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December 19, 2004
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Next publication date:
January 9, 2005
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 Likud, Labor to Sign Unity Deal Sunday by Gil Hoffman
Barring last-minute problems, Labor and the Likud are to sign a coalition deal Sunday, with a new 64-MK coalition of Likud, Labor and United Torah Judaism to be approved by the Knesset and new ministers sworn in on Thursday. According to the agreement, Labor will be granted eight cabinet posts: Interior, Housing, Infrastructure, Tourism, Communications, two ministers without portfolios, and a special vice premiership portfolio for Labor chairman Shimon Peres. (Jerusalem Post)
"birthright" Doing All Right by Hilary Leila Krieger
A study assessing the impact of birthright israel trips has found that participants' connection to Israel and to their Jewish identity was strengthened and that those connections were maintained over the years that followed their visits. The program has sent some 72,000 American Jews age 18 to 26 on free 10-day trips to Israel. The survey found that 52 percent of participants felt "very much" connected to Israel two to four years after their trip. Beforehand, only 35% gave such an assessment. (Jerusalem Post)
Sudan's Darfur Region Activist Praises Israel Aid to Refugees by Uriel Heilman
"We have been taught for all our lives, from the primary school to the university, that you are the top enemy for Muslims and Arabs all over the world," Yahya said of the Jews and Israelis behind the $100,000 effort. Now, he said, "we realized that what we have been taught all our lives is a kind of a rumor. When we have been killed, you are protecting us; when we are displaced, you are trying to save us; when our people are murdered and raped, you are there trying to help us." (Sudan Tribune/Jerusalem Post)
Israel, Egypt and U.S. Trade Pact
Egypt, Israel and the United States have reached an agreement that allows Egyptian industry to sell products using Israeli parts duty free in America. The accord is the first between Egypt and Israel since their peace treaty in 1979. (International Herald Tribune)
 Beyond Arafat: Palestinian Politics in the New Era by Ehud Ya'ari
At the very least, Abu Mazen must ensure that the Palestinian police and security forces reduce the violence and establish a sense of order by getting arms off the street and out of the hands of criminals. Hamas, which poses the greatest threat to security in general, and to Fatah in particular, has experienced a decline in public support since Arafat's death. It is losing its cohesion, both politically and militarily. (Washington Institute for Near East Policy)
The Barghouti Cult by Larry Derfner
Marwan Barghouti is the coolest Palestinian since Arafat first turned up in a keffiyeh and Ray Bans. A British politician described him as having "the charisma of Che Guevara" and likened him to Nelson Mandela. It was Barghouti more than anyone, more than Arafat, who was identified with the outbreak of the intifada. I know that Nelson Mandela, in his days as an insurgent, lived in a very distant moral universe from the one Barghouti inhabits. (Jerusalem Post)
Non-Divesting Somerville an Example to Rest of Country by Jon Haber
While the public has been aware that Somerville was being recruited as a poster child for the smearing of a fellow democracy for the last few weeks, apparently the divestiture movement (by its own accounts) has been working behind the scenes for two years to get the town aldermen to officially request that the Jewish state, alone among all nations of the world, was so wicked that it deserved not just criticism but economic punishment. (Somerville Journal)
The Egypt-Israel Ice Is Melting by Neil MacFarquhar
When Egypt, Israel and the United States signed a far-reaching trade agreement this week, it represented the most tangible step in a month-long thaw in chilly relations between the Egyptians and Israelis. The primary change was the death of Yasser Arafat, which prompted both Egypt and Israel to re-examine how the shriveled attempts to reach a peace agreement might be revived. Secondly, Egypt is newly convinced that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is serious about withdrawing from the Gaza Strip. (International Herald Tribune)
Columbia: Intimidation Probe Sparks a Debate over Free Speech by Rachel Pomerance
The backlash to the film, "Columbia, Unbecoming," has become so hostile that some say it underscores the antagonistic culture the pro-Israel students had questioned to begin with. The focus of the debate appears to have moved from the actual charges at hand to the issue of freedom of speech in academia. Columbia's controversy is a microcosm of events taking place on college campuses across the country.
