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June 6, 2004
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 Cabinet Approval of Pullout Plan Expected by Aluf Benn
The government is expected to muster a majority Sunday in favor of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to end Israel's presence in the Gaza Strip and remove four isolated settlements in the West Bank.
(Ha'aretz)
Powell Calls for Reformed Palestinian Leadership
Secretary of State Powell said last week: "We are committed to creating a Palestinian state that will have reformed, responsible leadership, a state that will be contiguous, coherent, that lives in peace with the State of Israel. Prime Minister Sharon has put forward an interesting plan that would remove settlements, all 21 settlements from Gaza, and begin the removal of settlements from the West Bank, beginning with four settlements. I think this is a good start....Arafat, frankly, has been a problem. He has been a hindrance. He has not taken advantage of the opportunities presented to him." (State Department)
See also Bush: Reform-Minded Palestinians Must Step Forward (White House)
Israel Eases Closure of Gaza Commercial Crossing
Israel said it had reopened the main crossing into the Gaza Strip last week to allow food and medicines through to Palestinians who said they were suffering severe shortages. Palestinian officials said Israel had promised a gradual reopening at Karni crossing. They said at least 10 Israeli trucks were allowed into Gaza laden with food and medicine. Israel says there have been recent attempts to smuggle bombs into Israel through Karni. (Reuters)
Security Fence Brings Stability to Jenin by Matthew Gutman
According to Hader Abu Sheikh, an official of the Palestinian Legislative Council, "there is 70% more nightlife in Jenin than a year ago." "We are talking about the resumption of traditional Palestinian nightlife," explains Abu Sheikh. "Weddings, men sitting in cafes late at night, women visiting each other....The point is, people are no longer confined to their houses at night, because Israel has left the city." Even Palestinian Legislative Council member Sakhri Turkuman, a Fatah official, concedes that the security fence has "created some stability in Jenin." (Jerusalem Post)
Survey: Palestinians Want Democracy Like Israel's
Palestinians in the territories view Israeli democracy as the preferred model for a regime that they would like to see applied in the future Palestinian state, according to a newly released survey. The Palestinians rank Israeli democracy before Western democracies such as the U.S., France, Germany, and others, according to surveys held by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah. (Israel21c)
Death of an Intifada by Isabel Kershner
Armed men are not walking around Tulkarm anymore, certainly not in broad daylight. The few of them left after the army's frequent raids are said to be feeling hunted and alone. Many in the town are already declaring Tulkarm's intifada over. Residents of Tulkarm are no longer willing to provide refuge for the armed men in their houses, local sources say, for fear of ending up on the army's demolition list. (Jerusalem Report)
Last Word in Anti-Semitism by Walter Reich
Genocidal mass murder continues to foul the world. Yet the foulest epithet in any language - "Nazi" - is hurled not against any of the perpetrators of those crimes but, uniquely and systematically, against Israel. When we hear the epithet "Nazi" aimed at Israelis, we should understand its purpose. And we should understand that - whether the term is part of a verbal war or of an effort to make anti-Semitism once again respectable - it will continue to be aimed at Israel rather than at countries and groups that engage in genocide and mass murder. (Los Angeles Times)
Brown: Palestinian Student Will Graduate from Brown Under Her Own Flag by Cathleen Crowley
Last month, Lisa Harb learned that the Palestinian flag would not fly among the 64 flags at Monday's graduation ceremony. The only Palestinian in Brown's Class of 2004, she protested. University officials told her Palestine is not a sovereign nation, and therefore its flag would not be raised. Harb said Brown faculty, alumni and classmates contacted Brown officials and asked them to display Harb's flag. The university reversed its decision. (Providence Journal)
Busy Summer for Birthright by Daphna Berman
Some 500 Birthright participants arrived here Tuesday on a chartered El Al flight from New York, as part of what is expected to be the program's busiest season since its establishment five years ago. Groups from Canada, Argentina, Venezuela, Brazil, Portugal and Cuba are expected to arrive later this summer as well, bringing the total number of Birthright-Taglit participants to 70,000. (Ha'aretz)
Madison's Compromise on Rafah
Tensions over the proposal to form a sister city relationship between Madison and Rafah, a Palestinian refugee community located on the Gaza Strip, have been high for weeks. Steve Morrison, director of the Madison Jewish Community Council, has been outspoken in his opposition to the Rafah proposal, charging that the city is a hotbed of terrorist activity against Israel and anti-Semitism. Members of the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, many of whom are Jewish, argue that Morrison's claims are overblown and that Madison needs to show solidarity with Palestinians. (Capital Times)
Progressive Zionists Join Forces for Campus Fray by Henny Admoni
Many Jewish students feel they must either toe the line for Israel or be labeled anti-Zionist left-wingers - so says the new Union of Progressive Zionists, or UPZ for short. To be launched next fall by the progressive Zionist organizations Hashomer Hatzair, Habonim Dror, Meretz USA, and the Labor Zionist Alliance, the coalition seeks to provide the opportunity for students who are progressive - yet support Israel - to express their views. UPZ will launch pilot chapters on campuses across the country, including Wesleyan University, NYU, and Brandeis. Most of these groups will be created from local progressive Zionist organizations. (New Voices)
