The New Israel Fund is only the latest target in a series of outrageous assaults on Israel’s democratic foundations. The apparently coordinated attempt this past year to intimidate, de-fund and possibly shut down Israel’s human rights community, culminating in this latest direct attack on NIF — and on me personally, as its president — is an alarming symptom of a deeply troubled society that is lurching toward authoritarianism and the undermining of basic civil freedoms.
Last month, Israeli police took action against the leaders of two of Israel’s most prominent civil rights groups: The head of the Israel Religious Action Center was questioned and fingerprinted for her work in asserting women’s prayer rights at the Western Wall, and the executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel was arrested during a peaceful demonstration. Meanwhile, we have seen a series of attempts to compromise the Israeli Supreme Court’s independence and its status as the last line of defense for Israeli civil rights.
These developments are very worrisome indeed. Today we see efforts to deny Israelis their basic democratic rights, including freedom of speech, association and dissent.
For many people, what took the campaign against NIF beyond the realm of legitimate debate was the decision by its organizers to vilify the NIF by targeting me, personally. A widely distributed poster and ad with a rather unflattering caricature of me reached new lows by portraying me with a horn on my head — a play on the Hebrew word keren, which means both “fund” and “horn.” (I wonder if these nasty caricatures would ever be used against a man.) I was dubbed “Naomi Goldstone-Chazan.” A demonstration was held outside my home, billboards appeared throughout the country, and banners were posted on major Israeli Internet news sites.
Although I was in New York for NIF’s board meeting when the campaign debuted, the outrage of my family, my friends and my former colleagues in the Knesset — even people who disagree with my politics — overloaded my e-mail and cell phone from across the Atlantic.
As a former deputy speaker of the Knesset and a lifelong activist for peace, women’s rights and human rights, it takes a lot to upset me. And the personalized attack didn’t upset me, exactly. It did make me feel that Israel’s right wing would stoop to anything to discredit anyone, including the New Israel Fund and its affiliated organizations, for daring to voice a dissenting opinion — an elementary right in any democratic society. And it is worth pondering why that is.
The original attack on NIF stemmed from a new group, Im Tirtzu, which is funded by the same sources supporting Jewish extremists, including the ministry of American evangelical leader John Hagee. Im Tirtzu had conducted a “study” of the Goldstone Report, and concluded that the Israeli human rights groups that NIF supports were chiefly responsible for that report’s negative conclusions about the actions of the Israel Defense Forces during the Gaza war. The Im Tirtzu report is a series of vicious distortions of the record of the New Israel Fund and its allied organizations. The report represents the antithesis of the values of Zionism that Im Tirtzu claims to espouse.
The human rights groups whose reports are cited in the Goldstone Report are the canary in the coal mine of Israeli democracy. These organizations did their job, recording and reporting, and their findings were used primarily as background material; the most significant quotes used in the Goldstone Report came from military personnel and political leaders. NIF took no position on Goldstone, nor do we on other political matters. The human rights organizations we support are also not monolithic and have differing views regarding Goldstone’s conclusions.
One thing most of these Israeli human rights groups do have in common: They were among the first to call for an independent Israeli inquiry into the Gaza operation. Had that happened last year, the groups’ reports would have been placed in context with reports from soldiers and others, so that a clear picture of the IDF’s activities could have emerged. And the Goldstone Report itself would have been rendered redundant, since its key recommendation is the establishment of precisely such a commission of inquiry.
As funders with a rigorous and exacting grant-making process, we know it is not our job to agree with everything our groups say and do, but rather to defend their right to fulfill their missions. And that goes to the heart of why NIF exists, and its dedication to debate and open airing of opinion not only among groups affiliated with our own “big tent” organization, but also in Israeli society at large.
I have been president of NIF for two years and twice previously served as a member of its board. For 30 years, NIF has been founding and funding progressive civil society in Israel — our human and civil rights groups, our social justice groups and, particularly important to me, the groups that fight for tolerance and religious pluralism.
Anyone who loves Israel — and I am completely and without reservation one of those people — should understand that NIF almost single-handedly built a sector without which a democracy cannot function. As someone who has dissented from conventional wisdom over the course of a long political and academic career, and as someone who believes that critical thinking builds a better society, I am proud to serve NIF as its volunteer leader because its values are the values enshrined in Israel’s Declaration of Independence.
