause. She participated in demonstrations against the construction of the security barrier, the settlement of Jews in an Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem, and lost an eye when hit by a tear gas canister while protesting the incident involving the Turkish flotilla. She describes herself as the daughter of an ardent Zionist and the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, who loves Israel as well as being concerned for Palestine.
She is demanding the payment of her medical bills by the Ministry of Defense. Newspaper accounts cite witnesses who claim that the tear gas canister was fired directly at protesters, instead of in the air as required. Officials have expressed regret about her injuries, but indicate that their that inquiries justify the firing of tear gas at a demonstration that had turned violent with the throwing of stones. They say that the canister in question was not fired directly at demonstrators but ricocheted off a barricade, and explain that the government does not cover medical expenses in such cases.
The attorney representing Ms Henochowicz is quoted as telling her father, an American physician, "not to touch his wallet or to sign any check." He also indicated that, "It is insolent and preposterous to expect someone who was shot by the security forces, whether unintentionally, negligently or with criminal intention, to fund her own medical treatment."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/world/middleeast/28israel.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
There have been several cases of demonstrators or journalists killed or injured while participating in, or covering demonstrations or actual combat. They typically lead to official inquiries or investigations. People speaking for the military, police, or government generally express their regrets, but stop short of an official apology. Some instances have produced formal charges by those injured, or their survivors, and some of these have led to the payment of compensation, and the censure or punishment of the soldiers or police held to be responsible. Details differ from one case to another. Any general conclusion is elusive, except for those convinced that everything Israel does is either evil or justified.
Don't play in traffic is an appropriate element of any parent's efforts to raise children. Stay away from battlefields and demonstrations likely to get ugly is a lesson appropriate for older offspring.
If either a child or parent is offended by what they would see as patronizing advice, they must be prepared for unpleasant experiences.
It may be thrilling and satisfying to demonize Israel, but costly for those who decide to act on their passion.
--
Ira Sharkansky (Emeritus)
Department of Political Science
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Tel: +972-2-532-2725
Fax +972-2-582-9144
irashark@gmail.com
"Document Leak May Hurt Efforts to Build War Support"
Each of us may have a different view of that headline in the New York Times, which derives from the paper's activities, along with the Guardian, Der Spiegel, and WikiLeaks, to bring purloined documents to the public's attention. Some will condemn the paper as working against the national interest or worse, and say that this is the latest chapter in a disingenuous effort against the war in Afghanistan. Others will praise the paper for revealing to the public what should be known about a war destined for failure from the beginning.
Those with a memory will say it all looks pretty much like the controversy surrounding the New York Time's publication of Daniel Ellsberg's Pentagon Papers in 1971. That was a highlight in a campaign against a war that began with public support and ended in a mood of political embarrassment, and defeat for the party in power.
Ellsberg faced serious charges under the Espionage Act that could have put him in prison for the rest of his life, but a federal judge dismissed the case in the light of illegal activities directed against Ellsberg by the Nixon administration. Since then his story, and Vietnam, have been joined with Watergate in a grand condemnation of the Johnson and Nixon administrations.
Now we will see if responsible people in the Obama administration remember the treatment of Ellsberg, and/or the story of Vietnam, and manage to avoid charges of how they defend a war that is, at the least, problematic.
We can quarrel about the public's right to know the details of military actions, including errors in targeting, civilian casualties, convoluted relations with other governments, the deceptions that occur along the chain of command, and the disregard for human life that may reach the level of sadism. Control of such material is harder than in the 1970s, and perhaps impossible given the advent of the internet without a fixed base of entry, along with camera-equipped cell phones, tiny recording devices and other gadgets affordable and readily available to military personnel, journalists, and others. Censorship has become voluntary, and perhaps impossible to maintain in military operations that include tens or hundreds of thousands of participants. Some of those involved will be intense in their commitment to achieving military goals and impatient at any civilian control, while others will feel strongly about their own conceptions of decency. Individual attitudes change in the course of operations, and may move in the direction of disregard for civilian casualties or accurate reporting, or in the counter direction of disgust with any officially directed or condoned violence.