(JTA)
birthright: Incredible Journey
The first round of students traveling to Israel this winter on a Hillel birthright israel trip has started their incredible journey. Students from Emory University, Florida International University, Florida State University, James Madison University, Michigan State University, Ohio State University - Columbus, Portland Community College, Stanford University, University of California - Irvine, University of California - San Diego, University of California - Santa Cruz, University of Central Florida, University of Chicago, University of Illinois - Chicago, University of Oregon and Wright State University will spend the next 10 days touring the country from north to south. (Hillel)
Pittsburgh Hillel Hosts Videoconference with Amram Mitzna by Keren Shefet
Hillel students at the University of Pittsburgh hosted an international videoconference call last week with Amram Mitzna, a Knesset member and former mayor of Haifa. More than 50 students from around the nation participated in the discussion, including those from the University of Pittsburgh, Brooklyn College and the University of Florida. (Hillel)
Report on the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Conference
The Middle East Studies Association of North America held its annual meeting in San Francisco on Nov. 20-23, 2004. Similarly to past MESA conferences, the meeting was dominated by Arabs and their supporters, whose hatred of Israel was thinly disguised in academic verbiage. MESA's importance should not be underestimated since virtually all Middle East studies professors are MESA members, many in leadership positions. (Campus Watch)
Glasgow: Vanunu Chosen as Rector
Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu was elected rector of Glasgow University last week. Students said that they wanted Vanunu as rector to show that they supported basic human rights and that they opposed weapons of mass destruction. (Maariv International)
Tel Aviv U Launches Project to Promote Israeli-UN Understanding by Julie Stahl
Tel Aviv University's School of Government and Policy has launched a U.N.-Israel Project, which is intended to increase Israelis' understanding of the U.N. and the U.N.'s understanding of Israel. Professor Yossi Shain, who will manage the U.N.-Israeli project, insisted, "The United Nations, in order to be an effective player, must be completely reformed, perhaps dismantled," said Shain. "The United Nations as it is - with 53 members on its Commission of Human Rights including Algeria, Cuba, Iran, Viet Nam, Zimbabwe, Libya as its chair - is untenable." (CNS News)
Harvard: Israeli Ambassador Criticizes UN by Alexandra C. Wood
Dore Gold, Israel's former ambassador to the United Nations, criticized the organization for failing to live up to its mission to protect human rights in a speech last week. Gold said he believes the U.N. is too quick to criticize Israel's actions. "The U.N. condemns Israel for jay-walking, but doesn't condemn other countries for murder," he said. Gold said U.N. involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could lead to "totally disastrous results." (The Crimson)
Israel, Palestine, and Campus Civil Wars by Stephen Howe
It is becoming entirely routine for pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian intellectual feudists to describe one another as fools, frauds, paid agents of sinister puppet-masters, and - most often, and worst - mere bigots and racists. Glib comparisons of Israel with apartheid South Africa, let alone Nazi Germany, aid neither understanding nor a search for justice. The important point isn't - or shouldn't be - that the apartheid analogy has strong emotional overtones and resounds to Israel's discredit. It is that the two societies, the two conflicts, have such extreme structural dissimilarities that the comparison doesn't tell us much at all that helps explain what made Israeli policies or the Palestinian situation what they are. (Open Democracy)
Fighting Anti-Israelism and Anti-Semitism on the American University Campus: Faculty Grassroots Efforts - An Interview with Edward S. Beck
Many new mutations of American anti-Semitism, and in particular its anti-Israeli forms, originate on the University campus. Much pro-Israel advocacy is carried out by new grassroots faculty groups such as Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME). SPME's preferred approach is through collegial professorial contact. Only if these efforts prove ineffective, cases of anti-Semitism are turned over to the Anti Defamation League or others. Dr. Edward S. Beck is co-founder and President of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East - www.spme.net. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
Illinois Urbana: Dispelling Myths by Editorial Board
No one is shirking responsibility for the errors that appeared in The Daily Illini last month. Matt Vroom's Nov. 5 "Jew Joke" comic strip and the falsified Ariel Sharon quote in a Nov. 19 letter were deeply regrettable incidents. However, to take these two errors - along with past mistakes accumulated by different staffs - as an indication of an anti-Semitic bias in our newspaper would be erroneous. These errors were isolated incidents. (Daily Illini)
Deconstructing Divestment And Duke by Wayne Firestone
Much has been written about the Palestinian Solidarity Movement's Divestment from Israel Conference held recently at Duke University. As a movement, divestment continues to fail on campuses across the country because morally it presupposes that Palestinians should be absolved from any responsibility in perpetuating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and only Israel should be held to account. These divestment campaigns and conferences are thinly veiled attempts at delegitimizing Israel and discrediting its supporters. At Duke, in an effort to protect the principle of academic freedom, the administration subverted its own obligation to foster a tolerant and welcoming campus community. Wayne L. Firestone is executive director of the Israel on Campus Coalition (Jewish Week)