Fortunately, thousands of ordinary people, and leaders in Israel and in Jewish communities around the world — from across the political spectrum — have spoken out against the attempt to shut us down. The immediate threat of a Knesset investigation into NIF has been stymied, but we know there will be more assaults.
In the end, I am not the real victim of this particularly ugly attack. Even NIF, important as it is, is not the real victim. Should these trends continue, should Israel turn a deaf ear to self-examination and dissent, should an extremist minority continue to hold my country hostage to hatred and incitement, the real victim will be Israeli democracy.
Naomi Chazan is president of the New Israel Fund.
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There is a deeply troubling problem in Israel today. The extreme right wing is taking over the debate and silencing anyone and everyone who does not agree with them 100%. When one reads the thousands of monthly posts on Israeli Internet sites the vile, poison and hatred towards Obama is sickening. When a mosque was burned down a few months ago there were thousands of posts praising its destruction, which was in all honesty, an act of terror. When Defense Minister Ehud Barak called soldiers who refused to remove dismantle settlements insubordinate there were thousands of posts calling Barak, the most decorated solider in Israels history, a traitor and he received death threats and had to have his security increased. When an Israeli general had his men dismantle a few illegal outposts this general and his family received death threats. Any Jew who voted for or who works for Obama is called an anti-semite, a self hater, and worse. The sickness that was allowed to go on many years ago that led to the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin has become a cancer and is growing. "Self hater," "Anti-Semite," "Enemy of Israel" and worse are what thousands of posters on Israeli sites call anyone who dare criticize any action of the IDF or Netanyahu government. This cancer is going to metastisize into something that will cause substantial harm to Israel. I fear what will happen if Netanyahu or any Israeli leader attempts to remove any settlements. Their life will be threatened as well because the extreme right wing has been allowed to grow, silence dissent, and control the discourse in Israel.
I do NOT agree with Naomi Chazan, not one bit, but if Israel is to remain a democracy then diversity of opinions must be allowed, or else Israel is no better than Iran, Syria, Egypt, Libya or Russia. Israel cannot claim, as it always does, that it is the only democracy in the Middle East when it tries to silence those who criticize it. As an American of the age of fifty I have lived thru a time when citizens here lambasted the government for the Vietnam War, the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, the presidencies of Bush, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and Obama, the behaviour of our government during the civil rights movement and much more. Criticism of America has made our country better. I shudder and tremble to imagine what it would have been like if no citizen had been allowed to criticize our leaders and the policies of our government the past fifty years.
Naomi Chazan may be 100% wrong in her criticisms of the Israel government but she has every right to think, to print, and to voice her opinions, and when the day comes when Israel does not allow this to happen then instead of a light unto nations Israel is a nation of darkness, no better than its neighbors who cannot tolerate dissent.
Naomi Chazan is part of the best and the brightest that State of Israel. She epitomizes Jewish values -- justice, kindness, compassion. She represents a generation of leaders who were tireless in their commitment to a democratic, Jewish state in the Middle East.
It is not a coincidence that we as a people came through the fires of fascism to found a FREE and DEMOCRATIC state under the RULE OF LAW.
It is not a coincidence that before we as a people were able to return home, we were tested among the nations. And what did we learn?
Did we learn that we should behave as others have behaved towards us? Or did we learn that no one should ever suffer like we have?
That, my friends, is the choice before us.
Those who no longer care about the democratic character of the State of Israel are not only wrong -- they are no longer Zionists.
Zionism is not fascim. Zionism is not racism. Zionism never contemplated a Jewish Iran.
Those on the Right who envision an anti-democratic Greater Israel -- perhaps one ruled by halacha -- are free to lay claim to that dream. But they cannot call it Zionism.
That word is already taken.
And this group of latecomers, who fought for nothing and were given everything and yet want more -- they have the *chutzpah* to call this woman a traitor? She is a patriot!
And like any patriot, Naomi Chazan's criticism of Israel is founded in the deepest love.
This is the Zionism I was raised on. These are the Jewish values I hold dear. And I, for one, intend to fight for them.
Groups like this -- founded on hatred -- spreading their lies -- are not going to take control of a country I love if I have anything to say about it.