So far WikiLeaks does not have a Hebrew language version. Israel and the IDF may be spared, at least temporarily, anything equivalent to what is currently disturbing the Pentagon and White House.
My own question is whether the current revelations will produce something like the torrent of investigations by the several organs of the United Nations and other do gooders to match Goldstone on Gaza, and the numerous commissions intent on revealing truth about Israel's attack on peace loving Turks.
A rhetorical question if I ever imagined one. We all know there is one rule for Israel, and another for countries with more supporters in international organizations.
International concern may push Israel to look more closely at its own behavior. The IDF has tried and punished soldiers and officers for unnecessary civilian casualties, and for distorting reports about military operations. Much of this has come as a result of established internal procedures or in response to revelations by Israeli media. Israel has no lack of Hebrew language web sites that reveal stories the establishment would prefer to keep quiet. What they lack, however, is a prominent central address having international exposure equivalent to WikiLeaks.
It is hard to say if commissions responsible to international organs or self-appointed outsiders claiming a concern for human rights have produced more assiduous inquiries by Israel, or a greater sense of isolation and persecution. My own perception is that a "damn the world" mentality has not become chronic with anything more than a fringe of Israeli society. On the other hand, skepticism and cynicism toward those claiming a right to criticize Israel are justified when it is only Israel that receives such treatment.
--
Ira Sharkansky (Emeritus)
Department of Political Science
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Tel: +972-2-532-2725
Fax +972-2-582-9144
irashark@gmail.com
More than two million overseas visitors arrived in Jerusalem during a recent year. The attractions are well maintained places linked to individuals and events featured in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, and a functioning Old City enclosed by walls built in ancient times and last reconstructed in the 16th century. The Old City offers sites and shopping for tourists, and four distinctive neighborhoods that are the homes of 30,000 Jews, Muslims, Armenians and other Christians. Only a short ride away is Bethlehem, equally compelling for those wanting to see the roots of Christianity. Jericho is not much further in another direction. It offers winter visitors a chance to dine comfortably in an outdoor restaurant, while ten miles away in Jerusalem it may be raining and close to freezing.
While the numbers coming to Jerusalem are impressive, and often a nuisance to locals having to cope with crowds and traffic, the city ranks lower than 50 others in the numbers of tourists it attracts. London, New York, Bangkok, Paris, and Rome attract from three to seven times the number of international tourists as Jerusalem. Dublin, Amsterdam, and Prague get twice as many, while even Kiev and Bucharest, plus resorts near Bangkok attract 50 percent more international visitors than Jerusalem. http://www.euromonitor.com/Articles.aspx?folder=Euromonitor_Internationals_Top_City_Destination_Ranking&print=true
Jerusalem may have more of a mystic pull than these other places. The "Jerusalem syndrome" is a documented condition whereby some visitors believe themselves to be biblical characters. Jewish and Christian sufferers act as David, Jesus, or some other figure associated with their faith. I am not aware of visitors to London and Paris thinking that they are Henry VIII, Napoleon, or any of the other figures associated with local history.
Why does Jerusalem rank only #51 on a sophisticated ranking of international tourism?
Distance has something to do with it. Visitors to Western Europe can avail themselves of numerous attractive destinations as part of the same trip from home. There are decent beaches and other features in Tel Aviv and Netanya, but they attract only 60 and 10 percent of the overseas visitors as Jerusalem. Tiberias is on the Sea of Galilee and close to sites important to Christians, but draws only 25 percent of the number of visitors to Jerusalem. http://www.cbs.gov.il/www/tourism_q/t30.pdf
There are other sites in countries close to Jerusalem, notably Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, but the borders of the Middle East are not as easy to cross as those of Western Europe. For some years now Israeli security personnel have not allowed Israeli Jews to visit Bethlehem or Jericho without special permits, and others have to pass through barriers and inspections meant to protect us.
