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April 25, 2004
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Israel Remembrance Day begins Sunday evening, April 25
Israel Independence Day begins Monday evening, April 26
· How Israel Remembers Its Fallen
· Israel's Proclamation of Independence
· Hear Ben-Gurion Read the Proclamation of Independence
Visit the ICC Website
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Israel Independence Day Edition |
 Bush: "Palestinian Leadership Has Failed the People Year After Year"
Speaking to the Newspaper Association of America last week, President Bush said: "Ariel Sharon came to America and he stood up with me and he said, we are pulling out of Gaza and parts of the West Bank. In my judgment, the whole world should have said, thank you, Ariel. Now we have a chance to begin the construction of a peaceful Palestinian state....The Palestinian leadership has failed the people year after year after year. And now is the time for the world to step up and take advantage of this opportunity and help to build a Palestinian state that's committed to the principles of individual rights, and rule of law, and fairness, and justice." (White House)
Israel to Mark Memorial Day for its Fallen Soldiers Sunday Night by Amnon Barzilai
The Memorial Day ceremonies for Israeli soldiers killed in wars since the establishment of the state will open Sunday night with a one-minute siren. From November 29, 1947, to April 4, 2004, the number of fallen soldiers is 20,196. From last Memorial Day to April 19, 184 soldiers have been killed. From the time the first Jewish settlers left the walls of Jerusalem in 1860 and started building Jewish quarters, to April 19, the number of fallen soldiers is 21,781. (Ha'aretz)
 Cartoon on Holocaust Draws Fire at Rutgers by Richard Lezin Jones
The president of Rutgers University condemned a weekly campus publication, The Medium, on Friday for printing a front-page cartoon that ridiculed victims of the Holocaust. But, citing legal precedents protecting student publications, he said he could not take away its university funds as some critics had urged. (New York Times)
 Despite Everything, An Improvement by Ze'ev Schiff
Despite the unceasing terrorist war, there has been an improvement in Israel's strategic position over the past year. Certain threats that appeared grave in the past are gone. But, despite the positive assessment, that does not mean all the dangers are gone. The American military presence in Iraq puts the Americans on the flanks of two countries that Israel considers extremist: Iran and Syria. Prior to that came the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime. Iran's Shihab-3 rockets have become operational, which means Iran can now reach Israel. (Ha'aretz)
The Survival of Israel Depends on Secrecy by Gerald Steinberg
In the media, Mordechai Vanunu (pictured) is hailed as a hero and a whistleblower, but for Israelis who live in the reality of the Middle East, he is reviled for attempting to strip their beleaguered country of its most effective defensive capability. As a result, Vanunu, the former technician at Israel's nuclear reactor complex who sold information 18 years ago, has almost no support in Israel. (The Age-Australia)
Exit Strategy - Editorial
The April 14 meeting between President Bush and Prime Minister Sharon was a climactic moment, representing the belated and ideologically embittering acknowledgment of demography - the recognition that Israel can safely preserve its Jewish and democratic character only if its territory contains a hefty majority of Jews. Ideally, the withdrawal from Gaza would have been arranged through a negotiated agreement with the PA. But the PA's sordid record on terrorism made it an unpalatable partner, and its two successive powerless prime ministers, obsessed with protecting their own backs from the militias around them, showed little interest in parleying with the Israelis. (The New Republic)
Israel Independence Day: Projecting a Vision by Berel Wein
Absorbed as we are by our current struggles, we often lose sight of the wonder that there is any type of Jewish state anywhere, let alone in its ancient ancestral home. If appreciation of the truly wondrous nature of this state's creation and the timeliness of its birth are fading, then it should be replaced by vision. The State of Israel is defined as being both democratic and Jewish, and somehow these two ideas must learn to live with each other as peacefully and harmoniously as possible. (Jerusalem Post)
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Alaska Anchorage: Sound of Silence by Amanda Coyne
Philip Munger, a composer and University of Alaska assistant professor, was gearing up for the public release of his latest work - a cantata paying tribute to pro-Palestinian activist Rachel Corey. The score is dark, ominous and powerful. Munger's colleague and friend, Markus Bishko, who is Jewish, warned Munger that it was dangerously one-sided and pro-Palestinian. Munger and Bishko's friendship is now strained, and may be one of the causalities of the cantata. Munger's decision to cancel an Anchorage performance amid the criticism is another. (Anchorage Press)