Ms Chazan asks if similarly offensive caricatures would have been used had she been a man. Sadly, the answer is 'Yes'. One need only think back to the range of caricatures of Yitzchok Rabin zl. Civility,tact, understatement and diplomacy are often lacking in Israeli discourse. The attack on democracy is nothing new. I spent time in Meah Shearim in the early 1970's and we yeshivah students were involved in protests against random autopsies on people whose families clearly objected. There have been times when Israel's Supreme Court has been quite biased against religious Jews, in a way no Western democracy would be. The assault on democracy changes form but it is not new. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and the massive onslaught on Israel following Cast Lead and Goldstone has led to an equal and opposite reaction. We hope things will return to 'normal'.
'exacting grant making process' The New Israel Fund appears to have made a grant to a group setting up a help line for Haredi women who oppose mehadrin buses. Is this an 'exacting grant making process' or an insulting and patronising waste of charity money? Does NIF think mehadrin buses could have begun without the agreement of Haredi women? An intrinsic part of Haredi modesty is that women and men keep a certain distance, just as top schools and colleges were once almost always single sex. NIF seems to be looking for 'causes' even where they don't exist.
As an Israeli living in Tel Aviv, I can tell you, nothing is worse than the Ha'aretz rag which often reads like the propoganda mouthpiece of the Muslim Brotherhood with it's smears and lies.
NIF's cartoon "broygez" is typical far-lefty hypocrisy....after years of cartoons comparing Israel to Pharoh, Haman and worse, comparing IDF soldiers to Nazis etc... (see Tikkun, Jews Against the Occupation etc.. let alone all the NIF funded groups) the anti-Zionist left is getting all apopleptic reacting to the Im Tirzu cartoon. Sorry for not buying into the phony self-righteous arm flailing.
You reap what you sow. Far-Lefties suffer from blowback, too.
for the record, I support a 2 state solution etc...
But unlike the cabal of Israel bashers such as NIF, J-Street and other patronizing American Jews whose main connection to Judaism &Israel seems to be absolving themselves from the false accusations against it, I don't think a just peace will ever happen by Jews blaming everything on Israel while whitewashing the relentless Palestinian atrocities.
The jig is up with these phony "pro-Israel" groups. Orwellian in name and naive (or worse) in their mission, they do one thing and that is delay real peace and aid and assist in the demonization of Israel.
Naomi Chazan protests too much and this bothers me. She has long worked to undermine Israel and convert it to a Marxist state. Let's be clear: her claims are all false. No, NIF does not fund "Israeli human rights groups." It funds Israeli Trotskyite groups who battle for the rights of Palestinians committing terrorist acts against Israeli civilians - a war crime under international law. No, NIF does not love Israel or its people. Since 1999, it has spent $49 million funding the anti-democratic Palestine Lobby in Washington and Jerusalem in support of suicide-bombings, terrorist attacks against Israeli children and Hamas loyalists. This is all on the public record. Naomi Chazan is lurching towards left-wing Fascism and it behooves all lovers of Israel to expose this mean-spirited and corpulent demagogue for the propagandist she really is.
A majority of Israelis have finally awakened to the reality that the Left has led them nowhere, except towards constant withdrawals and compromises that have been met only opprobrium and contempt in the Muslim world. To the Arab Muslim mind in particular, all compromise and withdrawals are symptomatic of weakness. Since the early pre-state years, the Left kept deluding itself into the belief that a secular solution or compromise with the adversary would eventually be possible. Only the right wing, originally led by Jabotinsky clearly understood and appreciated the reality of the never-ending hostility that surrounded the Zionist enterprise. And nothing has changed since 1923.
Alas, the majority of Israelis are not the children or grandchildren of Zionists. Mostly they are the children and grandchildren of those who had been kicked out of the particular land that had hosted them for centuries, or perhaps they just managed to barely escape the jaws of rabid, murderous antisemitism and had no other place willing to take them in other than Jewish Palestine. These Leftists still cling to the shibboleths of the past, that Humanity is basically good, and that if we haven't been fully accepted, it's because we haven't stretched out our hands far enough. It always has to be our fault.