Politics and tension are more likely to figure in a decision to visit Jerusalem than other cities. The number of overseas tourists to Israel dropped from 2.4 million in 2000, which was mostly prior to the onset of the latest intifada, to a bit over one million in 2003, which was one of the bloodiest years. Numbers increased to 1.9 million by 2005 when the violence had diminished significantly. No other country included in the regions of Europe and the Mediterranean surveyed by the United Nations tourist agency showed comparable variations in the same period. Even on a mundane issue like this, the U.N. is unable to consider Israel part of the Middle East region, which includes all of the countries bordering it and Palestine. http://www.world-tourism.org
Jerusalem has drawn more tourists that some well-known sites in Europe. It does better than Florence and Venice, and is pretty much tied with Athens. Why less than Kiev and Bucharest? There are mysteries in the world of tourism that may boil down to nothing more than current fashion or a lack of precision in the numbers.
Tourist flows change with politics and economics. Thirty years ago there was virtually no direct travel between Israel, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Now Russian visitors are in second place behind those from the United States; there are sizable numbers from Ukraine and Poland. Thousands come each year from India, Korea, Japan, China, and Nigeria. Indonesia and Morocco receive Israelis and send visitors to Israel, even though there are no formal diplomatic relations. There are even a few hundred visitors annually from Malaysia and Iran, whose officials are usually among our most intense critics .
http://www.cbs.gov.il/www/tourism_q/t03.pdf
My latest Jerusalem experience may be part of a multicultural gesture to attract overseas visitors, or it may reflect nothing more than the lack of experience or attention by the person responsible. While I usually pay no attention to the music piped into the exercise room at the university gym, this morning I became alert to something familiar. It was Silent Night, in the English version I was required to sing many years ago at the Highland School. But only in December. Never in July.
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Ira Sharkansky (Emeritus)
Department of Political Science
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Tel: +972-2-532-2725
Fax +972-2-582-9144
irashark@gmail.com
The sky is not falling. Today.
After a week or so of panic following the encounter with the Turkish flotilla, nastiness from the peaks of the Turkish government, conventional censures from the United Nations and NGOs, and shrill comments of "We told you so" from J Street types, more conventional economics and politics have been doing their work. The most recent news is that Israeli and Turkish businesses are still dealing, and leading military personnel of the two countries continue with their mutually rewarding activities. Israel is shipping sophisticated military equipment to Turkey, and the Israeli Foreign Ministry has withdrawn its warning about visiting that country. Travel agents are celebrating, and again offering packages to the Turkish coast that for some years have been attracting middle- and working class Israelis looking for affordable family vacations.
After the Turkish flap, there was a week or two of high excitement among Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative extremists concerned to guard their turf over the issue of conversion to Judaism. All of the above again demonstrated their capacity to create reasons for spurring their activists to commotion. They saw indications that threatened the integrity of the Jewish people, and perhaps more importantly the status of their own organizations and personalities. The nucleus of their concern was what may be no more than a handful of individuals wanting a non-Orthodox conversion to take place within Israel.
The outcome to date is a tense standoff. The proposal meant to settle things from the Orthodox perspective has been withdrawn, at least for a while, from the Knesset's agenda. The result is that a different handful or more from among 300,000 or so immigrants from the former Soviet Union who are not consider halachic Jews, and who actually want to convert, will find the road as rocky as before. Ultra-Orthodox activists are gloating, and the bureaucrats in the Interior Ministry continue to raise their objections to conversions by rabbis they do not accept as such, despite decisions that Reform and Conservative organizations extracted from the Supreme Court.