Cornell: Students Lobby Congress for Israel Security Resolutions by Stephanie Baritz
20 Cornell students, part of the Cornell-Israel Public Affairs Committee (CIPAC), organized a trip to Washington, D.C. to meet with congressmembers to discuss two resolutions regarding the security of Israel. Dan Greenwald '05 of CIPAC lobbied on behalf of concurrent resolution 390 which condemns the UN's request for the International Court of Justice to give an "advisory opinion" on Israel's security fence. Jamie Weinstein '06 of CIPAC lobbied on behalf of the second resolution, H Con Res 398. which expresses Congress' concern of Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. (Daily Sun)
Emory: Protests Won't Deter Robinson by Susan Falvella-Garraty
Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson has insisted that she will give the commencement address at Emory University in Atlanta on May 10 despite protests lodged by some students and faculty of the school. "This school is over a third Jewish," said Lyle Rubin, a student leader, in an effort to have school administrators disinvite Robinson because of the perceived pro-Palestinians stands she promoted while she was UN high commissioner for human rights. "I have accepted an appointment to join former U.S. President Jimmy Carter as an advisor" at the school, Robinson added. (Irish Echo)
North Texas: Israel Fair Avoids Politics by Vanessa Londono
The fourth annual Israel Fair was held last week on the Campus Green. Hillel of North Texas and the NT Jewish studies program sponsored the event. "We have the fair to bring the whole community together to learn about the culture and people of Israel," said Lori Pines, director of the NT Hillel chapter. "It's a positive experience where we talk about the people and not the politics." (North Texas Daily)
Rutgers: Jews, Muslims Unite by Craig Yetsko
Nearly 50 people turned out to participate in the Walk for Humanity, sponsored by the Human Development Project. Barbara Yehaskel, a co-founder of the student-run group along with Rutgers College sophomore Sami Elmansoury, said the event was aimed at raising funds for Elijah's Promise, a New Brunswick soup kitchen, and also demonstrating that Jews and Muslims can work together toward a common goal. Ari Margolis, a fellow for the Jewish Campus Service Corps, said the concept of charity is central to both the Jewish and Muslim faiths. (Home News Tribune)
Tufts: Ambassador Calls Mid-East Conflict 'Bloody Bear Hug' by Alyson Bell
Speaking at Tufts University last week, Israel's ambassador to the United States, Daniel Ayalon, stressed that "Israel wants peace" and said intense talks last week led to landmark policy decisions, including giving up territories to the Palestinians for nothing in return. In order to save lives, Israel has created what Ayalon called a "temporary" security fence as a last resort to defend against suicide bombers. (Daily Free Press)
UCLA: Young Israeli Adults Offer Perspectives on Culture by Nancy Su
In an attempt to promote understanding of day-to-day life in Israel, three Israeli youths spoke on campus last week about their experiences living in the country and serving in the Israeli army, trying to give UCLA students a non-political view of Israeli life and a thoughtful discussion from their personal perspectives. As part of the Israel at Heart program, Eran Friedman, Shira Lupiansky, and Eyal Naor are speaking at colleges and churches in the Los Angeles and San Diego areas over a two-week period. (Daily Bruin)
USC: Israeli Minister Makes Long-Distance Call
Minister Natan Sharansky was scheduled to speak at USC, but was called back to Israel by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to deal with pressing matters. He spoke instead by satellite to an audience of more than 100 in a talk sponsored by Caravan for Democracy, Chabad at USC, and the USC Hillel Foundation. Students said they were impressed with his talk. "Human rights is one of the most fundamental principles a democracy could enforce," said Rivka Katz, a junior majoring in international relations. "His advocacy (of it) is essential." (Daily Trojan)
Virginia Tech: Students Experience Terrorism First-Hand as Undergraduate Fellows by Amy Mortensen
History majors sophomore Robert Barnett and junior Chris Scruggs spent two weeks studying in a nation embroiled in war and turmoil. Scruggs and Barnett traveled to Tel Aviv as part of an undergraduate fellowship through the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. "The real surprise to me was seeing how different it is to live somewhere like Israel as opposed to the United States," Barnett said. "The citizens are on alert all the time; it seems almost instinctive." (Collegiate Times)
Virginia Tech: Forum Discusses Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Jeff Wood
The Political Science Club sponsored the Palestinian-Israeli Peace Forum last week with the goal of educating audience members about the complexity of the issues in the region and discussing potential steps toward peace in Israel. Among the speakers: Israeli senior electrical engineering major Aluma Gruber. Gruber said that she was ready for peace, but that it will not come easily. "We are tired," she said. "We want peace, but we will not stop protecting ourselves." Gruber went on to say that she believes two states should exist in Israel. (Collegiate Times)