Yes, we are a nation with many faults, but which nation isn't? If only Israeli society and its leaders united around a simple theme: That Israel seeks peace, and is prepared to offer its hand in friendship, but anyone who chooses not to shake it, well it's THEIR FAULT NOT OURS! But the Muslims have no such self-doubts. They know that they are always right, because the Koran does not fault Arabs for anything the way the Bible often indicates God's displeasure with Israel. So how can Muslims ever be wrong?
Enough with the lunatic Left already! Let them go back to their grandfathers' countries and see how well their ideas will be received in them.
Naomi Chazan says that seeking to shut NIF down is wrong because democracy should tolerate free speech. I agree with her on this; but only this.
Specifically, the institutions of democracy should allow, enable, and in some circumstances, encourage free speech by individuals (though not necessarily free speech by corporations and other organizations). The essential flip side of this is that other individuals retain the right to freely speak about the content each other's speech. Ms. Chazan does not seem very sanguine about this half of the equation.
If I am not mistaken, NIF supports/funds groups like BeZelem and Shalom Achshav. For a long time, the viewpoint of these groups regarding what is an appropriate way for Israel to protect itself against threats/attacks from its Palestinian neighbors, has been far outside the consensus of Israeli thought. Also, NIF does not support/fund right-wing groups or even middle of the road groups. Therefore, Ms. Chazan's assertion that NIF took no position on the Goldstone report or on other political matters is DISINGENUOUS.
Personally, I believe the content of the speech of the groups supported by NIF is unacceptable from the viewpoint of the legitemate right of Israel to protect its citizens against attack. Therefore, I believe that the content of the free speech by NIF should be opposed with polite counter free speech and by urging others not to fund NIF's free speech.
Respectfully,
Martin J. Goodman
Chazan can dish it out, but she cannot take it. Let her stop being a crybaby (as well as a left-wing, clueless former MK who doesn't believe Hamas, PLO, Hizballah mean what they say).
ah, the RIGHT (such an unfortunate name for a political position). As we in the States know, courtesy of dear Newt-- when you're RIGHT it's ALL-RIGHT to SMEAR or SMEERCH or in anyway distort to make your end. Has anyone else ever tried this tactic...let me count the ways. I honor Ms. Chazan's work. I wish to Hashem, we would leave our personal idiocies at home, and really think about LIFE.
Just so I am not mis understood. I in no way support the slanderers, horrorifiers or attempted destroyers of Israel. I think a democracy can envelop all its members and defend itself from all its enemies.
I wish to protest the attacks on the New Israel Fund. They furnish substantial help to a very oppressed group of Israeli Jews.
As the Coordinator of the Half-Jewish Network, the largest international organization for adult children and grandchildren of intermarriage, I am well aware of Israel's profoundly negative and discriminatory legal and social policies against thousands of adult descendants of intermarriage.
Fortunately for the half-Jewish people in Israel, the New Israel Fund has given money to the Association for the Rights of Mixed Families (in Israel), an organization dedicated to helping interfaith families (mostly Russian Jews intermarried to Russian Christians and their adult children and grandchildren)combat the discrimination against them in Israeli society.
Here is the website for the Association for the Rights of Mixed Families (in Israel):
http://www.mixedfamilies.org.il/english/about.php
Few American Jews or American Christians appear aware that Israeli Jews who have only one Jewish parent or grandparent are treated badly as "non-Jews" by the Israeli state. Bear in mind, these "non-Jews" pay taxes and serve in the IDF, but are treated as second-class citizens.
The NIF is one of the few Jewish organizations to take an interest in helping the half-Jewish citizens of Israel. For that reason alone, it should be supported.