Berkeley: Making the Case for Israel by Alan M. Dershowitz
I had to write The Case For Israel. It's my least favorite book, I have to tell you. It's the book nobody wants to write. Nobody has to write the Case for Canada or the Case for Spain or the Case for Australia. There's so much lying on college campuses today, so many untruths, so many legalese falsities being directed against Israel. But the impetus to write the Case For Israel came when the divestiture campaign began at Harvard and Berkeley and many of our college campuses. (Frontpagemag.com)
Israel's Gaza Pullout a New Hope for Peace by Niva Kramek
There is no reason for the IDF to be in the Gaza Strip except to provide security for the settlers, and the settlers have no reasonable justification for the chaos and bloodshed that their continued presence causes. Israel's biggest hawks tend to become its greatest peacemakers, particularly when they occupy the prime minister's seat. Sharon's disengagement plan could be a part of that tradition. (Daily Pennsylvanian)
Islamism's Campus Club by Jonathan Dowd-Gailey
Today, over 150 Muslim Student Association chapters exist on American college campuses (divided into five regional chapters), easily establishing this organization as the most extensive Muslim student organization in North America. There is overwhelming evidence that the MSA, far from being a benign student society, is an overtly political organization seeking to create a single Muslim voice on U.S. campuses-a voice espousing Wahhabism, anti-Americanism, and anti-Semitism, agitating aggressively against U.S. Middle East policy, and expressing solidarity with militant Islamist ideologies, sometimes with criminal results. (Frontpagemag.com)
Tel Aviv: A Student Production with Big, Big Stars by Goel Pinto
The 10th International Students' Film Festival opened last week. There will be two film competitions and workshops in Tel Aviv, Sderot and Nazareth. Heading the list of festival guests is actor Richard Gere, who will give workshops on video-activism (a documentary field in which the artists switches from being a spectator to an instigator). The festival is also run largely by students. (Ha'aretz)
A Zionist Hip-Hop Stance Comes to Lollapalooza by Dimitri Ehrlich
When "Reagan Baby," the debut album by Ross Golan and Molehead, arrived in the mail, I almost tossed it in my "interesting-looking indie releases" pile. But then something caught my eye. There, buried in the fine print, was what could be described only as a Zionist hip-hop stance. "We have to fight for this land because we are a culture that has survived - not just the Holocaust," said Golan. "I am not pro Israel do-or-die, though I tend to agree with Israeli diplomacy and I agree with the movement of Zionism. But I also have to recognize that there were certain situations where Palestinians were neglected." (Forward)
Israeli Exports to Arab Countries on the Rise by Tal Muscal
Israel has a new trading partner, Iraq. It sold $2 million worth of defense and consumer goods to the U.S. Army stationed there in the first quarter of 2004, the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute reported Thursday. Based on its quarterly survey, exports to Arab countries rose 78% in the first quarter to $38 million. (Jerusalem Post)
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 - Two Views of the Gaza Disengagement Plan | Moshe Arens
- Sharon's new plan is essentially the original plan. My major objection is that it's clear that leaving Gaza unilaterally at this point will be seen as a victory by the Palestinian terrorists and will encourage them to do more of the same.
- Egypt is already in blatant violation of its peace treaty with Israel by not having an ambassador here and not dealing with the [Rafah] tunnels, so I'm not optimistic they'll help. [On the other hand], if the Egyptians are ready to take over the Gaza Strip that would be a significant development.
- Sharon has very thick skin and can remain in office indefinitely. I don't think he can push the plan through the Likud, but given his strength of character he can hang in there. There aren't many people who would flaunt the results of the Likud referendum.
- The past years of combat with the Palestinians have gained Israel serious achievements over Arafat and terrorism, and in relations with the U.S. Sharon wasn't facing a vacuum. I don't know why he adopted this program. He was not under any kind of pressure from the U.S. to do this. (Bitterlemons.com)
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Yossi Alpher
- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new disengagement plan, as presented on May 30 to the Cabinet, represents not one but several new dynamics.
- By carrying out the redeployment in four phases, Sharon has now introduced a monitoring mechanism that can stop the withdrawal if things go wrong.
- In introducing a significant Egyptian role in facilitating post-withdrawal Gaza Strip security and possibly mediating between the Israeli and Palestinian security establishments, Sharon has reduced the likelihood that the withdrawal will generate a total breakdown in security or a Hamas takeover.
- The original rationale for Sharon's disengagement initiative - to "head off" domestic and international pressures for larger territorial concessions that seek to fill the diplomatic "vacuum" - never held water in the first place. No matter what Israel does short of near total withdrawal, the pressures will continue on Israel to roll back the settlement enterprise.
- The political dynamic launched by Sharon on May 30 could soon affect the composition, indeed the very existence, of his government. (Bitterlemons.org)
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