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Tainted Money for Columbia by Ariel Beery and Rachel Fish
It took more than a year for Columbia to disclose publicly the sources of the money for the Said chair, and now that the names of the donors have been made public, one can understand why the administration was so reluctant to admit from whom it received funding. The list of names the university published in its official newspaper includes a businessman who funded the PLO before it entered the Oslo peace process, and another who was central in orchestrating the French arming of Saddam Hussein, among many others. But the most distressing of the donors is a foreign government: the United Arab Emirates. (New York Jewish Week)
UC Davis: Homeland Terrorism by Luke Homen
Hamas has killed thousands of innocent Israeli civilians. It is no wonder that the people of Israel want these murderers to be brought to justice at any cost. They deserve to live in a world where they are free from suicide bombers in the marketplace or on the school bus. Yassin and Rantisi were brought to justice within the last month. Can we Americans, as fellow victims of senseless terrorism, truly find fault with the actions of Israel? (California Aggie)
Cornell: Killing Them Loudly by Elliott Marc Davis
The contention that killing off terrorists damages the nearly nonexistent peace process is bogus. In his book Why Terrorism Works, Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz brilliantly puts forth the thesis that conceding and pandering to terrorism - as when the international community criticizes Israel for killing off terrorist leaders yet chooses to give terrorists mere slaps on the wrist - only prompts more terrorism in a never-ending reward cycle that would make Pavlov proud. In fact, the converse is true. (Cornell Sun)
Penn: Attacks Against Hamas Steps Toward Peace by Alexander Chester
A state's moral and legal responsibility to its people is to provide for the public's defense and ensure justice for its citizens. And there is no doubt that the killings of Yassin and Rantisi qualify as acts of both defense and justice - the men were guilty of murder. The State of Israel had an obligation to its people to kill Yassin and Rantisi. This was not an obligation to the hundreds of dead that Yassin and Rantisi murdered; it was an obligation to the 5 million Israeli citizens Hamas targets that thus far have escaped. (Daily Pennsylvanian)
Texas: Peace Only Answer to Mideast Conflict by James Burnham
Ehud Barak spoke at the University on Monday night. The former Israeli leader brought this conflict closer than it had ever been to meaningful resolution and lasting peace. At Camp David in 2000, Barak demonstrated the lengths to which Israel would go for peace while Arafat belied his true motives and intentions to the world. There will be no peace until the Palestinian people reject those who preach the use of terror and empower a leader who will work for real peace rather than endless violence and conflict. (Daily Texan)
See also
Texas: The Firing Line. Ehud Barak Visits the Campus by Andrew Dobbs and Ori Raphael, letters to the editor
I am proud to have a man as distinguished as Gen. Barak on our campus - a man whose service to his people and historic work for peace offers a unique perspective to students. - Dobbs
Barak offered peace and lost power, Rabin offered peace and lost his life. Where on the Palestinian side is a leader who presented peace? Israel never failed to live up to Oslo, the Palestinian leadership did. They have let terrorism run rampant in the "territories" and groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad reign supreme. - Raphael (Daily Texan)
See also Barak Speaks at UT (KXAN -TV)
Not A 'Hava Nagila' Crowd by Steve Lipman
On Monday, New York's Jewish community will hold its annual Israel Independence Day celebration at Crobar, a mega-nightclub in midtown Manhattan. While supporters of Israel from all generations are welcome, the program "lends itself to a younger, hipper crowd," says David Borowich, a founder of Dor Chadash. The emphasis is a deliberate attempt to engage the interest of the post-college/pre-middle-age generation of Jews who are often missing from community activities, Borowich says. (New York Jewish Week)
Israeli Scientists Sharing Vital Info with U.S. Security Organizations
The worldwide fight against terror is not only taking place on the battlefield. In the labs of Israeli universities like the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, scientists are developing progressive methods to deal with the increasing unconventional threats to the Western world. The dean of the Technion chemistry faculty, Professor Ehud Keinan, recently shared his information on some technological breakthroughs with the U.S. umbrella organization for security technology, the Technical Support Working Group, which includes about 80 organizations that specialize in security. (Israel21c)
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 - Two Views on Sharon's Disengagement Plan | What's So Bad About the Sharon-Bush "Disengagement" Plan?