Sincerely, Robin Margolis www.half-jewish.net www.inclusivistjudaism.wordpress.com
Is there no limit to spouting the baseless red-herring argument that "democracy in Israel is in danger" as the only response to inconvenient exposes of NIF bankrolling of organizations hostile to Israel. Does the expose of NIF activity threaten the democratic process or elections - no. Does the expose threaten the judicial process -no. Does the expose threaten a free press or freedom of expression - no. Does the expose of NIF threaten civil rights - no. Does the expose threaten the parliamentary process - no. So what is this non-sequiter kish-kush about a threat to democracy. So far there has yet to be a cogent justification or even explanation of why NIF is funding groups who are hostile to the Jewish State. Instead, the publication of detailed funding actions by NIF are categorically ignored [without of course denying that NIF has indeed funded the hostile-to-Israel organizations], the wild claim of a conspiracy against NIF is touted and anyone who dares say a critical word about the NIF or naomi chazan (who has accused NIF critics as suffering from insanity) is tarred as anti-democratic. At least in Israel, these evasive tactics don't make much of an impression on the level-headed citizenry. In fact, the failure of Chazin, NIF or their advocates to confront criticism with a clear, straightforward , to-the-issue reponse have left them with little credibility among most Israelis who have learned to see through double-talk and obfuscation. No wonder that Meretz is down to 3 Knesset seats ( that is 2.5% pf the knesset. It's about time that jewish americans realize that Israelis are not going to quietly mind their own business in the face of the blatant NIF hypocracy - proclaiming it has a pro-Israel agenda yet extensively bankrolling organizations that are minifestly hostile to Israel.
Robin Margolis. You may be confusing two separate issues. The Law of Return allows people with some Jewish ethnicity to live in Israel, but the Halacha is very clear that religously a Jew is the child of a Jewish mother or a genuine convert. Former Soviet Union immigrants can formally convert to Judaism within the IDF or as civilians under the Chief Rabbi's Conversion Authority run by Rabbi Drukman. If they choose not to convert that is their right. Paying taxes and serving in the IDF does not make you Jewish. Druse, Muslims and Christians also pay taxes and have the right to serve in the IDF, but don't think that makes them Jewish.
I suggest that we all chip in and buy Naomi Chazan a chador so that she can express her support for the "New Israel" that her fund is really attempting to erect.
Dear Friends:
"Sherlock Holmes" suggests that Israel's poor treatment of adult children and grandchildren of intermarriage is not really that bad.
Unfortunately, the views of Mr. Holmes are several years out of date. I suggest Mr. Holmes have a look at recent Israeli newspapers.
First, even the adult children and grandchildren of a biological Jewish mother or maternal Jewish grandmother in Israel -- the matrilineal Jews -- are starting to experience challenges to their Jewish identities from the Israeli authorities.
They are frequently forced to go to great lengths to produce elaborate documentary proofs -- proofs that almost no American Jews with two Jewish parents could ever produce.
Second, Mr. "Holmes" erroneously states that "former Soviet Union immigrants" -- his apparent name for the half-Jewish children of Jewish fathers and grandfathers in Israel -- "can formally convert to Judaism within the IDF or as civilians under the Chief Rabbi's Conversion Authority run by Rabbi Drukman."
Mr. Holmes, that was true several years ago, but not any longer. Unfortunately, the ultra-Orthodox, who have seized control of Israel's rabbinic posts, have made it known that most of them will no longer honor IDF conversions of soldiers with a Jewish father and Christian mother.
They view the Orthodox IDF conversions as -- insufficiently Orthodox.
Third, the option to convert under Israel's Conversion Authority is slowly coming to a halt. Rabbi Druckman -- his name is "Druckman," not "Drukman" -- was dismissed from his post nearly two years ago -- again at the instigation of the ultra-Orthodox, who felt that he was -- insufficiently Orthodox --
and the ultra-Orthodox rabbis who got Rabbi Druckman dismissed then proclaimed that the thousands of Orthodox conversions over which Rabbi Drukman presided are now potentially invalid and subject to reversal.
Mr. Holmes can verify this by Googling "Rabbi Druckman." He will then see a ton of articles on the subject.
I would suggest to Mr. Holmes that he subscribe -- it is free of charge -- to "Religion and State in Israel" -- a weekly email newsletter that reviews almost all of Israel's newspapers, left, right, and center, in their English language translations -- and provides subscribers with a weekly update from those papers on the latest "who is a Jew" battles in Israel.
http://religionandstateinisrael.blogspot.com/
Mr. "Holmes" will then have a chance to see the Orthodox publications of Israel openly rejoicing as the Orthodox conversions of half-Jewish people are overturned or questioned. This situation is no secret in Israel.
Mr. Holmes also states: "If they choose not to convert that is their right. Paying taxes and serving in the IDF does not make you Jewish. Druse, Muslims and Christians also pay taxes and have the right to serve in the IDF, but don't think that makes them Jewish."