According to a note from a friend who is a Liberal religious activist:
"The . . . Ministry insists that the candidate (from) abroad be part
of a Jewish community (synagogue, usually) there for up to a year after
conversion before they'll recognize his/her status. A Supreme Court decision outlawed
the waiting period of one year that they came up with . . . but
when we tried to get converts registered after the decision, Ministry officials
told us: 'The court outlawed a 365-day waiting period, but that doesn't mean
we can't require 364 days.' "
Didn't I write in a previous note something about the persistence and power of bureaucracy? Sorry to say that "I told you so," but I did tell you so.
The sky is never completely rosy when viewed with Jewish eyes. Just today I received a note from a leftist activist that included this:
"This is sad... but if israel continues on its course, it will see more like this
Subject: StandWithUs Northwest Alert! Olympia Food Coop Boycotts Israeli Products
Olympia Food Coop Voted in an Unpublicized Meeting to Boycott
All Israeli Products Until Israel is Disbanded
We Need Your help NOW!!"
The people who are organizing this will not get my help, but I won't pretend to speak for the rest of you.
And for those of you who see salvation in the various flotillas for the unfortunates people of Gaza
"Senior Palestinian health officials say that a large proportion of the aid received from Arab countries is useless. It includes medications beyond their legal dates, and equipment that does not work. "We could use only about 30 percent of what we received as aid." http://news.walla.co.il/?w=//1712755
It appears that the Jewish people have survived aggression from the Turkey government, yet another blast from the United Nations and NGOs, plus an uptick in nastiness from Orthodox, ultra-Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative Jews. Given that record, I suspect that we will manage the attack launched by the Olympia Food Coop.
I am not so optimistic about the chances of Gazans with their friends.
--
Ira Sharkansky (Emeritus)
Department of Political Science
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Tel: +972-2-532-2725
Fax +972-2-582-9144
irashark@gmail.com
Currently the most pressing religious war in these surroundings is not between Jews and Muslims or Christians, but among the Jews.
As is typical of this recurring conflict, the weapons involved are not explosives. This round of conflict has not escalated beyond nastiness and disinformation. But those are sufficient to heat up the combatants, and to attract the attention of us outsiders, i.e., secular Jews without a dog in the fight.
Prominent participants are the Reform and Conservative Movements, strong in the United States and using their clout to affect things here. It looks like a community with fewer than 14 million people, and beset with serious hostility from others, can afford its own world war.
There are several armies on the battlefield, and their slogans do not always convince us that those, indeed, are at the center of their concerns. In other words, demands about religion may be masking something else, more important to the participants. To Reform and Conservative activists, it is an occasional to get some media exposure in Israel, and bolster their organizations. To one of the prominent other actors, it may be leverage to stay out of jail.
One contender is Knesset Member David Rotem. He is affiliated with Avigdor Lieberman's Israel Beitenu party, and is currently chair of the Knesset Committee on Constitution, Law and Justice. Rotem is promoting a bill to concentrate the conversion to Judaism in Israel under the authority of the Chief Rabbinate. The Chief Rabbinate is at the peak of organizations that deal with marriage, divorce, and kashrut for most Israeli Jews, as well as conversion to Judaism in Israel. It is Orthodox, but always looking over its shoulder to ultra-Orthodox rabbis who have their own religious courts and inspectors of kashrut. Ultra-Orthodox rabbis decide issues for members of their own congregations. They tangle with institutions of the Israeli State and accuse Orthodox rabbis of not being sufficiently observant.
It is common to estimate that ultra-Orthodox and Orthodox Jews each represent about 10 percent of Israel's Jewish population. Both have political representation in the Knesset and are usually involved in government coalitions. Israel Beitenu is the principal party of Russian speaking Israelis. They amount to about one million people who have arrived since the late 1980s. They are equivalent to about 20 percent of the Jewish population, but perhaps as many as one-third of them do not pass muster with the Rabbinate as halachic Jews. Israel Beitenu, along with the ultra-Orthodox parties SHAS and Torah Judaism are important members of the current government. Without them, Prime Minister Netanyahu would be in trouble.