by Steven Plaut
- While the Sharon-Bush "plan" has a few positive features and aspects, it augurs badly and embodies existential dangers for Israel.
- It rewards terrorism. The "plan" rewards the terror by delivering to the terrorists and Islamofascists a Gaza Strip ethnically cleansed of Jews.
- The "plan" is a recipe for escalated terrorism and atrocities. If Israel has trouble suppressing the terror even today, when the Gaza Strip is full of Jews and Israeli soldiers, what will happen once they are evicted? What will stand in the way of the PLO escalating the violence?
- It is an evil precedent. It signals that Israel is willing to conduct "talks and dialogues" even while it is under daily attack by the PLO's terrorists and its civilians are being daily murdered.
- There is no "conditionality" at all in the "deal". Israel's concessions and capitulations are to be carried out without the smallest gesture from the PLO.
- While Sharon and his people have hailed the "deal" with President Bush as effectively recognizing Israel's rights to maintain "groups of settlements" where they are concentrated, such as around Ariel, Colin Powell is already backing off from this publicly and declaring there is no such US acknowledgement of Israel's rights.
- The "plan" relinquishes Israel's moral claim to the rights of Jews to live anywhere they wish within the Land of Israel. The plan ethnically cleanses Jews from the Gaza Strip and parts of Samaria. There is nothing in the plan that limits the rights of Arabs to live anywhere they wish in the Land of Israel, including in Israel's own capital city, Jerusalem.
- The destruction and abandonment of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, with no PLO quid pro quo, provides enormous encouragement to those Arabs who believe that violence and atrocities are the only way to make gains for themselves. It is an open declaration that no act of violence by Arabs will ever go unrewarded. It sets the most dangerous precedent imaginable. (Nativ)
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Israel's Best Option
by Gerald M. Steinberg
- The logic of unilateral disengagement is inescapable. As one of the founders of Israel's post-1967 settlement policy, Sharon resisted this approach for a long time. But if he had not announced this move, another leader would have.
- Israeli military responses to three years of terror have been quite effective, but sporadic attacks continue, and the costs of protecting small and isolated settlements are unreasonable. In addition, the multiple checkpoints, frequent closures and other sources of daily friction between individual Palestinians and Israeli soldiers contribute to the tension. And the political status quo poses a demographic threat to the survival of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.
- Until there is a credible Palestinian leadership to disarm the various factions and implement a lasting accord based on the two-state model, negotiations are not going to end the conflict, and may add to the violence.
- The evolution of a pragmatic Palestinian leadership anchored in basic societal changes will take many years or decades.
- Under these conditions, unilateral disengagement has become the least bad option.
- The construction of a separation barrier, and a clear—if temporary—boundary, only makes sense with the reduction in the points of friction and greater contiguity for the vast majority of both Palestinians and Israelis. This means the removal of isolated settlements near Palestinian cities, and strengthening of Israeli control in strategic areas, including Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, to ensure border control.
- Opponents also argue that withdrawal from Gaza will be seen by Palestinians as a victory, and, like the IDF's sudden pullout from Lebanon in May 2000, will encourage more terror. However, others counter that in the long term, Israeli security and deterrence were strengthened by this move. Attacks are far less frequent and Hizballah's power base in Lebanon was weakened. (Bitterlemons.org)
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