Excuse me -- half-Jewish people who are having their Orthodox conversions overturned or questioned in very large numbers-- while serving in the IDF and paying taxes -- cannot be accused of not exercising their "right."
And it is not a "right" to deny the children of intermarriage basic civil rights -- such as the right to marry other Israeli Jews in Israel -- unless they are willing to offer elaborate documentary proof of having a Jewish mother or undertake an Orthodox conversion that may be overturned at the caprice of any ultra-Orthodox rabbinic court.
I know of no other Western democracy that currently requires its citizens to convert to the state religion or faced being denied permission to marry other citizens.
Sincerely, Robin Margolis www.half-jewish.net www.inclusivistjudaism.wordpres.com
NIF at one time funded an NGO that passed out flyers at train sttions in Israel offering to pay a salary for the time they spent in jail. IDF soldiers receive no pay as draftees so this could be really tempting. Many of these NGO's like Gisha are funded indirectly by the Saudis. NIF is not preserving democracy, they are shilling for the enemy, a big difference. No country in a war with a known enemy ever let's that enemy have acess to and control societal mechanisms of its own--except Israel. NIF boosters who aren't communists, anarchists, or way out loonies have an agenda to turn Israel from a Jewish state into the mythical PFLP "secular democratic state." Such a state already exists in Israel but NIF doesn't want the facts confused. NIF is to influenced by anti-Israel groups bent on destroying the Jewish homeland and Jews. For that reason it's time to close it down. Let Ms. Chazen move to Berkeley where Jews run around calling for genocide against Jews in Israel then claim they are "human rights activists."
Whether it is J-Street, New Israel Fund, B'Tselem, Rabbis for Obama, Peace Now (and others)---we are surrounded by enemies of Torah, Judaism and Israel.
Many of these groups, especially J-Street, are funded by George Soros, enemy arabs and others who seek the weakening and destruction of Israel, and the Jewish people.
We must make a choice---- weaken and destroy these enemies, OR weaken and allow Israel/ Torah/ Judaism to be destroyed.
Just further proof that leftism (especially anti-Semetic Jews) are a MENTAL ILLNESS, and that there is a VERY CLOSE relationship between Leftism and radical islam....in the end we either taken them on or die.
Miriam, vardrey mir nisht a kopp! Why do you always speak in capital letters? I think we can all agree with one of your pronouncements: "DOWN WITH DEATH!" But I haven't really come across anyone - good guys or bad guys or just ordinairy folks - older than 120 who haven't bit the dust. Seems we are all hard-wired to decay and expire. So let's all try to be good to each other, if only for the following generations.
In tranlation from the original yiddish, The Song of the Partizans hot nisht kein yiddish taam. But, I guess that's what there is. be well and strong. Am yisrael chai v'kayam.
I think that Naomi Chazan has nothing to apologize for. The Goldstone Report was an epic detailing the failed country of israel. I like the term "New Israel Fund" and view it as a supercession of the old israel based upon religious extremism and territory in favor of a New Israel, in which we all strive for universal justice. You go, girl!!!!!
It's Adar. So let's try to loosen up. There is an instructive new video (for English speakers) on the popular new israeli satirical website, Latma. It is quite relevant to the Self-proclaimed Innately Righteous and Omniscient who with devotion and self-sacrifice strive for the sake of all humanity to exorcise the demonic monster, Israel. A new english video describing the background and need for the satiric Latma site may be found at: (even Goldstone makes an appearance)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYd3HtmrLg4
And if you are up-to-date with the news in Israel and can laugh, you should look at last week's Latma show (English subtitles):
www.carolineglick.com/e/2010/02/latma-researches-the-history-o.php
I suspect that Naomi Chazin will shortly be appearing on the Latma website.
Enjoy.
The survivaal of any domocracy depends on the renunciation of violence and the development of non-violent means to combat evil and advance the good. Domocracy, is not good goverment----it is good people that make it work! All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing....
Israel's far Left has decided to abandon the principles of democratic politics. Instead of trying to convince Israelis to vote for far Left parties, they bypass the internal democratic process altogether and enlist foreign governments and organizations to apply pressures against Israel's democratically elected government from the outside. Is it any wonder that the great majority of Israeli citizens are fed up with them?