Among the issues that Israel Beitenu has promoted is a smoothing of what are often horrendous and unsuccessful efforts at conversion to Judaism.
Outside of the Israeli milieu of Orthodox, ultra-Orthodox, and Russian immigrants are rabbis and other activists of liberal Judaism, mostly Reform and Conservative. These movements are dominant among American Jews, but are small enough to be overlooked in surveys of Israeli Jews. The Conservative Movement claims 50,000 members of its Israeli congregations. http://web.archive.org/web/20070522000543/http://www.masorti.org/about/about.html, The Reform Movement provides no estimate of its adherents in Israel, but it has only about one-half the number of congregations as the Conservative. http://www.reform.org.il/eng/index.asp Neither the Reform nor the Conservative movements have a party to represent them in Israeli politics, and may hear only an occasional comment of support from an individual Knesset Member.
Both Reform and Conservative rabbis in Israel have spoken forcefully against the proposal of David Rotem, and have energized their American allies to join the fray. Among the wildest of comments that have come to my mailbox from overseas are claims that the proposal would "disenfranchise" the majority of American Jews, and delegitimize marriages performed by non-Orthodox rabbis.
Orthodox activists are neither more accurate nor polite. The Chief Sephardi Rabbi appeared on Israel radio, and did not soil his diction with the word, "Reform." Instead he spoke about a cult that sought to change Judaism, and thereby introduce a dangerous schism in the midst of the Jewish people. To prevent that, he sees the enactment of Rotem's proposal as essential.
It is far from clear that Rotem's proposal would weaken the status of non-Orthodox Jews in Israel, but that is what they are saying. And at a time when the Israeli government is being squeezed by the United States government on matters that have no direct connection to religious wars among the Jews, non-Orthodox activists have more power than their numbers in the Israeli electorate or the Knesset. The prime minister is taking a course dictated by international politics, and saying that he will work to prevent the passage of Rotem's proposal, which he says would introduce a dangerous schism among the Jews of the world.
Commentators are speculating that conversion is not all that important to the head of Israel Beitenu. Lieberman is an insider-outsider, or a man with enough votes to receive a senior position in the government, but not enough personal stature to move beyond the fringe of Israeli politics. He has acquired a reputation as an outspoken righist, and is the subject of a long-running police investigation dealing with various forms of corruption. A Russian speaking friend who says that Leiberman is correct on most things also admits that Lieberman is a thug. Lieberman gained the distinguish title of Foreign Minister, but Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Barak go to the most important places and speak for Israel to the key leaders of the United States, France, Germany, and Great Britain. Lieberman deals with capitals in Latin America, Kazakhstan, and Moldova, and visits Moscow to obtain what he can from a government that appears unfriendly. His deputy, Knesset Member and former career diplomat Daniel Ayalon, sometimes appears to be dealing with more important issues than Lieberman.
By one view, Lieberman is obsessed with staying in the limelight and demonstrating his political importance. Promoting what he claims is an easier road to conversion is one way of doing this, and advancing what may be his principal goal of claiming to be indispensable. The purpose of that would be to gain help with the police and other judicial authorities.
All this is happening while we approach the 9th of Av. The day has increased in importance in recent years. More institutions will be closed than in the past. The media is providing commentary about destruction and salvation, along with advice on who should avoid fasting for reasons of health.
According to the Passover story, we survived slavery in Egypt. According to the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, we overcame one disaster that occurred on the 9th of Av, and returned from Exile in Babylon. Josephus describes another rough time among the Jews that facilitated the Romans' destruction of Jerusalem on another 9th of Av. We all know what happened a generation ago in Germany and Eastern Europe. Now it's up to Benyamin Netanyahu to maneuver between excitable Jews from Russia and America, while President Obama and several of Obama's allies want him to do something unpleasant. .
--
Ira Sharkansky (Emeritus)
Department of Political Science
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Tel: +972-2-532-2725
Fax +972-2-582-9144
irashark@gmail.com