SFSU's Legacy of Intolerance by Cinnamon Stillwell
SFSU has a reputation for intolerance that goes back at least 10 years. Animosity is directed mostly at Jewish students or those seen as supporting Israel. The case of Tatiana Menaker, a Russian Jewish emigre and former SFSU student, is an example. After committing the "crime" of responding verbally to another student's anti-Semitic epithets during a 2002 rally, she found herself persecuted by the administration. (SFGate)
Maine: Israeli Swimmers Help Black Bears Defeat Boston U
Tal Shpaizer (Shoham, Israel) (pictured, right) took the top spot in the 100 breast at 1:11.26. Karin Feldman (Kiryat Motzkin, Israel) (pictured, left) finished first in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:16.87. Shpaizer won her second event of the day in the 100 butterfly with a time of 59.36. (College Sports)
Palestinian Genes Show Arab, Jewish, European and Black-African Ancestry by David Storobin
As genetic techniques have advanced, it has become possible to look directly at the ancestry of the Palestinian people. Several recent studies suggested that Jews and Palestinians are genetically closer to each other than either is to the Arabs of Arabia or to Europeans. (Global Politician)
Israeli Matador Makes Academic All-Big West Team
Yossi Raz from Netanya was one of thirteen Cal State Northridge student-athletes to receive All-Big West Academic honors last week as announced by the conference. Raz started all 20 matches during his junior season and tied for second on the team in points with 17 and tied for third with five goals and seven assists. (Cal State Northridge Matadors)
Fairleigh Dickinson: Nadav Gottesman Named 2004 Co-Scholar Athlete
Fairleigh Dickinson University junior midfielder Nadav Gottesman (Haifa, Israel) was named 2004 Northeast Conference Men's Soccer Co-Scholar Athlete. All scholar-athlete award winners must have earned a minimum of 60 semester hours, maintained a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 3.20 and participated with distinction as a member of a varsity team. (CSTV Collegesports.com)
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 - Should Israel Begin Negotiations with Syria? | Re-Thinking the Need for Peace with Syria by Arieh O'Sullivan
- With its former benefactor the Soviet Union long gone to history's trashcan, Syria's only true ally is Iran.
- Syria has spent what little defense budget it has on building a chemical and possibly biological stockpile of warheads and surface-to-surface missiles that can strike most of populated Israel.
- With Syria's once powerful military obsolete, Israel's leaders may conclude it's better to hold on to the Golan Heights. It's no wonder there is little pressure from the conservatives to reach out to Assad's hand and resume peace negotiations, broken off in 2000.
- Israel is a country that finds it enormously difficult to conduct more than one peace process simultaneously. Furthermore, the one country that could effectively push Israel to the bargaining table - the United States - appears unlikely to do so anytime soon.
- Washington is very keen on progress on the Palestinian front and would not be delighted with Israeli-Syrian talks since it could divert Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's attention.
- The assessment in the IDF is that Assad is likely interested in the process, negotiations, but not so keen on reaching an agreement.
- Furthermore there few recall the days when Syrian cannons habitually shelled the north. With the country's only ski slopes and source of much of Israel's water, there is a rationality that even questions the need for making peace, particularly with a weakened and isolated neighbor led by an inexperienced leader. (Jerusalem Post)
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Say Yes to Syria by Uri Savir
- The fundamental issue is not what Syrian leaders say, but rather what Israel's policy should be, and perhaps also the policy of the old-new administration in Washington.
- The war in Iraq, as well as the international struggle against terrorism, demands a fresh, strategic approach to the resolution of the conflict in the Middle East.
- Israel must thus take a new approach, one that emphasizes the Western demands of curtailing fundamentalism, terrorism, and totalitarianism in parallel with answering some of the legitimate demands of the Islamic and Arab world in relation to the end of the occupation and recognition of a Palestinian state.
- Non-conditional negotiations with Syria would serve both to strengthen this approach and legitimize efforts for peaceful relations with the new Palestinian regime.
- In addition, they would create a new atmosphere in the region that could translate into guiding principles for a second Madrid Conference.
- Syria was willing, through Saudi Arabia, to encourage comprehensive peace in the region, including tourism, full trade and diplomatic relations, and special security arrangements strengthened by the US intelligence capacities and military presence. With a possible new government in Israel, a renewed administration in Washington, Arafat's successors, and some new winds in the Arab world, new opportunities can be realized.
- It seems that in most of our negotiations about this region, we know the end result - more or less. However, we don't know how to begin. (Jerusalem Post)
The writer is president of the Peres Center for Peace.
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