Shatek's Community organizing traning programs give immediately help in skills to began oranizing a village to protest the demolition and began a process of examining the relationship between housing demolitions and human rights. This gives the people skills and people are not like those in germany that did nothing to help them selves. No this group helps them , and people are not staying with their own grief and shock, for the evil done to them, by a fellow human being. This will take it to a bigger level.
Shatil Director Rachel Liel, looks for a MATURE DEMOCRACY to search together for humane solution that will enable us all to share a common future. " He stated we have to look in the mirror. " I say that...but....a little diffrent. We are to return to G-D, and become that mirror image we are to be created in, given one breath below, and one breath above. After removing sin from our lives...Ps. 2 the declare decree to be brought forth as a son of G-D Man, male and female returned from sin. OK, back to what Rachel Liel stated...the mirror we are to look into....and ask; is the destruction of homes the solution to the historic conflict over land ithe the Palestinian citien of Israel?
I state...those that destroy the living for what is dead and passed are of ONE BREATH.(Ecc 3)..and are all ready dead, and have only one life. To know who you are and your passed is to know the name of your G-D and to have been brought forth into the house of G-D, to have made the vow of Jacab, in Gen 28, to keep in the state of peace, and like David of Ps.101 you walk with G-D who holds your hand, while he leads you day and night the covenant Jer.33, and the ordinances of heaven and earth that gave you your second breath...the eternal light, the desire of G-D is placed in your inward parts Ps. 51,and enter in now the hidden part. Ps. 51--..the house of G-D Gen 28--the Rock of Davaid that was rejected in Ps..118 THE TABANICAL OF DAVID that G-D is rebuilding....Amos 9.
Psalm 91...He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. It is written...of our history our forefathers and our G-D... Exodus 3...G-D also said the Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the G-D of your fathers the G-D of Abraham, the G-D of Isaac and the G-D of Jacob has sent me to you.' This is MY NAME FOREVER, the name by which I am to be REMEMBERED form generation to generation.
This is our history....this is our G-D we should search for...the dwelling place of our G-D is within us. The knowledge, is in knowing G-D. Ps. 51 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
Robin Margolis,
Thank you for your reply. I accept there are many problems, but I would note that Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar has rejected Dayan Sherman's attempt to revoke Rabbi Druckman's conversions. The civil service bureaucracy has become oppressivce as you mention, but I would also note that in most Orthodox synagogues you may be expected to produce your parents ketuba as proof of Jewish identity if you are not known locally to be definitely Jewish.
In England if your parents were married in a non-Orthodox synagogue you are asked for your mother's parents' ketuba as proof you are Jewish. Obviously this is unfair to Jews from the former Soviet Union where civil marriage may have been the norm, just as it would have unfair to Holocaust survivors whose ketubot were lost. I seem to recall that the Soviet Union stamped Jewish passports with 'Jewish' as nationality but that may have been based on the father, not the mother.
As you may be aware we have our own ongoing conversion saga in London where nine Supreme Court Justices considered evidence on whether Jewish schools can give priority to totally non-observant 'ethnically' Jewish families while rejecting children of Masorti and Reform maternal converts who attend synagogue regularly.
Regarding the Israeli press, I read J Post and Haaretz almost every weekday morning, although I would say my own outlook is much closer to the J Post and the weekly HaModia.
Wow, the censor is slashing away again. And for no credible reason unless the censor read some imaginary personal offense into my post addressing rabbi tony when there really wasn't any? Shouldn't there be a reasonable explantation required censorship and not just the arbitrary whim of the censor. I guess when the censor sees something pornographic in an innocent ink blob, that makes the ink blob pornographic.
In scripture it is written....Ezekiel 34....And they were scattered, because ther is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beast of the field, when they were scattered.
My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my llock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. Therefore, ye shephards, hear the word of the LORD;
As I live, saith the LORD G-D, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock;
Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;
Thus saith the LORD G-D; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeeding the flock; neither shal the shepherds feed themselves andy more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.
For thus saithe the LORD G-D; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.
As a shepherd seeeth out his flock in the DAY that HE IS AMONG THEM ----HIS SHEEP--- and will DELIVER them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and DARK DAY.
This is my Shepherd that has found me....